The candles in the room were lit again. Feiyun and Feiyu's wounds were not serious, and there was no poison on the hidden weapons.
Presumably those people were in a hurry to escape and didn't care about taking lives.
Feiyun was more seriously injured. A sharp knife was stuck in his chest. Fortunately, his armor had worked. The wound was only a few inches deep, but it just looked like there was a lot of bleeding.
The two covered their wounds and knelt on the ground again, kowtowing to the woman to plead for forgiveness. But the woman knew that this matter was not entirely the fault of Feiyun and Feiyu, so she symbolically deducted their salaries and let them go back to rest.
Shen Linyi let out a sigh. Their plan had failed tonight, and they had alerted the enemy. Presumably they wouldn't come back for a while.
But not catching one of them made Shen Linyi feel a bit regretful.
"Smack!"
Shen Linyi felt a heavy weight on her shoulder and a stinging pain. She almost was knocked to the ground by that force.
"Hey! We're practically friends who've shared life - and - death tonight. My name is Liu Jingxian. I'm the daughter of the vice - minister of the Ministry of Finance. You've saved me, so from now on we're friends in the jianghu!"
"What about you? How should I address you?"
Shen Linyi hesitated for a moment and said softly, "My surname is Shen, and my name is... Linyi."
Liu Jingxian slapped Shen Linyi on the shoulder boldly and sat down beside her affectionately. There was no trace of fear of almost losing her chastity in her eyes, only excitement.
God knows that her only dream since childhood had been to become a chivalrous woman roaming the jianghu.
When she was a child, she climbed trees to steal bird eggs, went into the river to catch fish, waved a wooden stick as if it were a sword, and disguised herself as a chivalrous woman in the alley to drive away the big kids who bullied the little ones.
But as she grew older, her father ended his term of service away from the capital and returned to Shangjing. She could no longer play so recklessly.
Her father renamed her Jingxian, hoping that she would be quiet and gentle...
What happened tonight was the only variable in her otherwise calm life. So for this matter, Liu Jingxian was more excited than scared.
No...
She was just being stubborn...
Liu Jingxian's hands were trembling slightly. Shen Linyi also noticed her uneasiness and quickly reached out to hold her hand tightly.
No woman wouldn't be scared after experiencing such things.
In this world, people attached great importance to a woman's chastity and reputation, especially for an official's daughter like Liu Jingxian. As long as she made one wrong step, she would shame her family and her father and brothers.
"Miss Liu, it's all over. Don't be afraid. Tomorrow you should leave here with your maids and servants and never come back."
"No!" Hearing Shen Linyi's suggestion, Liu Jingxian didn't agree immediately. Instead, she quickly refused. "This nunnery is not simple. I'm a witness. I'm going to expose this place!"
Although she was scared, she also knew that if they let these people continue, who knew how many more women would suffer such disasters.
"My father is a third - rank official in the court. I'm the daughter of an official. People will surely believe what I say. I'm going to ask my father to report this to the Prefect of the Capital and let him come to conduct a thorough investigation!"
Shen Linyi didn't expect Liu Jingxian to have such a character. She couldn't help but feel admiration for her.
But those people still decided to attack her even though they knew her father was a third - rank official. This proved that they didn't take her father seriously. The people behind them might have more power than her father.
Although Shen Linyi felt sorry, she still poured cold water on Liu Jingxian. "Did you hear clearly what those people said outside the door just now?"
"They said they knew your father was a third - rank official, and you were their most important target tonight."
"Miss Liu, do you know what this means?"
Hearing this, Liu Jingxian looked dejected.
"It means... it means even though my father has a high official position, he may not be able to do anything to them..."
"Who on earth... are they..."
Shen Linyi fell silent. She also couldn't bear to let these people go unpunished. Moreover, she had completely offended Qinghe. If she didn't solve the problem of Qinghe, she was afraid she wouldn't have a peaceful life in the future.
After hesitating for a moment, she said to Liu Jingxian, "Maybe... I have a breakthrough here?"
Liu Jingxian straightened her back and looked over quickly.
It was time to punish the evil and promote the good!
Shen Linyi took Liu Jingxian to her own courtyard. At this time, Liuyun had been waiting in the courtyard for a long time. When she saw Shen Linyi come back, she finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Miss, you scared me to death. Why did you come back so late? This... is?"
Shen Linyi introduced them to each other and then took Liu Jingxian into the room.
In the room, Qinghe was still snoring loudly and showed no sign of waking up.
On the way, Liu Jingxian had already heard the whole story from Shen Linyi. After learning that she had deliberately made a scene in the kitchen to overhear this information, she had already labeled Shen Linyi as smart in her heart.
But since Qinghe hadn't woken up yet, they couldn't proceed to the next step. So they could only sit at the table and wait for Qinghe to wake up.
After a whole night of commotion, none of them felt sleepy at all. Since the incident happened, only a little over an hour had passed, and the sky was still dark.
Seeing that it was quiet all around, Shen Linyi bit her lower lip and asked the question that had been on her mind for a long time. "Miss Liu... when we first met, you said I was sent by your father..."
"Oh, that..." When it came to this, Liu Jingxian also remembered what she had said and suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.
Although she had a bold and unrestrained personality, after all, she was a woman. When it came to her sweetheart, she still felt a bit shy.
"Actually, I came here because I didn't want to be controlled by my father. He wants me to marry the son of the Prince of the County, but I have someone else I like. So I ran away and came here to stay for a while."
Liu Jingxian blushed and lowered her head slightly. Her slender fingers kept playing with the tassels on the sachet around her waist, not knowing where to look.
Shen Linyi said softly in as calm a voice as possible, "The man Miss Liu likes, is it the newly - promoted third - place finisher in this year's imperial examination, Lord Wen Heyu?"
Hearing Shen Linyi say the name of her sweetheart, Liu Jingxian buried her head even lower.
She nodded slightly, and the amazing scene when she first met Wen Heyu kept flashing through her mind.
In Liu Jingxian's eyes, Wen Heyu was different from all the young masters in Shangjing. He was down - to - earth, without the slightest arrogance of a noble young master, not to mention his good looks.
Moreover, they had met a few times in the capital and gradually started talking. Liu Jingxian could feel that Wen Heyu also had feelings for her.
But her father refused on the grounds that Wen Heyu had a humble family background and was from a poor family. He also wanted to arrange a betrothal for her with the son of the Prince of the County. How could she agree!
Seeing that Shen Linyi didn't say a word for a long time, Liu Jingxian looked up and saw Shen Linyi's indescribable expression.
Not only that, Liuyun also showed a look of extreme disgust.
When the mistress and the maid heard the name Wen Heyu, it was as if they had seen something disgusting at the same time.