The greed burned in Lao Xuan's eyes, and he was leering before he knew he was doing it. He pointed at the woman lying in the road and shouted, "Take her!"

She was in rags, but she stood tall, her features were delicate, and any man would have called her a beauty. Fear had turned her face a dreadful white, and there was terror in her eyes.

She struggled up and limped away into the alley beside her — she must have turned her ankle when she went down.

The leer filled Lao Xuan's face and he was in no hurry whatever... he watched her go the way a cat watches a mouse.

"You there. Bring her back to this general."

"Yes!"

Two Xiliang soldiers ran into the alley after her.

But some time went by and the two of them did not come back with the woman.

Lao Xuan frowned, and a thread of wariness came into his eyes. He was about to send men in to look when a woman's frightened cry came out of the alley. "You — let go of me, let go of me—"

Lao Xuan's face darkened and he flew into a rage.

He had not had first taste of her yet, and these two dogs dared to beat him to it?

Lao Xuan swung down off his horse and strode into the alley with his men behind him.

The light in the alley was dim. The two Xiliang soldiers were on top of the woman, and the woman was struggling for her life.

"You filth — take your hands off her. Do you want to die? You dare touch a woman this general has his eye on?"

Lao Xuan's face was all fury. He came up fast, got a hand into the back collar of each soldier and hauled hard.

He meant to drag the two of them off her. Instead they both fell straight over backward.

The fright of it hit Lao Xuan hard, and it was then that he saw the two soldiers' throats had been cut open. They were dead.