Gu Yi shielded Song Wan Yue behind him, “Everyone, we are not harming anyone.”
“You’re talking nonsense!”
The man who shouted pointed at the broken wooden sticks that were supporting the house just a moment ago, “These sticks were found by us, the neighbours, for old man Zhang, and are very strong, if you hadn’t deliberately broken it, the house wouldn’t have collapsed at all.”
“Exactly.”
Someone else echoed.
Although the people of the northern city were poor, they were united in their hearts and the families around them would come over to help anyone who had something to do. Master Zhang’s family had all died of illness, leaving him alone, paralysed in bed for a long time. It was these neighbours who took it upon themselves to look after him.
“You look like human beings, but why are you so cruel-hearted? That’s a living human life!”
“Send them to the officials!”
“Yes, send them to the police!”
The people were righteously indignant.
There were even a few strong men pushing through the crowd trying to grab Gu Yi and Song Wan Yue.
Gu Yi quietly gave a hand signal to Xiao Si.
Xiao Si pulled out a handful of copper coins and threw them to one side.
The crowd was in an uproar, and even the men who had come to crowd over to grab Gu Yi and Song Wan Yue both turned back involuntarily.
“Don’t fall for their trick, don’t let them run ……”
Before the man shouting had finished speaking, Xiao Si pulled out another handful of copper plates and threw them out, interspersed with scattered silver, smashing them against the people.
“Silver, it’s silver!”
The man shouted in ecstasy.
The people surrounding Song Wangyue and Gu Yi surged over.
“Hey, you guys ……”
The man who shouted was anxiously stamping his feet, seeing Song Wan Yue turn around and get on the carriage, he was about to reach out to stop it, but was separated by Gu Yi and pushed him along the way, the man couldn’t gather his momentum and took several steps back, Xiao Si took the opportunity to drive the carriage carriage to rush out.
“Quickly stop them!”
The man shouted.
Xiao Si held the reins with one hand and threw out another handful of coins and broken silver with the other, and the crowd who were just about to get up and give chase suddenly grabbed up again.
Someone at the front saw the scene and with a wave of his hand, a wagon hidden in the shadows came headlong towards their carriage.
The road was too narrow to allow two carriages to pass, and as they were about to collide with the oncoming carriage, Xiao Si hurriedly pulled the reins tighter and the words came out at the same time, “Young master, Miss Song, we have to abandon the carriage.”
As the words fell, the carriage had stopped and Gu Yi and Song Wan Yue jumped out of the carriage. Xiao Si also jumped down and cut the rope that was holding the carriage, leading the horse out and throwing the reins to Gu Yi, “Young master, you take Miss Song first, I’ll break off the rear.”
“Go together.”
As he spoke, Gu Yi leapt up and lifted the coachman on the opposite carriage and threw him to the ground, he landed on the carriage at the same time and pulled on the reins as the carriage came to a halt.
Xiao Si ran up and cut the rope pulling the carriage as well, pulled out the horse, flew up and sped off with Gu Yi one after the other.
The men in the distance quickly went into the shadows again, and when they had passed, they quickly came out of the shadows, got into another carriage and headed towards the East City.
It was completely dark and the road was almost devoid of pedestrians, the sound of horse hooves on the ground was extraordinarily loud.
Song Wangyue stared at the dark road, her heart sinking slightly.
The moment she saw the old man, she sensed that something was wrong. There was no trace of anyone other than the old man in that house, so if that was the case, then how did he know about the news outside? She guessed that the person behind them might have wanted to lure them into the house and wanted to smash them inside, but she didn’t expect the other party to use such a trick.
“What man?”
A stern shout was followed by the sound of rushing horse hooves coming this way, the man on the horse was dressed in armour and followed by a squad of soldiers who were galloping along with him.
Gu Yi pulled in the reins.
The man on the horse soon arrived in front of them and with a wave of his hand, the soldiers surrounded the trio.
“It’s already curfew, why are you galloping down the street?”
Song Wan Yue glanced into the distance and raised a smile, “Your Excellency, we were out for a stroll, but we didn’t expect to stray too far, so we hurried home.”
“Out for a walk?”
The man on the horse looked at them several times, clearly not believing their words.
“Yes, we came to the capital to visit our relatives and were curious about the scenery in this capital, so we came out to have a look.”
“Which family are your relatives?”
No sooner had the man on the horse spoken than the sound of horse hooves came again in the distance. The man on the horse frowned and was just about to shout sternly when the sound of horse hooves had already arrived in front of him.
Seeing the person coming, Song Wan Yue let out a sigh of relief, “Uncle Shen.”
Shen Yan stopped his horse.
The man on the horse recognised Shen Yan and hurriedly saluted, “Greetings, Shen Shizi.”
Shen Yan nodded slightly, “A relative from home had to come out to play, and I forgot the curfew for a moment, so I hope that Commander Sun will make it easy for me.”
“Since they are relatives of Prince Shen, they should be allowed to go.”
The man on the horse waved his hand, and the soldiers surrounding several people dispersed.
“Thank you, Commander Sun, I’ll treat you to a drink some day.”
“It’s a token of my hand, Shizi doesn’t need to think about it.”
Shen Yan turned his horse around, Gu Yi and the boy drove their horses to follow, and it was not until they were a long way out that Shen Yan asked in a deep voice, “What has happened?”
Today, Xiao Si went out through the back door to deliver a letter from Song Wan Yue to him, telling him to wait for them at the junction and that he would be back before the curfew.
When the time came and he didn’t see them, he drove his horse over to see.
Song Wan Yue told him what had just happened, “This should be a trap set by Wen Zhong. I thought he was thinking of capturing us to negotiate with my grandmother, but I never thought he would set us up! After thinking about it, I couldn’t figure out why he would do this?”
After hearing this, Shen Yan’s complexion darkened, Wen Zhong had the audacity to calculate on Wan’er’s daughter again, “I will send you back first, don’t tell your family about this beforehand.”
Song Wan Yue nodded her head.
Shen Yan sent them to the entrance of the house and watched them go in and bolt the door before turning his horse around and heading back to the house.
When Ming heard the subordinate report, she welcomed them out, “You’re back.”
Shen Yan gave a hint and turned his footsteps towards the study, “I still have things to take care of, so I’ll sleep in the study tonight, so go back and rest.”
Looking at his back, Ming’s lips twitched.
He had been back for several days now and hadn’t gone back to his room to sleep once.
“I ……”
As if he had not heard her words, Shen Yan went straight into the study and closed the door behind him.
Ming squeezed the handkerchief in her hand and looked despondently at the closed door of the room for a long time before slowly turning around and walking towards the house.
“Ming Xiang, do you think that I shouldn’t have given my husband the word that day?”
If she hadn’t said it, Husband would have slept in the house that night.
Ming Xiang didn’t know how to answer, she was Ming’s personal maid and had come with her from Ming’s house, she knew the bitterness in her husband’s heart, but she also knew that her aunt’s heart had never been in her husband’s body from the beginning, it was her husband who had forced himself to marry here.
Shen Yan sat in the study all night, only to close his eyes and squint for a while when it was about to dawn, and was awakened by the butler’s urgent knock on the door.
“Come in.”
The housekeeper pushed the door in, “Shizi, someone from the capital’s government is here, saying that a relative of the family is involved in a murder case, and he wants to take them to investigate.”