Chapter 146 There Must Be Something Strange About This Inn
Late at night, after Jiang Jie returned home, he wanted to go back to the study to deal with some things, but he saw Qi Siwei's maid waiting at the door of the study: "What's the matter?"
"Your Excellency is busy with official duties, and Madam has specially prepared a midnight snack and would like to invite you to come over."
Jiang Jie turned and went to the backyard.
The door opened, and Qi Siwei stood up subconsciously in surprise. After seeing that the person coming was Jiang Jie, her eyes dimmed again. She forced a smile and bowed: "I have seen you, sir."
Glancing at the food on the table, it had obviously been reheated several times, which showed that she had been waiting for a long time.
In just a few days, she seemed to have lost a lot of weight and her eye sockets became more sunken.
"Madam, there is no need to be like this. I am busy with official duties, so just take a rest." Seeing her like this, Jiang Jie suddenly lost the intention to tease her.
After Jiang Jie sat down, Qi Siwei knelt beside him and kowtowed three times: "Sir, my father was corrupt and had no choice. Siwei bravely begs you to help my father find a way out."
"A way to survive?"
Jiang Jie poured a glass of wine and drank it all: "In this world, there are thousands of ways to survive, but how did your Qi family end up on the road to death?"
Qi Siwei was silent.
All of this, in the final analysis, is driven by greed.
Once you take that step, you will get deeper and deeper and there will be no way out.
Jiang Jie: "Master Qi's matter is complicated. I went to see him yesterday, but unfortunately, he was unwilling to tell the truth. I can't help him. How about... Madam go to the prison and give him some advice?"
Qi Siwei hesitated.
She was resentful towards the Qi family and her parents, and had planned to end her life and sever this relationship after this matter was over, so she didn't want to be with them anymore.
"Sir, if you want to get what you want from my father, there is a way. Just ask my brother and he will definitely compromise."
Jiang Jie exhaled a breath of alcohol and said, "Using your daughter as a bargaining chip to find a way out for your son, is this the right move, Master Qi?"
Qi Siwei smiled bitterly: "It's hard to say whether it's right or wrong. Right now, the Qi family depends entirely on you for protection. You are a great favor to Yu Siwei."
"So you agree to marry me?"
Qi Siwei: “…”
Whether you agree or not, these are facts that cannot be changed and there is no point in saying more.
"Since I have done you a great favor, why did you come up with those plans last night?" Jiang Jie leaned over and said, "Or did you want to meet someone secretly and deliberately use a maid to fool me?"
Qi Siwei was suddenly pulled up and knocked over the wine bottle in panic. Her face became paler than before.
Jiang Jie pressed the man down on the stool: "Look how scared you are, I was just teasing you."
Qi Siwei knew that Lian Yao had not returned, and she must have been punished by Jiang Jie. Before her father was rescued, she did not want to create any rift with Princess Chen. Now that Lian Yao was in trouble, she wondered if this would arouse her suspicion.
Delayed Jiang Jie from rescuing his father.
**
The road to Qizhou was unusually quiet. After two days of travel, He An and his party stayed in an inn after nightfall.
Judging from the letters that Ruan Xiaoyue kept privately, the situation in Qizhou is very complicated, and it may be related to the He family in Jiangnan.
The Princess of Chen was from the He family, so it was not surprising that the He family surrendered to the Prince of Chen.
But taking such a big risk goes against common sense.
There was nothing unusual in Prince Chen's behavior on this trip. After entering the inn, he went back to his room to rest.
He'an and Ji Lingchuan carefully checked the area around the posthouse and found nothing wrong.
But the calmer it is, the more unsettling it makes people feel.
The battle of Lucheng failed, and Qizhou and Jiangnan are now the last leverage of Prince Chen. The emperor asked him to come and investigate the matter, and there must be a testing intention in it.
"Could it be that Prince Chen knows that his plan cannot be accomplished and is planning to give up?"
He An didn't think that King Chen was someone who would give up so easily: "If he really wanted to give up, he should have given up when the incident happened in Lucheng."
Ji Lingchuan wondered, "Earlier, the secret guards reported that there was an ambush at this posthouse, but I sent people to check everywhere and there was nothing unusual around."
"If there's none outside, there's no guarantee there won't be any inside the house."
"King Chen lives on the second floor."
He'an turned around and looked at the inn behind him. He didn't find anything unusual in the structure of the building, but something seemed a little off.
**
The next morning, Ji Lingchuan reorganized his troops and set off after breakfast.
The person who went to invite Prince Chen came out in a panic: "Report to the Prime Minister, General, the prince is missing."
"Gone?"
He'an and Ji Lingchuan looked at each other and frowned.
There seemed to be signs of a fight in Prince Chen's room. Logically, given what happened, there shouldn't be no noise at all, but they certainly didn't hear any unusual sounds last night.
What is going on?
When Ruan Qinghuan and Chu Li came over, they saw He An and Ji Lingchuan had ugly looks on their faces.
When they heard the news that Prince Chen was missing and saw the chaos in the house, they became suspicious.
The posthouse was heavily guarded, and it was impossible for outsiders to get in. It was most likely something that King Chen had done himself, trying to confuse everyone.
The first person Chu Li thought of was Ruan Xiaoyue: "Could it be that King Chen is going to kill Ruan Xiaoyue to silence her?"
"Probably not. Even if he really wants to silence us, he can't do it himself." Ruan Qinghuan thought thoughtfully: "I'm afraid he wants to get ahead of us and make arrangements in Qizhou."
Chu Li followed Ji Lingchuan and looked around: "We have surrounded this inn tightly, could it be possible that he can fly?"
Flying and hiding?
Ruan Qinghuan: “…”
Chu Li was right. Their defenses were very tight, and it was almost impossible to leave safely without alerting anyone.
Therefore, there must be something strange about this inn.
Ruan Qinghuan carefully looked at the furnishings in the room, and finally his eyes fell on a low table in the west corner.
The table is quite ordinary, but there is a blanket under the table. There is a blanket in a small corner. It seems a bit out of place to be particular.
He'an also noticed something was wrong, so he moved the table away, pulled out the blanket, and indeed found a secret passage.
If this was found on the first floor, people would mistake it for a chimney and would not pay attention to it. I guess King Chen escaped from here.
Although I had expected that King Chen would have some plan, I didn't expect him to go to such lengths and confuse everyone.
It can be seen that while they were planning, King Chen was also not idle.
Ruan Qinghuan could not help but become more worried: "Prince Chen is determined to compete for the throne, so he should have kept the matter of Qizhou secret. But he left without permission. If the emperor knew about it, he would definitely be suspicious."
Ji Lingchuan and Ruan Qinghuan thought the same thing: "What kind of medicine is in the gourd of King Chen?"
Chu Li frowned: "Should we send the news back to the capital?"
Ji Lingchuan was worried and asked, "How did it spread? There is no evidence at the moment. Could it be that Prince Chen is missing?"
"Of course we can't say it's lost." Ruan Qinghuan said, "Let's just say that Prince Chen went to Qizhou to investigate the case before us."
Ji Lingchuan was in a fog.
"Let's do it this way." He An's expression became more and more solemn. He seemed to have guessed the purpose of King Chen's action. If he really guessed it, then the trip to Qizhou would be extremely dangerous.
Therefore, he changed his mind before the group set off and ordered Jiang Qi and Jiang Ming to escort her back to Beijing.
Ruan Qinghuan was stunned: "What do you mean, sir?"
We agreed to go to Qizhou together, why did Hean suddenly change his mind?