CHAPTER 50: CHAPTER 49: WHAT ARE THESE GOVERNORS HERE FOR?

Ruan Mian walked over, Mrs. Zhang hurriedly took her hand, extremely worried: "Mianmian, are you alright?"

Ruan Qingsong and Mrs. Chen were also very worried about her: "Just now Ruan Qing said you went to handle some affairs and haven’t appeared until now. I wanted to find you, but these governors came here."

"Governor?" This place is remote and distant from Hui City; how could a few signal arrows make them arrive so quickly?

Unless... these people were following nearby all along, but who released those signal arrows?

Ruan Qingsong had the same doubts.

He was about to say something when Guo Yong came to count the people.

Ruan Mian took the opportunity to ask: "Lord, what are these governors doing here?"

Guo Yong said with relief: "Fortunately, we have these governors. They came from Luzhou, initially to catch those deserters. Just now, the deserters ran towards the direction I pointed, and now we are safe."

Ruan Mian felt something was wrong; Pan Chen and the others fled privately, and this matter hasn’t reached Capital City yet. There is no court order from Luzhou to capture them.

Moreover, Pan Chen and the others could leisurely camp here; if they were really being captured, they would have been caught long ago.

Thinking of that signal arrow, Ruan Mian had a vague guess in her heart.

However, at this moment, after counting heads, the officers found that a few people were missing.

One was Aunt Chen from Uncle’s Mansion, and Li Ming, along with Qi Nanfeng from Qi Mansion.

"Wasn’t Mr. Huang in the tent on the far left?"

When Ruan Mian left last, he was still unconscious.

But the officer shook his head: "Did that kid run away?! Damn it! When we went to check, there was nothing in the tent!"

Run away? He was bound tightly and unconscious, how could he have run away in such a short time?

Ruan Mian glanced at Shaoxi, just as she was about to ask, suddenly two governors carried a female corpse over, eyes wide open in death.

On closer inspection, it was none other than Aunt Chen from Uncle’s Mansion!

She was covered with a bellyband, and the women present blushed deeply, gasping in shock and dared not look further.

Ruan Mian noticed the strangulation marks on Aunt Chen’s neck and some scratches on her face, clearly left by fingernails.

Just then, a sharp-eyed officer saw the conspicuous character "Yan" on the bellyband and immediately teased.

"Old Madam Li, is this your younger son’s name? Where is your younger son?"

Old Madam Li, upon seeing this, felt utterly embarrassed!

This was tantamount to telling everyone that Aunt Chen and her younger son had an illicit affair.

And the younger son missing, Aunt Chen dead, isn’t the murderer...

"Wretched! How can Uncle’s Mansion tolerate such a woman!! Get rid of her immediately!"

The old madam roared in anger, Mrs. Wang and others came forward to comfort her, but Ruan Mian’s gaze was fixed on the slightly turbulent river.

She called Guo Yong and advised him: "Lord, perhaps you should search along the downstream."

Guo Yong glanced at her, hurriedly found two companions to search, and sure enough, not long after, they found Li Ming’s drowned body near a protruding stone downstream.

Old Madam Li’s eyes went dark and she instantly fainted.

Just at this moment, Qi Nanfeng emerged from the bushes, disheveled and limping.

Mrs. Liu ran over without a word: "Son! Where have you been? Scared me to death! As long as you’re alright, that’s all that matters!!"

Qi Nanfeng, vacant-eyed, was supported by Mrs. Cheng to rest aside, completely disregarding Uncle’s Mansion’s predicament.

As he passed by Ruan Mian and the others, Ruan Mian smelled a faint medicinal scent on him.

She frowned slightly.

Yet the next moment, Qi Lin, upon seeing Qi Nanfeng, suddenly lost control, like a madman, fiercely threw stones at him!!

Shouting: "Retribution, this is retribution Qi Nanfeng, you can even betray your own sister, you are that unforgivable villain!"

Qi Nanfeng stood up in anger, murder intent evident.

Mrs. Cheng quickly stopped him and forcibly pushed Qi Lin aside reprimanding: "That’s your brother! What nonsense are you spouting!"

"My brother? Who is my brother... My brother is the one who wants to kill me... hahaha..."

Qi Lin, extremely agitated, became even more incoherent, clutching officers while laughing: "Lord, my brother wants to sell me, he is worse than an animal..."

Qi Lin was already insane, and now even more so, others were unwilling to approach her, only Mrs. Liu didn’t want her to cause trouble, and tied her up with a belt.

Despite two people dying in the team, nothing changed, those officers were not surprised, as death along the exile path was normal.

As long as it didn’t delay the journey, everything else was irrelevant.

Thus, after the governors left, they were ordered to continue their journey through the night.

With the snow easing, they could go as far as possible.

Against the biting chill, they restarted their journey.

Ruan Mian and Cui Zhu tidied up supplies, temporarily burned some charcoal to place in a small heater.

When handing it to Ruan Qingsong, he pulled her aside and quietly cautioned: "Mianmian, you must be particularly vigilant against Qi Nanfeng."

"Brother, why suddenly say this?"

"To be honest, I saw Qi Nanfeng went into Mr. Huang’s tent earlier, but amidst the chaos, when I went back to the tent I found nobody inside, so I suspect..."

"You are correct."

Ruan Mian withheld her smile; the moment she smelled the unusual medicinal scent on Qi Nanfeng, she had already unraveled some of his schemes.

"Earlier I smelled a peculiar scent on him, and if I’m not mistaken, it’s some precious herbal medicine. These governors were likely summoned by him."

Ruan Qingsong was mildly startled: "If he has connections behind the scenes, aren’t you in the most danger!?"

"Technically yes, but he hasn’t exposed any weakness so far, maybe he’s up to something big. Since he doesn’t reveal, I’ll preemptively guard against him, at least keep a close watch on him first."

To prevent him from causing any disturbances amidst the crowd and chaos.

Once they reach Luzhou, perhaps she will have a way to expose Qi Nanfeng’s cunning plan!

"Mianmian, I’m still worried about you."

"Brother, trust me." She softly confided something to Ruan Qingsong.

Since the exile journey started, Ruan Qingsong felt his sister seemed like the pillar of the family, inherently possessing a convincing ability.

Thus, under her determined gaze, Ruan Qingsong followed her arrangement.

···

They journeyed until dawn, Qi Nanfeng showed no signs, only Qi Lin occasionally cursed.

And on the side of Uncle’s Mansion, it was said that Old Madam Li was severely affected, with the mansion’s women taking turns to support her walking.

But Ruan Jiao was more diligent than usual, no longer under Aunt Chen’s oppression, she proactively accompanied the old madam, even carrying her a short distance.