A piece of paper

Sure enough, the old nun's hand slid down Xianjin's face and down to his neck.

The old fingers gently stroked the carotid artery in the neck.

In the silent space, Xianjin could hear two "bang bang bang" heartbeats.

Xianjin put his hands behind his back, stared at the old nun with wide eyes alertly, but his peripheral vision glanced around.

Perhaps to conceal her identity, the carriage was small and cramped, and everything could be seen in a flash. The old nun was thin, with loose clothes and narrow sleeves that were tightly attached to her dry wrists, making it impossible for her to hide.

Xianjin did not see the weapon with cold light.

Due to his poor night vision, Xianjin's hearing is better than before in a dark and enclosed space.

The only sound that could be heard was the creaking of the wheels of a small horse-drawn carriage.

There was no one else around.

This means that, at least for the moment, the old nun cannot kill her.

Xianjin tightly grasped the ruby ​​and sapphire daggers in his sleeves, facing the faint light, and looked around at the old nun in front of him again - he couldn't see clearly, but it was clear that the old nun was very narrow and was swaying in the carriage, as if she would slide down to the ground immediately with the next bump.

Xianjin compared the two sides' body shapes and strength and was very sure: once a violent conflict broke out, she could easily counterattack and kill them like autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves.

But she wasn't prepared to do that.

Xianjin lowered his eyes, then immediately leaned back in fear, trying to avoid the old nun's dry hands, and looked at Feng Yuanyuan with fear.

Xianjin's gaze and his desire for help were too scorching.

Feng Yuanyuan suddenly came to her senses, stretched out her hand and grabbed the old nun's wrist, lowered her voice and said sternly: "Aunt! They want her to live! Please think about the Lu family!"

The old nun's hand hesitated, her eyes dimmed, and she slowly withdrew her right hand.

Feng Yuanyuan heaved a long sigh of relief, turned to Xianjin and said, "I saved you, and that also preserves the friendship between us."

Xianjin: ? Then you are really good at calculating.

For the rest of the journey, the three of them faced six people and no one spoke.

The carriage was bumpy and up and down, Xianjin closed his eyes and fell asleep in a short while.

Feng Yuanyuan was stunned: "She, she just fell asleep like this?"

The old nun looked gloomy: "She looks like her aunt." After a pause, she sneered: "Not like her mother."

We swayed all the way, walking through bushes and jungles, avoiding official roads and pedestrian convoys, and headed north from a remote valley. The sky changed from pitch black to dim light, and then night fell and all around became silent.

All day and all night, without stopping.

Not only Xianjin, but Feng Yuanyuan was also in a daze, waking and dreaming.

Only the old nun had a gleaming gaze, very much like an oil lamp that was about to burn out, the flame leaping high but revealing signs of decay.

Xianjin: This woman always seems crazy and wants to die after completing this job.

At midnight on the second day, we passed through a dark and deep cave, and suddenly the cave was brightly lit.

We arrived at a secluded village hidden in the mountains.

There are two towering braziers at the entrance of the village, and the blazing fire seems to illuminate the dark sky.

Xianjin squinted his eyes reflexively and looked out from the lifted curtain of the car. He could see a sentry every three meters behind the brazier. The village was built on the mountain, relying on the deep and winding ancient Great Wall, like a smooth scimitar back - the steep terrain was the most natural line of defense.

A faint salty and moist scent lingered at the tip of the nose.

As soon as the carriage entered the village, the horse neighed and stopped at the intersection. Xianjin got off the carriage with Feng Yuanyuan and the old nun in the middle, and followed the black-clad men who had been waiting at the intersection. Soon they arrived at the attic hidden in the center of the village.

The man in black made a gesture of "please come up". Xianjin's hands were still bound behind his back, his mouth was still covered with a black cloth, and because he had been riding in a carriage for a long time, his steps were unsteady. He walked up to the attic with a light and heavy step, and walked around the screen. Xianjin finally saw the man.

Xianjin has never seen him.

But intuitively, it was him.

The man in black pulled away the black cloth covering her mouth and eyes.

Xianjin lowered his head and blinked fiercely.

The other party's voice disappeared into the darkness: "Finally I see you."

The fires in the house lit up one by one.

Xianjin finally raised his eyes.

Sitting opposite him was a middle-aged man with sloping shoulders and a medium build, his hands casually placed on the handles of the chair.

Xianjin opened his lips and said, "Emperor Zhaode, is that right?"

The man shook his head slowly, and after a moment he said, "You should call me uncle."

Someone next to him served him tea, cakes and a smaller armchair.

Xianjin twisted his wrist, raised his neck which was stiff from sitting in the car, sat down calmly and generously, lowered his head to sip a sip of tea, and then sighed with satisfaction: "Ah, hot water is so comfortable. I have been drinking cold water and eating dry buns all the way."

Emperor Zhaode smiled, leaned forward, and his face finally appeared in the light: "Thank you for your hard work along the way."

Xianjin looked at the face that was about 50% similar to the former Emperor Xun and the current Prince Xiao, smiled and said, "It was hard work, a whole day and a night, I couldn't eat well and couldn't sleep on the road, and I could only get off the car and walk on the ground for a few circles when I was in a hurry."

Going to the toilet is also the only time when one is not under the old nun's watchful eyes.

At other times, that guy was like a searchlight, as if he wanted to light up her titanium dog eyes.

Xianjin turned around and looked, then asked in a very familiar and natural way: "Since leaving the Wanguo Temple, the carriage has been heading southeast. Are we in the Jincheng Prefecture? This place is also hidden deep. I didn't grow up in the capital city, so I didn't know there were such steep mountains and..."

Xianjin looked out the window: "And build such a solid fortress."

Emperor Zhaode followed Xianjin's gaze and looked out.

Standing on a high place and looking down, you can see the vast sea not far away from the top of the mountain ridge.

"This place was originally called Tangjiabao. In the distance is the Bohai Bay. From here, you can go out to sea in any direction, from the east to the west to the north. You can reach Jiaozhou Bay nearby, from Luosha in the north to Tianzhu in the south. This fortress was built when Goguryeo was in danger."

Emperor Zhaode spoke slowly and with a playful look on his face: "You are different than I thought. Smarter and calmer, many times better than your biological father - how did you know this was Jinzhou Prefecture? Did Bai'an ask you to memorize the map?"

Xianjin shook his head: "During the Baiduo Rebellion, 80% of the refugees from the two places attacked the capital city from Jinzhou Prefecture. On the eve of the attack, the official on duty in Jinzhou Prefecture hanged himself at home - this is the only suspicious point about the Baiduo Rebellion."

"From this it is not difficult to guess: perhaps your base camp is not in Hebei, nor in the capital, but in Jinzhou Prefecture, which is well connected but has a small area." Xianjin folded his hands on his abdomen, and spoke every word calmly and majestically.

Emperor Zhaode leaned back and said, "You also think that the Baiduo Rebellion was my doing?"

Xianjin said nothing.

Emperor Zhaode finally stopped smiling, and a hint of annoyance appeared between his brows: "Oh, the famine is real, the ineffective disaster relief is real, the refugees are real, and the desperate situation is also real - what does this have to do with me!?"

"Your father, my eldest brother, was indecisive and didn't dare to make decisions right away. He kept delaying the Shandong Provincial Administration Commissioner's memorial to the court, which stated that drought was likely to cause a major disaster and requested the court to allocate funds to prevent and deal with it. He put it off again and again! He turned a small disaster into a major epidemic and a minor illness into a serious disease!"

"When the famine and refugees became uncontrollable, my brother selected officials who were talented but incompetent to rush to Shandong to deal with the emergency! What can he do? Write poems to boost morale or draw pictures to record the situation!?"

Emperor Zhaode stared at Xianjin with sinister eyes: "One incompetent general can tire out the entire army! Your father has no sense of propriety in family affairs and no understanding of state affairs! Why can't I take his place?!"

"Because I was born to a seventh-rank beauty, and he was born to the empress?" (End of this chapter)