Chapter 30

It’s not that she had never seen a naked man before. On the march, many things were unavoidable. But she never knew that a man with bare waist could look so good.

Lifting the curtain and catch a glance, she saw a broad shoulders with narrow waist, jade-like collarbone, and delicate skin that shined like jewels under the dim candlelight, the tight texture was as smooth as if it had been carved, and it was worthy of the word “stunning”. So stunning that all the young ladies in the world would feel inferior.

Yuan Ci Xian swept her eyes over his upper body like a broom, and when she reached the two spots covered by his handkerchief, she suddenly felt the base of her ears and the end of her nose felt a little hot.

She slowly raised her head, shifted her gaze to the roof of the carriage, then let go of her hand, put down the carriage curtain, and backed out as if nothing happened.

Besides the trembling handkerchief, Lu Shi Qing didn’t move anywhere. Under Yuan Ci Xian’s scorching eyes, his whole body was tense and completely stilled. It wasn’t until she left calmly that he thought of a question: Why didn’t she scream? According to Zhao Shu, generally in romance storybooks, the heroine would scream when she encountered such situation.

While he still perplexed over this question, just like before, the wall of the carriage was knocked three times, and Yuan Ci Xian’s voice sounded: “Assistant Minister Lu, can I come in?”

“…” Does it mean you want to forget the past and do it all over again?

As soon as he threw away the handkerchief, he began to put on his clothes, tidied them up in no times, and then said calmly, “Come in.”

Yuan Ci Xian sniffed, lifted the curtain, and handed out a bottle of ointment: “For you.”

“Oh, thank you.” Lu Shi Qing had a smile on his face as if he was welcoming an official envoy, reached out to take it with a good attitude.

She also returned his very polite smile: “Please take your time, I’ll take my leave.”

“Please walk slowly, forgive me for not escorting farther.”

The two finished their conversation stiffly, and when the curtain closed, one broke into a run towards the river bank, and the other plunged into the bedding.

Halfway through the long night, no one slept in the carriage. Lu Shi Qing said that it was actually quite refreshing outside, and Yuan Ci Xian also quite agreed, so the two of them moved the low stool to sit, and calmed down under the moon for the rest of the night, without talking to each other.

At dawn Yuan Ci Xian, as if relieved from a burden, said goodbye to Lu Shi Qing with a solemn face: “The road ahead is long, Assistant Minister Lu please take care.”

Lu Shi Qing still smiled: “County Princess too.”

Zhao Shu was squatting on the ground, boringly pulled out the grass, he elbowed Cao An: “What’s the matter with Master and County Princess? It seems that something is weird.”

Cao An looked back and shook his head: “I don’t know.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he was beckoned by Lu Shi Qing, and was ordered to escort Yuan Ci Xian out of the Shangzhou’s border.

Yuan Ci Xian wanted to refuse, but she really couldn’t look directly at Lu Shi Qing right now. The scene from last night kept lingering in her head, even if he was now neatly dressed, he seemed to be naked to her.

Because she was embarrassed in her heart, she didn’t say anything, and took Xiao Hei with her as if fleeing, leaving Cao An to follow behind.

In fact, Yuan Yu did not worry that she was going out of the city alone. On this trip there were not only Xiao Hei and Shi Cui, but also ten other guards accompanying her. Her horse was also tied further away. She estimated that Lu Shi Qing should have guessed this point, so she just asked Cao An to urge his horse to keep pace with hers and had not consider how she would go back.

Yuan Ci Xian’s men were waiting ten miles away, and when they saw that the time was almost there, they rushed to meet her, and soon ran into her. Seeing this, she reined in her horse and said to Cao An who followed silently behind: “Brother Cao, my guards are here. Assistant Minister Lu lacks people around him more than me, please go back.”

Unexpectedly this person was quite stubborn, seeing that she had many followers, he also resolutely refused to disobey his master’s words, and must send her off Shangzhou with his own eyes.

Yuan Ci Xian couldn’t persuade him, so she just let it go. She pulled the rein and was about to continue to whip, but she inadvertently lowered her head, and saw that there were many potholes and depressions in the slightly muddy soil under her feet, extending towards the direction where she and Lu Shi Qing rested last night.

She dismounted again, bent over and twirled a handful of soil, rubbed it between her fingers, and brought it to her nose to sniff.

Seeing that her expression was wrong, Shi Cui asked: “Young lady, what’s wrong?”

She squatted on the ground and scraped the dirt a few times, and judged: “It’s a fresh horseshoe print, one-way, and the number is not less than twenty, covering the wheel marks.” She looked up at the ten guards who were sitting high on the horse and waiting in front, “Has our horse been here before?”

Shi Cui shook her head: “No.”

She frowned and looked around: “That’s weird. From the look of it, this group of people should have passed by Assistant Minister Lu. There is only one road from here onwards, and I hardly slept last night. If there were dozens of people passing by, there’s no reason why I can’t see them.” After she said that, she asked Cao An, “Brother Cao, did anyone pass by you before I came?”

Cao An shook his head, got off the horse, and inspected the traces under his feet. He said with a serious expression: “County Princess, afraid this servant has to go back first.”

Yuan Ci Xian stood up suspiciously: “What do you mean?”

He seemed a little anxious: “This servant is worried about Master.”

Yuan Ci Xian paused for a moment, beckoned the guards to follow, and then said: “I’ll go back with you.”

If a group of people indeed rode past this place last night but did not show up by the river, there was only one possibility—they were hiding nearby. As for what this group of people might do, seeing Cao An’s nervous appearance, Yuan Ci Xian understood without asking.

She turned her horse’s head, raised her hand and raised her whip. The guards followed closely behind, and when they were about three miles away, she suddenly waved her hand and stopped them.

Shi Cui and Cao An pressed their horses’ belly and stepped forward, with question mark on their faces, then heard her say: “No.”

She finished speaking to herself, then turned her head and asked Cao An: “It rained yesterday, Assistant Minister Lu passed by here before the rain or after the rain?”

His complexion changed drastically, and he said affirmatively: “Before the rain.”

Then after the rain, the wheel marks must have disappeared, why was the horseshoe marks covering the wheel marks just now, and it was so clear?

Her heart was beating like a drum, and she looked carefully ahead. Then not far away she saw a very thin silver silk thread stretched above the mud. The silk thread was wrapped around a fairly hidden pillar that was nailed deep in the mud on each side of the road, one left and one right. If she had just rode her horse over in a hurry, she might have tripped over.

As soon as she made the sound of falling from the horse, the enemies who were lying in ambush would take advantage of the situation.

What the other party wanted was not Lu Shi Qing, but her.

Shi Cui and Cao An also sensed something was wrong, and surrounded Yuan Ci Xian with vigilant eyes.

But in the end, the enemy was in the dark, and although she had not been fooled by the horse rope, she had already fallen into the opponent’s sight. Soon, the sound of “clip-clop” horseshoes sounded one after the other, and in the blink of an eye, a group of men in black clothes had already surrounded them.

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