Chapter 23
◎Young Master Su, I'm about to get into trouble again.◎
After listening to Cui Hu and Wei Xianxi's argument last night, Xie Yutang and Su Lu roughly explored the entire Yingkou area and identified several suspicious locations. Today, while walking the cat, they checked all of them and were almost certain that the missing military equipment of the imperial court was hidden in the mansion in the northeast corner.
After nightfall, Xie Yutang and Su Lu changed into night clothes, avoided the guards, and stealthily made their way through the houses.
The eaves and tiled roofs overlapped in the moonlight, and from afar, one could see that there were more guards than in the afternoon, with continuous patrols outside the walls and at the gate.
Even Xie Yutang and Su Lu had to put in quite a bit of effort to sneak in.
Unexpectedly, the courtyard was not large. Apart from a few storage rooms, there was only a study-like room. Xie Yutang took a few steps and quickly realized something was wrong.
"It's hollow down there."
“There’s a secret room.” Su Lu leaned against a corner of the corridor, quietly observing the furnishings inside. His gaze lingered briefly on the wall.
"The secret is inside this room."
Xie Yutang followed his gaze and paused. There was a city defense map hanging on the wall, which meticulously marked the time and place of the guard rotation. She scoffed, "Cui Hu is quite meticulous. With this thing, it really is a military camp."
She looked at Su Lu: "As for the mechanism—does our all-powerful Prince Su have a way to find it?"
She had only asked casually, already prepared to search the entire house, but to her surprise, Su Lu nodded slightly: "Yes."
Xie Yutang raised an eyebrow and stared intently at him.
The boy seemed to have observed this beforehand. He walked to the side of the wall, closed his eyes, and tapped the wall with his finger.
Xie Yutang held his breath and waited.
Nothing happened.
...
Su Lu moved to another spot and continued knocking.
When Xie Yutang knocked for the fifth time, his patience finally ran out. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the young man walk to the bookshelf and accurately pull out two books from it with his slender fingers.
After a very faint "click," the bookshelf slowly moved to the right, revealing the secret passage hidden beneath it.
...
Xie Yutang looked at Su Lu, and the young man explained, "Where there is a secret room, there must be complex mechanisms and mechanisms hidden inside, which will inevitably result in different echoes and airflows."
"...So you can tell the difference just by tapping it?"
This is really Xie Yutang's fault. Her internal strength is already quite good, but the number of people in Da Yan and Bei Rong who can distinguish the subtle differences between echoes and airflow is less than one in a handful.
Therefore, these words were more of an admiration than a question, and when spoken by Xie Yutang, their impact was multiplied many times over.
Su Lu paused for a moment before giving a soft "hmm".
Xie Yutang's mind was not on the other person's reaction at all, so he didn't see his ears turning slightly red again.
She was focused on studying the newly discovered secret passage. Unlike the usual downward staircase, the entrance was a hole dug directly in the ground with no support below. To get in, one would have to jump down like jumping into a well.
Just as she was about to jump, Su Lu said, "I'll go first."
Xie Yutang understood what he meant.
During the day, she deliberately provoked Cui Hu. Given his vigilance, he must have already taken precautions, as the number of guards inside and outside the courtyard had increased so much, not to mention the secret room.
Xie Yutang glanced at the dark cave entrance and raised an eyebrow: "Aren't you afraid of being riddled with arrows if you jump down?"
Su Lu said, "Aren't you afraid either?"
...
Xie Yutang was caught off guard by the question, and couldn't very well say that she was only focused on finding the weapons and hadn't paid attention to anything else. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly noticed the boy's still-blushing ears and paused slightly.
She knew Su Shizi's ears; a few teasing words or a few touches would make them turn bright red, but she hadn't said anything just now—wait.
Could it be because of her statement, "So you can hear the difference just by tapping it?"
Xie Yutang was puzzled and somewhat shocked, without reflecting on her tone, eyes, and expression just now—who could bear to be admired by someone they liked?
She deliberately took a step closer to test him, lightly stroking his reddened earlobe with her fingertips: "Your Highness, don't you resent me? If I hadn't alerted the enemy, you wouldn't have had to risk your life for me."
Her words sounded fine, even a little cold, but her restless fingertips, the way she spoke, and the look in her eyes on his face...
Su Lu couldn't remove her wandering hands, so he turned his head to the side and tried to change the subject: "...Master deliberately let Cui Hu know, didn't he?"
The fingers that touched his chin paused.
Xie Yutang remained calm: "Why does Prince Su think I should do this?"
"Master, do you really want to hear what I have to say?"
"Um."
Xie Yutang finally stopped. Su Lu lowered his eyes and paused for a moment before speaking: "Finding the whereabouts of the weapons is not difficult. The difficulty lies in how to expose them, how to arrest them, and how to report to His Majesty if he asks."
"Theft of military equipment is a serious crime. They certainly won't keep it in their hands. After what you did this afternoon... If I were Cui Hu, I would definitely speed up the process of moving the equipment away. And the best time would be when they are caught red-handed with irrefutable evidence."
All correct.
Xie Yutang was able to see this far because of her experience in her previous life. She regretted that she had little contact with this young Prince Muqing in her previous life, so she could only get to know him little by little through their current interactions.
This young man is so insightful at such a young age; no wonder he had such achievements in his previous life.
The knife was much sharper than she had imagined.
She had tested him, she had doubted him. She was willing to trust him and didn't mind using some harmless tricks to get closer to him, but she had to consider the possibility that the knife might no longer be in her hands and be prepared for it.
In her previous life, she unwittingly became someone else's weapon.
In this life, she will only be the one wielding the knife.
Xie Yutang's mind raced, but his expression remained impassive. He simply smiled and said, "Young Master Su is truly a man of great wisdom."
She glanced at the opening and stepped aside: "Please."
Perhaps it was just her bad luck, for the sound of crossbow bolts and traps in the secret chamber rang out almost simultaneously with Su Lu's fall, and continued for quite some time.
Xie Yutang stared intently at the cave entrance, his mind on edge.
Su Lu could pinpoint the location of the mechanism by tapping the wall a few times and listening to the echoes and airflow. She assumed that Su Lu was using the same method to block and dodge the hidden weapons. Therefore, she held her breath and tried her best not to make any noise so as not to disturb the other party.
Cui Hu and his men had set up more than one barrier. The sound of the mechanism repeated intermittently several times, then quieted down for a while before Su Lu came out of the cave entrance. "You can come down now."
His night clothes accentuated his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs. The commotion hadn't left him in any disarray; he simply braced himself slightly at the cave entrance and stood smoothly in front of her.
Xie Yutang didn't understand why he didn't just call her down, but she didn't ask. She looked her up and down to make sure she wasn't injured, and then turned to go into the secret room.
But she was caught around the waist and fell into a slightly cool embrace.
The crisp, clear scent of snow on the mountain peak instantly enveloped her.
A gust of wind whistled past my ears, and suddenly everything went dark; I was already in a secret room.
Xie Yutang was taken aback when he suddenly put his arm around her. She was stunned for a moment, then suddenly felt her waist go empty. The young man took a half step back obediently, lowered his head and looked down.
His expression remained calm, as if nothing had happened.
...Xie Yutang choked on her words.
She chuckled: "I did tell you not to be so reserved, but I didn't tell you to be this unrestrained—"
Before she could utter the word "肆", her gaze suddenly sharpened.
The landing point was incorrect.
The normal landing point should be directly below the cave entrance, but where she is standing now is more than three feet away from the cave entrance.
Xie Yutang stared at the surroundings. Not to mention the arrows and hidden weapons embedded everywhere on the walls and the ground, at such a height, most people would use the inner wall to deflect the force, but Su Lu had brought her down without even the hem of his clothes touching the wall, which was obviously a deliberate act of restraint.
Hsieh Yu-tang admitted that he could not achieve this level of skill.
That's why Su Lu wanted to bring her down himself.
Xie Yutang blushed slightly, feeling ashamed of her own presumptuousness. She then focused her attention on the areas he had avoided and actually noticed something: "Is something painted on this?"
Su Lu suppressed a smile in his eyes, but did not expose it: "It's firefly powder."
Xie Yutang looked up at him.
“This powder is extracted from the wings of a butterfly called the firefly. It is not noticeable in a dark room, but it emits a faint fluorescence in sunlight, and once it gets on you, it is very difficult to remove.” Su Lu paused, as if he knew what she was thinking, “This substance is extremely expensive.”
“No wonder they only applied it to these areas.” Xie Yutang looked around knowingly. “Ordinary people are lucky to dodge a hidden weapon. It’s so dark here, who would notice this thing? Even if they did, it would be too late. The walls and the floor would inevitably get covered in dust.”
"Wei Xianxi and Cui Hu really put a lot of thought into this."
"Young Master Su," Xie Yutang looked at Su Lu and asked directly, "How do you know all this so clearly?"
Su Lu was silent for a moment: "The firefly is unique to the Northern Rong."
Xie Yutang understood.
In my previous life, these lost weapons did indeed appear in the Northern Rong army. It turns out that the Northern Rong's reach had already penetrated so deeply into Dayan.
Xie Yutang glanced at the bulging sack: "Let's see what's inside."
The burlap sacks were piled up four or five layers high, and the hidden weapons and short arrows had almost turned the surrounding walls into sieves, but not a single one of them hit the burlap sack that was so easily torn.
The craftsman who set up the mechanism put a lot of thought into it.
Su Lu used the tip of his sword to pierce the nearest sack, and the yellowish-brown wheat gushed out like a small waterfall, instantly gathering into a small puddle on the ground.
This place is cold and damp, with poor air circulation and little sunlight all year round, so the grain will mold in no time.
Xie Yutang raised an eyebrow: "He's not afraid of stockpiling military rations in a place like this—"
The sound stopped abruptly.
The wheat grains flowed down, and the once bulging burlap sack deflated, revealing a corner of the cold gleam of iron.
Anyone familiar with weaponry would recognize it at a glance as a trident-shaped spear.
Xie Yutang found it ironic.
In the eleventh year of the Kaiyuan era, the Xie family was besieged at Daoma Pass by the Northern Rong army. With ammunition and food exhausted, General Xie fought desperately to defend the city, and all 107 members of his family died as martyrs.
If the food supply hadn't run out at that time, even without reinforcements, wouldn't it have been possible—
Xie Yutang closed his eyes.
Suppressing the blood-red color from the scene.
Su Lu stood quietly behind her, watching her slender back taut, like a bowstring stretched taut without a moment's relaxation.
His heart was also being tugged by the bowstring.
The world only knows that she had a luxurious bed and soft pillows, that she was favored and honored, and that she had everything she could want in fine clothes. But no one knows that in this vast world, she is the only one who has been left behind.
Burdened by a deep-seated hatred, she was desolate and utterly alone.
Xie Yutang heard a soft voice behind him call out, "Master."
She calmed herself, opened her eyes, and said calmly, "Judging from the color of this wheat, it must have been bagged recently. They want to use the pretext of transporting grain to move things away. But with such a large quantity, there are multiple checkpoints along the way, and the personnel are rotated. It's impossible for them to bribe them all."
Su Lu thought for a moment: "I overheard some news while I was on duty at the patrol camp."
Xie Yutang turned around.
The young man seemed hesitant, but still spoke up: "The Northern Rong delegation will be arriving in the capital soon."
Xie Yutang's fingertips, which were hanging inside his sleeve, twitched slightly.
The Northern Rong were once a vassal state of the Great Yan, but after the great defeat at Daoma Pass, the situation gradually reversed. The Northern Rong delegations, who used to come to the capital to present treasures and submit to the Great Yan, now have to spend a lot of money and treasures to serve these delegations well, which is a sign that they want to make peace.
It is said that the prince and princess of the Northern Rong will also be coming with the delegation. The emperor has specially ordered that the eighteen prefectures of Jiangnan urgently produce a batch of fireworks and transport them north by waterway to the capital.
Xie Yutang immediately understood: "The ships never leave empty-handed. These ships carrying fireworks will load other goods when they head north, and since they have special documents, they are usually not strictly checked on the return trip... They just know how to pick their time."
She hesitated for a moment, then looked up at Su Lu with an unusually serious expression: "Young Master Su, are you sure you still want to walk this path with me?"
This was definitely not something that Wei Xianxi and Cui Hu could have accomplished on their own. From the Battle of Daomaguan to the arms case and everything that followed, the real mastermind behind it all must have been a high-ranking official in Da Yan.
The century-old empire had long since rotted from the roots.
The road she was to travel was fraught with difficulties, long and arduous, with deep waters and dangerous mountains.
One wrong step and you're doomed.
Su Lu met her gaze quietly.
Xie Yutang found the answer in his gaze. A slight smile gradually appeared on her lips. She walked to the small patch of ground below the entrance to the secret passage, where firefly powder was sprinkled. She lifted her foot and slowly stepped onto it.
The oil lamp embedded in the wall reflected in her eyes, like a silver river of lights. She laughed and said, "Young Master Su, I'm about to get into trouble again."
[Author's Note]
My darlings, there will be a super long update of 10,000 words in just 4 hours tomorrow morning! [Let me see!]
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