Chapter 188 Missing
"Master, there is movement in the palace." Qing'an pushed open the study door and reported.
"The emperor sent several teams of people to secretly leave the capital and head south. I led some people to intercept some of them, but dozens of people still left the capital."
The candlelight was dim. Xiao Yuan raised his head from his desk. His dark eyes were cold without a trace of warmth. "What's the reaction in the palace?"
"For now... there is no movement. I guess the emperor hasn't received the news yet."
"Yes." Xiao Yuan lowered his eyes and responded softly, and then instructed, "Send a message to Qi Jinping, asking him to rush to Tianshui City in the next few days and make sure to protect the prince's wife."
Qing'an took the order and retreated, passing by the housekeeper who came in hurriedly.
"master."
"explain."
"I went to the Yongning Marquis's Mansion to deliver a dowry gift, and heard that...Princess Huasheng is missing!!!"
"What do you mean by missing?"
The butler shook his head. How could he have known that the bride would run away just as the wedding ceremony was about to take place?
"Let's go." Xiao Yuan pushed the clerk away and stood up to walk out.
The Yongning Marquis's mansion was in chaos. The maids and servants walked hurriedly and breathed heavily, not daring to make loud noises, and were extremely careful.
"Where is the person?" Ling Chenyi stood in the hall, looking coldly at the guard who had just returned from looking for someone.
"I haven't found the princess yet."
"Then what are you still standing there for? Go find it quickly."
"How could this happen?" The eldest princess' eyes were red. "Hua Sheng has always been obedient, why did she suddenly run away? Yi'er, do you think something happened to her?"
"Could it be that he was kidnapped by someone?"
"It shouldn't be." Ling Chenyi frowned and shook his head. "The Yongning Marquis's mansion is heavily guarded. Ordinary people can't get in. If they were kidnapped, they would definitely leave clues."
Moreover, according to Hua Sheng's maid's account, she clearly left on her own.
"Why did she do that?" The princess couldn't understand. "If she was not satisfied with the marriage, she could have told me. Why did she just leave without saying anything?"
Ling Chenyi looked unhappy.
He had repeatedly asked Hua Sheng about her opinion, but she had never said that she had someone else she liked. It was really surprising that she suddenly disappeared.
"When did that person leave?" A deep voice accompanied Xiao Yuan's figure as he walked into the room. When the eldest princess saw him, she felt like she had found her backbone.
"Yuan'er."
"Don't worry, Aunt. Hua Sheng is a girl. If she leaves on her own, it will be easy to catch up."
"She should have left early this morning. The maid was still guarding her last night, but there was no one in the room this morning." Ling Chenyi said.
"Have you searched the house? Are there any signs of someone breaking in?"
"No."
"If it's about marriage, I don't think she will stay in the city. If you and I split up and chase her outside the city, we should be able to catch up with her."
Ling Chenyi nodded, "I thought so too." But there were only two ways out of the city, and he couldn't handle both by himself.
"Oh, by the way, I suddenly remembered that the princess once said something." The maid who was kneeling on the ground suddenly said.
"When the Fourth Prince's wife left the capital a few days ago, the princess was very envious and said that if possible, she would also like to go out and explore before getting married. It would be worthwhile to be able to see the magnificent scenery of the border."
Ling Chenyi and Xiao Yuan looked at each other and immediately walked out.
The two men rode out of the city and chased after him from the east and west directions.
At the same time, in an inconspicuous open-air teahouse outside the city, a thin scholar sat at the edge of the room, resting his head.
She looked around from time to time, her face full of tension.
"Where are you going, little brother?"
"Hey, I'm talking to you." Hua Sheng suddenly came back to his senses after someone patted him heavily on the shoulder.
The big man who was chatting with her was stunned by her fair and cute little face.
"How can a man look like a woman?"
"Oh~ are you talking to me?"
"What else? Am I talking to a ghost?" The big man took a big sip of tea. "Ask you where you are going?"
“I~I~” Where are you going? She didn't know, but she was unwilling to just accept her fate.
An idea suddenly came to her mind, and she said, "I'm going to Tianshui City in Jiangnan to find a friend."
"Tianshui City?" The big man looked her up and down, shaking his head. "Are you kidding me? With your body, can you walk to Tianshui City or even Langyue Lake, which is a hundred miles away?"
Hua Sheng, "..."
Fearing that she would be discovered by her mother and brothers, she did not dare to take a carriage and had to walk.
"Then..." The big man pointed at the donkey cart outside the teahouse, "Looking at the way you're dressed, you don't look too poor to afford a ride. I have a seat on my cart. I can give you a ride. Do you want to take it?"
Hua Sheng looked in the direction of his finger and saw the car he was talking about.
The donkey was probably still young and very small. The shabby cart floor was full of holes, big enough for a person to fall through. Not to mention sitting on it, it was so dirty that there was no place to even step.
"Forget it." Hua Sheng refused awkwardly.
"Tsk, you look down on my carriage? Let me tell you, my donkey runs very fast, and my fares are cheap. My carriage is luxurious, you can't afford it, right?"
"..." Hua Sheng lowered his head and silently drank the tea in the bowl, then picked up his bag and prepared to continue on his way.
"Hey, pretty boy, if you really don't want to take the bus, I'll give you a cheaper price. You have to make a trip anyway, so why not make some money?"
"No, thanks."
"Okay." There was obvious disappointment on the big man's face. Although he was big and strong, he was not a bad person. Hearing that Hua Sheng didn't want to sit, he didn't force him and turned to ask about other guests in the teahouse.
Hua Sheng walked out clutching her bag tightly. Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves came closer and closer. Her face turned pale and she turned around and ran back to the teahouse.
The big man was introducing his donkey cart to others, and Hua Sheng quickly walked over and grabbed his sleeve.
"Aren't you soliciting? Are you leaving now?"
The big man was confused and said, "Let's go, let's go."
"Then go now, I'll give you the silver later."
She urged him to wait, and the big man had been waiting for a while. Finally someone was willing to sit down, so he stood up without saying anything and said, "Let's go."
He filled the cart with straw and said to Hua Sheng, "I will pick up other passengers when we get to the front."
"I got it." The sound of horse hooves stopped behind him. Hua Sheng looked back and immediately looked away nervously.
"Let's go."
"Okay." The big man threw the reins and drove the cart slowly forward.
Ling Chenyi's sharp eyes swept across the faces of everyone in the teahouse, but there was no familiar face he was looking for.
"It's only been a few hours. Can she run so far?"
He dismounted and used the silver to ask the teahouse owner. The owner was busy greeting customers and took a moment to glance at the portrait. He saw that the person was extremely handsome and noble.
"I haven't seen her. I am just a small vendor serving passers-by. How could such a distinguished girl be interested in my small shop?"
Ling Chenyi frowned, put away the portrait, got on his horse, and walked forward again.
"Brother, are you going to Tianshui City to look for a friend to work for?"
"Yeah." Hua Sheng tried his best to shrink into the straw and responded to the big man's questions perfunctorily.
"What kind of work can you do in Tianshui City? Are there any good jobs? Please introduce them to me."
Hua Sheng said casually, "Yes, if you want to do it, I will arrange it for you. I guarantee that you can earn 10 to 20 taels of silver a month, which is definitely better than pulling a donkey cart."
"Twenty or ten taels?" The big man turned around and looked at Hua Sheng in surprise, "You are not bragging, are you?"
The horse's hooves made a tremor on the ground, Hua Sheng's face turned pale, and he quickly turned his back to the running horse, and boasted to the big man in a pinched voice.
"How is that possible? My family does business there. We have several shops. If you go there, I will give you fifteen taels of silver a month and let you be the shopkeeper of my family."
The big man looked at Hua Sheng doubtfully, "Are you sure you're not lying?"
"Of course. Look at how I'm dressed. I don't look like a pauper at all."
The big man looked at her and nodded, "Well, I happen to be going to Jiangnan as well, so I'll go with you to see if what you said is true. If it is true, I'll be your little brother from now on, and I'll be willing to work for you like a cow or a horse."
Hua Sheng's smile was uglier than crying, and he only breathed a sigh of relief when the fast horse passed by him quickly.
The big man gave her a strange look and said, "Sit in the middle. My car floor is not strong, but it can bear the weight of a pretty boy like you."
Hua Sheng moved to the middle, only to find that his legs had become numb and were shaking constantly.
The big man chatted with Hua Sheng in random places along the way.
The crisis was resolved, and Hua Sheng regained some rationality in her mind. She began to look at the big man pulling the cart. He was big and strong, but in fact he was only strong in front of a petite person like her.
In fact, he is not much different from Ling Chenyi and Li Huaiyan in terms of body shape and physique, but his voice makes him look a bit more rugged.
Hua Sheng had just gotten into the car in a hurry and was now very alert.
"Oh, by the way, since your family is in business, you must have a clearance document, right?"
"Yes, why, you don't have it?"
The big man's eyes flickered, and he said, "My family is poor, and in order to avoid paying taxes, I did not report to the government, so I am an illegal resident and do not have a customs clearance certificate."
"But don't worry, I won't use your money for nothing. I won't charge you any money."
Illegal household? After hearing this, Hua Sheng's hair was about to explode.
There are only a few situations in which a person becomes an illegal resident. One is what the big man said, and the other few situations are that the person has committed a crime and is wanted by the government, or his or her background is unknown! !
What kind of car did she get in?
She began to think about how to escape when she arrived at the next city. Although she had been raised in the boudoir since she was a child, she knew that human hearts were treacherous.
——
The sky was dark, Ling Chenyi and Xiao Yuan returned empty-handed, and the entire Yongning Marquis Mansion fell into silence.
The eldest princess covered her chest and cried softly, "This child, why is she so worrying? Where can she run to?"
"It's only half a day, even if she left, she shouldn't have run so fast, could it be..." Ling Chenyi had to forget the bad side and think.
"No, if they were kidnapped, they must have some ulterior motive. I'm afraid they would have sent us a message to negotiate terms."
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