His Rui

Chapter 598 Self-Doubt

　　Gu Li felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. Everything in front of his eyes went blurry and soon Li Rui saw his figure collapsing down on the floor in front of her.

Swiftly, she stepped forward to take her son from his arms. However, someone else was faster than her. 

There she saw a man standing in black clothes. He was standing just a step away from unconscious Gu Li and had his hand raised.

  Seeing his position, anyone could say that it was he who attacked Gu Li. The man stepped forward and picked Xi Ling from Gu Li’s arms.

The small bun had his eyes closed and opened them only when he felt his small body lifted. His forehead wrinkled and he whispered immediately.

”Mother…”

However, when he saw a face that didn’t match his mother’s beautiful face at all, his expression looked very bad. 

Xi Ling felt irritated. His mother must be worried for him. Thinking this, he slapped the shadow guard’s face who was now grinning at him widely.

Slap!

The silent backyard rang with the sound of the slap.

The shadow guard looked at Xi Ling with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

”Young Master…”

He whispered in a shocked voice. However, Xi Ling frowned deeply on hearing this. Those enemy shadow guards would not call him ‘Young Master’.

However, he was too irritated to find out why the man was calling him ‘Young Master’. Instead, he shouted at the shadow guard.

”Put Xi Ling down.”

The shadow guard didn’t even bat an eyelid at Xi Ling’s high-pitched voice but seeing him moving around in his arms so much, he immediately set him down.

His expression looked as if he couldn’t comprehend what was going on.

Ignoring him, the small bun looked around the garden and finally found his mother just behind him.

”Mother…Xi Ling is alright.”

Xi Ling shouted in a joyful voice. Then he stepped forward and hugged his mother’s slightly protruded belly carefully.

Li Rui’s eyes were full of relief.

”Good.”

She whispered softly.

Her arm went around her son’s body protectively and with another hand, she ruffled his hair.

The small bun was happy. 

On the other hand, Li Rui raised her head again to look at the man who had Xi Ling in his arms a few moments ago.   

The man was also looking at her. However, as soon as he saw her raise her head, he lowered his head swiftly.

She then looked around the backyard at other shadow guards.

An Ju saw the hidden confusion on her face and immediately stepped forward to inform her.

”My Lady, they are our people.”

Hearing this, Li Rui merely nodded her head. She then looked at Gu Li. Her eyes were calm and no one could guess what he was thinking.

A few moments later, she asked An Ju to tie Gu Li again.

An Ju immediately did as asked. With that, she also asked the three shadow guards to keep an eye on that room. Last night, almost all of the shadow guards were given a night of rest by her master.

Only An Si was there to guard the room who looked no less guilty on finding out that Gu Li ran away under his watch.

The four enemy shadow guards were capable martial artists but since Gu Li was their master, he was more capable than them.   

Perhaps that’s why An Si couldn’t sense his presence or absence in any place including the room.

”I should have been more careful.”

An Si whispered and An Ju could only stay silent.

However, she didn’t like seeing An Si like this so she said humorously.

”Don’t put on such a face now only. Put it when Master will be punishing you, maybe it will work.”

An Si shook his head as he smiled lightly. He was not scared of the punishment but he knew that An Ju was trying to lighten up his mood.

A few moments later, An Ju expressed her doubt again

”I think that Master has forgotten about these Youxio shadow guards. Otherwise, he would have surely mentioned and assigned a few more shadow guards to this room.”

An Ju was not looking down on his master by saying this. In fact, she only thought inside her heart that her master must be very exhausted from the past few days’ events to forget about this thing.

This time, An Si didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter whether his master forgot this or not. He was supposed to keep an eye and never let any single one of them escape.

An Ju soon left from there as she didn’t dare to leave Li Rui and Xi Ling alone. This time, she was accompanied by a few other shadow guards who insisted to guard their lady and Young Master with An Ju.

An Ju didn’t refuse.

While those who stayed with An Si asked him questions regarding what were the shadow guards from Youxio doing in Xi Manor.

On this side, the morning was too lively in Xi Manor for Li Rui and Xi Ling while on the other side, Xi Ying was feeling very restless in the Imperial Court.   

With every passing moment, his worry only increased.

Slowly and slowly, self-doubt started to creep inside his mind. How could he forget about such an important thing!

He had basically left his wife and son in the same place where those shadow guards who were sent to take their life were also present.

That was such an irresponsible action from his side. 

Xi Ying was disappointed in himself for the third time in the past three days. The first was when he realized that Yi Huiqing got attacked because he gave such an important job to Zhao Zhuang Chen. The second was when he realized that by calling all shadow guards from Xi Manor except An Ju, he put his wife and son in danger giving Zhao Wang Lei a huge opportunity to attack Li Rui.

And now today!

Xi Ying doubted whether he was really capable of protecting Li Rui or not.

If he was like this at the start of the battle itself, then will he be able to protect Li Rui and Xi Ling by the time this fierce battle would end!

The thought scared Xi Ying to the core and it was perhaps the first time he felt so scared.