Chapter 90: City-wide Manhunt [Jinjiang Authentic Edition, Verification, and Transmission]...
Hearing the Emperor's deep, hoarse voice, which seemed to conceal endless rage, Meng Yi, riding on horseback, could not help but feel his heart skip a beat. Before he could speak, he saw the short and stout eldest grandson of the Emperor also clinging to the window frame with his two small hands, with difficulty peeking out half of his small round face from the window. Through the metal screen, he added in a childish voice:
"Meng Neishi, Xiang Ji is the grandson of Xiang Yan, a famous Chu general. He has come to the capital with his uncle, Xiang Liang. Xuanniao says that they are both notorious remnants of the Qin rebels in Chu, and are extremely cunning. Xiang Ji himself is extremely strong and has a pair of extremely rare double pupils. Send soldiers to quickly search the city for the young man with the unusual double pupils. We must capture them both in Xianyang. Don't let them escape!"
Although it is not easy to find a person with double pupils in the vast crowd, it is still an obvious target.
Meng Yi didn't dare to ask more questions. He quickly clasped his fists and said "Yes" to the grandfather and grandson through the metal screen, then pulled the reins, turned the horse's head and went to do his work.
Inside the carriage, the gloomy-faced Qin Shi Huang, after being furious, once again frowned and opened the thick "Records of the Grand Historian".
The days are short in winter.
Before I knew it, it was afternoon.
Fine snowflakes began to fall again from the gloomy sky.
The howling cold wind was extremely biting. The streets that were bustling in the morning became empty in an instant. However, Qin soldiers wearing black armor rushed in from all directions.
In an inn close to the South Gate in the southeastern city, where common people gathered, Xiang Liang, who was staying in a private room on the second floor, saw snow falling outside. Just as he was about to close the window, he suddenly caught sight of more black-clad soldiers on the street. His heart skipped a beat, and he immediately closed the window. Turning to his nephew, who was kneeling at the table eating soup, he hurriedly ordered:
"Ji, stop eating! A lot of soldiers suddenly appeared on the street. The situation doesn't look good. Let's get out of the city quickly."
Xiang Ji, who had a mouthful of steamed bun in his mouth, swallowed the steaming food in his mouth. He looked at his anxious uncle with surprise and asked:
"Father Ji, aren't you being too cautious? Even if there are soldiers on the street, they don't necessarily come to arrest us."
Xiang Liang, however, quickly gathered up the gifts scattered on the bamboo couch, and without even looking up, frowned at his careless nephew and replied:
"Ji, this is the Qin capital. We two have special identities and are outnumbered here. No matter what these soldiers who suddenly appeared are here for, it will be safer for us to leave the city as soon as possible."
Hearing his uncle's words, Xiang Ji had no choice but to give up. He picked up the large earthenware bowl on the table with both hands and drank the remaining mutton soup with steamed buns in a few gulps. He then put all six hot baked buns with crispy crusts into a clean cloth bag.
The uncle and nephew, one packing their luggage and the other packing their food, finished in about half an hour. They walked out of the room together, walked quickly down the wooden stairs to the first floor hall, and walked straight to the counter at the door. They shouted to the shopkeeper who was sweeping the dust with a feather duster in his hand with his back to them:
"Shopkeeper, check out."
"Hey! Here it comes."
The innkeeper turned around quickly upon hearing the noise, and put the feather duster aside. In one hand, she took the "verification" and "transmission" handed to her by the two men and examined them. With the other hand, she flipped open a scroll of bamboo slips and compared the names "Chu Ji" and "Chu Yu" written on them. She then picked up a brush and crossed out the check-in information she had recorded last night. She then counted out twenty Qin Ban Liang coins from a small wooden box beside her and handed them to Xiang Liang, who was standing in front of the counter, while saying with a smile:
"Sir, this is the refund of your deposit. If you are satisfied with our shop, you are welcome to come again next time."
Xiang Liang said "hmm" lightly, took the "verification" and "transmission" from the shopkeeper in one hand, took the Qin Banliang in the other hand, turned around and prepared to leave.
Xiang Ji, who was following behind him, also stepped forward to take his "verification" and "instruction". When the innkeeper handed it over with a smile, he was slightly startled to see in the light of the candlestick beside him that the young man named "Chu Yu" in front of him actually had a pair of extremely rare pupils.
When the young man and the young woman came to stay at their inn before curfew yesterday, it was already dark and the lights were dim. The young man stood behind the middle-aged man, and she didn't even notice that the young man had such unique eyes.
"Shopkeeper? My experience and experience."
Seeing the plump, medium-sized innkeeper in front of him staring at him, Xiang Ji couldn't help but frown and shouted.
Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper smiled and handed the "verification" and "transmission" in his hand to the young man with double pupils in front of him. After watching the two leave, he lowered his head to check the information recorded yesterday on the bamboo slips. As he read, he couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "I've been running this shop for more than ten years, but this is the first time I've seen someone with double pupils. I have to say, he's quite handsome."
Xiang Ji, who was unaware of what the innkeeper's wife was talking about, had already arrived at the city gate quickly with his uncle leading the horse.
As dusk approached, the sky above was already dimming slightly, and many people were leaving the city.
Seeing that the number of soldiers at the city gate today was obviously much greater than when they first entered the city yesterday, not to mention the calm Xiang Liang, even Xiang Ji could tell that something was amiss. He could not help but pull at his horse's reins, turned his head and whispered in the ear of his uncle beside him:
"Father Ji, this situation doesn't seem right. Could it be that the man encountered assassins again when he left the city?"
"It's possible."
Xiang Liang answered quietly, frowning and feeling extremely uneasy.
He looked around cautiously, then stood on tiptoe to look forward, and found that many people in front of him took out "verifications" and "transmissions" from their arms. The soldiers at the South Gate, who had not been very careful in their inspections yesterday, were now holding torches and staring at the "verifications" and "transmissions" and people's faces in a one-to-one ratio, as if catching lice.
Maybe they really are going to start catching assassins again.
Xiang Liang frowned and thought for a moment, then looked at his nephew and said:
"Ji, pass on your experience to me."
"Oh, okay," Xiang Ji heard the words and did as he was told.
Xiang Liang took the "Yan" and "Chuan" with "Chu Yu" written on it, and saw the two words "double pupils" written on it. He immediately put it in his arms, took out two square bamboo slips from his sleeve pocket, handed them to his nephew, and instructed: "Ji, take this and leave the city."
Xiang Ji reached out and took the two bamboo slips handed to him by his uncle. He saw that it was a brand new "verification" and "biography" with the words "Huang Zhunian is thirteen blind" written on it.
He couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth slightly. Seeing his uncle's urging look, he had no choice but to take out a handkerchief from his arms, fold it diagonally and cover his eyes. Then, a strong man and a young man led two horses and mixed into the crowd to line up.
By the time it was finally the uncle and nephew's turn, the sky above them had already darkened completely and curfew was approaching. The soldiers guarding the city had spent most of the day checking and interrogating but had not found the suspect they had been ordered to look for, and they couldn't help but feel a little impatient.
A soldier in black armor brushed off the snowflakes that had fallen on his head. With his rough hands, he took the two "inspections" and "transmissions" that Xiang Liang handed over. He carefully compared the information and looked at Xiang Liang's face. When his eyes moved to Xiang Ji behind Xiang Liang, he saw that he was wearing a handkerchief covering his eyes. He pointed at Xiang Ji and frowned at Xiang Liang, the leader, and asked, "What's going on?"
"Qu Zhong, who is this Huang Zhu to you? Was he born blind, or did he become blind later in life?"
"To answer your question, sir, our family is in great misfortune. This Huang Zhu kid is the only son of my eldest sister, my biological nephew. Unfortunately, my sister met a bad man when she was young, and unfortunately ran into a black-hearted villain. When my nephew was young, the illegitimate son of that scumbag father accidentally injured his eyes with a stone, and he became blind at the age of five. After my sister passed away due to poor health, I took pity on the child and took him in to raise him."
"I see. No wonder they say that mother's uncle is the most important."
After hearing this story, the soldiers guarding the city couldn't help but sigh as they looked at "Huang Zhu". A young boy of only thirteen years old was so tall, with broad shoulders and strong bones. If he wasn't blind, he might have joined the army and fought for a title in the future. Now everything was in vain.
He returned the two copies of the "Verification" and "Transmission" in his hands to his responsible uncle, "Qu Zhong", and was about to let the "uncle and nephew" pass when his colleague standing beside him suddenly pointed at the blind boy and said:
"Young man, take off the veil from your eyes and show me."
When Xiang Ji heard this, his heart skipped a beat, and Xiang Liang's heart also instantly rose high.
"Hurry up, don't waste time." The soldier urged impatiently.
Xiang Liang couldn't help but clench his fists nervously. Sure enough, his intuition was correct. The sudden increase in soldiers in the city today was indeed looking for them, the uncle and nephew.
But why?
They clearly didn't do anything after entering the city?
Xiang Ji was also very puzzled, but he still used his fingers to rub and take off the scarf covering his eyes. In front of several soldiers, he tried hard to roll his eyes up, revealing only the whites of his eyes.
After much difficulty, they encountered two suspected "suspects", a middle-aged and a young Chu man. However, the soldier did not find the feature of "double pupils" on the face of the blind boy. He could not help but turned around and waved his hand in disappointment. The first soldier immediately opened the wooden fence and let the "uncle and nephew" pass.
After the uncle and nephew pulled the two horses out of the city quickly, they both broke out in uncontrollable cold sweats.
In the dim light, the strong man and the young man looked at each other.
Xiang Ji couldn't help swallowing his saliva in fear and said, "Father Ji, it seems that the soldiers in the city are really here to arrest us."
Xiang Liang nodded with a gloomy expression. He frowned in confusion and quickly recalled everything that had happened since he entered Xianyang City.
Apart from this morning at the Weishui Bridge, when his nephew saw the grand scene of the tyrant's procession on the other side of the river and couldn't help but say something arrogant, the uncle and nephew had not done anything else. Because the nephew's voice was not loud that morning, he did not speak to stop him. Could it be that because of this little word, everything was ruined?
As Xiang Liang pondered this, Xiang Ji also recalled the bold words he had spoken that morning. Thinking of the scoundrel-looking middle-aged man who had bumped into him, he sneered:
"Father Ji, that scoundrel who bumped into me this morning must have told the soldiers about my boast! That tyrant is so obsessed with preventing assassinations that he's practically going crazy. When he heard the news, he must have been terrified of me, so he ordered the soldiers to arrest us, uncle and nephew, throughout the city!"
Xiang Liang didn't know what to say when he heard his nephew's guess. He hurried forward, pulling his nephew's arm, and whispered:
"Ji, no matter what the reason is, we can't stay at the inn now. The curfew in Qin is very strict. Let's go to Hanyangli tonight to meet the heroes here and rest for the night. We will set off back to Chu at dawn tomorrow."
"Um."
The uncle and nephew reached a consensus and immediately jumped on their horses and hurried towards Hanyangli.
At the same time in the South Gate Inn.
It was curfew, and the plump innkeeper was about to tell the innkeepers to turn off the lights and go to sleep in the backyard when she heard a knock on the door. She quickly shouted, "Stop knocking, stop knocking, I'm coming! This door is made of century-old pine wood."
With a "creak", the door of the inn was opened, and in an instant the cold wind blew the snowflakes into the inn.
Seeing dozens of elite soldiers in black armor standing at the door, the shopkeeper fell silent instantly.
Meng Yi led a group of soldiers into the inn, took a look at the layout of the inn, and then looked at the innkeeper in front of him and asked:
"Boss, according to a passerby, your inn hosted a young man with double pupils last night?"
The round-faced shopkeeper's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. He hurried to the counter, took out a scroll of bamboo slips, handed it to Meng Yi, and said with an apologetic smile:
"Master, you see, our inn did have a young man with double pupils staying there last night, accompanied by a middle-aged man. However, at the end of the afternoon, they ordered dinner and had it delivered to their second-floor room, then checked out and left. This is clearly written on the bamboo slips, take a look."
After hearing this, Meng Yi lowered his head and carefully checked the ink words recorded above in the dim light. Seeing that the two people named "Chu Ji" and "Chu Yu" in the registration information, his long eyebrows couldn't help but frowned tightly. If these two people with the surname "Chu" were really the people His Majesty wanted them to find, then the problems involved would be serious.
Forgery - "verification" and "transmission"! The anti-Qin forces in Chu are very strong!
He handed the bamboo slips to the innkeeper, and soon all the soldiers who had searched inside and outside the inn came back and reported to him, "Meng Nei Shi, the suspect has not been found in this inn!"
When the innkeeper heard this, she was so shocked that she covered her heart with her right hand. Oh my god, there were actually two suspects staying in her inn?
When the shopkeeper saw the tall young man in front of him looking at her, he quickly covered his heart with one hand and pointed in the direction of the door with the other hand and said in a hurry:
"General, everyone in our inn is from the Qin Dynasty. I didn't realize that the two Chu people who stayed here last night were the cowards you wanted to catch!"
"They've checked out for over half an hour now. They were carrying their bags when they checked out, looking like they were leaving the city. They must have left through the South Gate. Go look for them there."
When Meng Yi heard this, he did not delay any longer and immediately led his soldiers to the South Gate.
At this moment, the sky had become completely dark, and torches were lit on the tall stone lampstand at the city gate.
When the soldiers guarding the city saw the elite soldiers from the palace rushing over, they hurried forward, clasped their fists, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servants greet Mr. Meng Neishi."
Meng Yi looked at the closed city gate behind them, frowned, and asked the leading soldier:
"Did you see the Chu youth with double pupils leave the city through the South Gate before curfew?"
The leading soldier immediately reported loudly, "Shi Meng, we have been checking and examining everyone who left the city since we received the news at noon. From noon until curfew, we have not found the suspects we ordered to be arrested among those who left the city."
When Meng Yi heard this answer, his long brows furrowed even tighter instead of relaxing. Now every inn in the city had been carefully questioned. The innkeeper of the inn near the South Gate even insisted that the young man with double pupils who was staying in her inn checked out at the end of the afternoon. The South Gate was the closest city gate to that inn, and it was impossible for the soldiers guarding the city not to have seen the suspect.
He thought for a moment and then asked, "Have you ever encountered any Chu people dressed strangely? Have you ever seen anyone with the name 'Chu Ji' or 'Chu Yu' written on their records?"
The leading soldier heard this and tried to recall it again. This time he spoke hesitantly:
"To answer Mr. Meng's question, before curfew, when we were guarding the South Gate and checking passersby, we did run into two Chu people. One was a middle-aged man, the other a teenager. They were uncle and nephew. The elder one was named 'Qu Zhong' and the younger one was named 'Huang Zhu'. Huang Zhu was the nephew. He had been blind since the age of five and covered his eyes with a handkerchief. His dress was a little strange. Aside from these uncle and nephew, we didn't see any other Chu people. We also didn't run into anyone named 'Chu Ji' or 'Chu Yu'."
"A blind boy?" Meng Yi repeated in surprise, "Are you sure that boy is truly blind? He's not pretending?"
"Yes, Monse, that boy is truly blind. We even had him remove the handkerchief covering his eyes to examine him. Only the whites of his eyes could be seen. It was quite frightening to see."
"Then how are the uncle and nephew dressed?" Meng Yi already had a bad feeling in his heart.
The leading soldier bowed without hesitation and replied, "Menesi, the uncle and nephew are both dressed like ordinary people. The uncle is walking in front, pulling two horses, and the nephew is following behind with his bag."
As soon as these words were spoken, before Meng Yi could say anything else, the leading soldier's eyes widened in shock.
Meng Yi was also amused by his anger, and immediately shouted angrily at the group of soldiers guarding the city in front of him: "A bunch of idiots! You didn't even realize you let the suspect go! Hurry and open the city gates and let me out! Each of you will be punished with twenty military sticks!"
"promise!"
"promise!"
"promise!"
…
When the soldiers defending the city heard Meng Neishi's angry curse, they all bowed in annoyance and said "yes" in panic. Oh! They were really busy in the afternoon and made stupid mistakes!
I was so engrossed in listening to that cunning "Qu Zhong" ramble about his eldest sister's family that I overlooked one fact: how could a blind boy ride a horse? Could he just use the whites of his eyes to tug at the reins and run around on the road?
well!
One wrong step leads to all wrong steps!
On a dark winter night with wind and snow, the south gate of Xianyang City was opened from the inside with a "boom". Under the flying snow, Meng Yi jumped on his horse and galloped towards the outside of the city with dozens of elite soldiers behind him!
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