Qi raised one eyebrow, paused for a moment, and then said, "She... is from the Seduction Team!"
I see. But this explanation seems to answer something, yet it also seems to answer nothing at all. The woman was indeed exceptionally beautiful; it was obvious she would be assigned to the seduction group, having been trained from a young age specifically on how to seduce men. And since the goal was to bewitch men, she couldn't be too cold and rigid; she had to be pretty, lively, and charming. Therefore, upon careful consideration, Qi's answer made sense.
Her current gestures and movements are certainly eye-catching.
You Shuyao didn't care what others thought of her. For the first time in her life, she truly felt the preciousness of life. She couldn't help but take a deep breath…and another. Ah! The air outside was so fresh and clean!
Verdant mountains, playful fish, fragrant wildflowers, and drifting white clouds... In her eyes, every blade of grass and every tree is so vibrant, inspiring endless longing in one's heart.
She sat quietly on the rock, her chin slightly raised, gazing up at the azure sky. A gentle breeze ruffled a few strands of hair, bringing a deep sense of peace that made everything seem so lovely and beautiful. A soft, contented smile played on her lips. This Shu Yao, though without elaborate robes, jewels, or makeup, possessed an indescribable elegance and ethereal beauty, like a celestial fairy untouched by the world. Everyone was captivated, their gazes fixed upon her.
Qi looked at her, then back at everyone, and suddenly frowned. He felt that Shu Yao seemed to be disturbing everyone's peace of mind, which was inappropriate, especially inappropriate. As the leader of this mission, he had to stop her.
"Get up, let's go!" he commanded, breaking the tranquil atmosphere. At the same time, his sharp eyes caught sight of the woman by the water, noticing a hint of regret flash across her face.
Pretending not to see, Qi resolutely stood up, and the others followed suit, each going about their assigned tasks, preparing to start afresh.
Qi arrived at the stream and stared at You Shuyao, as if waiting for her to come over on her own.
You Shuyao sighed and had no choice but to get up. She carefully stepped on a stone and walked back step by step, her bare feet clearly visible to him.
Normally, she could easily leap ashore using her light-footed skills, but now that she was injured, she didn't want to aggravate her wounds with any sudden movements, so she walked back steadily like an ordinary girl.
However, the wet stones were too slippery. When she stepped barefoot on one of the stones, she suddenly lost her footing and cried out in surprise. She almost fell into the cold stream, but in the next moment, she was caught firmly. Qi had flashed over and caught her in his arms.
He easily brought her back to the shore in a few steps, but did not put her down. Instead, he walked towards the carriage further away.
"Put me down." Her voice sounded somewhat unnatural.
“Too slow,” he replied.
Under the watchful eyes of more than a dozen pairs of eyes, he brazenly carried her into the carriage. It seemed that assassins were not only cold-blooded, but also shameless. You Shuyao cursed inwardly, then thought... wait a minute? Wasn't she cursing herself too?
*** ***
Huo Jingsha never expected that, in the short time he left the manor to take care of some business, Shu Yao, whom he had carefully settled in Biyue Residence, would disappear without any reason!
Upon receiving the news, he was furious. He couldn't even wait to return by carriage; he immediately mounted his horse and galloped back to the Huo residence, where he arrested and interrogated all the maids, nannies, and servants of Biyueju. At the same time, he issued an order for the Embroidered Uniform Guard to immediately conduct a city-wide search, set up checkpoints and sentries at all city gates, and strictly check everyone entering the city.
The entire Huo mansion was shrouded in fear and gloom because of the magistrate's gloomy face. Mingxia, who had served You Shuyao that day, was beaten unconscious, then woken up by a basin of cold water, and then beaten and splashed again...
Huo Jingsha was most experienced in manhunts and acted with swift and decisive efficiency. He immediately led a large team in a thorough search. He refused to believe that, under his city-wide surveillance... a living person could simply vanish into thin air? Especially since she was injured. Yes! Shu Yao was injured, so even if he had to dig three feet into the ground, he would find her!
Of course, he wouldn't let anyone know that Huo Jingsha had mobilized so much resources just to find one of his concubines. The pretext of deploying troops and sealing off the city was, of course, the perfectly legitimate and reasonable reason of apprehending a fugitive.
Half a month had passed, and there was still no news. This made Huo Jingsha inexplicably irritable, and she finally lost her patience. Therefore, she expanded the search area, not only looking for living people in the city, but also searching for dead people in all the nearby rivers and ponds, leaving no stone unturned, whether alive or dead!
However, it wasn't all for naught. The Imperial Guards found bloodstains in the storeroom of a wealthy merchant and received a secret report from the shopkeeper of a pharmacy that a woman had come to get medicine for a knife wound. Although they didn't catch her, they knew she was still alive.
Based on these clues, Huo Jingsha suspected that there must be more than one person capable of evading his dense network of informants and surveillance. So he began searching house by house. As long as they hadn't left the city, they would need to find a hiding place. Therefore, he ordered a special search of places that might contain cellars, secret rooms, or hidden passages. Sure enough, his men found them.
Unfortunately, he was too late. When he arrived, the abandoned house with the secret room was deserted, and the room was filled with the smell of medicine. Observing the tire tracks and footprints left on the ground in the yard, it was clear that the other party should have left in a hurry an hour earlier.
Huo Jingsha was not giving up and inspected the house again. At this time, his men found a blood-stained bandage in one of the rooms. He reached out and took it, his already sinister face turning even more like a demon.
At this moment, his trusted aide Yue Ping whispered a few words in his ear, and he immediately turned around and left the room, went to the hall, and sat down on the chair that his subordinates had brought over with a stern face.
"Bring him up," he commanded sternly.
"Yes." The subordinate obeyed the order and soon brought a constable in his uniform into the room, where the constable knelt before him.
The official, named Feng Laosi, was the one who accepted the ingots from the contract and allowed the carriage to leave the city at will.
At this moment, Feng Laosi knelt on the ground, facing the Commander-in-Chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, a figure feared by all. He was so terrified that his face turned pale, he trembled, and he could barely cry out loud.
Huo Jingsha stared at him menacingly and said in a deep voice, "Now, tell me everything you know. If it satisfies me, I'll spare your life."
Upon hearing that there was a chance to live, Feng Laosi immediately confessed, going into as much detail as possible, as if he wanted to start from the beginning of time.
"Reporting to you, sir, I was on duty that day, probably in the early morning before dawn. I saw a group of people in the distance heading out of the city. I counted them; there were about a dozen of them. Eight men on horseback were guarding a carriage. A woman and a coachman were sitting in front of the carriage, and a young couple were sitting inside. One of them said they were medicine merchants rushing out of the city to deliver medicinal herbs, and they had passes issued by the government on them. I only dared to let them pass after seeing the official seal on the passes."
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