Unruly Phoenix Xiaoyao

Chapter 85: Lady Xiang's secret

The guards outside the door began to bash at the gates, while others prepared to scale the walls. Ning Xiaoyao looked at Shadowgale and the rest. "How about we evacuate?" After careful thought, she really couldn't find any excuse for sticking around.

Shadowgale and the rest hastily nodded their heads.

"Let's go," Ning Xiaoyao said as she ran inside the covered walkway. Since their pursuers were at the front doors, they should escape via the back. While running, Ning Xiaoyao managed to exchange glances with a lithe and graceful young woman dressed in twill-weave silk robes. When she saw that Ning Xiaoyao's head was wrapped up in her clothes, then caught sight of Shadowgale's saber, she was so frightened that her face lost all color as she shrieked.

Ning Xiaoyao observed the beauty, feeling rather jealous of her good figure. "Lady Xiang?"

The woman subconsciously nodded her head. Ning Xiaoyao simply ran past her with Shadowgale and the rest following close behind. Because the Dragon Guards abided scrupulously to maintaining distance between men and women, they didn't spare Lady Xiang a glance.

Once Ning Xiaoyao ran through the walkway, she ended up in another courtyard. She looked left and right before asking Shadowgale, "Windy, where's the back door to this place?"

Shadowgale could only run in front of Ning Xiaoyao to lead the way.

While Ning Xiaoyao and her cohorts had ran away, the Grand Preceptor's guards were still in the front courtyard. When they heard pounding on the doors, then looked at their master's expressionless face, the ten or so guards didn't even dare to breathe.

"Impudence!" someone shouted from outside the gates. "This is the Grand Preceptor's side courtyard. Whose soldiers are you? You dare to make a ruckus here?!"

The princes' guards all looked at a middle-aged retainer that had shown up. One of Prince Zhi's guards pointed at the black lacquer door and asked, "This is the Grand Preceptor's side courtyard?"

The middle-aged man stuck up his chest and said proudly, "I'm none other than the steward of this very house. Who are you lot? Are you all sick of living?"

Verifying the owner of the compound was enough for them. The princes' guards all retreated. Even their masters had to take care when dealing with the Grand Preceptor, much less guards like themselves. They'd leave the matter to the various princes instead.

The middle-aged man watched them leave before spitting disdainfully on the ground with a curse, "Damnable soldiers!"

Grand Preceptor Xie entered the walkway.

"Grand, Grand Preceptor," Lady Xiang wanted to smile at Grand Preceptor Xie, but found that she couldn't.

"The Grand Preceptor's side courtyard?" Grand Preceptor Xie asked as he came to a stop before her.

Lady Xiang hastily fell to her knees. There were rules to being a mistress, too. One of them was to keep a low profile so that nobody would be able to see her face or know of her existence. Now her own steward had announced this place as the Grand Preceptor's compound, which meant she'd committed a huge taboo. Lady Xiang was so frightened that she started to cry.

Meanwhile, the steward knocked on the door outside and shouted, "Old Woman Guo, open the doors! I've returned!"

The chubby mama who was surnamed Guo hardly dared to move. She wish she could find that steward and tear his mouth off right now. Still, she neither spoke nor moved. The steward didn't sense anything amiss inside the courtyard and even added smugly, "I've already chased off the soldiers from just then. Those things even dared to act unbridled before the Grand Preceptor's side courtyard! Who knows what gave them such damned guts."