As the night deepened, the people who had been searching in vain gathered in the reception room of the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion. They sat together to brainstorm and discuss countermeasures.
After running for an entire afternoon, everyone was starving. In order not to waste time, Young Duke Su Xian ordered people to prepare tea and snacks. During this special period, they did not adhere to any etiquette and everyone talked while eating.
Zhao Jingyu got up at four in the morning to prepare for the enthronement ceremony, and in the afternoon he ran around in and outside the city looking for people. He has not had a moment's rest so far. He is exhausted, his eyes are red, and even his back has lost its former straightness.
Sheng Qingyun saw him sitting in the main seat with disheveled hair, eyes downcast, not eating or drinking. He felt distressed and blamed himself deeply. If he had been more vigilant at that time, it wouldn't have come to this.
She had clearly lost her child once, so why didn't she learn her lesson and just let Xiu'er go away with someone so easily
If anything happens to Xiu'er this time, how will she live
At the moment, she could do nothing but feel anxious, so she asked someone to fetch some water and bring a wooden comb. She personally wrung out a handkerchief for Zhao Jingyu to wipe his face, and then she tied his hair again.
Zhao Jingyu said to let the maid come, but Sheng Qingyun insisted on coming by himself.
"You have been deprived of maternal love since childhood. Today, let me comb your hair on behalf of your mother!" Sheng Qingyun said with tears in her eyes, "Just think of it as me apologizing to you, because my negligence has caused you trouble."
Zhao Jingyu knew that she was feeling upset and couldn't say anything to comfort her at this moment, so he just obeyed her wishes.
After washing up, Zhao Jingyu felt much better. Under Sheng Qingyun's advice, he had some tea and snacks, then sat upright and listened to everyone analyzing the situation.
Everyone present knew Xie Nanjia's personality very well, and they all felt that with her intelligence, even if the young lady was negligent, she herself should not be easily fooled.
So why did she still follow the people who came? Either she thought those people were not scammers, or she knew they were scammers and deliberately followed them to see what conspiracy they had.
Of course, it is also possible that she was indeed negligent and did not realize that the other party was a liar. But even so, after she knew that she had been deceived, she should have found ways to fight wits and courage with the other party and leave some clues for her own people to find.
Then why didn't she leave any clues? Was it because there were too many people on the street and destroyed the clues, or was she controlled by someone and lost her freedom and even consciousness
If it's the latter, that's a bit scary.
After analyzing Xie Nanjia, everyone turned to analyze who the unknown opponent was.
Based on what Xie Nanjia has done in the past year since she returned to the capital from Hongou Manor, everyone will list the people who might be her enemies.
From the big ones like Queen Meng's party and the Prince of Nanzhao's Palace to the small ones like Qin's family and Zhao Lanya's sisters, even the fake county lord and the second lady in prison were included. In addition, there was Miss Chen Er who had been slapped by her, and Li, the wife of Hu Sanmu in Zhuangzi. All the people who could be related to her were pulled out and analyzed one by one, and finally everyone agreed that the most likely one was Meng's party.
If it was really done by the Meng family, they probably had two purposes. One was to create chaos and cover Song Jingxing's escape, and the other was to get the daughter of the Phoenix.
Of course, it could be both.
Speaking of Song Jingxing's escape, it is inevitable to discuss the time and route of his escape.
As Xie Nanfeng listened, an idea suddenly flashed before his eyes and he stood up.
"Last night, when I was patrolling on Zhuque Street, I picked up a sign!" He said in a trembling voice, "Is it possible that Song Jingxing was rescued last night?"
"What brand? What brand?" everyone asked.
Xie Nanfeng briefly recounted what happened last night.
"Where is the brand?" Xie Zhanting asked anxiously.
Xie Nanfeng touched his body and said angrily: "I changed my clothes in the afternoon... Wait for me, I will go home and get it right away."
After saying this, without waiting for anyone to react, he quickly disappeared out the door.
Everyone continued to analyze along the lines he provided, and after about an incense stick's time, he came back panting.
"This is the sign." He stood in the hall, holding the sign in his hand and showing it to everyone.
"Let me see it." The old duke waved.
Xie Nanfeng walked over and handed him the sign.
The old Duke took the sign and examined it carefully under the light. He quickly came to a conclusion: "This is engraved with the flying dragon pattern of the Yuze Kingdom."
Yuze Country
Mu Yuan
Everyone called out Mu Yuan's name in unison.
"Could it be that he did this?"
"Could it be that the Meng family and the Yuze Kingdom are secretly colluding?"
"Could Xiu'er's disappearance be related to him?"
"It's him, it must be him!" Everyone was still guessing when Su Jinchuan suddenly stood up and shouted, "It's definitely him."
"Why are you so sure?" asked Duke Su Xian.
"Because, because he once had a conflict with his sister in the porridge stall in East City, and Yun Shu splashed porridge on his face." Su Jinchuan said.
Everyone was shocked.
"When did it happen? Why haven't I heard you tell me about it?" Su Xian's face became extremely solemn.
Su Jinchuan recounted the whole story of what happened in the porridge shed, and said timidly, "It was my sister who told us not to talk about it, for fear that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would find out and cause trouble for Mu Yuan, thus affecting the enthronement ceremony."
"But I still found out and beat him up." Zhao Jingyu gripped the armrest of the chair tightly and said in a light tone.
He didn't want anyone to know how worried he was at this moment.
He was afraid that Mu Yuan had kidnapped Xie Nanjia in revenge for him. If Xie Nanjia was killed by Mu Yuan because of him, he would be the culprit.
She didn't want to affect his big plans, so she chose to be patient. However, he let her down and caused her to be plotted against. If he wasn't the culprit, then what else could he be
"Wei Jun, go check Mu Yuan!" He took a deep breath and issued a brief instruction.
Wei Jun responded and left.
The living room fell silent for a moment.
Everyone had a vague premonition that Song Jingxing's jailbreak and Xie Nanjia's disappearance were probably related to Mu Yuan.
"This matter is of great importance and must be reported to His Majesty as soon as possible. If the Meng family is really in collusion with the Yuze Kingdom, military action will be inevitable. We all have to be mentally prepared." Xie Zhanting said.
"My father is in the palace now. I'll send someone to inform him and ask him to discuss it with the emperor first. After we find Xiu'er, we will go to see him together." Zhao Jingyu said.
In order to find Xie Nanjia, he and Xie Zhanting abandoned the pursuit of Song Jingxing and ran away, leaving only Marquis Dingyuan in the palace to accompany the emperor.
Seeing that he still called Marquis Dingyuan "Dad", everyone praised him in their hearts as a man who values love and affection, and therefore they could better understand his feelings for Xie Nanjia.
He is now the crown prince, second only to the emperor and above everyone else. Knowing that Song Jingxing has escaped and the capital is full of dangers, he ignores his own safety and runs around looking for Xie Nanjia's whereabouts. In this age where men are the most important, it is so precious that he can regard women as more important than his own life.
Sheng Qingyun secretly shed tears and prayed to God to let her daughter return safely. She had made up her mind that after finding the child, she would no longer be greedy to keep the child with her, and she must marry her into the palace as soon as possible. Looking around the world, there is no place safer than the palace. As long as she stays in the palace honestly, she will never get lost again.
But, could her poor Xiu'er come back? Why were her eyelids twitching so violently
Not long after, Wei Jun came back and said that Mu Yuan and his party were still staying in the inn and planned to set off early tomorrow morning. When they checked in, there were a total of twenty-five people including the guards and entourage, and there are still twenty-five people now, not one more or one less.
Their luggage had already been loaded onto the carriages. Wei Jun checked every carriage and found no one hiding in them. He also asked the inn's servants to check the rooms under the pretext of delivering water, but he also found nothing unusual.
That's strange.
If Mu Yuan really rescued Song Jingxing and kidnapped Xie Nanjia, it didn't make sense for everyone to stay in the inn obediently. Even if Song Jingxing had somewhere to go, where did he hide Xie Nanjia and the two girls
If he wanted to get him out of the city before the ceremony was over, he would have to be escorted. Why didn't he have any less men
"Perhaps he has more than just these people." Zhao Jingyu pondered, "I guess they must have another group of people who sneaked into the city in advance disguised as civilians or wanderers. After the mission was accomplished, they still disguised themselves as civilians to lead the people out of the city. At that time, the four city gates had not yet been ordered to be under martial law, and no one would pay attention to the pedestrians entering and leaving the city."
"If that's the case, then they had premeditated the kidnapping, and it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision because of a conflict with Xiu'er, and it's even less likely that it was to take revenge on His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Xie Zhanting said.
Zhao Jingyu felt inexplicably relieved by this sentence. At least it could prove that it was not him who implicated Xie Nanjia.
He felt that Xie Zhanting seemed to have said this deliberately to ease his mind, and he couldn't help but cast a grateful glance at Xie Zhanting.
Xie Zhanting nodded slightly at him, as if telling him not to panic and to stay calm.
Zhao Jingyu felt a lump in his throat and almost burst into tears.
From the time of the incident until now, everyone has been busy looking for people and no one has the time to care about him, let alone comfort him. Even his good friends Cheng Zhiye and Zhou Yuncheng have no time to take care of him. They are still outside helping to look for clues.
He was very happy that so many people cared about Xie Nanjia's safety, but he was also really scared.
He was afraid that he would never find the girl he loved again.
"In that case, let's have someone closely monitor the movements of Mu Yuan and his entourage. Your Highness the Crown Prince and I will go to the palace to meet the emperor. We will continue looking for the rest of the people. Also, arrange for people to investigate all the people we suspected before. If we still can't find them before dawn, we will send someone to follow Mu Yuan's team out of the city tomorrow. If it is indeed him who did it, he will definitely be exposed after leaving the city." Xie Zhanting said.
At this point, no one had any better idea, so they all followed his arrangements.
Zhao Jingyu and Xie Zhanting went to the palace to see the emperor. At the palace gate, they met the warden of the prison who was about to leave. The warden said that four jailers in the sky prison had committed suicide by taking poison. Preliminary judgment was that they should have committed suicide out of fear of punishment after assisting Song Jingxing in escaping.
In this case, there would be no more clues from the Heavenly Prison, and it would be even more difficult to find Song Jingxing.
The long night passed in anxiety. The sun dispelled the darkness but did not bring any good luck. There was still no news from Xie Nanjia.
Zhao Jingyu was already mentally prepared, and he did not hesitate to use the shadow guards he had trained for many years. He let Huangfu, who was good at tracking, lead the team and quietly left the city behind Mu Yuan's team.
Once any abnormality is discovered, Huangfu will immediately send a signal to inform him.
Originally, he wanted to bring people there himself, but Song Wanji refused to allow it and asked him to stay with him and not leave for a moment.
Mu Yuan and his party set out at 5:15 a.m. and arrived at the north gate at 5:30 a.m. After being strictly checked by the guards, they left the city smoothly.
Zhao Jingyu started waiting from the moment they set out, and even after the hour of Chen, there was still no news from Huangfu.
Just when he was gradually losing his temper, news suddenly came from the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion that Miss Yunshu was missing.
Since Yunshu was not valued in the Marquis' Mansion, no one knew when she disappeared. According to the maid who swept the yard, she might have disappeared last night.
(End of this chapter)