Although the military officer only tilted his head up, Su Wan recognized him immediately.
He was General Xie, the military officer who had invited her to drink with him at the bandit stronghold near Linyuan Village. His drunken state at the time left a particularly deep impression on her.
In ancient times, military camps were strictly disciplined, and military officers could not leave the camp at will. But General Xie had no problem; he was not stationed in the camp, so he didn't have to worry about anyone checking him.
The soldiers he brought were clearly the same two thousand men from the mountain stronghold.
She couldn't understand it. These soldiers should all be Wei Jingzhuo's trusted subordinates, so why would they join General Xie in plotting against the General's Mansion? And General Xie should also be a general trusted by Wei Jingzhuo, so why would he secretly join the Southern Chu Kingdom?
Perhaps Wei Jingzhuo also made mistakes in judging people. Even the wisest can err; Zhuge Liang, as intelligent as he was, misjudged Ma Su, so one cannot expect Wei Jingzhuo to be particularly good at recognizing talent.
As she was deep in thought, Chu Mingyao nudged her arm.
Su Wan thought someone was coming and quickly looked up and around. Chu Mingyao pulled her back and pointed to the sky.
A touch of coldness landed on her face, followed by another. Su Wan wiped her face with her sleeve, looked up at the sky, and saw that it had started to snow.
“Let’s go quickly,” she said, getting up and taking Chu Mingyao’s hand. “Let’s go to the next house.”
Now that we know the traitor is General Xie, we must hurry and find Prince Danma.
Snow is extremely harmful. The roof ridge is already sloping, and once it gets covered in snow, it's impossible to walk on it. You could easily slip and fall off the roof.
When the snow falls thickly, it reflects the moonlight, making the originally dark rooftops brighter. At that point, they will be easily spotted.
She took Chu Mingyao's hand and carefully walked down the roof ridge to the next roof, lifting the tiles to look down as before.
"It's Your Highness," Chu Mingyao exclaimed excitedly.
Su Wan was startled and quickly covered Chu Mingyao's mouth, pulling her to climb towards the shady side of the roof ridge.
Several constables were guarding under the eaves. One of them said, "Hey, did you hear that? There seems to be a sound coming from the roof."
Another constable stepped back, raised his torch, and peered up at the rooftop, but it was pitch black and he couldn't see anything. He smiled at the man who had spoken first and said, "You must have misheard. It was probably the sound of snowflakes falling on the rooftop."
"No way, can snow make that much noise?" another person chimed in.
The man scratched his head in confusion: "Did I hear that right? It sounded like a woman's voice..."
The rest of the group laughed and teased, "You're almost thirty and still don't have a wife. You assume every little sound is from a woman."
As everyone was mocking the man, a constable carrying a torch strode into the courtyard and asked, "Is the master inside?"
The crowd said, "Master is talking with General Xie inside. What are you doing here?"
The man said, "The Seventh Prince is back. He said the night patrols disturbed his rest, so he gathered all the night patrols together for a lecture. It's been an hour, and everyone is freezing. He asked me to come and find the master to see if he could talk to the Seventh Prince and say that since it's starting to snow, we shouldn't torture everyone anymore."
Everyone chimed in, "Why bother the master with such a trivial matter? The master is discussing confidential matters with General Xie. Going in now would be asking for trouble."
The constable had no choice but to leave dejectedly.
Su Wan and Chu Mingyao, lying on the shady side of the roof, breathed a sigh of relief. Su Wan poked Chu Mingyao's forehead with her finger, and Chu Mingyao nodded shyly, indicating that she had admitted her mistake.
The two returned to the sunny side of the roof ridge, lifted the tiles, and looked down.
Below the two, Prince Danma of the Western Rong was pacing restlessly around the room. He was not bound and did not appear to have been mistreated.
Su Wan thought to herself, "Ge Fanghai is really careful. He actually locked Danma up next to him. This courtyard is probably the most heavily guarded place. Even if all his guards came, they wouldn't be able to rescue Danma."
She nudged Chu Mingyao with her elbow, indicating that it was time to leave. Chu Mingyao understood and nodded as she stood up.
The two found a low wall and went down to the street.
The snow had started to fall heavily, and snowflakes kept hitting their faces. Some snowflakes even got into their necks and melted, the icy feeling penetrating their skin.
It was 3:30 a.m., and the entire city of Suiyang was silent except for the watchman striking his clapper somewhere, the sound echoing in the snowy night.
As the two were walking toward the entrance of the inn, several men suddenly emerged from the shadows.
Chu Mingyao was startled, thinking she had encountered villains, and raised her arm to block Su Wan, asking, "Who are you?"
Su Wan calmly pressed down on her arm and said, "Sister Chu, it's alright. This is my guard."
The group found an empty shed, and the captain of the guards stepped forward to greet them, saying, "Madam, we have found a way out of the city. We were just on our way to the county government office to find you."
Su Wan said, "That's great, quickly take us out of the city."
The captain of the guards asked, "Madam, who is this?"
Su Wan introduced Chu Mingyao's identity to everyone, and then briefly told the captain of the guards what she had seen and heard in the county government office.
Upon hearing this, the captain of the guard broke out in a cold sweat despite the snow. He asked Su Wan, "They planted explosives in the general's carriage?"
“We must break out of Suiyang and inform my husband and the others,” Su Wan said to the captain of the guards. “They have not only planted explosives on the carriages, but the Western Rong army is also marching towards Youzhou. We have no time.”
The thought of Zhao Xian and Wei Jingzhuo getting into the carriage made her heart pound like a drum. But all she could do now was to inform Wei Jingzhuo as soon as possible.
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