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The mountain pass was about an incense stick's walk away from the woods where the Yuan family's carriage was, and Lu Shiqing had wandered here for a while at first, so long before he met Shicui, Yuan Cihan and Jianzhi had already returned to their destination.
The two men saw that the forest was empty and there was no carriage in sight. After they were sure that the meeting place was correct and that Shi Cui would never leave her post without reason, they exchanged glances.
Yuan Cixian silently glanced in the direction of the forest entrance, signaling to retreat first. Jianzhi nodded slightly, took off the short-handled sword from his waist, held it in his hand, and alertly escorted her out of the forest.
The two of them walked quickly out and when they reached the official road outside the forest where cars were coming and going, Yuan Cixian frowned, stopped and looked back in the direction of the dense forest.
Her two maids had always been reliable. When Shi Cui disappeared without a reason, she subconsciously thought there was an ambush, so she hurriedly evacuated from the danger zone. But now it seems that she was wrong
Just like killing someone should be done in the dark of night, doing evil should be done in the dense forest. You can't chase and fight on the official road in broad daylight, right? Moreover, today is the Flower Festival, and there are endless carriages and horses on the official road outside the city. In just a few moments, she has seen two groups of people passing by. This place can be said to be very safe.
Jianzhi had the same idea and asked curiously, "Young lady, are we worrying too much? If someone really wanted to harm you, they could have done it in the forest just now. Now there are carriages and horses coming and going in all directions, and there is an inn not far away. How could there be a chance?"
She blinked, afraid that she was just imagining things, and ordered, "Well, I'll go to the front post station first, and you go back to the forest to check if Shi Cui really left for something."
Jianzhi said yes, and just as he was about to step forward, he heard the sound of a wheel approaching from far away in the forest. It was Shicui driving over.
Yuan Cihan breathed a sigh of relief, and when the car drove up to her, he was about to scold her for being so unreliable today, but he saw that she looked nervous and anxious, as if something was wrong, and his smile froze.
Shi Cui pulled the reins and asked, "Young lady, did you see Mr. Xu just now?"
Yuan Cixian frowned: "I haven't seen him since I said goodbye at the mountain pass. What happened? Where did you go?"
Shi Cui confirmed again: "Did you ask someone to give me a note just now?"
She was even more confused and shook her head in confusion: "What's going on?"
Shi Cui explained hurriedly, "When I was waiting in the forest, I got a note. It looked like your handwriting was good. It said you were tired and asked me to pick you up at the mountain pass. But when I drove there, I only saw Mr. Xu. After I explained the situation to him, he said that there was no such thing, and then he turned his horse around nervously, apparently coming to look for you."
A thought flashed through Yuan Cixian's mind, and her heart began to beat. Shi Cui was driving a carriage, so she couldn't catch up with the horse. So according to Xu Shan's speed, he should have been here long ago, so there was no reason for him to miss her.
She asked, "Could it be that someone was trying to trick him by making it seem like I was in danger, and then set a trap for him on the road ahead?"
Before she had time to think about it, she heard a particularly sudden and urgent sound of horse hooves coming from afar on the official road.
The master and his servant turned their heads together and saw Zheng Zhuo galloping over, as if he was on his way into the city and then returning. Seeing Yuan Cixian and the others standing there, but not seeing Lu Shiqing, he pulled the reins hard and asked, "How long has it been since the county lady and Mr. Xu parted ways?"
Yuan Cixian replied hurriedly: "About three quarters of an hour, Your Highness, have you received any news?"
He didn't have time to explain, and left after saying "County Princess, please go back to the city first."
But Yuan Cixian had nothing unclear at this time. She was sure that Xu Shan had fallen into a trap because of her, so how could he return to the city first
She stood there in silence for a while, then she pulled out the sword in Jianzhi's hand, cut the rope that tied the horse, then picked up the sword, mounted the horse, and chased in the direction Zheng Zhuo left.
"Little lady!"
*
The last time Yuan Cixian rode his horse in such a hurry was the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, when he thought Lu Shiqing was in danger in Shangzhou.
On the bumpy forest road, she repeated the action of raising and lowering the whip, with a buzzing sound in her ears.
In fact, this strategy of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west has a subtle loophole: it is too coincidental.
Sending Shi Cui away may seem simple, but the timing must be very precise. If they were a step earlier, the master and servant would have met at the mountain pass, and if they were a step later, they would have met in the forest. However, since the other party had gone through so much trouble to accomplish the task, how could they just let Xu Shan do it, so that he would just happen to meet Shi Cui and get the chance to rescue her
Unless, this link is also a carefully designed design by the other party.
In the stone pavilion, Xu Shan himself said that too many coincidences are no longer coincidences. But how did he fall for the trick so easily? What about his so-called reverse reasoning? Why did such a smart and sober person who knew how to judge the situation make such a stupid mistake
Yuan Cixian subconsciously avoided the answers to these questions, and whipped the horse vigorously in a state of confusion. But Zheng Zhuo was already one step faster than her, and his riding skills were better than hers, so she could only bite him all the way and could not catch up.
She followed him through the forest and into the mountains. Because the horse was running too fast, the silk ribbon that tied her hair flew around wildly, blocking her vision several times. She simply bit the hairband in her mouth and stared straight ahead. When she was about to go up the mountain, she suddenly saw two men in black riding horses rushing out from the roadside, as if to stop Zheng Zhuo.
Zheng Zhuo did not lose any momentum. While his horse was shaking, he had already drawn his sword. In the blink of an eye, he raised his arm, cut the throats of the two men with one sword, and then continued to charge forward.
Yuan Cihan followed closely behind, gritting his teeth and not even looking at the corpses on the ground. After walking a little further, he saw another group of men in black, about seven of them, all of them were strong young men. There was nothing special about their looks, they were just ordinary Han warriors.
Zheng Zhuo swung his knife again and looked back at her.
She got the hint from his eyes and knew that he wanted her to go first, so she jumped on her horse without stopping. In order to be faster, she did not avoid or give way, and stepped hard on a corpse.
However, Zheng Zhuo was unable to deal with all seven people at once. After she had galloped for a while, she soon heard someone catching up with her.
If she faced such a warrior head-on, she, a woman, would have no chance of winning. Yuan Cixian recalled the behavior of the men in black just now, and felt that they seemed to have been passively blocking them instead of trying to kill her and Zheng Zhuo, so she quietly put away the whip and hung it on the horse's head, slowed down her riding speed, pretended to be tired, and waited for him to catch up with her while holding the sword.
The man in black really did not intend to use a killing move. When he was about to catch up, he jumped up from his horse, turned around and pounced forward, striding towards Yuan Cixian's horse, as if preparing to clamp her from behind.
She was waiting for this moment. When she heard the movement behind her, she didn't even wait for him to sit firmly on her horse. Without turning back, she stabbed him diagonally from under his armpits with her backhanded knife. It was fast, accurate and ruthless. With a "chi" sound, the knife pierced through his chest.
The man had never expected such a vicious attack. He froze on his horse with his eyes wide open, and his gaze gradually became empty.
Yuan Cixian pulled the reins with one hand to keep the horse steady, while turning her head to pull out the knife. Blood splattered three feet, and the hot and fishy juice splashed on her face. She resisted the urge to vomit, pushed the man off the horse, and her hand that pulled out the whip was slightly trembling.
She had been on the battlefield, but this was the first person she had killed with her own hands.
However, Yuan Cixian soon had no time to think about these things, because she was sure of one thing: the black-clad men were so scattered, indicating that Xu Shan had not been discovered. It was very likely that he realized something was wrong halfway through his rush to find her, and hid in the mountains to confuse them.
She had to find him before these people did.
She raised the whip vigorously, and when she reached the fork in the road ahead, she quickly assessed the terrain, chose a direction and went up. When she was close to the top of the cliff, she heard a faint sound of swords clashing in the distance.
As the path up the cliff was too narrow to ride a horse, she rolled down and ran straight up. She saw the open top of the cliff. Four men in black were fighting with Xu Shan. Two corpses were lying nearby. Their deaths were very strange, as if the two men had stabbed each other in the chest during the confrontation.
She couldn't help laughing in desperation.
Smart people have smart ways of fighting. Although Xu Shan is not a martial artist, he is quite at ease. Not to mention getting hurt, even his mask didn't fall off.
Lu Shiqing dodged a sword that was slashing towards his mask, and kicked the opponent off the cliff. He looked up and saw Yuan Cixian with blood on his face, and he choked.
He guessed that she would figure out the whole story, but he knew that she would choose to call for help instead of coming in person.
What is she doing now, fighting for Xu Shan? Does she want to make Lu Shiqing a "widow"
He gritted his teeth in hatred, held his breath, and raised his knife to kill again.
Yuan Cixian didn't dare to act blindly and cause trouble. He waited for the opportunity when he was surrounded by three people on the edge of the cliff, then rushed over, stabbed one of them in the back with a knife, and at the same time raised his knee and hit the other person hard in the vital part.
Lu Shiqing threw the third man in black off the cliff. He turned around and saw the assassin who was hit by Yuan Cixian and was sweating and wailing on the ground. He felt a pain somewhere and looked at her in surprise. Then he remembered to swing his knife to kill the man on the ground.
The surroundings fell into dead silence. Yuan Cixian held his knees and breathed a sigh of relief.
This seemingly dangerous cliff top is indeed a place that can be used. Xu Shan chose this terrain in accordance with the so-called wisdom of "changing the situation to break the deadlock".
She panted for a while and asked, "Is the sir injured?"
Lu Shiqing almost spoke in his own voice, but stopped short when the words came to his lips, and said in Xu Shan's voice: "I'm fine. The county lady's knee..." He hesitated and looked down, "Is it okay?"
She stood up straight, waved her hand and said, "It hurts a little, but it's okay." It was mainly because she seemed to have accidentally kicked the scabbard hanging on the man's waist.
Lu Shiqing was stunned.
What? It actually hurts a little? Was that beast hard just now
Yuan Cixian didn't know why he was choking, so he said hurriedly, "We can't stay here for long. Let's go down the mountain quickly. His Highness is on his way to pick you up."
Lu Shiqing's eyes were always on her knees, and he looked away and nodded after hearing what she said.
She turned around and walked down the mountain. She finally had time to lift her sleeve to wipe the blood off her face. But just when she let her guard down, she heard a strange noise behind her.
Yuan Cixian suddenly turned around and saw a "corpse" suddenly jump up, grabbed a dagger in his hand and stabbed Xu Shanqian in the heart.
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