Chapter 210 [VIP]

Duo Leng frowned in disgust.

This woman surnamed Ji was originally considered a beauty, delicate and soft, quite different from the beauties of Daliang. It wouldn't hurt to try something new occasionally, and it wouldn't be a loss to bring her back. But now... well, never mind, let's just consider it for the sake of the musket. Anyway, keeping a woman doesn't cost much.

"Put him on the carriage, and let's go."

The pile of rotten wood was almost completely burned, and the mixture of water and kerosene, along with the billowing smoke, smelled quite unpleasant.

The residents of the alley cursed their bad luck as they carried their broken buckets back home.

Liang Ren obediently helped Ji Nanke to the carriage when suddenly a woman asked warily, "Who are you? I haven't seen you!"

These words caused everyone else to stop and turn their heads.

"Ah! Isn't that Zhang's eldest son? What happened to him..." The woman saw the corpse lying there, ran over and patted it, then cried out in horror, "Ahhh, dead, dead! Wu's son, isn't that your brother-in-law...?"

At this shout, the others rushed over, and the noise echoed throughout the alley.

"Murder! Murder!"

Duo Leng asked warily, "Miss Gu, you're not going to back out, are you?"

Gu Zhizhu shook his head: "I will never go back on my promise. Besides... it's not just you, the eldest prince, who set the fire. The oil has probably already been spilled all over the northern city. We're just waiting for the fire to start here, or for you, the eldest prince, to give the order."

"Stop! Did you do this?!"

Someone rushed over, about to question him, but upon seeing the sword at Liang's waist, he turned pale with fright, instinctively backed away, and cried out in a trembling voice, "Robber!"

"Murder and arson... Quick! Go report to the authorities, quick!"

The alleyway instantly descended into chaos.

Duo Leng didn't even lift his eyelids. The burly man next to him sneered, drew his knife, still wet with blood, and swung it at the woman's back.

The people in the alley screamed in fright and ran in all directions, causing birds to fly away in all directions.

Gu Zhizhuo raised the crossbow, the gleaming arrowheads aimed at the man's head. Her finger was on the trigger, as if to say, "If he dares to hurt me, I'll make sure his head explodes."

Their murderous intent was fully revealed.

The deadly danger caused the man to abruptly stop, the blade in his hand hovering in mid-air, not daring to move forward even an inch.

Duo Leng glanced sideways and whispered, "He Ran, come here."

The man named Helan cursed as he put down his knife, a fine layer of cold sweat beading on his forehead.

“Then please have Miss Gu escort us,” Duo Leng said. “Once we leave the capital, I will naturally arrange for them to meet us outside the city.”

"They" refers to the Liang people who are still in the capital.

Gu Zhizhuo readily agreed.

Gu Zhizhu beckoned the jade lion over, mounted his horse, and said to Qingmei, "I'll go see the eldest prince off. You stay here and tidy up."

"Young lady!"

Qingmei was unwilling to let her go with Duoling.

"Don't worry." Gu Zhizhuo glanced at Duo Leng and said calmly, "We agreed on one day, the eldest prince shouldn't want to die prematurely."

Gu Zhizhuo took the lead and rode forward.

Qingmei forcibly suppressed her urge to follow and stayed behind to clean up the mess.

Duo Leng was still wary of her playing tricks, but Gu Zhizhuo followed them at a leisurely pace, escorting them all the way to the city gate of the North City.

The city gates were tightly shut. When the imperial guards near the gates saw them approaching, they were all on high alert. The commander of the imperial guards shouted, "Stand back. Anyone who leaves the city without permission will be killed without exception."

Duo Leng: "Miss Gu, have someone open the city gates."

Gu Zhizhuo turned to look at him: "The city gates were closed by the Empress Dowager's decree. If the Imperial Guards were willing to listen to me, how much of a failure your plan would be."

Duo Leng stared at her for a moment, then irritably tugged at her thin braid.

The idea of ​​closing the city gates was proposed by Duoleng himself, with the aim of preventing people from taking advantage of the chaos to escape.

As a result, it was he who was "locked up".

Gu Zhizhuo glanced at the sky: "I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little longer, Your Highness."

"Miss Gu, do you want to back out?"

Gu Zhizhu shrugged and casually said, "How about I go ask?"

After she finished speaking, she waved her hand in the direction of the Imperial Guards: "We want to leave the city, open the city gates."

The commander of the Imperial Guards stared intently at her, then turned and left without making a sound. So long that Gu Zhizhuo thought there would be no further response, that suddenly, with a creak, the city gate opened a crack.

Gu Zhizhuo: ?

Isn't the rule to kill without mercy?

After a moment of surprise, she pondered for a moment and immediately noticed something unusual.

wrong.

Although they look similar, the armor is not of the Imperial Guard's style. The Imperial Guard's armor waistbands are dark red, but theirs are black.

They are not the Imperial Guards!

Duoleng sneered, "Didn't you say the Imperial Guards don't listen to you?"

He wanted to say a few more sarcastic remarks to her, but suddenly the sound of rapid hoofbeats came from behind him. Helan turned around sharply and exclaimed, "Your Highness, it's Ah Lang!"

The man known as Wolf, covered in blood, rushed over, shouting hoarsely, "Prince, run!"

"quick."

"quick!!"

Before he could finish speaking, his body swayed, and he tumbled heavily off the horse, then lay motionless, lifeless.

"Miss Gu?!" Duo Ling's temples bulged with veins, and his anger almost burst from his eyes. He gritted his teeth and said, "You really are stalling for time."

“Your Highness, you are the enemy.” Gu Zhizhuo said gently, looking at him as if he were a fool. “Why do you think I would believe you?”

Duoleng verbally promised not to commit arson, but who knows what orders he secretly gave to his men? Dealing with this kind of person requires a combination of appeasement, coercion, and inducement; never blindly trust them.

Before leaving the Zhenbei Prince's Mansion, Gu Zhizhuo gave the Qianji Battalion the order to "close the net." He needed to buy them enough time.

Realizing he'd been tricked, Duo Leng laughed in anger. He grabbed Gu Zhizhuo's reins, wrapped them around her wrist twice, pressed his right scimitar against her waist, and dragged her towards the open city gate. The others and the carriage followed closely behind.

Without further delay, Duo Leng urged the horse on, pulling the jade lion along. The lion snorted in dissatisfaction, while the cat, even more ill-tempered, poked its little head out of Gu Zhizhuo's arms and angrily slapped the horse's head with its paws, meowing and throwing a tantrum.

After a short while, the cat could no longer meow and clung weakly to the horse's neck.

It's dizzy!

Duo Leng led his group out of the capital, deliberately deviating from the official road and heading towards a forest path. After running for about half an hour, seeing that Gu Zhizhuo had no intention of abandoning his horse and escaping, he slightly loosened the reins around his wrist, but did not slow down at all.

Inside the carriage, cries of pain echoed one after another. Duo Leng no longer cared about Ji Nan Ke, and naturally wouldn't slow down the horse for her life or death.

Despite the jolting of the horse and the howling wind, Gu Zhizhuo's voice still reached his ears clearly: "Your Highness, I promised to give you one day to escape, and I will not break my promise."

Duoling gave him a cold snort.

She said she wouldn't easily trust him. But she kept lying to him, so how could he possibly believe her?!

Gu Zhizhuo chuckled: "You have no other choice but to trust me."

"Miss Gu thinks too highly of herself."

The wind rustled through the leaves of the trees.

"Look, here it comes!"

Just then, more than a hundred people suddenly sprang out from the woods on both sides, blocking their way. Each of them was clad in armor and wielded a sword, forming an impenetrable human wall.

Duo Leng's pupils contracted sharply, and he yanked the reins abruptly. The horse beneath him let out a long neigh and reared up.

His face was ashen as he gripped the reins and quickly turned the car around in an attempt to break through the encirclement.

However, as soon as he turned around, he found that there were figures moving around in front, behind, left, and right. He didn't know when they had been surrounded.

Gu Zhizhuo's gaze lingered on their black waistbands for a moment, then he spread his hands and said with a smile, "I told you so."

"you!"

With his murderous intent fully revealed, he suddenly yanked the reins, forcibly pulling the jade lion to his side.

Then, the scimitar in his hand flashed coldly and pointed at her throat.

Almost the instant the blade approached, Gu Zhizhuo's body arched backward like a fully drawn bow. The blade sliced ​​off several strands of her hair. Gu Zhizhuo, holding the cat on her shoulder, flipped over and tumbled lightly off the horse.

The series of movements was swift and decisive, flowing smoothly like clouds and water, with the tassels hanging down in her hair swaying gently and shimmering with tiny sparkles.

The cat, slumped over, groggy from the horse's drowsiness, suddenly raised its head, its little nose twitching, and meowed happily, "Meow~"

Its voice was like a big piece of candy, both sweet and soft.

"Mimi~"

Its final note was drawn out, as if it stretched its neck in a certain direction.

Gu Zhizhuo looked in that direction and saw a black carriage parked in the woods. The four glass lanterns hanging in front of the carriage looked very familiar.

With eyes as sharp as a hawk's, Duoliang calmly scanned his surroundings, secretly calculating the possibility of breaking through.

"The eldest prince."

The Liang people all huddled close to him, each facing a different direction with him as the center. They held curved knives in their hands, their bodies slightly lowered, like a pack of predators poised to pounce and tear at their prey at the slightest opening.

A fierce battle is about to break out.

Gu Zhizhuo withdrew her gaze from the black carriage and patted the cat's head reassuringly: "Your Highness, you have one day." She said, word by word, "At this time tomorrow, I will lead my troops to pursue you."

These were the words she had just said, and bringing them up again now was to tell him that their agreement had not changed.

Duo Leng was filled with doubt and uncertainty. He could no longer tell which of her words were true and which were false.

First, she set traps for him step by step, and now she clearly has the upper hand, instead keeping her promise. Could it be another trick?

"I have other matters to attend to, so I won't see you off. Take care, Your Highness."

After Gu Zhizhuo finished speaking, she took a half step back while holding the cat and made a "please" gesture. The jade lion flicked its tail and followed beside her.

Duo Leng gripped the reins tightly, remaining silent, while his horse paced restlessly, and the surrounding men grumbled and cursed angrily.

"Your Highness, don't be fooled by this woman's sweet talk anymore."

"We'll protect you and fight our way out."

"The warriors of Liang are not afraid of these cowards, the Qi people!"

The curtain of the black carriage seemed to have been kicked impatiently from the inside, and it swayed a few times.

Even the cat couldn't hold back any longer and tried several times to jump out of her arms.

Gu Zhizhu smiled, held up three fingers on one hand, and said, "If I count to three and you still don't leave, it means you're voluntarily giving up your deal with me. Then I won't be polite..."

Gu Zhizhuo's eyes grew cold, and he raised the repeating crossbow with his other hand.

"Your Highness, this woman really did want to kill us!"

Don't believe her.

The promising situation has been ruined by Gu Zhizhuo, step by step, to this point. Duoling wanted nothing more than to tear her apart to vent her anger.

"three."

"two……"

Gu Zhizhuo gently placed her index finger on the trigger, and the next moment, she would pull the trigger.

"Walk!"

Duo Leng made up his mind and gritted his teeth, letting out a low growl.

"The eldest prince!"

"This is an order."

Duo Leng's tone left no room for doubt. After saying those four words, Duo Leng suddenly spurred his horse and charged off.

The sound of horses' hooves thundered.

At that moment, he even felt like he was walking into a trap, and that the enemy's swords might fall from his horse at any moment. However, the instant he charged towards the wall of men, the armored soldiers retreated in unison, making way for him.

Even after he broke through the encirclement, there was still no sound of pursuit from behind.

Did she really let them go?

"Walk!"

Duoleng didn't have time to think further and raised his whip. In a day, he could definitely travel far away and then return to the capital alive!

The other Liang people followed closely behind.

Once the group had completely disappeared into the woods, Gu Zhizhuo, carrying the cat, walked briskly toward the black carriage.

The cat was incredibly excited, like prey that had been lurking in the flowerbed for a long time and finally spotted a little butterfly. It frantically swung its unicorn tail, twisted its fluffy body, and suddenly jumped off Gu Zhizhuo's arms, meowing as it ran towards the carriage.

It leaped up, its two front paws gripping the carriage window, and its little head eagerly squeezed through the gap in the curtains.

"Meow!"

The cat's whiskers stood up happily.

Its two hind legs braced against the carriage, and it tumbled inside.

"Meow--"

The tabby cat rolled headfirst, its little head bobbing from side to side, before pouncing towards its most beloved person.

A barely perceptible smile appeared on Shen Xu's lips as he let the cat leave dark paw prints on the snow-white long-haired blanket before jumping into his arms.

"It's filthy."

"Meow".

The cat first sniffed at him to see if he smelled like a strange cat.

Very good!

The cat was satisfied, its fluffy little head rubbing frantically against his chin, making his clothes flutter open and revealing his delicate collarbone.

That's enough.

Shen Xu's eyes twitched. He disgustedly brushed the cat hair off his face and pushed it away.

"Master Supervisor."

Gu Zhizhu knocked on the carriage three times, then, ignoring the dark faces of the coachman and his attendants, he lifted the curtain himself and said cheerfully, "You're back. Shenmao missed you."

The cat understood: "Meow."

It sat upright, its qilin tail swaying back and forth, looking at him with a pitiful expression.

"I thought about only eating three meals a day, and I've lost weight from starvation."

"Meow".

Shen Xu lowered her eyes and looked at the cat whose little belly was round and full from eating, thinking that she was probably a little blind.

The cat's ears drooped.

He took a deep breath and beckoned with his finger: "Come here."

Excited, the cat pounced with a "woof," its wet little black nose rubbing against his collarbone, leaving its scent domineeringly.

Shen Xu teetered on the edge of his patience, enduring it again and again, until finally he could no longer bear it, grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck, and threw it away.

The cat landed steadily, pawing at his hand with its paws, and eagerly nestled its little head under his palm, nuzzling against him.

Gu Zhizhuo found it amusing and asked, "Did the Chief Eunuch come here specifically to save me?"

Instead of answering, Shen Xu asked, "You really aren't going to pursue her?"

"I won't pursue it. I always keep my word."

Shen Xu glanced at her sideways and snorted irritably.

"This Prince Duoling is a force to be reckoned with, both personally and through his maternal clan. In Liang Kingdom, he is second only to the King of Liang." Gu Zhizhuo climbed into the carriage and sat down, pouring himself a glass of warm water as if he knew exactly what to do.

She leaned against the carriage wall, sipping her water, and said, "His life isn't important. If he dies today, I've only avenged myself today. But if I can delay his death by a few days, it will bring internal strife to Liang Kingdom. Why not?"

"Hurry, hurry, let's get back to the capital. My aunt is still in the palace."

Gu Zhizhuo didn't explain much, and Shen Xu understood what she meant.

Extremely cunning.

Never suffer a loss.

Shen Xu raised his hand and tapped her forehead through the air, uttering two words expressionlessly: "Liar."

Gu Zhizhuo: "..."

What do you mean by "liar"?! This is called strategy, okay?!

A note from the author: