Chapter 17 Duan Xiaolou fought with Gao Jue

In the evening, Tai Chen invited nine guests including Duan Xiaolou to the banquet. After three rounds of drinking, a bottle of banned medicine emerged in the banquet. Geng Bingxiu immediately ordered to tie Tai Chen up, and detained all the Taoist nuns who came to see what happened in Fu Mian Yard. Now, Duan Xiaolou, Liao Zhiyuan, Gao Jue and Lu Jiangbei were ordered to come to the Medicine Room and find more evidences. After entering the room, Gao Jue used his broadsword to hit all the medicine cabinets to the ground quickly. The medicinal materials were piled up like a hill, but they couldn’t find the banned medicine they were looking for. When He Danggui knocked on the door, the four people were quarreling. Duan Xiaolou blamed Gao Jue for disturbing the medicines, which was not conducive to searching for evidences. Duan Xiaolou quickly took out a chair from the medicinal materials, and brought it to He Danggui. Then he asked, “Come and sit. Why is your face so pale? Did we disturb you when we caught Tai Chen? Or did that cool-faced man scare you just now?” Gao Jue, the cool-faced man, just suffered a palm in his back and a hit in his waist. Now he stood upright against the wall with his face darker. He Danggui smiled slightly, “It doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s due to the wind.” Hearing that, Duan Xiaolou wanted to take off his cloak, but he found that he had walked so fast that the cloak was left in Fu Mian Yard. Now he only had a scarlet robe. So, he immediately turned to look at the others, and found that only Gao Jue was wearing a black cloak. He wanted to beg for it, but he gave up when looking at Gao Jue’s angry face. Duan Xiaolou pulled off his waistband and took off his robe, which surprised and shocked He Danggui. Then, he presented the robe to He Danggui with his hands and said, “Put on the robe. You can’t be careless since you just recover from the illness. I change this coat today and wear it less than one day...” Liao Zhiyuan looked at Duan Xiaolou who was only wearing a white middle clothes. He bantered and gave a loud whistle, which made He Danggui embarrassed. She didn’t know whether she should take the coat or not. Lu Jiangbei couldn’t help smiling and walked to Gao Jue. He said a few words in a whisper, and finally got Gao Jue’s black cloak. Lu Jiangbei took the cloak to He Danggui and smiled, “Never mind, Miss He. Duan Xiaolou has always been so enthusiastic about girls.” Then he turned back and stared at Duan Xiaolou, “Get dressed quickly, or you will scare the little girl.” He Danggui had to take the cloak and put it casually. At this moment, Gao Jue suddenly asked loudly, “Hey, what are you doing here? Do you want to plead for those Taoist nuns? This is absolutely impossible!” He Danggui blinked and said quietly, “Well... I am here to help you solve the case. I will appreciate your guidance.” Lu Jiangbei looked at the upright girl in front of him, and couldn’t help laughing, “Do you want to help us solve the case? What is your opinion?” Gao Jue hummed, “Hey! Little girl, don’t you know who we are? In front of imperial guards, you dare to boast. We will give you a crime of cheating officials! Leave here quickly if you don’t want to be put in jail, or you will be tied up too!” Lu Jiangbei was afraid that Gao Jue would scare the little girl into tears, and just wanted to stop Gao Jue from talking. However, he saw Gao Jue suddenly flying out and hitting on the left wall again with a thump. It turned out to be a raid by Duan Xiaolou, who hit Gao Jue on the back with a move named “Xian He Shu Ling”. Duan Xiaolou fixed his waistband while saying indignantly: “Gao Jue, shut up if you don’t say something good! If you talk rudely to Miss He again, this isn’t the end!” Gao Jue was kicked off by Duan Xiaolou twice, so his poor patience was finally exhausted. He bounced from the ground and hacked Duan Xiaolou using his sword. Seeing Gao Jue’s sword, Duan Xiaolou kicked out a table to stop Gao Jue’s attack for a while. At the same time, he took out a pair of silver gloves and put them on quickly. Gao Jue split the table and tangled with Duan Xiaolou again. Duan Xiaolou’s commonly used weapon was a halberd named “Fang Tian Hua Ji”. It was too heavy to be taken to Shui Shang Temple. However, the Tian Jue Si Gloves was also the world’s most precious treasure that nothing could damage. “Boom!” The sword fought with the palms. In a while, Gao Jue split seven swords, and Duan Xiaolou returned seven palms. The air in the room seemed to tremble violently with the medicinal materials on the ground flying into the air and scattering here and there. He Danggui also felt that the strong wind made her hair in a mess, showing the excellence of Duan Xiaolou and Gao Jue’s kung fu. Lu Jiangbei stepped obliquely to He Danggui, covering her little face with his sleeve, and comforted her with a smile, “Don’t mind. They often resolve disagreements by fighting with each other. It is not your fault.” The girl who was close at hand suddenly laughed. Wearing a light cyan coat skirt, she was more beautiful combining with her delicate face. Lu Jiangbei looked at her, and found that she had gorgeous eyes which showed an aura of intelligence. In particular, when he was troubled by the case, the little girl’s temperament made him soft and tempted. After a moment of inattentiveness, Lu Jiangbei turned his head and looked at the air in front of him. Then he asked, “You said you wanted to help us solve the case. What do you plan to do to solve the case?” Although he thought that He Danggui couldn’t offer any help, it didn’t matter to hear what she said because the clues were often found in details and then affected the overall situation. He Danggui replied indifferently, “When you employ others, you should trust them without doubt. You neither believe my sincerity and ability at all, nor tell me the ins and outs of the matter. Even though I have a wealth of pharmacological knowledge, I know nothing about the case. In this case, finding evidence seems like to guess an object behind the block. Your honor, who does take the responsibility?” Her voice was soft and quiet, which seemed like a furry claw of a little beast passing through his heart. Lu Jiangbei was persuaded by He Danggui immediately. Lu Jiangbei smiled, “In fact, it doesn’t matter to tell you. But please don’t leak out the case. Just then, Tai Chen invited us to a banquet. During the banquet, we didn’t know why she regarded us as a big customer for medicine and wanted to talk about the business of medicine. Master Geng decided to go with her and wanted to see what medicines she sold. After Tai Chen took out the medicine, we all saw the medicine and found that the medicine in the bottle was Wushi Powder, which was banned for refining and purchasing by the Emperor 19 years ago!” “Wushi Powder?” Even He Danggui was astonished. In the previous life, she just accidentally discovered that Tai Chen refined Xingyang Powder, but she didn’t expect to pull out something else. The severity of refining Xingyang Powder was nothing compared with refining Wushi Powder. Wushi Powder was a traditional Chinese medicine powder originally invented by Zhang Zhongjing, the medical genius of the Han Dynasty. It was used by patients who had typhoid fever and for those who were not sick, it could enhance their physical strength. It prevailed among scholars and officials in Wei and Jin dynasties until the Tang Dynasty, which was “a good one for entertainment” with enduring power. After eating Wushi Powder, people would become manic, dry and hot, and their body would become extremely sensitive. They needed to drink and took off their coat or exercise to sweat, so as to weaken the effect of Wushi Powder. Many people became irritable due to this medicine. Gradually, they couldn’t live without Wushi Powder. Therefore, at the beginning of Hongwu Period, the Emperor promulgated three imperial edicts in succession, absolutely prohibiting the private refining and selling Wushi Powder. Unexpectedly, Tai Chen did this kind of business furtively... He Danggui frowned slightly. If she could not find any strong evidences to excuse others in the Taoist temple, it would be difficult to protect them from being implicated by Tai Chen. Her original intention was to make Tai Chen suffer a bit, but she never thought that things would be out of control. In addition, there was something unexplainable in this case. That was the attitude of these imperial guards. It was really strange that the imperial guards were so crazy about catching people and searching for bribes. They could detain Tai Chen secretly and then transfer the case to the yamen runners of the county. The imperial guards were the Emperor’s hands and eyes, and always did tasks on the order of the Emperor. Now the seniors among them ran into the mountain and lived for a few days. Were they just for a drug seller Tai Chen? Wouldn’t it make a mountain out of a molehill? Lu Jiangbei nodded, “Oh, do you also know Wushi Powder? Later, we tied Tai Chen up. Not until we extorted a confession, Tai Chen confessed that except for Wushi Powder, she also refined Xingyang Powder, and with that, uh... Jinfeng Yulu Powder.” Lu Jiangbei was a little embarrassed when he talked about this. He didn’t know why he talked this accidently, especially to an innocent young girl. Uh, she couldn’t understand it anyway. Then, Lu Jiangbei sighed, “After that, Gao Jue questioned her where the medicines were hidden, who she had sold the medicines to, and what did any accomplices besides her. She stammered about it. Gao Jue was so furious that he cut her chignon with his sword. Unexpectedly, Gao Jue used a bit of power, which knocked her out. Jiang Yi used the Jin Mai Nail to stab into her thirteen pain acupoints, but she did not wake up. So, we had to come to the Medicine Room to find some clues.” He Danggui thought for a moment and looked up the roof. She suddenly shouted at the two people fighting in the middle of the house: “Masters, please stop first. It is important to handle the case and you can play at any time!” Duan Xiaolou heard her words and stopped fighting first. He retreated to He Danggui by the force of a sword, as if his eyes were born on the back of his head. Gao Jue put his sword into the scabbard and stared at He Danggui. Then he asked with a cold face, “Are we playing? You dare to be disrespectful to imperial guards, and you should have a crime for...” Lu Jiangbei was afraid that Gao Jue’s words would cause a new round of battle, thus putting his hands over Gao Jue’s mouth in time. Seeing Gao Jue’s resentment, He Danggui chuckled and said, “Just now, your auricular acupoint was widely open. If Master Duan gently pokes there, the battle between you wouldn’t be so fierce. Obviously, there are weaknesses between you and Master Duan. However, you two don’t hit each other’s weaknesses but hit casually, beating the tables, chairs, and benches all over the sky. Isn’t it playing?” As soon as she finished her words, the four men was shocked. They looked at each other for a moment, and then turned to stare at He Danggui, with a little fear in their eyes. They knew that even the most excellent seniors in Jianghu couldn’t find the weakness of Gao Jue if they didn’t know about his kung fu. However, this little girl in front of them easily found Gao Jue’s weakness. Who was she? Gao Jue seemed to be cruel, and continuously asked: “How do you know what my weakness is? You know kung fu? Who are you? Are you a warrior in Jianghu?” He Danggui was surrounded by the four men. She seemed petite and fragile, and Gao Jue’s sharp words made her dwindled. With tears on her eyelashes, she replied softly, “In front of several imperial guards, what a little girl could cover? How could I understand those complicated kung fu? I saw Master Duan waved his palms twice to the auricular acupoint of Master Cool Face just now, but he abruptly withdrew his palms and attacked insignificant points. I once heard that the acupoint beside the ear is one of the main acupoints of the human body. Hitting it could cause faint. Now that Master Duan doesn’t want to hurt Master Cool Face, I guess it is a play not a real fight. I really don’t know about the weakness or Jianghu.” He Danggui’s words seemed reasonable, and the four people immediately believed her. Because they not only studied with the same master, but also joined the army and served in imperial guards together, they were clear about each other’s weaknesses and kung fu. Even if they did not intentionally cause others to death during the competition, their ruthless developed over the years would make them attack each other’s weaknesses. But they would change their direction at the vital point. Lu Jiangbei couldn’t find out any loopholes in He Danggui’s words. He could only sigh, “Even if Miss He doesn’t know about kung fu, your outlook and courage are really amazing. You know, the common girls might hide themselves from the flying sand and stones when they encountered fighting between seniors. But you could actually observe such details in a short time. I really admire you.” Duan Xiaolou came to his sense and rebuked Gao Jue, “Gao Jue, I just said that if you don’t talk something good, shut up. Look, you scare the girl into crying.” Suddenly, Liao Zhiyuan burst into laughter as if he remembered something interesting. Everyone looked at him and was puzzled. He pointed at Gao Jue and laughed, “Haha, the cool face... Master Cool Face, Master Cool Face! The nickname is really suitable. Let us call you the Master Cool Face later.” Gao Jue scowled and glanced at He Danggui with his brutal intention disappearing. If this girl was a warrior in Wulin and knew his weakness, she must be killed. But in his eyes, He Danggui was just a fragile little girl who was as weak as an ant. Knowing his weakness was not a big deal. It seemed that He Danggui couldn’t hold anything except for the embroidery needle. He Danggui raised her head and glanced at the four men, saying in a tone of grievance, “Masters, instead of appreciating me for helping you to keep the evidence, you harshly blame me. Please look at there.” She pointed at the back side of the beam, “If I don’t stop the fight, the most important evidence would be torn apart.” The four men looked up in surprise, and saw a brocade box lying quietly on the beam above their heads.