The Return of the King: A Generation of Prodigies

"Then there's no other way. We can't just climb over the city wall in broad daylight, right under those people's noses, right?"

"If that happens, I'm afraid we'll be wanted by the whole city, which will attract even more attention."

"We can only stay here now and wait until night to find a way to climb over the city wall."

This is the most effective method Yan Yu can think of at the moment, although he has stayed in Beijing for a long time in both his previous life and this life.

But unfortunately, in these two lives, he was trapped in the inner house and rarely had the opportunity to walk around Shangjing, so he was actually not very familiar with Shangjing.

In his previous life, Yan Yu seldom went out because he had to stay in the mansion to learn martial arts and military tactics. In this life, he seldom went out because he was originally an unfavored bastard.

It was good enough for him to stay at home and study. How could his cunning and mean mother let him go out and wander around?

"No, I'm afraid we won't be able to wait until dark." Shen Tianjiao shook her head and said, "Once the city gates are blocked, the news of the plague in Shangjing will spread immediately."

"The situation will be explosive at that time. If we don't handle it properly, there will be chaos in the capital."

Although Shen Tianjiao now knows that what is spreading in Shangjing is not a plague but someone deliberately poisoning someone, the symptoms of the poisoning are similar to those of the plague, so calling it a plague is just more convenient and easier to understand.

Originally, Shen Tianjiao had not thought about returning to Beijing at this time, because she believed that Ruan Yuhu and Qiong Niang could handle this incident.

But the Marquis of Zhenbei insisted on letting her come back to take charge of the situation.

If she had known earlier and returned earlier, she would not have blocked her own way and let Yu Po seal the city.

"Then what should we do? It's too risky to go in now. If we are discovered, we will definitely not be able to escape."

Yan Yu looked down at his bloodstained clothes, then looked at Shen Tianjiao's clothes which were not much better than his, and fell into deep thought.

"There's no other way. I can only go there and try my luck."

Shen Tianjiao dismounted and tied the horse to a tree nearby.

"Let's go. We're just going to try our luck. Although the guards have gone back, the secret guards should be here soon."

"If they hadn't found us, there would still be a dispute today."

"So we must return to the palace before they come back."

"Where are you going to try your luck?" Yan Yu looked at Shen Tianjiao with a puzzled look. Apart from entering through the city gate and climbing over the wall at night, he really couldn't think of any other way.

"Okay, stop talking nonsense and just follow me."

In front of Yan Yu, Shen Tianjiao is always like a child, and can act capriciously and throw tantrums without any scruples.

As expected, when facing Shen Tianjiao, Yan Yu always just smiled good-temperedly and tolerated her blindly.

Shen Tianjiao didn't let Yan Yu ask, so Yan Yu didn't ask. Shen Tianjiao asked Yan Yu to follow her, so Yan Yu followed her.

The two of them walked together for about half an hour before they arrived at a small hill.

When she saw her destination, Shen Tianjiao immediately bent down and began to dig in the grass.

"What are we looking for?" Yan Yu, who had been looking for a long time, finally couldn't help but ask.

"What else can we look for? Of course, we should look for the exit of the tunnel." Shen Tianjiao looked up at Yan Yu and said, "Don't just stand there. Come over here and help us find it."

"Oh." Although Yan Yu didn't understand the situation yet, he still walked over obediently and started digging with Shen Tianjiao.

The two of them kept digging and digging, and actually dug open a hole.

"What is this?" Yan Yu widened his eyes in shock. He thought Shen Tianjiao was joking, but he didn't expect that there would actually be a hole here.

"The entrance to the cave." Shen Tianjiao rolled her eyes at Yan Yu. "Go, pull the grass from outside in and block the entrance."

"If this place is discovered by others, we will be in big trouble."

Yan Yu was very obedient and took action quickly. He brought back the grass they had pulled out and blocked the entrance of the cave.

When Yan Yu came back, the cave was pitch black and he couldn't see anything because there was no light at all.

"It's so dark, I can't see anything, how can I get out of here?"

Hearing Shen Tianjiao's voice, Yan Yu took out a tinder from his body. He blew it up and saw clearly that he was in a cave.

This cave is different from ordinary caves. It is very tall and allows people to walk upright, and it is wide enough for four people to walk side by side.

Obviously, this hole in the ground before us could not be dug by an ordinary person.

Because this not only requires a lot of manpower and material resources, but also a lot of money. Not to mention ordinary people, even the royal family and nobles may not have such strength.

Well, now there is only one left, and that is... Yan Yu turned his head to look at Shen Tianjiao.

Facing Yan Yu's inquiring gaze, Shen Tianjiao said directly: "Yes, it's just as you guessed."

"This is a tunnel leading out of the palace that Emperor Taizu had dug specifically when he built the imperial city. He probably wanted to leave a way for his descendants to escape."

Shen Tianjiao walked away first. The tunnel was very deep and it would take some time to reach the end. She didn't have time to stand here and explain everything clearly.

As she walked, she said, "In my previous life, I accidentally discovered this tunnel in the palace. Out of curiosity, I came down to explore it."

"I didn't expect that after living a new life, I would be able to find it with the memories of my past life."

What Shen Tianjiao didn't tell Yan Yu was that in her previous life, the reason she found this tunnel and crawled out of the palace to the exit was all because of him.

In her previous life, she was Chu Qingge. After being forced to marry Li Heng and become the queen, she was depressed all day long in the palace. Apart from handling the affairs of the six palaces, she never cared about other matters.

But even though she had done this, Li Heng was still worried about her.

The relationship between Chu Qingge and Yan Yu before she entered the palace was no secret in the entire Shangjing.

While Li Heng was on guard against Chu Qingge, he naturally had many taboos about the relationship between her and Yan Yu.

Although Chu Qingge was not in his heart at all, the so-called self-esteem of a man made him absolutely unable to tolerate his queen thinking about another man.

There is another more important reason, that is, Li Heng is more afraid that Yan Yu will become powerful in the future, come back to rely on by Chu Qingge, and work together with Chu Qingge to deal with him.

So he took advantage of the fact that Yan Yu had no power at the time and issued a death order against Yan Yu, ordering his men to kill Yan Yu without any hesitation.

At that time, Ahe, the personal guard beside Li Heng, was the biological brother of Chu Qingge's maid Wen Pei. However, this relationship was concealed by the two of them and no one else knew about it.

As soon as Ah He received the task, he informed his sister Wen Pei and asked her to tell Chu Qingge the news.

But at that time, Chu Qingge was under strict surveillance by Li Heng's men. Not to mention leaving the palace, she couldn't even send a letter.

Chu Qingge can't do it, and neither can the people around her.

Just when Chu Qingge was getting anxious and angry and was thinking of forcing her way out of the palace, an old nanny who had been in the palace for many years told her that there was a tunnel in the wall behind the study that led to the outside.

So Chu Qingge took the risk and sneaked into the study. After some twists and turns, he found the tunnel and walked all the way to the exit.

After coming out of the exit, Chu Qingge summoned the private guard team called Shadow left to him by his grandfather.

Although they are private guards, their number is astonishingly large.

Chu Qingge asked them to protect Yan Yu, and then stay by Yan Yu's side and never come back.

Later, with the help of Shadow, Yan Yu escaped robbery and assassination again and again, and gained a firm foothold in the army, becoming a great general that no one dared to offend, and even Li Heng had to give him three points of courtesy.

Until his death in his previous life, Yan Yu never imagined that Shadow would come to his side and that there would be such a tortuous and bizarre experience in between.

He always believed that Shadow came to him because Chu Qingge was worried about him and afraid that he would be in danger, so he asked Shadow to come to him to protect him.

Yan Yu did not have the slightest doubt about Chu Qingge's words at this moment. This was a habit he had not changed from his previous life until now.

That is, no matter whether it was Chu Qingge in the previous life or Shen Tianjiao in this life, he would believe whatever they said and would never doubt it.

This tunnel was built a long time ago, so it is inevitable that some parts of it have fallen into disrepair.

This makes the road, which was already difficult to walk on, even more difficult to walk on.

Yan Yu walked behind Shen Tianjiao, and was extremely worried when he saw her tripping over stones on the ground from time to time.

After hesitating for a moment, Yan Yu finally couldn't help but stepped forward, took Shen Tianjiao's hand, and said, "Let's go together."

Shen Tianjiao, whose hand was held by Yan Yu, struggled a little in her heart and gave up the idea of ​​breaking free.

Being led by Yan Yu like this gave Shen Tianjiao a great sense of security. This queen who now holds great power in the court actually also has moments of weakness and cowardice, and also wants someone to protect her and shelter her from the wind and rain.

The two of them walked hand in hand silently. Although no one spoke, they could feel an indescribable happiness from each other.

It would be great if we could keep walking hand in hand like this and let this feeling of happiness continue.

But now the two of them encountered a big crisis. Halfway through the journey, the fire starter in Yan Yu's hand burned out, and they were about to face the prospect of re-entering an unexpected darkness.

Faced with the sudden darkness, Shen Tianjiao instinctively shuddered and stopped.

That’s right, in fact, Shen Tianjiao is very afraid of the environment that will suddenly become dark.

Because she died in the dark night in her previous life, and during the years she spent in the ancestral temple, she could still stare blankly outside during the day, but at night she could only endure the loneliness brought to her by the night in silence.

So she doesn't like the night very much, except when she occasionally feels like going outside to see the moon and stars, or when she is upset and wants to be alone, she will go out alone at night.

Most of the time, she still likes to stay in the brightly lit house at night.

Yan Yu immediately sensed that something was wrong with Shen Tianjiao, and he immediately held Shen Tianjiao's hand to comfort her.

"It's okay, don't be afraid, I'm here."

Although Yan Yu only said these few words briefly, Shen Tianjiao was no longer afraid.

Yan Yu didn't expect to encounter such a situation. If he had known earlier, he would definitely have prepared enough fire starters.

There is no point in thinking more now. I can only find a way to solve the problem at hand.

"Come on, I'll carry you."

Yan Yu let go of Shen Tianjiao's hand, squatted down, and waited for Shen Tianjiao to get on his back.

Shen Tianjiao stood there in a daze for a moment, and then her body made a decision before her brain. When she reacted, she was already on Yan Yu's back.

If it were someone else, Shen Tianjiao would definitely not react so quickly, but if this person was Yan Yu, there was nothing she could do.

Shen Tianjiao fell asleep on Yan Yu's back very quickly.

She was really too tired. Ever since she came here, she had no time to rest properly. There were always endless government affairs and unexpected events waiting for her to deal with every day.

She is like a spinning top that never gets tired, running at high speed every day and rarely stops to rest.

Only in front of Yan Yu could she relax so unscrupulously.

Listening to Shen Tianjiao's steady breathing on his back, Yan Yu lowered his head and smiled, then he lightened his steps and walked step by step with Shen Tianjiao on his back.

Shen Tianjiao slept very deeply and soundly. She slept until Yan Yu had reached the exit, but she still hadn't woken up.

Although he really didn't want to wake Shen Tianjiao up and wanted her to sleep a little longer, Yan Yu also knew that the situation was urgent and he couldn't and had to wake Shen Tianjiao up.

"Ah Qing, A Qing, don't sleep anymore, we are probably at the exit."

When Shen Tianjiao was woken up from her deep sleep, she was still a bit grumpy, "So noisy, got it."

Before she even opened her eyes, her hands woke up first, and she waved over and slapped Yan Yu.

Yan Yu, who had been slapped, just smiled good-naturedly and patiently coaxed her, "Okay, don't sleep anymore. Wait until we get upstairs, then you can sleep, okay?"

Shen Tianjiao sighed helplessly and opened her eyes. She yawned and asked, "What's wrong?"

Facing Shen Tianjiao, who was still conscious, Yan Yu said, "There's no road ahead, but there's a flight of stairs. Is this the exit?"

Yan Yu carried Shen Tianjiao on his back as they walked along the tunnel. The tunnel was straight, without any forks in the road or even any bends.