Li Liming could not be bothered to speculate whether the other man genuinely meant to help. All he knew was that they had to return to the group immediately. They could not afford to let anything happen to the prisoner again; otherwise, even if he had ten heads, it would not be enough to lose!
“Then I’ll trouble you, Young Master Xiao.” Li Liming thanked him, then glared at Zhan Haochen. “Are you coming back with me or not? What are you standing there gawking for?”
Zhan Haochen refused to leave. His fists were clenched tightly, and his eyes were wide with fury, like a wolf driven into a corner.
Xiao Chengbang patted him on the shoulder. “Brother Zhan, go back to camp with Constable Li and wait for news. The moment I find a lead, I’ll send someone to inform you. How does that sound?”
Zhan Haochen looked up at him. His eyes held nothing but sincerity and goodwill.
He drew several deep breaths, forcibly suppressing the anxiety in his heart. Then he bowed deeply to Xiao Chengbang.
“Brother Xiao! I can never repay this great kindness, but I will remember it for the rest of my life!”
Seeing that this thorn in his side had finally agreed, Li Liming felt the taut string in his heart loosen. He hurriedly called for the dispirited members of the Zhan clan and led them away.
……
Feng Xianxian, who had taken advantage of the chaos to escape, had not actually gone far.
She hid from place to place like a frightened bird, lost and helpless.
Now she had no one to rely on and not a single coin to her name. Where could she go?
Return to the exile convoy? Absolutely not!
Zhan Jinmo had already divorced her, and the entire Zhan family would never let her off!
Her eyes darted about as a bold and absurd idea suddenly surfaced in her mind.
She steadied herself, then followed the group of dejected servants with the desperation and madness of someone staking everything on one final gamble.
Outside the medicine hall, a servant bent over and spoke to the old master lying on the stretcher, his eyes half closed.
Suddenly, Feng Xianxian rushed over. With a thump, she fell to her knees before the stretcher and began to weep bitterly.
“Master! My name is Feng Xianxian. Although I come from a humble background, a gifted diviner read my fate when I was young and said that I possess an exceptionally auspicious destiny for marriage—the Phoenix Crying at the Rising Sun!
“Although I do not know your identity, the moment I saw you today, I knew from your kind and benevolent appearance that you were a good man! I am willing to sell myself into your service, to become your slave and maidservant and wait upon you at your bedside. If this lowly body of mine can bring you good fortune and help you overcome this calamity, I would gladly give my life for it!”
As she spoke, she kowtowed repeatedly, tears and mucus streaking her face. Her performance was so heartfelt that it seemed genuine.
The servant was already seething with anger. When he saw that the culprit had dared to follow them and was now shamelessly making such a proposal, he was so furious that he laughed.
“Bah! You poisonous woman! Haven’t you caused us enough trouble? Bring good fortune to your husband? You’re nothing but a walking jinx! Get lost! Otherwise, don’t blame me for being rough!”
Feng Xianxian remained kneeling, crying and kowtowing without pause. Her forehead soon turned red, making her look both miserable and determined.
Just then, the old man on the stretcher—whose breathing was faint and labored—trembled slightly beneath his eyelids.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
They were cloudy, yet still carried a trace of sharpness and scrutiny.
He did not look at the anxious servants around him. Instead, his gaze went straight to Feng Xianxian, kneeling on the ground with her swollen forehead and tear-filled eyes.
He stared at her for the better part of half an hour, his expression complex and unreadable, as though he were looking through her at someone—or something—else.
Just as the servant could no longer bear it and was about to drive Feng Xianxian away again, the old man’s cracked lips moved slightly.
His voice was exceedingly weak, yet every word was perfectly clear.
“I am Gu Yanzong. I have spent my entire life traveling from place to place and have never taken a wife…”
He paused, his gaze still fixed on Feng Xianxian’s face. His eyes held a clarity almost like that of a man granted a final burst of life, along with a hint of decision.
“If you are truly willing to marry me, then you will be my Gu Yanzong’s… properly wedded, legitimate wife.”
His words struck like a thunderbolt from a clear sky!
Every servant was stunned. They stared at their master in disbelief, then looked at the disheveled woman on the ground.
Feng Xianxian also jerked her head up. Tears still clung to her face, but her eyes instantly blazed with incredulous, ecstatic light.
Her heart pounded like a drum.
She was going to become his legitimate wife? Had she heard him correctly?
This master, who looked unmistakably wealthy and powerful, actually wanted to marry a nameless, disheveled woman like her and make her his principal wife?!
The enormous stroke of fortune left her dizzy.
She felt as though she had leaped from hell straight into the clouds!
Her gamble had paid off!
“Master! I’m willing!” Feng Xianxian crawled closer on her knees and seized the old man’s withered hand. She sobbed uncontrollably, and this time, her excitement was genuine.
Gu Yanzong looked at her. A strange, indescribable emotion flickered through his murky eyes. Slowly, he closed them, as though he had exhausted every last bit of his strength.
Yet the corner of his mouth seemed to lift ever so slightly, forming the faintest and most sinister of curves.
Immersed in overwhelming joy and ambition, Feng Xianxian noticed nothing.
All she felt was that an entirely new road to glory, paved with gold, had opened beneath her feet!
As for whether Cheng Yao lived or died, and what became of the exile convoy, none of it had anything to do with her anymore.
From this day forward, she would be Madam Gu!
……
The camp was shrouded in sorrow and despair.
The news brought back by Zhan Haochen and the others struck everyone like a bolt from the blue, leaving them stunned and utterly devastated.
Cheng Yao was missing!
The Cheng Yao who had taught them to fish, make candied fruit, trade for cotton-padded clothing, and kindle the flame of hope in the depths of despair had vanished mysteriously before their very eyes!
“Waaah… What are we going to do without Big Sister-in-law?”
“What if something happens to Yao’er…”
“It’s all the fault of those damned servants! And those thugs!”
“We never should have gone out to sell candied fruit today!”
Crying, complaints, and mournful sighs filled the convoy. Many people stared blankly into space, as though they had lost all their strength and direction.
In another corner of the camp, however, the atmosphere was cold enough to freeze.
With his back to the others, Zhan Haoting sat against a green stone. Cheng Yao’s thick, worn coat lay over him, the one she had prepared for him earlier.
His hand rested on his knee, the knuckles bleached white from the force with which he clenched it. The veins on the back of his hand bulged starkly.
His deep-set eyes burned with a fury vast enough to consume everything.
Song Ze knelt on one knee before him, head bowed, and reported every detail of what had happened in the marketplace—the thugs causing trouble, Cheng Yao being surrounded by the servants, the convoy’s resistance, the strange shadow that had appeared, and Cheng Yao’s inexplicable disappearance.
He left nothing out.
“This subordinate was incompetent! I failed to protect Madam in time, and…I could not even identify the attacker’s methods. Please punish me, General!” Song Ze’s voice was heavy with undisguised shame and remorse.
He knew what Madam meant to the General.
Zhan Haoting felt as though a red-hot knife were stabbing in and out of his heart.
“Investigate.”
The single word emerged from deep in his throat, wrapped in an almost tangible killing intent.
“Find out everything about those thugs and those servants. I want their origins uncovered, every last one of them!”
He raised his eyes. His gaze was sharp as an eagle’s as it swept toward the distant void, carrying the fury of thunder on the verge of exploding.
“Pass on my order. Everyone under ‘Jingzhe’ is to mobilize! Seal off every route within a hundred li of this place! Even if you have to turn the entire area upside down and dig three feet into the ground, find her!”
At that moment, he had only one thought: to use every resource at his disposal—even if it meant revealing all his hidden trump cards—to find Cheng Yao as quickly as possible!
He didn’t dare imagine what she might suffer if she fell into the hands of people whose identities were unknown.
