Nangong Zheng personally led some men to the Qihuan Mountain ferry terminal to wait. At the same time, Nangong Zhen, after exhausting countless horses, rushed to the Dongshui ferry terminal to set a trap, hoping to compensate for his past mistakes.
But after waiting for two days, no one showed up.
At this point, Nangong Zheng also felt that he might have miscalculated. He fixed his gaze on the icy surface of the Lingshui River, which was glittering in the sunlight, his face as stony as the water’s surface.
After staring for a while, he said, "Well done, Zhou Gu."
After a while, he added, "Zhou Gu of the Duke Residence, it’s no wonder you were chosen over Ye Guixue by the princess."
Even though Su Rong and Ye Guixue didn’t intentionally put out any information, it was clear how Ye Guixue had returned. How did Ye Xiang behave so gloomily after Ye Guixue’s return? It was no surprise that Ye Xiang’s Resident’s plan fell flat.
Ya Luo looked at Nangong Zheng and asked in a low voice, "Master, the person hasn’t arrived yet. Did he fall into the river and drown? Or did he go to the Dongshui ferry terminal? And Nangong Zhen didn’t intercept them? Did someone manage to evade him? Is he afraid of offending you, so he sent a message saying he didn’t wait for anyone?"
"None of those," Nangong Zheng said. "Even if Nangong Zhen had a hundred times the nerve, he wouldn’t dare to fool me."
"Perhaps he didn’t fall into the river and drown. Zhou Gu must have anticipated that I would set a trap at these two places. Desperate, he must have entered the Zhangdu Forest."
Ya Luo immediately said, "The Zhangdu Forest is always filled with toxic gas and dangerous creatures. If someone steps into it, they will be poisoned and die within a few hours."
He thought to himself, "Zhou Gu would not commit suicide like this. If he had attacked us directly, he might have had a chance to escape. But by entering Zhangdu Forest, he wouldn’t survive three days. Even one day would be pushing it, as the poisonous creatures would devour his body, leaving not even the skeleton behind."
"Whoever dares to enter Zhangdu Forest must have some sort of protective charm. They might be carrying an antidote to the toxins." Nangong Zheng was annoyed at himself for not having thought of this. Even if he had, he didn’t have the antidote to the toxins. Naturally, he couldn’t go in there.
Awake to the situation, Ya Luo asked, "Master, what should we do now?"
Nangong Zheng ordered coldly, "Put out my order. All of the Nangong Family’s secret guards are to return and search for them towards Daliang."
Ya Luo immediately acknowledged the order.
Nangong Zheng continued, "Send a message to Nangong Le, Nangong Zhuo, and Nangong Xi. Hand over the matter to them and they must find Zhou Gu and kill him."
No mention of the King was needed. Once Zhou Gu was killed, there would also be no one to protect the King, which would also mean his death.
Ya Luo acknowledged this order as well.
Nangong Zheng then said, "As for me..."
He looked down, "I’ll proceed with the original plan. Go to Dawei, meet Crown Prince Yuan Zhao, and ask for soldiers."
He no longer had time to play cat and mouse with Zhou Gu. The most urgent task was to meet Crown Prince Yuan Zhao. Otherwise, if he couldn’t find Zhou Gu and kill him and the King, once the princess arrived with the backup from Daliang, the Nangong Family might have nowhere to go.
He had to fight for another way out for the Nangong Family.
So, Nangong Le, Nangong Zhuo, and Nangong Xi received Nangong Zheng’s message from three different directions at the same time.
After receiving the message, they made no objections. After all these years, Nangong Yin had securely established Nangong Zheng’s position in the Nangong Family. Nangong Zheng was at the center of power, and aside from Nangong Yin, everyone had to follow his orders. Once he gave an order, it had to be followed religiously.
So, even though they were older than Nangong Zheng and were referred to as his uncles by him, they immediately accepted the orders, leading the Nangong Family’s secret forces to search around Daliang.
With this opportunity, Zhou Gu and Zhang Yun were enjoying the leisure of the journey. Zhou Gu had accurately predicted that there would be a two-day gap before Nangong Zheng reacted. This window was ample for Zhang Yun and the Nanchu King to rendezvous with the Nangong Family’s undercover agents on the open roads.
By the time Nangong Zheng noticed their moves, they were already hundreds of miles away. Starting a carpet search then would have been difficult, not to mention the vast area they would have to cover and figuring out which direction they had taken.
Zhou Gu used a good time lag and also took advantage of Zhangdu Forest, exploiting Nangong Zheng’s youthful age. even if he was highly gifted, he couldn’t have guessed that they would have a protective charm against the forest’s toxins. They would dare to enter Zhangdu Forest, and then retreat with difficulty.
This strategy was so brilliant that even the Nanchu King felt that he couldn’t have come up with it himself, even at his current age, let alone when he was Zhou Gu’s age.
Sigh, it seemed he, the King, was indeed too incompetent.
Seeing the admiration on Nanchu King’s face, Zhou Gu proudly moved in closer to him, grinned and asked, "Father-in-law, how was it? I was right in saying we should retreat, wasn’t I?"
The Nanchu King pushed his head away, "Your roast chicken is almost burnt. I don’t eat burnt food."
Zhou Gu immediately turned his attention back to the chicken, mumbling, "How could it have burnt so quickly? I only talked for a moment."
Zhang Yun was also learning how to roast food by now. He was seasoning the wild chickens and rabbits and pondering, "Strange."
"What’s strange?" asked Zhou Gu.
"We’ve been on the road for half a month, and no one from the Nangong Family has pursued us, which doesn’t fit Nangong Zheng’s style," Zhang Yun said. "Think about it, half a month ago, we were being forced so hard. He almost caught up to us from a thousand miles away in the capital. One wave of men after another almost killed us, not to mention that around two-thirds of the secret guards were lost, and they even forced us to change our route through Zhangdu Forest. Now, it’s been half a month, and the secret guards have gathered with us, but no one has found us. If it was Nangong Zheng, he wouldn’t have lost his trace."
"Perhaps Nangong Zheng has other things to do," Zhou Gu was also pondering the situation, "Perhaps, he has more urgent things to do than to find and kill us. If it is Nangong Zheng, being a couple of days late would not matters to him. At this point, the people definitely should be catching up to us."
His plan was not to be afraid of the pursuers, in fact, it would be best if they were always at their heels, but now it was certain that there was no one behind them. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be this quiet and undisturbed.
Zhang Yun couldn’t figure it out, "Perhaps, right now the best thing is that they don’t find us. Such peaceful days like these, I would have to be crazy to want them to catch up."
"Let’s eat quickly and continue our journey," Zhou Gu handed the freshly roasted mountain chicken to the Nanchu King, who was sitting nearby. He thought that with such dedicated service, his father-in-law would surely not mistreat him once they reached the royal palace and he resumed his duties as the Nanchu King, even ignoring the emperor of Daliang.
The Nanchu King picked up the golden brown, crispy and delicious roasted chicken, which was just the way he preferred it.
The group quickly finished eating and without taking a break, continued their journey.
After traveling for another seven days, they felt that the searches in townships and counties had become stricter.
Zhang Yun said, "The people from the Nangong Family have finally locked onto our direction."
"You’re looking forward to it?" Zhou Gu glared at him.
Zhang Yun coughed lightly, "We spent more than twenty peaceful days on the road. I thought the people from the Nangong Family were dead. Suddenly they’re alive again, and I’m kind of excited."
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