"Don't cry. I've already ordered the city gates sealed. It's impossible for so many things to be smuggled out of the city without a word. We'll definitely be able to find them."
Upon hearing the news, the Empress and the Crown Prince rushed to the Imperial Study. When the Duke of Cheng'en saw his daughter and grandson, he poured out his grievances again. The Crown Prince immediately took on the task of searching for the stolen property from the national treasury and led his troops out of the palace.
However, as his investigation progressed, the matter became increasingly perplexing and even somewhat mystical.
It must have been done by a god or a demon; it couldn't have been done by a human!
However, the stolen official silver from the national treasury amounted to more than 30 million taels of silver and more than 5 million taels of gold. If this gold and silver cannot be recovered, not to mention the resulting financial crisis, a political crisis and social unrest will soon erupt. If things go wrong, the Eastern Ling Kingdom may very well be overthrown.
In the dead of winter, the Crown Prince was sweating profusely with anxiety. He led his soldiers to search house to house, and no matter whether you were a commoner or a high-ranking official, everyone had to obediently accept the inspection. However, despite searching all night, he couldn't find a single thing.
The capital was in a state of panic due to the Crown Prince's search, but the culprit was completely unaware. Before she even got out of bed in the morning, her servants had already prepared her breakfast. She had someone send breakfast to the Chu family first, and then she quickly got up to eat. She had a bowl of thick rice porridge and two white steamed buns, which filled her up.
Chu Lin also ate most of a bowl of porridge and a steamed bun. After he was full, he took a steamed bun and went to find his older brothers.
Chu Jingxuan didn't need anyone to call him; he would come to his mother's place for food at the appointed time, but he really couldn't stomach the cornbread.
The third brother followed, but instead of eating inside, he took several steamed buns with him and went to find his daughter and son.
At the hour of Mao (5-7 AM), the yamen runners distributed meals, and two quarters of an hour later, the exile procession continued its journey.
Today, even more people disliked Old Madam Chu and her entourage.
Those people made no attempt to conceal their malice.
Those people weren't blind; they all saw Chu Jingxuan and Chu Laosan's little tricks.
These people were all implicated by the Duke's mansion. Their clansmen did nothing wrong, yet they suffered the consequences instead of enjoying any blessings.
They were already full of hatred, and those people would secretly eat the good food without sharing any with them. How could they stand it?
As a result, some people's malice was immediately put into action.
That night, the group missed the post station and camped at a dilapidated temple.
It was cold, so the prisoners went to find straw and firewood, and the Chu family's children went too.
Several prisoners followed.
Ning Yan's men naturally needed to gather firewood and prepare dinner. They left a few guards behind while the others went up the mountain.
Half an hour later, the guard captain Zhang Qing hurriedly ran down the mountain carrying a boy in his arms. Several people followed behind him, but all of them had livid faces, and one of them had a broken arm.
The Crown Prince's wife immediately noticed the person in Zhang Qing's arms. "Zheng'er? What happened to Zheng'er?"
Zhang Qing rushed to the carriage. "Master, Young Master Chu has been knocked unconscious and his head is covered in blood."
"Quickly, put the person in the carriage. I have some hemostatic medicine here."
The Chu family members were all anxious and immediately surrounded Ning Yan's carriage. "Brother, what happened? How did Zheng'er get injured?"
Zhang Qing pointed to the group of people with bruised and swollen faces, "Those are the people. I went up the mountain to collect firewood and happened to see them chasing and beating your two young masters."
The eldest son was better at martial arts and could handle it, but the younger son was grabbed by the leg, and the man with the bleeding hand knocked him unconscious with a stone. I only had time to knock down the man who was grabbing the younger son before quickly taking him down the mountain.
Zhang Qing genuinely had no idea what had happened.
Seeing his nephew beaten like this, Chu Jingxuan was immediately enraged. He picked up a stone from the ground and rushed towards the injured boy.
He recognized him; the kid was from his father's half-brother's branch of the family. By seniority, he should have called him cousin. They were both surnamed Chu, yet he dared to attack his own family. He'd smash him to death!
The kid reacted quickly, turning and running when he saw the situation was bad. Unfortunately, he didn't get far. Just then, Chu Yu ran down from the mountain and saw the kid. Without saying a word, he kicked the kid in the stomach and was about to kill him.
The boy's family rushed forward, and Chu Jingxuan's side was not to be outdone. The two sides huddled together, and it looked like a big battle was about to break out when the golden knife flew in!
"What are you doing? Trying to rebel? Get the hell under the tree and squat down. If you dare to cause trouble again, you won't get to eat for three days."
They are too weak to walk even after eating every day. If they were not fed for three days, they would probably die on the road.
As a result, both sides behaved themselves.
Chu Yu wasn't afraid of not having food; he couldn't leave his brother's death unavenged, but he couldn't do it openly. With officials keeping him in check, he couldn't kill anyone, no matter how angry he was. So, he had to endure it for now.
"Fourth Uncle, let's go check on Xiao Zheng first; he's badly injured."
In the dead of winter, a slight mishap could cost my younger brother his life.
The uncle and nephew then gathered around Ning Yan's carriage. Jin Daofei, considering the thousand taels of silver, turned a blind eye and didn't take it too seriously.
Under the tree, Chu Yanfeng, who was squatting, spat angrily on the ground, "Damn it, did you see that? Those constables are all biased towards that side!"
"No matter how down on their luck they are, they are still from the Duke's mansion. What are we? We don't even have the money to bribe them, so naturally they look down on us."
Chu Yanfeng's father, Chu Heng, reminded his two sons, "From now on, you two better behave yourselves and don't mess with them again..."
"Father!" They've suffered such a great loss, and you're still letting them endure it?
Chu Heng lowered his voice: "We'll talk about it when we get to the North. We're all going to the cannon fodder camp. Dealing with them then will be a piece of cake."
With constables watching over them along the way, they were completely unable to do anything to the main branch of the family.
Even if we kill those two brats from the eldest son's family, what's the use? We'll just be mortal enemies, and they won't let us go. But it's different in the North. Killing a couple of people on the battlefield is a piece of cake.
He was unaware of what happened today, otherwise he would definitely have stopped it.
Acting rashly and recklessly only creates more trouble.
Yes, it certainly adds to the trouble. They don't know that in the eyes of Chu Jingxuan and his nephew, Chu Yanfeng's branch is already dead.
Inside the carriage, Ning Yan took out healing medicine from her divine palace and put it directly into Chu Zheng's mouth. The medicine melted instantly upon entering his mouth. Ning Yan then quickly bandaged the wound on the child's head.
The Crown Prince's wife was so anxious that tears streamed down her face. "Sister-in-law, will Zheng'er be alright?"
"Don't worry, this medicine was specially bought. It's very effective, and Xiao Zheng will wake up soon."
At this moment, the nanny brought over a cup of water, and Ning Yan could only awkwardly help the child feed her a couple of sips.
The child woke up as soon as the water entered his stomach.
"...Fourth, Fourth Aunt."
"Mother." (End of Chapter)
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