"Senior Brother, Third Senior Brother, you went to the prison just now. Who are these people?" Zhu Qingruo looked at the group of old and young people with a mixture of amusement and exasperation.
"These are the family members of the prefect of Qingyang Prefecture. From his seventy-year-old mother to his three-year-old child, they were all imprisoned in the prefectural jail. My third junior brother and I found the jail after hearing the child crying. After asking around, we learned their identities and brought them out," Zhu Qiuyu explained solemnly.
"The prefect's family?" Everyone was shocked.
"And what about the prefect?" Zhu Qingruo couldn't help but raise her voice.
At this moment, the old lady, dressed in prison clothes and with graying temples, who was also the mother of the prefect, cried out in a trembling voice, "My son has been kidnapped by those treacherous officials, and his life or death is unknown. You must save my son!"
The old lady had probably been holding on until now, and it was said that she hadn't shed a single tear while in prison. But now, as her emotions surged and she knew that help had arrived, her tense nerves relaxed, and she fainted.
"mother."
"grandmother."
All the family members gathered around. The old lady's youngest son, who was also the prefect's brother, held the old lady and was at a loss for what to do. The other women and children just cried around her.
"Take them to the back room. You all go to the kitchen and get some hot water to wash up and change your clothes," Zhu Qiuyu instructed gently.
These people had no idea what to do, and when they heard Zhu Qiuyu say that, they all rushed to the backyard, squeezing together as they entered.
"She's so scared she can't even walk properly," Zhang Xiantao said, both amused and exasperated, after the others had walked away.
"Don't say that. The prefect, as the pillar of his family, was kidnapped by thieves, and his family members were imprisoned for half a month without any reason. How could they not be terrified?" Zhu Changge glanced at Zhang Xiantao indifferently.
This girl is great in every way, except that she's very outspoken and says whatever comes to mind without considering other people's feelings.
Zhang Xiantao stuck out her tongue and said in a coquettish tone, "I know I was wrong, Second Senior Sister, please don't be angry. I'll definitely speak nicely next time."
"How could I be angry with you? I'm just reminding you to think about the consequences before you speak, so you don't offend someone without even realizing it. We know your personality, so it's fine with us, but when you're out and about, if you encounter someone who holds a grudge and seeks revenge, the consequences will be serious," Zhu Changge said earnestly.
Having spent so much time together, Zhu Changge had come to like this girl. She had a sharp tongue but a soft heart, had grown up pampered, and was naive since her first time venturing out into the world. He just needed to give her some pointers.
"I know, Second Senior Sister is only giving me advice because she cares about me. If it were someone with ill intentions, they would be hoping I would make a fool of myself. They would even laugh at me for offending them. I know what's good for me. Don't worry, Second Senior Sister, I will definitely change." Once Zhang Xiantao started talking, she couldn't stop.
"You're so good at talking. Who's your second senior sister? This is my senior sister, not yours," Zhu Qingruo teased her deliberately.
"I won't stoop to your level," Zhang Xiantao replied, then pulled Zhao Mingyue towards the kitchen.
While Zhang Xiantao and the others were talking, Xingxing pulled Zhu Lin and the two female bodyguards around searching for something, but they couldn't find it after searching for a while.
"How could it be missing? I clearly put it in my bag. It's been lying there obediently, sleeping and eating, only moving around once every few days. Could it have fallen on the road?" Xingxing pouted, looking a little sad.
She had raised the little guy for more than half a year, feeding him fruit every day. He grew from the size of a palm to a huge lump, heavier than a puppy. Was he just going to die like that?
I've raised it for nothing all this time.
Zhu Lin couldn't bear to see her with such a bitter face, so after thinking for a moment, he said, "The Snow Round Monkey likes to eat poisonous creatures. Perhaps it sensed the presence of the snake tide, so it secretly ran out to eat snakes."
The little snowball was placed in a cloth bag, which was carried by a bodyguard. This bodyguard was quite clueless; he didn't even notice that the bag had fallen out of its contents and become much lighter.
Xingxing suspected that the guard was being two-faced, so she had him brought in for questioning. The guard said that the weight in the bag had not decreased, and for a moment he even felt that it was suddenly much heavier, but then it returned to normal, so he didn't think much of it.
"What you're saying sounds so fantastical, and no one can testify to it. Who knows if what you're saying is true? I suspect you've hidden Yuanyuan away. Did you hide it because it's cute and pet it?" This was the only possibility that Xingxing could think of.
The guard looked bitter. He wanted to tell the princess that he didn't like the white ball of fur at all. He had never had that hobby since he was a child. How could you expect a death squad member to like small animals?
“Princess, calm down. I don’t think the shadowy figure is lying. If he were lying, Qingluo and I could tell.” Qingyan gave Qingluo a look, signaling her to speak up.
Qingluo didn't want to see her colleague misunderstood, so she testified earnestly, "We are all professionally trained and would not betray our master without reason. The shadowy figure is telling the truth, Princess, please calm down."
So Xingxing stopped pressing the issue with the shadow and asked about something else, "You said the bag was still so heavy, so why was it empty when I looked?"
The shadowy figure frowned, unsure whether to reveal what he had seen earlier. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to tell the truth.
“There was a dead snake in the bag. I was afraid it would frighten the princess, so I threw it away.”
"It's gone? Where did it go?" Xingxing wanted to see the snake, hoping to find some clues.
The shadowy figure gave a complicated look. "Da Zhuang picked it up, killed it, and made snake soup."
Hearing this, Zhu Lin chuckled, but seeing Xingxing looking at him with a huff, he immediately pursed his lips and said, "Send a few people to the city gate to check; maybe we can find Xue Tuanzi."
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