Noble Lady

"Miss, let me find out." Yumei volunteered.

Xue Chenyu looked at her when he heard that.

Originally, when she left Haicheng County, she wanted to keep Yumei and let her follow Prince Cheng, so that everyone could return to their own place.

But Yumei herself disagreed, saying that things should be done from beginning to end, and at least protect her and return to Shengjing City first.

Prince Cheng also meant the same thing, so she didn't say anything.

Now that Shengjing City is in sight, she doesn't want anything to happen to this little girl.

"Let Xia He go." Xue Chenyu thought about it and called Xia He over, as if she was acting secretly and going to meet her in Xue Hou's room when she got the result.

Xia He took the order and jumped into the darkness.

Then she changed her clothes, simply tied her hair up, and went to see Marquis Xue.

It was supposed to be a rest time, but Xue Chenyu suddenly arrived, and even Xue Hou was a little surprised. "Yu'er, why are you here at this time? Are you not used to living here?"

"The door is not the place to talk, Dad, please let me go in and talk."

Xue Chenyu had a smile on her face, and Xue Hou nodded unconsciously.

As soon as she entered the room, Qiuhua closed the door and stood guard at the entrance.

When Marquis Xue saw this scene, he realized that something was wrong.

"Fish, what happened?"

"Father, I'm afraid that some of the people that eunuch Wang escorted back to Beijing for trial have met with an accident." Xue Chenyu said straight to the point.

Marquis Xue's expression changed slightly. "Yu'er, did you receive any news?"

Xue Chenyu nodded, and then told Qiuhua what he had heard, about the bandit leader led by the eunuchs in the palace and escorted by the imperial guards being kidnapped.

After saying that, he added, "I have also asked Xia He to inquire about the news. I believe there will be results soon."

If a prisoner being escorted was kidnapped not long ago, even if it is not mentioned on the surface, clues will definitely be left behind.

A flash of shock flashed across Marquis Xue's eyes, but he quickly calmed down, "The prince is right."

Was the prince right? Situ Zhen really knew something.

Xue Chenyu didn't say anything and just looked at Xue Hou quietly.

Marquis Xue felt a little uncomfortable being stared at by his own daughter. He cleared his throat and said, "There are some things that my father didn't deliberately hide from you. It's really..."

Xue Chenyu smiled, grabbed the teacup, dipped it in the tea, and wrote two words on the table: Prince.

"You, how do you know?..." Marquis Xue couldn't help but be surprised.

Xue Chenyu got the promise she wanted, and everything fell into place.

When the bandits from the Black Tiger and Black Bear camps came down the mountain to rob the county government office for food, she felt that they could not be the mastermind behind the incident.

With so much food taken away from her, the village couldn't possibly be that short of food. Therefore, there must be another hand behind this.

Telling the bandits in the Black Tiger and Black Bear camps that there was food in the county government office was also to send them to their deaths and serve as scapegoats, thus cutting off subsequent investigations.

Who could eat such a large amount of food?

Moreover, according to local people's feedback, bandits would rob people and occasionally harass the people.

But judging by the terrain of that place and the situation in the mountains, it is impossible that there are only a few strongholds in such a large mountain area.

There is another thing. If there were only bandits in those three strongholds, the imperial court would not have issued a secret order to my father to suppress the bandits.

She wondered if there was a huge army behind them. The conversation between Situ Zhen and her father, as well as the information she learned privately, were enough to prove this.

Afterwards, a eunuch named Wang traveled thousands of miles to the small place of Haicheng County to rob the bandit leader, and even had to be escorted back to Beijing by the imperial guards.

That's even stranger.

When did the imperial guards become so cheap that they have to personally take care of any little guy?

What's more, the man surnamed Wang is the prince's man.

Therefore, she guessed that there was indeed an army in the Haicheng County area, and it was closely related to the prince in the palace.

There can only be one reason to kidnap someone in the area near Shengjing: to silence him.

As to why they didn't take action as soon as they left Lingnan, we need more evidence before we can speculate on their motives.

"Father, regardless of whether the bandit leader has been robbed or not, we still have to leave as early as possible tomorrow."

Xue Hou nodded, "Indeed."

Fortunately, because they watched the execution of bandits, they waited for several more days before setting off with Yu'er's caravan. They were leisurely along the way and were not in a hurry to deliver food to the disaster area for relief. They were very leisurely.

Otherwise, if you encounter a robber, you might even be splashed with dirty water.

Not long after.

Xia He came back.

"Greetings, young lady. Meet the Marquis."

"Stand up and talk." Xue Chenyu raised her hand. "Did you get any news?"

Xia He glanced at Xue Chenyu, and after receiving her signal, she lowered her voice and said, "I've heard that the people who were kidnapped at this post station a few days ago were indeed the eunuch surnamed Wang and his imperial guards."

Xue Hou took a breath.

Then Xia He continued, "I also heard the postmaster secretly say that he didn't know why the man surnamed Wang wanted to stay here for three days. If he had set off for the capital earlier, the prisoner wouldn't have been kidnapped on the last night."

"Stay for three days?"

Xue Chenyu and Xue Hou looked at each other and thought of the same possibility: the man surnamed Wang was waiting for someone.

And it's likely waiting for them!

If the robbers' accomplices really wanted to rob someone, they could have done it halfway along the way. Why wait until they reached the gates of Shengjing and the emperor's feet? This only increased the risk.

Anyone who takes over this escort mission will want to complete the task as soon as possible. It is impossible for them to deliberately delay along the way, right?

Moreover, the man surnamed Wang seemed to be a cautious person. He knew that the person he was escorting was the bandit leader and was going to be brought to Beijing for trial, but he still deliberately delayed time.

Could it be that he was certain that the criminal had no accomplices, or that he was certain that the other party was incapable of kidnapping people?

It is possible that he is so arrogant, but another possibility is that he is just waiting for someone to come and kidnap Pei Erhu and other bandits!

"Girl, I heard another sentence." Xia He continued.

Xue Chenyu looked at her.

"The day after the eunuch surnamed Wang stopped at the post station, the postmaster heard him complaining to himself, looking at the stars, 'Why hasn't he arrived yet? No matter how much time passes, they dare not delay their return to the capital.'"

Ah.

If Xue's father and daughter had thought before that the man surnamed Wang was waiting for someone to kidnap Pei Erhu and others, they now understood that the man surnamed Wang was not waiting for the kidnapper, but for them.

The feeling of relief in Xue Hou's heart rose again, and he said it out loud, "Fortunately, we stopped and started along the way, so we arrived a few days later than originally planned."

Xue Chenyu also understood why the so-called robbers did not take action as soon as they left Lingnan.

They hadn't set out yet at that time.

The man surnamed Wang probably waited while walking, but he never saw them, so he stayed at the post station for a few more days. Finally, for some reason, he could not wait any longer, so he asked someone to kidnap them.

Maybe... No, the kidnappers must have been arranged by them.

"Yu'er, you are really your father's lucky star." Marquis Xue felt a little scared.

He was sent to suppress the bandits under a secret order. If he was accused of collaborating with bandits, not only would he be in trouble, but everyone in the mansion, including his wife and children, would suffer.

In all his life, Marquis Xue had never experienced a moment as thrilling as this one.

"Father, can you understand my daughter's painstaking efforts?" Xue Chenyu looked at Xue Hou with hope.

Marquis Xue nodded gravely.

Even if he had retired and only held a sinecure, he was still a thorn in the side of others. ...No, it was because he no longer commanded a large army that the wealth of the Marquisate became something that everyone wanted to fight for.

Because they felt that he no longer had the ability to save the Marquisate.

The Xue family is probably being watched by countless eyes now.

"Yu'er, Dad said he went to the capital before, which means he went to Lingnan. The one he saved with the Heart-Protecting Pill you gave him was Duke Cao."

This was something that Marquis Xue had never said to Xue Chenyu before, but now he felt that there was nothing he needed to hide from his daughter anymore.

Xue Chenyu looked at him and understood what he meant.

The father and daughter understood each other tacitly: after returning to Beijing, they would have more things to do.