The beloved baby has a space

Having been inexplicably assassinated, Qin Huai's brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a fly. By the time Chi Jia arrived with his men, he had already shielded A Yu in his arms, covered her eyes, and positioned her with her back to the corpses on the ground.

"Come see me after you've dealt with this."

Seeing Qin Huai's cold face, Chi Jia and the others knew that their young master must be in a bad mood, so they quickly knelt down and replied, "Yes."

After they left under escort and returned to the outskirts of Lingkong City, Ayu was still holding the arrow in her hand, studying it repeatedly.

Wang Wulang used his lightness skill to run over, pulled Ayu away from Qin Huai, spun her around several times, and looked her over again and again.

They breathed a sigh of relief when they found that nothing had happened.

"You scared me to death! I saw all of Qin Huai's guards run away earlier, and I knew right away that something must have happened on your side." Wang Wulang looked at Qin Huai with displeasure. "It must be your fault. Ayu has always been very lucky, but these past few years you've been with her, and look, you've brought bad luck to her!"

Ever since Ayu started to mature, there have always been some clueless people who, regardless of the fact that Ayu is still a young girl, often harass her.

After Qin Huai helped chase her away a few times, he became attached to A Yu's side.

Wang Wulang's older brother is someone to be jealous of.

As a result, she didn't like Qin Huai very much either.

Even though she's supposed to be my sister who will only get married someday, I inexplicably feel as if I've already lost her.

"Ayu, where did you get this arrow?" Wang Qilang noticed what Ayu was holding.

Ayu handed the arrow to Wang Qilang: "Seventh Brother, didn't you study weapons before? Can you tell which workshop made this?"

Wang Qilang doesn't like fighting, but he enjoys studying weapons and has even done so.

"Did you encounter assassins?" Wang Qilang took the arrow and examined it, blurting out, "The craftsmanship of this arrow doesn't seem to be from Wangbei County; it's more like the work of Wangnan County. Do you remember? On our last night in Wangnan County, we inadvertently discovered a weapons smuggling group, and the arrows they used looked very similar to this. Look at the outline; it's curved, and there's a red mark engraved at the end—you wouldn't usually notice it—"

Hearing Wang Qilang say this, everyone remembered that there was such a group of people back then. They didn't smuggle a lot of weapons; they could support about 100 people.

At the time, everyone's attention was focused on finding the person behind them. Apart from Wang Qilang, no one really paid attention to what those people's weapons looked like.

"So you mean, Ayu and the others were just assassinated by the remnants of this group?" Wang Wulang looked at Qin Huai with a hint of apology, as he had just lost his temper with Qin Huai.

If it was that group of people, then Qin Huai really can't be blamed, because it was Wang Wulang who first discovered the person.

At this moment, Wang Sanlang also came over. He was the calmest among the group. Originally very lively, Wang Sanlang was almost 20 years old this year and had the demeanor of an older brother.

"Don't jump to conclusions so quickly. There are too many people here, and too much gossip. Let's help Young Master Ning appease these refugees first, and then go to an inn in Lingkong City to discuss things properly," Wang Sanlang decided.

The refugees were easy to appease. They ate wild vegetables and hot porridge, and seeing that the nobles weren't eating much better either—just wild vegetable and mushroom soup with their porridge—they felt much better. (The game hunted by Chi Jia was useless.)
Upon learning that Qin Huai and A Yu had been assassinated, Young Master Ning untied the token from his waist and handed it to A Yu: "Don't stay at the inn. Go find Prefect Liu in Lingkong City. He and my father are close friends. I wrote to him a long time ago and introduced you. He will certainly not treat you badly."

Ayu didn't refuse: "Then let's go to the government office first, and you can come over later."

They entered the city and headed straight for the government office.

Prefect Liu was very pleased to receive them, arranging the best rooms for them, and there was also a particularly exquisite little courtyard.

It is said that Prefect Liu used his own salary to build it up little by little.

It doesn't flaunt wealth, but it has a very refined and tasteful atmosphere.

At first, Ayu thought that Prefect Liu was only being so kind to them because of Magistrate Wei, but later she learned that he was grateful to them for saving Young Master Ning.

It turns out that Prefect Liu's daughter was engaged to Young Master Ning and they were supposed to get married, but Young Master Ning disappeared. His daughter refused to break off the engagement and said she would remain a widow for life.

Now that Young Master Ning is back alive and kicking, no matter what he's been through, his daughter is saved. How could he not thank them?
"Elf, do you think if we tell Magistrate Liu about the assassins, will he help us?" Ayu asked Tuanzi in the space when they returned to their room to rest.

Although she is now actually ten and a half years old and quite intelligent, her ability to judge people is still no different from before. She is much more wary of people, but still believes that human nature is inherently good. In her eyes, there are very few bad people in the world.

[I just compiled some information. He served as the prefect of Lingkong City for nine years, and his reputation was consistently excellent. There were relatively few wrongful convictions or miscarriages of justice. He was a good person in the traditional sense.]

By the way, he was also a devoted lover, only ever having one wife. The prefect's wife only gave birth to one daughter and didn't have any more children, yet he and his wife still had a very good relationship.

Ayu roughly understood. A man who was very good to his wife and didn't have the current trend of favoring sons over daughters seemed to be in the good guy camp.

At least, he was a good official.

So after Ayu met up with Qin Huai and her brothers, she said to them, "Let's leave the case to the professionals. Let's tell Prefect Liu to investigate what happened."

"Can Prefect Liu help us?" Wang Wulang was a little unsure.

Along the way, they also encountered some corrupt officials and wicked bureaucrats who were truly lawless and did nothing to benefit the people.

“This is his responsibility,” Wang Sanlang said. “Ayu is right, let’s leave it to the professionals. We can take advantage of this time to explore Lingkong City and see if there are any local specialties we can bring back for everyone.”

Actually, they had already bought enough local specialties, but who would complain about having too many gifts?

They took Ayu away for several years. Every time they received a letter from their family that was sent to the post station in advance, half of the letter was about Ayu, which showed that their family missed her very much.

Bring back more gifts and remember them often.

Ayu wanted to go out with them, but Wang Qilang left her at the government office on the grounds that the assassin had not been caught.

She and Qin Huai took the arrows, the red armor, and the others to find Prefect Liu.

Upon learning that they had been assassinated outside the city, Prefect Liu was so angry that his beard almost stood on end: "Outrageous! They committed a wrong, yet they dared to openly attempt an assassination. Do they intend to rebel?"

He immediately stated that he would thoroughly investigate the matter and give them an explanation.

After Prefect Liu left indignantly, Qin Huai looked at Ayu, who seemed a little absent-minded, and asked her, "I just saw a little lamb in the backyard. It looks a lot like a lamb. Do you want to go take a look?"

Ayu's eyes lit up instantly: "Really? Could it be a lamb's calf? Let's go take a look!"

Before they even reached the yard, they heard a "plop" sound, the sound of something heavy falling into the water.

Then, a woman's voice cried out in a panic, "Help! Help! Our young lady has fallen into the water! Someone, please save her!"

A soft, weak female voice said from the side, "What should we do? My sister is about to get married. What if she is rescued by a man—"

"None of us can swim..."

Ayu immediately looked at Tangyuan who was following behind her: "Sister Tangyuan."

"Yes." Tangyuan knew how to cook, and was quite skilled at it. She immediately ran towards the direction from which the voice came.

A short while later, Ayu went over and saw a girl who was barely alive, being supported and leaning against a willow tree. She was covered with Tangyuan's outer garment.

Fortunately, the spring chill was still there, and the glutinous rice balls were dressed warmly, so nothing was left out.

Someone tried to get close to her, but Tangyuan glared at them and drove them away.

"Whose daughter are you? How rude of you! Get out of the way!" A girl dressed like a rich young lady covered her nose, frowned, and scolded Tangyuan.

When Ayu saw someone about to hit the glutinous rice ball, she immediately raised her voice: "It's freezing cold, ladies, are you playing a domestic power struggle game here?"