"Where are the people?"
Changfeng rushed over with Jiu Qingzi, but there was no trace of them in the bamboo forest, only two broken nets were left swinging in the cold wind.
When Tao Yaoyao woke up, everything was pitch black and she had a splitting headache. It was like hundreds of insects were eating her. She remembered that she and Xie Lan were hung in the air together, and then everything went black. perception.
Where is this place? Where is Xie Lan?
Tao Yaoyao struggled to get up, when a slight gasp came from beside her. She almost subconsciously reached out to touch the person next to her, "Xie Lan, are you next to me?"
There was no movement at first. Tao Yaoyao didn't like this kind of environment very much, so her hands moved faster. Soon he touched something warm. When she was about to get closer to see what it was, she thanked Lan's voice came over.
"let go."
Tao Yaoyao was too nervous just now. She just felt that she touched something warm and felt safe in her heart. She didn't think about what the thing was. When she heard Xie Lan's voice and completely relaxed, she realized something was wrong. .
He lowered his head and leaned over, and after seeing clearly what she was touching, he suddenly withdrew his hand.
"That...I didn't mean it. It's too dark here, you can't see anything." Tao Yaoyao cursed and swore, "I really didn't mean to take advantage of you."
However, his face was so smooth and tender that she could not compare to any other woman.
I don’t know how he takes care of himself on a daily basis.
After Xie Lan recovered some strength, he leaned against the wall to finish his work. His eyesight was better than Tao Yaoyao's, but the surroundings were too dark and the range he could see was not large. However, he could still see this place from the only space. Where exactly.
"well."
No wonder her back was wet. Were they thrown into a well?
"This is not only a well, but it also looks like a well that has been abandoned for a long time." Xie Lan added.
If he guessed correctly, even if people outside discovered that they were missing, they might not be able to find them for a while. But there wasn't much air in the dry well. If they didn't find a way out as soon as possible, they might both die here.
The news that Tao Yaoyao and King Dingbei disappeared at the same time quickly spread throughout the harem. The emperor had no reaction when he learned about it. He only said, "Even if the palace is turned upside down, we must find Nanny Liu."
The people present were all smart people. Almost as soon as the emperor finished speaking, they understood what the emperor meant.
However, they disappeared together with Nanny Liu. As long as they find Nanny Liu, they should be able to find them.
"I really didn't expect that the inconspicuous old woman next to Li Fei was actually a ruthless character. However, now Li Fei is also in trouble."
Wang Meiren didn't care about the life or death of Tao Yaoyao and Xie Lan. Although she didn't take Concubine Li seriously at all, if Concubine Li died, she wouldn't even have to deal with her in the future, which was good to think about.
After the second prince got the news, he immediately went to Concubine Li's palace. At this time, Li Fei also knew about Nanny Liu, and she looked panicked and worried. Seeing the second prince coming, it was like seeing a savior. He rushed over and took his arm and asked what to do next.
"Your father must have known about this by now. What if he thinks that I and Aunt Liu are on the same team and wants to kill me?"
It's just ordinary things. Who doesn't know that Your Majesty hates Miao Jiang the most. The key is that someone is still poisoning her in the palace, and this murderer came from her palace.
Even if she had ten mouths now, she probably wouldn't be able to explain clearly.
"Concubine, I will go with my son to the royal study to plead guilty to my father." The second prince had already thought of a way before coming, and now he took Concubine Li and walked out.
Concubine Li also knew that this was the best way now, so she quickly followed the second prince out.
Zhou Cairen was still fishing at night and saw more and more people coming and going. She was depressed and packed her things to go back to the palace. Who knew that as soon as she packed her things, she saw a black shadow flying past her eyes, and then The person fainted.
Tao Yaoyao and Xie Lan were sitting in the dry well, thinking about how to escape. Suddenly, the lid above the dry well was opened. Just when Tao Yaoyao thought that Grandma Liu was coming down to see them, the mouth of the well suddenly became dark, and then Something falls from above.
Xie Lan was the first to react and reached out to pull her over. Then he heard a bang and someone fell in front of them.
Immediately afterwards, the dry well was covered, and the well became invisible again.
"Who is this?" Tao Yaoyao knelt down and looked closely for a while but still couldn't see who this person was.
Xie Lan knew him and said softly, "Zhou Cairen."
Zhou Cairen? Why is this name so familiar? By the way, your right ambassador said before that she was the first to discover something was wrong with Grandma Liu, so they found the apiary.
So, Aunt Liu caught her here to take revenge on her?
Originally, there was less oxygen in the dry well, but now that there was one more person, their time was even shorter. Tao Yaoyao looked at Xie Lan with tears in her eyes, "Is it possible that the palace and I don't get along? Why does everything bad happen every time we come here?"
Xie Lan didn't know how to comfort her.
"My internal strength has been blocked. This dry well is very deep. We probably won't be able to get up on our own. We can only wait for them to find us now."
But this place is very remote. I'm afraid that by the time they come, they will be suffocated to death.
Tao Yaoyao didn't like to sit still and wait for death. After hesitating for a while, she stood up and touched the wall to explore the situation in the well. She always had a feeling that Nanny Liu didn't want them to die.
If her guess is correct, then there must be a way out of the dry well.
The dry well was very big, and there was mud under the feet. It was very laborious to walk. Tao Yaoyao felt that he had walked for a long time, but when he looked down, he could only walk four or five steps that he usually takes.
"Your Majesty, otherwise, you and I can look for it together." At this time, she had begun to have difficulty breathing. She was worried that she would be suffocated to death before she could find the exit.
Anyway, he was just idle, so it was better to get moving than to sit here and wait for death.
Xie Lan did not refute. Behind him, he started searching from the other side of Tao Yaoyao. The two of them were obviously searching faster than before. Just when Tao Yaoyao felt that victory was in sight, she suddenly touched a furry thing and lowered her head. I looked to see what it was, but came face to face with a rat on the wall.
At that moment, Tao Yaoyao felt creepy, and the next second, she jumped on Xie Lan. He shouted, "Rat. Xie Lan, there is a rat."
Xie Lan glanced at the place where she had been, then took out a small piece of broken silver from her waist and hit it at the mouse. Soon she heard the mouse bark twice, and then there was no movement.
"You can come down now, it's dead."
Tao Yaoyao didn't believe it and hugged her tighter, "Take me over and have a look."
Xie Lan was amused by her rogueness, and it was obvious that she was trembling all over, but she didn't say anything after all. So he held her arm, walked slowly over, stood in front of the mouse, and said in a deep voice, "Look down and you can see it."
Tao Yaoyao carefully probed her head, moving just a little bit every time. Her cautious look was hilarious.
Tao Yaoyao didn't think so. She was using her greatest courage to look outside. If the situation hadn't been urgent, she would never have gone to confirm whether the mouse was dead or alive.
After finally seeing the dead tiger on the ground, she was frightened again.
"You...why are you so harsh?" The mouse was covered in blood and was just lying in you. The mud around it was dyed red with its blood. Tao Yaoyao didn't want to go down.
Xie Lan saw what he was thinking and let go of his hand to pull him down. Tao Yaoyao held his neck tightly and refused to let go.
"My lord, if you feel uncomfortable holding me, you can carry me on your back. I'm very light." But he just refused to come down.
Xie Lan laughed angrily this time, "Tao Yaoyao, men and women are not allowed to be intimate. Aren't you anxious to get married? If people know that you are cuddling with me, can you still get married?"
If it were normal times, Tao Yaoyao would still care about face, but now, his life is about to be lost. What does reputation mean?
"It's not that I don't want to go down, I'm just afraid. Otherwise, you can carry me to the side. As long as I can't see the mouse's body, I will come down." After saying this, he was afraid that Xie Lan wouldn't believe it, so he raised his hand to promise, "If I lie, Just let me..."
"Remember what you said." Xie Lan interrupted her and carried her to the side. After Xie Lan put her down, he turned around and went to where Tao Yaoyao was standing just now, where the dead mouse was.
Tao Yaoyao subconsciously wanted to say something, but when the words came to her lips, she felt like she was the hypocritical person.
"If this king cared about these people, he would have died countless times." Xie Lan probably saw what he was thinking and said this, then lowered his head and continued to look for an exit.
Zhang Jing and Xiao Shuo almost turned the harem upside down but could not find the whereabouts of Tao Yaoyao and King Dingbei. Seeing that it was almost dawn, they were worried.
Jiu Qingzi followed Xiao Shuo and suddenly thought of a place.
"Let's go to Qiu Shuangyuan."
Qiu Shuangyuan is said to be the palace where a concubine whom the late emperor loved very much lived. However, the concubine died at a young age. After his death, the late emperor was very sad and later had the courtyard sealed.
No one has entered Qiu Shuangyuan for many years, but there are still guards guarding the outside of the yard, which is why Xiao Shuo did not suspect this place.
But now Jiu Qingzi was walking that way with a strange expression, and Xiao Shuo didn't say anything about his guess.
This is already the case now. If we find another place, there might be a glimmer of hope.
"Master Xiao, the late emperor has an order that no one is allowed to enter Qiushuang Courtyard without permission." The guard stopped them.
"This is His Majesty's order. Do you want to resist it?" Xiao Shuo frowned, and the guard was in a dilemma. "Master Xiao doesn't know something. Even Your Majesty here can't do it. This is the order of the late Emperor before his death."
"What do you mean?" Xiao Shuo really didn't know this.
At this time, Jiu Qingzi, who had been standing nearby, stepped forward and said, "They are right. Before the death of the late emperor, he issued a decree that no one except the King of England is allowed to enter here without permission, not even the current His Majesty."
The guard nodded, "That's right. If the King of England allows you to go in, my subordinates will not embarrass you, but the King of England has been missing for many years..."
Jiu Qingzi took out a token from his waist and handed it over. The guard didn't pay much attention at first. After seeing the words on it, he took a closer look at the sloppy uncle in front of him.
Then they remembered the rumors in the palace a few days ago, and their expressions suddenly changed. Then he knelt down and saluted, "I will join the King of England."
"Get up."
With Jiu Qingzi's token, they successfully entered Qiu Shuangyuan. Xiao Shuo was looking at him all the way. After Jiu Qingzi felt uncomfortable looking at him, he said, "Even if you are curious, now is not the time to talk about this. "
Xiao Shuo nodded, he was just too surprised. Unexpectedly, the King of England, who had been missing for many years, was not only alive, but also became a famous hero.
"Hasn't this palace been abandoned for many years? Why is it so clean and tidy, like..." Changfeng was surprised.
"It's like someone lives here, right?" Jiu Qingzi took his words and looked around. She thought she would never step into this place again in her life, but she didn't expect that he would come back one day.
Although the imperial brother has changed a lot, he has not ruined this place, which is rare.
"Hurry up and find someone. This is the only place in the entire palace that has not been searched for. Grandma Liu can't get out of the palace, so she is most likely to hide here."
Jiu Qingzi did not follow these people to find anyone, but sat in the yard, admiring the moon, admiring the scenery, and mostly reminiscing about the past.
This is the place where he grew up and the happiest time in his life. After so many years apart, I thought everything had changed, but here it is the same as before.
It seemed as if the mother-in-law was still reading and drinking tea in the room, waiting for him to go back.
Father is still dealing with things in the imperial study room. He is still the carefree child.
But Zhang Jing's voice quickly brought him back to reality.
"Senior, we found footprints by the well in front."
Zhang Jing came over to report, and the guards were there to lift the manhole cover. When they passed by, there were already guards going down to check. But, there's nothing underneath.
"Impossible. There are obviously footprints here, and it seems that the footprints were not left for a long time. So someone must have been here. You should take people to find them immediately."
After the guards left, Zhang Jing squatted down and circled around the well, then said with certainty, "I smelled the smell that I smelled in the beekeeping yard. Miss Tao said that this is the smell of Gu insects, so , Aunt Liu must have been here."
At this time, the guards who went down later came up from the well. Also brought a piece of news.
"There is a dead mouse in the well. It doesn't look like it died of illness or drowning." The guard brought the mouse up. After taking a closer look at it, Jiu Qingzi said happily, "This was beaten to death."
The rat that was beaten to death was different from the rat that died naturally. This rat's eyes were wide open, and it was obviously frightened. And there were obvious scars on his stomach, which were also fatal injuries.
But how could a rat that had been hiding in a dry well all year round be beaten to death, unless... someone was in the well and the rat scared them. That's when he was beaten to death.
Therefore, Tao Yaoyao and the others had stayed under the well before.
At this time, another guard came up to report, "There are footprints down there, and my subordinate also picked up a piece of broken silver."
