Chapter 34 "You woke up so quickly..."
"You woke up so quickly?"
The child's ethereal voice echoed in this secluded and dimly lit space.
Just then, Xie Baoqiong had already closed her eyes completely. Upon hearing this, she pretended to be still unconscious, trying to get away with it.
As the air swirled, the aroma of the candied hawthorn berries that should have belonged to him seemed to draw closer to him.
Just then, a voice outside the carriage, its obsequious tone masking a guilty conscience, came from outside:
"Sir, has something happened inside?"
The aroma of the candied hawthorn skewers suddenly stopped, and a voice rose to say, "Hurry up and get on your bus."
The people outside fell silent, and Amei also stopped talking. For a moment, only the clatter of horses' hooves on the road could be heard in the space.
Just as Xie Baoqiong guessed that Amei had given up on causing him trouble and had fallen asleep again, she suddenly felt a warm source close to her in her arms.
Although caught off guard, he remained in his original sleeping position without moving.
I know you're still awake.
The sound of fabric rubbing together is amplified in a quiet space.
He vaguely sensed that Amei had turned her body slightly.
The pendant hanging from his waist was fiddled with a couple of times and then pulled away. The tassel at the end of the pendant brushed against his face for a moment, causing a ticklish sensation.
He has not yet made a move.
After fiddling with the newly acquired pendant for a while, Amei quickly lost interest and didn't care that Xie Baoqiong hadn't opened her eyes.
Clutching the pendant in one hand, the other hand reached out to touch the latter's body:
Do you have any other fun gadgets?
Xie Baoqiong, who was pretending to be unconscious, naturally couldn't answer his question. She closed her eyelids and waited for Amei to lose interest in her.
His hand, which had been groping haphazardly, touched his chest, but as it moved to the next spot, it suddenly turned back and reached inside his clothes.
He still had the jade pendant Su Xiaochun had given him to conceal his presence hanging inside his clothes. He pretended to wake up suddenly from a dream, shrank back, and increased the distance between himself and Amei.
Amei's outstretched hand missed its target, and she stood frozen in place for a moment. But when she saw another pair of open eyes in the darkness, she happily leaned closer.
"You finally paid attention to me."
Opening his eyes, Xie Baoqiong saw another face approaching in the darkness and feigned surprise, saying, "Amei?" He turned his head and looked around at his surroundings, asking, "Where is this?"
As he spoke, he tried to move his body, as if only then realizing that he was bound by rope. He then looked at Amei, whose hands and feet were not bound, and asked, "Amei, what's going on?"
Amei stopped in her tracks and looked at him strangely.
The two men outside the carriage exchanged a glance upon hearing the commotion inside. Cai Shun then asked, "Sir, what happened inside?"
"It's nothing," Amei replied simply, raising her hand to set up a soundproof barrier.
Before Amei could shift her attention to him, Xie Baoqiong tried to make her expression more varied, conveying the disbelief and pain of the protagonist in the story after being betrayed.
But his facial features didn't seem to obey him, and he had never seen a face with that expression before. He had no idea how to express disbelief and pain.
The only expression that appeared on his face was a slight downward tilt of his eyebrows and the corners of his mouth. Fortunately, his naturally droopy eyes gave his face a semblance of sadness.
Under the cover of darkness, even though Amei could see in the night, he could only make out about half of that expression.
But since things had already come to this point, Xie Baoqiong had already overheard that he was in cahoots with the two people outside. Why waste words explaining? She simply changed the subject and asked about what mattered to her:
What are you hiding under your clothes?
As he spoke, he propped himself up with his arms, knelt down in front of Xie Baoqiong, casually tossed aside the pendant in his hand, and then reached for the object hidden in front of her chest.
Xie Baoqiong hurriedly said, "It's about the same as the one you just lost." As she spoke, she didn't forget to put the jade pendant into her sleeve.
As expected, Amei showed a look of disappointment and withdrew his outstretched hand.
But in an instant, his eyes suddenly brightened, and he moved closer to Xie Baoqiong using both hands and feet.
Xie Baoqiong continued to move backward, but before he could move even half a foot, his back pressed against Qi Gui, who was unconscious. He had no choice but to stop and let Amei press against him.
When they were only half a palm's width apart, Amei suddenly stopped moving closer and lay down on her side, mimicking his movement. However, his hands were bound behind his back, while Amei's hands reached forward to grab his collar. Her chubby cheeks were pressed against the floor, and excitement could be seen on her face.
Why do you suddenly smell different?
Upon hearing this, Xie Baoqiong sniffed her own body, but did not smell any other scent.
Looking up, he saw that although Amei was very close to him in the night, she did not deliberately sniff him.
He recalled the jade pendant he had just put into his sleeve to conceal his presence.
After the jade pendant was put away, the human aura used to conceal his identity gradually faded, revealing his own unique aura. It seems that the "taste" Amei mentioned referred to was his aura.
But naturally, he wouldn't explain the reason to Amei, keeping his mouth shut and not saying a word.
Amei was already used to his silence, and said to herself, "You smell better now. I like the way you smell now."
Seeing that Amei's attention had shifted from the jade pendant, Xie Baoqiong decided not to pay any more attention to him, closed her eyes, and ignored his words.
"Hey, don't fall asleep yet." Amei grabbed his shirt by the chest and shook it:
"I don't even know your name?"
With the conversation of the three people in the alley capturing him according to orders preceding her, Xie Baoqiong was not worried at all that Amei would attack him before meeting the fox spirit they mentioned. She yawned and ignored Amei's actions.
The force of the swaying in front of his chest grew stronger and stronger, almost beyond what a six or seven-year-old child like Amei could muster. If he were a mortal, he might have been shaken to pieces by this force.
The wooden plank beneath them creaked and groaned with Amei's movements. Xie Baoqiong felt that if he didn't react soon, the plank would probably break under his weight and dent.
He opened his eyes helplessly, his words laced with sarcasm: "You kidnapped me right in front of my house, how could you not know my name?"
Seeing that he was willing to speak, Amei stopped what she was doing, drooped her head, and leaned against him: "I don't know who we're supposed to catch. They said it was you, so I followed behind and made the move."
But don't be afraid, although the person who specifically ordered your arrest said they wouldn't leave any survivors..."
Xie Baoqiong froze. Was Amei's comforting words a threat?
Despite his complaints, he didn't miss the key information in the conversation: the person behind it was going straight for his life, and their methods were similar to those of the person who murdered Princess Huayang back then.
Amei's innocent voice continued to murmur, "But I really like your taste. When we get there... I'll tell Master to keep you here. You can stay with us obediently from now on. As long as you don't go back to the capital, the people who want to kill you won't even know you're still alive."
So the first half of the sentence really was a threat to him. Xie Baoqiong muttered half a sentence to herself, then noticed the person Amei mentioned: "Your master? Is it the fox spirit you were talking about earlier?"
Amei, lost in her daydream, suddenly opened her eyes wide the instant he finished speaking, glaring at him:
"That filthy thing isn't my master. My master is far more powerful than her. If it weren't for the fact that my master has been plotting with her recently and making me listen to her, I wouldn't have come to arrest you."
It seemed that he had offended Amei by comparing Master Amei to a fox spirit. After saying that, the latter pulled his head back from his chest, stopped mentioning keeping him, and turned his face to the other side, leaving his round back of his head facing him.
Xie Baoqiong had no time to pay attention to Amei's emotions, and was actually relieved to see that the latter had lost interest in him.
It doesn't feel good to be stared at by a pair of innocent yet cruel eyes.
He withdrew his gaze from Amei's retreating figure, turned over, and glanced at the rest of the people in the carriage. He needed to release these people before reaching his destination to avoid affecting his plans.
...
"Hey, hey, honey, wake up!"
A pair of hands pushed his body, and Zeng Huimin groped his way up from the bed, reaching for his coat hanging beside him before his eyes were fully open:
"What time is it?"
Around Chen Shi (7-9 AM).
After putting on his coat, Zeng Huimin's eyes gradually cleared. Hearing his wife's words and seeing the bright sky outside the window, he said, "Chenshi (7-9 AM)? Second Aunt, it's only been less than an hour since I finished my shift and went to bed. Why are you waking me up at this hour?"
He said that when he got up, he felt dizzy and lightheaded, as if he hadn't slept enough, and thought it was karma for leaving the handkerchief behind last night.
As he spoke, Zeng Huimin took off his coat and was about to lie down on the bed again.
Before her body could even touch the bed, Cheng Erniang pulled her up again:
"Hey, wake up! Something terrible has happened!"
Seeing that Cheng Erniang's panicked expression seemed genuine, Zeng Huimin quickly asked:
"What serious incident could have happened? Did Da Hua beat up another kid again?"
Life is full of trivial matters. The biggest thing Zeng Huimin could think of was that his daughter, who was a big shot in the neighborhood, got into a fight with someone else and won. The other person's parents came to his door demanding an explanation.
"What are you saying? Da Hua has always been well-behaved." Cheng Erniang said, slapping Zeng Huimin on the back.
"What could it be?" Zeng Huimin scratched his head, puzzled.
"This is your own doing. Last night, the handkerchief you found in the alley next to the Yongshun Marquis's residence."
As she finished speaking, Cheng Erniang lowered her voice, as if afraid that her neighbors would hear her.
"What, what's wrong?" Seeing Cheng Erniang's frightened appearance, Zeng Huimin became worried. The handkerchief was still under the chest in the room. He had planned to sell it in a while to buy a pound of meat and flour, and then buy a piece of cloth to make a new dress for Dahua.
"The young master of the Yongshun Marquis's family has gone missing. I heard from the eldest son of my third aunt's family that he was lost near the Marquis's residence."
The eldest son of my third aunt's family is on duty at the Dali Temple, so this news is probably true.
Thinking of this, Zeng Huimin's breathing became heavy.
Cheng Erniang, however, directly pointed out his inner fears:
“What if others think we kidnapped them? So many children have gone missing in the capital recently. If even one child from a family is missing, we can’t escape. Not to mention the children of noble families. It’s all your fault for picking up that handkerchief.”
Despite his mind being a complete mess, Zeng Huimin first helped up the trembling woman: "Second Aunt, don't worry. We don't have anywhere to hide the child in our house. If we can't find the child, we'll naturally clear our name."
“What if the higher-ups decide we’re accomplices? My poor Da Hua, she’s still so young.” Cheng Erniang almost choked up as she spoke.
Zeng Huimin patted her back to calm down, the sound of his wife crying filling his ears. He gradually calmed down and said, "Second Aunt, pack a couple of clothes and take Da Hua back to your parents' home. After you leave, I'll take that handkerchief and go to the Marquis's mansion to find out what's going on."
As he spoke, Zeng Huimin gripped his wife's cold hand tightly with his other hand and gritted his teeth, saying, "If anyone comes to ask you about the handkerchief, just insist that you know nothing about it. Once everything is settled, I'll come and pick you and the baby up."
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