Chapter 1021: Trouble
Three days ago, Tang Mingjing sat quietly in the building, reviewing the reports submitted by his shopkeepers. He remained motionless for so long that one of them sensed something amiss and hurried upstairs. By the time he reached him, the master had already stopped breathing.
His death should have been kept a strict secret, but there were simply too many eyes watching Tang Manor. So many, in fact, that the slightest shift in the shopkeepers' expressions was enough to draw suspicion.
In the blink of an eye, prying eyes surrounded Tang Manor, and the same was true outside their main branch in Shangjing City.
Not a single carrier pigeon could be sent out, and neither could the people within the manor.
In this moment of crisis, Tang Manor's seventeen retainers struck at once, carving out a bloody path. Two martially skilled shopkeepers broke through to carry the news out—one heading for Nanbeilou, the other for the Border Pass.
They faced countless ambushes and assassinations along the way. When Shopkeeper Xuan broke out of the capital, he had nearly fifty men with him. By the time he reached Nanbeilou, only he remained, clinging to his last breath just long enough to deliver the letter before he, too, perished.
When Tang Zheng saw the letter, sheer panic gripped his heart.
"I have to go back! I have to go back..."
Tang Zheng was consumed by anxiety, his mind thrown into utter chaos.