"Hongli, has your father seen your letter?" Hongzhou and Hongli huddled together on a patch of grass, sleeping. They had already spent five or six nights in this room without a bed or blankets. The two brothers had grown up in luxury and had never suffered such hardship.
“I used a method from Tibet to write that letter. Mother might not be able to tell the difference, but Father will definitely be able to. Who knows, Father’s men might already be on their way,” Hongli said in a low voice. “These notorious bandits seem to be just a bunch of ordinary rabble with no background. Judging from my conversations and observations with this scarred man these past few days, he doesn’t seem to have any background either.”
"You suspect there's someone else behind him? But judging from the fact that he asked you to write the ransom note, it seems they only want money!" Hongzhou said.
“Yes, so we must not let them know our identities. If nothing unexpected happens, perhaps Father's men have already arrived,” Hongli said. “Did the men we sent out return tonight?”
"Yes, I heard A-Wu say that when he brought us food." Hongzhou looked around. There wasn't a single candle in their room, and it was raining outside, so there wasn't a ray of natural light. The two of them huddled together in the pitch-black room.
Gradually, the two began to drift off to sleep, and the entire farmhouse was plunged into darkness. There were no other houses in the mountains, so the group naturally went to sleep after eating and drinking their fill.
Just as everyone had fallen asleep, two figures suddenly emerged from the darkness. Like ghosts, they could see without a candle and moved freely in the night. Their feet moved as silently as cats', like shadows.
The two men had been lying in wait in the shadows for a long time, patiently waiting until everyone was asleep before revealing themselves, their aim being to avoid alerting the group. After all, there were about a dozen people in the group, and without knowing their martial arts prowess, the two men in black chose to proceed with caution.
They arrived at the house where Hongli and Hongzhou were imprisoned, only to find the door locked with a large iron padlock, making it impossible to open. The two then found the window of the house, intending to remove it to get in, but unfortunately, although the farmhouse was simple, the window was very sturdy, and removing it would inevitably make a loud noise, waking the sleeping people.
After discussing it in the dark, the two decided to steal the key. However, they didn't know who had hidden it, and before they knew it, the two princes were locked in the house, unable to be rescued.
"Why don't we go back and get reinforcements?" Ling Lu said to his companion.
“It’s over a hundred li from here to the capital. A round trip would be two or three hundred li, which would take a lot of time. The two princes are inside. We should rescue them immediately so we can return and report to our master,” Ling Feng said.
It turns out that these two men and Ling Feng were all members of the Ling faction, the secret guards under Fourth Master. All of them had unknown backgrounds, were adopted and specially trained from a young age, and were all extremely skilled in martial arts. After their training was successful, they became secret guards for high-ranking officials and nobles.
"Then we'll have to find the keys. Okay, let's go find them one by one," Ling Lu said in a low voice.
So the two of them had no choice but to start searching the bodies of those notorious bandits. Fortunately, they were both very skilled in martial arts and entered the house without making a sound.
"Feng, why don't we tie them all up? That way we won't have trouble dealing with one of them if we wake one up later," Ling Lu said.
"Fine, go find some rope and tie them all up to take back to see the master!" Ling Feng said.
So, Ling Lu and Ling Feng found some rope and began to tie the men's legs. They dared not tie their hands, as that would wake them up, so they tied the robbers' feet, so that even if they were awakened, they would not be able to resist for a while.
After Ling Lu and Ling Liang had bound all the men's legs, Ling Lu began searching for the keys on their bodies. He searched the entire group, but not a single one of them woke up. They were all snoring loudly, reeking of alcohol, and sleeping like logs.
The two Lings had really overestimated them; the key was finally found on A Wu. The two Lings quickly returned to the room where Hongli and Hongzhou were imprisoned and carefully opened the iron lock.
"who!"
A young boy's voice called out from the darkness.
The sound of the iron lock breaking still woke the people in the house.
Ling Lu and Ling Feng paused in their actions, and one of them said, "We are people sent by the Prince. Please make yourself at a moment's notice, Fourth Prince and Fifth Prince!"
Hongli excitedly nudged Hongzhou, who was fast asleep beside him. Seeing that he was still not awake, he whispered in his ear, "Wake up! Father's men are here!"
When the two Ling entered the house, Hongzhou had already been shaken awake by Hongli. The two looked happily at the people who came to rescue them, but there was no light in the house and they could not see anything.
"How did you find the key? Did those stupid thieves notice anything?" Hongli had no choice but to ask.
“This servant tied their legs, then searched all of them and found the key,” Ling Lu said.
Upon hearing this, Hongli couldn't help but laugh and said, "Yes, these people have made Hongzhou and me feed on mosquitoes for several days. Let them taste what it's like to be hung up like this."
Seeing Hongli's reaction, Ling Feng asked, "Does Young Master intend to hang them all up?"
"Yes, hang them all up. Starve them for a few days, and when we bring reinforcements, we'll capture them one by one. If we let these people continue to entrenched themselves here and commit crimes, wouldn't that harm the common people? They managed to kidnap the two of us this time, who knows which wealthy family they'll target next time!" Hongli said.
Seeing that Hongli's words made sense, the two Lings followed his orders and took the axemen away one by one, knocking them all unconscious. A few who woke up and resisted were also subdued by the two Lings because they didn't react in time, and were gagged and hung up.
Hongli and Hongzhou lit the candles one by one. When they saw that Scarface was hanging up, they laughed at him and said, "Brother, thank you for hanging me up for a few more days. In a few days, I'll send someone to pick you up and take you to the prison for a few days to stay and eat your fill!"
Scarface's face looked as if he had seen a ghost. They had never taken the two young men seriously, but now they had fallen into their hands.
After all the thieves were captured, it was past 3 AM.
"Finally, we can go back, Hongli!" Hongzhou said.
The two men led the only carriage out of the stable and then harnessed it to the horse.
Hongli and Hongzhou boarded the carriage, and Liangling sat on the front of the carriage. Then they drove the carriage away, taking advantage of the only light on the horizon.
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