Chapter 220 Detention
Ren Shun remained silent as he gently lifted the wounded Xiahou Yin off his horse, his movements far from gentle, causing Xiahou Yin to groan in pain.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Qi Yuxuan had to temporarily postpone her plans to go to the abandoned mine and, on behalf of Xiahou Yin, ordered the troops to rest and return to Lancheng.
As soon as she finished speaking, a middle-aged man stepped out from the army, clasped his hands in greeting, and said:
"Princess, please wait a moment. This humble general has discovered something amiss with the bandits."
Qi Yuxuan's gaze fell on him. Just by looking at the armor he was wearing and the color of the exposed fabric, she could tell that he was not a common soldier, but at least a sixth-rank centurion. She gestured for him to continue.
"My mother is from Longxi Prefecture. I heard about the bandits in the Longxi area when I was young. Because the northwest is barren and the terrain is open with not much forest to cover, they usually don't exceed five hundred people and are not a big threat. Today, this group of bandits is so numerous. If they were really bandits, they wouldn't have come out in full force just to intercept the princess..."
Perhaps because she thought the person in front of her was a young girl, she tried her best to explain the whole story in detail, afraid that she might have missed something and left the important person confused.
Qi Yuxuan glanced at the two maids in the carriage who were still trying to stop Xiahou Yin's bleeding: "I know all that you're saying, get to the point."
"Yes, many of the dead and wounded bandits were ordinary people, and one of them was the gatekeeper of the Lin family whom I met today!"
He has the ability to remember faces after seeing them once, not to mention that he had only seen this person this morning. He was just sorting through the bandit prisoners and tearing off their face towels one by one. He almost thought he was seeing things.
But isn't the Lin family the maternal family of Princess Chang Le? How could they have infiltrated the bandits to assassinate the princess?
Despite his confusion, after much deliberation, he decided to confess to the princess before leaving.
Qi Yuxuan's fingernails dug into her palm: "Is the person dead?"
"Not yet, he probably fainted from blood loss."
Qi Yuxuan: "Take him back to Lancheng carefully, don't let him die. The rest of you, half of you follow me to surround the Lin family, and the other half immediately go to the abandoned mine to guard it as originally planned. Also, find a scout with a fast foot speed to inform General Xiahou immediately. Tomorrow, we will go to the abandoned mine to excavate and explore."
The fact that they are so eager to act suggests that there must be important clues in the abandoned mine that have not yet been moved. If they wait until tomorrow or the day after, it may be too late.
The newly replaced guards in Lancheng thought things had gone smoothly when they saw Princess Chang Le and her entourage return. However, when they saw that their comrades were all injured and bloodied, and their eyes were not happy, they knew that something had happened to them.
Unlike the anticipation and tranquility of her first visit to Lancheng half a month ago, this time Qi Yuxuan personally rode a horse, coldly leading an army of two hundred men, straight towards the Lin family.
Seeing that the princess and her entourage were acting aggressively, it didn't seem like they were returning to their rented home, but rather like they were going to demand an explanation. The passersby were all talking about what was going on. In just half a month, the situation in Lancheng changed.
Two hours later.
With the waning moon hanging in the sky, the largest courtyard of the Lin residence, though filled with people standing, kneeling, or sitting, was deathly silent, like an empty space. Only the torches held by soldiers with swords every three steps occasionally crackled as they burned.
The women and children were exhausted from crying and making a fuss, and now they could only huddle together as much as possible, afraid of making any more noise and displeasing the princess who was sitting high up.
Just now, Princess Chang Le, who had been very gentle and easy to talk to for the past two weeks, was so annoyed by the bandits' loud pleas for mercy that she had her head chopped off!
Warm blood gushed out, splattering the faces of the Lin family members who were nearby. They were so frightened that they immediately fell silent, not daring to breathe, for fear that they would be the next to be beheaded.
Qi Yuxuan sat in the armchair directly in front of them, closing her eyes to rest. Old Madam Lin sat beside her, staring down at her toes, rolling her prayer beads around and around, silently chanting Buddhist mantras.
"Reporting to the Princess! The Lin family has a total of 212 members, and 210 members are present. There are still two missing."
"One is named Lin Chengyao, and the other is named Lin Fei."
Qi Yuxuan opened her eyes.
But those two weren't there.
"Does Grandmother know where they went?"
Madam Lin shook her head, a bitter smile appearing on her aged face, which had aged considerably in just one day.
"Although I have my own selfish motives, I also know that if someone makes a mistake, they should admit it and accept the punishment. I will not show favoritism to them at a time like this."
Qi Yuxuan nodded, her voice neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for the Lin family members kneeling in the courtyard to hear:
"Search every house in Lancheng, whether they are alive or dead, regardless of whether they are alive or dead."
As soon as the words "life or death is irrelevant" were uttered, a woman below suddenly gasped. Qi Yuxuan glanced to the side and saw that it was Lin Chengyao's mother, her fifth maternal aunt.
"Ah, I forgot, as a mother, Fifth Aunt must know where my little cousin is now."
"No, no...no!"
Just then, a somewhat familiar voice suddenly rang out from behind Qi Yuxuan:
"Master, a woman has come to the Lin residence..." To be precise, it was a woman dragging a corpse.
Ren Shun didn't finish speaking. He asked if they should bring the person in, because she claimed to be a member of the Lin family, Lin Fei.
Lin Fei quickly washed the blood off her face and hands before confessing everything she knew to Princess Chang Le.
She pulled out the dagger that had just killed Lin Chengyao from her bosom. Ren Shun, who was standing behind Qi Yuxuan, frowned and took two steps forward.
"That bastard Lin Chengyao deserves to die! Half a year ago, he accidentally learned that I wasn't the real Lin Fei, but an orphan, and he actually... forced himself on me... But I should also thank him, if he hadn't let it slip afterward that I would die at twenty, I wouldn't have known that I was just a drug user who was going to die in someone else's place!"
"Since I can remember, I've been taking a kind of pill. The Lin family said I had a congenital illness and couldn't stop taking it even for a day... But I only found out half a year ago that I'm not the Lin family's biological child. The real Lin Fei was sent away long ago. My existence is just so that after taking the pill for twenty years, they can take out my heart and liver and refine the elixir of immortality that those so-called magicians talk about!"
Qi Yuxuan's expression shifted. "What kind of pill is it? Do you have any right now?"
Lin Fei shook her head, but described the appearance and smell of the pills, saying, "I still have some in my room. Princess, you can send someone to fetch them."
“Originally, I wanted to end it all, but when I learned that the princess would be coming, I was unwilling to die alone. If I was going to die, I wanted to take the Lin family with me! So for the past few months, I have been holding back, and I have finally found something…”
Lin Fei became more and more excited as she spoke, until she gradually calmed down when she talked about what the people in the abandoned mine were doing.
Twenty-five years ago, the Lin family was instructed to blow up a silver mine with gunpowder and to detain more than a hundred miners and soldiers for their own use. Those who disobeyed were either beaten or killed. Later, family members who wanted to retrieve the remains for burial were also detained underground and forced to work for them.
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