Yuan Qingling estimated the time and thought to herself that Yun Ziheng should be far away by now.
She gently waved her hand, signaling the maid beside her to move more slowly and carefully tidy up the delicate pastries.
"Miss, what are you doing? Aren't we going to wait for Lord Yun?" Xuezhi tidied up the pastries on the table, looked up at Yuan Qingling with a puzzled expression.
Yuan Qingling slowly stood up, put on her cloak, and then walked towards the door without hesitation.
Yuan Qingling paused slightly after hearing Xuezhi's question.
Without turning around, she said with a firm yet somewhat helpless look in her eyes, "Hurry up and finish packing so we can leave together. Lord Yun is kind-hearted and generous; I can't let him get into trouble."
Being with a woman of her status would damage his reputation.
Xuezhi still didn't quite understand and continued to ask, "But Miss, Lord Yun repeatedly instructed you to wait for him here. If he comes back and finds you're not here, he might think you deliberately deceived him!"
Yuan Qingling couldn't help but sigh softly and explained, "Once he goes inside and sees no one, he'll naturally understand why. Stop dawdling and hurry up and get ready so we can leave immediately."
After saying that, Yuan Qingling ignored Xuezhi, turned around and quickened her pace, taking the lead towards the stairwell.
Seeing this, the maid behind her could only quickly clear away the food on the table and follow.
When Yun Ziheng returned, he didn't see Yuan Qingling. The private room was empty, and he almost thought he had entered the wrong room.
His face turned cold. "What's going on?"
Yin Feng emerged from the shadows and relayed Yuan Qingling's earlier words to Yun Ziheng without omitting a single one.
“Master, I was afraid of revealing my identity, so I sent Yin Mu with Miss Yuan. I will stay here and wait for you,” Yin Feng added.
Yun Ziheng nodded.
He recalled the earlier conversation about the unrest outside the city and Yuan Qingling's evasive gaze, and he began to understand.
"I'll ride over there as fast as I can. Go find a carriage, and put a few sets of women's clothes and cloaks in it. Then follow me along the way." After saying this, Yun Ziheng walked quickly towards the stairwell.
But the reality was just as he had predicted.
When he caught up with Yuan Qingling on horseback, they were confronting the bandits.
"My beauty, why didn't you just get off the carriage and come with us brothers? Why go through all this trouble? Look, the carriage is broken, the horse is dead, and you and your servant are injured. Now you still have to stay with us brothers, don't you?"
The bandits seemed to have anticipated that no one would come to help Yuan Qingling and her servants, so they toyed with Yuan Qingling and the others like wolves playing with their prey.
Yuan Qingling's maidservant tightly protected Yuan Qingling behind her, her face filled with panic and vigilance.
The clothes on the people were torn, probably because they fell out of the carriage when it broke down and rolled on the ground, causing the clothes to tear.
"You've got some nerve! Right here in the capital, right under the emperor's nose, at the city gates, how dare you do this?" Xuezhi said angrily.
"Oh, what a feisty little maid! You'll have a blast later." A greasy voice rang out.
"Ha! Under the heavens, Emperor Mo Beichen is nowhere to be found. Right now, it's just a little kid in charge. I don't care at all," said a sly-looking bandit.
"You, you are all too presumptuous. How dare you address the current emperor by his name? Aren't you afraid of being punished?" Xueyin said, feigning composure.
"Heh, Mo Beichen is just a brat. I can call him whatever I want. What's the rush? Do you have some designs on that emperor too? Hehe, don't be so hasty. Let the brothers check the goods first." After cursing, another bandit looked at Xue Yin with a lewd grin.
Yuan Qingling was somewhat surprised to hear that they didn't take the current emperor seriously at all.
After carefully examining the group, a sense of doubt arose in his mind. "Now that the world is at peace, and you don't look like bandits, why are you doing this? Aren't you afraid of implicating your families?"
"Heh, little beauty, trying to trick me into telling you something? You're still too green. When your brothers were risking their lives, you were probably still nursing. Don't waste your energy. Even if I told you, you wouldn't live to tell anyone."
Yuan Qingling smiled, and the person who had spoken earlier shouted angrily, "What are you laughing at?"
Yuan Qingling laughed sarcastically, "You keep saying you're not afraid of our Emperor, and you don't care that this is the gate of the capital, but I can tell from your eyes that you're terrified. You're even cautious in front of us weak women, and you speak in a hushed tone. I really can't believe you've ever been on the front lines. Are you just bragging to show off your heroism? It's truly laughable."
Upon hearing this, everyone's faces darkened. "What nonsense are you spouting?"
Yuan Qingling took out a handkerchief and casually wiped her hands as she spoke, "You all sound extremely wary and cautious in your words. Are you afraid of even a few weak women like us?"
"Nonsense, why would we be afraid of you? You're people we could crush with a single finger. What a joke! Why would we be afraid?"
"If you're not afraid, why don't you even dare to reveal who's behind you?"
"Where do we have someone behind us?"
"With no one behind me, why did you block my carriage instead of the one in front? Is it because I'm having a bad day?"
"Then you definitely had bad luck today and provoked..."
"Shut up, you piece of trash." The man had barely finished speaking when he was kicked backward by someone next to him.
Seeing this, Yuan Qingling's thoughts were confirmed, and she couldn't help but feel sad, falling silent for a moment.
Once those people realized their identities had been exposed, they stopped arguing.
"Hurry up and get them, stop dawdling. Take them all away and clean up the scene." A leader waved his hand, signaling the others to take down Yuan Qingling and the others.
Yuan Qingling gripped the dagger tightly in her hand, her eyes instantly becoming alert.
However, in the next instant, a chilling sound of an arrow piercing flesh suddenly reached everyone's ears.
Yuan Qingling was startled and abruptly raised her head. Immediately afterward, she heard a very familiar, cold voice rang out: "Who dares?"
As the words fell, Yun Ziheng emerged slowly from the shadows, carrying a longbow and a full bag of arrows on his back.
Yuan Qingling's expression changed slightly, and she quickly turned her gaze to Yun Ziheng, who was approaching step by step.
At this moment, Yun Ziheng stared intently at Yuan Qingling with eyes as deep and unfathomable as a pool of water.
Yuan Qingling felt a strange sense of guilt welling up inside her as Yun Ziheng stared at her like that, so she subconsciously looked away.
Isn't this eldest son of the Yun family being far too kind...?
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