Walking back and forth on the river in a small boat, and finally squeezed out of the boat, Xia Xun's hair bun was tilted to one side, and Qi Yan's clothes had a lot of suspicious stains.
Xia Xun tied her hair casually, and said to Qi Yan:
"Is this the cruise ship you were talking about?"
Qi Yan patted the ashes on his body:
"Going back to the inn now, just in time for lunch, isn't it better than staying in your room in a daze?"
During lunch, Xia Xun was no longer surprised when she saw a table of Lingnan people in the lobby on the first floor of the inn.
He pretended to be inadvertent, glanced casually in the direction of those people, and quickly looked away.
— There are still three Baiyue people, just like before, all of them are new faces.
He listened to their conversation calmly. There was nothing unusual about what they said. They were either saying that the journey was hard, or that they were not used to the northern feng shui and could not eat well or sleep well.
At first glance, it looks no different from ordinary travelers.
Xia Xun always felt strange and decided to tell Qi Yan about it.
Qi Yan was not surprised at all, picked up a chicken leg and put it in Xia Xun's bowl:
"This is the biggest one, eat it while it's hot."
Xia Xun didn't move her chopsticks: "You don't believe what I said?"
Qi Yan shook his head and said:
"I'll always believe what you say, I've noticed them a long time ago."
Xia Xun stared at his face:
"Who are they? Why are they following you?"
Qi Yan just smiled and said nothing.
Maybe he didn't know the identity of the visitor, maybe... he didn't want to tell Xia Xun.
Seeing that he knew what was in his mind, Xia Xun stopped talking and took a bite of the chicken leg, only to have his tongue scalded by the boiling juice.
"Hiss...!"
He quickly let go, and the gravy flowed out from the chicken skin, scalding the back of his hand again.
Qi Yan took out a handkerchief and wiped it for him.
"I didn't expect it to be so hot." He looked guilty, "Are you okay? Where is it hot?"
Xia Xun gasped, unable to speak.
Qi Yan pinched his chin and turned his face to see if he was seriously burned.
Xia Xun raised her hand to push him, but she couldn't hold it steady. The chicken leg she had just bitten into fell to the ground, and Gululu rolled away.
The golden skin was covered with dust, making it impossible to enter.
Qi Yan and Xia Xun looked at the direction where the chicken leg was rolling away, and after a while, they laughed out loud.
"I meant it well, but I wasted food." He picked up another one and put it into Xia Xun's bowl. "This is the second largest one. This time, remember to let it cool before eating."
While waiting for the chicken legs to cool down, Xia Xun brought up what happened just now:
"How do you plan to lure those Lingnan people away?"
Qi Yan stopped talking about him, he said to Xia Xun:
"The old way, move forward separately."
After dinner, Zhi Gui and Qi Hui got into the original carriage and left Binzhou where the few Lingnan people couldn't see.
According to Qi Yan's plan, they will go north along the official road and pass Changwu.
And Xia Xun took another carriage with him, took a small road, and bypassed Changwu City.
If there is no accident, several people will meet up in Taichang County before dark.
In order to cover up his identity, Qi Yan's new carriage was very dilapidated, and the horses that pulled it were extremely thin.
As soon as he walked, the two wheels creaked alternately, and the rafters seemed to be broken at any moment.
Xia Xun said coldly:
"If those people really have other plans and come after you after finding your trail, with this carriage, you and I will never be able to escape."
Qi Yan didn't care.
Wearing a straw hat he found somewhere, and holding a horsewhip, he drove the cart leisurely:
"This matter is done in such a secret way, how can outsiders know about it? To tell you the truth, I have seen those Lingnan people riding horses, following Qi Hui and them out of the city."
Xia Xun is still worried:
"How do you know they have no backup?"
Qi Yan glanced at me lightly, and said with a joke:
"When you were young, you were decisive when you encountered difficulties, and you wished to be the first to stand out. Why do you look forward and backward so much when you grow up?"
He was still thinking about joking with Xia Xun, which showed that he was quite sure.
Xia Xun put down the curtain and slowly sat back in the carriage.
For some reason, he was always uneasy in his heart, maybe it was true as Qi Yan said, as he got older, he became less courageous.
As the carriage moved forward, Xia Xun remained vigilant, listening carefully to all the movements coming from around him.
Half an hour later, the car was still driving smoothly on the country road.
He gradually relaxed, and tiredness slowly crept up.
He braced his chin and began to doze off.
When he fell asleep vaguely, the carriage entered a dense forest.
The trees here grow very densely, and the crowns of the trees are connected with each other. Hundreds of big trees together form a continuous mountain forest.
In the shade of the trees, there is a gentle breeze, which is originally a warm wind in the end of spring, but when it blows on people, it can arouse a burst of coolness.
The Baiyue people who met a few days ago caught up with them at this moment.
The sound of galloping horseshoes awakened Xia Xun. He was shocked and leaned out of the window to look back.
Not far away, several Baiyue people were approaching at high speed on tall horses.
Xia Xun exclaimed: "Qi Yan! They are chasing you!"
Before he finished speaking, Qi Yan swung his whip heavily, and the thin old horse ran wildly under the stimulation of pain.
But both Xia Xun and he knew that it wouldn't last long.
"Why were they caught up so quickly?!" Xia Xun asked loudly, "Even if they found out that you were not in Qi Hui's carriage, they shouldn't have found your whereabouts so quickly?!"
Qi Yan looked solemn.
He kept waving his whip, but the speed of the carriage was obviously weakening, and the old horse was running until the corners of its mouth were foaming, but it still couldn't lead them away.
The Baiyue people quickly chased after them, and the distance between them and the carriage was only half a horse's body.
Qi Yan drew out his sword and said sharply:
"Hide in the car! Don't come out no matter what happens!"
Before Xia Xun retracted his body, the sharp light of the knife was already reflected in his eyes.
The leading Lingnan people held up their daggers and stabbed him in the back.
Xia Xun had no time to dodge.
Qi Yan tightened the reins suddenly, and the carriage suddenly slowed down. The man couldn't react in time, and rode on the galloping horse, passing Xia Xun.
The moment Xia Xun looked at him, Xia Xun saw the man's facial features clearly, and couldn't help being startled, he always felt that face was familiar.
Qi Yan shouted at him:
"go back!!!"
Xia Xun suddenly woke up and quickly hid in the car.
Outside the car, someone stabbed the old horse to death with a sword, then surrounded Qi Yan and attacked them all.
Qi Yan drew his sword to parry, and the clanging sound of sword blades clashing could be heard endlessly.
Through the window, Xia Xun looked at the faces of those people one by one, anxiously looking for clues to prove their identities.
Why did he find these people familiar? Because did they meet each other on the streets of Lingnan
In the encirclement, the Baiyue people attacked Qi Yan frequently, but they always avoided his vital points.
Several of them, frequently observed where Xia Xun was, tried to approach the carriage several times, but were stopped by Qi Yan.
They couldn't get close to Xia Xun for a long time, showing anxious expressions.
Xia Xun suddenly realized.
It turned out that he was wrong, they were not following Qi Yan, their target was Xia Xun.
Did Qi Yan realize it long ago
So... He didn't actually want to use Qi Hui to lure away the pursuers, on the contrary, he wanted to draw these people to his side and solve them for Xia Xun himself
But who would send someone to assassinate Xia Xun who has nothing? Could he still be a threat to anyone
Xia Xun was puzzled.
There were about six people who came, and the number was superior, but Qi Yan's swordsmanship was superb, and he seriously injured three of them in a short time.
The rest of the people found that he was not easy to mess with, and they were unwilling to fight him head-on, so they winked at each other.
Two of them attacked Qi Yan again, and the other took out a bow and crossbow from his bosom while Qi Yan was overwhelmed.
Xia Xun had seen this kind of crossbow in Lingnan. It was small and could be folded, but it was far more powerful than ordinary bows and arrows.
The man disassembled the bow and crossbow, put on the crossbow and pointed it in the direction of Qi Yan, and was about to shoot it.
Xia Xun immediately poked her head out and reminded loudly:
"Be careful!"
Unexpectedly, that person was just a feint attack, the person he really wanted to shoot was Xia Xun, who deliberately aimed at Qi Yan, just to lure him out.
Seeing Xia Xun showing his head, he suddenly turned around, pointed the bow and crossbow at him, and opened the hanging knife forcefully.
As soon as the hanging knife was loosened, the string was unhooked, the sound of breaking through the air suddenly sounded, and the crossbow arrows came at a high speed.
The image in Xia Xun's eyes was drawn extremely slowly.
He heard Qi Yan shout heartbreakingly:
"Xia Xun!!!"
He blinked, and looked sideways at Qi Yan, he seemed to have never seen him lose his composure like this.
In order to stop the crossbow arrows, Qi Yan received two sabers forcefully, and the Baiyue people's dagger cut deep cuts on his body.
He didn't turn his head back, and just made a sword with his backhand. His blade seemed to have eyes, and it accurately sliced across the throats of the two of them.
"Plop plop", the two fell to the ground in an instant, turning into two silent corpses.
Qi Yan's wound kept bleeding, and he suddenly didn't feel the pain. He tried his best to send the saber in front of Xia Xun, trying to cut off the crossbow arrow in mid-air.
Xia Xun turned her head again, looking at the direction the arrow came from.
The arrow body was already very close to him, and he could even clearly see the patterns on the arrow cluster.
That's too late.
Thinking this way, he looked at the face of the man holding the crossbow again.
At such a critical moment, Xia Xun finally recognized that face, he knew who he was.
But with the crossbow arrows in front of him, will Xia Xun still have a chance to speak
Qi Yan personally told him that he had.
Qi Yan's movements were fast enough, but he still couldn't stop the crossbow in mid-air. He watched it fly by, heading straight for Xia Xun's heart.
Without any hesitation, Qi Yan stood in front of the car window.
The crossbow arrow fired at high speed passed through his right shoulder with ten thousand hectares of force, bringing out splashes of fuzzy flesh and blood, which were firmly nailed to the edge of the window.
Xia Xun was dumbfounded and stood there dumbfounded, not even uttering a cry.
Seeing that the first shot missed, the man tried to shoot a second shot.
As soon as he raised his arms and set up his crossbow, Qi Yan's sword struck his face.
The man reacted quickly and bent back suddenly, but it was too late.
Qi Yan didn't let him go, his saber entered from the man's chest and came out from the vest, and the sword ended his life.
A gust of wind passed through the hall, and the smell of blood drifted into the distance. The Baiyue people who came after them all fell to the ground, and none of them stood still.
Before Xia Xun could take a breath, Qi Yan clutched his shoulders and fell to the ground.
Xia Xun jumped out of the carriage, rushed to his side, helped him up vigorously, and let him lean in her arms.
Qi Yan was covered in blood, and his eyes were a little lost.
Panting heavily, Xia Xun tore off her sleeves and wrapped them tightly around the wound on his shoulder where the crossbow arrows had pierced through.
Qi Yan held his hand back, and Xia Xun felt that his palm was covered with cold and sticky sweat.
He said angrily:
"Leave me alone...their people are more than that, and someone may come after them at any time... There is a village and county less than ten miles ahead...you go there and find the local county magistrate...just say—"
Xia Xun interrupted him:
"Even if you run for ten miles, it will take you an hour to go back and forth. Even if there are no pursuers behind, your injury won't last that long."
Xia Xun was still calm when she heard her own voice:
"You're badly hurt, if I go...you'll die."
Qi Yan took a breath, then bent his eyes and smiled at him.
When he was seriously injured and bleeding, he still looked at Xia Xun with affectionate eyes.
"No... I managed to find you back, how could I be willing to die..." He said with a smile, but closed his eyes: "I still have a lot to say, I didn't tell you... I..."
His body softened, he slipped from Xia Xun's arms, and fell to the ground.
His face was stuck to the ground, ruthlessly stained with dust.