Chapter 32 A Chance Encounter at Prince Cheng's Residence
Shen Shu: ...
She quietly explained, "Your Excellency misunderstands. These legs belong to Young Master Pei; how can I control where he wants to go? It's just a coincidence, nothing more."
Lin Wei sneered.
It was a coincidence, a coincidence that they came to rescue people on the same day, a coincidence that they met in the backyard of Prince Cheng's mansion in the dead of night at the same time.
Pei Jiming: "My lord, please don't treat me as a burden. Although I don't know martial arts, I have some strength. If a fight breaks out later, I can be of help."
Shen Shu recalled Pei Jiming's heroic act of smashing the wall with his bare hands by lifting a stone table, and quickly chimed in, "I can testify to that!"
Seeing Shen Shu and Pei Jiming working together, Lin Wei felt a surge of anger that he didn't know where it came from. He smiled faintly and said, "If we were to fight, Young Master Pei wouldn't need to get involved. However, there is indeed something I need your help with right now."
Lin Wei caught a glimpse of a patrolling guard coming from around the corner.
Pei Jiming, unaware of the danger, took a half-step forward, marveling that he finally had a chance to prove himself: "Please speak, my lord. I will do whatever it takes to help you."
Lin Wei: "Since Young Master Pei is so easy to talk to, then I won't stand on ceremony."
"Who goes there? What kind of thief dares to trespass on Prince Cheng's mansion!"
The patrolling guards screamed.
Lin Wei pushed Pei Jiming away, grabbed the panicked Shen Shufei, and jumped onto the wall.
Lin Wei: "I'll leave the task of drawing the guards away to you."
Pei Jiming: ?
Shen Shu froze on the spot: "My lord, is this the right thing to do?"
Lin Wei coldly remarked, "Didn't you say you could vouch for him and prove he could help? If he doesn't distract the guards, how are we supposed to sneak in?"
Shen Shu: "Alright then..."
So he cast a look at Pei Jiming that said, "I think you can definitely do it."
He could ignore the wall that Lin Wei built in her house and come and go freely in the old mansion at night without being discovered.
I imagine it won't be difficult for me to escape from Prince Cheng's mansion today.
Shen Shu: "I'll leave this to Young Master Pei. I'll come back to meet you after I rescue Miss Fang."
Pei Jiming watched the two figures disappear over the wall, and after realizing they were truly gone: ...
He thought Lin Wei was not human.
They actually sent someone with absolutely no martial arts skills to distract the guards?! Have they no humanity at all?!
But the guards' footsteps were getting closer and closer, and Pei Jiming couldn't just stand there and wait to be arrested as a thief.
He gritted his teeth, turned around and ran wildly in the opposite direction from Lin Wei and the other man, deliberately kicking over the flower stand under the corridor as he ran, hoping to delay them for a little longer.
Lin Wei led Shen Shu as they leaped across the rooftops. Shen Shu saw cries for catching the thief echoing from every corner of the vast Cheng Wang Mansion, and lights were being turned on one after another.
Shen Shu closed her eyes, unable to bear looking at her.
I hope Pei Jiming can run even faster.
Just then, the tiles under his feet suddenly made a slight "click" sound. Lin Wei paused, sensing that someone was coming this way.
He lowered his voice and said, "Hold on tight."
He then ducked down and led her into the shadows of a house.
Lin Wei spoke almost in a whisper: "Don't move, don't make a sound."
Not far away, several guards carrying torches were searching this way. The torchlight cast long shadows, and their voices could be clearly heard: "We clearly saw a dark shadow flash by here just now, but it's gone."
"Search carefully. Things aren't going well in the manor tonight. We must not overlook anything suspicious!"
Shen Shu held her breath, feeling her heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of her chest.
Lin Wei reacted quickly. Upon realizing that there was a door behind Shen Shu, he pushed the door open without hesitation and pulled Shen Shu behind it.
Shen Shu finally breathed a sigh of relief once the footsteps and voices of the guards outside had faded into the distance.
Shen Shu: "Didn't the Marquis say that Prince Cheng is frivolous and only knows how to indulge in pleasure? Why is this mansion like a dragon's den and a tiger's lair, with guards everywhere?"
Lin Wei: "You think it's like your patriarch's mansion? That any Tom, Dick, or Harry can come here?"
Shen Shu felt she had been subtly insulted.
Forget about any Tom, Dick, or Harry, just say Pei Jiming.
Shen Shu ignored his sarcastic tone: "Now that we've alerted people, the entire Prince's mansion will probably be on high alert. How are we going to find Fang Lanzhi then?"
Lin Wei: "Naturally, we'll grab someone and ask them."
Shen Shu quietly added, "So it's normal that there's a thief at the Prince's mansion tonight, so it's not surprising that someone would lose face?"
Lin Wei looked approving: "You're quite clever."
"You are..."
A woman carrying a candle emerged from the darkness.
The woman was around thirty years old, dressed in an elegant ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress). The candlelight illuminated her beautiful face, but her brows were filled with astonishment.
The candlestick in her hand swayed slightly, and the flickering candlelight cast the shadows of the three people on the wall, which became a distorted mass.
Shen Shu and Lin Wei exchanged a glance. "Her?"
Realizing the situation was dire, the woman hurriedly cried out, "Hero, spare my life!" just as Lin Wei was about to knock her unconscious.
"I will give you whatever you want, but please spare my life."
Shen Shu: ...
Lin Wei: ...
Shen Shu was very unaccustomed to being a robber for the first time: "We don't want your life, we just want some information. If you tell us, we'll let you go."
The woman nodded, as if she were pounding medicine.
Shen Shu: "I heard that you have a concubine named Fang Lanzhi. Where is she now?"
Upon hearing this, the woman turned pale: "Who are you people? What are you asking about her?"
Lin Wei noticed that the woman had become wary and seemed to have no intention of speaking.
He then pulled a knife from his sleeve and pointed it at her throat.
The woman bit her lip: "She was sent to a brothel."
Shen Shu: "You're lying!"
When Fang Lanzhi pleaded for her in her previous life, she was still in the Prince's mansion. But in this life, her time hasn't come yet, so how could she be sold!
The woman, with tears in her eyes, said, "It's true. She's been there for several months now. The prince said he'd let her learn etiquette at Yunyan Pavilion. He originally said he'd bring her back, but the prince has a new favorite and has long forgotten about her. I'm afraid he won't bring her back to the palace."
Shen Shu remained silent.
What rules can you learn in a brothel? The rules for serving men?
What kind of place is Yunyan Pavilion? It's a famous brothel in the capital. No matter how aloof and proud a woman is, once she enters Yunyan Pavilion, she will eventually be trained to be obedient and serve customers.
Fang Lanzhi was, after all, a daughter of an official family. Sending her to such a place, one can imagine what her fate would be like.
Seeing Shen Shu and Lin Wei's expressions of pity for Fang Lanzhi, the woman asked in surprise, "You've come to rescue her?"
Shen Shu did not intend to answer anymore.
She snatched the candlestick from the woman's hand: "I've asked you everything I wanted to know. Do you want to pass out on your own, or should I knock you out?"
The woman was taken aback, and answered irrelevantly, "If Fang Lanzhi were here, could you have rescued her tonight?"
Shen Shu: "Of course."
The woman knelt down: "I am on good terms with Lanzhi. Could you please save me as well? I really can't take it anymore."
"His Highness Prince Cheng is cruel and licentious by nature. Not only have he defiled all the maids in his mansion, but he also frequently plunders respectable women from outside to provide for his pleasure."
"Your Highness has gone too far lately. This month alone, twelve or thirteen people have been tortured to death and carried out. Next, it will be my turn. I don't want to die... Could you two heroes save me?"
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