The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 616 - 605: Chaos

Chapter 616: Chapter 605: Chaos

The masked assassin didn’t even glance at him, his sword aimed directly at the Prince of Yizhou standing at the front...

The Prince of Yizhou was alarmed. While pushing Envoy Zhang away, he retreated backward...

The royal guards had been momentarily distracted by the lively scene of distributing rice dumplings and were a step late. Fortunately, the Prince of Yizhou wasn’t completely defenseless; he knew some martial arts.

The guards rushed forward, but then people wearing ghost masks jumped onto the stage. Five or six theatrical actors, armed with weapons, flew upward and attacked the Prince of Yizhou together...

One of them shouted, "Li Chengzhi, today I will avenge the tens of thousands of Yizhou citizens. You embezzled funds meant for the river dykes, causing the deaths of countless folks from Shu Prefecture, you deserve to die!"

The Prince of Yizhou dodged left and right but was carelessly nicked by a sword.

Governor Ming was shocked to see this and as County Magistrate Tang kept pulling him backward, he grabbed Tang, gritted his teeth, and whispered urgently in his ear, "Idiot, if the Prince of Yizhou dies today, none of us will live. Go save him—"

With that, he pushed him out.

County Magistrate Tang was furious. With a clever twist, he dodged a sword thrust at him head-on and kicked away another sword aimed at the Prince of Yizhou...

Of course, he wouldn’t rush forward. The assassin wouldn’t recognize his face, only his official robe. So he stood in front of the Prince of Yizhou and yelled to the guards who were already charging, "Block them, block them..."

After speaking, he pulled the Prince of Yizhou to one side, narrowly avoiding the attack...

Governor Ming then pulled his superior, Envoy Zhang, to safety...

The stage was instantly in chaos, and so was the area below it.

When the assassin leaped up, the slow-reacting crowd still thought it was part of the performance until County Magistrate Tang’s cry of "Assassin" snapped them to reality.

Then, the opportunistic crowd instantly panicked, turning to flee from the platform.

Just as confused were the actors performing the theatrical play at the front, who saw about a dozen of their fellow performers draw swords and become assassins. The innocent few were completely bewildered, not knowing what had happened.

It was only when warm blood spattered on their masks that they finally came to their senses, screaming and scattering with the crowd.

Manbao had just received a rice dumpling from a servant of the royal house. As she sniffed it, in the brief moment she had looked down, she looked up to find the street in front of her in complete disarray.

She was stunned.

Like her, Bai Shan and the others who were distracted by receiving rice dumplings were also stunned.

They just stood there dumbly watching the people on the platform fighting while the crowd in front of them started to scream and push back.

Daji was the first to react. With a swift movement, he pulled Bai Shanbao and Manbao down and ordered, "Run!"

Mr. Zhuang also came to his senses, calling to Zhou Silang and Wei Chen, "Hold hands, let’s leave this place of trouble quickly..."

After pulling the two down, Daji, on impulse, shoved Manbao into the arms of Zhou Silang, reached out to pull Bai Erlang, and turned to enter a shop behind them, "Let’s get inside and leave through the back door."

The street was crowded, and now that it was in panic, a mass of people were retreating. It could be deadly if one was not careful.

Manbao had no time to glance back. She was immediately pulled by Zhou Silang into the shop.

Zhou Silang, holding Manbao with one hand and Zhou Lijun with the other, quickly followed Mr. Zhuang and Daji.

Wei Chen tried to follow but was jostled by the crowd. Luckily, Manbao quickly reached out to grab him.

The group narrowly avoided being separated.

Once they squeezed into the shop, they heard the cries of battle outside grow louder and the fight seemed to intensify. Inside the shop, none left; instead, they crowded by the doorway, craning their necks to watch the excitement.

Daji cursed silently to himself. He dared not let his young master risk his life here to spectate. Thus, despite the difficulty, he firmly led them toward the back.

There were quite a few complainers inside the shop. Perhaps because there was a wall between them and danger, they felt safe and were in no rush to leave, instead savoring the chance to watch the commotion.

Manbao could not endure it and shouted repeatedly, "There are assassins, there are assassins, you should run!"

No one paid her any mind; instead, they pressed further forward, seemingly eager to see what the assassins looked like.

Wei Chen even looked back. Bai Shanbao turned to pull Manbao along, shouting, "Run, run..."

Manbao also looked back and kept shouting at Wei Chen, "Hurry, run..."

The group struggled to the courtyard and made straight for the back door.

The back door, usually reserved for the kitchen staff, was unguarded now. They opened it and went out.

It led to a narrow alley where people continuously ran in to seek refuge.

At the entrance of the alley connected to the main street, chaos reigned, with the screams and cries for help of pedestrians echoing endlessly.

Mr. Zhuang glanced in that direction and then closed his eyes before saying, "We should leave quickly. Yizhou City is in turmoil."

While he was speaking, several people dressed in theatrical costumes and wearing masks staggered into the alley. Manbao and the others were startled and stood back against the wall, watching them in horror.

The civilians along the route also watched them in fright, stepping aside to let them pass.

The lead actor almost cried out, as his expression couldn’t be seen through the mask, but he frantically waved his hands saying, "It’s not our fault, it’s not our fault..."

Mr. Zhuang, seeing his panic and noting the absence of weapons on him, slightly relaxed.

Manbao, who had experienced many future stories, almost immediately realized these were indeed the actors performing the theatrical plays.

She reached out and pulled off their masks, and seeing their pale faces drenched in cold sweat, she frowned and said, "Why are you still wearing masks? Be careful, or the officials might catch you as assassins."

Mr. Zhuang slapped the masks from her hands and gave her a warning look. He then said to the few, "If it has nothing to do with you, then quickly take off your clothes and masks and run for your life. If you can leave Yizhou, do it fast."

The panicked actors calmed down a bit. Indeed, the assassins had blended in among them, seizing the opportunity during the theatrical performance to assassinate the Prince of Yizhou. Guilty or not, they would likely not escape death.

With this thought, they were better off fleeing for their lives.

The actors hurriedly paid their respects to Mr. Zhuang and his group, then discarded their masks and costumes, running away in just their undergarments.

With the streets in chaos, who cared about propriety now?

After watching them run off, Mr. Zhuang also led Manbao and the others in flight.

But none of them knew the way, and they were practically running blind.

Zhou Silang ran through two alleys and, feeling something was wrong, quickly stopped everyone. Looking around, he said, "I don’t know where this is. We need to find a street to figure out where we are so I can know where to run. We can’t just run aimlessly, can we?"

"The main street outside is full of people."

"We don’t need to leave the alley. We just need to take a look to find out where we are so I can know where to run to."

Out of breath from running, Manbao clutched her chest and said, "Still running? The assassin won’t come here. We can just wait here until the officials have quelled the disturbance before we leave. Our carriage is still outside the main street at the restaurant."

Zhou Silang slapped his thigh, "Right, we left our horses and carriage at the restaurant. We can’t lose those."