escape
The mention of tall people inevitably reminded Jiang Chaoyu of the people from Zhao Dongjia's family that she had met before.
Jiang Chaoyu fell into deep thought upon considering this.
I hadn't heard them cause trouble for Zhao Huasheng on the ship before; they only said they didn't want to work for him anymore. Could it be that they had caused trouble for him over the issue of withholding money?
The situation now seems to have taken a turn for the worse, and things are getting increasingly wrong.
"Have you heard? Lord Zhao was murdered in the night. The wound was a huge hole."
Jiang Chaoyu was strolling down the street when she noticed a group of people discussing something. Upon closer inspection, she overheard them talking about Zhao Huasheng's murder the previous night. Jiang Chaoyu joined them, listening to their opinions.
"Ah, Lord Zhao is such a good person, could it be that he has offended someone?" Judging from the voice, it was a pity for Zhao Huasheng.
Another person said mysteriously, "I heard that I was framed, and then my enemies came knocking on my door."
"It's such a pity that such a good person as Lord Zhao was harmed by someone."
"That's right. When Madam Zhao went to check on it this morning, the body was already completely cold."
The crowd gathered around all felt sorry for Zhao Huasheng's death, and kept saying what a good official he was.
It must be said that Zhao Huasheng is really good at putting on a show. Over the years, he has always pretended to help and benefit the people.
A person next to him casually remarked, "What's so good about it? When the imperial court entered his room, they found hemorrhoids."
Upon hearing this, everyone gasped, for using drugs was a serious crime that the imperial court had previously wanted.
Turning around, he saw a mere child and warned him, "What kind of kid are you? You can't just eat whatever you want, but you can't just say whatever you want."
The child didn't say anything more, leaving behind the message, "Believe it or not, the notice will be posted in due time," and then left.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Chaoyu wondered if the death was caused by an overdose. However, the person who transported it must not have become addicted, and since he mentioned having wounds, he must have been murdered and framed.
Seeing the child walk away, Jiang Chaoyu hurriedly followed behind him, but did not get close.
The child seemed to have noticed, and turned around to look at Jiang Chaoyu, who was wearing a cloak, and asked, "Why are you following me?"
Unexpectedly, the child was quite clever, so I asked him, "Just now you said that Lord Zhao was drugged with aphrodisiacs..."
The child interrupted Jiang Chaoyu, "It wasn't Zhong, he ate it himself."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Chaoyu was amazed that a child could know so much. The child understood what Jiang Chaoyu meant and said, "Although I am a child, my father told me that Lord Zhao is a fool who can get away with anything."
Jiang Chaoyu immediately sensed something was wrong. "Who is your father?" She had thought the child was impressive, but it turned out to be something an elder in the family had said. It was probably just a coincidence that the child overheard it and was talking nonsense here.
When the child heard someone ask about his father's background, he proudly said, "My father, he's the most powerful official, he..." Before he could finish speaking, a woman stepped forward and covered his mouth, afraid that he would continue to say something else.
The woman hurriedly covered the child's mouth, afraid that he would say something that would cause trouble, and quickly apologized to Jiang Chaoyu.
However, Jiang Chaoyu had no idea where this woman had come from; she had suddenly appeared right in front of him, and he hadn't noticed her at all.
"The boy is just talking nonsense, young lady, please don't take it seriously." Jiang Chaoyu understood immediately; this person was probably his mother.
The child angrily removed the woman's hand, turned around and glared at her, saying indignantly, "Mother, I wasn't wrong."
Upon hearing this, the child's mouth was covered again, and the woman quickly apologized, "I'm sorry to have bothered you, young lady."
After saying this, he took the child to the carriage that had just arrived. The carriage was decorated with precious nanmu wood, with bronze-wrapped wheel rims and inlaid turquoise.
Jiang Chaoyu tilted her head and looked at it, finding it quite amusing.
Upon seeing it, Jiang Chaoyu thought, "Isn't this Master Zhang Chengfu's personal carriage?" He was one of Zhao Huasheng's close friends. The child's words just now meant that Master Zhang must know some secrets.
Perhaps Zhang Chengfu is related to the mysterious force from some time ago.
Seeing the carriage drive away, he slowly followed behind, always able to see its shadow. Little did he know that he had already been spotted by Zeng Chenhua.
Later, Jiang Chaoyu discovered that the carriage was not heading towards the Zhang residence, but towards the outskirts of the city. Then Zhang Chengfu got off the carriage, and the carriage changed direction again and returned to the capital.
Zhang Chengfu looked around to make sure no one was following him before walking behind a mountain.
Jiang Chaoyu's view was blocked by the tall mountain, and she couldn't quite see what was on the other side. After a while, however, Jiang Chaoyu followed it again, only to find that there was nothing on one side of the mountain, and the person had disappeared.
Thinking about it this way, Jiang Chaoyu realized that there was a trap here, otherwise a person who was powerless could not have disappeared in such a short time.
Zeng Chenhua saw Jiang Chaoyu walking in the direction of Zhang Chengfu, but he was not sure what her purpose was.
Looking around, she tried to figure out what was different. It was early spring, and all the trees were sprouting new buds, but this little tree in front of her only had withered branches. Jiang Chaoyu touched the tree, but there was no reaction.
Touching the branches, Jiang Chaoyu tried to pull them upwards but couldn't budge them. She was puzzled because it was a dead tree, yet its roots were still connected to the ground below, with only a slight loosening.
Jiang Chaoyu looked around but found no other clues, and was very curious about how Zhang Chengfu had disappeared.
But after searching everywhere without success, Jiang Chaoyu had no choice but to give up. Just as she was about to leave, a passage suddenly appeared underground, catching her off guard and causing her to fall in. Zeng Chenhua only noticed her figure afterward and realized she had fallen in, so he quickly followed.
The passage was winding and confusing, leaving Jiang Chaoyu somewhat bewildered. Finally, she entered a small space with a door in front of her.
Just as Jiang Chaoyu was about to open the door, she heard someone behind her. She turned around and drew her soft sword, pointing it at the person's neck. However, upon closer inspection, she realized it was Zeng Chenhua, so she put the soft sword away.
Perhaps because he hadn't been paying attention, Zeng Chenhua still had a shallow bloodstain on his neck. He felt a stinging pain and touched it, finding that it was bleeding.
"What a nice greeting." Zeng Chenhua said to Jiang Chaoyu, still touching his neck.
Seeing that she had hurt someone, Jiang Chaoyu took out a handkerchief and gave it to Zeng Chenhua, saying, "Sorry, I've never met anyone who likes to stalk others."
After stopping the bleeding from Zeng Chenhua's neck, Jiang Chaoyu snatched back her handkerchief and wiped the blood from the sword. She then ignored Zeng Chenhua and opened the door in front of her; now she and Zeng Chenhua were in the same boat.
As soon as they opened the door, a cloud of dust rushed towards them, and Jiang Chaoyu covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve to avoid inhaling it.
Slowly walking out, Jiang Chaoyu looked down at the footprints on the ground and realized that Zhang Chengfu hadn't been here for a long time, leaving behind accumulated dust. So what was it that had lured Zhang Chengfu back to this place?
Following the footprints forward, the visibility began to darken, so Jiang Chaoyu took out a tinderbox to light the way ahead.
Jiang Chaoyu turned to look at Zeng Chenhua behind her and found that he looked like a normal person, not hiding his legs. Fearing that he would be exposed, she took out the last gender reassignment pill she had. She had registered for two when she registered at the medical pavilion, but she took out three. Fortunately, the medical pavilion would not find out too easily, otherwise her crime would be compounded.
“If there is any danger ahead, it will expose your identity as the Second Prince. I have the last gender-change pill in my hand. Without the antidote, you will return to normal in six hours. Don’t worry.” Jiang Chaoyu placed the gender-change pill in her hand and then held it in front of Zeng Chenhua, showing him concern.
Looking at the gender-transformation pills in front of him, Zeng Chenhua never expected that Jiang Chaoyu would think of this. He had only followed her out of curiosity when he saw her stalking others, but he never expected her to be so kind to him and not afraid of exposing her identity.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Chaoyu shattered Zeng Chenhua's fantasy in the next second, "Anyway, I'm usually a sickly person, and everyone says I won't live long. My father also forced me to get married early."
Jiang Chaoyu spoke these words calmly, though her illness was feigned. But in Zeng Chenhua's eyes, Jiang Chaoyu seemed numb to these things, remaining composed even after such profound grief.
Jiang Chaoyu saw Zeng Chenhua staring blankly at her, her eyebrows slightly raised, the corners of her mouth involuntarily turned up, her eyes shining, and her smile as cunning as a fox as she said, "But I was faking it."
Upon hearing this, Zeng Chenhua's emotions subsided. He politely took the gender-change pill from Jiang Chaoyu's hand and put it in his mouth. In a moment, Zeng Chenhua transformed into a woman with a body similar to Jiang Chaoyu's.
Jiang Chaoyu nodded in satisfaction, "She looks good even as a woman."
Seeing that there were no problems, she took the tinder in her right hand and walked forward, while pulling Zeng Chenhua's sleeve with her left hand, slowly leading him along. As they walked, they discovered gold and silver jewels piled up on the ground, covered with a thick layer of dust.
But Zeng Chenhua's gaze shifted to where Jiang Chaoyu was tugging at his sleeve, and for a moment he sighed inwardly, how nice it felt to have someone pulling him along.
Jiang Chaoyu's mind was completely focused on what she saw in front of her. She thought to herself that something else must have happened before that made these people give up their gold and silver. Now that Zhang Chengfu had returned to this position, it meant that things had changed and that the people from before had all come back.
Before long, they saw that they had reached the end, there was no road ahead, and there was no other exit except for piles of gold and silver jewelry.
The footprints on the ground disappeared at the same spot, so there must be another mechanism.
Jiang Chaoyu touched the wall, searching around but finding no clues; instead, her palms were covered in dust. Realizing she couldn't find another exit quickly on her own, she looked at Zeng Chenhua beside her.
"I've discovered that Zhang Chengfu is very problematic, so I followed him here. However, it seems a bit difficult for me to search alone. Can you help me?"
Seeing this, Zeng Chenhua realized that there was a wall in front of him, seemingly no way out, but in fact, this was the most likely place to find a mechanism. He groped around, trying to find the switch.
Holding a tinderbox, he searched the wall for any hidden mechanisms.
Zeng Chenhua noticed that the pile of gold and silver jewelry next to him seemed a bit illogical. He squatted down and examined the pile of things in front of him carefully. It seemed that there was something inside. Zeng Chenhua was removing them one by one when he heard a clicking sound from a mechanism next to him. He turned to the side and found that Jiang Chaoyu had somehow found the switch at the intersection.
"here."
When Jiang Chaoyu pressed the button, the door opened, letting in a little light.
A bright light suddenly appeared in the dark environment, forcing Jiang Chaoyu to cover her eyes with her sleeve. After the light dimmed, she lowered her hand, thinking she had found the exit, only to find a group of people in front of her.
The group of people were also drawn by the sound of the switch being turned on, and saw two frail-looking women suddenly appear in front of them.
The two groups stared at each other. The people on the other side were surprised by Jiang Chaoyu's appearance, while Jiang Chaoyu was surprised that she had found Zhang Chengfu so quickly, especially with five or six people in front of her.
Seeing that they seemed to be outmatched, Jiang Chaoyu grabbed Zeng Chenhua, who hadn't had time to react, and ran, saying, "If we don't run now, when will we?"
Upon realizing they had been exposed, the group inside grabbed their weapons and chased after Jiang Chaoyu and her companions.
"Brothers, give chase!"
Jiang Chaoyu heard the commotion behind her and became very anxious.
It was quite frustrating; how could I have run into him by such a coincidence? I thought it should have been like the stories I'd read before, where I could eavesdrop and then get what I wanted.
Jiang Chaoyu took out his last few cigarette butts and casually tossed them behind him, not caring whether he hit them or not. The others chased after Jiang Chaoyu closely, while Zhang Chengfu, seeing this, left through another passage.
Zeng Chenhua was puzzled as to why they didn't just go for it.
Why don't we just attack directly instead of running away?
There's a saying: "Running away is the best policy!"
Seeing this, Zeng Chenhua grabbed Jiang Chaoyu's hand, telling her to stop running, and then reminded her, "If you keep running, Zhang Chengfu will get away."
Jiang Chaoyu looked back and saw that all the people chasing her were unfamiliar faces, but she didn't see Zhang Chengfu among them. Zhang Chengfu was gone. Her feet, which had been running forward, came to an abrupt halt. She drew her soft sword and looked at the group of people running towards her…
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