After breakfast, King Yuze summoned everyone to the main hall to discuss matters. Suddenly, a guard came to report that the Crown Prince of Da Zhou had sent someone to negotiate, wanting to use the Red Dress Order to exchange for their Crown Princess.
Everyone was surprised. Xiu'er had clearly run away, but Da Zhou came to ask for her. Could it be that after Xiu'er ran away, she did not meet up with Zhao Jingyu
Did she not find Zhao Jingyu yet, or did something else happen and she couldn't go to see Zhao Jingyu
Could it be that she didn't run away on her own, but was kidnapped by someone
"That's strange." Prince Yuze turned his ring and looked at Song Jingxing in confusion. "Mr. Song, you said last night that the woman knocked you out when you weren't paying attention. So, under what circumstances did she knock you out? Were you the only two in the room at the time?"
In fact, Song Jingxing himself didn't know what happened, but he would never say that he was lying on top of Xie Nanjia when he was knocked unconscious. He could only say vaguely that he was drunk at the time and was knocked unconscious while he was drowsy, and he could no longer remember the specific circumstances.
"There's no point in pursuing this now." He quickly changed the subject. "Since the people from the Great Zhou have come to negotiate with the Red Clothes Order, I think the most urgent thing should be to trick them into the palace first and find a way to take back the Red Clothes Order."
King Yu Ze thought this was a good idea, and immediately sent Mu Ke to meet the people from Da Zhou and lure them into the palace.
He originally planned to send Mu Yuan, but Mu Yuan had been bewitched by that woman, and he was worried that Mu Yuan would let the cat out of the bag in front of the people of Da Zhou.
Mu Yuan has felt his father's distance from him since last night. He was already upset over Xie Nanjia's disappearance, and this incident made him even more irritable.
However, Mu Ke objected to King Yu Ze's order, saying that the other party could not have the Red Clothes Order and that they should be careful of them cheating.
"How do you know they don't have the Red Robe Order?" Mu Yuan was very dissatisfied with his second brother who always stole his limelight. He said with a straight face, "That Yunshu said that she gave half of her jade to Zhao Jingyu. If Zhao Jingyu happens to have half of the jade, wouldn't it be a good idea to combine them into one?"
"But Yunshu also said that before she appeared, Zhao Jingyu didn't know the existence of the Red Dress Order, let alone saw the other half of the jade. Even if he has it now, he only has the half that Yunshu gave him. But he is trying to use this to trick us into returning the Crown Princess. What else can this be but cheating?" Mu Ke said.
"How do you know what Yun Shu said? You haven't interrogated her." Mu Yuan suddenly became alert and stared at him with wide eyes. "Could it be that you secretly spied on me interrogating her?"
Mu Ke was startled, and then said with a fake smile: "Brother Wang, you worry too much. It was my father who told me."
"Yes, I mentioned it to the second brother." King Yuze testified for him.
Seeing his father defending his brother, Mu Yuan felt like a thorn in his heart. He said gloomily, "But my father also said that what that woman said might not be true."
"Then bring her here for further interrogation." Mu Ke said with a smile, "Maybe Brother Wang is kind-hearted and can't bear to be cruel to a woman. I don't have the heart to show sympathy to a woman, so let me interrogate her!"
“You…” Mu Yuan knew that he was trying to provoke him. In order to avoid falling into his trap, he suppressed his anger and agreed to his request. He ordered Shan Hu to bring Yun Shu over.
Shan Hu gave the order and left. Mu Ke looked at his back and sneered silently.
Not long after, Shan Hu came back in a panic, saying that Yun Shu was missing and the guards in charge of guarding her had been drugged and were all unconscious.
Mu Yuan was shocked and immediately thought that Yun Shu was most likely to have escaped with Xiu'er, but he was only thinking about Xiu'er at the time and completely forgot about Yun Shu's existence.
Yun Shu did not have any drugs on her. Since the guards were drugged, it was very likely that someone else came to rescue her and took Xiu'er away as well. But in the territory of Yu Ze, who else would rescue them except Zhao Jingyu's people
Others were just as puzzled as Mu Yuan.
King Yuze became increasingly disappointed with Mu Yuan and blamed him, "What's wrong with you? It's ok that you couldn't catch the assassin, but you couldn't even keep an unarmed woman in check. What else can you do?"
After being scolded, Mu Yuan bowed his head and apologized to his father.
Mu Ke almost couldn't control the smile that escaped from the corner of his mouth.
Finally, Song Jingxing spoke up to help Mu Yuan out: "What has already happened, no matter how it happened, can't change the result. We don't need to waste time on it. The people from Da Zhou are outside the palace. Whether they are cheating or not, we should go and meet them. Even if there is no Red Clothes Order, it is good to capture them and use them as hostages."
After hearing his words, King Yu Ze agreed with them and ordered Mu Ke to go out and meet the man quickly.
Mu Yuan was not grateful to Song Jingxing at all. He sat back in his chair silently, secretly casting a contemptuous look at Song Jingxing.
This former crown prince is truly a sinister and cunning person. It seems we must be careful and cautious with him in the future.
Mu Ke arrived outside the palace gate and met Cheng Zhiye who came to negotiate.
The two men introduced themselves to each other, exchanged a few brief pleasantries, and then got down to business.
Cheng Zhiye took out a jade ring made of two halves of jade and waved it in front of Mu Ke's eyes, then put it into his sleeve and asked to use the jade to exchange for Xie Nanjia and Yunshu.
Mu Ke naturally would not be fooled by him and asked to check the authenticity of the jade ring first.
Cheng Zhiye disagreed and sneered: "I'm not a fool. If the jade ring is in your hands, can you still let me leave alive?"
"But I'm not a fool. How can I trust you so easily?" Mu Ke said.
"How about this," Cheng Zhiye said, "You bring the two girls here, give me one first, and then I'll give you the jade. When you confirm that the jade is real, you can give me the other one. How about that?"
Mu Ke smiled, his eyes darted around a few times, and answered irrelevantly: "Which one do you want me to put first?"
Cheng Zhiye paused, feeling extremely conflicted, and after a while he said, "Let go of the sleeves first, Miss."
"Why?" Mu Ke raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Isn't Miss Yunshu your sweetheart? I heard from my brother that you once let him out of confinement without hesitation for her sake."
Cheng Zhiye gritted his teeth and said frankly: "Because Xiu'er is more important to Da Zhou."
Hearing this, Mu Ke laughed out loud, then suddenly stopped laughing and said sinisterly: "Very good, since she is more important, I can't give such an important person back to you."
"..." Cheng Zhiye didn't expect him to be so cunning, and said angrily, "You are so despicable!"
"You are holding a fake token to negotiate, isn't that mean?" Mu Ke's face suddenly turned fierce. "If I didn't want to keep you alive to pass on a message to Zhao Jingyu, I would kill you right now. I heard that General Wu'an's troops have crossed the Yellow River. Please go back and tell Zhao Jingyu that if he wants to save his woman, please order the army to stop advancing immediately, otherwise I won't mind giving him back his woman in several pieces!"
"You..." Cheng Zhiye jumped up and wanted to curse, but Mu Ke didn't give him the chance. He turned around and strode into the palace gate.
The guards immediately stepped forward and expelled Cheng Zhiye.
Cheng Zhiye left angrily with a dark face.
Zhao Jingyu and others were anxiously waiting in the old felt tent. When they saw him come back, they surrounded him and asked him about the situation.
"How is it? Did you see Xiu'er?" Zhao Jingyu asked impatiently.
Cheng Zhiye shook his head, recounted the whole story in detail, and analyzed: "The Second Prince didn't let me see anyone, nor did he deliberately want to see the order. I guess he either knew that we couldn't have the Red Clothes Order, or he felt that with Xiu'er in hand, it didn't matter whether we had the Red Clothes Order or not. Anyway, as long as he threatened Xiu'er, we wouldn't dare to send troops easily."
"Impossible, they would never think that the Red Dress Order is insignificant." Zhao Jingyu said, "If the Red Dress Order is dispensable to them, they wouldn't have gone to such great lengths for it. I think that he either saw that the order was fake, or he couldn't bring Xiu'er and Yunshu with him."
"Why is there no way?" Cheng Zhiye asked.
Zhao Jingyu paused and said dimly, "Maybe he's dead, maybe he ran away, or maybe he was tortured so hard that he can't move. Otherwise, he would never let you go so easily. He could just take Yun Shu away and threaten you to hand over the Red Dress Order, or even force you to stab yourself."
"Is that so?" Cheng Zhiye suddenly became nervous. "So, are they dead, injured, or have they escaped?"
"Of course I hope they escaped." Zhao Jingyu said, "But there are so many guards in the Yuze Palace, and Xiu'er is in Song Jingxing's hands. What do you think is the possibility of them escaping?"
"So, you think he is, is, dead?" Cheng Zhiye's face turned pale, his legs went limp, and he fell to the ground.
…
In order to reach Yunshu's hometown as soon as possible, Xie Nanjia became a thief for the first time in his life. He stole two horses from a herdsman on the grassland, and he and Yunshu each rode one, and traveled day and night to the desert.
The two of them asked for directions as they walked, and finally arrived at the border town called Xirong at sunset the next day.
This was probably the most dilapidated town Xie Nanjia had ever seen in his life. Although it was called a town, it didn't even have a decent street. There were only a few scattered shops and a simple inn.
The sun had just set and every house here had already closed its doors. Yunshu said that the residents went to bed early in order to save kerosene.
Xie Nanjia followed her through twists and turns and found Zhao Jingyu's former home in the most remote corner of the town.
The stone house and the stone walls were a little better than Xie Nanjia had imagined. Yunshu said that her father had helped build the house, and after Zhao Jingyu and Dingyuan Hou left, they had been helping to take care of and clean the house, so the house was well preserved and had hardly any damage.
"My house is next door." Yun Shu pointed to the house next door and showed it to Xie Nanjia. "In the past, our two families lived together, helping each other and taking care of each other. Although life was difficult, we were very happy. Now, I am the only one left in the two families."
Xie Nanjia had nothing to comfort her, so she went into the yard with her and watched her find a key from the cracks in the stone of the gable and open the door.
"In fact, no one would come even if the door was not locked." Yun Shu said, "In such a poor house, thieves would not bother to steal."
The door creaked open and dust fell down. Xie Nanjia waved his hands, covered his mouth and nose, and walked into the house.
The light in the room was very dim. Yun Shu found an oil lamp from somewhere, lit it with a tinder, held it in his hand, and led Xie Nanjia to look around.
In fact, there are only three rooms in total, with the main room in the middle and a bedroom on each side.
"This is Brother Xiaoguai's room." Yun Shu said, pointing to the bedroom on the left.
Xie Nanjia walked in and looked around the room in the dim light. There was nothing in the room except a bed and a shabby wardrobe.
"Do you think there will be what we are looking for here?" Xie Nanjia stood in front of the old wooden bed covered with dust, imagining Zhao Jingyu's childhood life, and felt a faint sadness for no reason.
She could never have imagined that the second young master Zhao, who was so suave, well-dressed and handsome, was born and raised in such an environment.
She suddenly missed Zhao Jingyu very much and wanted to give him a hug, although it had no practical significance.
"Didn't Brother Xiaoguai say that he had a small box? Let's look for it and see if we can find it." Yun Shu said, holding the oil lamp in one hand and opening the closet door with the other.
The wardrobe had been in disrepair for a long time and the door fell down with a bang. Fortunately, Yunshu dodged quickly and was not hit.
The cabinet door fell to the ground, raising thick dust that made the two men cough. The flame of the oil lamp jumped violently a few times and was about to go out.
"Are you okay?" Xie Nanjia asked.
"It's okay, just a shock." Yun Shu said.
Xie Nanjia looked at her and said, intentionally or unintentionally, "You are quite agile."
Yun Shu was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "What skill? I just have a quick reaction."
"You reacted very quickly." Xie Nanjia said calmly, "What's your father's name?"
"Ah?" Yun Shu was stunned and didn't react for a long time.
(End of this chapter)