Mingyu ran as fast as his legs could carry him, from the staff quarters of the brothel, which was at the backyard, and was separated from the main brothel where the customers were.
When Li Mei succeeded in wiping the powder off one of her eyes, she immediately made her way to the balcony. "Catch Yinzhi! Somebody, catch that thief!" Li Mei's voice reverberated in the air, as she screamed.
Mingyu got to a secluded path of the backyard, and ran towards the wall with the intention of jumping over. But as soon as he got close to the wall, he began to have second thoughts. It's too high. He thought, internally cursing Yinzhi for being such a weakling.
"That way!" He heard the voices of the security guards coming closer to where he was.
Weighing his options, Mingyu decided to seek refuge in one of the rooms of the brothel for the mean time.
He ran to the building and entered from the back.
As he entered, he paused, surprised at the number of customers that were loitering around in the hallway. No one paid any attention to him though, as they were busy having fun, and spilling gossips.
He slowed down his steps to avoid getting their attention, and arousing any suspicion as he walked past them to the stairs.
When he got to the stairs, he looked around, before resuming his fast pace. He climbed up the stairs, and without thinking, he dashed into the very first room he saw.
He didn't even bother to check out the room, to see if there were any guests, and just stood by the door, peeking outside to make sure he had not been followed.
"What are you looking at?" A deep voice, belonging to a man sounded from behind him, startling Mingyu a bit.
Startled, Mingyu turned around and raised his blindfold up to cover his eyes, intending to use the only trick he had up his sleeves – Acting blind.
Unfortunately, the blindfold didn't cooperate, and slid down his eyes, making him come face-to-face with a young man who was looking at him intently, with sparkling green eyes.
For a moment, they both just stood, staring into each other's eyes, until Mingyu remembered that he was supposed to be blind.
Shit! He cursed internally, raising the damn blindfold up again, but before he could do so, the seemingly dazzling young man before him, held his hand captive.
The young man kept looking at him — his eyes, specifically — with an intense gaze, and a look of recognition suddenly appeared on the young man's face. "You…"
Mingyu didn't let him finish, and yanked his hand from the man's grasp, cutting him off.
The man tried to grab him again, but, with a fluid movement, Mingyu sidestepped the man's grasping hand and swooped toward the table filled with crabs. Snatching a crab leg, he twirled, and aimed the pointy end of the crab leg, dangerously close to a vital point on the man's exposed jugular.
Jiang Yichen's eyes widened in surprise at the skill Mingyu had shown. "Wow." He couldn't help but say, a smirk tugging at his lips.
"Don't make a sound." Mingyu warned, moving the crab leg closer to Jiang Yichen's neck to silence him.
Unknown to Mingyu, the young man in front of him wasn't one to cower in the face of such, and was as stubborn as a mule.
Jiang Yichen ignored Mingyu's threatening tone, and still continued to smile. "I heard a blind man was sold in today, but it turns out you can see." He said, even daring to take a step forward, while Mingyu took a step back, surprised at how stupidly brave the young man was.
"I heard your name is… Yinzhi." Jiang Yichen continued.
"Yes, that's right. I'm Yinzhi." Mingyu said, and then he went back to being intimidating, glaring at the youngster, while moving the crab leg even closer. "I know what you look like. So if you don't stay quiet until I leave, I'm going to find you, wherever you might be, and behead you."
Pfft.. Jiang Yichen laughed, making Mingyu's face darken further.
I'm here trying to be intimidating, and this idiot has the guts to laugh? Mingyu thought, feeling tempted to go ahead, and just make that laugh be Jiang Yichen's last. Thank your stars that I don't want to draw attention to myself. You would have been a corpse by now.
"What's so funny?" Mingyu asked, his face mirroring the irritation he was feeling.
"Your eyes are so beautiful." Jiang Yichen simply said with a straight face.
Mingyu:…
What the fuck! It seems I ran into a mentally deranged person.
"You must be crazy." Mingyu cursed at him, before retreating backwards, while still holding the crab leg. He then caught sight of a small pouch on the table, and he quickly picked it up, before running to the inner part of the room, towards the window.
"Yinzhi." Jiang Yichen called, following after him and stopping at a safe distance from him, to show that he meant no harm, "Yinzhi!" He called again, when he saw that Mingyu was about to jump through the window.
"There isn't much in the pouch." He said, while reaching into his robes to bring out a jade pendant, "Take this instead."
He threw the pendant towards Mingyu, and Mingyu instinctively reached for it as it flew past his head, causing him to lose his balance on the windowsill and tumbling to the ground.
"Hey!" Jiang Yichen, who was caught off guard by the turn of events, worriedly went to the window and saw Mingyu sprawled on the ground..
Filled with shame, Mingyu groaned as he got up on his feet, his body aching in all places. Luckily, the ground was cushioned with grasses and sand, softening the impact, but he still felt as though he had broken a few bones.
Without turning around to face the young man who was still looking at him from the window, he hurriedly limped his way out of the brothel.
"What are you looking at?" Lin Xiaowei, who had excused himself earlier to use the bathroom, asked from behind Jiang Yichen.
"Nothing." Jiang Yichen lied with a smile of amusement on his face as he turned to look at his friend.
His eyes then landed on the crab leg which Mingyu had used as a weapon, and he picked it up, observing it like it was some kind of treasure.
"Ah-Wei. I heard Mingyu, the Shadow assassin was highly skilled in martial arts."
"What could you possibly know about martial arts?" Lin Xiaowei mocked with suppressed laughter.
"I practiced it for seventy days, and something I just saw reminded me of it." Jiang Yichen answered as he remembered Mingyu's fluid move. Out of the blue, Jiang Yichen suddenly twirled, and pointed the tip of the crab leg at Lin Xiaowei's neck – the same point on his own neck which Mingyu had earlier targeted.
Lin Xiaowei's face turned as pale as a ghost. "Hey now! That's some dangerous play. You are aiming at a vital point." He spoke with a slightly shaky voice.
"Exactly!" Jiang Yichen exclaimed, retracted the crab leg as he turned to face the window, "Like a pro, he had aimed at my vital point at one go. Interesting."
….
After leaving the Golden Lotus, Mingyu had gone over to a shop to sell the jewelries he had stashed from the brothel.
The merchant eyed him suspiciously, like he were a thief – which, technically, he was – and refused to buy the jewelries for a price that it was worth. He instead offered to pay a paltry sum that was only a fraction of their true worth.
Mingyu had adamantly refused at first, but his empty stomach had growled in protest, overriding his better judgment. In the end, he accepted what the merchant was willing to offer. Adding it to the money from Jiang Yichen's pouch, he went to get himself something to eat.
"As useless and scrawny as this body is, it keeps craving food." Mingyu complained aloud while looking at the ridiculously expensive lamb skewers on a stick, which he had bought to satiate his hunger.
"Well, what choice do I have?" he muttered, and brought the skewer closer to his mouth, ready to take a bite. But just as his teeth were about to sink into the meat, someone suddenly collided with him, causing his lunch – and possibly his dinner – to fall to the ground.
Mingyu sucked in a sharp breath in frustration and anger. He spun around, ready to unleash a scathing rebuke on the unfortunate individual responsible for his misfortune. "You piece of…"
Mingyu was suddenly tongue-tied when he came face-to-face with a brawny man, whose chest seemed like it was chiseled from the same stone as the city's ancient walls. His arms were also as thick as tree trunks.
The man's intimidating figure, plus the unapologetically glare he was giving Mingyu, made his words die on his lips, replaced by a cautious swallow.
Now is not the time to fight. He said to himself to calm down his flared temper, forcing himself to smile at the man.
The man nodded as if saying, 'that's more like it', before he then continued to go on his way, leaving Mingyu who was frustrated, angry, and hungry.