"And then they targeted me?" Ji Yingying was surprised; she had been tricked.
【Yes, not exactly. It was your mother's family who came up with the idea. They were there during the robbery, and to save their own lives, they bought you and even provided a sketch of you.】
How did they get my portrait?
[You overlooked it; this whole family is literate and can draw, which is normal. That's why you were targeted.]
They left in the morning, and I was kidnapped that evening. That was fast.
[Host, if you had left the palace by carriage, you wouldn't have been targeted. But since you didn't take a carriage and just left like that, they were able to find you easily.]
"Sigh, being soft-hearted can kill people." Ji Yingying sighed, intending to follow them up the mountain to see if being a mountain king was any good; she had never experienced it before.
Unexpectedly, Rong Yi appeared and detained the group of people.
"Lord Rong, you've arrived just in time! How did you know I'd been arrested?"
"We were on patrol at the time. Is Lord Ji alright?" It's already 7 PM now, and he's been refusing to be arrested for a quarter of an hour. I wonder if Lord Ji is afraid.
"Oh, I'm fine. These are the two who arrested me?" One of the two men was knocked unconscious, and the other was captured.
The one who was arrested was acting under orders and knew very little; the one who fainted was the mastermind.
"Is he... dead?" Ji Yingying even boldly reached out to touch his nose to confirm that he was not dead.
"Reporting to Lord Ji, he is not dead."
"Yeah, that's true. Come on, which of you has yellow urine? Wake him up. No diabetes, we can't let him taste the sweetness."
As soon as he finished speaking, the man woke up, which showed that he had been faking his unconsciousness.
"Are you a mountain king who rules the mountains?"
"yes"
"When did you become this mountain bandit?"
“We are refugees from Fengcheng. The homes of our entire village were destroyed by the flash flood. We begged our way to the capital, but the people at the capital gate said that there was no flash flood in Fengcheng and that the imperial court had already sent people to deal with it.”
“We wanted to go into the city, but the gatekeeper wouldn’t let us in. Our whole village is almost out of food, so we had no choice but to find a mountain to become kings and stop people on the road to beg for food. We didn’t do anything bad, we just stopped a few families and asked them for grain and money to buy more grain.”
“The city guard is right. The flood in Fengcheng has already been dealt with. In fact, it was dealt with immediately. They even sent people to Fengcheng to rebuild houses and install underfloor heating. When Fengcheng was flooded, I even donated money. I donated five thousand taels of silver.” Ji Yingying stretched out her chubby little hand and said proudly.
"But, but, when our whole village arrived at the gates of Fengcheng, they wouldn't let us in. We even heard that they were going to arrest refugees, and not only that, they were going to kill them. That's why we left our homes and came to the capital."
Moreover, they were not allowed to enter the city after arriving in the capital, so they had no choice but to become bandits in the mountains. As long as they didn't go hungry, they could do whatever they wanted.
How long have you been here?
“It’s been more than half a month, and we haven’t done anything heinous. We just stopped two scholars and asked them for a few hundred taels of silver to buy food. This morning was the third time we stopped them. The Taoist priest said that my son wouldn’t live past this winter and told us to find a child bride.”
“We originally planned to find you in the mountain stronghold, but the impoverished scholar family we robbed offered to provide their aunt’s daughter. They said the daughter wouldn’t live long and was not favored, so there would be no harm in capturing her. They also provided a portrait, and the Taoist priest said you had a good destiny, so we sneaked into the city to capture you.”
"Then how did you know where I was? And what do you mean I won't live much longer? Look at me, I'm plump and healthy, how could I not live much longer?"
The mountain man shook his head: "It took us a long time to find it. I thought it would take several days, but I found it in no time."
"How did you get me out?"
"They just put it on that donkey cart and brought it out; the city guards didn't ask any questions."
[Those guards, those guards, when I get back I'll definitely put those guards in jail.]
"You..." He only managed to utter one "you," without saying anything else, but his eyes were wide open.
"Take me up the mountain, I want to see your village." Ji Yingying looked at the road halfway up the mountain. It was already this late, so it wouldn't hurt to go and take a look.
"Young Master Ji, the Emperor, the Crown Prince, and your parents are still waiting in the palace."
"Was the conversation just recorded?"
"yes"
"An Yi, take this back and tell my parents that I'll go check on them. It's not a big problem."
An Yi immediately took the folded document and turned to leave.
"Get up, lead the way, I'll go see your village." The man didn't move, and Ji Yingying probably sensed his hesitation, so she quickly said, "Don't be afraid, it's understandable that I won't touch your village. How many people are left in the village?"
"There are thirty people in total, mostly the elderly, women and children, and only ten of us are adult men."
I'm guessing that's about right; a small village wouldn't have many people.
[Host, you'd better teach that uncle and aunt from your mother's side a lesson later. What kind of bastards are they, coming up with such a wicked idea?]
[Heh heh~ I have my own ways of dealing with them. They're already planning to go back to their village, yet they still come after me.]
When Ji Yingying arrived at the entrance of the village, she couldn't bear to look at it. There were only a few houses, and the people there were dressed in rags and didn't even have anything to eat.
Even ruling the mountains is just a way to survive.
"Honey, what's this?"
They were followed by officials, and the women and children were all afraid and dared not speak. The men surrounded them, fearing that they would harm the elderly, weak, women and children.
"Sigh, we got scammed by that family and by that Taoist priest."
"What? I'll go kill them, I'll take them down with me even if I die."
"Hey, no! Why kill them? You don't have any lives on your hands. If you get into legal trouble because of these few lives, that won't be good." Ji Yingying quickly stopped her.
The young man was arrogant and quickly said, "I'm not afraid. I'm going to die anyway, what's there to be afraid of?"
"Die? What do you mean, die?"
[Host, they're so pitiful. They haven't had rice or meat in ages.]
【Sigh!】 Ji Yingying sighed and walked to the side. She hadn't gone far when she realized that this was the wilderness, in the mountains. What if there were wolves or tigers?
Anyway, it was a fairly safe place. Ji Yingying took out a bag of rice, two pieces of meat, and a few vegetables from her spatial storage.
"Rong Er, bring some men over and take this rice and meat to them so they can cook. I'm hungry too."
"yes"
After the rice, meat, and vegetables were brought over, Ji Yingying said to the bandit leader, "I don't have much meat and vegetables, but I have a bit more rice. You can arrange for someone to cook so that everyone can have a good meal. Also, make some for us too. We're hungry. It's the middle of the night, and we haven't eaten yet."
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