Chapter 52 Unexpected Events "Go after her! She can't have gone far!"...

As night deepened, Shi Wan continued her journey under cover of darkness.

She tested the effects of the sleeping potion by mixing it into the medicinal broth, which made her unconscious for about half a day. However, when adding it to the soup, she didn't dare to add too much, just in case. In addition, these five people were all martial arts practitioners, vigorous adult men. Compared to her sickly body, the effects of the drug would only dissipate faster. She estimated that they would wake up in at most three hours.

Thinking of this, Shi Wan felt even more anxious. Chenling was located in a remote area with winding roads. Compared to the border garrison and Huzhou where she had served, there were naturally no wide and regular official roads to travel on. However, such small roads made it easier for Shi Wan to carry out her tasks to some extent.

She asked her way along the way, not caring whether her whereabouts would be discovered after those people woke up. She only wanted to get away as quickly as possible. The money she had looted was scattered everywhere. She finally breathed a sigh of relief when she arrived at Chenling Water Station.

It was already past 11:45 PM, the moon was high in the sky, the night was cold, and there were hardly any people on the dock.

Chenling only had this one water station. Shi Wan had been traveling at a fast pace, and now she could finally stop for a while. Looking up, she saw layers of ice and mist, and the vast lake surface made her feel a little depressed. Amidst the flickering lights, she casually picked up some mud, smeared it on her face, found a boatman to rest, and boarded the boat.

The boatman, who had been dozing for a while, heard the noise and quickly got up. Seeing that it was a slender woman, he was delighted and called out, "Miss, do you need to cross the river?"

Shi Wan held the hibiscus jade hairpin in her hand, a gentle smile on her face. "May I ask the boatman, how much is the fare?"

The boatman saw that she was dressed plainly, and her coarse linen clothes could not hide her slender figure, but her appearance was somewhat lacking. He had a guess in his mind and said, "Fifty coins per person."

Shi Wan paused for a moment, as if about to leave. Seeing this, the boatman quickly put on a smiling face, "Miss, wait a moment, the price is negotiable." Although business is not good these days, no matter what, one person can't possibly earn fifty coins, let alone in this poor place.

She stood at attention and said, "Twenty coins per person, how about that?" Although the boatman was a man, he was three feet shorter than her. She had already made up her mind, but she did not let her guard down.

"Twenty coins? That probably won't be enough. I'll need at least thirty coins for this trip." The businessman wouldn't openly embarrass her, but his tone was somewhat ambiguous.

Although the boatman was joking, Shi Wan could still sense his subtle, scrutinizing gaze upon her.

There were only a few boats around, and Shi Wan didn't want to say anything more to him. She got up and headed out. Seeing this, the boatman had no choice but to grit his teeth and say, "Thirty coins, how about it?"

"If you agree, young lady, let's go now."

The lakes here are connected, and the boat is not big, at most it can only carry a few people, so it probably can't go too far. The situation is urgent, and Shi Wan was actually waiting for this sentence.

She pretended to think it over and hesitated for a few moments before agreeing. She then pretended to rummage through her purse and managed to scrape together thirty coins.

Seeing this, the boatman's gaze softened slightly, now tinged with disdain. But Chenling was not like the bustling cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou; it had been closed for a long time since winter began. A dark glint flashed in his eyes, but he accepted the money with a smile and enthusiastically called out, "Ladies, sit tight! We're leaving now!"

After speaking, just as Shi Wan had expected, she made no mention of the travel permit, which was exactly the same as Wan Hou Fulin's experience of changing waterways along the way.

It's likely that most of these boatmen were illiterate, and also... this particular boatman was probably thinking about other jobs.

This trip may not be very safe, but at least the danger is out in the open, which is a good thing.

She felt a little relieved and subconsciously tightened her grip on the carved hibiscus jade hairpin. When she had nothing to do before, Shi Wan had spent a lot of time studying it and unexpectedly discovered that there was a special mechanism embedded inside the hairpin. Although she had not tested it on any living creature, judging from the silver needle that suddenly shot out, the liquid quenched on it looked like some kind of poison.

The boat is long and narrow, with an old-fashioned design. Its dark planks are weathered and eroded by water, covered with cracks of varying depths. The lantern at the bow sways in the wind, like a swaying silhouette, cutting through a long and winding road, moving forward.

Before long, the view suddenly opened up.

The charcoal fire in the cabin had long since burned out, and now it looked more like a decoration. Shi Wan was tense and deep in thought when she suddenly heard the boatman ask her, "Miss, where are you going all by yourself in the middle of the night?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Wan immediately covered her face with her hands, tears streaming down her face, as if touched by a painful memory. Her voice was filled with sorrow as she said, "To be honest, I am originally from Huzhou. My parents ran a small business near Luoyang, but due to the constant wars in recent years, business was not good, so they were forced to move north. However, they suddenly lost contact with me on the way. My grandmother raised me alone in Huzhou. Upon hearing this news, my grandmother fell ill and kept saying that she wanted to see my cousin one last time. I had no choice but to entrust the remaining money to an acquaintance and head north to find my relatives."

As she spoke, she sighed, "My cousin owes my family a lot of money. I've come to find him for two reasons: first, to fulfill a family's wish, and second, to collect the debt. We're family, after all; we should still have some old friendships..."

Seeing that she was sobbing, the boatman sighed and said, "Life is hard these days..." After saying that, he turned his head and focused on rowing the boat, casually saying, "It will probably take more than two hours to get here. If you are tired, you can rest for a while."

Shi Wan thanked him and then pretended to close her eyes and fall into a deep sleep.

A moment later, the sound of oars gently stirring the lake could be heard, carried downstream by the cold wind.

She peered out through the crack, gazing at the lake reflecting the winter moon, the water rippling gently, stretching to the horizon. In her extremely tense state of mind, the constraints of Chenling, the riches and glory of guarding the frontier, the torment of pain, even the lights and sights of Huzhou in the distant past... all gradually faded away with the swaying ripples on the water.

The lake on this winter night was no longer as shimmering as it was in summer. Under the moonlight, the water was as dark as thick ink, as if it would swallow her up completely. Shi Wan withdrew her gaze and carefully observed the boatman's movements.

Although he had mentioned that he was looking for relatives and that someone was concerned about the news, the boatman didn't seem like an honest person, and... it had been more than an hour since they set sail, and Wan Hou Fulin and the others should be waking up soon in Chenling.

As Shi Wan drifted off into a daze, time passed. In her drowsy state, she suddenly felt her eyelids twitch. She instinctively gripped the hairpin and stood up. Looking up, she saw the boatman staring intently at her, his gaze unreadable.

Seeing her so alert, he touched her head and smiled, "Miss, you're awake. We'll be there soon."

Shi Wan's heart pounded with alarm bells. "If that's the case, why not stop the boat and dock?"

Seeing that she was clear-headed, with bloodshot eyes and no signs of sleepiness, the boatman knew that this young girl had been wary of him from the beginning. He was immediately annoyed and took a few steps closer. "You know everything perfectly well, so why are you asking your old man?"

Seeing that he was about to do something evil, Shi Wan gripped her hairpin tightly and quickly climbed onto him.

The boatman was never exactly a clean freak, and he'd seen plenty of young women who cried and whined when they faced him. So when he suddenly saw this, he was momentarily stunned. Coming to his senses, he held the rope in one hand and tried to restrain Shi Wan with the other. With a few movements, the machete at his waist struck the boat plank with a dull thud, splashing a puddle of lake water.

In the blink of an eye, the hairpin had pierced his flesh. The tattered raincoat could not stop the poison from seeping in. In just two breaths, the boatman's vision blurred, and a moment later, he fell straight down in the cabin with a "thud".

Shi Wan's heart skipped a beat. She quickly moved away, grabbed a paddle, and rowed hard. Fortunately, the boatman wasn't lying. She followed the lake downstream and soon saw the riverbank with a few trees in the distance. There were no other boats in sight, so the boatman must have taken the opportunity to go around to some side path.

Fifteen minutes later, the boat docked. Shi Wan was exhausted and panting heavily. The white breath she exhaled gradually condensed into frost and drifted into the air.

Aside from twitching twice at the beginning, the boatman remained extremely quiet, appearing as if he had been knocked unconscious by some kind of paralyzing toxin, or...

It was as if he were dead.

Shi Wan held her breath and took small steps back to the cabin. She subconsciously kicked the man twice, and when there was no reaction, she reached out to check the boatman's breath.

All was silent, save for a faint chill and the fishy smell of water. Nothing else was there. Under the gray sky, his face exuded an aura of death.

The hairpin in Shi Wan's hand fell to the ground with a "clatter".

The crisp sound was as if something had quietly broken into pieces.

Chen Ling, in a private room on the second floor.

"Wake up! Fu Lin! Wake up!"

Amidst the clinking and clattering sounds, Wan Hou Fulin was splashed with a cup of cold tea the moment he opened his eyes.

As a relative of General Wanhou, he was always the one who had to curry favor with others in the army. Coming to his senses, Wanhou Fulin was about to get angry when he saw Zhang Xun looking uneasy. Around him, there were three people half-fallen, also half-asleep.

"Miss Wan'er has disappeared!"

Upon hearing this, Wan Hou Fulin's pupils contracted slightly, and he subconsciously stood up. He had deliberately avoided drinking alcohol to guard against this matter, but why did he still feel dizzy after drinking this Laba porridge?

In a short while, he sorted out the cause and effect of the matter, and goosebumps rose all over his body. Thinking of Wan Houyi's prior instructions and the consequences of being caught and sent back to the border, he suddenly sobered up. "Where is she? She put drugs in this table of food, she can't have gone far by now!"

"Come with me, let's split up and chase them!"

After speaking, he stared at Zhang Xun, his expression hesitant. The next moment, he called to his usual man, "Tiger, you stay in the inn and the surrounding area and check everyone one by one. Find out when that woman ran away and whether there has been anything unusual in the past two days."

As he spoke, he called to the others, and together they spurred their horses and galloped out to search. It was just past dawn, and everyone was still asleep. If they were to wake up and question each household one by one, it would be too noisy. So they had to use a gentle approach to inquire.

After asking around for a while, the group dispersed. Zhang Xun rode his horse at full speed, heading straight for the post station. He took out paper and pen and wrote down most of the information. Then, he abruptly broke away from the search team and went alone to the nearest post station, Guming Post Station.

They rushed to deliver the news of Wan'er's escape to the border four days later.

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Author's note: Go go go~