Legend of Hidden Dragon

Chapter 8 Poisoned delight

"Tolly's dead! Tolly's dead!" Joseph shouted.

At the same time, he ran quickly towards the carriage Miss Smith was riding on and reported to her.

The thick soundproof curtains inside the carriage were made of special materials which could stop voices from going outside of the carriage and yet would not block any sounds to go inside. Hence, the people inside couldn’t be heard from outside, but the sounds outside could go straight into their ears.

At that moment, Luna was sitting quietly behind Miss Smith in the right corner of the carriage, dull with nothing to do, while Miss Smith was reading one of her favorite novels named ‘My villain Wife, I love you’.

One could tell she enjoyed reading it very much, as her smiling face spoke volumes. She would even giggle when she came to some of the best bits in the book.

Hence, when she was abruptly interrupted by the shouts outside, Miss Smith got so annoyed that she even wanted to strangle the guy.

“What happened there? Who’s out there trying to ruin my quiet, smooth journey? It’s quite annoying!” Miss Smith said impatiently.

Joseph made a bow before the carriage, though it couldn’t be seen by Miss Smith.

“Sorry, Miss, this is Joseph. I didn’t mean to bother you, but something horrible happened. Tolly died just now.” He said in a business-like voice, not showing a hint of sympathy in his tone.

In fact, he was snickering inside. It had always been his wish that he could see Tolly die in front of him. Now he finally kicked buckets and died a grisly death. He had never been so happier before. It was a wonderful thing that could even be celebrated.

‘Brilliant!’ he thought happily.

“Nonsense! How could it be possible? I guess you just want to ruin my journey and turn it into an awful experience. How dare you, Joseph?” Miss Smith fumed with indignation.

“Sorry, Miss, but you’ve taken me wrong. I’m telling the truth. Even if I have nine lives, I won’t have the guts to play a trick on you!”

“You bet!” Miss Smith said coldly, “But how can that be? He was just fine a few minutes ago. The fact that the lightning didn’t take him away means he’s a person that dies hard. Come on, Luna, go ahead and have a look at him to check if he’s still breathing. Tolly is the guy my father used to pick up on the road, after all. Something terrible happened last night, you know. We can’t let him die on the road. My father is waiting in the Duke’s Palace to interrogate him.”

“As you command, Dear Miss, I’m going now!” Luna replied courteously.

With that, Luna quickly got out of the carriage and followed Joseph over to where Tolly was lying. She saw Tolly lying on the ground motionless. His eyes were closed and he was foaming at the mouth.

Luna placed a finger at Tolly’s nostrils and felt that he was still having his breath.

“He’s not dead yet. Why didn’t you check before you yelled, Joseph?” Luna said angrily, obviously not pleased with what he had done just now.

“Sorry, Luna! It’s my fault!” Joseph said with an embarrassed look on his face. At the time, he wanted to shrink himself and vanished.

“Save him now! it’s your job!” Luna said coldly.

“But how can I save him, Luna? I’m not a doctor.”

“By giving him an artificial respiration, of course!” Luna said with a stern look.

“I give him the kiss of life? Are you kidding me, Luna?”  

"No, I’m serious. Don’t you want me to do that?"

Joseph looked at Tolly's foaming mouth. It was quite disgusting.

‘Oh, my god!’ Tolly thought in disbelief.

His mind went blank. He was in a trance, having no idea what to do next.

“Why are you standing there and doing nothing, Joseph? Hurry up and save him immediately. You know Lord Fanta wants him alive. He needs to get clues from him about what happened in the palace last night. If he’s dead, I guess you’ll in terrible trouble.”

Joseph closed his eyes and was ready to give in, but when he was about to lean over to kiss Tolly’s mouth, a voice came to him from behind,

“Hold on!”

Joseph turned around and found the person was no other than Miss Smith, who had also gotten off the carriage at some point.

"From the looks of it, Tolly’s been poisoned. "

As if pardoned, Joseph hastened to speak his mind,

"You’re right, Miss! I thought so, too. You’ve spoken the words out of my mouth!"

"But Miss, the guy was just struck by lightning, how can you say that he’s poisoned?" Luna asked in disbelief.

"Luna, how can you be so silly? Tolly must have been poisoned before he got struck by lightning!" Miss Smith said as she flicked her red lips faintly.

"You’re so right, Miss! Why didn't I think of that before? " Luna replied, "but what do we need to do now?"

"Try to keep pressing on his chest. After doing that, he’ll wake up soon!"

"You’re a genius, my dear Miss! No wonder you’re always reading. You’ve always told me knowledge is power. I see the point now! "

Luna gave a thumbs up to Miss Smith, who gave a soft smile in return.

"Let me do it, Miss!" Joseph volunteered, "I'm strong, I'm sure my pressing can help him wake up!"

However, deep down, Joseph had a vicious thought,

‘I’ll press until I break your ribs. If you’re not poisoned to death, I’ll have to kill you in this way.’

Tolly was still lying on the ground without any movement, but actually, his mind was already active and awake. He simply could not exert his strength on his body and take control of it. However, when he heard that Joseph was going to do the pressing job, he instinctively sensed that there was some kind of danger lurking around.

In a heartbeat, as if struck by some magic, his body regained strength. He quickly sat up from the ground.

“Save your strength, Joseph, but thank you!” Tolly said suddenly as if he was a haunting ghost, “And my dear Jenny, I’ve never expected that you are not only pretty but also intelligent. You even know CPR. It’s amazing!”

“You’re freaking us, you bloody Tolly. Are you trying to play the same old trick of being a zombie again?” Luna fumed, glaring at him with her big round widened eyes.

"CPR?" Miss Smith asked in surprise, "I've never heard of CPR! Now that you're awake, that's good. Let's get back on the road."

" You're so unsympathetic, Jenny. Look, I'm poisoned." Tolly sighed, "Well, at least get me a doctor."

"There is no doctor here, wait until you get back to the Duke’s Palace. My father also has something to ask you."

"No problem, but I'm so weak now. I'm afraid I can't walk. Can you give me a stretcher and have someone carry me back?"

"Yes, no sweat. Luna, get him a stretcher." 

Miss Smith agreed readily.

"But Miss, I'm sorry. We don't have a stretcher here right now." Luna replied, looking down at her twirling fingers.

"It seems that you will have to go on your own." Miss Smith said regretfully.

"You’ve heard it all, Tolly. Miss is a real nice person, but there's no stretcher now. If you can't walk, I think you'll just have to crawl back slowly on your own." Joseph laughed as he spoke, desperately trying to add insult to injury.

Tolly gave Joseph a dirty look and then ignored him.

"I've got another idea, Jenny!"

"You're a pain in the ass, Tolly, who do you think you are? As a servant, how can you be so thick-skinned to keep making demands from Miss? You’re carried away! If Miss agrees, I’ll give a few slaps right away. " Luna said with a scowl.

"Have I done something wrong? Is a servant not a human being? In my heart, everyone was born equal. Though a servant, I still have basic human rights. Besides, as the saying goes, the dead prevails. Oh, no! The sick prevails. The demands I’ve made are actually very reasonable!”

Hearing what he had just said, Luna thought there were some life verities in it. She had never heard about it before. She just knew that as a person of low social status, she had to obey her master unconditionally. She fell into silence and couldn’t utter a word.

"Fine, speak your mind! I’ll promise you if I can. " Miss Smith said gently, impressed by Tolly's remark that all men were equal.

Odd enough, at some point, she even had a liking for him. also, after having been called Miss Smith by those servants for so many years, it was a bit exciting to hear someone outside of his family call her Jenny once in a while. She didn’t resent it at all. Instead, she found it amusing.

‘What’s wrong with me? It looks like the guy in front of me can give me a sense of adventure. How mysterious!’ Miss Smith thought, her face red and her heart pounding.

"If you don't mind, Jenny, I think I could ride back with you in the carriage!" Tolly blurted out.

"What?! You’re getting far too cheeky, you bastard! How dare you make such an unreasonable request. Miss, you'll have to let me teach him a good lesson for you anyway. he's so unruly that he even wants to be on equal terms with you!"

Joseph's eyes blazed with anger, but Miss Smith was surprisingly calm.

"You and I are so different that I'm afraid it's a bit inappropriate for you to sit in the same carriage with me, so I cannot agree to your request."

Hearing this from Miss Smith, both Luna and Joseph heaved a relieving sigh. Miss Smith was still wise enough not to break the ground rules for someone like Tolly.

"But the sick prevails. I like this sentence, Tolly, so I think I'll just ask Joseph to carry you back."

Miss Smith turned to Joseph and said with a tone of authority,

"Colleagues have to help each other out. Now that Tolly is sick, as his colleague, I'm going to ask you to carry him back. Can you do that, Joseph?"

Joseph was left dumbstruck, but he had to obey her, so she replied quickly,

"No problem, Miss. I’m always at your service."

"You are always kind to me, Jenny. I have to say, your idea was fantastic! I'm very pleased, thank you very much!"

Having said that, Tolly turned to Joseph with a beaming face, saying with a sneer,

"I'm sorry then, Joseph! But I bet it’ll be a fantastic journey!"

Joseph turned livid with rage, but he had to bend down cooperatively. Tolly quickly leaped onto his back like a naughty monkey.

Tolly was beaming, riding on the back of Joseph.

He had no desire to talk to him. Instead, all he wanted to do was look around and enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way. he felt all at ease with his special ride.

Joseph, however, constantly panted while sweating buckets with big beads of sweat standing out on his forehead. In a few minutes, he was soaked in sweat as if he had just finished a sauna.

In his heart, he was reluctant to carry Tolly, but he dared not disobey Miss Smith.

‘Just let you be happy a little while longer. You’re going to die very soon! I promise.’ Joseph thought to himself.

After he had walked for about a mile or two with Toly on his back, he was out of breath, feeling so exhausted that he thought he would pass out at any minute.