An hour after Puhuna disappeared, the rain finally stopped.
Two or three hours later, Lu Songping arrived with several black-clad secret guards.
Because of rock slides, the entire Black Feather Battalion was delayed for a long time before they could dig through the mud and sand and enter the valley. The entire valley was in ruins. The rain had extinguished the fires in the brush and forest, and soaked the loose mountain surface. The continuous rolling mud and sand buried the road they had opened earlier that morning.
Xiao Nanhui was holding the shovel he had used to transplant the plum tree yesterday, and was digging bit by bit halfway up the mountain.
She had been digging for three full hours. After the rain stopped, the coolness of early autumn spread across the mountains, but she was sweating profusely, and her layers of clothing were soaked.
Lu Songping was standing not far away under a small pine tree that had been knocked crooked by mud and sand. The other secret guards were standing further away, solemnly standing in the morning mist, no different from the pines and cypresses.
"Stop digging."
Lu Songping finally spoke, but Xiao Nanhui had no intention of stopping.
"There's a cave here. They all left from here. As long as we dig it open, we can lead people to chase them..."
"They've been gone for hours. How are you going to catch up?"
"Even if we can't catch up, we still have clues. We know which road they left from, and we can send people to set up checkpoints at the state border to stop them."
"If that's the case, I can just deploy my troops and block the key roads. It will be faster than you digging and moving mountains here."
Xiao Nanhui became annoyed by what he said and suddenly thrust the shovel into the crack of the rock.
"Lu Songping, you have so much free time! Why don't you go find Ding Weixiang and that Luo He instead of pestering me here?!"
Lu Songping's expression remained calm, and he had clearly learned about 70% of that man's skills.
"Lieutenant Ding has another important assignment for him. As for Mr. Luo He... we haven't found him yet. Right now, my mission is to get you out of here."
"Leave here?" A soft laugh escaped her teeth, sounding even more awful than crying. "Where to leave here? Are you taking me after them? Or taking me back to Black Feather Camp?"
"Return to Que City."
Lu Songping took something out of his sleeve and unfolded it.
Xiao Nanhui had seen something like that before. It had three jade buttons on it, which had to be opened one by one when reading the aloud.
That was the emperor's handwritten order.
"I have been ordered to come and ask Miss Xiao to return to the city."
Xiao Nanhui snatched the imperial edict and threw it on the ground. The four black-clad secret guards standing not far away lowered their heads when they saw this.
"He's gone now, so whose orders are you following?! Lu Songping, you're deceiving the emperor and deceiving your superiors and subordinates!"
Lu Songping looked at the angry face of the woman in front of him, bent down, picked up the handwritten note, and gently brushed off the dust on it.
"Seeing the imperial edict is like seeing His Majesty. Your behavior is worthy of ten beheadings."
Xiao Nanhui snorted coldly.
"If you want to chop off my head, just say it directly. There's no need to beat around the bush."
Lu Songping turned his wrist, and the front of the imperial edict was delivered directly to her.
"This decree was written a month ago and bears His Majesty's personal seal. You may examine it carefully."
The air around suddenly became quiet.
She stopped talking and slowly lowered her head. Blood was seeping from the fingers that were holding the shovel due to the force and friction. She seemed unaware of it and only held it tighter, trying to exert greater strength to dig out the sand and rocks that seemed to never end.
Lu Songping watched quietly for a while and suddenly spoke.
"Miss Xiao, I have been with His Majesty for over a decade. No one can stop him from doing what he wants to do. He always finds a way to prevent himself from being put in a passive position when he wants to be stopped." He paused for a moment, considering the situation, and finally said the last sentence, "He will leave with the Xiao family. This is a decision he made long ago. Do you understand?"
Xiao Nanhui remained silent and continued digging with a shovel.
The rocks loosened and came crashing down, instantly filling the gap she had dug all morning.
She looked at the barrier made of ruthless rocks, as if she saw herself struggling against the cruel fate.
At the foot of the mountain not far away, a few surviving hens were fleeing in panic, but the distant mountains were unusually quiet. Even the misty and invisible fog after the rain had dissipated, and the sky looked clear and bright.
Xiao Nanhui finally put down the shovel in his hand.
Although she was a little slow, she was not a fool after all. She naturally understood what Lu Songping said.
If he didn't want to, even if there were ten Xiao Zhuns or a hundred Xiao Dais, he would be able to calculate the opportunity and escape.
After all, he had decided early on that this time he would face everything alone and achieve what he called "putting an end" to something.
But why? Why was she so upset, so frustrated, so disappointed?
She still remembered that after they escaped from Seqiu and finished interrogating An Lu in the water dungeon of Governor Sun, he once said to her: The sky is high and the water is vast, how could they not accommodate someone who stands shoulder to shoulder with him?
But she still didn't become the one who stood shoulder to shoulder with him. At the most critical and final moment, he chose to take a step forward and leave her where she was.
He also once said: If human feelings cannot stand the test, then don't let them stand the test.
But in the end, he still threw the most severe test to her.
After a long moment, she finally spoke in a low voice.
"Okay. I'll go with you."
She plunged the shovel in her hand into the soil and spoke word by word.
"But before I go, I need to get something."
******************
In front of the collapsed stone house, Li Yuanyuan smashed a stone that was pressing down on the beam with one palm, then bent down and moved the stones away one by one.
Suddenly, a pair of hands reached out from the side and pushed the heaviest piece aside.
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