After leaving the city, Song Yin followed them for more than ten miles, and seeing that they were going in the direction of the Royal Court, he had an idea in his mind and turned his horse around to take a shortcut.
When he crossed a hill and saw Sun Qi galloping wildly, he took out the dagger he was carrying and threw it over, together with the sheath.
Sun Qi, sensing the danger, gave the reins a sharp shake and leapt up from his horse, dodging the attack and landing firmly back on his horse, inclined his head and was about to ask a question when he saw that it was Song Yin and immediately stopped his horse.
Song Yin gestured to him to pick up the dagger that had fallen to the ground.
Sun Qi understood, dismounted, picked up the dagger, tethered the horse to a tree by the roadside, and quickly stepped up, “What happened?”
Song Yin told him to look at the few riders dashing over in the distance.
The clothes of the Praetorian Guard were conspicuous, and when he saw that it was Yang Lin, Sun Qi narrowed his eyes.
“You should be exposed.”
Sun Qi subconsciously wanted to say that it was impossible, but then he thought of the emperor suddenly asking him to go to the Royal Court, and swallowed back his retort.
“How is your relationship?”
“It’s not too bad.”
“You think of bringing him in, probe him, and if they want to make a move on you, don’t resist, your life is at stake.”
……
Turning a corner and seeing the horse tethered to a tree by the side of the road, Yang Lin fiercely tightened the reins and stopped the horse.
Several of the Praetorians behind him followed suit.
Several of them looked warily into the forest.
The forest was silent and there was no movement at all.
“Head ……”
Those who followed him were all of Yang Lin’s inner circle and were about to whisper to ask what to do when Yang Lin made a hush gesture, dismounted quietly and walked carefully towards the forest step by step.
He was about to exit when Sun Qi came out from behind a tree with his trousers, and when he saw Yang Lin, he was so shocked that his trousers almost fell off.
“Yang Lin, what are you doing here?”
Yang Lin did not expect to be bumped into, in a hurry he replied, “You just left on the first foot, the emperor called me over on the second, saying that I should take a few brothers with you, and when I came here, I saw your horse tethered to the roadside, I rushed in to take a look, you are …… ”
“Don’t mention it, I don’t know what unclean things I’ve eaten, I’ve pooped three times in an hour, my legs are weak, just in time, you come over and help me.”
Yang Lin really went over to hold him up.
Sun Qi tied his belt, put one hand on his shoulder and leaned most of his body on him, while the other hand gestured backwards.
When the two of them rode away from the woods, Song Yin turned his horse around and went back into the city, drawing a portrait directly to Doctor Yao, “Within an hour, I want an identical human skin mask.”
……
At midday, the forbidden guards changed shifts.
The two teams emerged from the palace and went their separate ways home.
“Brothers, we’re only on duty at night, let’s go to my house for a drink.”
One of the dark-faced men greeted the other five.
“Forget it, the city is under martial law now and not many dishes are given out to each household, we’d better not go, when the smallpox passes one day, we’ll find a tavern and have a good drink.”
“That’s right, let’s forget about it today, let’s do it some other time.”
“Don’t ah ……”
The dark man showed his big white teeth and lowered his voice, “The man who manages to send out the food is a relative of our family, I gave him a deal yesterday to send more to my family today, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a drink, I’m really craving it, go, go, go.”
They were so hungry that they couldn’t resist hearing him say that, “Alright then, let’s go and have a drink, as agreed, no one will drink more, just satisfy your craving, don’t miss your shift at night.”
“Let’s go, let’s go.”
They rode towards the southern city, joking and laughing but alert on the way, noticing that no one was following them, and then they went to the mansion.
On the other hand, Song Yin took Xiao Zheng and Hu Yong and six of his men to deliver a cart of medicinal herbs out of the city.
The guards had just received an ingot of silver, and when they saw that the delivery was of medicinal materials, they did not even question them, and once again opened the door directly to let them out of the city.
Looking at the distant backs of the group, he said to his companion, “Miss Song’s fiancé is really good, making trips to deliver medicine to the people, and not afraid of being infected himself.”
“No, I heard that Miss Song’s fiancé used to be a wealthy son, then his family was in trouble before he joined the army, the remaining silver in his hand was all used to buy medicinal materials, really a rare good man in the world, it’s just a pity ……”
The man said shaking his head, he had just taken a look at it, Song Yin’s left hand could not even hold the reins.
……
After leaving the city, Song Yin led the way in the direction of the Royal Court.
After walking five or six miles, the sound of rushing horses’ hooves could be heard.
Song Yin raised his hand, the men dismounted and sharply unloaded one of the wheels.
Yang Lin led the men over and saw a carriage blocking the middle of the road, he stopped his horse, “The forbidden guards are on duty, move the carriage out of the way quickly.”
“Your Excellency ……”
Hu Yong pointed to a cart of herbs, “We are delivering herbs to the quarantine area, we have broken a wheel here and are blocking the way of several officials, a few of us can’t lift it, would you like to help?”
He looked simple and honest, and the four people accompanying him were similar to him, only Song Yin and Xiao Zheng looked younger and did not look like evil people, not to mention that the carriage was in the middle and they could not get through without moving.
Yang Lin waved his hand and a few of the Praetorian Guards dismounted.
“Thank you, Your Excellency, thank you very much.”
Hu Yong said his thanks and greeted his men as they stepped forward, waiting for the forbidden guards to get close enough to bend down and help carry them, and restrain the men with a swift movement.
Yang Lin did not dismount and saw clearly, and was about to draw his sword when a handful of medicinal powder was raised over, and Yang Lin’s body swayed and he fell off his horse.
Hu Yong stripped several people of their clothes, tied them up and stuffed them into the carriage, put the wheels on, left two people to guard the carriage, and the rest changed into the clothes of the Praetorian Guard.
Song Wan Yue gave Xiao Zheng his human skin mask.
Of the men, Xiao Zheng’s figure was most similar to Yang Lin’s.
Xiao Zheng put it on and the group went straight to the Royal Court.
Seeing them go and return, the chief eunuch guarding the other court came forward, “Commander Yang, you are ……”
“His Majesty has ordered that Sun Qi be brought back to the palace, so I won’t go in, please ask the chief steward to send the man out.”
The chief eunuch did not doubt it and ordered that Sun Qi be sent out.
Sun Qi’s head was drooping, no injuries could be seen on his body, he should have been charmed.
Xiao Qian picked him up and put him on his horse, turned his horse around and galloped away, followed by several others.
Looking at the group’s distant backs, the chief eunuch always felt that something was wrong, then shook his head, thinking that he was overthinking things.
After meeting up with the men guarding the carriage and putting Sun Qi in the carriage as well, the group went back to the South City Residence.
After seeing him, Doctor Yao took out a medicine bottle and placed it under Sun Qi’s nose, who quickly opened his eyes.