In the study.
Su Qiqi carefully browsed the letters and seals sent by the housekeeper, and hurriedly asked the maid Bi'er to find Qin Chuan, Nangong Ke, Nangong Yu, Nangong Yue, Zheng Miao, Yan Ruoyu and others to discuss matters.
After a while, Qin Chuan and others came to the study one after another, and together they circulated the letters sent by the mysterious person. After reading, everyone looked at each other, waiting for Su Qiqi to speak.
Su Qiqi looked around, cleared her throat, and said slowly: "Let me tell you some good news. We have a new business coming to your door! But this business is a bit tricky. It is to escort Liu Yuanwai's daughter to the Zhang Mansion in Tongzhou to get married. There are There is a certain degree of difficulty. So please come and discuss it..."
As soon as Su Qiqi finished speaking, Nangong Yue voted against it. He stood up and said: "This escort has to go by water. If we want to pick it up, we have to advance money to buy a escort ship ourselves, at least a few hundred taels of silver, and Our escort gift for this trip is only eight hundred taels of silver. After deducting the travel expenses, it is really not cost-effective..."
After Nangong Yue finished speaking, Zheng Miao also raised her concerns: "Sister, we have taken on a lot of work as escorts, but I always feel like there is something wrong with acting as a bodyguard to escort the bride to her door..."
"Liu Yuanwai said that the two families arranged a baby marriage. Later, after the Zhang family obtained the imperial examination, they moved to the place where Young Master Zhang was appointed. The mountains were high and the roads were far away. He was worried about encountering gangsters. Young Master Zhang originally wanted to bring someone to pick up the bride in person. But a few days ago, before departure, I suddenly fell and injured myself, so we entrusted our escort agency to escort the bride to her home..." Qin Chuan interrupted his sister's speculation and said nonchalantly.
"Hmph! It's such a coincidence. I didn't fall down earlier and later. Something happened when I was going to pick up the bride. There must be something fishy here..." Zheng Miao rolled her eyes at her brother and retorted unceremoniously.
Hearing this, Su Qiqi glanced at the two brothers and sisters who were still bickering, and said with a smile: "This escort trip is indeed unusual. Yuan Liu has also found many escort agencies, and no one else dared to take it... because this is a hot potato. If you do it well, everyone will be happy, and it can also improve the reputation of the escort agency, but if you mess up, you may lose a lot of money... However, I have thought about it. We now need to revive the escort agency and expand our business. This is a good opportunity... What do you think? ?”
After listening to Su Qiqi's words, everyone was silent for a moment. Qin Chuan and Nangong Ke were the first to express their agreement with Su Qiqi's idea, but the details of the cooperation had to be finalized. To be on the safe side, it is necessary to further communicate with Liu Yuan's family, learn more useful information, consider possible unexpected situations in advance, and come up with emergency strategies to reduce unnecessary trouble. Others also expressed their support for Su Qiqi's decision and would actively cooperate with Su Qiqi's arrangements.
Su Qiqi cupped her fists and thanked everyone for their support, and then explained the details of the escort trip and the planned route to everyone, and coordinated the division of labor with everyone before going back to their rooms to rest.
A few days later, Nangong Ke and Nangong Yu personally purchased a medium-sized escort boat, hung the escort flag embroidered by Su Qiqi himself, and invited martial arts masters who were good at water kung fu and boat fighting skills to train the escort masters. We have some skills and experience in ship fighting.
In late September, Su Qiqi, Qin Chuan, and Yan Ruoyu, along with escort Lu and five or six escorts, set off. Zheng Miao, Nangong Ke, Nangong Yu, and Nangong Yue stayed at the escort office, responsible for daily management and taking care of Granny Cui's recovery.
Along the way, the escort boat went to the neighboring Qianpu County to pick up the daughter of Liu Yuan's maternal family in accordance with the agreed itinerary, placed her in the cabin, and went north along the canal to Zhang Mansion in Tongzhou County near Qilian Mountain.
"Sister, I just looked at the map. This waterway may pass through the Feiyun Mountain boundary..." Yan Ruoyu stood at the bow of the ship for a moment, looking at the scenery on both sides of the ship, lowering his head to study the map in his hand, and then put away the map. , walked back to the cabin and said to Su Qiqi, who was deep in thought.
Su Qiqi was stunned for a moment, then raised her head and smiled: "Yes, we do have to pass through Feiyun Mountain... I also heard that the Ye You League has supported the new Green Forest Gang there, which may hinder our trip... But I have already I have thought of a countermeasure, and I was still discussing it with Qin Chuan just now... Do you want to sit down and sum it up together? "
Yan Ruoyu nodded with a smile, spread out the map in his hand on the table, and said to Su Qiqi and Qin Chuan: "If there is no way to go to the Feiyun Mountain boundary by then, we can go around this river and go straight from here to To the north of Qilian Mountain, then drive into Datong River, turn overland and reach Tongzhou City..."
"Well, this is a good route. However, the Datong River is narrow and shallow, and it is prone to congestion and blockage. We will check the situation then. If there are not many canals, we can take that route..." Su Qiqi looked at it with approval. Yan Ruoyu said with a smile.
Qin Chuan also nodded in agreement, and the three of them continued to discuss the specific details of the action. We also made corresponding arrangements for possible unexpected situations. The three of them held candles and discussed until the middle of the night before they took a rest.
The next day, the escort ship continued to sail forward. During this period, Su Qiqi delivered meals to Miss Liu twice, and found that the wealthy lady was a bit withdrawn. She had almost no contact with anyone on the ship, and only occasionally whispered a few words to her dowry maid Bailu.
It seems that Miss Liu is quite wary. You have to find a way to gain the other party's trust and learn more useful clues from her. That old fox outside Yuan Liu was so cunning that he refused to reveal more no matter how much I asked him. We can only find a breakthrough from Miss Liu and the maid beside her.
Su Qiqi frowned and thought for a while, feeling a little hungry, so she went to Zheng Miao to get some dry food, and while eating, she sorted out the chaotic thoughts in her mind.
Unknowingly, the sky gradually darkened. Su Qiqi, Qin Chuan, and Zheng Miao asked the boatman to dock the escort boat at the pier. The three of them went to the pier and bought some fresh food such as roast goose and pastries at a nearby town store, and gave some to Liu. There are two ladies, master and servant.
In the middle of the night, Su Qiqi vaguely heard that Miss Liu seemed to be rummaging for something next door, so she curiously approached the bulkhead and listened carefully to what was going on next door.
What is she doing? Isn't it because you want to escape from marriage? A sudden thought flashed through Su Qiqi's mind. She hurriedly walked back to the bed, woke up Zheng Miao who was sleeping with her, and told Zheng Miao about the unusual movement of Miss Liu in the next room.
"What? Is she packing her things? Is she going to run away?" Zheng Miao exclaimed in surprise.
Su Qiqi was startled and hurriedly covered her mouth and whispered: "I just heard her sound like she was rummaging for something, but I can't be sure what she was doing..."
"Then what should we do? Do you want to go over and take a look?" Zheng Miao pondered for a moment and asked in a low voice.
Su Qiqi shook her head slightly and said: "We can't alert the snake...I'll make a small hole in the wall to see what she is doing..." After that, Su Qiqi took out a small one from the bag on the table. The silent drill bit used its internal strength to drill a hole the size of a soybean grain in the wall. Put your eyes against the hole and observe the movement in the next room.
In the dim light, Miss Liu was sitting at the table, playing with a pile of gold and silver jewelry and a few silver notes. Her maid Bailu stood aside, staring blankly at her master playing with those things.
After a while, Miss Liu's hoarse voice rang out: "Egret, don't you think Mr. Zhang dislikes me? Then why do I have to travel all the way to curry favor with him...instead of suffering the consequences over there?" Since I am so neglected, I might as well take the money and jewelry and go to my uncle in Cangzhou and ask him to persuade my father to cancel the marriage..."
"Miss, is this okay? If the master blames me, I can't bear it..." The maid Bailu heard that the miss wanted to escape from the marriage. She was so frightened that her legs became weak, and she collapsed on the ground and replied with a trembling voice.
"Oh, it's true that my father knows that the twisted melon is not sweet, but he still has to tie me up with that Mr. Zhang. Isn't this asking for trouble? Oh, what should I do now?" Miss Liu After complaining angrily, he sat back at the table again and stared at the items on the table in a daze.
On the other side of the bulkhead, Su Qiqi and Zheng Miao were stunned. They turned around and fell to the ground, sighing in unison. Zheng Miao leaned over and whispered: "Although Miss Liu is tall and thick, she has a quite interesting personality... Do we want to help her?"
"As you can imagine, we were entrusted to send her to her husband's house. If she ran away, how could we deal with Liu Yuan and his in-laws?" Su Qiqi said dumbfounded when she heard this.
"But doesn't her fiancé not like her? Can she have a good life if she gets married?" Zheng Miao suddenly became depressed and murmured.
"There are nine out of ten things that go wrong in this world. We are not gods and we can't control that much..." Su Qiqi tried to be rational. After all, she and Miss Liu were not related, so it was not good for her to interfere in other people's family affairs.
"Yeah." Zheng Miao responded dully, then went back to bed and fell asleep. Su Qiqi was in a mess and couldn't sleep for a while, so she simply took out the sword manual left by her master and slowly started to read it.
Not long after, it was getting brighter, and the sound of the door opening came from the next room. It seemed to be the sound of the maid Bai Lu getting up to pour face water for her young lady.
Su Qiqi also quickly got up and went to the hole made last night to observe what was going on next door. Fortunately, Miss Liu's master and servant are all here, so she probably has no plans to escape just yet. However, they still have to be more vigilant in the past few days and pay more attention to every move of their master and servant.
After a while, Zheng Miao also woke up. She combed her messy hair, stretched out, and said to herself: "Oh! I didn't sleep well last night, and now my head is still dizzy..." She As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Su Qiqi squatting by the wall. He walked over curiously, took a few glances, and then asked blankly: "Didn't Miss Liu say she wanted to escape from the marriage? Why haven't you left yet..."
Hearing this, Su Qiqi tapped Zheng Miao's forehead with her finger and said angrily: "You think everyone is like you, just leaving without considering the consequences or making any preparations..."
Zheng Miao was robbed, so she smiled sheepishly, scratched her head, and said stupidly: "That's right, if it were me, I would have jumped over the wall and ran away last night..."
While the two were talking, they suddenly heard the scream of the maid Bailu coming from the next room: "Miss! What's wrong with you? Someone is here, my lady fainted..."
When Su Qiqi and Zheng Miao heard this, they quickly stood up and ran to the next room. When I entered the room, I found Miss Liu lying on the floor, the washstand next to her had overturned, and a large area of her skirt was soaked with water.
This... what kind of trouble is this? Su Qiqi secretly cursed in her heart, and her intuition told her that the scene in front of her was most likely part of Miss Liu's escape plan... What should she do? Will you save people? Su Qiqi hesitated for a moment.
