Chapter 325: Punishment of the Iron Hoof
The moon had just risen outside a village fifteen miles west of Anzhou City.
A black horse with its reins loose was leisurely eating grass roots by the side of the road. A slim young woman was sitting on a rock not far away. She was dressed casually and wearing a conical hat. She had her hands on her lower abdomen and was rubbing it gently.
"Baby, did you feel the bumps?" she whispered, as if talking to herself. "This was Mom's first time riding a horse, and it was your dad who took her. If he hadn't stood in front of Mom..."
It is now dinner time and there are few pedestrians on the main road. Those who need to go back to the village go back to the village, and those who need to go to the city go to the city.
In the distance, two thugs, one fat and one thin, were walking along the road. The fat one, seeing the tall and strong horse on the roadside and its owner being a weak woman with no guards around, couldn't help but have evil thoughts and wanted to take the horse.
He exchanged glances with the thin man next to him. The thin man understood and approached the woman, while the fat man walked towards the horse.
"Madam," the thin man said, smiling as he walked up to the girl, "Why are you sitting here alone? Where is your husband?"
The woman was wearing a bamboo hat, so he couldn't see her face clearly. But he saw that her lips were slightly raised under the hat, as if she was smiling.
"My husband is at home mourning."
The thin man felt a little uncomfortable. He felt that this woman had an aura that he couldn't describe. If an ordinary woman were alone and saw two grown men approaching, she would have panicked. But this woman was not afraid at all and even smiled.
He looked around and saw that there were no pedestrians on the road, so he grew bolder. He winked at the fat man not far away, asking him to take the horse away. As for him, he wanted to see what the woman looked like.
"Mourning," he smiled and took a step closer to the woman. "So, young lady, a relative has died. Is it your parents?"
"No," the woman smiled, "I died."
As soon as these words came out, the skinny guy almost peed his pants on the spot.
At this moment, a cold wind happened to blow over, and he felt that the hairs on his body stood up, and he felt that there was a ghostly aura around him.
A horse covered in black, a mysterious woman wandering alone. She actually claims to be dead. Is this... a female ghost?
He had wanted to lift the woman's bamboo hat to take a look, but now he didn't have the courage. He stepped back and said, "I... I have something else to do. I'll leave first."
The woman's smile widened: "Hey young man, don't you have improper thoughts? Why don't you come?"
Seeing that the woman took the initiative to invite him, the thin man became even more timid and turned around to call the fat man.
As soon as he turned his head, he heard a horse neighing, followed by a bang. The fat man screamed and fell to his knees with his hands covering his stomach.
"You...what's wrong with you?" The thin man panicked and shouted as he retreated.
As the night grew darker, he couldn't see clearly what happened to the fat man, he only knew that the fat man fell to the ground.
The fat man didn't answer either. He rolled on the ground holding his stomach, seemingly in great pain.
"Xiaobai, give him a little punishment too," the woman stood up and took off her hat. "These two bad guys actually dared to set their sights on my mount."
The thin man was stunned when he saw the woman take off her hat and the moonlight pouring down, illuminating her stunning face.
He had never seen such a beautiful woman.
Just as he was lost in thought, a horse's mouth appeared before his eyes, grabbed his shoulders, and immediately pulled his feet off the ground. Then his eyes began to spin, and he was thrown to the ground with a thud.
He was knocked unconscious, and just as he was about to stand up with his hands on the ground, he was hit hard on his butt. The force was so strong that he flew out and rolled several times on the ground, holding his butt with his hands and wailing.
The woman smiled and sat down again, fanning herself with her bamboo hat and asked, "Does your hoof hurt?"
"It hurts, it hurts..." The two of them responded hurriedly, one covering their stomach and the other covering their butt.
"I'm asking Xiaobai." The woman rolled her eyes at them.
At this time, the black horse had returned to the woman's side and rubbed its nose against her shoulder, while the woman reached out to comb the horse's mane.
The thin man thought, this woman is really mean, calling a black horse "Little White". Besides, that was an iron horseshoe, and she almost kicked his butt open, but she asked if the horse's hoof hurt.
The two men lay on the ground for a long time before they could get up. They checked to make sure that no bones were broken. Just as they were about to get up, two more horses came one after the other.
The leading horse rushed up to the woman, and from it jumped a pretty dark-skinned girl, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with a sword hanging from her waist. She dismounted and said to the woman, "Master, we finally caught up with you... What are these two men doing?"
"They... teased me." The woman sniffed aggrievedly.
"What?" The black girl was furious. She strode up to the thin man, grabbed his belt without saying a word and lifted him into the air.
The thin man found himself three feet off the ground, and his soul flew away. He kept saying, "Hero... No, no, not a hero, but..."
He was still thinking about how to address this black girl who was stronger than a man when she threw him to the ground with a bang. Stars danced before his eyes and his whole body felt like it was falling apart.
"It's such a waste, much lighter than city bricks." The black girl clapped her hands and walked towards the fat man not far away.
The fat man was still clutching his stomach when he saw the thin man being slammed to the ground like a sack. He weighed his own weight and was afraid that he wouldn't get away with it either. He quickly turned over and knelt, "Heroine, spare me! My bones are so fragile... If you fall again, they'll break."
Just as the black girl was about to speak, the horse behind her arrived. A smiling woman, carrying a package, jumped off the horse and said, "Master, Sister Yang, you... Hey, why are there two men here?"
The thin man remembered that the black girl had asked the same question when she arrived. He quickly shouted, "We were blind and didn't know your master was resting here. We accidentally bumped into her..."
"Xia Lan, they teased me."
The voice was clear and pleasant, but to the thin man's ears it sounded no different from that of a female ghost.
"Wait..." The thin man saw the smiling woman pull out a dagger from her waist and quickly raised his hands, "Don't be violent, speak slowly if you have something to say."
The smiling woman approached and pointed a dagger at the thin man's face, "How about this? First, gouge out his eyes, then chop off his hands and feet, and finally, cut open his stomach and use the fat to light a lamp..."
The thin man stared blankly, but before he could shout, the fat man fell to the ground with a thud and was motionless.
"Alright, Xia Lan, Yang Cong." Shen Yuexi, who was watching the show nearby, saw the two people were scared to death and called out to them, "Don't scare them, I still have something to ask."
These ruffians have nothing to do all day, but they are knowledgeable and it is appropriate to ask them if you have any questions.
Seeing that the fat man had fainted from fear, Yang Cong had no choice but to go to the thin man, pick him up, and throw him in front of Shen Yuexi: "Answer whatever the master asks. If you answer wrong, you will be thrown down."
"I know, I know." The thin man covered his butt and nodded repeatedly.
He could tell the woman before him was definitely not ordinary. The black girl was wearing a sword unique to the Western Rong, a weapon not found in the hands of ordinary Yan officials. This meant they were likely from the military.
"Have you ever seen a carriage pulling an old man and a man here?"
Shen Yuexi described the appearance and clothing of Dr. Hua and Hua Duoduo.
The thin man complained, "Sir, this place is not far from the capital, and there are too many people coming and going every day. I am not very good at seeing, how could I possibly remember such a person?"
Yang Cong was furious and said, "It seems you are not willing to accept my toast and drink the penalty wine."
"Yang Cong, wait a minute," Shen Yuexi winked at Xia Lan. Xia Lan understood and took out a small piece of silver, about half an ounce, and shook it in front of the thin man.
They came to find Dr. Hua and Hua Duoduo, but when they arrived in the city, they were not sure of their exact location, so they could only ask around.
The thin man was overjoyed and immediately changed his words: "Sir, I saw the two people you mentioned about a week ago. They got off the bus to rest on the side of the road. They were wearing exactly the same clothes as you described."
"Have they entered the city?" Shen Yuexi smelled it.
"No, they didn't enter the city," the thin man said, looking at the glittering silver. "The carriage went to the north of the city."
"North?" Shen Yuexi was a little puzzled.
No wonder they searched Anzhou City for half a day but couldn't find any trace of Dr. Hua and Hua Duoduo. It turned out that they didn't even enter the city.
But now that we have a rough idea of the location, let's continue searching to the north.
She gestured for Xia Lan to throw the silver to the thin man. She said, "If you have any important news, tell me again and there will be a reward. We will stay at the inn in town tonight."
The thin man took the silver, his face beaming with joy. His buttocks no longer hurt, and he nodded repeatedly, saying, "Don't worry."
Shen Yuexi and the other two left the two thugs behind and continued on their way.
Yang Cong led the horse alongside Shen Yuexi and said, "Master, your horse is too fast. The two of us can't catch up. Fortunately, Xiaobai saved you, otherwise how would you have dealt with these two men?"
Shen Yuexi said, "Xiaobai is a thousand-mile horse, so naturally you can't keep up. I'm anxious to save Doctor Hua and his son, so I can't wait any longer."
Xia Lan also said: "Master, you are pregnant, why do you have to come in person? Haven't you already asked that great swordsman Ji to rescue her?"
"Sister Ji also has to protect Madam Li and her daughter. How can she do that if she doesn't know how to clone herself?" Shen Yuexi said, "I made a mistake back then. I shouldn't have given her two priorities. Once I find a way to contact her, I'll let her focus on protecting Madam Li and her daughter."
This is one reason, but the real reason why she left is very strange: she couldn't stand the whole Shengjing crying.
When the news of her death from poison spread, the entire capital was plunged into grief, and the people were grateful to her and came to pay their respects. She had been quite happy staying in the house, eating and drinking, but later, she was so distressed by the crying day and night that she simply said goodbye to Xiao Zhuo and sneaked out.
Yang Cong is already a qualified military general, and Xia Lan knows martial arts. With these two people protecting her, she can rest assured, and Xiao Zhuo is also relieved.
The three of them went to the inn in the town to eat and stay overnight. Late at night, the innkeeper's daughter came to call Shen Yuexi, saying that a well-known local gangster wanted to see her for something important.
Shen Yuexi went downstairs and met the man, who was the fat man among the two people she met outside the town in the evening.
The fat man said to her mysteriously, "My lord, a prison van has arrived from the capital. The prisoner inside the van... is said to be the murderer who poisoned Princess An. He is almost here."
Shen Yuexi immediately became interested.
She just wanted to see who was the murderer who poisoned her.
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