Before the carriage had even come to a complete stop, Su Wan jumped off.
The place where Su Yuze had the accident was quite remote; a small village was not far to the north. Dense forests lined both sides of the road, and the north wind howled, rustling the branches.
This area falls under the jurisdiction of Suiyang County. Upon learning of the incident, Magistrate An dispatched dozens of constables and coroners. The constables strung up several ropes to keep the onlookers at bay. Several coroners were examining a corpse in the middle of the road.
Su Wan walked ahead, with Lu Lin and Lin Qingfeng following behind her, until they reached the isolation line.
The constables all recognized her and quickly raised the rope. Su Wan went inside, approached the coroner, and pointed to the corpse on the ground, asking, "Who is this person?"
The coroner said, "Madam, this is the coachman. He was shot with an arrow. Judging from the time of death, he was the first to be hit by the arrow. He fell off the carriage and was run over by the wheels. Look here... there are wheel tracks."
Lu Lin also crouched down to examine the wound carefully, and said, "The coachman was shot in the left side of his throat. The ambushers must have been there..."
He stood up and pointed to the woods on the left: "Look, Madam, that's where the shot came from. To shoot so accurately in the middle of the night, that's unbelievable."
The two ruts on the ground curved precisely in the direction Lu Lin had pointed. Su Wan walked into the woods and soon saw an overturned carriage. Bloodstains were scattered everywhere on the ground, and several corpses lay haphazardly in the surrounding weeds. Several constables were examining the carriage.
Lin Qingfeng walked to the bodies, squatted down to examine them, and remained silent.
Su Wan approached the carriage, her gaze sweeping over the open door and the empty carriage, a wave of sadness washing over her.
Su Yuze should have been sitting in this carriage, parked in front of the Su residence. Now the carriage is overturned in a secluded grove, and Su Yuze is nowhere to be found.
Lu Lin, standing beside her, said, "Mistress, don't be sad. Since the other party didn't kill the Second Master on the spot, they certainly won't take his life immediately. As long as we find their trail, we can rescue the Second Master soon."
Mountain bandits refer to the second-in-command of their stronghold as "Second Boss." Lu Lin assumed Su Yuze was the second-in-command in the Su family, so he addressed him the same way.
Su Wan said, "I know. You should also investigate and report back to me immediately if you find anything."
She stood there, lost in thought, reminiscing about all the moments she had spent with Su Yuze.
Ah Di was born while her mother was ill. On her seventh birthday, she remembered her mother telling her father that it would be great if they could have a son while their health was still good. After all, Xiao Wan was a girl, and her personality was weak; she couldn't support the family.
A year later, her mother gave birth to her younger brother, Su Yuze.
Su Wan could understand her parents' thoughts. In ancient times, men were superior to women, and women not only had a low status but also lacked suitable professions. It was understandable that her mother wanted to have a son to inherit her father's family business.
My mother was already ill before she gave birth to my younger brother. Although she still acted like a normal person, you could clearly see that she had a problem from her complexion; her face was pale and bloodless.
After giving birth to her younger brother, her mother's health seemed to collapse, and she could only rest in bed. She passed away two years later. Her younger brother lost his mother when he was two years old and his father when he was five. He went to live with her at Su Heng's house and endured three years of hardship. He has never enjoyed any happiness since birth.
She had intended to bring her younger brother over for a family reunion, but unexpectedly, this happened along the way.
I don't know where my younger brother is now, or if he's being abused. He must be terrified.
As she was grieving, Lin Qingfeng came to her and whispered, "Mistress, I have checked, and the dead on the ground are all our people."
Su Wan dabbed at the corner of her eye with her sleeve and asked, "What was the cause of death?"
“Several were killed by arrows, and the rest were wounded by sharp blades. The enemy first used bows and arrows to kill our people, and then used swords,” Lin Qingfeng said. “The footprints on the ground are very messy, and it looks like at least dozens of people fought here.”
Su Wan was somewhat suspicious and asked, "Our guards are all very skilled. Don't you think there were any dead on the other side?"
Lin Qingfeng said, "The mistress is right, the other side will definitely suffer many casualties. But it seems they don't want us to investigate the details and have taken the dead away."
"Mistress, I've found this!" Lu Lin's shout came from deep within the dense forest.
Su Wan quickly walked over with Lin Qingfeng. Lu Lin ran over, holding a small metal cylinder: "Mistress, I found this in the grass over there. I don't know what it is."
Su Wan trembled and reached out to take the metal cylinder: "This is a gift for my younger brother."
This is the pepper spray she gave Su Yuze on her wedding day. She shook it in her hand; it was probably half full.
Lu Lin ran off to continue the investigation, while Lin Qingfeng said, "Madam, the deceased there was Guard Zhang. The coroner told me that Guard Zhang was the last to die."
Su Wan looked at Zhang, the guard lying on the ground. He was sprawled out, his longsword lying nearby, and a large pool of blood below his throat, which had already frozen into ice.
She gradually reconstructed the scene in her mind: the guards fought desperately against the attackers, falling one by one. Despite his fear, Su Yuze mustered his courage and used pepper spray to help the guards... Guard Zhang knew he couldn't win, so he led him to this place, then Guard Zhang was killed, and Su Yuze was taken away.
She gripped the pepper spray and bowed deeply over Zhang's body.
These guards were all brave warriors. Facing a powerful enemy, not one of them fled. They all died protecting Su Yuze.
Lin Qingfeng saw this and comforted her, saying, "Mistress, they all died protecting our master, and they deserved to die. You don't need to be too sad."
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