Chapter 42: I was assassinated again and I was willing to die with 50,000 taels of gold.

Perhaps traveling at night was really useful, as Qin Yuqing and his group did not encounter any bad things that night.

Looking at the makeshift match pile built by Park Qinghe, Qin Yuqing looked at the deer rubbing its eyes, reached out and held the deer's hand, took out a clean handkerchief and carefully wiped the deer's eyes.

"Are you still feeling uncomfortable?" Qin Yuqing asked softly.

The little deer shook his head and thanked Qin Yuqing softly. His big, watery eyes were filled with confusion as he asked, "Princess, why are you so nice to me?"

"I accept your kindness and promised your brother to take good care of you, so I cannot go back on my word." Qin Yuqing put the handkerchief away. At this time, Chuntao came with a few wild rabbits. After handing the rabbits to Pu Qinghe, she walked up to Qin Yuqing.

"Princess, the lotus on your forehead is gone?" Chuntao pointed to her forehead, indicating to Qin Yuqing that the colorful lotus there was gone.

"If it's gone, it's gone."

Qin Yuqing recalled that the colorful lotus appeared after Xiao Wu put a dot of his own blood on her forehead. At that time, rainwater accumulated on the altar, and a vague outline was seen in the reflection on the water.

"Xiaolu, do you know what this lotus is? Why is it on my forehead?"

Xiaolu nodded vigorously, her tone still carrying the innocence of a young girl, and a golden light flashed in her eyes as she said, "Because you are the destined one, the colorful lotus will only appear on the destined one. As for the others, Xiaolu doesn't know either."

Seeing that Xiaolu said so, Qin Yuqing realized that he would not get anything out of him if he continued asking, so he simply watched Pu Qinghe process the wild rabbit and began to roast it skillfully.

The atmosphere suddenly became quiet. No one spoke anymore. There was only the crackling sound of matches burning and the occasional aroma of roasted rabbit.

"Actually, I want to ask, why do you have to come to the south? The south is not peaceful at all. It has been plagued by disasters since ancient times." Park Qinghe suddenly spoke up, breaking the quiet atmosphere and asked curiously, "Besides, why did you bring me to the south? It's obvious that Lu Jingchuan is more suitable than me."

"He knows more about the southern part of the country than I do. This guy also has a good relationship with the girl from the Shen family. He's much more suitable to be brought here than me."

"Natural disasters have a higher priority, and the capital also needs someone to take care of it. There are not many people I trust, and Lu Jingchuan is one of them." Qin Yuqing looked at the map Lu Jingchuan gave her, which described in detail the locations of all the prefectures, counties, mountains, and rivers in the south.

Looking at the hand-drawn map, Qin Yuqing inexplicably thought of Lu Jingchuan. He wondered how he was doing now, what he was doing, and whether he had carried out our plan. It seemed that the people who had been arranged in advance had already entered the court. He wondered how effective it was.

Did those old-fashioned people in the capital give him any trouble? Is he living well?

"Besides, the extermination of your Park family is inseparable from the natural disaster in the south." Qin Yuqing put away her distracting thoughts. Now was not the time to think about this. She had learned about the difficulties in the south from the original book, and the male protagonist of the original book was also helpless against the natural disaster.

However, ever since meeting the heroine of the original book in his dream, Qin Yuqing has been wondering whether her condition is really beyond saving, or is there also the handiwork of the male protagonist?

"What?" Park Qinghe had the impression that his family had never been to the south or communicated with people from the south.

He looked at Qin Yuqing's serious expression, and he knew she wasn't joking. A bad feeling came over him. His family would only let him see what they wanted him to see. Park Qinghe couldn't say what happened in places where they couldn't see.

"You mean, the natural disaster in the south is related to the Park family?" Park Qinghe said, as if in self-denial, repeating over and over again, "That's impossible. The old man and Mr. Lu have a good relationship. Both of them are loyal to the emperor and the country. There is no way they would use a natural disaster to make a fuss!"

Qin Yuqing glanced at Park Qinghe indifferently. How could he, usually a very smart person, become so brainless when faced with the Pu family's affairs? But it was understandable.

"The Park family may have discovered the secret of the natural disaster." Qin Yuqing handed the prepared hare to Xiaolu, and after watching everyone else take it, he took the last one and continued, "I said I would overturn the verdict for your Park family, and I will definitely do it."

"Believe me, and don't doubt the Park family. They did nothing wrong." Qin Yuqing was unable to explain the plot of the original book, and could only emphasize that the Park family was not at fault.

Park Qinghe ate the roasted rabbit in silence. Over the years, the news he heard all said that the Park family had the intention of rebellion. Many times he doubted himself whether his persistence over the years was right. No one had ever told him that the Park family was innocent and he should believe in the Park family.

At this moment, Qin Yuqing pulled up the deer, protected it in his hands, and dodged a long knife sideways.

"Who are you?" Qin Yuqing looked behind a tree not far away and said in a deep voice, "Who do you think you are, hiding your head but showing your tail?"

As Qin Yuqing finished speaking, countless people emerged from the depths of the forest. Qin Yuqing picked up the longbow placed aside and carried the quiver on his back. This trip to the south was dangerous, so Qin Yuqing brought both bows and arrows.

She handed the small bow and arrow to Xiaolu. She had taught the Arhan twins how to use this type of bow a long time ago. Qin Yuqing stared at the person approaching and said to Chuntao, "Protect Xiaolu."

"Yes, Princess." Chuntao took the deer and protected it behind her.

Qin Yuqing looked at the people who came with a cold face. Each of them was wearing animal skins and holding a machete in his hand. They looked at Qin Yuqing and his group with ferocious expressions.

It's a bandit.

"Go." The bandit leader took a step back, and the other brothers immediately rushed forward.

Qin Yuqing's bow and arrow were not idle, and he fired several arrows at once. During the relatively idle months, Qin Yuqing never wasted time. He had Lu Jingchuan and Qin Qinqin as martial arts teachers in the palace, and Lu Jingchuan and Pu Qinghe as martial arts teachers outside the palace.

The most obvious effect of the improvement in martial arts was that Qin Yuqing's archery skills became more proficient. He could string and draw the bow in one go. Many bandits were shot to death before they could even get close to Qin Yuqing.

"Leave those two women alive." The bandit leader raised his machete and approached Qin Yuqing.

Qin Yuqing took a deep breath, and she flexibly turned the bow in her hand, using the bow to block the long sword that was chopping down. Even though she had practiced, her hand was still numbed by the force of the opponent when the two weapons collided.

Swirling a machete requires immense force, requiring the sword's owner to use their body to propel the blade forward, so there will be more or less pauses when wielding the sword. Qin Yuqing seized the opportunity, raised his foot and stabbed the bandit leader in the abdomen, using the backward force to pull out the longbow, and then spun in the air.

In the air, Qin Yuqing took out three arrows from the quiver and shot at the bandit leader. Due to inertia, she took a few steps back when she landed on the ground, and the longbow stuck in the ground to stabilize her figure.

The bandit leader raised his long sword to block the arrow, then raised it again to chop at Qin Yuqing.

Qin Yuqing exerted force again with the hand holding the longbow, jumped sideways in the air, and chopped down her body with the long sword, raising dust.

She used the longbow as the center, turned her body, and slapped the bandit leader with her palm.

"System, I'm in danger and need help." Qin Yuqing said quickly in his heart.

[After testing, the host is not in immediate danger of life, and the system will not provide assistance.]

The same rhetoric again!

"What is the definition of danger?" Qin Yuqing asked quickly while dealing with the bandit leader.

But the system seemed to be dead. No matter how Qin Yuqing questioned it, it didn't make a sound.

Suddenly, Qin Yuqing felt a sharp pain in his back, and the quiver was cut in two and fell to the ground.

"Princess!"

"Qin Yuqing!"

Qin Yuqing used the force from behind to slide forward, used his bow and arrow to block the bandit leader's long knife, slid sideways, slapped the ground with one hand, and stood up smoothly, looking at the bandit leader and the younger brother beside him with unfriendly eyes.

Chuntao, Xiaolu and Pu Qinghe gathered around Qin Yuqing. All four of them had some wounds on their bodies.

People wearing the same clothes kept coming out of the woods and surrounded Qin Yuqing and his group again.

"You can't hide away." The bandit leader clapped his long knife. "Someone paid a large sum of money to buy your lives. If your employer didn't want you two alive, would they have let you run around for so long?"

"Who are you?" Qin Yuqing quickly recalled the plot of the original book, but there was no description of this group of bandits.

The man in front of him had fierce features, and one could tell at a glance that he was a vicious person. This kind of person was not like Park Qinghe who could communicate and negotiate. Either he killed them or he would be killed by them.

"Will it be useful to tell you? Sixth Princess, you are truly amazing. No wonder your employer is willing to spend a fortune to capture you alive."

Qin Yuqing frowned. The more tense the situation, the clearer her mind became. This group of people and the first two waves of assassins encountered in Xiangshan obviously belonged to different masters. She originally suspected it was the emperor, but during the idle months, no matter how she investigated or how she tested the emperor, she was told that the emperor was not a suspect.

Who planned the assassination in Xiangshan?

"If I pay double the money, will you let me go?" Qin Yuqing realized that she would lose sooner or later if she continued fighting. Since they were hired, could she become the employer instead?

The bandit leader looked at Qin Yuqing with amusement. He held a long knife in one hand and made a number five with the other hand: "Fifty thousand taels of gold." As he spoke, the bandit leader took out a piece of paper with the content of the employment and the promised money written in black and white on it.

"I never speak without thinking. It's clearly written here. In our line of work, money is everything. Once the money is in place, everything is easy to talk about."

"How much!" Chuntao couldn't help but said in a broken voice.

Qin Yuqing's face darkened. Fifty thousand taels of gold, even from the current treasury of Great Yin, could not be taken out at once, and she saw that it was written on the paper that it should be paid in one go.

Who could come up with 50,000 taels of gold in one go? Oh, to be precise, who was willing to sell her and Xiaolu's lives for 50,000 taels of gold?

"Looking at Sixth Princess, I'm afraid you can't come up with the money." The bandit leader folded the paper and put it in his arms. "If that's the case, our brothers also need these 50,000 taels of gold. Please don't fight back fearlessly, Sixth Princess. Do you think your longbow can match our swords?"

Qin Yuqing looked at the surrounding environment calmly. From the bandit leader's words, she could conclude that she and Xiaolu would not be in danger of life for the time being. At least this group of people would not really want to kill them. But Chuntao and Pu Qinghe were different.

We must save their lives!

This place is not far from the capital. If Chuntao and Pu Qinghe break out, they can go into the city and call for reinforcements.

But just as Qin Yuqing was about to come up with his plan, there was another movement in the forest and on the road ahead.

A group of people wearing purple clothes and masked their faces walked out of the woods, each of them holding a long sword in their hands.

Another group of people came from the road ahead, and Qin Yuqing's heart sank. The people opposite were dressed the same as the people who were assassinated in Xiangshan.

In other words, there are currently three groups of people preparing to kill Qin Yuqing and his group here.

"You really are well-liked." Park Qinghe said to Qin Yuqing with a sly smile, "I didn't expect the Sixth Princess' life to be so valuable."

"It feels worth it to die with fifty thousand taels of gold."