Chapter 855 - 857 Qin Kaichang Goes Missing_1
The injury was an old scar, likely already having disfigured his appearance. He should have turned a shade of green from the poison of Furball, but his face, covered with those horrifying scars, showed no hint of green.
Bai Ruozhu re-covered the person’s face with the mask, which was indeed a bit frightening in the dead of night.
"Master!" Jianqi called out suddenly, rushing into the room.
Seeing that Bai Ruozhu was unharmed and the assassin lay on the ground, he let out a huge sigh of relief. He knelt on one knee and said, "I have failed in my duties, please punish me, Master."
"Stand up first. What just happened?" Bai Ruozhu asked. Jianqi was supposed to be following and protecting her closely, but he had been nowhere nearby; clearly, something had happened.
"I was originally guarding the doorway when I saw a suspicious person abducting the Young Master and leaving. I didn’t even have time to report to you, Master, before I chased after them," Jianqi said with a look of frustration. "It turned out that they threw down a decoy. When I got there, I found it was a straw man dressed in the Young Master’s robe. That’s when I realized I had been tricked, and I hurried back."
As he spoke, Jianqi handed over the bunched-up clothes; they were torn where pulled too hastily.
Bai Ruozhu didn’t take the clothes; instead, she said sternly, "Throw the clothes on the floor, you’ve been poisoned!"
Jianqi flinched and immediately used his inner strength to check, finding he was indeed poisoned.
"It’s nothing serious, not a severe poison. Sit down, I’ll apply the needle," Bai Ruozhu instructed.
After Jianqi sat down, Bai Ruozhu started applying needles to his hand, and soon the green color in his palm faded away.
"Drink some more medicine soup later; recently, the use of poisons has been rampant!" Bai Ruozhu said through clenched teeth.
"It was my carelessness," Jianqi said with shame.
Bai Ruozhu glanced at the garment on the ground and said, "Don’t blame yourself, that is indeed my second brother’s clothing."
Tu Ying carefully walked around the garment, fearing to come into contact with the poison, and asked, perplexed, "How did someone manage to steal Bai Second Brother’s clothes?"
"Earlier, my second brother went to my room to put Dengdeng to sleep. His dark guard followed him, which means his room was actually easier to break into. Those clothes must be the dirty ones he changed out of in his room," Bai Ruozhu surmised.
"Quite the strategy to ’lure the tiger away from the mountain.’ Did they specifically let Jianqi see that? Luckily you were vigilant enough, Ruozhu. What did you hit him with just now? That was impressive!" Tu Ying exclaimed sincerely, her attack speed even faster than her own.
"It was a poisoned hidden weapon," Bai Ruozhu quickly said. After all, no one saw Furball clearly, and by saying it was a hidden weapon, no one would find out.
The identity of the attacker remained unclear, but their intent was obvious—to lure Jianqi away and then attack, with Tu Bai undoubtedly as the target.
"When I came back, I saw that the two dark guards watching this room had been knocked out," Jianqi added.
Bai Ruozhu was startled. She didn’t want her subordinates to die needlessly; fortunately, the attacker’s target was clear—they weren’t willing to kill others and risk alerting anyone except for Tu Bai.
"You go wake the person up, and let Chenfeng take this assassin down and keep a close watch," Bai Ruozhu instructed.
One thing after another happened, Bai Ruozhu was somewhat overwhelmed. She really feared that due to a single oversight, Tu Bai would lose his life.
The next morning, when Jiang Yichun awoke, Bai Ruozhu was still asleep. He heard Chenfeng’s report and broke out in a cold sweat. If Ruozhu hadn’t been careful enough, they might have fallen into the enemy’s trap last night.
His face was as cold as ice as he quickly put on his clothes and walked out, speaking in a low voice, "Where is the person? I want to interrogate them properly."
No sooner had he stepped out of the room than he nearly collided with Bai Zepei, who was coming in the opposite direction, looking anxious. "Qin Kaichang is missing!" Bai Zepei said.
"When did he disappear?" Jiang Yichun asked hurriedly.
"I don’t know; he was there when we went to sleep last night, and for some reason, I slept very deeply," replied Bai Zepei.
In the room, Bai Ruozhu woke up to the noise, and Dengdeng also woke up crying a few times. Holding Dengdeng, Bai Ruozhu called out to the two men outside, "Last night, the assassin stole the second brother’s clothes; could they have attacked Qin Kaichang because of this?"
"What?" Bai Zepei was shocked. He hadn’t noticed that his clothes were missing.
"I’ll arrange for someone to search. You two go have breakfast first," Jiang Yichun said in a very deep voice, clearly sensing that the plot was thickening.
Bai Zepei, seeing Dengdeng wake up and fuss, took the initiative to hold Dengdeng and asked about the previous night’s events. Bai Ruozhu briefly explained in a few words, but he still sensed the danger in her account, growing even more worried for Qin Kaichang’s life.
Bai Ruozhu hurried through breakfast and got busy again. People who were poisoned needed medicine soup, those who were injured needed their bandages changed; she was so busy that she only had a quick bite for lunch. By evening, a large contingent of troops had arrived in Zhou City. It turned out that Jiang Yichun had sent a letter to the Huainan King in Xuanlang City, and the Huainan King had dispatched a large force to assist.
The Huainan King, Lin Pengzhan, was one of the few non-royal kings in Danliang Country, and even rarer was a non-royal king with his own fief. However, since he was unwell and couldn’t come himself, he sent his son, Lin Xufei, to lead the team, also stating that such a serious incident in his fief meant he could not shirk responsibility. He had already submitted a letter to the emperor to plead guilty.
Because the prince of Huainan was leading the team, everyone wanted to meet him, and Bai Ruozhu also saw this Lin Xufei. She suddenly remembered—wasn’t this a familiar name? Wasn’t it among the Four Great Talents of Jiangnan?
Indeed, she had not guessed wrong. After they had greeted each other, the head of the literary academy said with a smile, "I’ve always heard of the great reputation of the Four Great Talents of Jiangnan, and now that I see Master Lin, I didn’t expect him to be so young."
Lin Xufei, looking to be under twenty, indeed seemed very young. With his rosy cheeks and white teeth, and skin as delicate as a woman’s, he looked even younger—Bai Ruozhu couldn’t help but lament that Jiangnan’s landscape truly nourished beauty. It was one thing for the women to be delicate and beautiful, but even a man had skin so fair, how could they who were from the Northwest even compete?
Lin Xufei showed no arrogance; he was respectful and had a very humble demeanor, "Head of the literary academy, don’t listen to those rumors. It’s just a random gossip from the outside. In truth, there are many gentlemen in Jiangnan with better literary skills than me. I have just taken advantage of my father king’s name."
Bai Ruozhu couldn’t help but take another look at Lin Xufei. He could be said to be a typical second-generation official and rich kid of ancient times, yet he was very modest, making no secret of the fact that if his father was not the Huainan King, he wouldn’t have been counted among the Four Great Talents.
In fact, Bai Ruozhu felt that it was his good looks that added to his reputation. It was said that people in Jiangnan love poetry and elegance, exuding romance, and they also value appearances greatly. They especially favored talented and beautiful persons; if one wasn’t good-looking, they couldn’t even count as one of the Four Great Talents.
Lin Xufei smiled shyly, his face revealing two dimples, which added a bit more of a cute and dorky charm to him.