The woman before her eyes was no sixty-year-old matron at all. Instead, she was a charming young maiden!
Recalling the "fugitive" that the black-armored soldiers had been searching for everywhere recently, the woman from the Wang family immediately guessed something and turned pale with fright.
Song Yihuan had been prepared when she came back with the woman. Seeing the woman from the Wang family looking at her fearfully, she guessed that the latter must have guessed something.
She secretly pinched herself. The pain from her leg instantly made her eyes redden. She got up and knelt before the woman from the Wang family, sobbing in a low voice:
"Sister Wang, please, save me!"
Her voice was as clear and melodious as a mountain spring. Coupled with her graceful figure, even with the face of a sixty-year-old woman, her sobbing words were enough to arouse people's pity.
The woman from the Wang family didn't expect her to kneel before her. She was originally a bit scared, but now she became panicked. "Auntie, no, miss, what are you doing? Get up quickly!"
In the blink of an eye, Song Yihuan was in floods of tears. She tightly held the woman from the Wang family's hand and shook her head. "No, I won't get up. I only beg you, sister, to help me. I don't want to die. I don't want to be captured by those people. I don't want to go back to that purgatory!"
The woman from the Wang family was kind-hearted. Seeing her cry like this, she felt compassion. "Get up first and tell me what's going on. Only then can I decide whether to help you or not!"
Song Yihuan knew there was hope. She stood up with the woman's support and sat down beside the bed with her. Wiping the tears on her face, she sobbed:
"Actually, I'm not a fugitive, let alone a spy from the Northern Di. I'm just a poor wretch."
The woman from the Wang family picked up a handkerchief and handed it to her. She listened as Song Yihuan told her story:
"I was originally the eighth concubine of the second master of the Wu family. I didn't want to be his concubine at all. However, my family drugged me and sent me there in a daze. By the time I woke up, it was already a done deal. But that second master of the Wu family is a scoundrel. He showed me no tenderness at all and often beat me. Once, he almost beat me to death. Sister, look, there are still scars on my neck and wrists."
Song Yihuan still had the wounds left by Cui Muyuan and Song Nanxin, which were very convincing.
The woman from the Wang family looked and immediately got angry. "What a beast! It's bad enough that he forced you, but he treated you like this!"
"Some time ago, I accidentally learned that the second master of the Wu family was going to send me to his subordinates for fun, saying that it would be worth it even if they played me to death. How could I endure such humiliation? So I took advantage of the chaos in the city and quietly ran away. But I didn't expect that the second master of the Wu family still wouldn't let me go. He actually slandered me as a fugitive and asked the officials outside to capture me."
"Sister, you're also a woman. You should be able to understand my pain. I don't want to go back to that den of devils, and I don't want to lose my life in such a humiliating way. Please, help me!" Song Yihuan cried bitterly.
Although the woman from the Wang family sympathized with Song Yihuan's experience, she also knew her own limitations. "But those outside are all officers and soldiers. How can I fight against them? And how can I help you?"
Song Yihuan said, "Yesterday, I managed to deceive them by disguising myself as an old woman. I thought I would be safe, but I didn't expect them to bring hunting dogs today. I have a natural body fragrance, and I mustn't let those hunting dogs smell it. Just now, I heard that you have medicinal wine at home. I have an idea. Maybe we can deceive those dogs."
She whispered something in the woman from the Wang family's ear. The woman immediately said, "This method is good. I'll help you right away!"
Song Yihuan's method was very simple. She just wanted to smear the medicinal wine all over her body to cover up the apricot blossom fragrance. The medicinal wine had a strong and pungent smell, and the hunting dogs wouldn't want to get close to her. In this way, she could avoid the search.
She took off her clothes, and her fair and graceful body appeared before her eyes. There was still a faint, pleasant fragrance wafting towards her. Smelling the fragrance, the woman from the Wang family was even a bit dazed.
It was imaginable how attractive this girl's face was for that Second Master Wu to insist on capturing her and torturing her.
Coming back to her senses, the woman from the Wang family was very nimble. She quickly smeared the medicinal wine all over Song Yihuan's body. The strong smell of the medicine covered Song Yihuan up, making people frown.
The woman from the Wang family leaned in and smelled. "I can only smell the fragrance of the medicinal wine. I think it should be okay."
But Song Yihuan didn't dare to take it lightly. She had seen how powerful the hunting dogs raised by the black-armored army were. This alone wasn't enough to deceive them.
Suddenly, she said again, "Do you have any clothes for an old woman at home?"
The woman from the Wang family said, "Yes, yes, yes. I'll go get them for you right away."
After a while, she brought a set of well-worn coarse cloth clothes. "These were the clothes my mother-in-law wore before she passed away. She's gone, but I couldn't bear to throw them away. If you don't mind, just put them on."
Without hesitation, Song Yihuan immediately changed into the clothes the woman from the Wang family had brought. She stuffed cotton wool and straw back in and regained her previous bloated appearance.
Then, she asked the woman from the Wang family for a charcoal brazier and threw the clothes and pants she had just worn into the fire and burned them clean. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Just as she finished doing this, someone knocked on the door of the house. "Is anyone at home? The government is conducting a routine inspection to search for the whereabouts of a fugitive. Please cooperate."
The voice of a child calling came from outside. "Mother, the government officials are here!"
Song Yihuan and the woman from the Wang family looked at each other. Seeing Song Yihuan nod, the woman from the Wang family swallowed hard and became nervous. "Then, then I'll go open the door."
Song Yihuan patted her hand reassuringly. "Don't be afraid. Just say that I accidentally fell into a well while doing laundry just now. You saw that I was all alone and very pitiful, so you brought me home to apply medicine. Don't say anything else."
The woman from the Wang family nodded, took a deep breath, tidied her hair, and then opened the door. She took her two children with her to open the door.
She took a bit long to answer the door. When she opened it, the black-armored soldiers outside looked at her sharply. "Why did it take you so long to open the door?"
As he spoke, the hunting dog led by the soldier barked once, which gave the woman from the Wang family a big scare. Her two children were also startled and started crying and hiding behind her.
"I, hiccup, just now, hiccup, was inside the house..." The woman from the Wang family was so scared that she started hiccupping.
Song Yihuan helplessly rubbed her forehead. Sure enough, they were just ordinary people in the market. They had never seen the world and couldn't stand being scared. If she were the soldier outside, she would definitely be suspicious.
Forget it. It seemed that she still had to step in.
Song Yihuan got up and was about to go out to deal with it when she heard a familiar voice from outside:
"What's going on? You've scared these common people like this?"
Song Yihuan's heart skipped a beat, and she instantly panicked.
It was Ji Lingchuan!
Why did he come here in person?!