After seeing Caixue that day, he knew that Zhao Luoning had taken someone else's place and been captured by Sima Yi.
The good news was that the people he sent out to inquire said that Sima Yi's subordinates were also looking for someone.
Presumably Zhao Luoning had managed to escape.
Ji Shisu felt a bit more relieved.
However, his relief had an expiration date until he saw Zhao Luoning in person.
After the people he sent out disappeared like stones sinking into the sea without a single bit of news, this man who was extremely eager to protect his wife began to panic.
Caixue and Feixing also realized that something was wrong. They begged the general to send a team of guards to help look for her.
But Zhao Luoning seemed to have evaporated from the world. There wasn't even a single trace left.
Considering Zhao Luoning's meritorious service in protecting the emperor and the fact that she was Ji Shisu's law - wedded wife, the general had no choice but to post a wanted poster with both her male and female portraits.
Outsiders just thought that a pair of siblings had gone missing.
Only those who knew the inside story knew that they were looking for just one person!
It was at this time that Shu Danqing found out that the second young master of the Zhao family, with whom he had always been on brotherly terms, was actually a woman in disguise.
The portrait was naturally drawn by Ji Shisu himself. He paid the reward money out of his own pocket, and it increased day by day.
But as days passed, and the reward had reached a crazy level, no one dared to claim it.
However, Zhao Luoning didn't know about these things. After hearing the news that Princess Nuobu had been found and was well - protected by General Lian, she felt relieved.
She originally wanted to ask someone to take the news of her safety out, but she was also afraid that the person she entrusted might not handle the matter well and instead attract the people from Sima Manor.
Although Sima Yi had let her go, Sima Manor would never let her off.
Zhao Luoning was quite clear about this.
She decided to wait until she recovered from her injuries and then go out to see the situation for herself.
While there was chaos in Shiguan because of Zhao Luoning, Sima Yi, who had already returned to Sima Manor, was unaware of it.
Of course, he didn't have the mind to care about so many things either.
The mission to kidnap Caixue had failed. All that awaited him was his adoptive father's cold face and the terrifying punishment from Sima Manor.
Sima Yi couldn't remember how many days he had been locked in the dungeon.
The so - called dungeon was an abandoned basement in Sima Manor.
It used to be a place to store gold and silver treasures. Later, because of water seepage, all the money was transferred elsewhere, and then it became a dungeon specifically for holding those who had made mistakes.
This place had existed since the establishment of Sima Manor.
Over the years, countless people had been thrown into the dungeon.
The already small dungeon was long filled with累累白骨.
These were all people who had starved to death.
The gas produced by the decaying bodies and the resentment of those before they died formed a powerful miasma in this dungeon.
Year after year, this miasma turned into poison gas. Although it wouldn't kill a person immediately, it made those who entered it suffer more than death.
Even using internal energy to adjust one's breath couldn't stop the invasion of the miasma.
After staying in this place for less than an hour, a person would see many illusions.
Most of them were the things they were most afraid of in their lives or the things they had always longed for but couldn't get.
No matter how highly skilled in martial arts a person was before being thrown into the dungeon, once inside, no one could last more than three days.
They either died from the poison gas invading their heart meridians and bleeding from their seven orifices.
Or they couldn't bear the pain and torture in the illusions and committed self - harm.
Before Sima Yi entered, only one person had the luck to survive. That person had been locked in the dungeon for less than half a day and was later proven innocent and released.
But when he came out, he had gone insane and shouted all day on the manor about how terrifying the dungeon was.
His words, combined with the shrill screams that often came from the dungeon, made this place a place that everyone in Sima Manor feared.
At the moment, Sima Yi had been inside for a day and a night.
Sima Yi wasn't dead yet, but he was half - dead.
Whenever he was about to lose consciousness, Sima Yi would stab his leg with a knife.
The sharp pain bought him a brief moment of clarity.
But the pain all over his body had made him too weak to even have the courage to pick up the knife.
His consciousness was getting more and more blurred. He was finally about to reach his limit.
Looking back on his life, the words he had said when he let Zhao Luoning go that day had unexpectedly become a prophecy for him.
He had lost his whole life because of her.
But Sima Yi knew in his heart that in the end, it was all just his wishful thinking.
He had always used arrogance to cover up his inferiority complex, as if as long as he acted wealthy and powerful, others wouldn't notice his humble origin and he wouldn't be looked down upon.
But later he realized that the one who had always looked down on him was himself.
Sima Yi was very clear that no matter how glorious he was now, in terms of his origin, he was unworthy of Zhao Luoning.
He had once been just a little street beggar. By chance, he had met his adoptive father.
His adoptive father had taken him in as his adopted son and given him a place to stay.
So he had to repay his adoptive father's life - saving grace.
Enter the court, go to Huangcheng, and marry Ji Shihan.
As long as it was what his adoptive father asked, he would do it.
The only time he had been willful was that he hadn't listened to his adoptive father and gone directly to the Ji Mansion to propose marriage to Ji Shihan.
These few months of delay had caused problems.
Because he had met Zhao Luoning.
However, this wrong move was so sweet that it was irresistible.
Even if he knew that he would be reduced to ashes the next second, he was willing to use his last bit of strength to be the moth flying into the fire.
Willingly and without regret.
At this moment, the figure of Zhao Luoning appeared in front of Sima Yi.
She smiled at him and reached out her hand.
It was like a ray of white light in a pitch - black world.
This light was so brief.
So brief that Sima Yi didn't even have time to figure out whether it was an illusion drawn by the miasma or real.
A sweet and fishy liquid welled up in his throat.
He knew what it was and what it meant.
Loyalty and love. He had lived his whole life for these two things.
But he seemed to have failed at both.
His adoptive father was disappointed in him, and the woman he loved hated him.
He didn't blame his adoptive father for punishing him.
He just regretted that his life was ending in such a muddled way.
At the entrance of the dungeon, several people who usually served Sima Yi were as anxious as ants on a hot pan.
They stood guard at the door, neither daring to go in nor willing to leave.
Sima Yi was really tough. He hadn't even shouted for mercy once, which made those guarding outside even more worried. They didn't know whether he was dead or alive.
"Has the master of the manor not released him yet?"
Liu Qingyun appeared at the dungeon door.
She originally didn't want to get involved in the feud between the father and son.
If she hadn't accidentally heard that Sima Yi had made a mistake because of Zhao Luoning, she wouldn't have come to inquire.
When she was half - invited and half - kidnapped into Sima Manor, the maids had vividly described to her how terrifying this dungeon was and repeatedly told her not to get close.
It was said that an ordinary person couldn't last more than three days.
When they saw Liu Qingyun, those people seemed to see the Goddess of Mercy. These tough men actually knelt on the ground in unison.
"Princess, please save the young master."
No wonder they were grasping at straws.
At the moment, the only one who seemed able to save Sima Yi was Princess Anning in front of them.