Chapter Twenty-One: Re-encountering Qin Cheng

  Feeling Li Mingfeng's physical changes, Lin Wan'er's face turned red to the point of bleeding. The Qing dynasty's male-female boundaries were extremely strict, and what Li Mingfeng was doing at this moment was almost equivalent to rape in Lin Wan'er's heart. With a mix of shame and anger, Miss Lin stretched out her hand to slap the wooden frame of the carriage, hoping that her father would come in to save herself.

  Li Mingfeng didn't want the scene to be seen by Lao Xiucan, so he quickly let go of Lin Wan'er's leg and grabbed her wrist instead. Li Dajuren lowered his head and whispered in Lin Wan'er's ear: "Don't move, if you startle your father and brother and they come in to see us like this, I'll see who loses face, you Miss Lin or me."

  After hearing this, Lin Wan'er stopped struggling. If others saw this scene, she would only have one way to jump into the well. Seeing that she was no longer struggling, Li Mingfeng also let out a sigh of relief and continued: "I can let you go, but you can't shout or try to hurt me."

  Lin Wan'er nodded slowly, and Li Mingfeng also slowly let go of his hand, with a hint of regret, he climbed down from the beauty's body. Lin Wan'er felt a lightness on her body, and immediately quickly crawled to the deepest part of the carriage, covering her chest with both hands, looking at Li Mingfeng with eyes that were both shy, angry, and fearful.

  Li Da knew that he had taken advantage of others and honestly sat there, watching his nose with his eyes, and his heart with his nose, without making any excuses.

  This carriage is only about four or five square meters in size, and the two of them can't hide much further. As time slowly passes, neither of them says a word, but the atmosphere not only doesn't become more tense, it becomes increasingly ambiguous. Lin Wan'er recalls the scene from earlier and her face involuntarily flushes with heat. Looking at Li Da's pretended calm demeanor as he sits there, Lin Xiaojie suddenly finds this guy somewhat less detestable.

  There's a saying that goes like this: good times always pass so quickly, and beautiful things are always ruined by someone.

  Just as Li Da Ren was enjoying the ambiguous and beautiful time alone with Mei, a loud rumbling sound of horseshoes echoed from afar. Upon hearing this sound, even someone like Li Mingfeng who didn't understand such things could estimate that at least several dozen horses were galloping over.

  Pushing open the door curtain, I looked out and saw that indeed on the opposite side dust was flying about and vaguely saw several dozen to over a hundred horses galloping towards me. As they drew closer, I saw that the horsemen were all Qing soldiers.

  To avoid trouble, Lin Dehai ordered Lin Sheng to pull the carriage over to the side of the road and give way to the government troops. Before long, a cavalry unit galloped past, and suddenly a familiar figure appeared before Li Mingfeng's eyes.

  "Qin Cheng" Li Mingfeng shouted loudly.

  Upon hearing someone calling his name, Qin Cheng immediately pulled the reins and stopped his horse. The other Qing soldiers also halted their horses. Li Mingfeng took a closer look and indeed it was Qin Cheng. He hastily got out of the carriage and shouted: "It's me, Big Brother Qin, I'm Li Mingfeng!"

  Qin Cheng was more excited than anyone else to see Li Mingfeng, he dismounted his horse and rushed to the front of the carriage, suddenly knelt down with a thud, removed his official hat, and while kowtowing, wailed: "Your Excellency, I've finally found you! I'm to blame for putting Your Excellency in danger, I deserve to die, I deserve to die!"

  Li Mingfeng gestured to Lin Sheng to help Qin Cheng up: "Big brother, get up quickly. How can you say that? On that day, the Tiandihui rebel forces were too strong, and we had no choice but to scatter. Moreover, my life was saved by big brother, I haven't even thanked you yet, how could I blame you?"

  Qin Cheng saw that Li Mingfeng did not have any intention of blaming him, and he finally put his mind at ease. He ordered his subordinates to pay their respects to Li Mingfeng, and Qin Cheng asked again about the identities of Lin Dehai and others. Li Mingfeng only said that they had been relying on the Lin family's care for these few days. Qin Cheng also paid his respects to the father and son duo, who were so startled that they repeatedly said they didn't dare.

  Upon learning that Li Mingfeng's leg was injured, Qin Cheng apologized again, and the two of them exchanged polite words for a while. In the end, Li Mingfeng got back on his carriage, and Qin Cheng rode his horse alongside him, chatting about their separation over the past few days.

  Listening to Qin Cheng's narrative, Li Mingfeng also figured out the general meaning. So this guy was so eager because he had a request for him.

  That day, the two of them scattered and ran. Qin Cheng relied on his fast horse and soon shook off the pursuing soldiers. That night, he rested for a while, and the next morning, after searching around for half a day without seeing any sign of Li Mingfeng, Qin Cheng could only return to Guangzhou.

  Upon arriving in Guangzhou, he immediately went to report to his superior, the Vice Commissioner of the Pacification Commission. He had originally intended to speak the truth, but the vice commissioner hastily brought him before General Mu Ke Deng without even asking any questions. Soon after, Governor-general Bai Gui also arrived and they both pressed for information about Li Mingfeng's whereabouts.

  Seeing such a scene, Qin Cheng didn't dare say that he had left Li Mingfeng behind and run away. After thinking for half a day, he could only say that Li Mingfeng was injured and had been placed in a safe place. Upon hearing that Li Mingfeng was injured, the two giants of Guangdong were frightened to death and asked if it was serious or not. Qin Cheng saw this scene and thought to himself that he was lucky he hadn't told the truth, otherwise his life would be in danger.

  Mu Ke Dun also knew how to use both carrot and stick, first promoting this small eighth-grade outer delegate Qian Tong by three grades, letting him lead soldiers to find Li Mingfeng, and later threatening that if anything happened to the master, Qin Cheng's head would not be able to stay on his shoulders.

  This put Qin Cheng in a difficult position, with over 100 soldiers searching for Li Mingfeng within a radius of hundreds of miles, but after four or five days, there was still no sign. He had wanted to escape, but the men under his command were loyal and kept a close eye on him, leaving him no chance to flee. Just when he was about to give up hope, Qin Cheng finally found Li Mingfeng, and his life was finally saved.

  The task was completed, but Qin Cheng hinted to Li Mingfeng to help cover up his own lies, otherwise the newly acquired title might be taken away before it even got warm. Li Mingfeng didn't mind that Qin Cheng lied for self-protection and agreed to Qin's request.

  These private words, Qin Cheng naturally did not want others to hear, and Li Mingfeng also did not want the Lin family to know his true identity, so the two of them had long been very tacitly sent away the four people from the Lin family.

  Lin Dehai rode his horse with great excitement in his heart. He had known before that Li Mingfeng was a big shot, but he never thought that his power would be so great. Just now, the military officer who looked at the top of his hat was obviously a sixth-grade official, but instead wanted to kowtow to Li Mingfeng, what does this mean?

  For many years, Lin Dehai had hoped to lean against a big tree, but he never thought that today he would really be able to lean against a tree that seemed to have deep roots. This kind of happiness was something he didn't even feel when he passed the imperial examination and became a scholar.

  Lin Wan'er and Lin Xing Sheng, siblings, also had mixed feelings. Lin Xing Sheng saw how formidable Li Mingfeng was, and probably this time the problem of entering school wouldn't be a big deal. Thinking back to these years of hard studying, his heart truly had all sorts of flavors.

  Lin Wan'er was shocked to see Li Mingfeng make a sixth-grade court official bow down, and she thought that she had almost injured this frivolous and arrogant man earlier. She felt fortunate in her heart, thinking that if she had really hurt him, given his identity and status, her whole family would have been unlucky from then on. Lin Wan'er didn't know why, but she also thought that from now on, the gap between the two of them would be even greater, and they were not suitable for each other as a married couple, so the possibility of their marriage was already slim. Thinking about this, Lin Wan'er felt somewhat uncomfortable in her heart.