Psst! We're moving!
The screen in the hall was moved aside, revealing a massive, square object. The object was a full zhang tall and two zhang wide, covered with a thick red velvet cloth.
Everyone’s attention was drawn to it, and even Wu Ruian was curious about what was inside this huge box.
Maids brought in four candlesticks taller than a person, but with large torches in the center. They placed the torches around the object, close enough to provide light but not to burn the velvet.
With two claps from Gongsun Qi, the other maids blew out all the other candles in the room. In an instant, the entire room went dark, with only the firelight from around the object.
A low growl, not belonging to a human, emanated from inside the object, making everyone in the room tense up.
Di Jiang stared intently at the front, which made Wu Ruian even more worried.
He reached under the table, took Di Jiang’s hand, and held it gently.
Di Jiang didn’t struggle or respond; her eyes were still fixed on the front.
Gongsun Qi, with a maid on his arm, strode forward and stood in front of the large object. He announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, I guarantee that every moment after the curtain is drawn will make your hearts tremble and go wild!”
Gongsun Qi put his arm around the maid’s waist and kissed her on the neck. The maid was a little shy at first but soon began to respond. Seeing this, the young nobles in the room were all more or less stirred up. Some of the more reserved ones simply held the hands of the beautiful women beside them, while the more uninhibited ones directly embraced the maids, sat them on their laps, and let their hands roam over their chests as they passionately kissed.
“Ahem—” Wu Ruian gave a soft cough, bringing Di Jiang’s stunned mind back to reality.
Di Jiang turned her head to look at Wu Ruian, and her eyes clearly read: “Is this how Your Highness spent his past days?”
“Absolutely not!” Wu Ruian wanted to cry. “I have always been a man of integrity. The most I ever did... was something like this.”
Wu Ruian explained in a low voice, but Di Jiang clearly didn’t believe him.
Indeed, in the past, there had been many more outrageous scenes than this. This was just a light drizzle in comparison...
Di Jiang glared at him and turned to look at Prince Yu, only to see that Prince Yu was just as wide-eyed as she was, looking at everyone in the room.
Prince Yu didn’t interact with many people, so the shock he felt from this scene was probably similar to Di Jiang’s.
“Gentlemen, the most exciting moment has arrived—” After kissing the maid long enough, Gongsun Qi separated from her. They each took a silk rope and slowly pulled back the velvet cloth.
The velvet was drawn away by the two ropes, revealing a square iron cage underneath.
In the middle of the iron cage lay a massive, robust white tiger. A vertical iron bar divided the cage into two sections.
Startled by the light, the white tiger opened its green, bell-like eyes and let out a deafening “ROAR—”.
Wu Yu was startled and took a step back, nervously clasping his hands in front of his chest and breathing heavily.
Di Jiang noticed that Prince Yu’s breathing was a bit erratic, and she could hear something from it that others couldn’t—there was something unusual about him.
However, Di Jiang didn’t have time to think about Prince Yu’s issue. Her attention was captivated by the white tiger in the cage. She saw the tiger pacing back and forth anxiously on its side of the cage, looking extremely irritated.
Gongsun Qi curled his lips, opened the iron door on his side, and then pushed the maid he had just been kissing into the cage, closing the door behind her.
The white tiger’s eyes changed from anxious to eager, as if it had spotted a delicious dinner.
“Young Master Gongsun! What, what are you doing? Don’t scare me! Let me o-out! I beg you!” The maid was terrified and panicked, continuously banging on the iron door and looking at Gongsun Qi with a face full of pleas.
“Enjoy yourself, my dear,” Gongsun Qi said, unmoved, with a sinister smile as he stroked his chin. After he spoke, he waved his hand, and the young attendants standing on both sides pulled back the iron bar in the middle.
The white tiger’s eyes flashed with a vicious light as it began to approach.
“Young Master Gongsun, what is the meaning of this...?” Di Jiang couldn’t help but ask.
Gongsun Qi looked back at her, not taking her seriously, and said calmly, “Don’t be impatient, the show is about to begin.”
A show?
This wasn’t a show; it was a blatant disregard for human life!
Di Jiang made a move to rush forward, but in the next moment, Wu Ruian grabbed her hand firmly.
Wu Ruian looked at her and shook his head.
It was then that Di Jiang remembered he had said, “No matter what you see, don’t be impulsive.”
Di Jiang rolled her eyes, seeing that everyone else in the room was cheering and applauding, looking forward to the bloody scene that was about to unfold. When faced with such a situation, if she wasn’t impulsive, who could save her?
But the expected bloody scene didn’t happen immediately.
The maid’s legs were weak, and she cowered in a corner as the white tiger slowly stalked closer.
“ROAR—” After a ferocious roar, it opened its gaping mouth and suddenly lunged forward. Its claws were large and sharp. With one swipe, it tore the ties on the maid’s clothing. The maid’s dress fell open, and in the next moment, she was naked and exposed in front of everyone.
“Good! Xuecong, well done!”
“After three months of training, it finally learned how to undress a person!”
The nobles watching whistled. The women on their laps were all frightened and flustered, yet they had to remain in their arms to please them. They sympathized with the woman in the cage but were even more afraid of becoming the one in the cage.
“I thought it would take Xuecong several tries to take off her clothes, but today, not only was there no blood, but it also stripped her completely in one swipe. What a pleasant surprise,” Gongsun Qi said excitedly from outside the cage.
Di Jiang looked at Wu Ruian, finding that he was still unmoved. He had a blank expression, his eyes fixed on the woman in the cage, seemingly unconcerned with her life or death.
Di Jiang was starting to get angry.
She tried to forcefully pull her hand away from Wu Ruian, but found he was holding her even tighter. She tried to break free several times but couldn’t.
“ROAR————” Soon, the beast in the cage roared again. It pinned the maid down and opened its mouth again, revealing its fangs.
It wanted to eat her.
The people watching became even more excited, with cheers erupting. It was as if the undressing wasn’t the climax. For her to die in its mouth, that was the ultimate ending.
The white tiger’s head was held high and was about to pounce down. But the expected bloody scene didn’t happen to the maid. Instead, a dagger appeared in the white tiger’s throat.
At that moment, the dagger was firmly lodged in the tiger’s throat. Blood splattered, staining the maid’s fair skin.
Her face, chest, and stomach were covered in the white tiger’s blood.
The white tiger struggled twice before collapsing on top of her.
“Ah—” The maids’ screams rose and fell, but the woman in the cage was stunned, having lost all ability to think.
She seemed to have been scared senseless and didn’t even realize she had just escaped death.
Everyone turned around and saw Wu Ruian standing by the table, his hand still in mid-air. There had been two carving knives on the suckling pig platter in front of him. In that split-second, he had grabbed one of them and thrown it at the white tiger.
Seeing his angry expression, everyone guessed that he was the one who killed the white tiger.
“Your Highness, what do you mean by this?”
“Your Highness, how could you kill Xuecong?”
“Do you know how long it took for Xuecong to learn how to undress a woman? And you just killed it like that?”
The crowd was enraged, all of them displeased with Wu Ruian’s actions.
Wu Ruian glanced around, let out a cold laugh, and said icily, “Liu Ziwen, Luo Chang, Han Guang, I’ll remember you three.”
The three men, who had been full of resentment, had their anger subside a bit after being stared down by Wu Ruian.
Although there was still some dissatisfaction in their eyes, they were ultimately afraid of Wu Ruian’s fury.
“Clap, clap, clap,” a few claps rang out as Gongsun Qi clapped his hands loudly and said, “Bravo! What great skill, Prince Wu! I had forgotten that Prince Wu served in the military for three years and was our Divine Protector General of Xuanwu! To perform this move for us today is truly an eye-opener!”
With Gongsun Qi’s praise, the others also stopped looking at the white tiger, which was dead with its eyes open, in the cage.
“So it was for a performance?” The three who had just questioned Wu Ruian, hearing this, also turned around and applauded Wu Ruian.
From their eyes, it was clear that they had previously seen Wu Ruian as a good-for-nothing noble who couldn’t lift a finger. Apparently, when Wu Ruian returned victorious three years ago, few people truly believed he became a general through his own efforts. Seeing this today, his skill was proven.
But their flattery did nothing to appease Wu Ruian’s anger. He immediately thought of the tragic state of old Mr. Xu’s granddaughter, Xu Ya, whose missing arms and legs had surely fed this beast in the cage.
Gongsun Qi was making these defenseless women into dinner for the beast in the cage.
“I will give you another eye-opening experience,” Wu Ruian said with a cold laugh, his eyes radiating a terrifying cold light. In the next moment, he jumped from the table directly onto Gongsun Qi, and immediately punched him in the face.
“Your Highness! What’s wrong!? How could you hit me!”
“Hit you? No, no, I want to kill you right now!” Wu Ruian said furiously.
“You can’t hit me... Ouch, ouch, ouch! Help me—” Gongsun Qi screamed in pain.
Everyone in the room rushed forward to pull the two of them apart. But how could noblemen be a match for Prince Wu, who had been on the battlefield and led troops? Not a single person who tried to intervene left without a bruised nose and a swollen face.
Di Jiang stood straight on the side, silently watching them.
Gongsun Qi’s shamelessness, depravity, and blatant disregard for human life were beyond her imagination. He didn’t deserve to live in this world.
However, Di Jiang also knew that Gongsun Qi was not fated to die today and wouldn’t die here. So, despite her lips muttering “Amitabha” at Wu Ruian’s impulsive actions, her heart was screaming, “Good hit! Keep going! Don’t stop!”