Chapter 27: Trouble Strikes—Ye Xun Grows Anxious, and Lucky Reveals His Life-Saving Escape Trick
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A moment later, a patrol squad caught up with them.
Zhao Sihu, however, showed no alarm. Everything was proceeding according to plan.
Immediately afterward, Zhou Cheng, commander of the patrol squad, stepped forward. Before he could say a word, Zhao Sihu greeted him with a smile.
“Commander Zhou, you arrived at just the right time. This fellow is Zheng Qian. He has owed my Xingcai House five hundred taels of fine silver for an entire year and refuses to repay it. He even tried to flee.”
As he spoke, Zhao Sihu produced the IOU that Zheng Qian had just signed and handed it to Zhou Cheng.
“Here is the note. I would be grateful if you would look it over.”
Zhou Cheng glanced at the document, then at Zheng Qian, who lay unconscious on the ground. He waved his hand.
“Men, take this scoundrel away and deliver him to the Shangjing Prefecture Office.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Sihu gave a slight bow.
“Thank you for standing up for this humble man, Commander Zhou.”
He stepped forward and slipped a pouch of loose silver into Zhou Cheng’s hand.
“My master asked me to give this to you. Please treat the brothers to some wine.”
Zhou Cheng squeezed the silver in his palm, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth.
“Please convey my thanks to your master. We still have official business to attend to, so we shall take this petty criminal away first.”
Zhao Sihu hurriedly replied, “Please do as you must, Commander Zhou. I leave him in your care.”
Thereafter, Zhou Cheng led the patrol squad toward the Shangjing Prefecture Office, dragging Zheng Qian along with them.
Watching the patrol squad disappear into the distance, Zhao Sihu led his gangsters away.
They did this sort of thing all the time and knew the routine by heart.
……
The sun was sinking in the west.
The Prince of Qin’s Residence.
Front Hall.
Zheng Qian, who should have returned before noon, had still not come back.
Cao An was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan, pacing in circles.
Seated before the desk, Ye Xun frowned deeply. An ominous premonition rose within him.
“Your Highness, why don’t I go out and look for him? There’s no point in waiting like this forever…” Cao An turned toward Ye Xun, his face filled with anxiety.
Only when trouble arose did one truly realize how weak the Prince of Qin’s Residence was.
They did not even have anyone to send with a message.
Ye Xun nodded slightly.
“Be careful on the road. Take Wangcai with you. If you encounter any danger, return to the residence first.”
At present, he had no better solution.
Curfew was about to begin.
He could only hope that Zheng Qian had been delayed by some unforeseen matter.
“Yes, Your Highness.” Cao An answered, then led Wangcai out of the Prince of Qin’s Residence.
By dusk, the streets had grown deserted.
Cao An headed toward the East Market, though he reckoned that the market would already be closed by then.
Halfway there, a man dressed in coarse cloth blocked his path.
“Are you Eunuch Cao?”
Cao An stopped and eyed him warily.
“Who are you?”
The man thrust a money pouch into Cao An’s hands.
“I was just on my way to the Prince of Qin’s Residence to find you.”
“Zheng Qian asked me to give this to you. He got into a dispute with a merchant at the East Market during the day and was taken to the Shangjing Prefecture Office.”
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“He told me to ask His Highness the Prince of Qin to go to the prefecture office and rescue him.”
A dispute?
The Shangjing Prefecture Office?
Cao An’s heart lurched. The very thing he had feared had come to pass.
He hurriedly asked, “What did he quarrel with the man about? Is the matter serious?”
The man handed him the money pouch, causing Cao An to lower his guard.
The man shook his head.
“Our stalls were not far apart, but by the time I got there, the patrolmen had already arrived. I have no idea why.”
“In any case, he told me to ask His Highness the Prince of Qin to save him.”
“I have delivered the item. The rest is up to you.”
Without waiting for Cao An to react, the man turned and ran into a nearby alley.
“Wait—”
Cao An had just reached out to stop him, but the man had already vanished into the alley.
Cao An immediately hurried back toward the Prince of Qin’s Residence, clutching the heavy money pouch.
After only a few steps, he stopped.
If he returned to the residence before setting out again, curfew would probably already be in effect.
Moreover, the money pouch was soaked through with blood.
This filled Cao An with unease.
The curfew in Great Xia was strictly enforced.
During curfew, government officials could travel on urgent business, while private citizens could go out for weddings, funerals, sudden illness, and similar matters—but only if they carried the relevant documents.
Anyone who ventured out at night without authorization would receive twenty strokes of the cane.
After some thought, Cao An turned around and led Wangcai at a full run toward the Shangjing Prefecture Office.
He decided it would be best to investigate the situation first. That way, he could at least give Ye Xun an explanation upon returning to the residence.
The man from the alley poked his head out and watched Cao An hurry toward the Shangjing Prefecture Office. A smile appeared on his face before he withdrew and left.
Before long, Cao An arrived at the Shangjing Prefecture Office with Wangcai.
The yamen gates stood wide open.
Anxious, Cao An led Wangcai straight inside.
The moment he and Wangcai stepped across the threshold, a thunderous shout rang out.
“Who goes there?”
“How dare you trespass upon the Shangjing Prefecture Office?”
Before Cao An and Wangcai could react, a volley of feathered arrows shot out from within the yamen.
Immediately afterward, a squad of armored soldiers charged in from outside.
“Bold scum! How dare you trespass upon the prefecture office? Surrender at once!”
At that moment—
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Even the most foolish person would have realized that Cao An had fallen into a trap.
Cao An knew no martial arts. His heart jolted, and he had no idea how to respond.
Wangcai, however, was exceedingly clever. It slammed into Cao An, knocking him to the ground and allowing him to evade the arrows. Cao An still failed to dodge completely, however, and an arrow struck his right arm.
Wangcai twisted and darted about, dodging the arrows from all directions.
After a dozen or so shafts had flown past, Cao An finally came to his senses and shouted, “Wangcai, run!”
At his words, Wangcai let out a roar, clamped its teeth onto the back of Cao An’s robe, and flung him behind it. Then it charged fiercely toward the exit of the prefecture office.
A sharp arrow was embedded in Wangcai’s right hind leg.
As it tensed the limb, fresh blood began to spill steadily.
The passage at the entrance had been too narrow. When Wangcai knocked Cao An down, it had been unable to dodge in time and had taken an arrow itself.
At the same time, the armored soldiers outside the prefecture office closed in and blocked their escape.
Enduring the pain, Cao An let out a thunderous roar.
“This is Wangcai, the imperial hound personally named by His Majesty! How dare you injure it!”
Though Cao An was reluctant to admit it, Wangcai’s status outside was actually higher than his own. After all, the dog wore a special plaque bestowed by the Emperor himself.
Cao An’s shout truly caused the armored soldiers to hesitate for a moment.
But in that instant, Wangcai had already transformed into a whirlwind. It leaped high into the air, cleared the soldiers, and fled madly beyond the prefecture office.
“After them! Don’t let them escape!”
“What are you idiots waiting for? Chase them!”
The commander of the armored soldiers rushed out with a crossbow in hand.
Although Wangcai was wounded, it was astonishingly fast. In a matter of moments, it had vanished into the streets.
The commander chased after them, only to find that both Wangcai and Cao An had disappeared. He hurled the crossbow heavily to the ground.
“Damn it!”
“Damn it all!”
“A bunch of useless fools! You cannot even capture a dog!”
He had originally thought that with so many men, killing a little eunuch who had trespassed upon the prefecture office, along with a single dog, would be effortless.
He had never imagined that Wangcai, fierce as a tiger, would possess not only formidable fighting ability but extraordinary intelligence as well. Knowing that it could not win, it had immediately fled with astonishing cunning.
How was this thing a dog?
It was cleverer than a man.
At that moment, Wangcai was carrying Cao An on its back and racing toward the Prince of Qin’s Residence.
It was almost laughable. They had set out to find Zheng Qian, yet they had not found him, while both Cao An and Wangcai had instead taken an arrow.
Cao An, however, was consumed by anxiety.
Someone had clearly plotted against them.
The fact that the mastermind had dared to use the Shangjing Prefecture Office to eliminate him and Wangcai revealed the immense power at their disposal.
If they did not think of a solution quickly, Zheng Qian would not survive much longer.
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