Cypress Boat Floating

The morning light came. The sky gradually brightened. A dozen people set out from different directions to explore the way.

Ye Jianqing and Lu Ci Qiu stood at the entrance of the dense forest. In front of them were tall trees. The pile of dry firewood that Ye Jianqing tried to take last night was still there. If you look closely, you can see a lot of fallen stones nearby. They were all caused by the person who attacked Ye Jianqing last night.

The forest is quiet during the day, and the trees are entrenched there, welcoming you. As soon as you step into its territory, it seems to swallow you up in an instant.

"Let's go, let's go in." Ye Jianqing took a deep breath and said calmly. She was not unfamiliar with this forest. In the past, she had spent a long time in the primeval forest. She had been to many places and seen a variety of environments with different terrain features, but this forest was not the most terrifying. What she was really worried about was whether the person who attacked her would hide in it.

Lu Ci Qiu nodded silently, indicating his agreement. He followed Ye Jianqing closely and walked into the forest together. Every step he took seemed extremely cautious, as if he was afraid of awakening a dangerous being that was sleeping. The sunlight shone through the gaps between the leaves, forming patches of mottled light and shadow. Their figures shuttled through the interweaving of light and shadow, gradually moving away.

This road was the first route to be determined. After Ye Jianqing checked inside and confirmed that there was no problem, he fired a whistling arrow into the sky to tell everyone that this place was harmless and they could come over. While waiting for others to arrive, the two of them first cleaned up a place as a temporary resting point. There was a small river next to it where they could get water to drink. On the other side was the way they came in, so they could be seen as long as they passed by.

After receiving the news, several other groups of people immediately rushed towards Ye Jianqing. Soon, several groups of people met at the riverside.

"Everyone, take a break first, and then continue to move forward, and try to get out of this forest before nightfall." Ye Honghai looked up at the sky, judging the direction and time. The forest was not very safe after all, and the person who attacked Ye Jianqing was still nowhere to be seen, so everyone could not let down their guard.

At this time, the sun was high in the sky, and the sunlight shone through the gaps in the leaves, forming patches of mottled light and shadows. The breeze blew, and the leaves rustled, giving people a sense of tranquility and mystery. However, this tranquility did not make everyone feel at ease, but made them more nervous.

Everyone found a place to sit down and started drinking water and eating dry food to restore their strength.

Ye Jianqing was patrolling alone, observing the surrounding environment. This forest was very dense, with tall and thick trees, and intertwined branches and leaves, making it difficult to see what was happening in the distance. Moreover, the ground was covered with fallen leaves and weeds, making it very difficult to walk.

"The road ahead will be difficult. Everyone needs to be careful and not take it lightly." Ye Jianqing walked back to Lu Ci Qiu and said to Ye Honghai and others.

Everyone nodded, indicating that they understood. They rested while paying attention to the surrounding movements. Ye Jianqing kept observing Zhou Hao, and she still felt that Zhou Hao's appearance was too abrupt.

After a while, Ye Honghai stood up, clapped his hands, and said, "Okay, let's get ready to go. We need to get out of this forest as soon as possible and find a safe place to spend the night."

Everyone stood up, packed their equipment, and followed Ye Honghai to move forward.

The forest was vast and boundless, and time passed slowly like quicksand. The sun gradually tilted to the west, the color of the sky gradually became darker, and night was about to fall. With Ye Honghai's keen intuition and judgment, they were only halfway through the forest. If they didn't stop for a while, they might be able to get out of the forest before dawn.

Liang Kai noticed that Ye Honghai had no intention of stopping to rest, so he stepped forward and asked carefully: "General Ye, do you think we need to rest?" Hearing this, Ye Honghai turned his head slightly and glanced at the people following behind him. These people were Liang Kai's men, all from official families in the capital. After only a day's journey, they were already exhausted and physically exhausted. Ye Honghai couldn't help but frown, and sighed in his heart, he didn't expect the imperial guards in the capital to have fallen to this point, and their strength was so poor.

However, when he turned his gaze to Ye Jianqing and Lu Ciqiu beside him, he felt a little surprised. Lu Ciqiu, a noble prince, was very different from the others. Although the journey was equally difficult, they seemed very calm and did not show any signs of fatigue.

Lu Ci Qiu also heard what Liang Kai said, so he followed him and walked forward, whispering: "General Ye, take a rest and eat something first." Then he told everyone: "After eating, we must set off as soon as possible. It is best not to stay overnight in the forest. If we are unfortunate enough to encounter any wild beasts, we may not be able to deal with it with our current physical strength."

That was what Lu Ci Qiu said, but in fact, he was afraid that if they stayed overnight in the forest, their tracks would be too obvious and might attract other lurking assassins. Judging from the exhausted state of the guards, if they were attacked by assassins, they would probably have no choice but to surrender and be killed. Considering everyone's personal safety, leaving the forest as soon as possible was undoubtedly the wisest choice.

"In that case, let's find a safe place to rest, fill our stomachs, and then continue on our way." Seeing that the prince had already spoken, Ye Honghai naturally felt embarrassed to refuse directly. Besides, everyone was really hungry at the moment, and a proper rest would be beneficial to everyone.

They walked all the way down the river for a whole day, and inevitably felt exhausted and cold. So everyone picked up some firewood from the surroundings and boiled some water from the river to warm themselves up. Since there were not too many people, they only lit a bonfire and huddled together to keep warm. Zhou Hao even led people to catch a fish from the river and cooked it into delicious fish soup for everyone. After a bowl of steaming hot fish soup, everyone felt their bodies gradually warm up, and the fatigue of the whole day also dissipated a lot.

"Okay, have you all eaten? Put out the fire, clean up all the traces, and let's continue on our way." Liang Kai saw that everyone had already filled their stomachs, and hurriedly shouted for everyone to get up and move. After all, he took the initiative to apply for this break. If he let everyone rest for too long, it might delay the trip and they would not be able to reach the destination on time.

Liang Kai gave the order, and the guards immediately took action, quickly extinguishing the flames that should be extinguished, and carefully cleaned up the scene to cover up all traces they left behind. Then, the team continued to move forward.

Ye Jianqing remained silent from beginning to end, which aroused Lu Ciqiu's curiosity. He moved closer to Ye Jianqing and asked in a low voice: "Qing'er, why didn't you say anything all the way? What happened?"

Ye Jianqing looked around, frowning slightly, as if she was thinking about something. After a while, she replied softly: "I can't explain it either, I just feel something is wrong, but I can't be sure what is wrong."

Lu Ci Qiu followed Ye Jianqing's gaze and observed the surrounding environment, but did not find anything unusual. With his keen sense of danger, if there was any danger or an ambush nearby, he would definitely notice it at the first time. He couldn't help but shook his head in confusion, indicating that he did not notice anything unusual.

"But... Zhou Hao is too quiet." Ye Jianqing said as he secretly glanced at Zhou Hao, who looked exhausted on horseback behind him, with doubts on his face. "Since he came to meet us specially but did nothing, I feel uneasy."

Lu Ci Qiu frowned, and couldn't help but wonder in his heart: "Do you think that Zhou Hao's meeting with us is not accidental?"

Ye Jianqing glanced at him and questioned, "How can there be such a coincidence in the world! Their itinerary route is obviously very different from ours, how could they meet here in the end?"

Lu Ci Qiu asked: "Then what exactly does he want to do?"

"I have no way of knowing." Ye Jianqing shook her head helplessly. She really knew nothing. At this moment, Zhou Hao behaved too normally and did not have any abnormal behavior, which made her feel suspicious.