Cheng Ying's eyes fell on her, and after two breaths, he said to Xia Ning who was driving, "Find a place to park."

Xia Ning found a dense forest and stopped the carriage.

Cheng Ying accompanied Yu Jiao out of the carriage and found a lush depression in the dense forest. She said, "It's a bit shabby. I'm sorry to bother you."

Yu Jiao shook her head awkwardly: "It's okay."

Cheng Ying walked away and stood on the hillside ten feet away from her, with her back turned.

After a while, Yu Jiao came back. Cheng Ying saw her off to the carriage, picked up the water bag and said, "I'll go get some water from the stream."

Yu Jiao sat quietly in the carriage, touching the wooden hairpin in her sleeve. Her fingertips unconsciously exerted a little force, but fortunately she did nothing.

A quarter of an hour later, Cheng Ying came back with a water bag filled with water. She poured water on Yu Jiao so that she could wash her hands, and then they set off again.

In the evening, Xia Ning shot two wild pheasants, roasted them over the fire, and then the three of them shared the food. After having dinner, they continued on their journey.

-

"Sir, would you like to rest for a moment?"

After leaving Xianyang, they rode fast horses and rushed to Jiaxing without stopping.

Seeing that it was already dark and Yu Qizhe had not eaten a single grain of rice, Jianjia had to ask him. She was worried that if they continued to travel at this rate, her brother-in-law would not be able to hold on before they even reached Jiaxing.

"That's fine." Yu Qizhe slowed down and said, "If you're hungry or thirsty, just eat something on horseback."

He thought about it carefully and realized that Cheng Ying and Yu Jiao would not be able to ride horses, so they would most likely take a carriage. If they took a carriage, according to their pace, they would most likely have reached Raozhou by now. As long as they kept on riding, they should be able to catch up by noon tomorrow.

"Sir, please drink some water and have some dry food." Jianjia knew that he must be extremely anxious at the moment. So were she and Bailu. Ever since they knew that Cheng Ying was planning to take the girl to Jiaxing to go out to sea, each of them wanted to fly to Jiaxing immediately, stop Cheng Ying, and rescue the girl.

Yu Qizhe took the water bag off the horse, raised his head and took a big sip, then took out a piece of dry food and stuffed it into his mouth. After eating a few bites, which were enough to fill his stomach, he stuffed the dry food back into the bag, whipped the horse, and galloped towards Jiaxing again.

Although he didn't know Cheng Ying well, he didn't think that Cheng Ying would decide to take Yu Jiao to Jiaxing to cross the sea without any preparation.

Yu Qizhe guessed that Cheng Ying had already made arrangements at sea and had a foolproof plan, so he must intercept Cheng Ying and rescue Yu Jiao before he boarded the boat to the sea.

He also had another concern. Pirates were rampant in Jiaxing. When Zhu Kuang was in power, he neglected to send troops to suppress the bandits, which led to the rapid development of pirates in the Zhouhai area, and they became a force that could not be underestimated.

Those pirates are the kings of the sea. Taiyan has a maritime ban, with neither a navy nor ships that go out to sea. If Cheng Ying wants to go out to sea, it is possible that he has colluded with those pirates. Once on the sea, with those pirates in charge, it would be extremely difficult to rescue Yu Jiao. So he had to go faster, faster, to have a chance to stop Cheng Ying.

After running for half the night, they finally saw the city gate of Raozhou City. Yu Qizhe and his party stopped outside the official post station, took out their official credentials and inquired whether there was a marching team of more than a thousand people passing by. The postmaster of the post station shook his head and said he had never seen it. Yu Qizhe had an idea in his mind. He had chased them all the way but had not seen any traces of a marching team of more than a thousand people. He guessed that Cheng Ying might have made other arrangements. After all, a team of more than a thousand people was too eye-catching. If he were Cheng Ying, he would travel light so as not to attract attention.

Yu Qizhe asked the official post station to prepare seven fast horses. Without stopping, he took Jianjia Bailu, Yunxiao and others on the road again.

After a sleepless night, they arrived outside Songjiang City at noon the next day, but did not find any trace of Cheng Ying.