Chapter 18
The "Sister" the little boy calls is indeed Jiang Wu.
In order to maintain the family's livelihood, she would take her children to make sachets, handkerchiefs, rouge beads and other items from her daughter's house every day, and sell them in a rouge shop called Yueji Pavilion not far away.
This rouge shop was opened by a friend of Jiang Wu's whom he had known for many years. It was only two streets away from Jiang's house. In addition, the neighborhood is very lively with people coming and going, and there are often patrols by officials, so most of the time Jiang Wu goes to deliver the goods in person and watches the customers' reactions to improve his style and craftsmanship.
Sometimes the shop is too busy with business, so she will stay and help for a while.
Today Jiang Wu went out to deliver goods as usual. Because there were a lot of things, her younger brother Jiang Yu was clamoring for some candy cakes from the street, so she took him with her. Unexpectedly, on the way home after delivering the goods, a crazy old woman suddenly rushed over from the crowd, grabbed Jiang Yu and ran into the alley next to her.
Jiang Wu chased after her in desperation, but she didn't expect that someone else was ambushing her in the alley and trapped her with a sack.
When the old woman saw that the man had been caught, she immediately threw Jiang Yu, who was struggling desperately, to the ground, and ran away with the big man who had knocked Jiang Wu unconscious and carried him on her.
Jiang Yu was just a child under eight years old. He was frightened by this sudden change. It took him a while to cry and ran out of the alley to ask for help.
This is what Xiao Ji saw. At this moment, he saw that the child fell to the ground because he was too panicked and cried heartbrokenly. He didn't bother to ask more questions, walked forward quickly, and picked him up from the ground: "Who is it?" Your sister was captured? Which way did they run to?"
Leng Buding met a face that looked like a god, and Jiang Yu, who was crying loudly, was stunned for a moment. It wasn't until Ye Fei, who was following Xiao Ji, said, "My young master is from the government, please speak quickly, kid." He suddenly came back to his senses, sobbed and pointed to the left: "That way they are running. Yes! But I, I don’t know who they are..."
Xiao Ji immediately ordered Ye Fei: "Take someone to chase him."
Ye Fei hesitated for a moment: "Then young master, you..."
Xiao Ji frowned: "What can happen to a grown man like me? Go quickly!"
"Yes!" Ye Fei didn't dare to delay any longer. He turned around and whistled to the rear, then led the palace guards who had been following them at a short distance and chased in the direction pointed by Jiang Yu.
Xiao Ji then lowered his head and looked at Jiang Yu: "You..."
"Brother Yu!" A beautiful young woman suddenly rushed over from the crowd watching the excitement. She pulled Jiang Yu and asked anxiously, "I heard someone said something happened to your sister. What happened? What happened? Where is your sister? Just now, weren't you fine when you left my place just now? Why did something suddenly happen?!"
When Jiang Yu saw the person coming, he burst into tears again: "Sister Yuniang, my sister, my sister was taken away by bad guys, wow--"
The young woman named Yu Niang panicked and grabbed his wrist: "How could someone dare to commit murder in the street in broad daylight..."
But she quickly calmed down and said, "Don't cry yet, crying is the most useless thing. Come on, report to the official, I will take you to report to the official immediately!"
It wasn't that she hadn't noticed Xiao Ji, but she was so flustered at the moment that she couldn't care about him as a stranger. Until Xiao Ji stopped her and said, "Is this lady Jiang's friend?"
Only then did Yu Niang subconsciously look at him: "You..."
She was startled by Xiao Ji's face first, and then looked at him with a pair of charming and shrewd eyes in surprise and vigilance, "Master, do you know my sister Jiang?"
"Miss Jiang is kind to me. I have sent my men to chase her in the direction where she was taken away." Xiao Ji did not explain too much in public. He just pulled off the sapphire jade pendant hanging from his waist and handed it to her and said, "But I There are not many people going out today, so take this jade pendant and report it to the officials. The officials will move faster when they see this thing."
This jade pendant was awarded to the original owner by the emperor, and it is engraved with the mark of palace manufacture. Although Yu Niang didn't know this, she saw that the jade pendant was translucent and of excellent quality, obviously worth a lot of money. After a moment of hesitation, she accepted it without thinking too much: "Thank you, sir! I'll wait for the civilian wife to find you." Go back to the Jiang family, sister, and return this thing!"
After she said that, she pulled Jiang Yu and ran away in a hurry.
Xiao Ji did not follow him, but after the crowd dispersed, he took the lead to go to the alley where the accident happened and take a look.
There are people coming and going around here, and it's a busy city. The person who kidnapped Miss Jiang chose to do it here. The main thing is to catch her by surprise and attack her unprepared.
In this case, their movements must be very fast, and the word "quick" often means a flaw.
Although Xiao Ji has never been a police officer or handled a case, he has watched a lot of police dramas, so he decided to help protect the crime scene before the official arrival.
However, Xiao Ji did not wait for the official arrival in the end, because not long after he walked to the scene of the accident, he found a kind of soil on the ground that at first glance had a similar color to the soil on the ground, but a closer look revealed that the texture and smell were different. A yellowish-brown powder that is not earthy.
And after observation, he found that the powder was winding in the direction where Miss Jiang was taken away.
Although he didn't know whether this was just a coincidence or a clue accidentally left by the kidnapper, Xiao Ji thought for a moment and left some traces at the scene for the officer to find, and then followed the intermittent traces.
——If this is really a useful clue, then if he finds it earlier, he might be able to rescue the person earlier.
*
At the same time, in an inconspicuous small courtyard less than a mile away from the crime scene, Jiang Wu was beating someone.
It's not accurate to say that she hit someone. To be precise, she was hitting someone with a footstool.
The one who was smashed was a young man in rich clothes and coquettishly dressed. Judging from his face, it was none other than He Dinghong, the eldest son of Duke Chengen, who had molested her in Duke Chengen's mansion a few days ago.
At this moment, he was rolling and dodging on the ground while begging Jiang Wu to stop: "Don't hit grandma! I was wrong! I was wrong, isn't that okay!"
Jiang Wu ignored him and continued to chase him with the stool.
He Dinghong was in pain and angry, and finally lost his temper. Regardless of his image, he ducked under the Eight Immortals table in front of him, gritted his teeth and roared at her: "Jiang Wu! If you don't stop, I will fight back!"
Jiang Wu turned a deaf ear and angrily hit him twice in the direction where he was. Then he threw away the footstool in his hand and sneered: "Okay, if you fight back, the worst is that we will die!"
He Dinghong: "..."
He Dinghong was embarrassed, angry and guilty: "What the hell! I already told you that today's matter was not my idea! I didn't want to do anything to you!"
He grabbed his messy hair and shrank under the table, and said with a gloomy face, "I was just having a drink with someone, and halfway through the meal they said they had a gift for me. I came here to take a look out of curiosity... Who knew that the gift those bastards were talking about was actually you, if they had known, I, I would have asked them to let you go!"
The more He Dinghong thought about this, the angrier he became. It was true that he liked Jiang Wu, and he was indeed angry with her for not showing appreciation, but no matter how angry he was, he never thought of using force on her.
Unexpectedly, in order to please him, the people below even kidnapped Jiang Wu... Damn, they just tricked him to death!
Jiang Wu didn't believe him. Her captor took advantage of the fact that she was not ready to use the sack and hit her hard on the back of the neck. She knew in her heart that they were well prepared, and her brother, even a child, could not save her, so she bit the tip of her tongue to keep herself awake and pretended to be unconscious.
When He Dinghong came in from the door, she quickly recognized him. She was shocked and wondering how it could be him, when she saw him walking towards the bed smelling of alcohol, laughing and saying, "Jiang Awu? You have today too"...
If she hadn't been prepared and pierced him with a hairpin when he wasn't paying attention, scaring him so much that he fell to the ground, and immediately picked up the footstool next to the bed and smashed it, who knows what he would have done. ?
To take a step back, even if what he said was true, the person who kidnapped her was not his instigator, he had no intention of touching her, and she would not leave her fate to others.
Seeing that He Dinghong was beaten all over his head and was hiding under the table, Jiang Wucai stumbled back slightly and fell to the ground.
The person who kidnapped her gave her a drug that would make her whole body weak. The reason why I was able to get up and hit someone just now was purely due to the stimulation brought by the pain.
Jiang Wu looked down at his sleeves that had been stained red by blood before he knew it, and bit the tip of his tongue again to keep himself awake.
"You, why are your sleeves covered with blood..." He Dinghong also saw Jiang Wu's blood-stained sleeves. He stammered and stuck his head out from under the Eight Immortals table, but before he could finish speaking, he was given a sharp look by Jiang Wu. Startled back.
Jiang Wu was dignified and beautiful, but she had never been a weak-tempered person. While maintaining the cold expression of "we will all perish together in the worst case", she once again pulled out the magnolia hairpin from her head and stuck it hard on her forearm to fight against the increasing pressure on her. His consciousness became increasingly dizzy and his body became weaker and weaker.
"You, you, you, are you crazy?!"
Blood gushed out again, staining her light-colored sleeves red. He Dinghong was dumbfounded, and for the first time he felt in awe of this girl's family.
She is so merciless to her, this girl is really a cruel person!
Jiang Wu ignored him, but after regaining some consciousness, she struggled to prop herself up and staggered towards the window facing the backyard - she didn't dare to go through the door, fearing that there were bad guys guarding outside.
Then she thought about how when she was being carried away, she deliberately pretended to be comatose to induce the man to relax his guard, while secretly scattering the herbal powder in the sachet that he carried with him on the ground. She couldn't help but secretly pray in her heart: I hope someone can find those powders, and quickly. Some find them here. Because she didn’t know if she still had the strength to leave this yard...
While Jiang Wu thought this, he gritted his teeth and endured the pain, pushed open the window, and climbed up the window sill with difficulty.
Then she suddenly came face to face with an unusually handsome and very familiar face. And the owner of that face was squatting under the window furtively, with his ear against the wall.
"..."
"???"
