In the years of famine, I led a comfortable life with my husband

Xie Chengjin denied it without hesitation when he heard it, "No! Impossible! Su Zhizhi is not like that. She must have been kidnapped. I have to go save her."

After saying this, Xie Chengjin looked at his men and emphasized, "If you can't do it, then pay me to hire some skilled fighters and have them go into the village to rescue Su Zhizhi."

"Yes, sir." The subordinate said respectfully.

Just like that, Xie Chengjin took out the huge amount of money he had prepared for going to the capital and asked his men to hire thugs to go to the village to rescue Su Zhizhi.

The thugs quietly entered the village under the cover of darkness and strong wind. They searched the village but could not find any trace of Su Zhizhi.

In desperation, the thugs had to randomly stop a little girl to inquire about Su Zhizhi's whereabouts, "Girl, may I ask if your mountain king has kidnapped a girl at the foot of the mountain and said he wants to marry her? Where is that girl now?"

The girl did not immediately answer the thug's words. Instead, she looked him up and down and asked, "Who are you?"

The thug's eyes rolled, and an idea struck him, "We are from a nearby village. We got the news and came here to ask for a share of the wedding wine."

The little girl was slightly startled when she heard the voice. There were indeed several villages near their village. Although they did not keep in touch often, the village king would occasionally invite them up to drink, eat meat and chat for a while, so she was not surprised or shocked when she heard the other party's words.

"Oh, you're talking about this. Our king once abducted a girl from the foot of the mountain, but later heard that the girl was already married, so our king let her go. Our king said that he is a man of principle and will not marry a married woman."

The little girl explained to the thugs with a proud look on her face.

The thug was slightly stunned when he heard this, but immediately understood the whole story. He then followed the girl's words and said, "I see! Then it seems we can't have the banquet today, so we will leave first."

After saying that, the thug pretended to be very regretful and left.

In this way, the thugs reported the information they collected in the mountain stronghold to Xie Chengjin truthfully.

Xie Chengjin was slightly stunned after hearing this. It was obvious that this result was beyond his expectations.

The problem became even more difficult. If Su Zhizhi had already left the village, where would she go?

Thinking of this, Xie Chengjin felt overwhelmed.

At this time, the subordinate beside him carefully observed Xie Chengjin's thoughts, and then persuaded Xie Chengjin, "Sir, we should not stay here for long. It is very unsafe here. Our tracks will be discovered sooner or later. Why don't we continue to head towards the capital? Since the woman has already escaped from the mountain stronghold on her own, she must have already rushed to the capital to meet us."

The subordinate patiently persuaded Xie Chengjin.

Xie Chengjin was immediately in a dilemma after hearing this. He pondered for a long time before finally nodding and saying, "Okay! Then let's continue to rush to the capital!"

Seeing Xie Chengjin nod, his men all smiled with satisfaction.

Just like that, Xie Chengjin and Su Zhizhi completely missed each other.

As for Su Zhizhi, she did not have the money to support her trip to the capital, and the yamen runners did not seem to have posted wanted posters for her on the streets anymore. So after much thought, Su Zhizhi decided to set up a stall on the street to sell mint water to make some money.

Early this morning, Su Zhizhi set out with her mint water. In order to ensure her safety and avoid being recognized, Su Zhizhi also wore a veil to disguise herself.

Fully armed, Su Zhizhi set off carrying mint water. Soon she arrived at the bustling street. After choosing a more prosperous area, Su Zhizhi set up her stall there.

As soon as they saw Su Zhizhi coming, the repeat customers she had accumulated over the past few days immediately surrounded her.

Su Zhizhi couldn't suppress the smile on her face when she saw it, "Okay, okay, everyone, don't crowd, come one by one, there's still plenty of mint water."

Just as Su Zhizhi was actively and enthusiastically soliciting customers, an inopportune voice rang out.

"Huh~ It's really hard for you to come here and sell mint water by yourself! Do you want the brothers to help you with the business?"

I saw a few more hooligans in the crowd walking towards Su Zhizhi in a nonchalant manner, whistling frivolously and with malicious looks on their faces.

The customers who were originally surrounding Su Zhizhi to buy mint water saw this group of hooligans and were afraid of getting into trouble, so they dispersed and hid far away.

Seeing this, Su Zhizhi immediately took out the pepper spray she had prepared in advance from her pocket and hid it behind her. Seeing that the group of hooligans were getting closer and closer to Su Zhizhi, until they walked in front of Su Zhizhi, Su Zhizhi took out the spray from behind without hesitation and sprayed it into the eyes of the group of hooligans.

In an instant, the unsuspecting ruffians were pierced in the eyes by the liquid from the pepper spray. They started wailing and their cries of pain could be heard throughout the street.

"Ah! My eyes hurt!"

"What got into my eyes? I can't see anything."

"I'm going blind, ahhhhh——"

……

Su Zhizhi was afraid that this would cause trouble, so she took advantage of the chaos, carrying her shoulder pole and her mint water, and left the street and returned to the Shen family.

As soon as Su Zhizhi arrived at the Shen family, she saw Shen Wenjun with an excited face.

"Miss Su, I got the news that the capital will be recruiting in advance." Shen Wenjun couldn't wait to say as soon as he saw Su Zhizhi.

Su Zhizhi was also very happy when she heard it, "Sure, this is good news."

"I'm just about to pack up and go to the capital. Coincidentally, Miss Su, aren't you going to the capital too? You should pack up quickly too. We can go to the capital together." Shen Wenjun looked at Su Zhizhi with a smile.

But at this moment, Su Zhizhi suddenly seemed to think of something and hesitated to speak, "But... do we have money? It will cost a lot to rush to the capital."

Su Zhizhi said with a worried look on her face that the money they had now was not enough to support them to go to the capital.

Shen Wenjun was slightly stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect Su Zhizhi to be so worried about this, so he took the jade pendant from his waist without hesitation and said to Su Zhizhi, "It's okay. I have an ancestral jade pendant here. We can pawn it and we will have money."

After saying that, Shen Wenjun handed Su Zhizhi a jade pendant with exquisite workmanship and excellent jade texture.

Su Zhizhi took it and looked at it for a while, then nodded with satisfaction. This jade pendant was indeed of good quality and could be worth a lot of money.

Thinking of this, Su Zhizhi said without hesitation, "Okay, I'll borrow this money from you temporarily. I'll return it to you when I find my family and friends in Beijing."