Having nothing else to her name, she had no choice but to pull out her only hairpin.
This is a silver hairpin. I wouldn't say it's common, but it's not particularly valuable either.
Seeing Zhou Qionghua's utter lack of tact, the master flew into a rage, "Is this the kind of gratitude I wanted?"
“Then tell me, sir,” Zhou Qionghua was also confused. “What kind of thanks do you need? Just tell me, and I will do my best to satisfy you.”
The old man chuckled, stroking his sleazy mustache. "Don't you know how I need your gratitude?"
At this point, the old man stepped forward and tried to pull Zhou Qionghua onto the bed, which terrified her. Zhou Qionghua punched and kicked the old man and barely managed to escape.
Meanwhile, Xu Yuehuai and Aqi had already obtained the basic clues.
"They used recruitment as an excuse to swindle people from all around." This is Xu Yuehuai's current speculation, and she desperately hopes that her reasoning is unfounded.
But the reality is not like that.
Meanwhile, Qi Guze had already left Longshou Village.
The master and servant worked from dawn till dusk, day and night. Along the way, Qi Guze eliminated countless bandits, becoming a fearsome figure in the eyes of the villains.
Along the way, the two learned a lot about the Crown Prince, directly or indirectly, but most of it was a lie, which almost led to their deaths.
At this moment, in the speeding carriage, Qi Guze looked at Tie Xiong.
“It’s so similar,” a face kept appearing in his mind, Ah Qi’s face, “It’s so similar to the current emperor, isn’t it?”
"It does look somewhat like him, but I've already subtly inquired, and Ah Qi is just an innocent child who doesn't know anything about the world."
"But he's a child with a story."
He said.
There was thunder in the sky; it seemed we couldn't proceed.
Tie Xiong said, "The weather is really not cooperating today. It was cloudless just now, and now it's going to rain. We need to find a place to take shelter."
The mountain paths are complex, and sufficient rainfall can easily trigger mudslides or flash floods, which is extremely dangerous.
Tie Xiong looked into the distance and noticed a cave not far away.
He hurriedly urged his horse to reach its destination.
Inside the cave, several soldiers had bound seven or eight men with vines. These seven or eight men were all burly and strong, and they looked like they had immense strength.
But the people were afraid of these soldiers.
Upon entering the cave, a soldier glanced outside and saw that rain was already falling from the sky. He immediately became agitated, "Damn it, we only needed to send them back to get eighty taels of silver. Now, we've been delayed again."
"We'll just have to wait a bit," another soldier said, reaching out to catch some rainwater cascading down the cliff face and playing with it. "No rush."
Everyone waited where they were.
At this moment, the men started shouting, "Let us go! Where are you taking us?"
"Where are we going? To make money, of course." The soldier's eyes were fierce, and he turned around and gave the man a warning look. The man continued to ramble, "Make money? But I've never seen anyone let us make money like this before. You've gone too far."
After the man finished protesting, the other seven men started arguing.
In that instant, things exploded.
The man who spoke first flew into a rage, "Stop arguing! If you anger me, I'll teach you a lesson!"
"Let us go, we want to go home, we don't want to make money anymore."
"You think you can just take it or not? You're so arrogant..."
The soldiers brandished their whips and severely punished the jeers of the crowd, especially the first man to speak, who was immediately beaten until his skin was torn and bleeding.
"Oh dear, you're even hitting ordinary people?"
The crowd looked at the soldiers in surprise.
The soldiers who were about to attack sneered, "What common people? You probably don't even know what you're going to do in the future. Once you get to the mine, your life or death will be in my hands. What? You think I can't teach you a lesson?"
"Let me leave."
The man who had been whipped struggled and managed to break the chains.
The two soldiers exchanged a glance. The one on the left, enraged, chased after the man and stabbed him to death with a single blow. The man fell to the ground, bleeding profusely.
He groaned in pain.
This really startled everyone.
The crowd watched in horror as the troublemaker was killed, their faces turning deathly pale. The soldiers, on the other hand, seemed to regard killing as commonplace. "Now you know what's what? You're just two-legged sheep, just laborers. I can do whatever I want to you. Be quiet. I'll take you to your destination when the rain stops."
Just moments ago there was chaos, but now, after witnessing their comrades being slaughtered, everyone fell silent.
Qi Guze's carriage also stopped near the cave.
He saw everything that just happened here.
The righteous and vengeful Tie Xiong was furious. He pointed into the distance and said, "I really wish I could tear them to pieces. How could these soldiers treat human life so lightly?"
At this point, Tie Xiong leaped into the cave, ready to fight the two men.
Qi Guze, however, stopped Tie Xiong.
"Along this journey," Qi Guze pondered for a moment, speaking slowly as if each word had been carefully considered, "we've rarely seen young people, haven't we?"
"yes!"
He was a man with a volatile temper. "Your Highness, let Tie Xiong kill them and rid the people of this scourge."
"I know this is to rid the people of a scourge, but they are just small fry. We need to kill the mastermind behind it all to solve the problem once and for all."
Qi Guze spoke in the tone of a wise elder.
"Yes." Tie Xiong clasped his fists and looked at the ground. "It was this humble general who was reckless."
"Avoid arrogance and impetuosity. Only act like you when necessary. Remember that?"
"yes!"
He simply observed the distance without offering any opinion.
But his eyes were as cold as rain.
The rain has stopped.
Two soldiers came out from inside.
There were eight of them just now, but they came out as a group of seven.
Tie Xiong had already figured out what had happened, and he quickly went into the cave.
Inside that cave, they witnessed a horrific scene.
The man was still alive.
Qi Guze leaned closer and channeled his inner energy into the man, who slowly opened his eyes.
Do you know who they are? Where are you going?
Qi Guze's words were concise and to the point.
The man was dying. He tried to get up, but couldn't. At the same time, he saw blood gushing from his chest like flames. "They said they would take us to the mine. They are soldiers."
"That's all? I didn't hear anything else?"
"Help! Help!"
The man groaned, "It hurts so much, my whole body aches."
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