*** Chen Murong's point of view continued. ***

After spent time in the shack for one night, finally, the next morning eventually arrived. A night in here seemed like an eternity, in my opinion. When we woke up, one of the bandits brought us breakfast. Well, more or less something that was edible for us to survive. Wait, did I say "edible"? I might have praised it a little bit too high for that overcooked mysterious meat with a three-day-old leftover cup of grayish gravy, serving with burned to black bread. We tasted it a little bit and wished it would return to where it came from.

When the bandit came back to get our breakfast tray, he noticed that we barely ate. However, he did not care. He only smirked and said, "Our chief will meet you now. Follow me."

"Okay," we said. Dawei and I then stood up and followed the guy.

We shortly walked from the back of the village to the center of the village. In fact, even if we did not follow this guy, we could still find the place. It was actually very easy to tell which cottage belonged to the bandits' chief. It was the biggest one in the middle of the village, with several guards standing around the door.

When we arrived, one of the guards led Dawei and me inside the bandit chief's cottage. We stepped into the cabin and found a small sitting room. This room was decorated in a neat and clean way. On one side of the room, the fireplace was nicely filled up with wood, and the fire made the whole room warm and cozy. On another side of the room, there was an old man sitting behind a big wooden desk. The guard made a coughing noise so that the old man knew we were there.

Hearing the noise, the old man looked up at Dawei and me with a happy face, reminding me of my grandfather's expression when he had looked upon Huilong on the first day that he was born. It was a joyful, grasping smile, extremely hard to be contained. The only thing that was different was this old man's eyes. They were ill-intentioned eyes instead of benevolent ones.

"Hello, our respectable guests. I am Hector. The chief of this humble village," the old man said. "Nice to finally meet you two."

I mocked and said, "I wish we could say the same for you."

"Hahaha, at least, I hope you like our accommodation that we prepared for you." The old man shamelessly said.

"Ummmm," I sneered and said nothing. However, my displeasing expression told him all he needed to know.

"You could not expect anything fancy young master. We are in the middle of nowhere, " the old Hector said as he was shaking his head as if that was the best he could do. Then, he called someone in another room to come.

"Laura, come here! Those two young masters are here." The old man shouted.

Then, the door that connected to another room made a squeezing noise as it slowly opened. I saw a charismatic young girl in her teens entering and walking to the side of the old man.

"Let me introduce this young girl next to me. She is my daughter. Do you remember her? She is the one who poisoned your food at Thame villages. In a way, she is the main reason we could flawlessly capture you." Hector braggingly introduced his daughter with a smile.

I turned to look at the girl, realizing why I felt familiar, and mockingly said. "So, interesting hobby, hah. Pretend to be maid despite you are the chief's daughter."

"That is because our young master is genius. If we let our underlings do it, you would notice. We have to use someone smarter...more educated. Otherwise, how could we trick young master?" she responded with a chuckle, aiming to laugh at Murong's duo.

I felt a little bit angry to be tricked by this little young girl. However, I was more professional than the ordinary young noble master.

"Anyway, let's talk about our business. Whoever hires you, we will pay double." I quickly proposed the old chief.

"How do you know someone hired us?" This was the first time that Hector really felt surprised.

I smirked. "Easy. If it was about the money, you would have left the message to our team and told us already how much you wanted. But, it seems you have just would like to chat with us. So, either you need something from us, or the thing that you need from us came from someone else."

Dawei said nothing, but he impressively grinned with my answer. The old man was also equally impressed. "You are smarter than we thought," he praised.

"Yes, you are right. Someone did hire us," the old man easily admitted. "But, you are also wrong. Your money could not entice us here. You have to learn that there is something that money cannot buy."

"We can match whatever they offered you," I said.

"Maybe you can, or maybe you can't," the old man said. "However, I don't think you are in the position that you can negotiate with us."

"Yes, you are lucky that both of you have not been beaten to death yet," said the chief's daughter. She disliked me because of that previous maid mockery despite the fact that she had already retorted me back.

'What a vengeful bitch,' I thought.

"Today, I only would like to talk to you that you should act obediently when you are in our custody, and we will not maltreat you." The chief finally revealed his reasons to meet us.

"Try to enjoy your stay as much as possible," he added.

"That's it?" I asked.

"Yes. That's it. Your family will know our demand later." The chief replied to me back and called the guard outside of the cottage.

"Guards, come in here and take these two young masters back to their cell."

The two guards then came inside the room and prepared to walked us out. However, before we left the cottage, as the guards were turning their backs to us to open the door, I looked at Dawei to signal.

Now, the time had come. I then suddenly removed the rod that tied both of my hands into the space ring. Then, I instantly brought the knife out of my space and quickly cut Dawei loose.

The bandit chief and the girl now knew something was wrong. However, before they were able to act, I promptly threw a couple of silenced pistols at Dawei. He swiftly grabbed them and shot the two guards in the back. Then, he pointed the gun at the bandit chief and the door to prevent other people from coming in.

On the other hand, I also moved quickly with an increasing speed from my boot items to the arrogance chief's daughter. Then, I pressed my knife into the girl's neck. She twisted with pain but did not dare to move. She could only bit her lips to endure the pain and humiliation.

"So, chief Hector, I believe we may have additional leverage. What do you think about our proposal now?" I asked with a devious smile.