The Second Volume The Distance of Jianghu Chapter 8 The Mouth Child

  The wheels creaked "creak, creak", and the hooves of the horses on either side tapped out a rhythmic "clip-clop". The streets were very quiet after nightfall, so these sounds became even clearer. A white-haired woman observed the situation inside the carriage, where there were six or seven women, some of whom were huddled in the corner trembling with fear; others had dull expressions; and one was even more miserable, being tightly bound and gagged, still whimpering pitifully.

  Among these women, only the white-haired woman seemed to be calm and collected. She took out a few small things, poured some black stuff on a comb, and then picked up a small copper mirror to comb her hair. Before long, her head full of white hair had turned black, and she carefully wiped it with a handkerchief.

  The sturdy man in the car said: "What stuff is this, it's just a little bit and the hair turns black, can you give me some, I'll take it back to show my mother."

  The white-haired woman handed the bottle in her hand to the man with a generous gesture: "It's all yours, nothing special, it will fade after washing."

  After dyeing her white hair black, she looked even more innocent. At first, a head of silver hair did look like it had an otherworldly aura, but now it's much better.

  At this time, the woman asked again: "It seems to be the way out of the city. Where are we going? Not to the government office?"

  The man said: "Let's wait for you outside the city, we'll meet soon, don't worry."

  The horse carriage went on for a while, and indeed left the city. After a short while, it stopped again. The curtain was lifted, and a middle-aged man wearing a red small team flower satin stood outside looking inside, he should be Governor Lyu Bi.

  As Lü Duan lifted the car curtain, his gaze only noticed two people. One was the girl who was tied up with five flowers, because she was tied too eye-catching; The other was the white-haired woman from before, now her hair was black, and her appearance was really outstanding, so Lü Duan saw her at first glance.

  "Who tied her up like that?" Lü Duan pointed to the woman in the corner and asked. The man beside him said, "Reporting to Your Excellency, she was crying and shouting, there's no other way to take her away."

  Lü looked at the white-haired woman sitting quietly in the car, then stared at the bound girl and said: "I'll let you go now, don't make a fuss, or you'll be tied up again. Do you understand? Now it's useless for you to do anything, no matter how hard you struggle, can you overpower the several men holding you down?... Come on, untie her."

  The girl knelt down on the ground and kowtowed after being untied, saying: "Sir, I'm getting married soon. You have shown great kindness by releasing me, please let me go."

  "No, there are only a few of you, and it's not enough to begin with. You'll just have to put up with it this one time, and make sure the noble guest is happy. I'll make sure to prepare a generous dowry for you later."

  The girl cried out in a loud voice: "Accompany who? My innocence is already gone, what's the use of dowry?"

  Lv Dang glared and said: "Men are hard to find, there's no one with three legs, what place doesn't have someone with two legs? Are you still worried about not being able to get married?"

  At this time, the white-haired woman muttered: "Are we not accompanying you, but sending someone off?"

  Lv Duan turned his head and said, "Exactly. As the governor of your province, no matter how arrogant I am, I cannot openly occupy good people, can I? You all listen, this matter is not up to you, whether you agree or not, things will go smoothly, and I guarantee that I won't treat you unfairly."

  The white-haired woman said with a smile: "I thought it was with the messenger... Does the messenger dare to give me to someone else?"

  Lü Dai couldn't help but burst out laughing and walked up to the carriage, stretching out his hand to touch her chin, but she dodged it nimbly. "You're about to send me away, what are you taking advantage of?"

  "Look at this appearance, tsk, it's really one in ten thousand." Lü Duan shook his head and said, "If it weren't for the urgent need of the people above, I wouldn't be willing to..."

  The bright eyes of the white-haired woman rolled around, and she said in a soft voice: "Why don't I accompany the people upstairs first, and then come back to keep you company, Lord Lü?"

  "Ha... Alright, alright!" Lü Duan said excitedly, and then knocked on the carriage and shouted, "Time is running out, let's depart!"

  The white-haired woman slowly approached Lv Dian, stretched out her pale fingers, and gently stroked Lv Dian's chest, making him blush all over. Lv Dian suddenly reached out to grab the woman's slender hand, but unfortunately, she was particularly agile and didn't touch it, leaving him with a ticklish feeling in his heart.

  She pouted pitifully and said: "I'm going to become a withered flower, and Lord Lü doesn't care? After tonight, I'll be unwanted..."

  "Who said that? Don't worry, I must, and when the time comes, I'll send a big gift to your family." Lü Tui excitedly said.

  "Who knows what that old official looks like... I only respect Lord Lü, why did you keep me back?"

  Lv Duan raised an extremely asymmetrical face and said, "Don't worry, that person may not look as good as me, but is very young... It's not possible to leave you behind, with your appearance, where can I find someone like you on short notice?"

  After the carriage stopped, the white-haired woman's expression turned cold, and she suddenly lifted the curtain, but was immediately stunned. Several rows of iron-clad cavalrymen stood outside, holding torches, and the bright armor shone brightly in the firelight, with a chilling metallic gleam on the blades of their sabers.

  Lü Bu saw the old white-haired woman's movements and coldly laughed: "I've long seen through your act of trying to curry favor with me, how about it, want to run? Within a radius of ten miles around here are deployed several hundred cavalrymen, where can you go?"

  The white-haired woman turned her head and smiled, "Who said we had to run... Oh my, what a big official, with hundreds of people in the cavalry guarding the headquarters? Could it be that the emperor has arrived? If so, you'd better be careful. Maybe the emperor will take a liking to me and make me a concubine or something, hehe."

  Lü Bu let out a grunt and jumped down from the chariot, handed over to a general with a few words, then came a team of horses, escorting the chariot into the camp.

  After a while, Lü Shishi suddenly felt that something was not quite right, as if he had forgotten something, but couldn't think of what it was. He shook his head, glanced at the night sky, and was about to enter the camp when he saw a soldier next to him staring at his chest with a strange look in his eyes. He casually lowered his head to take a look, and his heart skipped a beat as his face turned pale: there was a torn hole on his chest...

  He hastily felt around his chest with both hands, empty, nothing... But today he had clearly put an account book in his close-fitting clothes.

  That little minx just now!

  Lü Cishi hastily ran into the camp, chasing after Xue Chongxun's tent. At this time, he was blown by a cold wind and his mind cleared up a bit. He immediately stopped in his tracks, instructed an outside general for a few sentences, and then summoned a follower: "Immediately send a fast horse back to Yuzhou City to ask Liu Bao! Which place did that most beautiful little girl come from?" After speaking, he immediately turned around and went to the tent of Hubu Shilang Liu An.

  He rushed into the tent when Liu An was sitting under the lamp reading a book. Liu An took a look at Lü's appearance and asked, "What happened?"

  Lü Cishi fell to his knees with a thud and cried out in distress: "Lord Liu, it's terrible! My account book has been stolen!"

  "What account book?" Liu An put down the book in his hand.

  "This is the account book of the wealthy households in various places in Yuzhou who privately paid money to avoid corvée labor. Because there are too many people and the numbers are complicated, I recorded each entry in a ledger. Today, Lord Liu came to Yuzhou, and I was thinking of bringing the accounts to you to discuss the division of profits... I carefully kept it in my inner clothes, but unexpectedly, on the carriage, I encountered a little girl who took advantage of my carelessness, tore open my clothes, and stole the account book... Look, just this opening." He said, crying and pulling his clothes apart to show Liu An.

  "Where is that little girl now?" Liu An asked with a gloomy face.

  "In the tent of the Duke of National Defense... I didn't disturb the Duke of National Defense, and first discussed with Liu Shijun, or should we just keep watch and wait for them to come out before making a move without alerting anyone?"

  Liu An paced a few steps: "It must be the Crown Prince's side searching for evidence of espionage! Wait until she comes out? If I were that assassin, surrounded by heavy troops, I would definitely use the method of holding the Duke hostage to escape! This matter cannot be hidden from the Duke... Well, I was thinking when to tell him about the river ditch affair, now is the time!"

  Lv Ci Shi nodded hastily: "Right, she must have thought so! Previously, she took advantage of the abnormal performance and must have wanted to use the method of holding me hostage. But at that time, I hadn't discovered that the account book had been stolen yet, and she heard that there was a bigger official upstairs, so she obediently went in."

  Indeed, if the white-haired woman were to hold Lü Bi hostage, it's likely that she would only be used as a human shield. The people above would prioritize the "overall situation" and disregard Lü Bi's life or death.

  Liu An let out a cold hum and left his seat, walking outside. Lü Cishi hastily followed him.

  ……

  Those six or seven girls had just entered the room, unfortunately San Niang was still beside Xue Chongxun. San Niang took a glance and immediately shouted: "Seventh Sister, don't move! If you dare to take one step forward I'll shout for people!"

  Xue Chongxun didn't recognize San Niang's seventh sister, Bai Wuchang. Last time at the City God Temple, Bai Wuchang had put a lot of things on her face and disguised herself as an old woman, so Xue Chongxun had no idea what she originally looked like. Upon hearing San Niang's words, he asked in surprise: "Who is Seventh Sister?"

  "It's Bai Wuchang. I met him at the Cheng Huang Temple last time." San Niang's hand reached into her bosom, staring intently at Bai Wuchang.

  Xue Chongxun immediately turned around and held the horizontal knife in his hand, smiling: "This time I can play with you." As he spoke, he followed San Niang's gaze to look at the woman. He was somewhat surprised, not expecting this female Jianghu to have a very pure appearance.

  This woman is afraid of comparisons. If the six or seven girls present were to be looked at individually, they would all look decent, but when put together, their differences in beauty would become apparent, and everyone else would pale in comparison to Bai Wuchang... This is probably also why women like to find female companions who are slightly uglier than themselves. However, if Bai Wuchang were to stand next to Princess Jincheng, the same tragedy would befall her.

  He had tried Bai Wuchang's skills last time, now Xue Chongxun had a knife in his hand, and there was San Niang by his side, with many guards outside the account... so he wasn't nervous at all, with a smile on his face.

  Bai Wuchang looked at Xue Chongxun and San Niang, saying helplessly: "What a coincidence..."

  Xue Chongxun thought for a moment and said: "You shouldn't be here to assassinate me. What are you doing running all the way here?"

  Bai Wuchang said: "You're right, of course I'm not here to assassinate you. I'd be stupid to run into your trap... If I wanted your life, why would I have spared it last time?"

  Xue Chongxun laughed and said, "Don't think that I'll be grateful to you for what happened last time. I'm still alive, but someone shot an arrow at me and I almost died. Should I thank you? This time you can't escape."

  "Don't be impatient, let's talk it over, I absolutely won't make any rash moves." Bai Wuchang hastily said.

  Xue Chongxun said: "I am the one holding the knife, you are the fish on the chopping board. What is there to negotiate? Now that you have fallen into my trap, you don't even have a chance. I can do whatever I want."