Shi Lingyao walked away and left the imperial capital.
However, she didn't go far. After leaving the city, she slowed down and walked slowly towards the stockade.
Jing Hexuan appeared beside her.
Neither of them spoke, and they walked side by side in silence, the snow crunching under their feet, and the hot breath they exhaled raised clouds of white mist in front of them.
In the end, Jing Hexuan couldn't hold himself any longer and spoke first: "I have never had those thoughts."
Shi Lingyao said calmly: "I know."
Jing Hexuan looked at her: "You are the most important in my heart and the only one I care about most."
There was a little nervousness in his eyes, for fear that she wouldn't believe it: "I told you before that the reason why I seized power and ascended the throne was to stabilize the situation in the world. Originally, I wanted to find you as soon as the zombies appeared, but after the natural disaster At the beginning, my grandfather and I exchanged letters. He said that if the situation was serious, he would come to the Imperial Capital with your family. I was afraid that you and I would get sidetracked on the road, so I had to send people south frequently to look for news about you, while staying in the Imperial Capital steadily. Stay in control of the situation.”
"If you come, the Imperial Capital is the safest city I have prepared for you. If I get news about you in the south, I will send someone to bring you a message to stay in the south, and I will go find you personally."
Shi Lingyao's brows moved slightly: "I didn't get any news from anyone asking me to wait for him in the south."
Jing Hexuan held his forehead and sighed: "My people learned that you were in the south and sent me a message to wait for the next instructions. I asked him to ask you to wait for me in the south. I will set off immediately. I didn't know that something happened to him until I arrived in Ningcheng. Yes, I didn’t pass this news to you.”
Shi Lingyao was speechless.
Seeing her silence, Jing Hexuan thought she didn't believe him. With a worried look on his face, he quickly walked up to her and said sincerely: "Everything I said is true, I didn't lie..."
"I know," she glanced at him and continued walking forward, "I just wanted to go home and study the feasibility of the four different images."
Jing Hexuan breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said: "This is easy to handle. We can catch two or three of them and bring them back. If there is demand later, it will not be difficult to go north and catch them again."
She didn't answer, just walked slowly, seeming to be thinking.
Baihu carried Shi Bao on his back and followed quietly not far behind. He walked gracefully on cat steps and followed the two people's footprints without leaving any traces of his own.
Lin Yan, who was catching up from behind, saw this scene and quickly pulled Xiaoxiao to watch.
When she was almost at the entrance of the village, she sighed, stopped and looked at Jing Hexuan: "I want to go home."
Jing Hexuan did not hesitate: "Then go home."
He looked at the sky: "I will take Lin Yan to the mountains again and try to catch as many as possible for you."
She shook her head repeatedly: "No more, you two should pay attention to your own safety first."
Jing Hexuan nodded: "I understand, don't worry, we'll try to be back before dinner."
While the two were talking, they saw a group of people coming out of the village, led by Jiang Heng.
Shi Lingyao saw that he didn't look well and asked, "What happened?"
Jiang Heng told Qin Ying's disappearance.
Xiaoxiao looked surprised: "What?! I saw Miss Qin yesterday!"
Jiang Heng looked at her: "When?"
Xiaoxiao thought for a moment: "Probably before evening, right? Didn't we disperse separately after dinner? We met for a while and even walked together for a while."
Jiang Heng nodded: "Miss Qin's neighbors also saw her returning to the house."
Shi Lingyao frowned: "That means we are sure that she has gone home, and then no one will see her again, right?"
Jiang Heng nodded: "I asked almost all the villagers, and everyone either hadn't seen her before, or had seen her before dinner. After we finished dinner and dispersed, the only one who had seen Miss Qin for the last time was a neighbor who saw her with his own eyes. gone back."
"Have the surroundings been checked?" Shi Lingyao asked.
Jiang Heng nodded: "I didn't find anything unusual. I originally wanted to take people out to look for it, but you just happened to be here. Come here quickly and be thoughtful, and then help me investigate, okay?"
She agreed without hesitation.
Jiang Heng smiled gratefully and left in a hurry with a few people.
Jing Hexuan: "Then you two go to the village to investigate first, and I'll go with Lin Yan."
She nodded: "Go early and come back early. Pay attention to safety."
Although Lin Yan was confused and didn't know what he was going to do, he didn't ask too many questions and just obeyed and worked.
Seeing the two people disappearing very quickly, Shi Lingyao turned around and walked into the village: "Let's go, let's go and see what happened."
The villagers in the village all know Shi Lingyao and know that she is very powerful and is the guest of the village owner. When they heard that she wanted to ask about Qin Ying's disappearance, Aunt Zhang cooperated with the man who last saw Qin Ying and went to Jiang Heng. The roof is coming.
She looked at the man first and asked, "I heard that you saw Miss Qin going home yesterday evening?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she turned her mind towards the man, and she "saw" in the dim light that Qin Ying in a pink dress was passing by his courtyard alone, heading straight towards her courtyard.
The cold wind passed by and rolled up her skirt like a dancing butterfly.
We are all villagers who support each other to survive in the village. We don't have the habit of locking the door on weekdays, and the same goes for Qin Ying.
She just pushed, went in, and closed the door behind her back.
The picture went dark.
The man next to her was still talking, describing what she saw Qin Ying yesterday.
She waited patiently for the man to finish, to make sure he was not lying, and then asked Aunt Zhang the same question.
Aunt Zhang remembered that Qin Ying's complexion was indeed not very good. She recalled that when they had dinner together yesterday, Qin Ying's complexion was indeed a bit pale.
It seemed that both villagers were not lying, so the next step was to go to the abandoned courtyard in the southwest corner of the village.
She stood up, and Xiaoxiao quickly followed her.
Baihu also stood up. Shi Bao stopped climbing on Baihu's back now and followed Baihu on his short legs, walking close to her.
Aunt Zhang enthusiastically helped them lead the way: "Doctor Shi, Miss Qin is a good girl. You must find a way to find her!"
Shi Lingyao did not promise: "I will try my best."
Aunt Zhang sighed: "Hey! You were fine yesterday! I don't know what happened, but why did no one see this big living person going anywhere?"
As she spoke, she suddenly lowered her voice and asked Shi Lingyao: "Doctor Shi, do you think... is it possible that it is really a ghost?"
Xiaoxiao: “…”
Shi Lingyuan looked sideways at Aunt Zhang: "What do you say?"
Aunt Zhang looked frightened and nervous: "Think about it! Miss Qin just said that she has been hearing strange noises lately, and people disappear at night. There are so many guards on duty day and night in the village, but none of them are there. I didn’t see it, what else can you say besides ghosts?”
Shi Lingyao did not refute when he heard this, but just said: "Let's go over there and look at the clues to find out if it's a ghost."
Xiaoxiao looked at Aunt Zhang's tightly wrapped appearance and sighed: "Auntie, don't forget that in this world, people with Sai Juechen abilities can run much faster than ghosts."
Aunt Zhang was stunned, as if she had just thought of this possibility, and suddenly looked embarrassed.
As expected, they searched the abandoned courtyard for a long time but found no trace.
However, the people in the village were diligent and kept the abandoned courtyard clean. In this way, there was no possibility of finding any clues in the dust.
Seeing that the sky was getting dark and there was nothing to gain here, I was about to go back first when I saw a guard running over in a panic.
He shouted while running: "Doctor Shi! Go and take a look! Your team member is injured and covered in blood!"
Xiaoxiao was shocked: "What?!"
Shi Lingyao stood up suddenly and looked at the running guards, his expression blank for a moment.
