Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 624 There is an assassin!
There are assassins?
Xia Lin thought it was unlikely. It was more likely that someone was the emperor's stalker, sneaking around outside. Normally, there was no need to tell Xia Lin about this, but at this moment, he dared not take it lightly, so he decided to go and see for himself.

After they arrived, the crowds outside were enormous, numbering at least five or six thousand, all queuing up just to catch a glimpse of the monkey and see if the legendary emperor really had three noses and two mouths.

To quickly pinpoint whether there is an assassin in such a place is almost impossible without special training.

After Xia Lin walked over, someone immediately leaned over and whispered, "Sir, that woman is acting suspiciously. We've seen her in three different locations."

Following his subordinate's gaze, Xia Lin could only see a back view. He nodded in response and said, "I'll go take a look."

"Please be careful, my lord."

"Understood, continue to be on guard."

After locking onto this person, Xia Lin began to weave through the crowd, constantly scanning the faces of everyone around him. After walking for a while, he locked onto about five or six people with different expressions and demeanor.

Although these people were dressed like ordinary citizens, their demeanor was completely different from that of ordinary citizens. The most obvious difference was that these people were extremely focused, paying far more attention to their target than to other irrelevant people.

Xia Lin was curious because their focus wasn't on Emperor Jingtai, but rather they were looking around for something. Following their gaze, it became clear that they were circling around the staff and managers.

In other words, Emperor Jingtai was not their primary target, and judging from their observation patterns, Wei Changsheng was not their target either.

It wasn't Emperor Jingtai or Wei Changsheng, so who were they looking for? The answer was obvious. Surely they couldn't be looking for Jinlian?

Xia Lin now had a clearer understanding of the situation, and judging from their positions, their key figure should be one of the seven people within a 45-degree angle in front of him.

However, he wasn't in a hurry at the moment. Instead, he kept adjusting his position and began to casually squeeze through the crowd. Many of the real audience members grumbled and moved aside. In the end, only two people remained, and no matter how much they struggled, they didn't change their position or just circled around and came back.

The suspicion against these two immediately arose.

At this moment, Xia Lin made a gesture to the side, and the spies deployed around him began to surround him. Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the large number of people, the civilians around these men were quickly replaced by spies hidden in the crowd.

The key point is that these people who were surrounded didn't even realize that they had become colleagues, and were still waiting for an opportunity to find their target.

Now, Xia Lin's task is to find the most crucial person in this group; otherwise, any action will alert the enemy.

The two people in front of them seemed to sense that something was wrong. They began to look around, and their expressions gradually became serious.

Xia Lin felt that they were indeed very strong in response to this, because although his series of movements seemed numerous and complicated, the whole process was actually completed in less than a minute.

But now is not the time to think about these issues. What he needs to do is to block one of them randomly, otherwise they will definitely take action to create chaos and take the opportunity to escape.

"do not move."

Xia Lin approached one of the men from behind, pressed a sharp knife against his waist, and whispered, "Stand still if you want to live, otherwise you and your companion will die."

The surroundings were still bustling and lively, but this place had instantly shrunk into a delicate world for two, with only Xia Lin and the person being manipulated standing there.

"Brother, which gang are you from?"

The man in front asked in a low voice, "State your name. I don't kill nameless people."

Xia Lin chuckled but didn't say anything. He simply pushed the knife tip further in, possibly piercing the man's skin. Although the man didn't move, the trembling caused by the pain was clearly transmitted along the knife tip to Xia Lin's hand.

“Now I’ll count five numbers, and after five numbers I’ll rip you apart.” Xia Lin laughed, “You said you wouldn’t kill nameless people, but you didn’t say I wouldn’t kill nameless people.”

"Let's talk this out. Are you here to kill dogs too?"

"Kill who?"

"Kill the dog." The man lowered his voice and said, "Naturally, it's that Xia dog that everyone wants to kill."

Xia Lin: ? ? ?
In that instant, he went through all the terrible things he had ever done in his life, but he couldn't find anything that would anger heaven and man. So how did he attract this group of people to hold a team-building dog-slaughtering party?
That's not scientific.

Why kill him?

"Does this brother not know? First, in Henan Province, 37 villages were massacred, and 20,000 people were slaughtered without discrimination, including women, children, the elderly, and the weak. Then, in Lingnan Province, 7,000 people were buried alive under the pretext of treating the plague. Shouldn't everyone kill such vicious dogs of the court?"

"Your mother..."

Xia Lin blurted out a curse. He couldn't have come up with this trick even if he racked his brains. But thinking about it, he understood. He could use public opinion, and others could use public opinion to attack him. The power of rumors and gossip was still increasing.

However, as soon as this tone came out, Xia Lin already knew who was behind all this. After all, this was a special group's innate skill; they always had a way of making someone seem like they were extremely wicked, without even bothering to consider whether the reasoning behind it made sense.

Upon closer examination, the reason why this kind of public opinion is so effective nowadays is probably because of the poor information flow rate. Many people may never have left their small mountain village in their entire lives.

During the Henan Circuit, due to the suppression of Buddhism and the redistribution of land, tens of thousands of people were indeed relocated. However, some of these people joined the army, while others were redistributed land in other places. But in the eyes of many people, this event was that Xia Lin turned countless villages into ghost villages overnight.

Add to that the ingrained thinking that has persisted for hundreds or thousands of years, that these missing people were taken away by Xia Daosheng, and that these were all worthless, lowly people, so where could they have been taken? Of course, to the Western Paradise.

With this flood in Lingnan, outsiders will definitely take advantage of the lack of information to spread rumors. As for these people, they are probably the chivalrous organizations that often appear in the martial arts world.

Or perhaps they can't even be called an organization; they're just a group of somewhat capable, enthusiastic young people who aren't very quick-witted.

"Brother, we are all men of the martial world. Don't let this scoundrel cloud your judgment. Today we must get rid of him and avenge the people."

He kept lecturing Xia Lin on the principles of morality and justice, making her head spin.

"Stop talking nonsense." Xia Lin glanced around. "If you don't want to get killed together, then come with me obediently." By now, their group of spies had already surrounded them. The people who came to kill Xia Gou had also realized the seriousness of the situation. But then, the man Xia Lin was holding down raised one hand and clenched his fist.

"That's right." Xia Lin smiled and said, "Let's go, don't disturb everyone here."

To be honest, Xia Lin was a little surprised when they were all being carried out of the crowd. There were as many as fifty or sixty men and women in the group.

There were clearly seasoned veterans among them, as well as complete novices with blank expressions and innocent eyes.

Even more surprised than Xia Lin were these people. They thought they had hidden themselves well, lying in wait in the city for many days, just waiting to take advantage of the chaos today to kill Xia Gou.

But who knew that before they even made a move, after numerous rehearsals, they were all wiped out the moment they showed their faces today. Judging from the number of people escorting them, there were a huge number of spies hidden in that crowd.

While Emperor Jingtai was still enjoying himself with the people in the main courtyard, these people were all chained up and locked in a small, temporarily borrowed courtyard, where they were squatting in a circle.

"Squat down, all of you!" the spies shouted, brandishing their knives. "Even if you die today, you'll all die here."

Xia Lin walked over slowly and found a shady spot to sit down, watching the group of men and women squatting in the yard, cursing and swearing.

He actually quite enjoys watching those Hong Kong period action films, which often feature scenes where Qing Dynasty henchmen capture and kill anti-Qing patriots.

At present, he is most likely seen by these people as a lackey of the Qing Dynasty.

But it's not bad, after all, Zhao Wenzhuo's portrayal of the Nine Gates Admiral is really captivating, and having such a villain is actually quite good.

"You've recklessly come to assassinate me. Don't you even realize what day it is today?"

"Why count the days when killing traitors? We never expected to return alive. As long as we can figure out and kill you, this ruthless killer, we can already appease the heavens. It's just a pity that the heavens are blind..."

These words were straight out of a traditional opera. Xia Lin bit her lip and endured the embarrassment as she listened to him finish speaking. It felt like the opera scene where Forrest Gump shouted before going to his execution. It was certainly generous, but they probably didn't know what was really going on.

Xia Lin propped her head up without saying a word. At that moment, Luo Shixin and Hongxiu rushed in.

They were both covered in sweat and looked terrified. Seriously, the assassins had gotten so close to His Majesty and Lord Xia that if things were really investigated, they would definitely be punished. And this was before anything happened; if something did, both of them, responsible for the main area's security, would be executed.

Just now, when their subordinates rushed over to inform them that a large number of assassins had been captured, these two men's hair stood on end. Then, without even asking any questions, they took off running towards this place.

When they saw Xia Lin sitting there, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief, but they were definitely unable to speak. They could only stand next to Xia Lin, panting like two broken bellows.

"I told you to search thoroughly, not to miss a single cat or dog. What are you doing?" Xia Lin pointed at the person chained up and asked the two men in front of him in a low voice, "Can you two still do this? If you can, then keep doing it; if you can't, then get out of here. Open your eyes and see how many people you've caught this time."

As Xia Lin spoke, he held his forehead and shook his head. He wanted to curse several times, but in the end he kept his mouth shut, not knowing how to say it.

Luo Shixin and Hongxiu exchanged a glance, knowing that the matter had become serious, and it was up to Xia Lin whether to pursue it or not.

"My lord, this matter was due to my dereliction of duty. Please give me a chance to make amends."

Hearing Hongxiu's words, Xia Lin frowned slightly, but after a moment he smiled speechlessly: "Overall, this matter is alright. They didn't disturb the Sage, and they weren't targeting the Sage. They were after me, so it's not a big deal. However, you can't escape the blame for your negligence. We'll discuss the punishment later. What you need to do right now is to thoroughly investigate who the hell is spreading rumors about me behind my back!"

Xia Lin was truly furious at this point. He had served his entire life, from village head to this day, and he could say he had let down heaven and earth, his wife and children, his relatives and friends—he had let down the people, and most importantly, he hadn't let down the land along these two banks of the river.

To say that he slaughtered the people and breached the dike is an utter disgrace.

No joke, he couldn't be bothered with anything else, but this was the one thing he was determined to do. If he found out who it was, no matter who it was, he would consider his life was wasted if he didn't ruin their families.

A real man keeps his word; if he says he'll kill his whole family, he will.

Seeing that Xia Lin's eyes were gradually turning murderous, Hongxiu was more astute. She quickly stepped forward and knelt on one knee in front of Xia Lin: "Lord Xia, I will definitely investigate the matter thoroughly."

This shout, if it hadn't come out, would have been a big deal. The group of people chained up started to get agitated, shaking the chains loudly and shouting insults as harshly as they could.

Xia Lin was alright and wasn't affected by the noise, but Hong Xiu was furious. She grabbed the long whip she carried with her and unleashed a lightning five-hit combo, causing Xia Lin to scream in agony.

"Alright." Xia Lin waved his hand. "What's the use of fighting them? They're just a bunch of idiots."

Luo Shixin stood silently to the side for a long time before finally speaking: "Sir, there may be something fishy about this matter."

"You either give me a constructive solution, or you shut up. What's so strange about it? Don't just give me this 'strange' statement."

Luo Shixin opened his mouth, then coughed: "Ah... that..."

"Stop with that! Say something!"

“My lord, look, these people just now have accents from all over the country. They must have gathered here overnight. I used to be a wanderer in the martial arts world, and I know that they actually have people above them and some managers in the martial arts world.”

Xia Lin raised an eyebrow: "You mean... they also have their own little circle? Actually, it's this little circle that's spreading the message?"

“Yes!” Luo Shixin frowned. “But as far as I know, those people don’t care about court disputes. They just play around in their own little corner. This time, they actually instigated someone to assassinate you, sir. I’m afraid there’s more to this than meets the eye.”

Just as Xia Lin was about to speak, Emperor Jingtai hurried over, his formal attire already changed into the same style of Guangnan-style cotton and linen vest as Xia Lin's.

"What's wrong? I heard someone tried to assassinate me? Who is it? Let me see!" Emperor Jingtai shouted excitedly, "It must have been that scoundrel Li Shimin who ordered it."

"You're talking nonsense!" Li Shimin was right next to Emperor Jingtai: "I, your grandfather, am not so despicable."

(End of this chapter)