"Xiao Xiongdi," the young woman said with a smile, "You are angry with me, aren't you?"
Zhang Wuji had suffered many pains under these dogs' teeth, how could he not be angry? But as he stood in front of her, he only felt that her breath smelled like orchid, her body emitted intermittent whiff of fragrance that he felt he was going to faint; how could he think about this word 'angry'? Shaking his head, he said, "I am not!"
The young woman said, "My surname is Zhu, given name Jiuzhen. How about you?"
"I am called Zhang Wuji," Zhang Wuji replied.
Since the day he was born, Zhang Wuji had never seen such a beautiful woman that he was shaken to the core as if he was enchanted. If Zhu Jiuzhen told him to jump into a fiery pit, he would jump down without hesitation. Hearing her telling him to sit next to her, with unspeakable delight he immediately went and sat down reverently. It was beyond Xiao Feng and Qiao Fu's expectations to see their Miss showing favor toward this dirty and stinky kid.
Zhu Jiuzhen barked her order again, "General Zhe Chong! Chest!" One large dog leaped up to bite the dummy, but the meat on the chest of that dummy had been bitten by another dog; so that dog bit the meat on the side of the dummy's body and started to eat it.
Zhu Jiuzhen angrily said, "Greedy pig! You did not follow orders?" Raising the whip in her hand, 'Whack! Whack!' she lashed it twice.
The whip was full of thorns, as it lashed down, two long strips of bloodstains appeared on the back of the dog. But the dog was still unwilling to put the meat down, it growled menacingly instead.
"You are not following orders?" Zhu Jiuzhen barked. The whip lashed again, striking the dog so that it rolled around wildly with blood dripping from all around its body. Her whip technique was swift and ingenious, no matter where the dog run, it could not escape from the whip. At last the dog spat out the meat and then kneeled on the ground, motionless, whining in low voice. Yet Zhu Jiuzhen did not stop lashing her whip until it was dying to its last breath, and then she said, "Qiao Fu, put medicine on it."
"Yes, Miss!" Qiao Fu replied, and took the wounded dog out of the hall and handed it over to the servant in charge of the dogs.
The rest of the dogs were all frightened to see this scene; no one dared to move. Zhu Jiuzhen sat back on her chair and barked her orders again, "General Ping Kou! Left leg! General Wei Yuan! Right arm! General Zheng Dong! Eye!" One by one the vicious dogs leaped bit according to the order, no one missed the target.
To Zhang Wuji's amazement, she had given these dozens of ferocious dogs names as generals, while she directed them all with ease and competence just like a marshall. Zhu Jiuzhen turned her head toward Zhang Wuji and said with a smile, "Did you see these animals? If I do not firmly beat them with the whip, how can they be obedient to me?"
Although this pack of dogs had inflicted enormous pain on him, seeing the dog was beaten to miserable condition, Zhang Wuji could not restrain from feeling sorrowful.
Seeing he did not respond, Zhu Jiuzhen laughed and said, "You said you are not mad at me, but you don't say something? How did you come to the western region? Where are your father and mother?"
Zhang Wuji thought that with his current miserable condition, if he mentioned the name of Tai Shifu and his parents' names, he would only bring disgrace to them; thereupon he said, "My parents are dead. It was hard for me to survive in the Central Plains, so I wandered everywhere and ended up in here."
"I shot that monkey," Zhu Jiuzhen said, "Who told you to hide it in your bosom? You were so hungry that you wanted to eat monkey's meat, weren't you? You had not thought that you might be ripped to death by my dogs."
Zhang Wuji blushed; he repeatedly shook his head and said, "I was not thinking of eating the monkey."
With a captivating smile Zhu Jiuzhen said, "In front of me, you'd better not deny it." Suddenly she remembered something and asked, "What kind of martial art did you train? My General Zuo's skull shattered and it died. Your palm power is truly not bad."
Hearing that he had killed one of her pet dogs, Zhang Wuji apologetically said, "I was in panic and hit with all I had. When I was little, I learned two, three years of random punching and kicking with my father, it was not any martial art at all."
Zhu Jiuzhen nodded, then turned to Xiao Feng and said, "Take him to bath and give him some presentable clothes."
Xiao Feng pursed her lips, laughed and said, "Yes!" and took Zhang Wuji out.
Zhang Wuji was reluctant to part from Zhu Jiuzhen; as he reached the door, he could not help but turn his head to look at her one more time. Who would have thought that Zhu Jiuzhen was also looking at him? As he looked at her bright and beautiful eyes, she flashed him a sweet and captivating smile. Zhang Wuji blushed until he felt his entire body, from the root of his hair to the end of his toes, turned red; as if his soul had just left him. He did not pay attention to the threshold, and thus he tripped and fell flat on his face, right on top of dog dung. His entire body was still covered with wounds; this fall had made him sore all over, but he did not dare to groan, he busily propped himself up and crawled away.
Xiao Feng giggled and said, "To see our Miss, everybody would be infatuated and head over heels in love with her. But you are still this young, you are also falling for her?" Zhang Wuji was really embarrassed, he rushed ahead of her.
After walking for a while, Xiao Feng laughed and said, "Are you going to take a bath and change your clothes in Taitai's room?"
Zhang Wuji halted his steps at once and looked up; he saw above the door ahead of them hung an embroidered golden banner. He had never been to this place before. It was then that he realized that in his confusion he had taken the wrong turn. That maid Xiao Feng was so sly that although she knew, she did not say anything, but waited until he went straight to the family room before opening up her mouth to mock him.
Zhang Wuji hang his reddened face down without saying anything. Xiao Feng said, "You call me 'Xiao Feng Jiejie' and earnestly ask me, then I'll take you out."
Zhang Wuji said, "Xiao Feng Jiejie …"
With her right hand index finger pointing to her own cheek Xiao Feng said with straight face, "Hmm, what do you want from me?"
"I am asking you to take me out," Zhang Wuji said.
"That's better," Xiao Feng laughed.
Taking him back to the small room, Xiao Feng said to Qiao Fu, "Miss said for him to take a bath and change his clothes with a clean one."
"Yes, yes!" Qiao Fu replied. He was full of respect. Apparently, although Xiao Feng was also but a servant, compared to the other servants and maids her position was somewhat higher. Five, six male servants immediately stepped in, calling her 'Xiao Feng Jiejie this' and 'Xiao Feng Jiejie that', flattering her to no end. Xiao Feng actually looked cold and indifferent. Suddenly she came to Zhang Wuji and bowed to him,