C134

Xiao San looked up as if he did not dare believe that she would speak up for him and Murong Shan.

Not only did he feel this was inconceivable, Xiao Yi and the Xiao Er also revealed looks of surprise.

Xiao Jingyue lowered his head, facing Qu Ling's jet-black eyes, the expression on his face gradually eased up.

He would reject everyone in the world, but he would not reject her.

He acknowledged her words softly, held her in his arms and walked her up the stairs while instructing the stunned postman, "Bring the dishes up here."

"Yes, sir."

After Xiao Jingyue and his figure disappeared from the staircase, only then did Chen Linye remind him: "Stop staring blankly, hurry up and use your technique to force the poison out."

Xiao San did not utter a word, and silently stood up.

Murong Shan's expression was complicated as he stared at the stairs for a while. Then, he retracted his gaze and said: Hurry and force the poison, as for the latrine …

She paused, showing a constipated expression, then gritted her teeth and said, "I'll go sweep!"

This was not the first time anyway, it was just cleaning the latrine, it was much better than being driven back!

After this event, in the next few days, Murong Shan became even more obedient.

No matter if it was the journey or the camping, they were all hiding from Qu Ling, and did not dare to clash with her again.

Qu Ling could not be bothered with her. Along the way, he trained with Xiao Jingyue or studied the Gu techniques in his mother's booklet.

The journey of seven to eight days passed just like that.

Huai River was located in Tongwei Prefecture in the south. Although there was no snow, the freezing cold of rainy weather was not any less than that of Qijing's snowy sky.

The two carriages, one big and one small, stopped outside of the city gate under the gaze of hundreds of pairs of eyes.

Xiao Er looked at the tightly shut city gate, then looked at the commoners huddled up below the city wall, frowned, and said in a low voice: "Master, the city gate is closed."

After a pause, he added, "There are a lot of civilians squatting outside the city gates."

Xiao Jingyue who was sitting steadily in the carriage frowned, pushed aside the curtain and climbed out.

Seeing that, Qu Ling also pulled up his cape and followed along.

When they clearly saw the situation outside, the space between their eyebrows twisted up.

Murong Shan came out of the small carriage at the back. After looking at the scene in front of him clearly, he was startled for a bit, but he quickly understood what was going on.

She walked to the carriage in front and whispered, "I'm afraid these people are the people who were originally living in the riverbank."

Qu Ling looked at her, then jumped down the horse carriage and walked to the side of the road. He bent down to look at the family of three who were wrapped in quilts, and asked gently: "Big brother, may I ask, big sister, why are you staying here?"

The couple looked at Qu Ling's beautiful face, and only regained their senses after a long while.

The woman and her husband looked at each other, hugging the child tightly: "We are the villagers of Huai He Village. The riverbank collapsed, and the river water flooded our house, we could only flee to the city, but who would have known that the city gates would be closed, and the officials of the city leaders would not let us in."

"Why not?" Unknowingly, Murong Shan had walked behind Qu Ling and asked with furrowed brows.

Perhaps it was because her tone wasn't good, but the woman was a little afraid of her. She hugged the child and shrank into her embrace.

Seeing that, Qu Ling immediately said: "We have no ill intentions, we are only here to inquire what is going on after seeing that the city gate is closed."

The man stared at Qu Ling's friendly smile for a while, then suddenly reached out his hand and pointed at the group of people around 100 meters away: "Those people are from our village. When the riverbank collapsed, the water suddenly rushed down, and a lot of people were swept into the water, escaping with their lives. Due to the cold weather, most of them got sick from the cold. "

The woman continued quickly, "Actually, they are just infected by the cold. The officials in the city all say it is a plague and won't let us in. But luckily, every day, officials would pour food and water down from the city walls, filling us up. They even covered us with blankets, so that we wouldn't starve to death and freeze us to death here. "

Qu Ling nodded in understanding and did not ask further.

The two of them returned to the side of the carriage and told Xiao Jingyue and the rest about it.

Xiao Jingyue looked around at the refugees and said softly: "Let's talk after we enter the city."

Since there's food supply and quilts to protect against the cold, we don't have to worry about that for now. Let's enter the city first and ask around first.

The group got closer to the city gate. Xiao Er stood on the horse carriage and raised his order badge at the soldiers on the walls, shouting: The messenger is here, open the city gates quickly!

The soldiers on the wall turned around and ran away.

Not long after, the sound of footsteps could be heard from inside the city gate.

The commoners who were initially guarding the city wall stood up one by one, wanting to rush into the city.

Two groups of soldiers quickly ran out of the city gate and blocked the civilians.

A man in his forties came out to welcome him.

Upon seeing Xiao Jingyue who was standing on the carriage, he was momentarily shocked before hurriedly stepping forward to greet him. "Tong Huai Palace's Prefecture Overseer Zeng Ce greets General Xiao."

Xiao Jingyue nodded, and followed the Magistrate Zeng into the city.

The city was unexpectedly deserted. There were only a few people walking on the huge street, but not a single person could be seen bustling about.

Magistrate Zeng explained, "Earlier, the riverbank had collapsed, so the river water had already flooded the city. Adding to that, it had been raining lightly a few days ago, this official feared that the river water would rise again and cause the riverbank to be destroyed. Thus, the citizens were ordered to close their doors and not go out.

Xiao Jingyue asked: "Where is Eighth Prince now?"

"Yesterday the rain stopped in the middle of the night, so early this morning, His Royal Highness took the workers to the riverbank to observe the situation of the riverbank collapsing." The Magistrate Zeng paused for a moment, he carefully looked at Xiao Jingyue and probed, "It's still early, does General need me to bring you over?"

Xiao Jingyue looked at the lady beside him, she was quiet for a moment, just as she was about to say the next time.

Qu Ling endured his faintly discernible abdominal pain and said quickly: "Go back to your work, I'll stay in the old mansion and not go anywhere else."

Seeing Xiao Jingyue looking at her, she raised three of her fingers with a serious face: "I swear, I'm really not going anywhere."

He couldn't even go if he wanted to.

Her stomach had been uncomfortable since she entered the city.

If it wasn't for the fact that she was afraid of delaying his business, she would have long since coquettishly let him carry her by now.

Xiao Jingyue looked at her silently for a while before finally nodding his head, agreeing to Magistrate Zeng's words.

Seeing that, the Magistrate Zeng looked at Qu Ling, and asked hesitantly: "General, may I ask, this is …"

Xiao Jingyue said in a calm voice, "Lowly."

Qu Ling, "..."

Magistrate Zeng opened his eyes wide in shock, as though he did not expect this general to bring his wife out to do something, and immediately clasped his hands at Qu Ling: "So it's Mrs. Xiao."

Pausing, he suddenly thought of something, and turned to ask Xiao Jingyue: "Why don't I bring Mrs. Xiao back to the yamen first?"

Xiao Jingyue rejected him indifferently: "This general has a friend who has a mansion in the city, this general can stay there."

Hearing that, Magistrate Zeng nodded his head, and did not try to persuade him anymore.

Follow them to the house, memorize the road, and stand outside it.

In the end, Xiao Jingyue was still worried about letting Qu Ling go, so he left all the Dark Guard s for her. Together with Chen Linye, they went to the place where the riverbank had collapsed.

If this matter was resolved a day earlier, he could have continued his journey south in search of Chun Long.

The group of people watched as Xiao Jingyue and Chen Linye left before turning around and entering the house.

Murong Shan walked over to Qu Ling's side and pretended to be indifferent: "It's been a long time since I last visited this mansion, it looks a little old, I'll have someone renovate it when I have time."

Qu Ling pretended not to hear them and walked towards the backyard quickly.

Xiao Yi followed her and explained in a low voice, "At this time, Master was unwilling to stay in the residence of the Mu Rong family's eldest son. Thus, he borrowed it from Mister Mu Rong."

Qu Ling nodded and did not say anything.

She went to the bedroom where she was resting. As soon as the door closed, she immediately grabbed her pants.

Lowering his head to take a look, he realized with sorrow that his relatives had indeed come.