Chapter 145: Mines
"Send these two to the mines."
After entering the city, Ye Xuanhe gave an order, and Jiang Lan and Xie Yun were loaded into a prison van and taken away. The masked official left the water bag to the two.
Although I was locked in a prison van, at least I didn't have to walk.
Seeing the prison van coming, the people on both sides of the street looked over. Jiang Lan also looked at the people along the road through the iron railings of the prison van and found that the people's clothing and costumes here were different from those in the Central Plains, and had a kind of exotic style.
A burst of whispers spread among the crowd, as if they realized that the two people were from the Central Plains, and then a sense of hostility quickly spread among the crowd.
Jiang Lan saw someone make a "Pah" sound, and then she found that the eyes of these people were full of hostility. Suddenly, a handful of vegetable leaves flew over from somewhere and were thrown onto the prison van. Immediately afterwards, an egg was thrown over and smashed on the iron bars of the prison van with a "click". Xie Yun quickly raised his hand to protect Jiang Lan's head. Then a large wave of vegetable leaves, eggs and steamed buns were thrown over. Jiang Lan saw a steamed bun rolling in, and quickly picked it up and put it in her arms.
By the time they left the city, the prison cart was covered in vegetable leaves. Xie Yun's hair was also stained with vegetable leaves and eggshells. Jiang Lan removed the vegetable leaves and eggshells for him and wiped the sticky egg liquid from his hair with her sleeve. Looking at the eggs that had broken on the iron bars, she thought to herself that if they were cooked eggs, they would be edible...
Then she took out the white flour bun from her arms and gave it to Xie Yun, asking him to eat some to fill his stomach first.
"Sister Lan, you eat, I'm not hungry."
Xie Yun pushed the steamed bun to her and spoke weakly. Jiang Lan broke the bun into two halves, giving each of them half. She gave him the water bag to drink first, then took out the bottle of medicine powder from her bag and changed his medicine. She also gave him a pill to replenish his qi and blood.
When the city behind was no longer visible, the prison cart moved forward and the surrounding scenery became more and more desolate.
Jiang Lan saw a bare mountain standing in front of her. There was nothing on the mountain except stones. It reflected a metallic luster in the sunlight. She thought that it must be a mine.
The prison van was parked at the foot of the mountain. Not far away was a canopy with two officials sitting inside, one old and one young. The old one looked to be around fifty years old, and the young one looked to be around twenty years old. They were the supervisors of the mine.
The two men were sitting in the shed, resting and drinking water. There was a long whip on the table. The young man kept raising his sleeves to wipe the sweat from his face, complaining that the weather was too hot.
"Newcomers are here." As the old overseer led the young man over, his eyes, the size of a date pit, narrowed as he glanced at the two men in the cage. With a smile, he said to the officer driving the car, "Neither of them looks capable of working. One of them is injured. If they stay here, they won't get much work done, and they'll just have to feed two more mouths for nothing."
"This was sent here by order of the general. If you don't want it, just go and tell the general in person." said the official driving the car.
The old overseer immediately changed his tone and flattered, "So it was the general's personal order. We'll take good care of it then." He gestured to the young man, who walked over to the prison van, slapped the iron bars, and shouted gruffly, "What are you still standing there for? Get down here! Do you want me to come up and fetch you?"
Jiang Lan knew at a glance that this man had a hot temper and was not easy to mess with. He looked like he would hit someone at any time. She hurriedly helped Xie Yun down, trying her best not to provoke him.
As soon as the two men got off, the official driving the car drove away in the empty prison van.
"What's in the bag? Let me see." The young man stretched out his hand towards Jiang Lan. She subconsciously protected the bag. After all, it contained Xie Yun's life-saving medicine. But this action instantly angered the young man, and the expression on his face became ferocious.
"Are you deaf? Give it to me!"
Jiang Lan knew that it would be no good to anger the other party now, so she just took off her bag when it was snatched away by the other party. Seeing that the other party was so arrogant and unreasonable, Xie Yun was about to speak, but Jiang Lan gently pulled his clothes and shook her head slightly at him, and Xie Yun did not speak.
"What is this?" The young man took out a medicine bottle from his bag and was about to open the stopper to take a look when a hand reached out and took the bottle from his hand, while the other hand took the shoulder bag from his hand.
The young man was about to lose his temper, but when he saw the person who took the thing from him, he saw that the other person was wearing military armor and a mask on his face, so he did not dare to lose his temper easily.
"It turns out to be Lord Shadow. I'm sorry." The old supervisor apologized to the other party and asked the young man to apologize. The young man was shocked when he heard that the other party was Shadow. He apologized quickly and his voice trembled when he spoke. His legs were shaking as well. No one could keep his composure like the old supervisor.
But it's no wonder that he was so afraid when he heard the name of Shadow. After all, he was a top killer specially trained by the royal family. He killed people without blinking an eye and his moves were fatal.
The other party put the medicine bottle back into the bag and returned it to Jiang Lan, then took out a piece of gold from his arms and threw it to the old supervisor.
After receiving the gold, the old supervisor smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir. I will take good care of these two young masters." Then he instructed the young man to arrange a place for the two men to stay and let them recuperate first. He spoke in a very beautiful way and it was obvious that he was a very shrewd old man.
Seeing that the other party was not leaving and seemed to be waiting for accommodation, the old supervisor led the way over and allocated one of the vacant cabins to the two of them.
"My Lord, do you think this is okay?"
The other party nodded, and the old supervisor took the young man and left.
After walking a little further, the young man asked curiously, "Uncle, what are the origins of these two people from the Central Plains?"
"If you want to live a long life, don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask, and don't inquire about things that you shouldn't inquire about." The old supervisor took out the gold from his arms again, weighed it, and put it back in his arms with satisfaction.
The young man glanced greedily at the gold and said, "But didn't the general want us to make these two suffer? Do we have to treat them well now? What if we offend the general..."
The old overseer showed a cunning look on his face and said, "Lord Shadow, can you still keep an eye on us here every day? Let them rest for a few days, and then we'll arrange for them to go into the mountains to work. Just make sure no one gets killed."
…
On this side, when the shadow was about to leave, Jiang Lan stopped him.
She ran over and glanced around outside the door, then closed it and turned to stare at the eyes behind the mask. Her lips trembled slightly, and she took a deep breath and asked, "Are you Ling Feng?"
Those eyes froze for a moment, with obvious surprise in their expression.
Jiang Lan knew that she had guessed right, he was Ling Feng.
"He's the personal bodyguard beside my brother-in-law?" Xie Yun was also a little surprised. He walked over and took a closer look, holding his stomach. "Really, he is. He looks quite similar."
Ling Feng had nothing to hide at this moment, so he raised his hand and took off the mask on his face.
"I knew it was you." Jiang Lan didn't have time to be happy. She asked anxiously, "What happened? The Marquis..." She paused, "Does he really not recognize me?"
Ling Feng briefly recounted what happened after he left that day.
After Qi Wuhan fainted, he regained consciousness on the road, grabbed his shoulders with all his strength, and told him to protect Jiang Lan no matter what happened in the future.
Later, when they arrived at the Beimo Palace, Ling Feng was held in solitary confinement. Three days later, Ye Xuanhe released him and said he would take him to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. When he saw the person, he found out that the His Royal Highness the Crown Prince the other party was talking about was Qi Wuhan, but the latter seemed not to recognize him at all. Ye Xuanhe told Qi Wuhan his identity, saying that he was the personal bodyguard who had been loyal to him when they were in Central Plains. Qi Wuhan tested his skills and gave him two choices, either continue to be loyal to him or go back to Central Plains.
He chose to stay and became a shadow.
"Although the Marquis is now the crown prince, the ministers of the Northern Desert know his previous identity and have always opposed him. There is a legend in the Northern Desert that there is a divine dragon in the snow-capped mountains of the far north. Whoever can bring back the dragon's scales will be the warrior of the entire Northern Desert and will be admired by everyone. But no one has ever succeeded, because that place is known as the Valley of Death, and there is no return. But the Marquis went there alone and brought back the legendary dragon scales ten days later. At that time, the Marquis was covered in wounds. Several bloody holes were bitten on his shoulders by something, and his abdomen was also cut open. He lay in bed for three days. As soon as his injuries healed, he led the black-armored cavalry to suppress the sand bandits. Now there are fewer voices of opposition, and only a few old ministers are still opposed."
After explaining the whole story, Ling Feng knelt down and apologized to Jiang Lan, and she quickly pulled him up.
"I failed to protect the Marquis and the Madam. I deserve to die." Ling Feng felt extremely guilty and ashamed, and he had to kneel down to apologize to Jiang Lan.
"If you do this again, I'll kneel down for you." She was about to kneel down, and Ling Feng quickly asked her to stand up. Xie Yun smiled and said, "Okay, don't kneel down, just explain it clearly." He then asked in a low voice, "Does my brother-in-law really not remember, or is he pretending?"
Ling Feng shook his head. "I'm still investigating this matter," he listened carefully to the noise outside and lowered his voice. "This matter seems to be related to the High Priest of Beimo. It's rumored that he has divine powers and may have used some mysterious means." He then said to Jiang Lan, "Madam, please stay here for a few days. The palace is not safe. If you enter without protection, it would be dangerous for you to go there now. I will definitely ask the Marquis to take you back."
Jiang Lan nodded and said, "You should also be careful and protect yourself."
When Ling Feng left, he gave the old supervisor a warning look, telling him that if anything happened to him, he would be held responsible!
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