Xu Baien, also known as Grand Tutor Xu, was the teacher of three generations of emperors of the Great Shun Dynasty. He enjoyed extremely high prestige in the capital. After the new emperor ascended the throne, he made every effort to invite the Xu family to court.
However, Xu Baien believed that he was partly responsible for the decline of the Great Shun Dynasty. He did not stand up to argue or condemn it, but instead asked the new emperor to let him leave the capital and volunteered to be exiled to the northern barbarian lands.
This is called upholding one's integrity.
From then on, the noble Xu family disappeared from the capital, and the imperial tutor was no more.
Meng Yuxiu never imagined that his unintentional act would save them.
As for why the Xu family stayed here later...
A very slight "snap!" made Meng Yuxiu's ears twitch and his eyes snap open.
Years of marching had honed his exceptionally keen hearing and senses, and his sharp gaze turned toward the window.
There seemed to be a fleeting dark shadow outside the window, so fast it felt like a hallucination.
Meng Yuxiu's pupils suddenly contracted. He glanced at Chang Lili in his arms to make sure she hadn't been awakened, then carefully withdrew his arm, placed Chang Lili back on the bed, and lowered the bed curtains.
He left the room quietly.
Outside the door stood two of his men, dressed in black, who whispered in the corridor, where only lanterns hung: "General, something's up!"
"You stay here to protect Miss Chang, you come with me." Meng Yuxiu and his men climbed up from the second floor, using the window to hook onto the roof beams and leap lightly upwards. At that moment, three men in black were standing on the roof.
"General, the man ran that way, and we've already sent people to chase after him."
Looking into the thick darkness in the distance, Meng Yuxiu asked, "Who is it?"
"I couldn't see clearly, there was only one person, masked and concealing their figure."
Meng Yuxiu knew he couldn't catch up even if he tried, so he said, "Check the surroundings again. He couldn't have only come once."
In those few breaths, Meng Yuxiu thought about many things: Who was this person? What did they want? Was their target him, or Chang Lili...?
If it were him, it wouldn't be surprising; he wouldn't be so worried. But if it were Chang Lili...
That would make the situation complicated and serious.
First of all, no outsiders should know about Chang Lili's departure from Beijing yet.
Lu Ming wouldn't say, and neither would the people in the Light Machinery Department.
Who else could possibly know? And if someone actually knows, what is their purpose in following us here?
Three-page gate...
These three words flashed through Meng Yuxiu's mind, and his gaze sharpened.
He had no intention of killing or investigating anyone, but this matter involved Chang Lili, and he didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble, let alone disrupt Chang Lili's current life.
Thinking of the group of men in black who had previously bewitched Chang Lili, Meng Yuxiu couldn't help but clench his fists.
Suddenly his gaze froze, and he stopped walking on the roof.
"What's wrong, General?"
Meng Yuxiu half-squatted down, picked up a piece of tile, stared at it for a while, and said, "How did you find him?"
"This person was very alert. He ran away as soon as he heard the noise, and we only caught a fleeting glimpse of him."
“This is the second floor. The only way to see our room is from the window. There’s nowhere here to get a foothold. He must have been hanging here.” Meng Yuxiu looked at a white scratch on the tile and said, “This person used a curved sword. He might be a barbarian.”
There were also similar scratches on a few tiles underfoot, marks left by a scimitar.
Barbarians are skilled with knives, especially curved knives, which are their favorite weapons.
If it were barbarians, it actually relieved him.
"Since the cessation of hostilities, foreign tribes have been coming to the Central Plains in an endless stream. The appearance of barbarians is not surprising. But I was trying to keep a low profile. How did they know my whereabouts?"
Meng Yuxiu wondered whether they had found out by accident or if it was premeditated.
If it was premeditated, then suspicion should be directed at the capital.
Meng Yuxiu said, "I will send a letter of divorce to the capital. Also, don't tell Miss Chang about this matter for now."
His men all nodded in response.
Soon, Meng Yuxiu returned to his room, wrote the letter to be sent to the capital, and tiptoed back to his bed.
Chang Lili snuggled into his arms in her sleep and mumbled, "Where did you go?"
"There's a stray cat outside, I'll go check it out."
"Hmm."
Chang Lili fell into a deep sleep in his arms.
Meng Yuxiu chuckled, then closed his eyes and finally fell asleep.
The next day, Meng Yuxiu got up very early and left the room while Chang Lili was still asleep.
When he brought back breakfast, Chang Lili was still drowsy.
Meng Yuxiu sensed something was wrong, so he felt Chang Lili's pulse and checked her eyelids.
Chang Lili was startled and immediately woke up.
The image of your sweetheart turning your eyelids over first thing in the morning is simply wonderful!
"What are you doing?" Chang Lili looked at Meng Yuxiu warily.
Seeing that she immediately regained consciousness, Meng Yuxiu touched the tip of his nose and said, "I thought you had been drugged with sleeping powder."
Chang Lili looked at him, puzzled.
Meng Yuxiu said, "I see he hasn't woken up yet, and it's getting late..."
Chang Lili really wanted to scratch this man's face, and angrily said, "I'm just a little tired. I didn't like to sleep in before."
Knowing he was in the wrong, Meng Yuxiu said, "I know I was in too much of a rush yesterday. If you still want to sleep, I'll leave now."
"Wait, where are you going?"
“Look around. Didn’t Yuandao say yesterday that there were traces of the Three-Page Gate here? So I wonder if Duanzhou is hiding any secrets.”
Upon hearing this, Chang Lili said, "I want to go too."
Meng Yuxiu chuckled as he watched her get up, full of energy.
Soon the two returned to their yesterday attire. Chang Lili dressed as a young master, while Meng Yuxiu became her guard and butler.
The two strolled around the market and headed towards the busiest market.
The market was crowded with people, and all sorts of information were mixed together, some true and some false. Chang Lili walked through the street and, apart from learning the prices of some things, didn't manage to find out anything else.
Chang Lili asked, "Butler, where exactly is what we're looking for? I feel like we're searching for a needle in a haystack. They're hiding it so we can't find it."
“So, be patient.” Meng Yuxiu followed behind her, holding the Mengli Sword in his arms, his voice deep and pleasant. “Didn’t you hear me just now?”
"say what?"
"The Prefect of Duanzhou."
"What's wrong with him? I heard he's supposed to have some kind of poetry recital tonight?"
"It's a poetry gathering. You usually don't get to see the prefect, but I've had some connections with him, so I'll go and take a look."
Chang Lili connected this to Meng Yuxiu's secret trip and guessed that his relationship with this prefect was probably not a good one.
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