Lost Soul
Late at night, a soldier guarding the west gate of the Imperial City leaned against his sentry post, his arms folded, his eyes half-closed, as if he were about to fall asleep. A muffled sound beside his ear startled him awake, and he thought he had been discovered deserting his post.
Looking around, he saw silence and darkness, only the city gate was brightly lit, and everything seemed normal. When he thought about it carefully, he finally realized that something was wrong - where were the people on duty?
I don't know when, I was the only one left around me.
The noise I just heard was actually...
The soldier swallowed nervously, drew his sword and inched closer to the nearest sentry post.
He stared with wide eyes and trembling as he looked at the soldier lying limp on the ground in front of him. His throat felt as if it had been cut by a sharp knife and he couldn't speak. Fear swept through all his emotions. Before he could open his mouth to call for help, he felt a clear pain in his shoulder and neck.
Then, the vision became blurry.
At the same time, there were the fewest soldiers guarding the East Gate, but they reacted promptly and sounded the military drums to warn of an enemy attack. Almost at the same time, bells sounded from the Jingtai Palace, the East Palace and the South Gate of the Imperial Palace, indicating an attack.
The entire palace was instantly thrown into chaos.
It was Xing Feng in the Eastern Palace who realized something was wrong after he discovered that the Crown Prince and Madam Jing had disappeared and the attendants and palace maids had fainted. He immediately ordered the Yulin Guards to track them down. As soon as he went out, he ran into the people sent by Prince Lin from Jingtai Palace.
Opposite him was Si Jue's confidant, the newly promoted Governor-General of the Imperial Palace, whose rank was higher than that of Xing Feng, the commander of the Yulin Guard. Xing Feng truthfully reported that he suspected the prince had been kidnapped by a villain.
"Come here, capture these rebels for me!"
Xing Feng said coldly: "Governor Yu, what do you mean? Why don't you go after the traitors and bite them back?"
Yu Jin didn't even glance at him. "The Crown Prince's former subordinates attempted to assassinate His Royal Highness Prince Lin, and the Crown Prince fled out of fear of punishment. Do you think I should arrest you?"
"Nonsense! The Crown Prince is still unconscious, who would give such an order!?"
Yu Jin glanced at him with disdain, as if he felt there was no need to waste words with him: "Catch him."
Three big men immediately stepped forward and held Xing Feng down. He looked ashen. The winners were kings and the losers were bandits, but now he could only be the fish on the chopping board of others.
Yue Ningning was sleeping soundly when the door of Frost Flower Palace was slammed open with a loud bang. The person who came was in a hurry and didn't bother to deal with the maid. He walked into the bedroom in two steps.
Yue Ningning was not very surprised when she heard the noise. She calmly got up and put on her outer robe.
"Madam Yue!" It was the same attendant from that night, who knelt down before her with a thud. "Your Highness... please go to Jingtai Palace."
"I see."
Unable to discern any emotion from her words, she turned and returned to the palace. The attendant herself felt embarrassed. His Highness had just had such an unpleasant argument with Lady Yue tonight, and now he was coming to her for help.
Yue Ningning changed her clothes and came to Jingtai Palace under the respectful guidance of her servants. When she saw Si Jue, she took a breath. She was not mentally prepared enough.
The imperial physician stayed by Si Jue's side, administering acupuncture to detoxify and bandaging wounds, while palace maids hurriedly came and went, changing the basins of blood-stained water.
Si Jue was lying half-dead on the bed, but fortunately he was still conscious, though his eyes were a little dazed.
"The assassin was experienced and powerful, and he came with the intention of dying together. He was so fast that by the time we reacted, he had already reached the front of the palace."
Yue Ningning frowned and couldn't help scolding: "Are your secret guards and guards just there to eat for nothing?"
"That group of people was already in the palace, and our intelligence network hasn't yet fully covered the Crown Prince's influence. We were caught off guard..."
As the attendant spoke, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. In just half a month, Si Jue was assassinated for the second time. It was really a serious dereliction of duty on their part. They should have chopped off their heads a thousand times.
Yue Ningning took two steps closer: "What a waste."
The pair of originally soft and pretty almond-shaped eyes looked down at Si Jue coldly, wondering who the waste she was referring to was.
"I didn't call you back to listen to this."
Si Jue didn't seem to be in too bad a condition, and he could still continue to argue with her.
Yue Ningning knew he was scared and had rushed to bring her back as a life-saving talisman. Luckily for him, the life-or-death potion she had used on him still had some residual effect, and the system was set up so that only the protagonists could kill each other. So, despite her disappointment, the fact was that Si Jue wouldn't die so easily.
Yu Jin just happened to rush back from outside: "The Crown Prince and Jing Yao and the others have escaped. Only Xing Feng, the commander of the Imperial Guard, was captured."
Si Jue subconsciously straightened his back: "Where did he run from? Why don't you chase him?"
"The West Gate, East Gate, and South Gate have all been attacked. I can't confirm it yet, but the West Gate is the easiest way to leave the city. I've already sent people directly to the West Gate to intercept them. They shouldn't be able to get far."
Yue Ningning glanced at Si Jue sideways, thoughtfully asking, "Did they just run away?"
Yu Jin replied, "The drums at the East Gate and South Gate sounded almost simultaneously with the bells at Jingtai Palace. The difference should be not much."
Logically, we should be able to catch the person back soon, but... are Jing Yao and the others so stupid?
"I didn't see him say anything when Zuo Yuanwu's power was removed. It turns out he was waiting for me here." Si Jue snorted coldly, and then closed his mouth because of the pain from the wound on his shoulder.
Yue Ningning was uneasy and always suspected that something was wrong.
"Take me to the East Palace for a look."
Most of the people in the East Palace were still there, having been knocked unconscious when the incident happened. The people Yu Jin had just left behind had already woken them all up, especially Bo Yue, who had collapsed beside the couch. She was originally one of Jing Yao's personal maids, but now she was still there, while another person had disappeared with Jing Yao.
She might know something.
But after being interrogated for a long time, she still knew nothing about anything. She said that she was serving the young lady by the couch, but somehow she fainted and when she woke up, she saw the scene in front of her.
"What time was it before you fainted?"
"The hour of You, when the sun has just set."
Eunuch Ming, who was standing by, also recalled that Jing Yao said he wanted to rest after his meal, so he did not enter the hall to disturb him. No other strange things or big noises happened in the meantime, and everything was normal.
Yue Ningning sneered. As expected, Jing Yao had already escaped, but his cover-up was so good that no one noticed. The people who stayed behind waited until midnight to act, deliberately creating noises at several palace gates, even distinguishing between the three gates, to mislead Yu Jin and his team.
In fact, they did not go out from any of the east, west, south or north gates, so it was useless to chase them in these three directions out of the city.
Jing Yao wanted to escape and took Si Pei with him, he must have wanted to detoxify him...
Yue Ningning raised her eyes and said, "They are going to the north. Search immediately in the direction north to Jueyun area."
Yu Jin accepted the order: "Yes."
[Alert! Alert! The world plotline has deviated significantly.]
Yue Ningning didn't know whether to be happy or angry after hearing the human-machine voice of 3022 for the first time in a long time.
[Host, what should we do now? ]
"You're still asking me what to do? When you tricked me into coming here, didn't you say you knew everything and could do everything?"
Yue Ningning was furious. She finally understood that she had been completely tricked by this group of idiots who talked nonsense.
"I just want to ask one thing now. Si Jue wants to kill me. Will you protect me or him?"
[This...] 3022 said in embarrassment, [Host, my program doesn't have a solution for this situation... But! I'm definitely on your side.]
"Okay then. From now on, no matter what I do, you can't put any restrictions on me. Do you understand?"
[I know, I know!]
3022 thought to himself, never mind, as long as the mission is completed, it doesn’t matter if the world strikes me twice!
Yue Ningning raised the corners of her mouth slightly and turned back to Jingtai Palace.
"Pass on the new emperor's order. Anyone who sees the old crown prince and the daughter of the Jing family must be immediately arrested and brought back to Shanghua City to see me."
"yes!"
A large carpet search net slowly advanced to the north. Yue Ningning was very proud of herself. This time, she didn't believe that Si Pei and Jing Yao would be able to escape.
——
Late at night, two carriages, one in front and one behind, came to the fork in the road at the foot of Yinxu Mountain in the north of Shanghua City and slowly slowed down until the one behind was level with the one in front.
"General, let's separate here."
Zuo Yuanwu lifted the side curtain and said, "Keep going forward until you reach the outskirts of Shenzhou City. I will arrange for people to continue to disperse with you, alternating until you reach Ganzhou."
"yes."
After receiving the order, the other carriage whipped its whip and sped forward until it disappeared from their sight.
"Let's go the other way and turn south."
The coachman nodded and drove around to the avenue on the other side.
Although it was late at night and there was no one around, the road leading directly to Qianzhou in the southwest was very wide and there were no bumpy sections. It was so smooth that Jing Yao felt a little sleepy.
"Miss, if you are sleepy, take a rest."
Zhiyue advised with concern.
Jing Yao shook his head, but his eyes were filled with emotion. They hadn't originally intended to implicate other innocent people, but Zhiyue held her breath at the last moment and didn't get knocked unconscious, so she followed them into the carriage.
In fact, Zhiyue and Boyue both understood that they had to leave, but Boyue still had a family to take care of. Zhiyue's parents died early and she had been living under other people's roofs for many years. She didn't ask for anything else, but only wanted to accompany Jingyao for the last part of the journey, so she came to her regardless of the obstruction.
Jing Yao could feel Zhiyue's sincerity deeply.
"You all should rest. I will take care of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
Zuo Yuanwu has been on the march for many years and his body can endure much better than any of them. Moreover, the situation is tense now and he has to keep watch and wait for intelligence, so it is not difficult for him to take care of Si Pei at the same time.
"Thank you for your hard work, Yuanwu. ...Thank you so much."
Jing Yao smiled and looked at Zuo Yuanwu, who was obviously stunned and had not yet reacted.
"There's no need to talk about this between us."
Zuo Yuanwu lowered his head, his eyes dim.
The carrier pigeon fluttered its wings and landed on the coachman's shoulder. He skillfully took the letter and said, "General, the palace has already taken action."
Jing Yao's chaotic mind suddenly cleared up: "How is Jingtai Palace?"
"It failed and there were heavy casualties."
Jing Yao felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave. In the end, he lost all hope. He had originally hoped that the assassination would be successful.
"Don't worry, young lady. There is still a way around it."
Zuo Yuanwu couldn't help but want to reach out and hold her, but Si Pei, who was lying in the middle, coughed twice.
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