Chapter 11 Escape
The room was simply furnished, clean and bright, and did not look like a bandit's room at all.
The antique display cabinet by the window was filled with bottles and jars of unknown age and value. After searching for half a minute without any results, Song Lingyi was so anxious that sweat broke out on her forehead, and she turned to search the bed.
The girl knelt on one leg on the bed and leaned over to search. Strangely enough, in her mind, few men would wear perfume, let alone in the harsh conditions of the mountain village, where even bathing was a problem, and bandits always had a slight odor.
But the bandit leader not only loved cleanliness, even his bedding had a faint woody scent.
Song Lingyi moved closer to the bedding and sniffed it carefully like a rabbit.
The movements are weird. If others see it, they will definitely call you a pervert.
There weren't many places on the bed to hide things, and Song Lingyi searched almost everywhere but still found nothing. Just when she was about to give in and give up, her eyes swept across the chess table by the window.
She didn't expect that the bandit leader also liked to pretend to be cultured. After criticizing it in her heart, she suddenly remembered that the chess piece on the chessboard had not been turned over, so she immediately went over.
Song Lingyi glanced at the intricate chess board and fixed her gaze on the chess box and cushion.
Lifting up the cushion, the girl's eyes lit up.
There was a secret compartment under the cushion, which was about two inches long and wide. When it was opened, there were several keys of different shapes inside.
Fortunately, Song Lingyi had seen the keys to the stable before, so she decisively chose one of them and restored the secret compartment and cushion to their original state.
As dusk approaches, the sky is filled with rosy clouds.
The bandits gathered outside the main building, making a lot of noise.
In the center of the encirclement was a wooden stretcher covered with a white cloth, with a human figure vaguely visible underneath.
Someone shouted, "The boss is here!" and the bandits made way for him. Xiao Mingyi walked slowly to the stretcher, lifted a corner of the white cloth, and his eyes dimmed.
"Where did you find it?"
The bandits finally quieted down a bit. Wang Chong stepped forward and said, "It's in the trap west of the mountain. There are bamboo stakes in the trap. Xu Er probably didn't notice and stepped into it..."
"However, the location of the trap is a bit far from the red line. Xu Er doesn't need to run that far to relieve himself."
Xiao Mingyi's face was slightly serious: "Do you suspect that someone led him there?"
"This..." Wang Chong choked, "I can't say for sure."
Song Lingyi squeezed outside the circle, listening to the chatter of people around her, and was so nervous that her palms were sweating.
Xu Er's death was shrouded in mystery, and everyone discussed it for a long time without reaching a conclusion. Before the matter was concluded, the body was stored in the back kitchen yard.
In the blink of an eye, it was dark, but the village was still in order, with flames flickering everywhere.
The square was occasionally filled with the bandits' mighty shouts. The bandit leader did not return to his room, but instead discussed important matters with several of his closest associates in the main hall downstairs.
In the small room on the second floor, the girl sat quietly, clutching the key to the stable tightly in her hand, and exhaled a foul breath from her chest.
Tonight is the best chance, she must escape.
Xuancheng was about five days' journey from Kyoto. There was a small town only twenty miles west of Hutou Mountain. Once she entered the town, even if the bandit leader wanted to capture her, he would have to think twice.
The hour of midnight had passed, and the shouting outside the window grew quieter.
The lights in the main hall on the first floor were off. Song Lingyi peeked through the crack in the door and saw the bandit leader return to the room. The candles were lit, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
The moonlight was dim and all was silent. As the time for the front mountain shift approached, Song Lingyi tiptoed downstairs.
With a "crackling" sound, the flint lit up.
To prevent the bandits from discovering her escape too early, Song Lingyi lit the firewood piled in the southeast corner.
Soon, flames shot up into the sky from the mountain stronghold, and the bandits woke up from their sleep and ran around in panic.
"Oh no! There's a fire!"
"Bring some water!"
Due to the change of guard at the front mountain and the fire in the village, the village gate was left unmanned for a while.
In the chaos, Xianna's figure disappeared silently into the night like a ghost.
…
A quarter of an hour later, the fire was brought under control in time, and there was no loss of property or life in the village.
Wang Chong slammed the bucket in his hand to the ground and sat down on the ground covered in dust.
"Damn it! Which bastard set the fire?"
The temperature in late spring is not high, and it has rained in Hutou Mountain. It is impossible for the fire to break out out of thin air. It must have been arson.
The people around were tired and sighing.
Xiao Mingyi stood at the corridor with his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed on the small, unlit room on the second floor.
"They set fire during the shift change time. Boss, could it be the Second Prince's men?" Xuanfeng wiped his sweat in embarrassment.
"Impossible." Xiao Mingyi stared.
If Xiao Du knew he was at Hutou Mountain, he wouldn't have simply set the fire. Furthermore, the fire was far from the building and posed no threat to his life.
There is one thing that is worthy of doubt.
There was a fire in the village. Given someone's noisy personality, it's impossible that there would be no movement for so long.
Thinking of this, Xiao Mingyi's eyes darkened and he walked towards the main building.
"Boss! Something's happening!"
Suddenly, a bald man came running over, shouting, "There's one horse missing from the stable!"
Xiao Mingyi turned around and stared at the bald man with his narrow eyes. In a flash, he seemed to have figured something out and turned around to head towards the village gate.
"Xuanfeng, Wang Chong, each bring a team of men and follow me down the mountain."
The two people whose names were called looked at each other, both a little puzzled. But they didn't ask any more questions and quickly followed.
It was the middle of the night, the moon was bright in the sky, and the sound of horse hooves could be heard on the mountain road.
The terrain of Hutou Mountain is complex. Xuanfeng and Wang Chong each led a team and separated at a fork in the road.
When they reached the foot of the mountain, there was still no sign of Song Lingyi.
"Boss, which way should we chase?" Xuanfeng turned his head and asked.
To the east, it leads to Xuancheng, and twenty miles to the west, there's a small town. Last time, I met Song Lingyi at the Guanyin Temple on the outskirts of Xuancheng, so maybe she's heading to Xuancheng now.
The mountain breeze blew by, and the handsome face under the bamboo hat had a tense jaw, angular features, eyebrows flying into the temples, and phoenix eyes raised, like an eagle in the dark night, cold, lonely, and domineering, exuding a sense of strength that was proud of the world.
Xiao Mingyi stared coldly ahead without much hesitation, "Wang Chong will go to Xuancheng. You will follow me to Qingshi Town."
"yes."
In the hazy mountains, the dark shadow of a horseman flashed by like a strong wind, and the flying horse hooves kicked up a cloud of dust.
In late spring, the days are long and the nights are short. Just after the hour of Mao, the sky turns upside down.
Only five miles left to Qingshi Town.
Song Lingyi was frightened all the way. When freedom was just around the corner, she looked back and saw a group of black shadows moving at a very fast speed looming at the corner of the mountain road.
If he was caught at this time, he would undoubtedly die.
She made up her mind, tied her bulging bag to the horse's back, and then rolled off. Her slender body rolled several times on the ground and rolled into the bushes by the roadside, hiding herself tightly.
The horse carrying the bag ran for about half a minute, and a group of black shadows galloped past Song Lingyi.
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