Ninth Royal Uncle's letter, as always, contained only two words: "Return quickly."
Not a single word about the reason, not even a verbal message from anyone. Serena Feng was completely at a loss; after thinking for ages, she still couldn't figure out what Ninth Royal Uncle was playing at.
"Either Ninth Royal Uncle is bored out of his mind and misses me, so he's calling me back to see him; or something is very secret and can't be leaked." Reading those two words, Serena came up with two possibilities. Of course, the first was highly unlikely, and the second much more probable.
Ninth Royal Uncle isn't the type to be that idle. He's busy himself right now—even if he does miss her, he wouldn't send two letters in a row just to rush her back.
"When is Prince Colin arriving?" Serena called Left Shore back. Left Shore rolled his eyes and repeated what he'd said before: "I told you, tomorrow afternoon."
"Then we'll leave early the day after tomorrow." There was nothing else keeping them here; it was better to set out for home sooner.
"Ninth Royal Uncle sent another letter urging you to go back?" Two letters in a row—how much did Ninth Royal Uncle want to see Serena? Left Shore gave her a long look, but Serena wasn't shy at all. She nodded openly and admitted it.
Now that they knew the inn's proprietress was suspicious, Serena and Left Shore were extra cautious. They refused to touch any food provided by the inn. Serena used the excuse of taking Feng Jin sightseeing to leave Snow Wolves at the inn, then took Feng Jin around the Jiangnan town to shop for food for the next couple of days.
Cart after cart of supplies were delivered to the inn, making the proprietress's face turn green. 'Damn it, how much money do these people have to burn? Buying all this stuff for no reason—why not just save some silver and let us pull off one big score?'
The proprietress tried several times to persuade Serena to buy less, but Serena always managed to distract her by asking about the town's local specialties. All the innkeeper could do was watch Serena take Feng Jin out and spend money like water.
"Ow, ow... My heart aches so much." The proprietress watched Serena Feng spend what should have been her silver all over town, and it hurt so much she almost wanted to rob Serena's whole group right now—at least then she wouldn't have to watch Serena burn through all the money.
With Serena constantly spending silver to provoke her, the proprietress naturally lost interest in checking whether anything was off about Serena's group, let alone going out to gather news. So it wasn't until the next afternoon, when Prince Colin's army arrived outside the city, that she finally got word.
"P-Prince Colin..." The proprietress was so scared she nearly wet herself. She didn't even bother changing her skirt, just dragged her urine-soaked dress and dashed outside. But when she reached the rendezvous hut, she found the person waiting inside wasn't her lover—it was government officers.
"O-Officer... I must've gone to the wrong place." The proprietress reacted quickly, but no matter how fast she was, she couldn't escape the officer's grip: "I don't care if you went to the wrong place—you're coming with us."
The officer waved a hand, signaling his men to arrest her.
"Ow, ow... The officer's hitting me, the officer's killing me!" The proprietress struggled desperately and shouted at the top of her lungs, but not a single person dared stick their neck out.
"Stuff her mouth, she's too noisy." When government officers handle things, unless it's vicious bandits, no ordinary townsfolk would dare resist.
After the proprietress was taken away, Prince Colin's troops, led by the local officials, moved into the surrounding hills to encircle the rebel remnants.
Prince Colin's forces outnumbered the rebels dozens of times over. They couldn't seal off every peak, but surrounding the rebels and setting ambushes at every exit was no problem at all.
"Soldiers, listen up: We're here to wipe out bandits. These bandits are vicious criminals—murderers, thieves, nothing is beneath them. I want all of you on high alert; don't let a single one escape." Prince Colin utterly despised these rebels. Along the way, they'd blood-washed three villages and slaughtered thousands, not even sparing the old, weak, women, or children.
For people like this, even if they surrender, he won't let a single one live.
"Yes, sir!" The soldiers all responded in unison.
By the time they charged into the mountains, night had already fallen. Even if the bandits up ahead were once their comrades, chances are no one would recognize each other in the dark.
The commotion at the foot of the mountain threw the rebels above into a panic. A scout rushed back to the watch post, and the bald leader immediately asked, "Well?"
"Boss, it's Prince Colin. Prince Colin's army is advancing—they say they're here to wipe out bandits." The scout was so nervous he barely dared to breathe, but he quickly reported the situation.
"Wipe out bandits? Isn't Prince Colin supposed to be chasing us? How does he have time to come here and do bandit suppression?" The bald leader was way too confident. Even now, he refused to believe Prince Colin had found their trail—he still thought his trick of hiding among the old bandits had worked perfectly.
"I-I don't know either. Maybe Prince Colin just happened to pass by and, at the local officials' request, decided to lead his troops to wipe out the bandits." The scout guessed boldly, but the bald leader shot him down: "Impossible. Didn't the old bandits say they had people in the yamen? If the yamen really mobilized troops, someone would have sent word up the mountain right away."
If the yamen had no inside men, those old bandits wouldn't have been able to rule the mountain for so long.
"But... but... Prince Colin's troops are about to hit us!" The scout couldn't figure out why and didn't want to. All he wanted now was to run.
Prince Colin didn't care about alarming the enemy. The scale of his deployment at the foot of the mountain was massive, and the people above quickly realized it. The whole bandit camp was thrown into chaos as everyone started talking about the army below.
"I heard it's Prince Colin. Prince Colin's army is coming up the mountain." The speaker's voice was trembling, like he might burst into tears any second.
"Prince Colin? Prince Colin chased us here? He knows we're hiding here? We're doomed..." Rebels may be bold, but even the boldest fear death.
"Surrender—maybe we should surrender. Maybe there's still a—"
Smack! Before the man could finish, the bald leader heard him. Without a word, he grabbed a hammer and smashed it down on the man's head. The victim collapsed instantly, brain matter splattering everywhere—his companions were left covered in yellow-white pulp and blood.
"Damn it, let's see who else dares talk about surrender." The bald leader tossed the hammer onto the corpse, leaving a deep dent in the man's chest.
"No, no, no—we don't want to surrender!" The group was terrified. Forgetting their fear, they rushed to promise, desperate not to be smashed to death by the bald leader.
"Good. Just remember: you're not soldiers anymore, you're bandits. If you think Prince Colin will treat you like he did before, you're dreaming. We've killed so many innocent civilians—Prince Colin will never spare us. This battle, whether you fight or not, you have to fight."
Brutal and coarse as he was, the bald leader saw things clearly. Prince Colin would never let them go. Before the bandits on the mountain could react, Prince Colin had already ordered the attack...
At all costs, every last rebel remnant must be wiped out!