Chapter 70 The Young Master is Captured

The journey continued, and Bai Hua sat in the carriage for several hours, feeling listless and weak all over. She felt as if her internal organs were rusted, and her whole body was stiff and uncomfortable. Because she was traveling with her cousin, she couldn't fully relax, and the fatigue doubled. She felt like she could fall asleep sitting up.

Ultimately, she couldn't hold on any longer. She had no appetite for lunch, so Bai Hua leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

Seeing this, Rong Linyan sighed helplessly. He stepped forward, carefully supported Bai Hua's shoulders, and gently laid her down on the couch. He then covered her with a cotton blanket so that she could rest more comfortably.

After doing all this, Rong Linyan lifted the carriage curtain, ordered his subordinates to stop the carriage, and commanded the convoy to rest on the spot.

Bai Hua slept quite comfortably, undisturbed by anyone. She woke up after a wonderful dream. In her dream, she looked a little younger, with her hair styled in a cute little bun, a coquettish smile on her lips. She was standing in front of the kitchen counter, clinging to her mother, learning how to make chestnut cakes. Once the cakes were in the steamer, her mother, holding a handkerchief, wiped the flour off her nose and cheeks, laughing and calling her "little kitten."

I opened my eyes, took a moment to calm myself, and could no longer smell the warm, delicious aroma of chestnut cake wafting towards me.

Bai Hua gradually distinguished between dream and reality, and with some sadness, she pulled herself back from her thoughts, wiped her wet eyes, and felt a tightness in her chest.

She missed her mother, her father, and her brother...

However, the carriage's journey did not end at her home.

A series of noisy footsteps sounded outside the carriage curtain. Bai Hua belatedly realized that the carriage was not moving while bumping. She must have been able to sleep well just now because they were not traveling.

Bai Hua was a little confused. She reached out and lifted the curtain to look outside. Seeing many miscellaneous trees around her, she guessed that they should still be in the forest. Not far away, several disciples were gathered together, cooking and chatting around a fire. A little further away, there were two sentries on patrol.

He scanned left and right, but couldn't find his cousin. The number of disciples didn't match either; about five were missing, their whereabouts unknown.

Bai Hua was puzzled. She noticed that the deputy hall master, Fu Wei, was also by the fire, eating meat skewered on tree branches. It probably wasn't meat she had brought with her; it was most likely wild game she had hunted in the mountains.

"Vice Hall Master, where did my cousin go?" Bai Hua called out to him.

Fu Wei looked up at the sound and saw Bai Hua's bright face reflected behind the curtain. The light from the fire around her shone perfectly on her eyebrows and eyes, creating a warm yellow halo. Looking closely, the girl was so beautiful that it seemed unreal.

Surrounded by barren land and dense woods, and with the carriage parked in the shadows, her bright eyes swept across the scene as if a tree spirit or flower fairy had appeared.

Fu Wei coughed lightly, stopped imagining, and quickly responded.

He quickly chewed and swallowed what was in his mouth, then wiped his mouth with an air of importance, and rushed over to tell Bai Hua to speak.

“Miss, you’re awake. You’ve slept for quite a while now. Are you feeling better? There’s some congee that the brothers have cooked over there, as well as some roasted rabbit and pheasant. But we didn’t bring all the seasonings; we only sprinkled some salt on it. If you want some, you’ll have to make do. I’ll go get some for you now.”

After saying that, Fu Wei took a step to turn around, acting very attentive.

Bai Hua called out to him, "Don't rush, Deputy Hall Master. How long have we been resting here? Why haven't we seen my cousin? Where did he go?"

Fu Wei thought for a moment and replied, "We've rested for about two hours. We just sent someone to the nearby horse market to buy horses. We plan to keep only the carriage you're in, and have the others ride along, so that several grown men won't feel cramped in the carriage. As for the leader..."

Just as they were getting to the crucial point, Fu Wei paused, looking at Bai Hua with some hesitation, as if pondering whether he should tell her the truth.

Bai Hua waited for a while, feeling a little uneasy.

Fu Wei finally spoke again, but he was clearly holding back: "The hall master and the others have gone to deal with the aftermath. Judging from the time, they should be back soon. Miss, please wait a little longer. If you have any questions, it's better to ask the hall master directly later."

Since things had already come to this point, Bai Hua couldn't press the matter further and had no choice but to give up asking.

But because of Fu Wei's reticent attitude, Bai Hua became suspicious, wondering what her cousin was trying to hide.

He just mentioned dealing with the tail... the tail... could it be someone following us? Could it be Ning Jue and his group?

Bai Hua couldn't help but let her suspicions run wild, her mind in turmoil.

Fu Wei returned and brought her food.

Bai Hua had little appetite and only drank a bowl of bland rice porridge, leaving the meat dishes on the side.

After finishing her meal, she got off the carriage to stretch her body, her mind preoccupied. She walked and stopped intermittently, twisting her ankles and rotating her wrists, glancing out every now and then to see if there was any sign of her cousin returning.

The sky gradually darkened completely, the jungle path was utterly silent, fireflies danced in the air, and no human presence was in sight.

Bai Hua sighed and looked away.

At this moment, Fu Wei, standing not far away, called out to her in a loud and enthusiastic voice, "Miss, there are a lot of mosquitoes outside, and they bite so itchy. Why don't you go back to the carriage and rest for a while, and I'll come and call you as soon as the leader returns."

While she was pacing, she noticed a mosquito bite on her arm that was incredibly itchy. She tried to pinch it with her fingernails several times, but it didn't help.

The mosquitoes in the mountains are more venomous than those in the yard, and Bai Hua doesn't want her skin to be covered in swollen welts.

So she replied to Yingwei, "Then I'll trouble you, Deputy Hall Master."

Fu Wei: "Miss Biao, you're too kind."

...

The wait was much longer than expected.

It wasn't until the next morning, when the sky was just beginning to lighten, that Bai Hua finally heard the sounds of her cousin and his group returning.

The commotion was not loud, but it wasn't disturbing. Bai Hua wasn't woken up by the sound; she had slept all afternoon yesterday and hadn't gotten any sleep.

Bai Hua got up, just about to lift the carriage curtain to greet her cousin and ask about the situation, but before she could reach out, she heard rustling sounds of someone changing clothes outside, as well as two voices deliberately lowered.

"Is Hua'er still asleep?"

"Yes, she's asleep. It's still so early, she won't wake up. It's my fault for mixing up the dosage of the sleeping potion when I soaked the handkerchief earlier, causing Miss Biao to suffer. It took her so long to recover her energy. Those merchants from the Southern Region are all incredibly cunning. Although the quality of their goods is not bad, it's best to avoid dealing with them."

There were two voices, one from my cousin and the other from Fu Wei.

Bai Hua hesitated for a moment, then stopped moving and lay back down, pulled the covers up, closed her eyes, and pretended to be still asleep.

Sure enough, footsteps soon approached, and the carriage curtain was lifted from the outside, letting in a few wisps of cool morning breeze that brushed against her nose before being lowered again a moment later.

Fu Wei's voice rang out again, still deliberately restrained, his volume low: "Look, still asleep, not awake yet."

The two walked a few steps away, but not far from the carriage. Bai Hua held her breath and listened intently, barely able to hear clearly.

Rong Linyan spoke up: "Did she ask where I was? What did you answer?"

Fu Wei: "Miss Biao is concerned about the safety of the Hall Master, so it's natural that she asked. I just said that it was inconvenient for me to tell her, and that she would ask you again when the Hall Master returns."

After saying that, Fu Wei changed the subject, his tone becoming more serious: "How's it going? Have you caught Ning Jue yet?"

Upon hearing this, Bai Hua suddenly opened her eyes, which had been closed, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and her fingertips curled up.

She held her breath nervously, making sure she hadn't misheard, and then eagerly tried to find out more.

Rong Linyan replied in a low voice, "Yes, we deliberately left traceable clues and set up a tea stall along the way to attract Ning Jue to ask for directions. By sheer coincidence, he appeared alone and stopped at the stall to rest. He asked us for directions and whether he had seen a caravan. While answering his questions, we made him tea and took the opportunity to slip him some Southern Region powder. After drinking it, he broke out in a cold sweat a few moments later and couldn't use his internal energy. Without much hesitation, we quickly stepped forward and captured him alive."

Fu Wei's tone was smug, with a hint of triumph as if he wanted to avenge his previous humiliation: "It was too difficult to make Ning Jue pay the price this time. Why don't we go all the way and take him out without anyone noticing?"

Rong Linyan had his own thoughts and disagreed: "That's not appropriate. Hua'er has only learned the first twenty moves of the Lone Goose Sword Technique, but I think... what if Ning Jue is hiding something? Maybe we can use some methods to get more out of him. Right now, he still has value to be used, so he can't die."

Fu Wei worriedly said, "Once the effects of the drug wear off, I'm afraid even if we work together, we won't be able to hold him back..."

Rong Linyan said conceitedly, "We must continue to take medicine. We have spent so much money on the Fujian merchants, how can we waste it? Now that we have successfully trapped him, we will have no competitors when we go up to the arena to win. We must hurry back to Jiling and not miss the day when the general officially opens the arena."

"The tournament starts in seven days. We'll have to travel a bit, but we shouldn't be late." After saying that, Fu Wei hesitated for a moment, then added, "Master, how do we explain things to Miss Biao... She's a kind and righteous person. She was ordered to do this in a time of crisis and had no choice but to deceive Ning Jue. If she finds out that you've trapped her, she might feel sorry for her."

"Womanly compassion." Rong Linyan's tone was unpleasant, with a hint of unfamiliar coldness. "Don't worry, Hua'er won't do anything reckless in order to save her brother."

Fu Wei said no more and replied, "Yes."

The voices stopped, and the footsteps faded into the distance; it seemed the two had gone somewhere else.

Inside the carriage, Bai Hua's body was completely stiffened on one side because she had been in one position for too long.

She slowly shifted her shoulder, feeling a numbing, slightly tingling sensation instantly envelop half of her body. Her lips trembled uncontrollably, not from fear, but from a complex, indescribable emotion surging within her chest.

The young master was captured by his cousin?

At first glance, it seems impossible.

The two were vastly different in strength; even if the cousin didn't admit it, his skill was simply far inferior.

Upon hearing this, Bai Hua's first reaction was disbelief, but as her cousin described the details, she began to waver.

Overwhelmed with thoughts, she was eager to get out of the car to check, but she had just pretended to be fast asleep and couldn't rush out to check the situation immediately.

We can only wait and wait...

Before she could "wake up," the people outside heard a commotion and the convoy resumed its northward journey.

The journey was certainly not a good time to check the situation, so Bai Hua could only wait patiently until the convoy stopped for the second time.

Fortunately, the convoy stopped an hour later.

Before she could get out of the car, Rong Linyan came over first, lifted the curtain, and woke her up.

Bai Hua looked languid, pretending to have just woken up, and rubbed her eyes to feign authenticity.

Rong Linyan spoke to her in a gentle voice, a stark contrast to the cold and indifferent tone Bai Hua had heard an hour earlier.

"Hua'er, come down and stretch your legs. They're preparing, and you'll have a hot breakfast soon."

Bai Hua: "Cousin, when did you get back? I didn't see you last night, and I couldn't stay awake any longer and fell asleep."

She outwardly flattered Rong Linyan, but her mind had already wandered far away.

Without making a sound, he raised his eyes and looked out through the curtain that Rong Linyan had lifted. All he could see were a few black-maned horses and figures moving around; there was nothing else.

Rong Linyan moved, completely blocking Bai Hua's view and preventing her from looking outwards.

Then, with a smile on his lips, he replied, "I came back shortly after you fell asleep. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

That's a lie.

She knew her cousin wouldn't return until after dawn.

Bai Hua gave a perfunctory reply, straightened her clothes, and got up to get off the bus.

Rong Linyan took the initiative to put his arm around her, naturally making contact with her, but Bai Hua felt uncomfortable.

After getting off the bus, she looked around but didn't find anything unusual.

Bai Hua was observant and quickly noticed that three or four people seemed to be missing from the group. These were her cousin's most trusted and capable disciples and followers.

Count it again to make sure it's definitely too short.

Where did those people go? And where is the young master now?

Bai Hua pondered these questions, and even her breakfast tasted bland. She was listless and spoke very little.

When Rong Linyan saw this, he assumed she was just tired from the journey and uncomfortable from the bumpy ride, and he didn't suspect anything else.

Bai Hua was using simple chopsticks made from tree branches to pick up and put down the vegetable leaves in her bowl when suddenly, a brilliant idea flashed into her mind.

Perhaps my cousin's confidants are with the young master; they've stayed behind to keep watch, to be on guard, to be on alert...

If that's the case, my cousin certainly wouldn't feel comfortable leaving them too far away. The carriage imprisoning the young master must be either in front of them or behind them, so it can't be far.

Each time they parked and set up camp, the two teams were able to stay in touch and even take turns guarding the area.

With this in mind, she paid extra attention to all the changes happening around her.

Her appetite increased, and she ate the rest of her food in large bites. She then moved around a bit more before returning to her carriage.

A short while later, her cousin got into the car and chatted with her casually for a bit, but seemed somewhat distracted. After getting out of the car, he wandered around outside for a while, deliberately waiting before taking Fu Wei and heading deep into the jungle.

Through the narrow gap in the carriage curtain, Bai Hua watched as her cousin and Fu Wei's figures slowly disappeared into the bushes.

Her heart pounded like a drum, certain that the young master was hidden in that direction.