Chapter Sixty-Nine: The cousin of the Marquis of Jingnan? Interesting.

The smell of blood surrounded her.

She carefully moved her feet, but something pressed against her waist, and then a person crawled out from behind her.

The man slowly moved the knife to her neck.

She heard the man whisper in her ear, "Don't move!"

This woman's sense of smell is truly extraordinary; she had already covered the scent with a sachet.

Unexpectedly, the woman still discovered it.

Shen Qingnian steadied herself and remained still. Only then did she realize that the person holding the knife to her neck was a man.

It's all Xie Yanzhi's fault for giving her a carriage that's too spacious; compared to the carriages she used to ride in, this one has an extra narrow couch inside.

It was separated from the front by a curtain.

Indeed, when she came in, she didn't even notice that someone was hiding behind the curtain.

Ling'er was peering out of the carriage at the scenery.

Having just heard the young lady mention the smell, she lifted a corner of the curtain to let the smell dissipate and take a look at the scenery outside.

At that moment, she lowered the curtain and turned around, only to see a gleaming knife, its cold light gleaming, pressed against her young mistress's neck.

"ah!"

Ling'er screamed in fright, then covered her mouth.

The masked man opposite her suddenly turned cold and tightened his grip on the knife pressed against Shen Qingnian's neck.

A trace of color returned to the young lady's neck.

She knew that the man was threatening her, saying that if she wanted her mistress to live, she shouldn't alert Yuan Qing outside.

Hearing Ling'er's voice, Yuan Qing called out, "Lingjiao, what's wrong?"

Ling'er took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

Trying to make his tone sound normal, he said, "It's nothing, Miss and I were just tickling each other."

The man said to Shen Qingnian in a deep voice, "Don't make a sound. I will leave once we are out of the vicinity of Wanbao Temple."

Shen Qingnian blinked, indicating that she understood.

I just hope this person will keep their word!

"Whoa...!" Yuan Qing suddenly stopped the carriage.

Shen Qingnian was caught off guard and fell to the side.

Seeing this, the man quickly put away his knife and helped her up.

With the masked man's permission, Ling'er quietly lifted the curtain to peek inside.

Several masked men riding tall horses stopped the carriage.

Each person had a gleaming knife in their hand, and Ling'er quickly lowered the curtain and shrank back inside.

Seeing the enemy's aggressive approach, Yuan Qing gripped the reins with one hand and placed the other on the sword at his waist.

He was somewhat puzzled as to why anyone would intercept the carriage of the Marquis of Jingnan's residence.

"Everyone, why are you blocking our way?"

One of the men opposite said, "We want the people in the carriage!"

Shen Qingnian had already sat down when she heard those words and turned to look at the man.

If he hadn't stopped the knife in time, she would be dead now.

It seems he wasn't a vicious person; he was probably being chased and injured, and just wanted to borrow her carriage to leave.

The man was now pressing his hand to his chest while holding a knife and listening warily to the sounds outside.

Ling'er tried to pull the young lady to her seat, but then she saw the man put his hand on his neck and make a throat-slitting gesture.

Ling'er dared not move.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Qing wondered why they wanted to capture Qing and Ling'er. Perhaps they had made a mistake.

"There must be some misunderstanding here. The people in this car are my cousin and her maid."

"Enough with the nonsense!" With that, the man led the way on horseback, having clearly seen the bloodstains behind the carriage.

Seeing that they rushed up without saying a word, Yuan Qing no longer held back and stood on the carriage with his sword to deal with them.

He truly lived up to his reputation as the prince's personal bodyguard; he felled two people with a single sword strike.

However, there were still a few people, and Yuan Qing alone was finding it difficult to handle them.

One of them then used his sword to forcefully stab through the window.

The man inside the carriage immediately blocked the attack with his sword, preventing it from piercing Ling'er.

Yuan Qing swung his sword to shoo away the masked men who were getting close to the carriage, and called out, "Miss Qing, are you alright?"

"It's nothing!" Shen Qingnian replied.

Yuan Qing felt relieved, but Qing and Ling'er were too conspicuous here, so he couldn't relax and fight them.

"Miss Qing, you go first!"

Yuan Qing tapped the horse's rump with the hilt of his sword, and the horse pulled the carriage along.

The two masked men were about to give chase when Yuan Qing stabbed their horse in the leg, causing them to fall off.

Shen Qingnian and Ling'er panicked a little. Neither of them knew how to drive a carriage, so they could only let the horses pull the carriage around aimlessly.

Upon seeing this, the man in the carriage threw down a sentence: "Sit still!" and quickly jumped to the front to drive the carriage.

After a short while, their carriage slowly came to a stop.

Shen Qingnian lifted the curtain and saw that their carriage had stopped by a side road.

The masked man leaned against the frame of the vehicle, clutching the reins; he had already passed out.

"Miss, what should we do now?" Ling'er was a little scared. This person had just held a knife to her young mistress's neck.

Now is the perfect time to throw him off the car.

She was also curious to see who had kidnapped them.

As Ling'er thought about it, she reached out to lift the man's veil, but Shen Qingnian stopped her.

"No!" Shen Qingnian scolded her.

If this man hadn't actually fainted, they would have had a hard time escaping today, given his face.

Shen Qingnian saw that his wound was bleeding again, guessing that he had lost too much blood.

She and Ling'er first pulled the person into the car.

Shen Qingnian said to the man, "Young master, please forgive me."

He then undressed the man, took out the wound medicine Xie Yanzhi had given him, and sprinkled it on the wound.

The bleeding from the wound stopped immediately.

"Does the young master have a handkerchief?"

The man pointed to his waist, and Shen Qingnian took out the light blue handkerchief, pressed it against the wound, and then closed his clothes.

Ling'er was somewhat surprised that the man hadn't fainted.

Thankfully, the young lady stopped her just now!

"Miss Qing! Water chestnuts!" It was Yuan Qing's voice!

Yuan Qing finally managed to deal with those people and followed the tracks of the carriage to find them.

The man paused for a moment, then jumped off the carriage upon hearing the sound: "Thank you for saving me, young lady."

"Young master, please take this with you as well." Shen Qingnian lifted the curtain and handed over the remaining medicine.

The man hesitated for a moment, then took the medicine bottle, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and went into the woods.

Yuan Qing rushed over, and seemed to see a figure, but then it disappeared.

Yuan Qing thought to himself that he might be seeing things.

But this horse is strange; why did it stop here?

This horse was specially trained, and it wouldn't be able to get back to the Marquis's residence without a driver, which is why he dared to let Shen Qingnian and the others go first.

But since both Miss Qing and Ling'er were safe and sound, he stopped thinking about it and drove off in his carriage.

Only after the carriage left did the man emerge from behind the tree.

A man next to him asked, "Young master, won't that girl reveal your whereabouts? Should we..."

The subordinate even made a throat-slitting gesture.

The man glanced at the medicine bottle in his hand, then at the carriage, and said calmly, "She won't."

If she had let that girl remove his veil just now, he definitely wouldn't have let her off.

Moreover, he didn't panic even with a knife to his neck.

A smile flickered at the corner of his eye. The cousin of the Marquis of Jingnan? Quite bold, interesting.