"There are evil people in the village! I saw them hurting old lady Ma! Master--?"
Lu Meng barged through the doorway while crying out these fraught words. In blind haste, he nearly tripped over the bucket on the side while his teary eyes met with the table where he had expected to see his master. Finding it vacant, he swerved toward the beds' area and was momentarily confused by what he was seeing.
"Master, d--did you hear what I'd just said--?" Lu Meng sobbed.
The two people inside the house had heard his every shouted word upon entry but each responded differently. While old Fu remembered the omen, Fei Ting recalled the bad events that had happened to her young princess in the past week which caused her to feel apprehensive all over again.
"Yes, I heard you! But, that's not important right now! Quickly, come and help me move this bed! Hurry! We need to get to the trapdoor!"
Fu Guiren shouted. The urgency in his voice made it sharp and snappy. He didn't look up but kept pushing at the solid-wood bed with Fei Ting helping him. Unfortunately, their combined efforts in the past fifteen breaths had only managed to ease the bulky frame less than half a metre from its original spot.
Still feeling rather confounded by old Fu's words and actions, Lu Meng hastily wiped perspiration and tears from his grimy face before rushed to lend his hands.
"Um, master Fu,"
Fei Ting uttered nervously in between laborious breathing while pushing the bed forward with all her might.
"Forgive my asking, but is something the matter? A--are we in some sort of danger? Why do we need to get to the trapdoor?"
"No danger."
Old Fu pacified from beside her while exerting every bit of his energy at hands to shove the bed.
"Just an unwanted visitation. As for the trapdoor, we will only need it if things turn unfavourable."
He paused momentarily to catch his breath before continuing;
"And, don't worry - believe me when I say this; I won't let any harms come to you or your lady today. Hence, in the next couple of hours, you only need to have complete faith in my judgements and follow my lead until we're out of the wood. To put it figuratively. So, do you understand what I'm asking you?"
Without hesitation, Fei Ting told him that she fully understood and trusted him. Which was from the very start of their meeting.
"Good. Now, let's swiftly uncover the trapdoor."
Afterward, electrifying silence ensued as the trio summoned their respective man-powers on shifting the bed.
Still, even with Lu Meng's added thew, they made very little progress. And, it would seem that only a section where Fei Ting was exerting actually bulged.
"Meng, go around to check if there's something obstructing the bed on the other side."
Wordlessly, Lu Meng scurried over to take a look.
"There's a jutting nail and loose wood in the flooring blocking this corner."
He confirmed, tapping a surface area directly across from where old Fu had his hold on the opposite end.
Shaking his head impatiently, old Fu strode over to examine the offensives for himself. Indeed, there they were: a protruding nail and stuck-out flank of wood.
"Let's try to lift the bed over it. Here, you take this end--"
Before he could finish the instruction, his disciple dashed out of the house to look for the axe in the annex.
YOU ARE READING
ROHLP (🔞)
Roman d'amour*Return Of His Lost Phoenix* She is the sole survivor of the fallen Xun Dynasty's royal bloodline. Half a decade ago, her entire clan was massacred with her barely escaped with life. Now safe within the borders of her mother's desert homeland, she v...
