Chapter 220:
They even left their homes and hometowns, without even a clan to shelter them.
Practically anyone could come to bully them.
If they truly had no other choice, how could they risk heading south alone.
In the end, they met with disaster at the very first stop.
Such an encounter was undoubtedly tragic, but in the entire Great Khan, it was hardly anything.
Especially the guards around Pei Yuqing, who traveled south and north carrying out missions and had witnessed countless horrors—just like Ming Feng at the Hot Spring Villa that day, who saw such rape and plunder yet remained unflinching—they showed little emotion.
In the room, aside from the two servants taking turns recounting their tales, it was very quiet.
Pei Yuqing listened quietly until they finished, then asked, “Do you know which part of the South?”
The two servants looked at each other, then shook their heads in unison. “This… we do not know.”
Pei Yuqing had expected as much. He turned sideways to look behind him and instructed, “Go inquire about it. Be careful, do not alert a single soldier or pawn.”
Two guards stepped forward, bowed to accept the order, and withdrew.
Everything happened very quickly. Pei Shu watched, vaguely forming a guess in his mind, but seeing his master with eyes slightly closed in thought, he dared not interrupt.
After a while longer, Pei Yuqing said, “You may go. Leave Lu Zhou.”
The two servants were stunned. Realizing he meant them, their faces lit up with joy. They repeatedly agreed, scrambled up from the ground, and ran out.
Pei Shu watched their backs and said softly, “Master, shall we…”
He made a gesture with his palm.
Lu Ziyan was frantically searching for people over there. From that earlier questioning, those two might have noticed something.
Only dead people can keep secrets. They did not always have to keep their word.
The Qing Tian Guard controlled the Great Khan’s most elite secret intelligence. As its leader, he was never some upright gentleman who kept every promise.
But Pei Yuqing was silent for a few breaths, then said, “Send people to follow them. If they do not obediently leave Lu Zhou, give them a hand.”
If she could truly emerge safe and sound, that would be him escaping death once as well. Grateful to the heavens, he would take it as accumulating blessings for that young lady. He did not wish to break faith and create more sin of killing.
The next morning, the two guards dispatched to gather news rushed back overnight to report.
Pei Yuqing listened, his lips twitching slightly.
“Bianzhou…”
The place where Lu Ziyan had brought back that concubine that day.
He murmured softly, “What a coincidence.”
If Lu Ziyan had not done such a foolish thing that day, he could not have schemed his way in between them, no matter how hard he tried, to coax that young lady through the door.
Now, he had to go there in person.
If his deductions were correct, then he would welcome that young lady home.
Otherwise… if it was all just his delusion, he only hoped she could wait for him.
Pei Shu understood his plan and asked, “This subordinate will go prepare the carriage and horses.”
“Wait,” Pei Yuqing called to him. “Tell the men below not to stop the dredging. To the outside, say my body is weak, that I am bedridden and unable to get up.”
At this point, he paused, then continued, “Half a month from now, I fall into a coma. Then take me back to the capital for treatment.”
“You plan to slip away like a cicada shedding its shell to find Madam?” Pei Shu realized. “Even to hide your whereabouts, you still need to bring some people.”
Pei Yuqing said, “Not now. These days, I still need to make appearances, waiting for Lu Ziyan’s next move.”
Thinking of the confrontation at the Separate Courtyard that day, and Lu Ziyan who had been killing with bloodshot eyes this whole time, Pei Shu frowned. “That madman won’t really…”
Pei Yuqing said, “He will not.”
With that, he picked up the teacup and took a sip, with no intention of explaining to his subordinate why not.
