Chapter 8: A Beating
The Mid-Autumn Festival had just passed. The moon should have been bright in the sky, but the cloudy sky obscured its silver light. The wind blew through the treetops, and dark shadows loomed outside the tent, making it feel unspeakably eerie and scary.
A few porters who were patrolling at night in the distance hunched their necks and found a place sheltered from the wind to keep warm. Occasionally they glanced around the camp and sat there chatting.
"The weather is getting colder and colder. After this escort mission, we can take a good rest."
"Maybe I can even have a drink at the chief escort's wedding when I get back."
Someone else whispered back, "Not necessarily. Didn't Zhang Qing refuse?"
The companion laughed and said, "You don't understand this, do you? The chief escort fell in love with the refugee girl, she was lucky. She happily agreed, which shows that she was tactful. If she had angered the chief escort, hehe... I'm afraid she would have been able to only be a concubine."
A few people were laughing and whispering about Chief Escort Mo's personal affairs, and did not notice the movement in the camp.
In the dark night, the man finally stopped at the door of Tang Ying's tent and even put his ear to the tarpaulin, probably trying to listen to what was going on inside, but he heard nothing.
Tang Ying calmed her breathing, took off her socks, and stood quietly at the door barefoot.
The person outside lifted the curtain with confidence and then stepped into the tent. He stumbled before taking two steps and had no idea what the girl had placed on the ground.
He threw himself forward, thinking that something bad might happen and he might wake the girl up. Unexpectedly, before he landed on the ground, someone hit his abdomen with a knee. He opened his mouth to scream, but a ball of socks was stuffed into his mouth. Then he received a heavy blow on the waist. He rolled around in the tent like a fish off the shore and was almost suffocated by the pain.
All my internal organs were displaced, my stomach was churning, and the worst part was my lower back, which hurt so much that I couldn't get up for a long time.
But the people who attacked him didn't seem to be willing to give him a chance to get up again. They held him down and beat him hard on the head and face. He wanted to cry out for his parents, but he could only utter a few unclear syllables in vain - his mouth was stuffed with smelly socks, and who knows how long it had been since he had washed them.
The tent was really too small. After spreading out the bedding there was only space left for feet. However, that did not stop Tang Ying from beating people to her heart's content. Even the tiny tent seemed to be shaking slightly. The ambiguous sounds and movements seen from the outside made people unable to help but imagine a lot.
Two people were lying in the grass ten steps away, stunned by the noise in the small tent.
"This this……"
"The chief escort asked him to scare Miss Zhang. When Miss Zhang screams, the chief escort will go over to save her. Why did he..." He got happy himself first?
"But Miss Zhang didn't call... Should we ask the chief escort to come over?"
"Why don't you just not invite me first? How will this end if I invite you over?"
"Geng Ming is such a bold guy, he even dares to rob the chief escort!"
The two sighed and lay in the grass to continue observing.
I don't know how long it was, probably almost half an hour, the tent was finally opened from the inside, and then something was thrown out. The man fell to the ground and couldn't help screaming in pain.
The two of them heard that the voice sounded a little strange, and they didn't bother to hide it anymore. They hurried over to take a closer look. Who was the person in front of them?
His face was swollen like a pig's head and had been beaten beyond recognition. He lay on the ground with his eyes closed and groaned. From his figure he looked like a man, but from his face there was no trace of Geng Ming at all.
"Geng...Captain Geng?" one of the men on guard asked in a trembling voice.
The man groaned twice and almost cried: "Help! I need to ask the chief escort to make the decision..."
The two men who were keeping watch looked at each other in disbelief: "Captain Geng, you were not beaten by Miss Zhang, were you?" The little girl looked as fragile as a willow branch, her face was pale and sickly, and even her voice was not loud. Who would believe that she could beat the tall and strong Captain Geng into this state?
His companions didn't believe it: "How is it possible? With Miss Zhang's small body, how could she beat up Captain Geng like this? Is there a wild man hiding in her tent?"
Who on earth sneaked into Miss Zhang’s tent in the middle of the night?
Geng Ming, who was covered in wounds, actually felt that what the two men said made a lot of sense and nodded repeatedly: "That strength is like that of a middle-aged man." In his mind, he had already suspected his companions one by one, wondering if he had offended any of them, who not only robbed him secretly, but also beat him up.
"I'm going to see the chief escort."
The two men did not dare to delay any longer and supported Geng Ming towards Chief Escort Mo's tent.
Escort Chief Mo was originally sleeping in his clothes. The light in the tent soon came on. He turned around and saw Geng Ming, as if he had seen a ghost: "...Who is this?"
Geng Ming had two front teeth knocked out, and his voice was lisp. He rushed over and hugged his legs with a crying voice: "Chief Escort, you have to do this for me. There must be a wild man hiding in Miss Zhang's tent. Look how he beat me..."
When Chief Escort Mo heard this, his face suddenly turned as dark as the bottom of a pot: "Who dares to sneak into Miss Zhang's tent?"
"I don't know either." Geng Ming told the truth: "His boxing skills are quite good. Look how he beat me." He tried to stand up, but his waist hurt so much that he couldn't use any strength, so he could only continue to lie there.
Chief Escort Mo looks kind on the surface, but he actually has a very domineering personality. However, none of the escorts in the agency are his match. Whenever he encounters bandits along the way, he always rushes to the front, which makes the escorts respect him very much.
It was very infuriating that the young lady he had his eyes on was taken by someone else first.
"Are you sure that someone really broke into Miss Zhang's tent?"
"Captain Escort, look at my injuries, can they be fake?"
Chief Escort Mo was so angry that he didn't bother to investigate the matter. He led his men to block the entrance of Tang Ying's tent.
Tang Ying sat cross-legged on the quilt, listening to the noisy sounds outside and the torches getting closer and closer, and soon they arrived at the door of her tent.
When the night wind blew outside, Chief Escort Mo sobered up a little and began to mutter in his heart: No one in the escort agency is so bold as to snatch the food from his bowl.
Could it be... that person is someone close to Boss Jiang?
There are not only people from the escort agency in the caravan, but the owner, Mr. Jiang, who is escorting the caravan, also has a few good fighters with him. The escorted goods are quite valuable and the roads have been uneasy recently, so they hired escorts.
But no matter who they are, they actually dared to take a step ahead of him. Chief Escort Mo could not swallow this humiliation!
"Miss Zhang, are you okay?" Chief Escort Mo shouted towards the tent.
Soon the tent was opened from the inside, and Miss Zhang came out with her hair loose and her clothes on. She yawned slightly and asked in confusion, "Is there something wrong with Chief Escort Mo?"
The tent was very small. Under the light of the torch, the curtain was lifted and the inside was clearly visible. The messy bedding was piled on the side. Miss Zhang had obviously just crawled out of the warm bed. Apart from her, there was no one else.
Chief Escort Mo had a sinister look in his eyes, and his mind was calculating - could it be that the thief escaped after beating the person?
"I heard that a thief broke into Miss Zhang's tent. I was afraid that she would be frightened, so I came to take a look."
"Thief?" Tang Ying looked around blankly, as if she had just been woken up: "Where did the thief come from?" It seemed that she reacted belatedly and hurriedly looked around: "Where is my brother?"
Just at this moment, Zhang Qing rushed over.
The noise was so loud that Zhang Qing was worried about Tang Ying every night and couldn't sleep well. When he heard that there was a thief in the camp, he ran over without even bothering to put on his shoes. At this moment, he saw Chief Escort Mo and his men standing in front of Tang Ying's tent, so he rushed over to protect her: "What's wrong?"
Tang Ying shrank behind him and said in a panic, "Brother, Chief Mo said that there are thieves in the camp. I'm scared. Don't leave, stay with me, okay?" She held his sleeve tightly.
"Don't be afraid, sister. I have my brother here, and we have Chief Escort Mo. No thief would dare to harm you."
"Brother, don't go!"
When Chief Escort Mo saw Miss Zhang holding onto Zhang Qing's sleeves and hiding behind him with her head down, her thick hair covering half of her face, leaving only her delicate jade-like chin exposed, he felt something was wrong and asked in a deep voice, "Miss Zhang, have you really never seen a thief enter your tent?"
"Who said that a thief broke into my tent? Chief Escort Mo, did anyone see it with their own eyes?"
Geng Ming was supported by someone to see the true face of the thief. Seeing that Miss Zhang actually refused to admit her identity and tried to deny it, he thought that the beating he received was in vain. He blurted out in anger: "I saw it! Not only did the thief break into Miss Zhang's tent, he also beat me up like this. Don't deny it!"
"I didn't beat you up like this, so what is there to deny? If you don't believe me, you can just tear down the tent and find out." Having said that, she still lifted the curtain high so that the onlookers outside could see for themselves.
There was unrest in the camp, and Boss Jiang's men were woken up and hurried to reply.
"A thief got in?" Boss Jiang was shocked. "This is no small matter. Bring our people and light torches to search. We can't let the thief get away!"
Before the lawsuit was settled, Boss Jiang and his followers came over. Tang Ying lifted the curtain and asked Geng Ming to search for people. He didn't know the reason. He frowned and discussed with Chief Escort Mo: "Since there are thieves in the camp, why are they surrounding Miss Zhang's tent? You see, the tent is so small that it can only accommodate one person. Even if a thief enters, he can't hide."
To prove her innocence, Tang Ying pulled Zhang Qing a few steps to the side so that everyone could see more clearly whether there was anyone in the tent.
There was indeed no one else in the small tent.
Escort Chief Mo cursed Geng Ming inwardly for being stupid, for daring to say that he had seen a thief. He could not explain the reason to Boss Jiang, so he could only play it lightly: "Maybe Geng Ming saw it wrongly." He wanted to wait until everyone had dispersed before investigating secretly.
Geng Ming was beaten up and his whole body was in tatters. He was also denied by Chief Escort Mo, so he got anxious and shouted, "How could I have seen it wrong? The thief beat me in Miss Zhang's tent!"
"Why are you running into my tent in the middle of the night instead of sleeping properly?"
