At the same time, things were about to turn interesting at the house of the Zhong family. Jing Yi and Qiu Ling were working in the teahouse at the moment while Zhong Gang was in his restaurant. Only Mi Fang and Guanyu were at home, the latter being in a bad mood.
She still remembered that her husband had been there when she had suddenly been kidnapped by these people. It was bad enough that he hadn't been able to help her at that moment but even after such a long time, he hadn't come to help her. That really made her angry. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to get back to the Hei Dian Sect or how to reach him so she could only continue being angry and hope for him to come to her.
Needless to say, that wasn't going to happen.
Xiao Li was still tied up in the very same room Fu Min and Fu Heng had thrown him in, unable to get out on his own thanks to the formation. Thankfully for him, the two dragons had already left though since the funeral was over and their king didn't seem to need them anymore. Being already engrossed in their world of two, they had completely forgotten about bringing Guanyu back and weren't thinking about anyone else. Thus, it happened that the formation they had originally placed around the room was disturbed by one of the Zhong family's servants.
This person was none other than Ma Tao whom Jing Yi's family had originally met when coming to the capital city and finally finding Zhong Gang's restaurant. Ma Tao had been working for Zhong Gang's family his whole life. Originally, it had been his older brother who held this position but after an accident, he had needed to return home to their own family to recuperate. At that time, Ma Tao had taken over his position.
Originally, he had only been intended as a substitute until his brother was better and could pick up where he had left off. Ma Tao had different thoughts though. He was younger than his brother and thus not that much older than Zhong Gang's daughter. Thus, from the day he started working there as a servant and saw her for the first time, he had had the idea of marrying her when she grew up.
Unfortunately, things had gone wrong wherever they could. First, the Zhong family from the countryside came, adding more people to the equation that might result in a different outcome. After all, he had found out rather fast that Madam Zhong wanted her daughter to marry her cousin. Naturally, he hadn't been happy about that.
He had tried to discredit the Zhongs in front of Zhong Gang but he didn't even want to hear about it. He had trusted his cousin so much that no matter what anybody said, he wouldn't believe it. Then, when that cousin had thankfully died and Ma Tao thought that things might take a turn for the better for him, that stupid girl had actually fallen in love with somebody else. She had been throwing one tantrum after the other, not accepting that she wouldn't get her way. And it got even worse when that Zhong Jing Yi brought his own fiance over.
Just when he thought that things would get better because her parents might finally lose their temper, that Xiao Li suddenly appeared in the teahouse and then came to marry her. He had originally thought that he would manage to drive him off but his little scheme back then had actually not worked out in the end and he had even gotten reprimanded. He had long managed to regain Zhong Gang's trust since then but the only daughter was already married off. Which chance did he still have?
By now, Ma Tao himself was married but he wasn't happy. The grand plans he had had for his future just hadn't come to fruition. How could he be content with that? Thus, when he opened the door and found Xiao Li tied up inside, his first reaction was to just close the door again and pretend he hadn't seen anything.
He stood in front of the door with his heart beating fast, unsure of what he should do. Obviously, that was Zhong Guanyu's husband. Saving him might help him secure an even better position under Zhong Gang. After all, helping his son-in-law would be a great service.
But in the end, what would he gain from that? He couldn't go much further anyway. The restaurant or the teahouse wouldn't be left to him in any case. He would be lucky if he got a single reward for this. No, there had to be a better way to make use of this!
Ma Tao sneakily glanced in all directions to make sure that nobody had noticed what he was doing. Then, he slowly opened the door again, his lips curving up in a smile. This guy … he was actually half of what was standing between him and still achieving his goal.
As long as he managed to make him disappear, there was still a chance at marrying Guanyu. Even though she had gotten older and definitely wasn't as beautiful anymore as she had been in her youth, it was worth it. Especially since she didn't have a child with this Xiao Li anyway. If that first husband vanished and she married him instead and they had children, it would still be his child that would inherit everything that the Zhong family had managed to achieve. Wouldn't that be great?
Ma Tao stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, his smile turning taunting. "Mister Xiao, what a coincidence to meet you here. I'm just afraid … you won't be too happy about it."
Against his expectations, Xiao Li actually smiled. "I wouldn't be too sure about that." With that, the ropes that had originally bound him fell to the ground, and he leaped at the person in front of him, twisting his neck in a swift motion.