Cypress Boat Floating

Ye Jianqing's luggage was very simple, just two sets of clothes and some weapons for self-defense. She was sitting in the room and could see Lu Ciqiu's situation across the room through the door.

The lights were bright on Lu Ci Qiu's side. Concubine Shu and Lu Zhixing were reluctant to leave him and kept giving him instructions. Concubine Shu even prepared a lot of things for Lu Ci Qiu.

Looking at such a beautiful scene, Ye Jianqing couldn't help but think of herself. When she was about to return to the army after her vacation, her parents did the same thing. They talked to her all night long, telling her to be careful and take good care of herself while secretly wiping away tears.

Now, she was all alone, surrounded by endless darkness that seemed to devour her.

She missed her parents...

Suddenly, a light appeared.

Ye Jianqing watched the light getting closer and closer to her, until it seemed as if she could touch it with her hand. Just as she reached out her hand, the back of her hand was slapped.

"What are you doing? This is a candle, do you want to be burned to death?" It was Lu Ci Qiu's voice.

Ye Jianqing then came to his senses and found that it was Lu Ci Qiu who was walking towards him with a lamp, but he was hidden in the darkness by the light just now, so Ye Jianqing did not notice him.

"Why are you here?" Ye Jianqing withdrew his hand, looked at him and asked.

Lu Ci Qiu lit up all the candles in the room. In an instant, the whole room was lit up, and his entire body was clearly illuminated.

"Mother and second brother have both gone back. I saw you were in the dark so I came to see you." Lu Ci Qiu moved a chair and sat next to her.

Ye Jianqing looked at the moon outside the door and asked softly, "Are you afraid?"

"What are you afraid of?" Lu Ci Qiu looked outside with her, but he couldn't understand what she was looking at.

"Have you heard of "Quiet Night Thoughts"? " Ye Jianqing asked again.

Lu Ci Qiu looked at her in confusion, not understanding why she asked another question, but nodded obediently.

"The moon shines brightly before my bed, I wonder if it is frost on the ground. I look up at the moon and think of my hometown." Ye Jianqing recited the poem softly.

"Are you homesick?" Lu Ci Qiu asked. He had never left the capital, nor left his mother and second brother. It seemed that he did not quite understand what it felt like to be away from home.

"I miss home." Ye Jianqing nodded.

"Where is your home? I'll take you there when we get back."

Ye Jianqing shook her head, smiled, and said nothing. Her home was far away, and she couldn't go back.

Seeing that she didn't say anything, Lu Ci Qiu also remained quiet. He didn't want to disrupt her homesickness.

"Are you afraid?" Ye Jianqing asked again.

"What are you afraid of?" Lu Ci Qiu was really confused. Hadn't he asked this question just now?

"Natural disasters are different from man-made disasters. Natural disasters will destroy many people and many places. They will devour your life and make you never come back. You will never see Concubine Shu and King Qin again. Aren't you afraid?" Ye Jianqing admitted that she said these words partly to deliberately scare Lu Ci Qiu, but it was also an objective expression of the horror of natural disasters.

Lu Ci Qiu propped his chin with both hands and thought seriously: "I should be afraid, because I am afraid of water. I don't have such a lofty consciousness. I want to do this simply because I want to grow up as soon as possible, want to set up my own house as soon as possible, be praised by my father, and have a place in the court. I just want to protect my mother and my second brother. So even if I am afraid, I have to go. This is not something that can be decided by whether I am afraid or not."

"So, don't think too much. Now that it has come to this, you have to leave." Lu Ci Qiu stretched and said to Ye Jianqing optimistically.

"Okay, have a good rest. We're leaving tomorrow. Don't think too much."

After saying that, Lu Ci Qiu left his lamp and left.

Looking at Lu Ci Qiu's leaving back, Ye Jianqing fell into deep thought.

next day

Ye Jianqing and Lu Ci Qiu followed the relief team to Lingnan. Lu Zhixing originally wanted to see them off, but he was unable to go because the Ministry of Justice he was in charge of had some urgent matters that needed his attention.

Concubine Shu, who was worried about her child, stood on the city wall and watched from afar, feeling reluctant.

Ye Jianqing looked back and said enviously: "At least you are happy here, with a mother and a brother."

Lu Ci Qiu didn't hear clearly what she said, so he leaned over and asked, "What did you say?"

Ye Jianqing shook his head: "Nothing."

It’s fine to just keep the envy to yourself, why bother letting the person being envied know?

"Hey, what did you just say? Tell me. You are always like this, you only finish your words halfway." Lu Ci Qiu made a fuss and insisted on hearing what Ye Jianqing had just said.

"Oh, they said it's nothing." Ye Jianqing quickened his pace to catch up with the team in front, completely ignoring the fact that the person behind him was a prince.

Lu Ci Qiu hurriedly followed, and the two of them played and joked along the way, completely forgetting their worries about leaving home.

But they didn't notice that there was a pair of eyes staring at them from behind.

"Master, the team is setting off."

The man hiding in the darkness nodded. He looked at a black chess piece in his hand for a long time, then threw it to the ground and crushed it with his feet.

"Find an opportunity to kill him along the way."

"Yes."

The masked man took the order and left, while the man stood there, looking at the prosperous streets of the capital, his eyes full of greed and cruelty. He then turned and left, heading towards the Prince's Mansion.

"Prince, I have already arranged what you instructed." The man bent over and rubbed his hands in front of the prince with a smile.

"Got it. Go and claim your reward." The prince waved his hand and sent him away.

"When dealing with important matters, one should not be too particular about small matters. It is better to kill someone by mistake than to let him go."

The prince kept repeating these words in his mouth, using them to eliminate the reluctance in his heart.

He didn't want to kill Lu Ci Qiu, but there was no way. Lu Ci Qiu and Lu Zhixing had a very good relationship. If Lu Ci Qiu could come back smoothly this time, no matter how he handled it, his father would definitely reward him. In that case, Lu Zhixing would have a little more say in the court. Moreover, according to his investigation, Lu Ci Qiu's academic performance was very good. If nothing unexpected happened, he should be able to hold his own court next year.

This would be even more disadvantageous to him, and he could not let such a thing happen. Lu Zhixing had been against him recently, and he must cut off all his wings.

"Brother, don't blame me for being cruel and ruthless. I have no choice." The prince walked out of the hall, stood at the door, looked at the sky, and spoke softly.

He seemed to have seen how Lu Zhixing looked when he received the news of Lu Ci Qiu's death. It made him happy just thinking about it.

Lu Ci Qiu had no idea that someone was concerned about his life. He only knew that his butt was about to be split into eight pieces from being bumped around all the way.

Along the way, in order to deliver food and money to Nancheng as quickly as possible, the team rode as fast as they could. Originally, they were concerned about Lu Ciqiu's identity and thought that he could rest at the post station on the way, but he confidently rejected their request. As a result, he was exhausted from traveling by boat and carriage, sleeping in the open air, and walked for nearly ten days. He didn't even take a bath and was dirty all over.

This was really unfriendly to him, who had never traveled far. On the other hand, Ye Jianqing acted as if nothing had happened. She did whatever the soldiers did. She and Zhang Quansheng even became more and more familiar with each other. The two of them often got together to communicate. Lu Ci Qiu didn't understand. What was there to communicate about?

"Everyone, please pay attention and rest here for a quarter of an hour. There is a forest ahead and it is said that there is a group of bandits here. After you have rested, hurry across the mountain before daybreak and do not stay in the forest." Zhang Quansheng suddenly stopped and shouted to the people behind him.

Zhang Quansheng had led troops to fight in the south before, so he was relatively familiar with this route. Thanks to him, they avoided many bandits and many difficult roads.

This time, when Zhang Quansheng said to rest, everyone stopped immediately. Some people who needed to make a fire made a fire, some people who needed to cook cooked, and some people who needed to fetch water fetched water. Everything was in order.

Lu Ci Qiu, Zhao Wenbin and others just needed to sit and wait for their meals.

"Be careful, I always feel that something is wrong with that forest." While eating, Ye Jianqing came close to Lu Ci Qiu and whispered to him.

"Okay." Lu Ci Qiu nodded.

There was a tall and lush forest not far away. This mountain was a famous bandit mountain nearby. The mountain was full of trees, and there was only one way to cross it. So those who could not find a livelihood, or were lazy, or had committed some crime gathered together, built a village in the middle of the mountain, and gave themselves a name, the Black Tiger Gang.

Anyone who wants to pass through here must leave money, otherwise they will not be able to pass.

At first, the government also sent a lot of people to suppress the bandits. Unfortunately, the members of the Black Tiger Gang refused to confront the government head-on. They dug countless secret passages in the mountains and left through the secret passages as soon as they heard the news.

Later I heard that there was a military advisor in the Black Tiger Gang, who had connections with certain people in the government. After he negotiated with the government, the government would usually turn a blind eye to their crimes as long as they did not go too far.

After everyone finished eating and cleaned up, Zhang Quansheng took the lead and walked in front. After spending the past few days together, Zhang Quansheng had great confidence in Ye Jianqing's skills and abilities, so he entrusted her to walk behind and protect the food and money.

The journey ahead was smooth, and when the exit was right in front of me, I suddenly found that someone was blocking the way out.

Zhang Quansheng quickly called a halt.

He stepped forward to negotiate with the other party: "Who are you? You should know that you are an official, not an ordinary citizen. If you dare to intercept me, I'm afraid you don't know what's good for you."

"Hahahaha, I don't care if you are an official or not. If you pass by this bandit mountain today, you have to leave your things for me." Zhang Quansheng looked carefully and saw a bandit in front of him with strong shoulders, a beard and bare upper body. He had seen this man before. He was the second in command of the Black Tiger Gang - Black Bear.

"Black Bear, I am warning you. This is the army. If you leave now, I will let you go. If you insist on not changing your ways, don't blame me for being merciless and leaving you with your head."

"Oh, General, if I kill you, won't I be so powerful again? Hahahaha." The black bear was extremely arrogant. He didn't take Zhang Quansheng seriously at all. He took advantage of his familiarity with the terrain and became complacent.

"Guys, charge!" Black Bear gave an order and a large group of people rushed out from all directions. They rushed into the crowd and hacked indiscriminately without any order.

The soldiers guarding the grain were all carefully selected by Zhang Quansheng this time, so they would not be easily disrupted. One by one, they drew their weapons and started fighting with the enemy.

Ye Jianqing had been guarding at the back. When he heard the commotion in front, he did not dare to move, for fear that the bandits would attack from behind. So he was extremely alert and tried his best to protect the silver and money at the back.

When the bandits rushed into the crowd, Lu Ci Qiu hurriedly walked to the back to find Ye Jianqing, fearing that something might have happened to her.

On a nearby hill, two people gathered together to observe the situation below.

"Is that the man?" Suddenly one of the thin men pointed in the direction of Lu Ci Qiu below and asked.

A short man with shifty eyes opened the scroll in his hand and compared it with the other one: "It seems to be him."

"If we kill this man, we won't have to worry about the rest of our lives. The other party will offer us a very high price, so we must kill him." The thin man patted the short man's shoulder and instructed solemnly.

The short man nodded, shook his body, and disappeared like a snake.

"Be careful, I feel something is wrong." Ye Jianqing looked at the group of bandits in front of him and always felt that something was strange.

Suddenly, she felt a chill behind her, and subconsciously she drew out Skylark and turned around to block. Sure enough, she saw something unknown attacking her.

In the blink of an eye, before she could see clearly, the man disappeared, and none of the soldiers nearby saw it.

Everyone was on high alert.

"There's someone!" Ye Jianqing said.

Lu Ci Qiu also drew out his sword and looked around carefully.

Soon, the man appeared again. He was very fast and his attack was in a very remote place. With a flash, the man's dagger stabbed towards Lu Ci Qiu's heart. Lu Ci Qiu's reaction was not that fast. When he was about to be unable to block it, Ye Jianqing pulled Lu Ci Qiu behind him and used Skylark to block the attack.

"Who are you coming? Why don't you show up? Why are you hiding like this?" Ye Jianqing paid full attention.

"Hahaha, the little girl has great skills." A voice like that of an old man came from the woods, and it sounded lifeless.

"Although you are good at fighting, you can't protect this kid."

"We must protect him even if we can't!" Ye Jianqing didn't know who the other party was, but based on his words, everyone knew that this bandit attack was most likely aimed at Lu Ci Qiu. It seemed that someone didn't want Lu Ci Qiu to appear in Lingnan smoothly.

Lu Ci Qiu was very moved when he saw Ye Jianqing standing in front of him. He was even more touched by her words "I must protect you even if I can't."

The look in his eyes as he looked at her gradually became full of tenderness.

But Ye Jianqing, who was concentrating on fighting the enemy, was completely unaware of all this.