The glazed lamp’s light outside was completely blocked out.
Inside the carriage, darkness was thick and heavy, so dense that one couldn’t see their own hand in front of their face.
Nan Yang’s vision was plunged into pitch black. A powerful hand, like an iron clamp, seized her and refused to let go, dragging and pulling her forward.
With a dull thud, the tip of her nose collided with the man’s hard chin. Nan Yang winced in pain, covering her nose and inhaling sharply as tears welled up in her eyes.
In the darkness, the Huaiyang Marquis let out a low hum.
“Your wet nurse was screaming like a ghost. Why aren’t you screaming? You’ve got quite the nerve.”
Tears brimming in her eyes, Nan Yang pressed her hands down to push herself up. The surface beneath her palms was firm yet yielding, with a pleasant elasticity.
She pressed down again, only to realize with a start that it was the Huaiyang Marquis’s chest.
Nan Yang sprang up as if jolted by electricity, stepping back only to land squarely on the man’s foot.
Belatedly, she let out a cry: “…Ahhhhh!!”
Xiao Chengyan’s temples, still throbbing from old injuries, began to buzz with renewed intensity: “…Shut up!”
Just as she had been dragged into the carriage, Nan Yang was now grabbed and tossed aside.
She crouched beneath the carriage window, wrapping her arms around herself and curling into a ball.
The Huaiyang Marquis, seated in the dark carriage, closed his eyes to rest for a moment. Seemingly recovering from the intense discomfort, he stretched out his foot and stepped on the hem of her gown.
Nan Yang stared dumbfounded as the tall, shadowy figure leaned down, carefully pinching the fabric of her skirt between his fingers, then pulling at the sleeves of her gown to examine them as well.
“Embroidered skirt hem, silk fabric.”
Before leaving, Nan Yang had deliberately changed into her best clothes, fearing she might disgrace the ancestors of the Wei Family.
This outfit had been worn for over two years, repeatedly washed until it was quite worn, but it was indeed one of her rare silk garments.
It was unclear why the old silk fabric failed to meet the Huaiyang Marquis’s standards, but in any case, her sleeves were tossed aside with disdain.
Xiao Chengyan settled back into his seat, muttering to himself, “The daughter of the Yongxing Earl’s Wei Family wearing silk clothes is perfectly normal.” As if suddenly losing interest in his line of inquiry, he waved a dismissive hand. “Get out.”
Nan Yang felt as if granted a great reprieve. She rose and made her way toward the carriage door.
In the pitch-black interior, she couldn’t see clearly and stepped once more on the man’s boot. The man sitting in the shadows hissed in pain.
Nan Yang: “…My apologies!”
Xiao Chengyan chuckled. “Apologizing while running away? You certainly know how to apologize. Stop!”
Nan Yang was dragged back once more, this time subjected to a thorough search of her belongings. She clutched her pouch, unwilling to let go, but after a few tugs, the entire pouch was wrested from her grasp.
The iron-like grip on her finally loosened.
For reasons unknown, the man even flipped up the sleeve of her outer garment and rubbed the fabric of her inner garment against his fingertips.
The material of this inner garment was of fine quality—soft, smooth, and tightly woven. It had been pieced together from two inner garments she wore as a child, skillfully tailored by Grandma.
As she grew older, she never again had such fine fabric for her inner garments.
Fortunately, she hadn’t grown much in recent years, so Nan Yang had cherished this inner garment, wearing it for over two years, and it still fit.
“High-quality fine silk cloth.”
Xiao Chengyan rubbed the fabric of the inner garment between his fingers, his tone turning cold once more. “The daughter of the Wei Family lives quite comfortably.”
In the darkness, he opened the pouch, extracted Prefect Lu’s handwritten letter, and tossed the remaining odds and ends back to her.
With a wave of his hand, he gestured for her to leave.
Clutching her pouch, Nan Yang leaped down from the carriage in three quick steps and hurried back to her own small cart.
Grandma rushed forward and threw her arms around her shoulders, her eyes glistening with anxious tears. “Second Miss! You were in that carriage for so long, what… what did they do to you?” She hurriedly pushed up the girl’s sleeves to check.
Nan Yang’s expression was somewhat peculiar.
After a quick inspection, Grandma found the skin beneath the young girl’s sleeves smooth and fair, with few marks—the imagined worst-case scenario had not occurred. Only a few faint bruises on her wrists, as if from being gripped.
The soldiers surrounding the small carriage dispersed, and the tall, burly driver climbed back onto the cart. With a shout, he urged the horses forward, steering the carriage back to the center of the road.
Nan Yang leaned out to look outside. The Morning Star had already risen in the east, and the deepest darkness of the early dawn was about to pass. Daybreak was imminent.
Behind them, a row of wooden barricades was pushed back to the middle of the dirt road, sealing it off once more.
The carriage continued forward, clearly not heading back toward Ping An Town.
Growing anxious, Grandma raised her voice to question the driver, “You’re one of Marquis Xiao’s men, aren’t you? Tell us honestly, where are you taking us?!”
The driver finally responded, confirming he was indeed one of the personal guards under Huaiyang Marquis.
“The master has allowed you to leave the town. A young lady and an old woman—where else could we take you? Of course, we’re sending you back to the Wei Family in the capital.”
Grandma was both shocked and overjoyed, her disbelief mingled with suspicion as she probed further with her words.
Were they truly being sent back to the Wei Family in the capital?
Not being taken to some remote mountain forest to be silenced?
The driver insisted they were being sent back to the capital.
As she listened, Nan Yang interjected, “What about Magistrate Yang and Prefect Lu? How does Marquis Xiao plan to deal with them?”
The driver’s reply was rather brusque.
“Prefect Lu is the chief official of the entire Shanyang Commandery. He must bear the consequences of his own actions—why should a young lady like you worry about him? As for Magistrate Yang…”
The driver pointed behind them, “Isn’t he right there following us?”
Nan Yang lifted the carriage curtain to look back.
A cloud of dust billowed behind them, and Huaiyang Marquis’s two-horse carriage had actually caught up.
Magistrate Yang leaned halfway out of the carriage window, still bound tightly, shouting something toward Nan Yang’s small carriage. The distance was too great to hear clearly, but faintly, she caught the desolate words:
“Don’t worry about me—” “Go quickly—”
Nan Yang: …
Grandma’s eyes were filled with despair: …
The driver escorting them was one of Huaiyang Marquis’s personal guards. Where could they possibly go?
It was over. Both of them, the Wei Family’s mistress and servant, along with Magistrate Yang, were going to be taken out of town and silenced.
The two-horse carriage behind them sped like lightning, catching up in moments.
The large and small carriages now traveled side by side on the dirt road.
Nan Yang held the carriage curtain open, unmoving, watching as Magistrate Yang, half his body hanging out of the opposite carriage, was pulled back inside.
At the opposite carriage window, a glimpse of a young man’s unfamiliar profile flashed by—a dark-colored cross-collar robe, a sharp and defined jawline, thin lips pressed into a straight line. He did not glance outside but directly lowered the curtain.
Nan Yang blinked in surprise, suddenly realizing that this must be Huaiyang Marquis.
In the next instant, a long, dark object arced through the air, thrown from the opposite carriage.
With a heavy thud, the object struck the small carriage.
The carriage jolted violently, and Nan Yang inside was thrown several inches into the air.
The heavy object, having been tossed over, was about to roll onto the ground when the sturdy driver at the front let out a loud “Hey!”
He strained to catch the long object and tossed it directly into the carriage behind him.
Nan Yang: …
Grandma: …
Nan Yang sat in the carriage, staring wide-eyed at the Yang family coachman who had tumbled twice across the floor.
Inside the cramped little carriage, there were now two members of the Wei Family—master and servant—while the Yang family coachman lay sprawled on the wooden floorboards, dazed from the fall. The tight space was packed to the brim, leaving hardly any room to place one’s feet.
Nan Yang glanced down, carefully lifted her feet off the floor, and shifted into a cross-legged sitting position.
She had heard the voice of the Huaiyang Marquis a few times before and was already somewhat familiar with it.
From the direction of the parallel-running double-horse carriage came the low, slightly hoarse voice of the Huaiyang Marquis once more.
He was speaking to Magistrate Yang.
“Magistrate Yang insists on escorting the Wei woman out of Ping An Town. This Marquis will not stop you. Magistrate Yang, upon your return, inform Prefect Lu on my behalf that the letter Wei Er Niang carried has been taken by this Marquis.”
“Bring the person back.”
Nan Yang was just wondering to herself: Who is he calling back…
When suddenly, the coachman sitting at the front shouted loudly: “Understood!”
The cramped carriage shook violently once again.
This time, it was the coachman who had jumped off the carriage.
Nan Yang watched helplessly as the tall, burly coachman threw down the horsewhip and leaped onto the opposing large carriage…
The double-horse carriage accelerated and sped away.
The unmanned small carriage lagged behind, swaying forward for another seventy or eighty feet before gradually veering toward the roadside.
It headed straight for a crooked-neck tree by the road.
Nan Yang: Help, save me…
Grandma panicked: “Ahhhhh! Coachman! Coachman!!”
The Yang family coachman on the floorboards staggered to his feet, stumbled to pick up the horsewhip, and clumsily climbed toward the front driver’s seat.
The out-of-control carriage swerved left and right, narrowly avoiding the roadside trees, before—Bang!—it still overturned into a ditch beside the dirt road.
Bang—!
Nan Yang, still sitting cross-legged, slammed her head against the opposite carriage wall.
Bang—!
The Yang family coachman was thrown out, landing stiffly and sprawled in the ditch.
The only one fortunate enough to escape unscathed, Grandma, crawled out of the overturned carriage on weak and trembling limbs. After sitting dazed by the roadside for a moment, she hurriedly helped the disoriented Nan Yang out of the carriage.
Only after confirming that everyone was safe—the Yang family coachman had luckily suffered only minor injuries—did the three of them work together to lift the small carriage out of the ditch. All the while, Grandma kept cursing under her breath:
“—A vicious, murderous fiend!”
“—Even bandits aren’t as hateful as him!”
Though no names were mentioned, everyone knew exactly who she was cursing.
Nan Yang strained to push against the carriage wall.
The Yang family coachman lifted one of the wheels and lowered his voice to ask, “County Magistrate Yang entrusted this humble servant to ask Wei Erniangzi: Was the handwritten letter from Prefect Lu, left with Second Miss last night, truly seized by the Huaiyang Marquis?”
Nan Yang nodded guiltily.
The Yang family coachman continued, “County Magistrate Yang also asks: Did Wei Erniangzi open and read that letter?”
Nan Yang had opened and read it.
Not only had she read it, but she had also memorized it thoroughly and could reproduce it from memory.
“Oh dear,” the Yang family coachman exclaimed in alarm. “This is a grave matter.”
“Should I not have read it?” Nan Yang was also startled. “I was afraid the letter might be lost along the way and delay important matters, so I opened it to read… What does County Magistrate Yang say?”
Just as the small carriage was lifted out of the ditch, the Yang family coachman quickened his pace to inspect the axle and wheels, hurrying to make repairs.
“The County Magistrate said it was his poor planning that was exposed by the Huaiyang Marquis, dragging the Wei Family master and servant into this.”
“That letter from Prefect Lu is of extraordinary importance. If Wei Erniangzi opened and read it, and the Huaiyang Marquis becomes aware of this, Wei Erniangzi will be in extreme danger. We must hurry to the capital as quickly as possible! To prevent the Huaiyang Marquis from silencing her along the way.”
“…Silence them?”
Nan Yang and Grandma sat in the swaying carriage, staring at each other in stunned silence.
They watched silently as the sun rose, the carriage kicking up dust as it sped northward.
After a long while.
Nan Yang brushed the mud from her clothes and murmured one last sentence:
“That Huaiyang Marquis really is a scoundrel.”
Inside the smoothly traveling two-horse carriage returning to Ping An Town.
Xiao Chengyan publicly opened Prefect Lu’s handwritten letter, read it from beginning to end, and tapped the paper appreciatively:
“Prefect Lu writes well—his scolding is quite satisfying. This marquis admires him.”
Ignoring Magistrate Yang’s livid expression, he calmly and confidently gave his orders:
“The search for the young maiden in Ping An Town will still be entrusted to Magistrate Yang.”
“After all, everyone knows this marquis has a terrible temper. If I can’t find her and my mood sours, I’ll start killing indiscriminately—just as Prefect Lu scolds in his letter: boiling a few children’s hearts, eating a few pieces of Maiden’s flesh, becoming a true beast.”
“Today, bring all the young maidens of Ping An Town aged fifteen to twenty-five for this marquis to inspect.”
“Focus the search on impoverished families—those wearing coarse cloth, who go out in spring to gather mulberry leaves or in summer to pick lotus seedpods to supplement their household income.”