Chapter 100

 

The sword smashed into the ground, stopping the two people’s rolling momentum. At the same time, Yuan Ci Xian heard a clear “click”, like the sound of a bone cracking.

The carriage went over the cliff and crashed down. Her head was dizzy, but she still didn’t feel pain in her grogginess, and after she came to her senses, she realized that the person who was hurt was not herself.

The stone that was going to hit her crushed the hand under her head.

The cracked stone at the edge of the cliff rumbled and collapsed, and half of Zheng Zhuo’s body was hanging outside the cliff, but he still held the handle of the sword and tilted his head to ask her: “Are you hurt?”

Yuan Ci Xian struggled to supported herself up, trying to get out of the way, while avoided injuring his hand further. She shook her head, and gasped: “Your Highness, your right hand…”

Zheng Zhuo said “It’s okay”, then put away the sword and turned over, he took off the black fur cloak he wore, wrapped it around her tightly and said: “You can’t get on the horse now, wait for the carriage to come, it will be soon.”

Yuan Ci Xian nodded with difficulty, holding back the tears, and said breathlessly: “My child…”

The child was not in the carriage. The other party separated their mother and son.

Zheng Zhuo quickly explained: “The opponent’s troops divided into four groups, and went to the four city gates in the south, east, north, and west. This place is the closest to Yongxing Lane on the east road. I was outside the city tonight, and came here as soon as I got the news. The child is in the remaining three roads, your elder brother chased northward, and the people from the Lu Mansion chased westward, and I sent another subordinate to the south road.”

At present, the curfew time had long passed, but fortunately Zheng Zhuo happened to be outside the city to check Lu Shi Qing’s whereabouts. Otherwise, Yuan Yu would have difficulty bringing people out of the city to look for his kidnapped sister.

Yuan Ci Xian was wrapped in a thick fur cloak, but her heart slowly went cold.

Obviously, the other party didn’t want her life. They trapped her in such a carriage, and divided their troops into four groups, just to distract Yuan Yu and Zheng Zhuo’s manpower and attention. In other words, the other party’s ultimate goal was not their mother and son, nor the Yuan family or Zheng Zhuo.

Throwing her and the child as bait, this trick could only be for one person. And the other party even avoided putting the bait in the same basket to make it be fool-proof.

Just like now, Yuan Ci Xian was saved, but the child probably was most likely not yet.

Her heart was burning with anxiety, her lips were trembling, and her voice was already tinged with tears: “Where is he?”

Zheng Zhuo stared at the rapidly approaching carriage on the horizon at the front, and said truthfully, “I don’t know.”

The news he got was the same as the one Yuan Ci Xian got, only until the snow disaster, and then there was no news from Lu Shi Qing after that. Counting, he had been missing for nearly three days.

But they all knew that since the other party chose to throw the bait, it meant that Lu Shi Qing must not have fallen into the enemy’s hands.

The carriage quickly approached, then Zheng Zhuo said: “There are midwife and maid in the carriage to take care of you, you go back home first.” After that, he picked her up and put her into the carriage.

At this time Yuan Ci Xian didn’t have the strength to be shy, and after entering the carriage and laying down, she looked at him pleadingly: “Your Highness, please…”

She also wished she could spread her wings and chase after the child, but she knew that with her current physical condition, she could only add to the chaos. Once she met the opponent, it would make everyone even more restrained.

Zheng Zhuo nodded: “He and the child will return safely.” He then lifted the curtain and came out.

In the carriage, the midwife and maid arranged by Zheng Zhuo hurriedly took over Yuan Ci Xian.

Yuan Ci Xian’s head was as heavy as if it had been filled with water. Before returning to the city, she couldn’t hold back and fell into unconsciousness. When she woke up again, she smelled a strong smell of medicine. She immediately opened her eyes and saw that the sky was bright, then hastily struggled to get up.

Jian Zhi, who was sleeping on the side of her bed, was alarmed and hurriedly shouted outside: “Master, lady is awake!”

Yuan Ci Xian thought she was calling Lu Shi Qing, and the tense strings in her head were loosened, but when she turned around, she saw it was Yuan Yu who walked quickly from the outside. Her heart tightened immediately, and said urgently in a hoarse voice: “Brother, where is the child, where is Lu Shi Qing?”

Yuan Yu had a black bag under his eyes, and he “sighed” when he heard this: “Why, are you disappointed to see that it’s me, your brother?”

His tone seemed to be joking, but Yuan Ci Xian was not in the mood at all, and was so anxious that she was about to cry.

She was really tired and uncomfortable last night, so she thought about sleeping for a while, and then waited for news from Zheng Zhuo and her brother. Who knew she fell asleep until noon the next day.

Seeing this, Yuan Yu was so distressed that he sat down and coaxed: “Everyone is here, everything is fine. Be obedient, don’t worry okay, don’t cry.”

“Really?” It was not Yuan Ci Xian didn’t want to believe it, but if Lu Shi Qing really came back, why didn’t he stay by her side.

Yuan Yu coughed lowly, and his expression was slightly unnatural: “Of course it’s true. The little nephew didn’t catch cold, he’s just lying in the rocking crib outside. Brother took a closer look, and he looked very much like me when I was young.”

Indeed, logically speaking, if the other party wanted to use the child to trap Lu Shi Qing, they must protect the little baby, which could be counted as blessing in misfortune. Yuan Yu was not a person who could lie, what he said didn’t seem to be false, but he did not mention Lu Shi Qing, which was really unusual.

Yuan Ci Xian was anxious, she lifted the quilt and wanted to go down, but he frowned and pressed her shoulders: “If you still want to live, just lie down properly.” He sighed, and said helplessly, “I said I can’t lie, but still want me to lie to you… Okay, I’ll tell you the truth, but in exchange, you can’t get out of bed now.”

Yuan Ci Xian nodded like pounding garlic after she heard this, and then heard him say, “Lu Zishu is indeed back, but he was injured a little bit. He passed out after watching you here until dawn, and now he’s lying in the next room.”

She wanted to jump down again after hearing this, but remembering what Yuan Yu said just now, she restrained herself: “How is his injury?”

Yuan Yu thought for a while and said, “Alright, I’ll bring it to you, you can see for yourself!”

“…”

Yuan Yu then went out. Jian Zhi saw that Yuan Ci Xian looked confuse, and explained to her what happened last night.

It turned out that the west road and the south road were the diversion tactics played by the other party, and the child was actually sent to the north road chosen by Yuan Yu. But before he caught up with the people, Lu Shi Qing had already confronted them alone.

The other party was playing a trick and threw a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes from nearly thirty feet high. The night was dark and foggy, Lu Shi Qing didn’t dare to take any risks, even if he knew it was probably fake, he lunged at it. The injury was suffered at that time.

Afterwards, he pretended to fall to the ground, and lured the other party to reveal the child’s location. According to his arrangement in advance, Cao An, who was ambushing nearby, took advantage of the situation and rescued the little master.

When Yuan Yu arrived, Cao An had already taken the child and left first, while Lu Shi Qing stayed where he was, using himself as bait to delay the time. Not long after, Zheng Zhuo also arrived and together they helped him escape.

Yuan Ci Xian was already terrified just listening to it, and even more frightened when she thought about Lu Shi Qing’s situation these past few days.

Thinking about it now, the so-called confrontation between the Huihu and Turks armies was actually not a coincidence at all, but a deliberate act by someone with the purpose of killing Lu Shi Qing.

The snow-capped mountain where he disappeared was located on the border of Great Zhou, thousands of miles away from the Zhou’s capital. It took him two and a half days to rush back, during which he neither ate nor drank, slept nor rested, but changed horses constantly and travelled day and night. If she added up the time delayed by the traps he encountered along the way, she could hardly imagine how he came back. When he arrived near Chang’an City and heard the news of her and the child being abducted, she also wondered how he had the strength to rush to their rescue.

Yuan Ci Xian asked Jian Zhi to bring the two children over, and after giving the order, she saw Yuan Yu strode back and really carried Lu Shi Qing in his arms, leaving a trail of surprised eyes from the servants and maids in Lu Mansion behind.

At first she thought that he was just joking, and when she saw this, she stared at him and the unconscious person in his arms for a while with her mouth open before she reacted, and moved to the inside of the bed to make room for Lu Shi Qing.

Unexpectedly, Lu Shi Qing did not wake up early or late, but just when Yuan Yu was about to lay him down on the bed, he opened his eyes and saw his face magnified several times, rolled over in shock, and fell on the bed with a “bang”.

Yuan Ci Xian was startled, and hurriedly came to check him: “Did you fall?”

Lu Shi Qing almost crippled his arm last night, and suffered internal injuries due to the impact of the stone. In terms of body condition, he was not much better than Yuan Ci Xian, and now with this fall, he certainly sees stars.

But he woke up as soon as he heard the voice, and almost scrambled to his feet, “Are you awake? Do you feel better?”

He didn’t dare to call her before, only waited for her to have enough sleep, but he didn’t expect that before she woke up, he himself couldn’t hold back the sleep. At this time, he had not figured out the situation yet, and probably thought he hadn’t left at all.

Yuan Ci Xian curled her lips, and reached out to touch his face, which had lost a lot of weight: “I’m fine.”

Lu Shi Qing choked when he heard that. While she was asleep, the doctor came to see her and said that she had suffered so much that she really damaged her foundations. She was able to save her life only because of her good health. However, she must not conceive again for three to five years, and after that, she must take good care of herself during the postpartum period. Last night, she was rescued in time, but if it was a little bit late, the root cause of the disease would fall, and the body would be easily get weak and cold in winter.

With this trip to the gate of hell’s experience, Lu Shi Qing originally didn’t intend to make her suffer anymore. Now that they have a pair child, it doesn’t matter if she didn’t have children for three to five years or even for a lifetime. Worse come to worse, even if they didn’t have a child yet, as long as she was alright, he would be fine without one, only in the future when he went to the underworld, he would apologize to the ancestors of the Lu family.

Seeing that he was choked up and unable to speak, Yuan Ci Xian smiled and said: “I’m really fine, look at me, I’m still fatter than you.”

Lu Shi Qing couldn’t hold back anymore, pulled her into his arms, and kept stroking her shoulder: “I’m sorry, I broke my promise.”

She gave birth ten days earlier, she really didn’t have the reason to settle this account, but she still raised her head and pretended to be angry: “Then will you still run around in the future?”

Lu Shi Qing looked down at her, shook his head, and said seriously, “I’ll be wherever you are.”

“You will take me everywhere you go?”

He nodded, “Take you everywhere I go.”

Yuan Ci Xian snuggled against his chest and laughed: “But I don’t want to go to the toilet with you!”

“…”

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