Chapter 38: Really?

"Miss, what should we do? The master isn't here, and now it's like crying out to heaven with no answer, calling to earth with no response. Oh!"
Despair was beginning to take hold in Xiaolian's heart. She thought the only thing left was to remain motionless and wait to be slaughtered.
She still couldn't fully believe what Zhang Xiaolan had said about gaining trust and having spoken with him. If the communication had been clear, they wouldn't be in this predicament now!
"I remember in martial arts novels and Jin Yong's TV dramas, they always say that after an hour or two, the acupoints naturally unlock themselves."
Zhang Xiaolan rolled her eyes, thinking Xiaolian was really something—already crying out for her parents as if things were so dire. In fact, she had just managed to gain the initial trust of the man in black. If Xiaolian hadn't been in the way, she might have succeeded already.
Given the current situation, their only hope was that when he next woke, he wouldn't attack or harm them again. All they could do now was wait for the acupoints to unlock on their own and hope that Uncle Jin Yong hadn't lied to them.
"Really?" Xiaolian felt a spark of hope ignite in her heart. She decided to trust Zhang Xiaolan's words for now, since there was no one else coming to save them anyway.
An hour later, the acupoint block truly began to fade as Zhang Xiaolan had said, gradually releasing them. But Zhang Xiaolan couldn't straighten her back; hunched like an eighty-year-old woman, she could only slowly move to the table, steady herself, and sit down, her entire body numb and aching, almost collapsing.
Xiaolian, having been in a more normal posture, wasn't as miserable as Zhang Xiaolan. She simply felt soreness in her hands and feet, and could only gently beat them to relieve the tension and restore circulation.
After a good while, Zhang Xiaolan finally straightened up, unable to help but sigh about her back. "Oh, my poor old waist, it's about to fall apart."
"Miss, what should we do now? Should we tie him up? Otherwise, when he wakes up, we'll be struck again."
Her heart still raced with lingering fear, wanting to bind the man in black tightly to prevent another attack upon his awakening. If he struck at their acupoints again, she couldn't bear it.
"Well! But if he's highly skilled, he'll break free from the ropes, and then we'd have no grounds to explain ourselves. We can't just say we tied him up out of self-defense, fearing he'd harm us."
Zhang Xiaolan felt Xiaolian's suggestion wouldn't work. Never mind whether his martial arts were strong enough to break the ropes or not; if they wanted to gain his trust, they couldn't treat him in such a crude, straightforward manner.
After all, Zhang Xiaolan had already made some progress in winning his trust. She believed that with their sincere attitude, they could eventually earn the confidence of the man in black.
But Xiaolian, her face still troubled, disagreed, continuing, "Who knows, maybe before you finish explaining, he'll fly into a rage and strangle us."
She couldn't help but touch her neck and shudder; why did it suddenly feel so cold? Just the thought of it was terrifying.
That night, Chancellor Zuo, Fu Yan, was hosting a banquet to celebrate his birthday. During the revelry, with everyone drunk and their guard lowered, several assassins suddenly appeared. Two guests died that night, and Chancellor Zuo was wounded, unable to attend court for several days and now recuperating at home.
Li Rui lost track of one of the assassins. Although the County Captain was drunk that night, his fury made him just as formidable; he chased them for several miles and captured one assassin alive. But the captured man, fierce to the end, hanged himself rather than face interrogation.
The County Captain, furious, carried the assassin’s corpse back for the coroner to examine. Li Rui returned to learn that one was dead and two had escaped.
"Prince Rui, look at this mark."
It was a sun-shaped emblem, branded onto the assassin’s left wrist. Seeing it, they understood—it was the sign of a killer organization.