Before Zhang Chengling could react, Gu Xiang, who was adding firewood to the fire off to the side answered him loquaciously, “He’s my brother—naturally, his surname is Gu as well. The two of us were originally hired to do chores in our master’s house, I was a maid and he was a servant boy, but who would have known that calamity would befall our master’s house? We don’t know where they came from, but they want to hunt all of us servants down and kill us all no matter what. It’s highly immoral of them--if they ever have children in the future, their children won’t amount to anything. Many thanks to you two gentlemen…”

The man in black eyed her, and Gu Xiang could not bring herself to continue, her wide eyes drifting left and right.

She was speaking nonsense, but Lord Seventh did not point it out. He simply continued from where Gu Xiang had left off with a pleasant expression on his face. “Both of you are injured. We should have brought you to an inn, but this little maiden said that someone was hunting you down in the city, so it would not be safe. We would have to trouble you to spend a humble night here, and make plans tomorrow morning. Do you have anywhere else to turn to?”

His voice was gentle and mild, his words neither hurried nor slow, like he was trying to comfort two very young children. As Zhang Chengling listened to him, he suddenly felt very sorry for himself. He thought, where else could they go? His dad was long dead, his whole family exterminated, and good or bad regardless, everyone he bumped into wanted to kidnap him. He was like a startled bird that had flown until its wings were nearly at breaking point, but vast as the world was, he still could not find a place to land and rest. His eyes reddened, but he remained silent.

Instead, Gu Xiang thought about it, and said, “My master and this kid’s shifu were originally going to meet up with us, but we didn’t expect a bunch of people to suddenly emerge and hunt us down. We escaped without choosing any direction in particular, and we don’t know if they are able to find us…”

Zhang Chengling thought of Cao Weining, and supplemented in what he thought was a smart addition, “And Cao-dage was taken away by a few strange people.”

Gu Xiang immediately shot daggers with her gaze at him, warning the little idiot Zhang Chengling not to speak carelessly. Yet Zhang Chengling, who was preoccupied with his own sense of being set adrift and grief, did not take note of her gaze, but heard Lord Seventh pursue this line of questioning, “What kind of strange people?”

Zhang Chengling answered honestly, “A dwarf and a giant, and an old granny and grandpa dressed in flowery colours.”