Chapter 9

The doors to the room were all closed, and only Qingyun and Mu Helian were in the small space. She listened carefully to the footsteps outside, and only after confirming that no one was there did she begin to tell Qingyun what was going on.

"This concerns that princess. If you reveal it later and it attracts assassins, don't blame me then."

Seeing the frightening words spoken by the other party, Qingyun's heart was also on edge. She was a little nervous, but she still nodded to signal her to continue.

The root of the problem actually lies with Song Chaoyun's younger sister, Song Chaohua. She was secretly demoted to this place, and rumors circulated that she fell in love with a Taoist priest. She used the witchcraft he taught her on Song Chaoyun, and the priest was so bewitching that no amount of persuasion could dissuade her from leaving. She even planned to elope with him, and ultimately, the emperor ordered the priest to be executed.

The ill-fated relationship between the two had just ended when the princess investigated which person had betrayed them.

Only then did they realize that the informant was none other than Lin Wanjun. The two had been childhood sweethearts, and Princess Lin Gui would confide everything to Lin Wanjun. The reason Lin Wanjun did this was due to a family tragedy. She sought help from the princess but was humiliated by both the princess and the Taoist priest. In a fit of anger, she filed a lawsuit, directly exposing Princess Lin Gui and the Taoist priest's secret engagement to the emperor.

Ultimately, for reasons unknown, the two were demoted together. The Taoist priest was torn apart by five horses in front of the martial arts gate. The princess gave an order that if Lin Wanjun was sick and needed medicine, she should not consult a doctor. If she had no food or water, she should not be given any. Moreover, she should not be allowed to die directly, but instead be given some things to torment others.

This was quite a piece of gossip. Recalling the day she met Song Chaohua, she knew he was not someone to be trifled with.

Qingyun pondered for a moment before agreeing not to tell anyone. However, as the two were chatting animatedly, she caught a whiff of something unusual and frowned at Mu Helian. "Did you smell anything?"

The woman was extremely vigilant. Upon hearing this, she sniffed carefully, then flung open the window with a whoosh. Smoke rushed into her head, and thick smoke billowed outside. "Oh no! There's a fire!"

After saying that, she moved quickly and, before the other party could react, grabbed Qingyun and rushed outside. However, the outside was very strange. Many people were sitting on their desks and did not run even when they heard that there was a fire. The atmosphere was so quiet that it was unsettling.

Upon closer inspection, she discovered several corpses lying haphazardly in the stairwell, seemingly mutilated by a large knife. A severed arm lay at Qingyun's feet, the white bone still visible in its cross-section. She turned pale with fright and was speechless for a moment, her stiff body allowing Mu Helian to lead her away.

Mu Helian's dark figure moved through the dim space. She picked up a man who was slumped on the table, put her finger under his nose to check his breath, and then looked at his face by the firelight. She concluded that he was "poisoned."

At this moment, the pungent air rushed into their throats, and the oxygen was becoming increasingly scarce. They couldn't care less about that now; they had to get out first.

Outside, people were shouting everywhere in the streets, "Murder! Murder!"

The men who had followed them on the way also arrived at this moment. The group met in the hall. A beam, which had been completely broken by the fire, fell down and hit the corpse on the ground. When Qingyun saw the head separated from the body, his expression tensed up, and he completely forgot how to act.

It's no wonder she reacted this way. If any modern person saw this scene, they might have been scared to death on the spot. Mu Helian glanced at Qingyun, who was already in a daze, and without saying a word, she carried him on her shoulder and led him out of the post station. However, before the two of them could think about what had happened in the post station, some thugs had already come up by smell.

The group wrestled together, making it difficult for Mu Helian to move with Qingyun. "Are you dead? Get down and hide!" she yelled. Qingyun snapped out of his daze and, as if come alive, immediately complained to the system, "[I'm about to have my soul leave my body! This place is terrifying!]"

System: [Host, they're all robbers, you'd better be careful.]

Qingyun: [Do you even need to tell me that?]

She had neither martial arts skills nor the ability to kill, so she was destined to become cannon fodder and sacrifice her life for others. Qingyun adjusted her body and started moving, just about to run into a small alley when Mu Helian scolded her, "If you want to lose your innocence, then go ahead and go in. How come you can't even hide properly?"

She swiftly dealt with the thief, then picked him up and threw him into a small corner where she could see him, but where no one would notice.

Qingyun was terrified. He silently prayed a hundred times not to kill him and prayed for Mu Helian's safety before asking the system in his mind what was going on.

System: [These days, the people suffer greatly. Many are starving and forced to sell their children. Robbery is now a common occurrence.]

Since they were just bandits and villains, why would they kill the people at the post station? Moreover, some of those people were poisoned, so it was clearly the work of someone with malicious intent.

Mu Helian's attention was entirely focused on the fight in front of her, and she didn't notice that someone was gradually approaching from behind.

She grabbed the person in front of her by the clothes and swiftly stabbed them. The gleaming white blade was stained with bright red blood, which dripped from the tip onto the ground. Suddenly, she heard a loud "thud" and only then did she realize what had happened.

Looking back, one could see Qingyun holding a large stick, his hands trembling as he backed away, until finally, in fear, he simply threw the weapon aside.

Qingyun's eyes welled up with tears. He stared at his hands for a moment, then immediately looked up, wiped away his tears, and said loudly, "This isn't fun at all! Can you be a little more careful? You almost got... almost got hacked to death just now!"

Heaven knows how worried she was just now, and she didn't even know if the person lying on the ground was still alive. Qingyun couldn't possibly go and see.

Having never seen Qingyun like this before, Mu Helian was slightly stunned. Moved, she immediately said to the other men, "We have to hurry! We need to finish this quickly!"

Looking at the post station that was already engulfed in flames, Qingyun, who was standing in front of the fireball, suddenly thought of Song Junwu. He wondered if Song Junwu had escaped. Then he thought that such a smart person could not have been unaware of it, so he simply followed Mu Helian and pulled the donkey cart out of the city.

However, due to the bandits, the city gates were tightly closed, and no one was allowed to leave. They could not leave now and could only wait until the next day. Mu Helian drove the donkey cart to the backyard of a secluded house and kept watch like a hawk. The streets were already in chaos, and the noisy commotion was endless.

Fortunately, things calmed down after half an hour. After all, bandits are different from regular troops, and they were quickly suppressed.

"You all wait in the outer courtyard first. I will inform the master and then make arrangements." The servant guarding outside the courtyard gate took the document handed over by Mu Helian. Before long, a maid from the inner courtyard led Qingyun in, while Mu Helian went to the main hall to meet with the mistress.

When Qingyun and his group found this place, they heard that the maid had married into a wealthy local family and become a concubine. That's why they found this place again. Mu Helian was considered a semi-official, so she would naturally be received by the mistress of the house when people of her status came.

“Our young mistress hasn’t been around much these past few years, so she might not recognize you. Just talk to her a bit, she’s waiting for you in the inner room. You’ll see her as soon as you push the door open,” the maid leading the way said respectfully from outside the door.

Perhaps because she didn't know Qingyun's true identity and thought he was someone as noble as Mu Helian, she dared not be negligent.

Upon entering, one sees light gauze curtains hanging to the floor, and two enormous vases with peacock tail feathers placed on either side of the main seat facing the entrance. The entire room is filled with smoke, and decorations made of gold and silver jewelry are everywhere, exuding a luxurious beauty.

It seemed that although she was a concubine, her treatment was still good. Just as she was thinking this, she turned a corner and entered the inner room, only to see the person lying on the bed. However, the scene shocked her. The woman's legs were wrapped in cloth, and bloodstains could be seen. There was calming incense burning on the table, but even so, the woman was still sweating profusely from the pain.

The person on the bed groaned with a frown. When she heard the sound, she slowly opened her eyes. At first, she looked at Qingyun with a puzzled expression, as if she did not recognize her. Qingyun walked over on her own. As soon as she reached the bedside, the woman suddenly pulled her up, sat her up, and held her face in her hands to examine her carefully. In that instant, her eyes went from shock to disbelief, and a light appeared in her lifeless eyes.

"Miss? Is that you, Miss?... Is that you, Miss?" She suddenly became agitated, her pale lips twitching into a smile more hideous than a ghost. Qingyun was at a loss, and not wanting to give herself away, she immediately nodded, "It's me, it's me."

Tears welled up in the woman's eyes. She searched Qingyun's body, checking for any injuries before finally relaxing. She murmured to herself, "You're still alive, still alive! I thought you and the master..." Before Qingyun could speak, she suddenly stood up, knelt down, grabbed Qingyun's hand, and cried, "Please save me! Miss, please get me out of here!"

"What's wrong?" Although Qingyun didn't understand the situation, seeing the woman crying so sadly, she immediately sat down by the bed and gently patted her back to comfort her.

The woman threw herself into Qingyun's arms, weeping, clutching her sleeve tightly and refusing to let go. "I want to leave! I want to get away from here!" she cried, staring up at her with wide eyes. "Please, take me with you!"

Hearing the woman only say these few words without revealing any key information, Qingyun had no choice but to patiently ask again.

But then the woman suddenly pushed her away, frantically pulling at her hair, repeatedly saying, "I'll get caught... I'll get caught... No, Miss will get beaten too... No, no, no! I can't be a burden to Miss, yes, yes... I have to get Miss to leave quickly."

Qingyun was startled by her appearance. Seeing the woman's emotional outburst, she suppressed her discomfort and stepped forward. Although she had no feelings for her, Qingyun gently embraced her. "Calm down, calm down. Talk it out slowly. No one will hit you," she said softly and patiently, like a mother's whisper.

"What's wrong with her?" Qingyun asked the system in her mind.

The system query indicated that this servant only had some information remaining in the Qing Mansion, because she was not originally going to develop into the world of Qingyun. In short, she was an NPC.

But Qingyun had already considered more than a dozen possibilities based on the current situation, such as what kind of quirks this master might have, or whether he liked to torture people.

The maid outside the door seemed to have heard the commotion inside. She stood quietly by the window and said respectfully, "If you fall ill again today, Master will be worried when he comes home tonight. Please have a good chat with your old master and don't say anything that might cause misunderstandings."

The window frame framed the little maid's figure, and the woman, upon seeing her, looked as if she had seen a ghost and immediately hid in Qingyun's arms.

These words were laced with threat, but the woman stopped crying and making a fuss. She stared at Qingyun, as if she had regained some of her senses, and her muddled eyes became clear. The woman took the initiative to let go of Qingyun and moved to the far corner of the bed, patting the spot next to her, signaling her to come up with her.