The next day, 300 miles outside of Beijing, on a rugged hillside.
Xie Yunzheng was wearing a heavy yoke and walking barefoot on the rugged mountain road. The second son of Xie, who used to be dressed in fine clothes and riding a horse, was now in rags, with blisters on the soles of his feet. Every step he took felt like he was stepping on the edge of a knife.
This was the fifth day of Xie Yunzheng's exile. During these few days, he finally experienced what it meant to be a tiger in the plain and be bullied by a dog. The two escorting officers and soldiers beat and scolded him, withheld his food, and made him dizzy with hunger.
When he slept at night, he was locked in a damp and cold straw hut, enduring mosquito bites, and his body was covered with lumps.
At first, he thought that even if the Xie family fell, he could at least gain some respectability with his title as the Second Young Master Xie, but reality slapped him hard in the face.
The name of a noble family is worthless after the collapse of power.
“Bang!”
As Xie Yunzheng was thinking, he suddenly felt a pain in his waist. It was the fat officer walking behind him who pressed the handle of his knife against him and threatened him viciously: "What are you dawdling for! If you can't move, I'll whip you!"
Xie Yunzheng staggered and the iron chain on his ankle made a harsh sound.
The scorching sun above his head seemed to be melting him. Xie Yunzheng moved his dry lips, trying to ask for some water to drink.
At this time, the thin officer in front looked back at him, then took off the water bag on his body and deliberately tilted his head back to drink, making a gurgling sound.
Clear water dripped down his chin onto the surface of his shoes, and Xie Yunzheng swallowed hard.
"Thank you, Second Young Master?" The thin official wiped his mouth and sneered, lifting his messy hair with the tip of his knife. "You know how to beg me now? What were you doing before? When you rode past our yamen on your tall horse, did you ever look at me straight in the eye?"
Just as Xie Yunzheng was about to move, the fat constable behind him lashed his calf with his whip, causing it to become red and swollen instantly.
"Want some water? Go to the post station ahead!"
"If you can't reach Erlipu before sunset, I'll throw you into the mountains to feed the wolves. Who cares if a few people die on the way to exile anyway?"
Xie Yunzheng was also completely enraged, and he shouted hoarsely: "How dare you! I was wronged, my brother will definitely find out the truth and seek justice for me. By then, if he finds out that you have abused me, you——"
The two officers looked at each other, and the next second, they burst into laughter.
"Hahaha!"
"When?"
"By the time your brother remembered you, you would have been reincarnated in the wolf's belly!"
The two of them have met too many young men from wealthy families like Xie Yunzheng.
Before being exiled, who wasn't arrogant and treated the yamen runners like peasants?
There was once a legitimate son of a minister of the Ministry of Revenue. When he first set out on his journey, he threatened, "My father can send an express letter over 800 miles to make you lose your heads." However, on the third day, he was stripped of his brocade robe and left to gnaw on moldy steamed bread in the rain like a stray dog.
Now that Xie Yunqi has personally pushed the Xie family into the abyss, is it possible that the second young master Xie is still living in a dream?
Seeing the smug faces of the two men, Xie Yunzheng was both angry and furious, but there was nothing he could do.
At this moment, a "whoosh" sound suddenly came from the air.
Immediately afterwards, Xie Yunzheng saw a sharp arrow flying out from nowhere and deeply inserted into the ground under the thin official's feet, only half an inch away from the tip of his shoe.
The tail of the arrow was still trembling.
The three men's faces changed at the same time, and the two officers gripped the hilts of their swords tightly, as if they were facing a powerful enemy.
At this moment, loud and rough laughter came from all directions.
"Hahaha! I didn't expect to meet a few fat sheep today!"
A dozen big men rushed out of the forest. The leader had a rough face, broad shoulders and a big waist. There was a long scar running from the end of his eyebrow to his cheek. He was looking at Xie Yunzheng and others with a hawk-like gaze.
"It's the rule of Black Wind Ridge." Scarface pointed at the two officers with the tip of his knife, "Keep the goods but not the people."
The two officers looked at each other first, and the next second, they turned around at the same time and ran away.
The speed is breathtaking.
Xie Yunzheng was stunned for two seconds.
Are they... abandoning me and running away?
At this time, another tall and thin bandit crossed his arms, looked at Xie Yunzheng, and said, "He ran fast, but he left such a delicate and tender body. Is he going to give his brothers a treat?"
Xie Yunzheng suppressed his anger, straightened his back and said, "I am Xie Yunzheng, the second son of the Xie family. If you dare to touch me, the Xie family will never let you go!"
The bandits were silent for a few seconds, and then everyone burst into laughter.
“Puff! Hahahaha…”
"Listen, he's still dreaming about the future, waiting for his traitorous brother to come and save him."
"It's so funny. Prime Minister Xie doesn't want you anymore, but you're still acting so arrogantly?"
The little minions next to them started to make a noise: "That's right! I heard that the Xie family has even sold off their ancestral home, and the old lady is almost mad to death, so who cares about you!"
Xie Yunzheng's face turned pale, his lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a complete sentence.
Yes, the Xie family has fallen.
He is nothing now!
Seeing him like this, the bandits became even more interested. The tall and thin bandit raised his foot and kicked Xie Yunzheng in the knee. Xie Yunzheng fell heavily to his knees, and the shackles hit the stone with a dull sound.
"Look, this is the young master of a noble family?"
The tall and thin man slapped his face with the handle of the knife, "I heard that you used to be in the capital, riding a horse and leaning on the sloping bridge, with red sleeves waving all over the building?"
At the side, a few minions were about to tear open his clothes with laughter, "Let us see, is the flesh of a noble family more valuable than our gold?"
The rough hands slapped him randomly, causing a burst of laughter.
Xie Yunzheng gritted his teeth, the taste of blood spreading in his mouth.
He suddenly remembered how arrogant he was in Zuixianlou in the past. He liked to bully those poor students and watch them break their character and bend their backs in front of him.
I didn't expect the retribution to come so quickly.
"Wow! You're pretty tough?" The tall and thin man grabbed his hair and said, "Why don't you beg for mercy? Maybe if Grandpa is in a good mood, he can give you a quick death."
Xie Yunzheng closed his eyes and his Adam's apple rolled.
Just when he was about to collapse——
“Whoosh!”
A feather arrow flew through the air and accurately hit the tree trunk next to the thin tall man's ear. Before the bandits could react, three more arrows were fired in quick succession, piercing the throats of the three henchmen.
"Who is it?" The rest of the people looked around in panic.
A masked man in black walked out of the dense forest, holding a longbow. His pair of eyes exposed were like an icy lake in the cold winter, without a trace of warmth.
Behind him followed guards who were also dressed in black and masked, holding longbows, and each of them had a black jade token hanging around his waist.
Xie Yunzheng's pupils suddenly shrank.
If he was not mistaken, it was the mark of the Xie family's secret guards.
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