The Concubine's Daughter Travels Through Time and Space and Takes the Road of Confrontation

The cave was not long. After walking for about half a minute, they arrived at a natural cave. There was a faint stench coming from the cave, which made them want to vomit. Lu Yun covered her face with a cloak, but the stench became stronger and stronger.

There were more than a dozen bodies of men in black lying on the open space in front of him. The bodies had begun to rot. Judging from the wounds, they all died from a single knife attack. There was very little blood left at the scene, and it was obvious that they were hidden here after their death.

Lu Yun used her sword to lift the clothes of one of them and searched carefully, but did not find anything special. She thought that these killers would not carry any identification marks.

Whether it was murder or robbery, it is impossible that there were only a few pieces of clothing left at the scene, without a single body. It is obvious that someone was deliberately creating confusion behind the scenes.

Lu Yun walked around the corpses and continued forward. Finally, she saw a light coming from the front. She walked closer and looked up and saw that it was a dry well. With the help of the vines on the inner wall of the dry well, Lu Yun finally climbed out with great effort.

What came into view was an abandoned house, its broken walls covered with cobwebs. Apart from the footprints of birds and animals, there was no sign of human activity on the snow.

Not knowing where she was, Lu Yun walked out and found that the village had been abandoned for a long time and she was in a valley.

Lu Yun found herself lost. All she could see were rolling mountains that stretched as far as the eye could see. The cold wind in the valley made her face hurt. Lu Yun sat on a dry well and took a few bites of the dry food she had brought with her. She planned to go out and look for a way out later. If nothing worked, she would have to return the same way before dark.

Suddenly she stood up and looked down into the well. There seemed to be the sound of someone talking in the well.

A very familiar figure appeared at the bottom of the well. "Zhou Boli?" Lu Yun was so surprised that she leaned over the wellhead and shouted loudly.

The master and his servants climbed out of the well.

Recalling the scene he had just seen in the cave, Zhou Boli's face turned grim. "Maybe I offended the princess, so she left without saying goodbye." His words were stiff and his face was much colder.

This was the first time Lu Yun had seen him so angry in all the years she had known him. Knowing that she was in the wrong, Lu Yun hid behind Liuzi.

"Sixth Son"——" wisely took a step to the side, revealing the princess squatting on the ground behind him.

Zhou Boli held his forehead and said, "Forget it. Why should I bother with a child like her?"

Lu Yun, who was pretending to be a mushroom, saw a large hand with clear lines and slender white fingers reaching out in front of her. "Get up, there's snow on the ground."

When Lu Yun looked up, she saw Zhou Boli bending over, looking at her without blinking, no longer as cold as before.

She should not be angry anymore, Lu Yun hesitated and put her hand on it, and was immediately wrapped by a warm and dry palm, and was slowly pulled up.

The two hands naturally separated, and Lu Yun felt a little uncomfortable. Why didn't she realize that Zhou Boli was so handsome before?

"Come on, I'll take you out." Zhou Boli, dressed in a black cape and standing tall, walked in front of the group. Lu Yun quickened her pace to catch up.

Back in the courtyard, Caihe had already prepared food, and she didn't ask anything. Sitting in the bathtub, Lu Yun clung to the wall guiltily, "Caihe, why did I go out today——"

"I know this. The young lady would suddenly disappear for a few days like this before. I'm used to it. But Mr. Zhou seemed to be quite frightened by the young lady. When he saw that you were not in the room, he immediately took a few people out to look for you." Caihe whispered gently in Lu Yun's ear.

Lu Yun rested her head on her arms and sighed, "I know what I did was wrong, and I won't do it again."

"Mr. Zhou treats you very well." Cai He praised sincerely, and after a pause, she whispered, "Miss, don't charge Mr. Zhou any money when he comes to our farm in the future."

Lu Yun blushed and said, "I know." She was wrong.

In the evening, Lord Zhao arrived, covered in dust. It seemed that everyone had been busy all day.

Compared with Lu Yun and others, the new clues obtained by Lord Zhao were almost zero.

Lu Yun hesitated whether to tell Lord Zhao what she had discovered today. She couldn't help but glance at Zhou Boli and saw that he had his head down, not knowing what he was thinking.

Zhou Boli spoke up, "Master Zhao, today the princess and I discovered a secret passage in the mountains."

"Excuse me, Mr. Zhou, where is this secret passage?" Lord Zhao looked at the young man in black robe with a burning gaze, and saw that he was worried as if he had something to hide.

After Zhou Boli dismissed everyone from the room, he slowly spoke, "We not only discovered a secret passage, but also found the bodies of several men in black in a cave, and found this note on the bodies."

On the note was a line of beautiful words: "Kill Zhang and her children." The note was written by a woman.

"As far as I know, Madam Zhang is a kind, tolerant and generous person who never makes enemies with anyone. How could she have brought such a disaster upon herself?" Lord Zhao was very surprised.

Lu Yun read the words on the paper several times until they were imprinted in her mind. "I agree with Lord Zhao. Mother never makes enemies with anyone. But—"

She looked at Lord Zhao and said calmly, "If what the bandits said is true, there are very few people who can mobilize the troops to work for her and have conflicts with my mother. I suspect that the main purpose of those men in black is not to take the lives of my mother and others. Lord Zhao, I still say that, have there been other suspicious cases in Luzhou recently that implicate my mother?"

Zhao Qingyu's face was solemn. "I didn't want to connect this matter with Madam Zhang." He turned his gaze to the young man in black robes. "In the past few years, there have been dozens of cases of official salt being robbed in Luzhou. In stark contrast, private salt is rampant in Luzhou, resulting in the court losing a huge amount of silver to the tune of one million taels each year."

Could it be that the government salt was being sold privately? Lu Yun frowned. According to the laws of the Qin Dynasty, this was a capital crime punishable by death.

"In October of this year, Fang Dazhi, the prefect of Luzhou, was found dead in his office. His study was ransacked, and his daughter, Fang Hao, has since disappeared. Madam Zhang's convoy returning to Beijing happened to pass through Luzhou around that time, and someone saw her taking in a little girl."

"So the main target of those men in black was Magistrate Fang's daughter, and assassinating my mother was just a side job?" Lu Yun frowned even tighter.

"Princess, judging from the clues we have found so far, I think Madam Zhang should still be alive but has just hidden her whereabouts. She may have already arrived in Kyoto." Zhou Boli put down the blue book in his hand and comforted her in a gentle voice.

Lu Yun couldn't laugh. She knew her mother's character, and the private sale of official salt was obviously deeply involved with the Luzhou officialdom.

Before the matter is over, if the mother reveals any sign of weakness, the people chasing her will be like leeches attached to her bones and unable to get rid of them.

After seeing off Lord Zhao, Lu Yun walked back to her room without saying a word, and lay on the bed in a daze. Suddenly, she sat up, opened the door and walked out. It was already late at night, and a thick layer of snow had accumulated on the ground.

The surroundings were very quiet, with only the dim light coming from the lanterns in the corridor. Lu Yun began to make snowballs. If Caihe were here, she would be able to tell at a glance that her young lady was hiding something on her mind.

Her ten fingers were red from the cold, but Lu Yun seemed to feel nothing. She tirelessly rolled snowballs one after another and placed them neatly on the ground. When covered with snow, they looked like low grave mounds. A thick layer of snow fell on her head and body. Lu Yun sniffed her nose.

Suddenly, a shadow enveloped her. Lu Yun looked over with red eyes. Zhou Boli was holding an oil-paper umbrella and frowning at her. His face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

"Mr. Zhou, you haven't slept yet?" Lu Yun forced out a smile that was uglier than crying.