Madam, she always wants to run away

Chapter 37
The crowd first saw him at a spring feast.

Hearing that the noble fourth prince is coming, all the girls present are well-dressed.If she can be favored by the four princes, it will be a blessing that cannot be exchanged for several lifetimes.

Cao Wenxian was very curious about this fourth prince who had never met before. What kind of man could make so many sisters look forward to him?
Until he came walking under the eyes of everyone, Cao Wenxian clearly remembered that he was wearing a crimson cavalry suit with narrow sleeves, a hollowed out gold crown on his head, a jade white belt around his waist, and white jade hanging on it. The exquisite waistband exuded an innate nobility all over her body.

This attire might look tacky on anyone, but it was so natural and natural to him.

Cao Wenxian couldn't help but stare dumbfounded, it was the first time for a girl to realize what throbbing is.

She was ten years old that year and he was 13 years old.

The second time I saw him was when a kitten ran into the eaves of her yard one day. She wanted to save the kitten, but she couldn't reach such a high place. refused to come down.Cao Wenxian had no choice but to move a ladder, but the kitten was frightened and ran along the eaves to the wall on the other side of the yard.

"Cat, you're going to fall!" Cao Wenxian hurriedly changed the direction of the ladder, panting heavily, and climbed up the wall.

"Cat, come here, come to my sister." But the closer Cao Wenxian stretched her hand, the farther the kitten backed away, until there was a "chuck", the kitten slipped on its hind legs and fell off the wall.

"Cat!" Cao Wenxian exclaimed, and was about to reach out to pull it, but there was still no time?She just stood on the ladder and watched the cat fall down.

Cao Wenxian closed her eyes tightly, thinking that she would hear the painful cry of the cat falling to the ground.

But no, instead a man's voice came from outside: "Where is the kitten?"

Cao Wenxian poked her head out secretly to look out, and saw a familiar golden crown.

It's him? !Cao Wenxian's chest suddenly bumped wildly, and the cat landed firmly in his arms without being hurt at all.

Xiao Ling raised her head, wanting to see where the cat fell, but Cao Wenxian shrank her head abruptly, not daring to be noticed by him.

Cao Wenxian didn't dare to stick her head out until his voice was gone outside the courtyard.

He and the kitten had long since disappeared outside the courtyard, but her heart could not be calm for a long time.

That year, she was 11 years old and he was 14 years old.

The third time I saw him was at a riding and archery meeting in winter. The female relatives were sitting on the sidelines against the cold wind, all shivering from the cold. Only she, with wide eyes, was always watching him. trend.

When Xiao Ling came out of the woods carrying a piece of snow-white fox fur, cheers erupted from the crowd, and she slapped her palms red, hoping that he could feel the encouragement she gave him.

But soon, this cheer was overshadowed by a burst of higher cheers. It turned out that Xiao Lian had hunted a black bear.

All eyes turned to Xiao Lian, and even the emperor was full of praise for Xiao Lian.

Only she saw the loneliness flashing across his face standing in the corner.

It turns out that under his flawless appearance, there is also a sensitive and fragile heart.

That year, she was 12 years old and he was 15 years old.

At the age of 13, she told her closest cousin that she liked him.The cousin asked her to get in touch with her a lot, she silently remembered it, and she looked forward to the day when she could tell him who she was and told him that she had liked him a long time ago.

But fate seemed to play a joke on her, making her wishes come true one by one today: Xiao Ling is sitting on the beam above her head at this moment, admiring her distressed appearance with the corners of her mouth curled up.

"Don't look at me, just look down." Seeing Cao Wenxian's complicated look at him, Xiao Ling felt a little uncomfortable for some reason.

Cao Wenxian looked down at a group of vicious dogs staring at her below, and couldn't help taking a deep breath, but she was immediately coughed violently by the stench in the air.

"Ahem..." Accidentally, the embroidered shoes on her feet fell off, and the vicious dogs underneath thought it was food, and jumped into the air to snatch the shoes, and the shoes were quickly torn apart.

Cao Wenxian closed her eyes, not daring to look at the scary scene anymore.

"Open your eyes, who will close your eyes." Xiao Ling's cold voice came from above her head.

She had to open her eyes and look at the purgatory scene below.She tried to get used to the fear and the stench in the room.

"Just treat it as a nightmare." Cao Wenxian kept telling herself, she finally stopped crying, her feet stopped trembling, and the vicious dogs below saw that they couldn't eat any new food, and they all died down. There was an eerie silence.

Xiao Ling yawned boredly: "This king has spent a lot of effort to rob someone, so it's so boring? It's really boring."

Cao Wenxian finally calmed down, but was instantly stirred up by Xiao Ling's light words.

"Oh." She couldn't help sneering.

"Why, you seem to be dissatisfied?"

"You know what the biggest mistake I made was?"

"I'm not interested in knowing." Xiao Ling said disdainfully, Cao Wenxian didn't say anything more.

After a while, Xiao Ling changed her mind again: "You better talk about it, otherwise the king will really fall asleep."

"Do you still remember that you attended a spring banquet three years ago?"

"I don't remember, this kind of banquet is the most boring."

"That was the first time I saw you." Recalling this point, two lines of tears flowed from Cao Wenxian's eyes, and she said mockingly: "You are like a person who walked out of a painting, unattainable and unstained by dust."

Xiao Ling didn't expect her to say that, so she didn't answer for a moment.

"The second time I saw you, you saved the kitten that fell from my yard. At that time, I thought, how can there be such a handsome and kind person in the world, and I feel even more unworthy of you."

"The third time I saw you, you hunted a fox fur, but no one cared, I applauded you desperately, I hope you will not be so disappointed, you have been looking at your father, I know you..."

"Shut up!" Xiao Ling suddenly interrupted her: "Stop talking nonsense, be careful that this king will kill you."

Cao Wenxian ignored his threat, but continued: "Do you know what is the most ridiculous thing? I am a daughter of a poor man who wants to be your prince and concubine, to heal the wounds in your heart, and to be with you." You share a room with cats and dogs. Tell me, is it funny?"

After Cao Wenxian finished speaking, she tried her best to raise her head to look at him, but Xiao Ling avoided her gaze.

After a long, long time, when Cao Wenxian thought that she would not wait for his response, Xiao Ling cut the rope in her hand.

"Ah—" Cao Wenxian cried out in shock, just when she thought she was about to die, Xiao Ling suddenly jumped off the beam and caught her firmly before she fell to the ground.

The vicious dogs around did not dare to approach Xiao Ling, and could only growl eagerly and timidly.

He hugged Cao Wenxian, who had fainted from fright, in his arms, and walked out of this nightmarish room step by step.

*
The Xuanping Hou Mansion and Li Mansion were brightly lit that night, no one could sleep.

At first, Zhao Minying thought that Cao Wenxian just forgot about the time.After dinner for a long time, she waited and waited for no one to come before she sent someone to Prince Zhong's Mansion to find out if Miss San had dinner there.

Unexpectedly, the servant came back and reported that the princess had already entered the palace with the nanny, and the people in the palace did not know where the third lady had gone.

Now Zhao Minying was in a hurry, she hurriedly told Zhao Minyi the news, Zhao Minyi decisively asked Li Xuan to inform Li Ying immediately, and then called all the servants together, ordering them to separately search for Miss San.Zhao Minying ordered this matter not to alarm others, so as not to cause irreparable impact on Cao Wenxian's reputation.

However, from dusk to late night, the servants sent out went back and forth, but there was no news about Cao Wenxian.

"What should I do..." Zhao Minying was so anxious that she cried loudly in the mansion. Her daughter was her heart and soul, and she was lost without knowing why. She even wanted to die.

Li Ying ate dinner at the Empress Dowager's place, just after finishing everything, he heard the news that his younger brother Li Xuan was looking for her at the gate of the palace.

My younger brother came here just after entering the palace, so something must have happened at home.Hearing that Xian'er hadn't returned to the mansion after parting with him and was missing, Li Ying's heart skipped a beat.

"Brother, wait here for a moment, I'll find someone."

After a while, Li Ying left the palace with a man dressed as a medical officer.

"Sister, who is this?"

"Just in case, I brought an imperial doctor with me, so I can take care of it if something happens."

"It's still Sister, you are thoughtful."

"Sorry, it happened so suddenly, I haven't had time to ask your name?" The three of them were sitting in the galloping carriage, and Li Ying just remembered that she didn't know the name of the young medical officer she just picked up from the Imperial Hospital. .

"My surname is Duan, and my name is Yanlin." The young medical officer nodded in greeting.

"Duan Yanlin." Li Ying murmured, the name sounded familiar.

Before she had time to think about it, the carriage stopped in front of the Hou Mansion. Li Ying jumped out of the carriage and hurriedly stepped inside the door: "Auntie, I'm back, have you found any trace of Xian'er?"

Seeing Li Ying coming, Zhao Minying seemed to have a backbone, she took Li Ying's hand and cried, "No, so far there is no news, Yinger, where did Xianer go..."

"Xian'er parted from me at the door of the bookstore. There was no difference at that time. I remember that there were three servants accompanying me. Where are they?"

Zhao Minyi shook his head: "I haven't found any trace of those three people either."

Li Ying's heart sank, this was even worse, Xian'er must have encountered some accident...

At this moment, a domestic servant stumbled all the way in: "I found it, I found it!"

Everyone in the front hall stood up, and Zhao Minying asked eagerly, "But did you find Xian'er?"

The servant took a breath and said, "The carriage and the three servants have been found."

"What about Xian'er?!"

The servant shook his head.

Zhao Minying fell back on the chair with a "bang", her face was ashen.

"Auntie, don't mess yourself up, find the carriage and servants, at least we have clues."

"Yes, where did you find it?" Zhao Minyi asked.

The servant said: "We found it in one of the remote alleys on the way back from Shusi to the third lady's house. It seems that the three people and the carriage were dragged there."

"Take us to have a look."

A group of people went to the alley with torches, and found that what the servants said was true. The carriage was tied to a corner with a rope, and there were three servants who were stunned and gagged with cloth strips.

"Wake them up quickly."

At this time, the imperial physician named Duan came in handy. He skillfully took the pulse of the three of them, then took off the cloth strip, and gave each of them a small bottle of unknown medicine. The three of them soon regained consciousness. come over.

Seeing that the Patriarch was all there, the three of them quickly explained the process of the attack.

"Two masked men in black, who knew martial arts, knocked you out?" Li Ying briefly repeated.

The three nodded.

Li Ying inspected the carriage carefully under the light of the torch, and found traces of Xian'er's struggle on the door frame: "Auntie, look, this must have been scratched out by Xian'er's fingernails, not wanting to be dragged away."

Seeing those long scratches, Zhao Minying almost closed her eyes and fainted on the spot.

"Auntie!" Li Ying held Zhao Minying by the arm: "No matter what the purpose of those two gangsters is, the first thing we need to do now is to report to the police."

"No!" Zhao Minying resolutely objected: "If this matter becomes serious, how will Xian'er get married in the future!"

"Auntie, is Xian'er's life or reputation more important?"

When the two were arguing over whether to report to the official, Cao Wenzhi rushed over and shouted, "Xian'er is back!"

"What?" Zhao Minying couldn't believe it for a moment: "Go back and have a look!"

A group of people hurried to Hou Mansion.

"I searched around outside, and I searched all over the east side, but there was no clue, so I thought about going to the west side to try, but when I passed by the door of my house, I saw a person lying on the ground, I took a closer look, Who is it not Xian'er?!" Cao Wenzhi told everyone outside the door how he discovered Cao Wenxian.

Cao Wenxian was placed on the bed, her clothes were all in tatters, and her shoes were missing. Fortunately, Zhao Minying confirmed that her inner clothes were still intact.

"Physician Duan, come in and have a look!" Li Ying was very glad that he had brought an imperial doctor here.

Duan Yanlin came in carrying the medicine box. He took Cao Wenxian's pulse, opened her eyelids, and said in a deep voice, "This girl obviously has signs of being strangled by a rope on her hands and feet. However, she was Frightened and dizzy."

Zhao Minying cried bitterly: "Ah, who did it! When will Xian'er wake up?"

"Ma'am, don't be too nervous. This young lady's wounds are all superficial. I'm determined to do my best to prevent the wounds from leaving scars. As for waking up, it's up to her."

After Duan Yanlin gave Cao Wenxian the medicine, he went to the guest room to rest and wait for orders.

Seeing that she was fine, Li Ying persuaded her mother and aunt to also go to rest.

Li Ying was the only one left in the room. She took Cao Wenxian's hand and said to herself distressedly: "Xian'er, what happened to you..."

As soon as the words fell, the token with her name engraved on it fell out of Cao Wenxian's sleeve with a "bang".

Li Ying picked up the token, and seemed to think of something, and the expression on his face gradually became ugly.

(End of this chapter)