Chapter 23 One Guard is Missing

Jiang Qibin scratched his head and deliberately lowered his voice and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

Then he immediately went to the front yard of the east courtyard.

The servants and guards of the Gu Mansion were quietly guarding their respective posts, as if they were unaware of what was happening in the courtyard.

Jiang Qibin was puzzled as to why such a prestigious prince consort's mansion had so many incompetent servants.

He stood on the corridor and shouted loudly: "Who is in charge of arranging the guards in the outer courtyard today? Come here quickly, His Highness has instructions!"

Several guards at the gate heard the shouting, gathered together and whispered a few words.

Then, a tall, long-faced guard ran towards Jiang Qibin in small steps.

He ran to Jiang Qibin and asked, "What do you want, Princess?"

"Are you all just lazing around in the front yard?" Jiang Qibin said angrily.

"A thief broke into your highness's Wenqing Pavilion late at night with ill intentions. Your highness is still in shock, but you didn't hear anything?"

The tall guard looked terrified and quickly knelt down and said, "Yes, yes, it's our fault. Has the princess been in trouble?"

"If the guards in the palace are really like you, even if Your Highness does not make any mistakes, sooner or later he will make mistakes!"

Jiang Qibin shouted angrily.

"The villain deserves to die, the villain deserves to die!"

"Fortunately, we discovered it early, and His Highness was just a little frightened."

"The thief has disappeared now. Go and call all the guards you can from the front yard, and have them guard the gate of the inner courtyard tonight!"

"If His Highness does make any mistake, you can feel your necks to see if they are strong enough to withstand the wrath of the Majesty!"

Jiang Qibin finished his performance with a shout, then turned around and left with a childish look of pride on his face.

The tall guard was so frightened that he was secretly complaining in his heart.

There are two people in this mansion, one is a prince consort and the other is a princess, and they cannot afford to offend either of them.

Previously, Butler Huang had instructed their team of guards to patrol and guard the front yard, and there was another team guarding the backyard.

In the mansions of noble families, outsiders were not allowed to enter the backyard without permission.

The guards from the palace were allowed to enter because the person living there was a princess, and the imperial decree to protect the princess was issued by the current queen.

If they go in, Prince Consort Gu will probably find out and give them a beating.

Therefore, they usually followed Huang Fu's instructions and just strolled in the front yard.

But now... the inner courtyard where the princess lives has been robbed. If anything unexpected happens, those of them guarding the front courtyard will probably be affected as well.

He bit his lip, immediately ran to the gate, and summoned most of the guards to go to the backyard together.

After Jiang Qibin ran to the front yard and made a scene, he quickly slipped back to Wen Qingxuan.

"Your Highness, all the guards in the front yard have been called over." Jiang Qibin reported at the door.

"Did you tell me that my yard was robbed?" Jiang Xue's lazy voice came from inside the house.

"I said it." Not only did he say it, he also exaggerated it.

After a while, Xiaochun pushed the door open, raised her hand to half cover her cheek, and whispered beside him:

"Now find a secluded place where you can see all the guards in the courtyard and keep a close eye on them to see if anyone goes out."

Jiang Qibin nodded, jumped lightly, and flew away from the eaves.

Jiang Xue was not entirely sure that the man just now was the spy sent by Gu Lintan.

However, she was certain that, given Gu Lintan's behavior, he would definitely place his own spies among the servants.

An ordinary servant, Xiaochun Fudong will slowly interrogate him in the next few days.

But these guards were not from the backyard after all, so the two of them could not find out any clues directly.

So Jiang Xue wanted to make a bigger noise about what happened tonight.

If there was any unusual movement in Wen Qingxuan, Gu Lintan's spies would naturally go and report to their master as soon as possible.

She only needed to let Jiang Qibin observe secretly to find out which guards were his eyes and spies.

Jiang Xue tapped the table lightly with her fingers, as if she was thinking.

The noise outside the yard gradually became louder. Jiang Xue signaled with a look, and Fu Dong nodded and walked out of Wen Qingxuan.

She walked to the gate of the courtyard and asked loudly:

"What are you doing? You are making such a fuss! If you disturb His Highness's rest, you will suffer the consequences!"

The tall guard who rushed over from the front yard was panting and said:

"Just now, the princess's guards came to tell us that a thief had broken into the inner courtyard, and ordered us to stand guard at the door."

Fu Dong glanced at everyone one by one.

A group of people were all out of breath, they must be the group coming from the front yard.

The other team looked calm and must have been patrolling the inner courtyard gate from the beginning.

"The thief has been repelled by Guards Jiang and Xu," Fu Dong said, "They are going to pursue him. You just stay here and guard well. Don't leave. If anything happens to His Highness, your nine clans will not be enough to kill you."

"What's your name?" Fu Dong raised his chin and asked the tall guard.

The tall guard raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead and replied, "Miss, I'm Cui Ying."

"You are their leader?" Fu Dong said, "Count them carefully and come over to tell me the number of people. I need to know which of you have been lazy and neglected your duties. I will report to His Highness and his wife tomorrow and deal with them together."

Cui Ying panted heavily, took a few steps forward and said to Fu Dong:

"Girl, I have brought all the men I can in the front yard, a total of twelve people, and the other eight brothers are on duty in the front yard as usual."

"Do you think I'm blind?" Fu Dong pointed at the guards standing outside the door and said, "There are so many people, how could there be more than twelve?"

"Miss, I am only responsible for commanding the guards in the front yard. The ones in the inner yard..." Cui Ying didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said, "It's not my responsibility."

"Oh?" Fu Dong raised his eyebrows and looked at the other group of people, "Where is your leader?"

The two teams of guards were dressed exactly the same, but they were standing in two different groups.

If you saw them on ordinary days, you would never imagine that they belonged to two teams and had different superiors.

A guard walked out from the other group and said, "I am Li Cong. I was asked to supervise the guard Huang from the inner courtyard."

Fu Dong said: "Why didn't you answer when I asked you just now?"

Li Cong said: "The number of guards in the inner courtyard has always been 22. The prince consort is concerned about the safety of His Highness, so he has assigned the most people to the inner courtyard."

"Are you all here now?" Fu Dong asked.

"All are here."

"That's enough," Fu Dong said, "It's dark in the middle of the night, and there are so many people that I'm too lazy to count them."

"You two should make arrangements. These dozens of people will patrol the inner courtyard and outside tonight. Be alert. If what happened just now happens again, no one can save your heads."

After saying that, Fu Dong slammed the gate shut.

Inside the courtyard gate, Xiaochun, Chen Jin and Chen Xiu were standing quietly.

When Fu Dong turned around, he saw the three silent people and was almost scared to death.

"Good sister, where did you go just now?" Fu Dong whispered.

Just now Jiang Xue ordered Jiang Qibin to perform in the front yard, and when Xiaochun turned around he disappeared.

"Your Highness, it's not safe here," Xiaochun shook his head and said, "I went to invite two Wu'anlang to guard Wenqingxuan tonight."

"Didn't those people outside the door see you just now?"

Xiaochun shook his head.

Chen Xiu pointed at the courtyard wall.

The two of them grabbed Xiaochun and jumped over the wall to come in.

With Wu Anlang's skills, it is not difficult to avoid being noticed.

Fudong grabbed Xiaochun's sleeve and said, "Come with me to report to His Highness first."

She turned to Chen Jin and Chen Xiu and said with a smile, "I'll leave this yard in the hands of you two brothers."

Chen Jin is a quiet person, he had no expression on his face and just nodded.

Chen Xiu looked at Fu Dong's silly appearance and smiled.

Inside the house, Jiang Xue was dozing off with her hand on her forehead.

After Xiaochun Fudong entered the house, Jiang Xue opened her eyes and asked, "Did you go to get some help?"

Xiaochun nodded and said, "Jiang Qibin had other tasks, and Xu Chong was the only one protecting us. I was worried, so I made the decision on my own."

"I wanted to let them sleep well on the first day of entering the mansion." Jiang Xue raised her hand and rubbed her forehead. "Forget it, you are also eager to protect the master."

"Fudong, what's the situation?" Jiang Xue raised her eyes and looked at Fudong.

Fu Dong said: "Your Highness, the guards of the Gu Mansion are actually divided into two factions. Those people in the front yard are in a panic and look like fools."

"It was the leader of the team that claimed to be the guard of the inner courtyard who concealed the number of people."

"When Xiaochun and I entered this yard this afternoon, Xiaochun counted them privately." She looked at Xiaochun, her eyes full of admiration.

"There are guards standing in groups of two or three outside the courtyard. There are twenty-two of them in total."

"The head of the guard also reported that there are now 22 people guarding the courtyard."

"But when I went out just now, I was careful and pointed out those people who looked calm."

"Including the leader, there are only twenty-one people."

"That person concealed the number of people."