Manbao and Bai Shan felt as though they had been swimming for a long while, so long that they were nearly out of breath, and were just considering whether to take out sothing to breathe in, when they finally saw so light...
Then, the two of them swam upwards with all their might, and upon surfacing, they couldn’t help but open their mouths to gasp for air, and after wiping the water from their faces, they looked around and saw people in the distance continuously shouting, "I don’t see anyone——"
There were also people scattering the water with their boats, indicating that they hadn’t seen anyone either.
Manbao and Bai Shan looked closely and only then realized they had unwittingly swum to the center of the lake.
As soon as their heads erged in the lake, those standing in the boat searching for them spotted them first and imdiately pointed towards the lake center with their sticks, "There are people there——"
The people searching near their falling point imdiately swam over to them in a rush...
Lying on the shore, Daji looked up at them, confird that the two were all right, and then once more lay back down on the ground.
Bai Erlang, whose head had just erged from the water, paused for a mont and then suddenly shouted, "Run! Swim to the shore on your own, being rescued would cost a fortune..."
They were a bit far from the lake center, but Bai Erlang’s voice was loud enough that Bai Shan and Manbao, who were resting from swimming, heard him right away.
They didn’t know the story behind the "fortune," but that didn’t stop them from heeding Bai Erlang’s word, so they turned around and swam towards the shore near Xiangguo Temple.
However, their swimming skills were exposed there; even if they could swim faster than so, they couldn’t outswim the boats, and they were exhausted after swimming less than a third of the way before the boat people caught up to them and pulled them into the boat.
The person pulling them onto the boat also joked, "Young Master and Young Mistress need not worry, even if we were after the reward, we wouldn’t truly take a fortune, just a little ferrying fee will do."
People still splashing in the water felt regretful, as they nearly missed out on the money.
The boat brought them back to shore, where Feng Zongping and others who couldn’t swim reached out to pull them up, looking concerned as they asked, "Are you two alright, what about those assassins?"
Bai Shan and Manbao, still very pale, responded, "They’re at the bottom of the lake."
Their voices were light, yet chilling to the heart.
Bai Erlang also climbed up from the water, sitting next to Daji, muttering, "It’s good to be alive, it’s good to be alive..."
His voice was sowhat choked up, and it was unclear whether his face was wet from water or tears, only that the rims of his eyes were sowhat red.
Lying on the ground, Daji finally passed out in relief.
Manbao quickly scanned the others, noting that several seed injured, with Daji being the most seriously hurt, so she quickly knelt down to check on him.
Bai Shan swept a glance around and upon seeing that there were guards with swords near them, he turned to look at Feng Zongping.
Feng Zongping said, "They are people sent by the capital prefecture and Old Lord Tang, we were lucky to have them to take down the assassins, oh, and these civilians too."
Bai Shan then noticed that outside the circle of guards, several civilians were also sitting, they too bore injuries, and nurous people had climbed up from the water, evidently, those who had dived in to find them.
Bai Shan asked Bai Erlang, "What’s this about a fortune?"
Bai Erlang explained, "Yin Huo said it—saving us would be rewarded with a hundred golds, diving in the water to save you would be rewarded with a thousand golds, and then many people jumped in."
Feng Zongping couldn’t help but laugh at this point, saying, "Thank goodness you freed yourselves from the assassins and surfaced on your own, otherwise, we really would have had to pay a fortune."
Bai Shan glanced at the people sitting paralyzed on the shore and said, "Even though that is the case, we should still thank them. Today’s disaster arose because of us, so, anyone who dived into the water and lent a hand in our rescue, each person will be given ten golds, those who were injured will receive an additional ten golds, and those who particularly exerted themselves will get another ten golds."
The mont he said this, those who had been listlessly sitting perked up excitedly, exclaiming, "Young Master is indeed generous! How about we escort you back, with our numbers, we deter any miscreants from bothering you again."
Bai Shan smiled and replied, "Thank you all then."
A nearby officer from the capital prefecture said displeasedly, "We are here, there’s no need for you to escort them."
Yin Huo, sitting on the ground, raised his head and said, "Let them deliver it; the more people the safer, and we can collect the bounty as well."
The Colonel then fell silent.
Manbao had already checked on Daji, who was quite seriously injured. Fortunately, the officers who arrived brought wound dicine and had already treated him to stop the bleeding.
She glanced at the other injured people and said, "Take them to Jishi Hall."
An injured man, valuing money over life, called out, "We’re fine, better to first take the Young Master and the young lady ho."
Manbao: "...I also need to see the doctor."
Having said that, she turned to Changshou and said, "Can you please make a trip back to my ho and have the family send money to Jishi Hall, then we can reward there."
Bringing so many people ho is also risky.
Changshou looked at Yin Huo.
Yin Huo nodded slightly.
Thus, the group moved to Jishi Hall.
Due to the presence of assassins, the street leading to Xiangguo Temple was blocked off. No one was allowed in or out at that mont; many people hid inside the shops on both sides, with an officer guarding every five steps. They would still need to screen for assassins after they passed.
The situation was critical not just because of Yin Huo and Feng Zongping, but more importantly because Bai Shan and Zhou Man were present.
The Prince of Yizhou had escaped, and he was no longer hiding his true intentions; he wished to kill at will.
However, the court wouldn’t conceal its own precautions either, and put the protection of Bai Shan and Zhou Man in plain sight.
Perhaps in the face of national issues, the Emperor might not care much about the lives of the two young n, but Lord Tang said, "This involves the court’s reputation, Your Majesty, both of them are descendants of ritorious officials, and they have also exposed the wrongdoings of the Prince of Yizhou. If they are allowed to be killed by the Prince of Yizhou under the Emperor’s feet, it would tarnish the court’s reputation and Your Majesty’s authority."
Because of this statent, the Emperor even deployed the imperial guards.
They reached Jishi Hall without any obstruction.
The patients were a bit special, almost like family, so Shopkeeper Zheng imdiately ushered Dr. Ding and his team to attend to them out of turn.
Daji and Bai Shan among others were taken to the back yard for treatnt, while other injured passersby due to their help lined up in the front hall for treatnt, but many were just drenched from falling into water, so they sat outside the door, wringing their clothes and sunbathing.
Dr. Ding personally tended to the wounds on Daji’s body, with Manbao assisting him.
Daji had many wounds on his body, mostly sword wounds, and luckily none were fatal, but two of the wounds were quite deep.
After cleaning the wounds, Dr. Ding stitched them, and once all were properly treated, Shao had also prepared the dicine.
Manbao then perford acupuncture on Daji to wake him up, let him drink the dicine, and then continued to let him rest.
Feng Zongping and a few others were also wounded, but only Yin Huo was frightened; he accidentally fell while retreating and only scraped so skin.
However, Feng Zongping’s group was not too badly injured, after all, the main fight was on Daji’s side; they only faced two and had so many civilians helping.
After treating everyone’s wounds, Bai Erlang finally stared at Bai Shan and Manbao, "Why are both your faces still so pale? Are you injured as well?"
Manbao, able to check herself, felt around her body and said, "It’s nothing serious, just got hit a few tis, no internal bleeding, no broken bones, just so swelling and pain for a few days."
Bai Shan’s case was a bit more serious; after examination, Dr. Ding said, "He needs to be careful, I’ll prescribe him so internal bleeding stopping dicine, it’s possible that he injured his ribs."
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