"Who... who are you??"
After seeing Shen Linyi enter the room, the lady on the couch first hurriedly hid the book in her hand under the small blanket.
Then, she fumbled to tidy up her clothes in a hurry before asking.
Hearing the meows of the wild cats outside getting louder and louder, Shen Linyi reacted and quickly explained, "Miss, I'm also a pilgrim here. But I accidentally found that the nuns here have colluded with outsiders to harm the female pilgrims. If you don't believe me, please check if your maids have been knocked out."
The lady looked highly vigilant. Obviously, she didn't believe Shen Linyi's words.
"What a joke! I've stayed in this Jingxin Nunnery for more than ten times, and I've never encountered what you described. Are you sent by my father to deceive me?"
"Give up. Go back and tell my father that even if he finds more people to act, I won't go home. Unless he agrees to let me marry Lord Wen, the top - ranked imperial scholar in the palace examination!"
Hearing the name Wen Heyu, Shen Linyi was slightly stunned.
But this was not the time to dwell on this matter. Without thinking much, Shen Linyi quickly grabbed the lady's hand and led her to the room where the maids lived.
"Miss, did anyone bring you supper tonight?"
"I see you're so energetic now. You probably didn't eat it, but your maids weren't so lucky."
The lady opened the door of the maids' room. Originally, she was full of disbelief, but when she saw her maids lying unconscious on the tables and chairs in a disorderly manner, she began to believe a bit.
She rushed forward and shook the maids lying on the ground, "Tian Lan, Tian Qing! Wake up!!"
But no matter how she shook them, the maids lying on the ground remained unresponsive, sleeping soundly as if in a coma and snoring softly.
The lady was so frightened that her face turned pale. "These maids were specially found for me by my father. They all know some martial arts and usually don't sleep so soundly."
She carefully recalled what happened tonight. It seemed that the nunnery, which never served supper on normal days, had actually served many portions tonight. Originally, there were portions for the guards too, but since the guards didn't like sweet things, they didn't eat them.
And she also didn't eat anything at night to keep fit, so she didn't eat the supper either.
Realizing that she had been plotted against, the lady gritted her teeth and suddenly stood up. She rushed out of the house, took out a special leaf and blew it a few times, making a low whistling sound.
But after blowing it several times in a row, there was still no response around.
The lady was so angry that she picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at a big tree in the yard.
Shen Linyi was stunned by the lady's fierce actions and didn't know what to do for a moment. She just stared blankly as the lady threw five or six stones at the tree.
After a while, the stones she threw seemed to finally hit something. After two rustling sounds, two guards fell from the tree.
Seeing their lady looking at them angrily, the two guards didn't care about their sore butts. They immediately woke up from their drowsiness and kowtowed for mercy. "Please spare our lives, miss. We've been pretending to be secret guards in the tree for several nights in a row. We were really exhausted and just took a little nap."
"Yes, miss. We really don't know any light - body skills. These bugs have bitten us beyond recognition in the past few days. Please spare us, miss."
The two kept kowtowing and begging for mercy, which made the lady so angry that her face turned red.
"You!! You actually fell asleep! Didn't I give you extra pay? Are you so lazy? Is it really that difficult for you to just pretend to be highly - skilled secret guards?!"
Hearing the conversation between the lady and her servants, Shen Linyi couldn't help but twitch the corners of her mouth under the veil.
She originally thought that all the noble ladies in the capital were well - behaved or elegant and steady young ladies. Who would have thought there would be such a strange one.
She even paid the guards extra silver to climb the tree and pretend to be secret guards. Then, the guards she observed in the tree just now were all for show?
No wonder those people came up with the idea of using wild cats to attract the guards away. They must have observed for several days and knew that these guards were just for appearance.
Suddenly, there were some unusual sounds outside the yard. Shen Linyi knew that it was Liuyun reminding her that those people were getting closer.
So she pulled the lady over and whispered a few words in her ear.
The lady nodded repeatedly upon hearing this. She commanded the two guards who were still kowtowing and begging for mercy to pick up sticks and hide in the dark. Then, she pulled Shen Linyi and quickly ran back into the room. After that, she blew out the candle.
The noise they made in the yard just now was completely covered by the meows of the wild cats.
After the candle was blown out, there was no other sound except the meows of the wild cats.
The lady led Shen Linyi to hide under the couch. The lady seemed afraid that Shen Linyi would make a sound, so she reached out and tightly covered Shen Linyi's mouth.
From their angle, they could just see the shadows on the ground cast by the moonlight through the window.
After a moment of silence, they clearly saw several figures outside the window flit by silently and extremely quickly.
When seeing this scene, the lady's hand covering Shen Linyi's mouth trembled twice. Shen Linyi subconsciously thought that the lady was scared, so she patted her hand to comfort her.
"Quick! You three go in. Take off that lady's bellyband and write the mark bigger. She's our most important target tonight. Once we deal with her, the others don't matter."
Shen Linyi recognized that it was the voice of the leader.
Then the door creaked open, and three pairs of boots stepped in from outside. They quickly moved towards the couch in front of Shen Linyi.
At the same time, Shen Linyi heard the lady's rapid breathing in her ear.
Those people lifted the quilt on the bed but found that there was no one on it. Shen Linyi heard the old dog's exclamation, "Damn it, this woman isn't here!"
Hearing the old dog's voice, the leader outside immediately reacted. "Run! We've fallen into a trap!"
The three pairs of boots quickly flitted past Shen Linyi again. Soon, the sound of fighting came from outside.
Shen Linyi was just about to crawl out when the lady grabbed her hand. "Don't be in a hurry. Although Feiyun and Feiyu don't know light - body skills, they're very good at grappling. They'll catch these people. You'll get hurt if you go out."
"Ah!!"
But just as the lady finished speaking, Feiyun's pained cry came from outside.
The lady immediately crawled out on all fours before Shen Linyi could react.
Shen Linyi was a bit speechless about the lady's capricious personality, but she also quickly ran out.
At this time, Feiyun and Feiyu had each been hit by several hidden weapons and were lying on the ground unable to move, while those people had used their light - body skills to jump over the wall and leave.
The whole process was fast and quiet, leaving no trace at all.