The carriage continued to move forward. Xu Yixing opened her eyes and tried to look outside through the gap in the curtains. However, she seemed to be wrong. This carriage had doors, and the shaking of the curtains would not reveal any of the scenery outside.
By the time the car stopped again, she was already certain that she had been kidnapped.
The big house in front of me has obviously gone beyond the category of "house" and should be called a hall or palace.
She was carried into a side hall and stuffed into a wardrobe that could accommodate one or two people.
With a "click", the cabinet door was locked.
Xu Yixing waited until there was no more sound in the hall before looking out through the gap. It was empty, with only the most basic furniture and no signs of anyone living there.
"Yeah, yeah!" Xu Yixing tried to call out to Ying Jiu, but he couldn't speak clearly, and Ying Jiu didn't respond.
Calming her mind, she once again surveyed the surroundings. This time, she had a rough idea of her location—in a remote, deserted hall in the Outer Palace of Gushan. This was the location for tomorrow's moon-viewing ceremony, and where the emperor would be returning with his officials today.
Because the air was filled with a faint fragrance, the water wood fragrance that was unique to the imperial palace. This fragrance was subtle and long-lasting, so the palace servants liked to use it to fumigate the palace.
And based on the scale of the palace she had just seen, she was absolutely sure that it must be a royal style, and would not be the house of a noble or a local official.
Damn, Jingnan is so heavily guarded, how did this guy get himself in?
Xu Yixing rolled his eyes, even thinking for a moment that Lu Anyuan had hired someone to play a prank on him. But after thinking about it, he knew it was impossible. What was the point of him tying him up?
But the carriage just entered the outer palace freely, which proved that the person who kidnapped him must be related to the royal family.
Is it the Second Prince? Or an old friend from the Sun Mansion?
But no matter who it is, they went to so much trouble to tie me up and bring me in, they definitely don’t want to kill me; anyone who can live here must not be short of money, so it’s not for money, then it can only be because of a grudge.
After realizing that she was temporarily safe, she relaxed, slowly sat down against the wall of the cabinet, and tried to untie her hands and feet.
But it was obviously of no use, so she gave up and waited for the follow-up with peace of mind.
It was not known how long had passed, but there was some slight friction noise coming from outside the cabinet door. Xu Yixing woke up with a start and shrank back against the cabinet door - she was afraid that someone would stab her through the gap in the wardrobe.
"Master?" Ying Jiu spoke almost in a whisper, but Xu Yixing felt relieved instantly. He knocked lightly on the closet with his hand to indicate that he heard it.
"We are now in the outer palace of Gushan! It wasn't Yingba and his men who kidnapped you, and besides, your lock is a bit difficult to open..."
Ying Jiu muttered as he carefully picked the lock. It had taken a lot of effort to follow him down the road, but who knew he'd actually ended up in the outer palace.
The emperor will bring all the officials to hold a banquet here tomorrow, so security is naturally very tight, so it took a while for them to get in.
"Okay, come out now."
Xu Yixing felt very stuffy in the cabinet. Fortunately, it was already autumn. If it were summer, he would probably be very hot.
Yingjiu took the cloth from Xu Yixing's mouth and was about to untie the rope for her, but was stopped by her.
"Wait a minute! Don't untie it yet." She took a few deep breaths of fresh air before continuing:
"This is the Outer Palace of Gushan. Aside from the Imperial Palace, this is the most heavily guarded area in all of Kyoto. Can you guarantee you can escape with me safely?"
Ying Jiu was silent for a moment. It had taken him a lot of effort to get in just now. Now it was really difficult for him to take someone out.
"We can wait until dark, maybe we can get out."
Xu Yixing shook his head: "You know it's easier to go out at night, don't the guards know that? Besides, it's still a while before dark. If you take me out, we won't be familiar with the place. Where are we supposed to hide?"
She paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered something: "Hiss! How did you get in? Aren't there any guards outside this palace?"
Ying Jiu shook his head. The guards were all outside, so this empty hall was indeed unguarded.
"That's even more wrong. Maybe it's a setup. I think my captors will show up soon. If they find I'm gone, they'll definitely search for me. Then we'll be wanted as assassins, and that'll be the end of us."
Although Xu Yixing didn't know why there were no guards outside, it was obvious that he couldn't escape now, so he might as well wait there. After all, Ying Jiu had already arrived, so his life would not be in danger at the very least.
"So what does the master mean?"
"I'd better stay here for now. When you think the time is right, come and take me away."
"Well... okay. But the news of your kidnapping should have reached the Xu residence by now. General Xu should also be aware of it by this afternoon. What should we do about things over there?"
"The plan goes on as usual. You go write a kidnapping letter worth 10,000 taels of silver and send it back to my house. Even if I can get out tonight, I'll have to find a place to hide for the night."
Anyway, the plan that I worked so hard to plan cannot be disrupted. Now it’s just that the fake robbers have been replaced by real robbers. What’s the big deal!
"...Okay." Ying Jiu looked at Xu Yixing deeply. In the past, he only thought that his master was very scheming, but now it seems that she is a little crazy. She has been captured, but she is still thinking of a fake kidnapping plan.
"Then, I'll go first?" Ying Jiu hesitated for a rare moment about this order. Although her master asked her to leave and report the news, if she was left here alone, if anything went wrong, it would be her responsibility.
"Go ahead, don't worry. The person behind this went to so much trouble to get me into the outer palace, and they definitely didn't intend to kill me here. Don't worry about my safety."
Ying Jiu thought about it and it seemed to be the same reason, so he stuffed the cloth strip back into Xu Yixing's mouth and locked her in the cabinet again.
After Yingjiu left, Xu Yixing finally relaxed. No matter what, her plan was bound to work. For her, this little incident was just a matter of turning a hidden enemy into an open one, and Xu Yixing was quite happy about it.
However, she also had some things that she couldn't figure out. Just like what she had just said to Ying Jiu, if the person behind this wasn't here to kill her, then what was the reason?
It can't be that he came to pick me up early to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival, right?
Although this outer palace is more comfortable than the imperial palace, the people inside are all very sick. They just know that they can't get too close to the royal family!
While Xu Yixing was gritting his teeth in hatred towards Lu Anyuan, he was also paying attention to the movements outside. Sure enough, not long after, a burst of orderly footsteps was heard.
She quickly looked out through the small crack and saw a group of palace servants carrying large and small bags and putting them into the room.
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