Wen Chan had no expression on his face, and said frankly, "There is no way to escape, we just want to spend all our money in exchange for our lives."
Bandit Lao Dao said, "Erpi, go and see how much silver is in that package, is it enough to buy these people's lives?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the man on his left got off his horse and stepped forward, staring at the calligraphy and painting warily. He bent down to pick up one of the packages on the ground, shook it with his hand, but without hearing the sound of the silver colliding, he threw it on the ground and picked up another one.
This one heard the sound, and when he opened it, there were only two silver ingots and some broken silver. He showed it to the bandit leader, and the bandit leader looked at it and asked, "Why do you think I am called a bandit?"
Wen Chan: "..."
Ah Fu took two steps forward, picked up the package that Erpi had dropped, unwrapped it, took out a dozen banknotes, and handed them to Erpi, "These are all."
Originally, Erpi was still disdainful, but when he took a look, his eyes widened immediately, and he handed it to the bandit leader in a panic, stuttering, "Boss, boss, this..."
Only then did the bandit leader show a satisfied expression, "That's not bad, get on your horse and follow us."
"Don't you say that these silvers can buy our lives?" Shuhua asked coldly.
"You can buy your life, but the money is not enough to buy your freedom. I happen to be short of coolies in my village. If you don't want to suffer, just follow me obediently." A knife handle hung on horseback.
Wen Chan thought, as long as he saves his life first, there is always a way to escape. So he winked at the calligraphy and painting, and got on the horse first.
Seeing that Wen Chan chose to compromise, Ah Fu also climbed on the horse in a hurry.
The bandit leader left two people behind to follow, and led the large team to the front, escorting Wen Chan and others to the depths of the short hillside.
Along the way, Wen Chan was thinking, if he saw the man riding the bull next time, how would he repay him for his kindness in guiding him.
The bandits brought the four of them back to the stockade, confiscated the horses, and locked them in a ventilated cell. The iron pillars were as thick as a child's small arm. Wen Chan pulled it with his hands, and it felt extremely strong.
The cage was quite big, and there were only four people including Wen Chan in it. There were two guards standing at the door, chatting enthusiastically, and Qin Qi leaned over to inquire about the news.
Calligraphy stood next to Wen Chan, seeing that he was about to sit down, he quickly took off his coat and spread it on the ground, Wen Chan squatted down for a while, reached out to pick up the coat, and said, "You dress well, I'm not so delicate yet. This level."
"Put it on, let me clean it for you." Ah Fu rolled up his sleeves, swept the ground, and blew a few more puffs, blowing the dust aside, and said, "It's clean, it's clean."
Wen Chan felt helpless and sat on the place Ah Fu wiped clean. As soon as he sat down, Ah Fu and the calligraphy and painting beside him immediately sat on the ground. Ah Fu lowered his voice and said, "Young master, how do we escape?"
"The bandit said earlier that there was a shortage of coolies here, so he thought he would let us go out to work. As long as we leave this cage, there is always a way to escape." He replied in a low voice, turning his head to glance at the night sky.
Qinqi came back after inquiring about the news, and sat down on the ground, "Not much inquiring, they only said that someone broke into the village a few days ago and set fire to the house of the concubine who was the leader of the Bandits. Even a large area was destroyed, and when the fire was extinguished, most of the village was destroyed, so the bandits have been hunting coolies everywhere these days."
"Then who did he catch? Could it be that only the four of us were caught?" Wen Chanxin said that we are the only unlucky ones, right
"I'm all going to work. Now it's night, maybe I'll be back later." Qin Qi pondered for a moment, and said, "Young master, you can't be a coolie here. If they ask us to go out to work tomorrow, just pretend Sickness, calligraphy and painting and I will figure out the terrain here outside."
As soon as the words came out, Shuhua and Ah Fu immediately agreed. In their eyes, even if all the bank notes were taken away and locked in a dirty prison, Wen Chan was still the honorable Ninth Prince, a man who could not even sit on the ground. A noble prince who should lay his clothes on.
Wen Chan said, "Don't worry, just take one step at a time."
The four of them were relatively speechless, and their moods were a little depressed.
After nightfall, the bandits hung lights outside the cage, and their vision was very dim. After a while, there was a noise from far to near, and the cell door opened, and those who were forced to do hard labor during the day were driven into the cage. , The originally spacious place suddenly became crowded.
Wen Chan and the others retreated to the corner again and again. Many people still noticed them newcomers, but they seemed to be used to it. After a few glances, no one wanted to come forward to talk to them.
The bandit brought a large basket of steamed buns. When the people in the prison saw the steamed buns, they immediately piled them together and stretched out their hands to ask for them, probably because they were very hungry.
Everyone was given two, and many people started to gobble it up when they got the steamed buns. There was no water to swallow, and they blushed and their necks were thick after two mouthfuls. Terrible."
"My lord, I'll get you two steamed buns." He remembered that Wen Chan hadn't eaten anything after lunch, and he should be hungry by now, so he stood up and played a chess piece, skipping the crowd and walking to the front Go get the steamed buns.
As soon as they left, a dispute broke out at Wen Chan's back foot.
A man screamed angrily, "Ah! Someone robbed the steamed buns! Someone robbed my steamed buns!!"
Wen Chan was startled by this sound, he turned his head to look, and saw a thin-looking man beating another man, the man's head was facing the corner, he stuffed the steamed buns into his mouth, two or three mouthfuls He stuffed all the steamed buns into his mouth, and his cheeks bulged.
After stuffing one, he held the other steamed bun, turned around suddenly, and with a wave of his arm, knocked the thin man who had hammered him to the ground. He didn't swallow what was in his mouth, and he piled it all up in his mouth, making an indistinct loud noise. Shouted, "Go away, touch me again and take care of your dog's life!"
The man who was overturned fell to the ground and cried, "Is there any reason for this—"
Everyone backed away silently, no one came out to act bravely, they all gnawed on their steamed buns to watch the excitement, the man who was still grabbing the steamed buns didn't seem to be there, he chewed the food in his mouth with peace of mind.
The thin man's sloppy rolling caught the bandit's attention, and he knocked on the iron pillar with a wooden stick in his hand, "What's the noise! You can't be honest if you have food!"
The man got up from the ground to file a complaint, but the bandit was ignored and laughed coldly, "I have no ability, so I can't blame others." After speaking, he left with an empty basket.
Seeing that there was no one to help, the man ran again, knelt down on the ground, hugged the person who had snatched his steamed buns before, and cried, "Master, please give me something to eat, and leave me a steamed bun." , I don’t want to starve to death!”
The crying was so miserable that Ah Fu couldn't help being moved, and complained in a low voice, "This person is really disgusting! He even snatched such a poor man's steamed buns."
"Go away! Don't think that I will be fooled by you!" The man kicked the man away again with a ruthless look.
Qinqi Shuhua took the steamed buns back to Wen Chan, and handed them to him, "Young master, please use."
Wen Chan was watching seriously, feeling both funny and sad in his heart, the man who snatched other people's steamed buns was so arrogant, he sat back on the ground, snorted coldly, swallowed the thing in his mouth, and began to gnaw on the other man in his hand. .
Wen Chan noticed that he looked handsome in profile, although his vision was dim, he could barely see his black eyebrows and tall nose clearly, his face was covered with a lot of dust, but his eyes were big and beautiful.
And also inexplicably familiar.
He rejected the steamed buns offered by Shuhua, got up and walked towards the man, Ah Fu and others hurriedly followed after seeing him.
The closer he got, the more familiar his face became. After Wen Chan saw his appearance clearly, he almost thought that there was something wrong with his eyes. He said in shock, "Zhong Wenjin?! Why are you?"
Shouldn't this young master of the Zhong family who is loved by thousands of people eat delicious food, sleep in brocade quilts and soft furs, and chase after his future daughter-in-law Ding Ziyun in the capital? How could it appear in the cage of the bandits on May Island? !
When Zhong Wenjin heard his name being called, he bit half of the steamed bun and let go. When he looked up, the expression on his face was even more shocking than that of Wen Chan. will be here?"
He didn't know how to call Wen Chan for a while.
Zhong Wenjin looked very embarrassed, he was wearing a colorless burlap shirt with a sloppy waistline, and he was wearing a pair of black cloth shoes with frayed edges, if Wen Yuan hadn't looked at his face, It is absolutely impossible to recognize this person as Zhong Wenjin.
The people around him were watching this side to watch the excitement, so they pointed to the place where he was sitting just now and said to Zhong Wenjin, "Let's go over there and talk."
Zhong Wenjin still looked like he had been struck by lightning, followed Wen Chan to the corner and sat down in a daze, forgetting to eat the remaining half of the steamed bun in his hand, he looked at Wen Chan and the people around Wen Chan several times, "What's the matter with you? Why are you on May Island?"
"I also want to ask you this question." Wen Chan was more curious than him, "Aren't you supposed to be in the capital?"
Zhong Wenjin said, "Of course I came here for a reason."
"Oh." Wen Chan said with a blank expression, "I came here mainly because I was caught by the bandits as a coolie, there is no other reason."
He could hear the insinuation in Wen Chan's words, he pondered for a moment, and his expression became extremely serious, "It's a long story at this time, so it's inconvenient to talk about it here."
"Then how did you get caught in the bandit den?" Wen Chan asked another question.
Before he finished speaking, Zhong Wenjin became extremely angry, his nose was so angry, he gritted his teeth and said, "It's all to blame for that brat riding a bull. If I see him next time, I will beat him to tears." Dad can't call mother!"
"Coincidentally, I was also pointed out by him." Wen Chan said in amazement, "Could it be that he rode a cow to block the intersection all day long, just to point people to the wrong way?"
"No mistake! He must be with these bandits!" Zhong Wenjin was so angry that half of the steamed bun was crushed by him without knowing it, and he couldn't eat it at all.