Zhou Shi thought for a moment, put the piece of paper filled with cipher text into his arms, and said:
"Let me keep it for now. We will meet again when we get to the capital. You take me to find that Master Wan."
Yu Heng is familiar with the imperial departments, and Zhou Shi is good at sneaking in. The two of them can work together to deliver the secret message to Wan Shengwei of Dali Temple without leaving any trace.
"However, if I haven't met you three days after arriving in the capital, then I will try to find Master Wan myself."
"Understood, Zhao Xuan..."
Zhou Shi sighed and said: "Although that Shen Sanshan said so categorically, since Zhao Xuan gave us the secret letter, it means that she has no hope that she will receive a fair trial. When we get to the capital, we will act according to the situation."< /p>
The implication is that if the court really wanted Zhao Xuan to die and the prison car was pulled directly under the executioner's knife, then there would be nothing they could do.
"Perhaps I should have been more forceful just now and dragged Zhao Xuan out and taken her away, whether she wanted to or not."
Zhou Shi shook his head and said: "She has her own choice between life and death. What should you do, continue to follow the convoy?"
"No way, once they are on guard, I won't be able to catch up as long as they travel two days and two nights." Yu Heng said dejectedly, with a hint of cunning suddenly flashing in his eyes, "Hey, don't you think you have it? A team? Why not..."
"No!" Zhou Shi's attitude poured cold water on him, "It's not that I don't want to help you, but the boss of this team is also a member of the outer sect. You dragging such a corpse shovel is too conspicuous. It's easy. Something went wrong."
"He still wants to do business without capital? Don't be afraid, we are here..."
"The problem is that we cannot go here without a guide. If he abandons the convoy and runs away, we will be in trouble. If we delay for a moment on the road, Wan Shengwei will be late to see this secret letter, which can be used to rescue Zhao Xuan. Just one moment less time.”
"I understand..." Yu Heng looked to the north with a grimace, "Then we'll see you in the capital."
"Goodbye."
The two parted ways, with Yu Heng heading north and Zhou Shi heading south to look for his convoy.
"We are using a donkey cart and pulling so much furniture. I'm afraid it won't be much faster than Yu Heng..."
After walking back for about five miles, a fire lit up in the darkness.
"Are you worshiping the car-head fairy again? These guys are really pious. Dashu, help me see what those guys are burning this time."
The reason why I asked the tree spirit tree to look at it was not because of its good eyesight, but mainly because Xiaolin learned to refuse such boring requests after gaining spiritual intelligence.
"When I got back to the shopkeeper, there were three mice. They looked very fresh."
"Well, I wish that god a good appetite."
He walked down the road, bypassed the four figures surrounding the fire, and returned to his carriage to sleep.
Since leaving the villages around Jiangdu City, they haven't seen any pedestrians along the way, which gave Zhou Shi a new understanding of the remoteness of Jiangdu.
Therefore, when a group of people came from a distance the next morning, Xue An immediately reported to him excitedly.
"Are there any villages around? Maybe we are not far from Qingwu City."
Qingwu City is a large city in the north of Jiangdu. The convoy can stop there for a while. Even Zhou Shi can't bear this meal of sleeping in the open.
But when he asked Boss Che, the answer he got was far beyond his expectation:
"Qingwu City? Last night has passed, you just didn't know it while you were sleeping."
"What? Don't we take a break?"
"Why don't you rest? If you rest for one day in every city you pass by, you won't be able to reach the capital in a month." The boss Che said leisurely, holding a whip in one hand and picking his feet with the other, "When your little brother came to find Che,
He said he wanted the fastest car. Now that you're in my car, you have to listen to me on how to go.
"If the journey makes you tired, it's better to have a good rest in the middle of the night. It's not safe to run too far alone."
Zhou Shi was speechless and could only walk back to his car dejectedly.
"What's up, shopkeeper, should we take a break?" Xue An asked.
"We can't rest anymore, let's wait until the next city." Zhou Zhi lay down in the car and found that Xue An's face looked a little bad, "Why, didn't you sleep well last night?"
"Well, I'm fine... Ouch!"
Xue An jumped up suddenly and shook off a hand on his shoulder.
A skinny child followed the car in small steps, timidly stretching out a hand with a longing look in his eyes.
"Don't panic, it's a child." Zhou Shi patted Xue An, sat beside the car, and asked the child, "Child, where are your adults?"
The child didn't answer, but just made a nest with his little hands and shook them up and down.
Zhou Shi jumped out of the car and found that there were large groups of pedestrians on both sides of the road. They carried large and small packages, supported the elderly and the young, and walked numbly towards the south.
Their expressions were dull, reminding Zhou Shi of the people he saw in the Abi Hell of Budu.
A woman came over - her hair was as close as if it had been bitten by a dog, with only a few stubbles, and Zhou Shi could only judge the gender by her thin figure - she took one of the child's hands, but didn't.
He meant to leave, but looked at Zhou Shi together.
"Do you want something to eat?" Zhou Shi felt uncomfortable with the glare and asked, "Xue An, go get some dry food..."
Before she finished speaking, a wooden stick hit the woman's feet heavily. She pulled the child aside and almost fell off the curb.
"Hey!" Zhou Shi went to help, but was pressed against his chest by the wooden stick. Fortunately, the two people only stumbled and did not fall.
The other end of the wooden stick was held in the hand of Boss Che's eldest son, Daliang. His eyes swept across Zhou Shi and shot at the mother and daughter.
"Get lost."
"What are you doing!" Zhou Shi stepped forward, pushed down the wooden stick, and confronted the strong young man, "They just want to eat, why are you copying them!"
Daliang's face was calm and his tone was firm: "Dad said, don't touch it."
"What do you mean?"
"It means don't cause trouble."
The voice of Boss Che sounded behind Zhou Shi. He raised his whip at the mother and daughter and said:
"Want to eat this?"
The mother and daughter gave Zhou Shi one last look with numb eyes, walked down the road, and disappeared into the crowd.
"My boss, you are so naive." The boss of the car said sarcastically, "As long as you give her a steamed bun, more than 20 people will immediately swarm up and loot all the food in our car."
"With me here, it's impossible." Zhou Shi responded coldly.
The boss of the car shrugged, turned around and walked towards the lead car.
His three sons jumped out of the first car and followed the convoy to the left, right and rear. Each of them held a short stick at eyebrow level to guard against the flow of people on the road.
"Shopkeeper, maybe Boss Che is right." Seeing that Zhou Zhi didn't speak for a long time, Xue An advised.
"If Mr. Zhu from Fengde Building had done this 'right', I would have starved to death in a small alley in Jiangdu."
For the rest of the day, Zhou Shi said nothing, calmly watching the pedestrians on the road getting fewer and fewer, and finally disappeared in the afternoon.
That night, he was awakened by a series of rapid coughing sounds.
"Are you okay? Are you choking?"
He vaguely tried to help Xue An up, but was startled as soon as he touched Xue An's hand.
So hot!
"You have a fever!"
He quickly went to wake up Agui and brought another boy.
"Where is the typhoid medicine we brought? Quickly take it out and fry it for Xue An to drink. Then dip a towel in water and cover his head."
"Cough, cough, cough..." Xue An coughed desperately, but did not open his eyes.
"Shopkeeper, this, this doesn't seem to be typhoid fever..."
Agui's face turned pale, he took a step back and bumped into Boss Che.
The old man had a gloomy smile on his face and said:
"Shopkeeper, do you still think what I did was wrong?
"It's not even the first month yet. There was neither a bad harvest nor a war last year. Why are some people fleeing?"
This sentence pushed Zhou Shi's heart into the abyss.
The only thing that can make people support the elderly and the young and leave their hometowns at this time is the epidemic.
"Cough, cough cough..."
The guys all covered their mouths in unison and distanced themselves from Xue An.