"No, no, no." Xu Yixing shook his head like a rattle. What kind of place was this? A brothel? How could someone give birth in a brothel? And this place was too close to the capital. I always felt that someone from the capital would come to investigate at any time.
"While I'm still pregnant, let's hurry to the North and find a reliable place to give birth there. That would be great."
Yingwu glanced at her belly: "Three months?"
"Four months." Xu Yixing sighed slightly. This was the result of a half-baked doctor's diagnosis. She had suddenly vomited uncontrollably, and the bandit's boss thought she had eaten something and was afraid she was dead. It turned out that she was pregnant. This really scared Xu Yixing. She had done heavy work before and had no care. She was lucky that she hadn't hurt the baby. Knowing she was pregnant strengthened her determination to escape the bandit's lair.
"Four months? Then why didn't you notice it in the mansion before? Didn't you feel it yourself?"
"That's what the doctor said. Women who are not pregnant yet may also have their periods. It has always happened before, but it was less frequent. I didn't take it seriously. After I got out, I couldn't eat or sleep well in the bandit's lair, so I didn't care about it at all." After Xu Yixing finished speaking, he sighed that he was really careless. Of course, this child was even luckier.
"Then if we want to go north, we have to find a way that will not harm the fetus and will not be recognized by others." Ying Wu showed a worried look on his face. Disguise was not difficult, but the difficult part was how to keep the master and the young master safe.
"Yes. Actually, I already have an idea. But first, you should go to the village where I stayed before. My banknotes and documents are still there."
"In the mountains?" Ying Wu was puzzled. Logically, the soldiers had already gone up the mountain to suppress the bandits, and those households must have been searched for any traces of you. How could they not find you? "That's not right. The Emperor must have figured out that you took the banknotes with you. Even if we find them, we can't use them, and they'll be easy targets. Since your hiding place is secluded, why not leave it there?"
"But that's ten thousand taels of silver!" Xu Yixing's heart was bleeding. These were the private savings he had saved bit by bit over the past three years. They were the money that neither Si Wen nor Lu Anyuan could find. How could he just throw it away like that?
"Master, you should understand what material possessions are. Besides, I have some clean money here, so why take the risk?"
"Hmph." Xu Yixing snorted in protest. My money is clean, okay? "Okay, but if someone digs it up later and uses it as a clue, it won't be my fault."
"That's... true. Then tell me where it is and I'll destroy it."
"It's on a mountain twenty miles before Xiaoxi Town, on the sunny side of the slope. It's the first house from the bottom up. The fence is made of bamboo. I hid under the stone trough in her pigpen, wrapped in the maid's clothes I used when I left the house."
"Okay, we'll make plans when I come back." Ying Wu did not leave after saying that, but looked at her meaningfully.
"I won't run away, sister. I'm penniless and still need you to support me." After Xu Yixing finished speaking, Ying Wu left. With a stone in his heart, Xu Yixing fell asleep with his clothes on, a free smile on his face.
Ying Wu was gone for a long time and didn't come back until dawn the next day, with a murderous look on his face.
The brothel was filled with the sounds of sexual intercourse in the middle of the night. Although separated by doors, walls, and windows, Xu Yixing still slept very restlessly in the second half of the night. He woke up immediately after hearing the sounds: "What's going on? Did you find it?"
"We have to leave quickly. We didn't find what you mentioned. I guess either those bandits found it, or someone else got away with it. I'm afraid it's not good. What solution do you recommend?"
Xu Yixing was startled, thinking that he had used up all his luck in the bandit's den to save his life, so how could the money really be lost? So he quickly told Ying Wu his plan. The more Ying Wu listened, the more his brows frowned, squinting at least ten times, and then he changed into men's clothes and went out to prepare.
The May morning light wasn't scorching, but it was blinding. Just outside the Jizhou City Gate, the only way to the northern border, a procession slowly passed. When the city guard spotted this man, he covered his nose, a rare gesture of gloom on his face.
The middle-aged man didn't dare to offend, so after handing over the document, he said in an honest and timid voice: "Sir, my daughter has unfortunately passed away, and I want to take her back to my hometown to settle her down. Please, please give her a favor..." After that, he handed over a dime of silver.
Although the officer was extremely disgusted, he took the money and cursed the poor fellow in his heart, with an expression of impatience on his face: "Where is my hometown?"
"Miaozhou, the northern border." The middle-aged man lowered his head. He was already a little hunchbacked, and this made him look even more cowardly.
The officer waved his hand and pointed at the large black coffin on the car behind him: "Open the coffin and inspect it!"
"No, no, sir, no!" The middle-aged man seemed anxious and rushed forward, but his hands were clamped mercilessly and he could not move. He could only cry and shout in panic, but he dared not cry anymore after being glared at by the city guard.
The two soldiers quickly opened the coffin, and a foul smell instantly spread out, frightening everyone in the queue and causing them to step back and stay away from the car.
The soldiers looked inside the coffin and saw a woman. Her face was pale, and the corners of her mouth and eyes had begun to rot. Her belly was slightly bulging, suggesting she was pregnant. Although her face was pale, it was noticeably sallow and not delicate. Her fingers bore small scars from labor. This meant she wasn't the benefactor they were looking for.
So he knocked on the bottom of the coffin with the handle of a knife, checked the bottom of the car, and then reported loudly: "No problem, no hidden luggage!"
The soldiers covered their noses and waved their hands again: "Let them go!"
The middle-aged man received the order, sat up from the ground, and hurriedly bowed as he left the city.
He walked away from the city until no one could see him anymore, then he stuffed an oil-paper bag into the crack of the coffin. This was the fourth time he had performed this trick this month, and he was so skilled at it that it was indistinguishable from the real thing. It seemed that his master was indeed a man of his own ideas, and could even think of such a trick.
Xu Yixing lay comfortably in the "coffin". To her, the coffin was both a bed and a home. It was covered with three layers of cushions and was very comfortable. She didn't have to walk. She lay in the coffin during the day and came out to move around at night, just like a ghost.
After taking one bite of the sweet-scented osmanthus cake, she gave up. The smell of it in the city had nearly made her cry. Regardless of the risk of being discovered, she had gently knocked on the coffin wall to ask Yingwu to buy it, but who knew it would taste so bad? Of course, she could imagine that Yingwu's face would be as dark as the coffin, listening to her knocking nervously just to buy a piece of cake.
"Ying Wu, I suddenly remembered something very important." There was no one in the wilderness, so she spoke without reservation.
"What?"
"That group of bandits hasn't been eliminated yet, and those people are all innocent." Xu Yixing left in a hurry that day and forgot to deal with her funeral. When she thought of the cover the old lady had given her, she felt a little guilty.
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