"Get up, get up! Our master has something to announce!"
"Knock, knock, knock—knock, knock, knock—"
"Open the door! Open the door! Or we'll break it down if you don't come out!"
Lin Qiao was woken up by the commotion outside. Opening her eyes, she saw that Luo Nanchen was already setting up a barrier.
"Um... What's going on outside?"
Luo Nanchen kissed Lin Qiao's forehead and continued to set up the barrier. "Go back to sleep. Don't worry about it. The noise will stop soon."
Lin Qiao rubbed her eyes and sat up. "It's so noisy outside. What are they doing?"
Luo Nanchen just finished setting up the barrier. In an instant, all the noise disappeared, and it became dead quiet.
He wrapped his arms around Lin Qiao and lay back down. "Don't worry about it. Go to sleep."
Lin Qiao thought about it with her still sleepy mind but couldn't come up with an answer. In the end, she decided to listen to Luo Nanchen.
After all, the smartest person in the whole team was right here. Luo Nanchen was not the kind of person who didn't know the importance of things or the appropriate occasion. He was very trustworthy.
Moreover, the barrier Luo Nanchen set up was very solid and safe. In an instant, there was no noise at all. It was a perfect environment for sleeping.
So Lin Qiao obediently and peacefully fell asleep again in Luo Nanchen's arms.
But just as she was about to drift off to sleep, faintly came Zou Lurui's shrill screams from the door. "Help! Murder! Molestation—"
Lin Qiao sat up abruptly. "Oh no, Zou Lurui lives alone—"
She quickly put on her clothes, dragged on her shoes, and rushed to Zou Lurui's room.
Zou Lurui's eyes were hazy with a hint of panic and confusion with a trace of fear. She was holding onto the bedpost half - naked and hadn't even put on her shoes.
Around her, there were at least four men. Two were tugging at Zou Lurui, and one was rummaging through her bed.
There was also Dong Peirong, who was weak as a kitten, doing his best to save Zou Lurui from this dire situation.
Seeing Lin Qiao, Zou Lurui immediately turned on her loud - speaker mode. "Madam, help me, madam! They're going to take me away!"
Luo Nanchen, who came in later, first draped the cape in his hand over Lin Qiao's shoulders and tied it up properly to make sure she wouldn't catch a cold.
Then he took a look at the situation in the room and waved his hand impatiently. A gust of wind with inner - strength blew from his hand, knocking down the two men who were tugging at Zou Lurui and the one who was rummaging through her bed.
This was the first time Lin Qiao had seen Luo Nanchen use his inner - strength. So, it turned out that Luo Nanchen's inner - strength even had an artificial intelligence recognition function?
Lin Qiao imitated Liu Neng's tone and said to the fallen minions on the ground, "Why are you bothering that little girl?"
The minions of course refused to answer indignantly and turned their heads away, looking quite unyielding.
"Stop being naughty," Zou Lurui cried. "They said it was some kind of cultivator conference and that all cultivators with cultivation levels had to attend. I'm only at the Foundation - Building stage, but they still insisted on bothering me. Since there are barriers in the other rooms, I've had such a hard time. Waaah..."
Lin Qiao: "..."
Dong Peirong also heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you, young master, for saving us. If you and madam hadn't come in time, I'm afraid today..."
Luo Nanchen coldly scanned the three men who had just gotten up from the ground and asked, "Who are these people?"
Dong Peirong said, "I don't know. They just came and tried to drag people away without explanation. I didn't have time to ask."
Luo Nanchen picked up one of the men. "You, who are you?"
Lin Qiao watched Luo Nanchen, who was acting in the style of the Southern Emperor Nanchen, feeling extremely gratified and excited. She really did fall for the domineering CEO type...
This minion didn't feel the disdain from the male lead and still acted arrogantly. "You... How dare you treat me like this? Boss Xie will never let you go!"
Wait... Boss Xie?
Could it be Xie Kuihai?!
Just hearing this name made Lin Qiao feel a little nauseous.
Luo Nanchen raised his eyes. "Oh, which Boss Xie is that?"
His eyes were full of contempt, and his tone was disdainful, very much in line with the emperor's style.
One word out of place, and it's all - out slaughter.
But this was definitely not because Luo Nanchen didn't know who Xie Kuihai was. It was because he was afraid that these minions would be loyal and filial and not reveal Xie Kuihai's background. So he used the provoking method to force the minions to speak.
Unexpectedly, he still overestimated the intelligence of these minions.
"Our boss is the big shot in the East Market. All the casinos and shops belong to our boss. He's also in charge of the drug business in the whole Yangzhou City. Who do you think you are... Ouch, ouch, it hurts. You're the boss, you're the boss. I was wrong, I was wrong. It hurts—"
Lin Qiao couldn't help but want to laugh.
But these minions were really useless. The information they provided was even less than what Luo Nanchen's secret guards had found out.
Luo Nanchen lost his patience. "Get out of here."
The minions were very afraid of death and didn't care about their dignity anymore. They quickly scurried out of the room.
But unexpectedly, just as they got out of Zou Lurui's room, the screams of the minions still came. Among the screams, there was faintly Mo Xiujie's roar. "Where is he?! Where did you take him?!"
Lin Qiao was attracted by the sound and even forgot the questions she wanted to ask Zou Lurui.
"Sir, we don't know. We really don't know. We really don't know where the person you're looking for is—"
The minions' panicked denials three times in a row still couldn't calm Mo Xiujie's anger.
"I'll ask you one more time. Where is he?!"
Then came the symphony of tables, stools, pots, and pans. It sounded like the fight outside was quite brutal.
But it might not be a fight but a one - sided beating.
Zou Lurui simply ran to the door to watch the show.
Dong Peirong looked at Luo Nanchen with an unclear expression and asked for instructions. "Young master... Should I go out and take a look?"
Luo Nanchen nodded.
Sure enough, after Dong Peirong went out, the screams stopped, and the symphony of pots and pans also disappeared. The minions might have been kowtowing to Dong Peirong in their hearts.
Lin Qiao turned around and pulled Zou Lurui, who was watching the fun, back. "Zou Lurui, think carefully. What did those three people say? Are they Xie Kuihai's subordinates?"
Just then, Mo Xiujie walked in covering his arm. Hearing Lin Qiao's question, he casually replied, "I've checked. There really is a cultivator conference in a couple of days. It's hosted by Xie Kuihai. It's held once every three years, and it invites all the cultivators in Yangzhou, whether they're temporary residents or locals, to participate. But those three extremely arrogant servants should be using this as Xie Kuihai's territory to act like bullies and do all kinds of evil."
Lin Qiao nodded. "I understand the principle, but why are you covering your arm? Were you beaten in the fight with the minions just now?"
Zou Lurui came over and said with a sly smile, "It was Dong Peirong who beat him."
Lin Qiao understood.
Sure enough, it was a hereditary case of being hen - pecked.
Mo Xiujie had inherited it especially seriously.
Lin Qiao turned to Luo Nanchen and said, "We should go and take a look. At least we need to find out where that fetal spirit is. We can't just let him help the evildoers."
Luo Nanchen nodded. "Okay, I'll do whatever madam says."
Lin Qiao: "..."
In front of outsiders, it's madam, but when they're alone, it's little Lin...
So, would her family status be high or low in the future?
"But Young Master Li and Young Madam haven't gotten up yet. They probably also set up a barrier," Dong Peirong was single - minded about his work and tried his best to ignore Mo Xiujie, who was covering his arm and looking aggrieved. "Do we need to go and wake them up?"
Lin Qiao calculated that by this time, Qu Yinghan should be in the stage of looking for the villain to discuss the assassination plan while pretending to be very gentle with Li Gusong.
Li Gusong was the second most likable male character in the original novel. On the surface, he was elegant, gentle, and handsome. In fact, he was also a scheming guy. He was patient, low - key, and able to hold his temper. He was also very capable in his work and was most trusted by Luo Nanchen.
He could also keep up with Luo Nanchen's thinking and ideas the most.
This could be seen from the identities Luo Nanchen assigned to everyone when they went to the south of the Yangtze River.
Mo Xiujie was still a bodyguard, which was his own request, but Li Gusong was a young master, assigned by Luo Nanchen.
By the end of the original novel, when Luo Nanchen dominated the whole continent, he even handed over Yunjin to Li Gusong to manage, which was quite a glorious thing.
But the most likable thing about Li Gusong was not his elegance or his scheming and patience. It was that he was a wife - slave.
In the original magical novel "Don't Run, Emperor, You Have Harem All Over the World", all the male characters in the book, except the villains, were created to meet the readers' psychological needs.
Luo Nanchen's image was created to satisfy the readers' frustration of wanting to show off but being unable to do so in reality, while Li Gusong's image was set up to meet the psychological needs of female readers.
Li Gusong was a typical and outstanding wife - slave, a man who had taken the attribute of being a wife - slave to the extreme.
Although Qu Yinghan was very cold and low - key, as long as she showed a little bit of kindness and a little bit of gentleness, Li Gusong would be so happy that he didn't know where he was.
Maybe last night, Qu Yinghan went to show kindness to Li Gusong for the sake of the plan?
Oh, that's why they got up late.
Lin Qiao stopped Dong Peirong, and she and Zou Lurui said in unison, "Forget it. Don't go. Let them sleep."
Dong Peirong was at a loss and looked blankly at Luo Nanchen.
Luo Nanchen was confused. "Why are you looking at me? Of course, we should listen to madam."
Dong Peirong: "......Yes."
... He shouldn't have asked Luo Nanchen for his opinion. He should have listened to Mo Xiujie's philosophical truth earlier: The words of the empress dowager are the words of the emperor.
Dong Peirong finally learned this survival skill today.
Learned it and remembered it firmly.
Alas, he was still too young before.
Zou Lurui shook her head and clicked her tongue. When it came to being a wife - slave, it still had to be Luo Nanchen.
He doted on her in everything and let her have her way in everything. Lin Qiao's face was always the most important, and Lin Qiao's matters were more important than anything else.
This kind of treatment...
Mo Xiujie was still not up to the mark. He couldn't even compare with Luo Nanchen. He was not just incomparable but completely inferior.