The leader of the soldiers frowned and said in a deep voice: "Who is this young man? Why does he care about government affairs?"
"Are you from the government?" Liang Shaoqing seemed to have just noticed the soldiers' uniforms, and frowned in embarrassment, saying, "I am Liang Shaoqing, passing by here, and saw you fighting, so I came forward to ask a few questions. I didn't expect you were government officials, I'm so sorry."
"Liang Shaoqing?"
The soldier leader muttered in confusion, but he couldn't remember which noble family had the courage to interfere in government affairs and was named Liang. His expression darkened immediately, and he shouted angrily: "Get out of the way, everyone else! Be careful of the swords!"
"Yes, yes," Liang Shaoqing said hurriedly. Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he couldn't help but turned back and whispered, "Fighting and killing are ultimately degrading. I don't know if you have any misunderstandings. Can you please tell me so that I can help you reconcile?"
"I think you are looking for death!" The leader shouted angrily, raised his knife and chopped down!
"Ah!" Liang Shaoqing was so frightened that he held his head and didn't even know how to hide.
“Idiot!” Chu Qiao shouted coldly and threw a flying knife. A white light flashed quickly and pierced into the leader’s neck. The man’s eyes widened, he staggered two steps, and fell to the ground with a thump!
"grown ups!"
The soldiers were horrified and rushed forward together. Chu Qiao took advantage of the chaos, took a few steps forward, leaped onto the scholar's donkey, passed over the scholar's waist from behind, grabbed the reins, and shouted, "Go!"
"Ah! Girl, how did you get on my mount? Men and women should not be intimate with each other, girl, you still..."
With a dull thud, Chu Qiao punched the man hard in the chest, kicked with both legs, and shouted, “Go!”
This green donkey was quite capable. It started running and its speed was not much slower than that of an ordinary war horse.
Not long after, the sound of pursuing horses was heard from behind. Chu Qiao acted quickly, picked up the luggage on the back of the donkey and threw it on the ground.
"Ah! Girl! Those are my books, my luggage, my money, my poems, ah! Girl, those are my passport!"
The green donkey was extremely fast. On such a difficult mountain road, its speed was even slightly faster than that of a war horse. After a moment, it had left the enemy far behind.
The further south they went, the warmer the weather became. The green donkey ran all the way for more than an hour. It was noon and the sun was shining brightly in the sky. The mountain road was winding and they passed another ridge. The green donkey, which had been walking briskly before, suddenly fell to the ground with a thud and refused to get up again.
Chu Qiao and Liang Shaoqing fell down at the same time. Chu Qiao was agile and stabilized her body with a forward roll, but Liang Shaoqing fell badly and rolled several times before stopping. Before he could stand up, he vomited with a stinking smell and his body was in a mess.
"Are you okay?" Chu Qiao kindly stepped forward and asked in a deep voice.
The young scholar finally stood up, with his hands on his waist and panting, he said incoherently: "You... you unreasonable... unreasonable woman, I... I saved you with good intentions, but you, you threw away all my luggage, it's simply, it's unreasonable."
"Then," Chu Qiao handed over a piece of white silk and said in a deep voice, "Wipe your mouth."
"It's my bad luck."
Liang Shaoqing panted as he walked to the green donkey and stretched out his hand to pull the donkey up. However, the donkey was extremely tired and refused to get up no matter how Liang Shaoqing pulled it. The young scholar's eyes turned red with anger and he said angrily, "Okay, now you are against me too."
"It's running too fast, it can't rest for a while." Chu Qiao said: "What are you going to do?"
Liang Shaoqing was furious and shouted, "What should I do? I want to go back and get my things!"
"If you go back now, it would be like seeking death."
"If I don't go back, I'll be courting death. How can I go to Tangjing without a customs clearance document?" Liang Shaoqing muttered angrily, "Besides, they have no grudges against me. I have always been law-abiding. Why are they making things difficult for me?"
Chu Qiao picked up her sword, without even looking at him, squatted beside the fallen Qinglu, and said indifferently: "If you don't want to live, go back and see if you can get your pass back and still go to Tangjing alive."
"Hi, you just saved me and carried me so far, thank you!" The girl smiled like a flower, her eyes narrowed into a crescent, and there were two small dimples on her cheeks. She looked pretty and lovely, far from being as serious as she usually was.
The scholar was frightened by Chu Qiao. He hesitated for a long time and did not dare to go back. Hearing what she said, he could not help but interrupt and said, "Lady, if you want to thank someone, shouldn't you thank me? I was the one who saved you. How can you thank a beast?"
"You saved me?" Chu Qiao frowned in confusion, slowly turned her head to look at the silly scholar, smiled faintly and asked: "When? How come I don't know?"
"Ah? Why are you so unreasonable, girl? You treat your life-saver with such an attitude that you don't even say thank you and even make sarcastic remarks?"
"Did you kill those soldiers? Or did you carry me out of the encirclement? You didn't do anything. How can you say you saved me?"
"You...you..." Liang Shaoqing was speechless for a long time, and finally stammered: "I went in and explained the truth to them, and then..."
"And then they put down their butcher knives and became Buddhas and let us go?"
Liang Shaoqing was stunned and immediately speechless. Chu Qiao shook her head, stood up, and walked in front of him. Her small stature was not even up to his shoulders, but she reached out her hand and patted his shoulder and said, "It's good to have a sense of justice, but you also need to have brains. If you don't have this ability, then stay out of other people's business. If it weren't for a good beast, you would have died with me today."
The girl smiled faintly, took out two Daxia silver notes from her bosom and put them in his hand, saying: "Your things will definitely not be recovered, here are some silver to make up for your loss, I am really sorry for delaying your business. It is still not safe here, I can take you to the town below, what do you think?"
"Humph!" Liang Shaoqing knocked the banknote out of Chu Qiao's hand and said angrily, "I am a man of great stature, I am upright and honest, what do I have to fear? I think it is unsafe to be with you. You are so young, but you are being hunted down by the government. You must be either a bandit or a habitual thief."
The scholar walked over to the green donkey, and with all his might, he pulled the donkey up. Then he staggered down the mountain, pulling the donkey with his hands.
Chu Qiao stood there, watching the scholar go away with a smile, picked up the banknotes on the ground, and shouted, "Nerd! Don't you really want this money?"
Liang Shaoqing waved his hand without even turning his head: "I don't want to die!"
The words were still fresh in her ears. Two hours later, when she saw the man in front of her again at the horse slave market in Dongguo Town, Chu Qiao couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Miss, do you want to buy a slave servant? This one is good. He is strong and capable. One is equivalent to three or four ordinary servants. This one used to be a martial arts instructor. He was confined to slavery because he committed a crime. He is very skilled in martial arts and can read and write. Hey? You have a good eye. This one is handsome. Although he is a little thin, he is the most suitable to be a book boy and a personal attendant. It is most suitable for you, Miss."
The slave trader enthusiastically recommended it to Chu Qiao. The girl glanced at the slaves with a smile, then pointed at Liang Shaoqing, whose face was flushed in the corner, and said, "Boss, how much is that?"
"That one," the boss was a shrewd man. He rolled his eyes and pulled Chu Qiao aside and said, "That one was just caught by the city guard. He didn't have a pass and dared to fight with the city guards. He was just sent here to be sold. He has no slave status and no formal documents to sell himself, so, girl, name a price. If I think it's about right, I'll sell it to you."
After some bargaining, Chu Qiao took Liang Shaoqing and walked on the busy street. The girl was pretty and charming, and although the man looked a little disheveled, he was also handsome and gentle, attracting the attention of everyone passing by on the street. Especially when they saw that there was a straw tag stuck on Liang Shaoqing's back and his hands were tied in front of him, there was even more discussion.
"Hey! Untie me now!"
Chu Qiao turned around lazily and asked with a smile, "How do you talk to your master like this?"
"What master? I am a scholar, but you are trading me for money and vulgar things. It is simply a disgrace! I became like this because of you..."
"Wrong!" Chu Qiao interrupted him. "First, I didn't ask you to meddle in other people's business. Second, you didn't save my life. Instead, I saved you, a bookworm who didn't know how high the sky is and how deep the earth is. Third, I wanted to give you money, but you said you didn't want it even if you died. If you had money to pay the city guards to enter the city, you wouldn't have been taken away as a slave. So, you deserved what happened to you. It has nothing to do with me."
"You, you ungrateful woman, I, I..."
With a "swish", the rope fell to the ground. Chu Qiao smiled and handed over two silver bills: "Let's say goodbye now, and don't let anyone catch us again."
"A real man walks in the world, he has his ways and his ways. I will never take your money even if I die!"
Watching Liang Shaoqing's back quickly disappear at the end of the long street, Chu Qiao shook her head and smiled faintly. If she wasn't in a hurry and couldn't take care of herself, she really should have snatched his luggage back. Life is pressing, and now he can only wish for the best.
Taking the risk of going into the city to buy a horse is a big taboo and we should not create more trouble.
Their whereabouts were exposed at Tangmaling, and for a time the entire southeast was filled with the empire's minions and spies. A journey that could have been completed in two days actually took five days due to dodging and ducking. Five days later, Chu Qiao finally arrived at Xianyang City, which was only fifty miles away from Baizhi Pass.
There are only two ways to enter Bian Tang through Baizhi Pass. One is to go by land and enter Baizhi City, the first big city in Bian Tang from Baizhi Pass. This route requires documents signed by both countries, which is called customs clearance documents, and a large amount of money is required to get through before entering. As the largest and strongest pass in the north of Bian Tang, the strictness of Baizhi Pass’s defenses is beyond doubt. Chu Qiao certainly didn't have the normal documents to pass the customs, and she had no plans to risk entering the country by force, so this path could almost be ignored.