Chapter 44: Witnesses
The prison car was Wen Youqing's carriage. It was small and exquisite, and no one would have thought that there was a prisoner sitting in it.
The wheels rolled on the rugged mountain road, making a dull and monotonous "creaking" sound, rolling over gravel and mud, and also rolling over the nerves of every member of the escort team.
In reality, Zhu Shisan was bound tightly with thick tendon ropes and iron chains, tossed into a corner of the carriage like a pig waiting to be slaughtered. His initial ferocity had long since vanished, leaving only a deadly despair and a deep-seated fear. His cloudy eyes would occasionally glance through the curtains, terrified, at Cui Junji on his horse, as if he were the Grim Reaper, the one demanding his life.
Wen Youqing rode at the side of the group, her back as straight as the sword at her waist. The mountain breeze, carrying the chill of late autumn, ruffled her dark hair, which was tied back.
She deliberately avoided looking at Cui Junji, who was half a horse's head behind her, but the figure in the moon-white shirt and the faint smell of incense stubbornly invaded her senses.
Every time he rode closer, every time he whispered something to his followers, the nameless anger in her heart grew a little more intense. She gripped the reins tightly, her knuckles turning slightly white. She just wanted to go faster and faster, to throw this plague god and the prisoner into the Ministry of Justice prison.
Cui Junji seemed quite at ease, as if this wasn't a perilous journey to escort a high-ranking criminal, but rather an ordinary outing. He even swayed slightly on horseback, occasionally humming a few tuneless folk tunes, his gaze seemingly casually sweeping over the deep forests and jagged rocks on either side, and the distant mountain outlines shrouded in dusk.
"Madam," he suddenly spoke, breaking the suffocating silence, his voice carrying a hint of inquiry, "Tell me, the people behind Zhu Shisan, knowing that he has been arrested, are they extremely anxious now, or... are they already planning how to silence him forever?" He didn't look at Wen Youqing when he spoke, his eyes still fixed on a corner of the mountain road ahead.
Wen Youqing's heart trembled, a chill running down her spine. She knew this journey wouldn't be peaceful, so she simply grasped the hidden weapon in her sleeve and continued on her way.
After a moment, the secret agent lurking in the woods made a gesture to Wen Youqing.
"Sir Cui," Wen Youqing's voice was as cold as ice. She finally turned her head, her sharp eyes piercing Cui Junji's seemingly relaxed face like a knife. "If you are so bored, you might as well think about how to ensure that the prisoner reaches the capital alive! Put away your nonsense!" Her words were blunt.
Cui Junji's smile then morphed into a wider, more innocent arc. "I'm terrified," he said, bowing, his tone devoid of any fear. "I simply feel that these high mountains and dense forests make this a perfect time to kill and silence witnesses. I'm reminding my lady...don't be so tense. Relax a little."
Wen Youqing had never known that the gentle and aloof young master from an aristocratic family was actually a playboy. This made her even more upset.
When the last rays of the setting sun were completely swallowed up by the rolling mountains and the inky night surged in, the team finally arrived at this dilapidated post station located between two mountains.
The post station was very small, and the adobe walls had collapsed in many places. The only main house emitted a dim, flickering light from an oil lamp, like a ghost fire, appearing particularly small and lonely in the deep night.
Wen Youqing's personal guard, a burly bearded man named Zhao Tie, was the first to step forward and knock on the creaking, dilapidated wooden door. "Stay at the inn!" his gruff voice echoed in the silent valley.
There was a dead silence inside the door, with only the rustling of dry grass on the wall as the wind blew.
Wen Youqing and Cui Junji frowned simultaneously, exchanging a look that shared a sense of wariness. The earlier disagreements were temporarily suppressed by a shared sense of crisis.
Wen Youqing waved his hand to let the guards retreat, his hand already on the hidden weapon.
Cui Junji nodded slightly, the carefree look on his face long gone, leaving only a sharp gleam in his peach-shaped eyes. He winked at one of his sturdy followers.
The man nodded silently, jumped off his horse as nimbly as a civet cat, and in a few steps ran to an obvious gap in the courtyard wall, looking inside.
In a split second, the attendant's body froze, and he quickly retracted his head, his face appearing incredibly pale in the dim light. He hurried back to Cui Junji's horse, his voice trembling with a barely perceptible tremor: "My lord... they're all dead inside!"
"What?!" Wen Youqing's pupils suddenly shrank.
"Be careful!" Cui Junji shouted sternly, and he jumped off his horse with lightning speed.
Wen Youqing also jumped off his horse at the same time. The two of them were almost side by side, one on the left and one on the right, approaching the closed broken door with extreme caution.
Several guards used their scabbards to slam open the already shaky wooden door!
"Bang!"
A nauseatingly strong smell of blood mixed with a strange, sweet smell like rusted metal rushed towards me like a tangible wave, almost choking me to death.
The dim oil lamp swayed on the roof beams, casting distorted and dancing light and shadows. The scene in the lobby of the post station made even these battle-hardened men gasp in shock!
Corpses. Corpses scattered everywhere.
A postman, a groom, and a man dressed as a passing merchant... six in total. They were either sprawled on the table or lying facedown on the cold ground, their postures twisted, faces frozen in expressions of extreme pain and terror, their eyes bulging, and blackened blood foam lingering around their mouths and noses.
The most shocking thing was that their exposed skin, especially the neck and arms, was covered with large patches of strange purple bruises, which glowed ominously under the flickering lights.
The entire inn was as silent as a tomb, the only sounds being the soft crackling of burning lamps and the heavy, suppressed breathing of the crowd.
Cui Junji was the first to enter this hell on earth. Holding his breath, his face gloomy and terrifying, he quickly walked to a toppled square table. Rough ceramic bowls lay scattered on the table, filled with murky wine and some food scraps. He squatted down and carefully probed a silver needle he carried with him into the soup residue at the bottom of a bowl.
The moment the silver needle was pulled out, the tip of the needle suddenly turned into a strange dark blue color!
"Blue-tailed scorpion?" Wen Youqing's voice carried a barely perceptible chill as she walked in, her sharp eyes sweeping across the bruises on the bodies.
A nearby Jianghu person immediately said, "It's a deadly poison made secretly by the Wang family."
So fast!
At this moment, there was a sudden violent rustling sound from an abandoned haystack in the corner!
"Who?!" The Cui family guard reacted extremely quickly, shouted loudly, and instantly unsheathed the sword in his hand, with the sharp blade pointing directly at the haystack!
"Don't kill me! Don't kill me! Ghost! There's a ghost!" A hoarse, frantic voice howled from the haystack. An old man with gray hair, wearing tattered postman's clothes, crawled out.
His face was covered in dirt, his eyes unfocused, and he was filled with utter terror, shaking like a leaf in the autumn wind. He pointed at the horribly dead bodies on the ground, then at the thick, impenetrable darkness outside, screaming incoherently, "Dead! All dead! Ghosts are coming! Ghosts in black! Jumping down the wall! Shadows... Shadows like wolves! Biting! Necks! Drinking blood! Stay away! Stay away!" He waved his bony arms, as if trying to drive away an invisible demon.
"Old man! What nonsense are you talking about!" The guard stepped forward and tried to restrain him.
"The shadow looks like a wolf?" Cui Junji suddenly raised his hand to stop the guard. He squatted in front of the crazy old postman and spoke in a remarkably calm voice with a strange penetrating power, "Old man, look into my eyes! What kind of clothes did the 'ghost' you saw wear? What kind of weapon did it use?"
The old postman's cloudy eyes met Cui Junji's phoenix eyes, as deep as a cold pond. His madness seemed to be intimidated by this calm gaze, and it calmed down for a moment. His teeth chattered, and he screamed intermittently: "Black... black... black from head to toe... knife... the knife is curved... like... like wolf teeth... shadows... so many shadows... rushing towards me... fast... too fast to see..." He suddenly struggled violently again, pointing behind Cui Junji and screaming in fear, "Here they come! They come again! Wolves! The wolves are coming—!"
Almost at the same moment the old postman screamed!
“Ouch—!”
“Ooo ...
Shrill, long, bloodthirsty wolf howls erupted one after another from all sides of the inn, from the pitch-black darkness! It was like countless evil spirits howling in unison behind a curtain of darkness! The sound, layered and filled with cold murderous intent, instantly enveloped the small inn!
Wen Youqing's stern shout resonated like thunder! With a clang, she drew the sword from her waist, its blade reflecting a chilling gleam in the dim light. The well-trained guards and Cui Junji's entourage instantly retreated, the metallic clatter of unsheathed swords merging into a cacophony of sharp, cacophonous sounds, tightly guarding the carriage carrying Zhu Shisan.
The old postman was so scared that he hid under the carriage.
Cui Junji abruptly stood up, a long sword in his hand, its tip gleaming with a cold gleam. His expression was devoid of any trace of laziness, replaced only by utter solemnity. His eyes, like lightning, scanned the boundless darkness beyond the wall.
The howling of wolves grew closer and more intense, like a surging tide crashing against rocks. In the darkness, countless pairs of dark green eyes, gleaming with greed and cruelty, lit up densely in the trees, slopes, and rocks surrounding the post station, like will-o'-the-wisp fires from hell! Cold and bloodthirsty, they locked their gaze firmly on the living people in the post station.
However, Wen Youqing and Cui Junji both clearly saw that the movements of those "green eyes" were by no means the chaotic movements of wild beasts, but rather a cold, efficient, and human-like tactical coordination! They were rapidly closing in, forming a siege!
"It's not a wolf!" Cui Junji's voice was low, but it reached everyone's ears clearly, carrying a bone-chilling chill. "It's a human! A human in wolf's clothing!"
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