Chapter 65: An Acquaintance

Si Yun knelt on the ground, her body leaning forward, hands pressed to the earth, her disheveled hair blowing in the wind, exposing a slender and fair neck.

Upon hearing the sound of hooves stop, she barely lifted her lowered head to quietly assess her surroundings.

This convoy was quite impressive, with five carriages and numerous horse-mounted guards following. The people in the carriages were likely not just commoners, but rather wealthy merchants or even high-ranking officials.

She wondered whether it was a family traveling together or just the womenfolk.

It would be best if there were no women, but Si Yun knew that was unrealistic, especially since she had already spotted a maid driving one of the carriages at the back.

Hearing the sound of someone dismounting and approaching, Si Yun quickly lowered her head again, ceasing her wandering gaze.

“Please rise and make way, miss,” came a voice from above, polite in content but extremely cold in tone.

Si Yun could tell that there was not a shred of pity in their words.

Her heart tightened as she mustered the courage to speak, “I am a virtuous woman who was captured and taken to a filthy place. I couldn’t bear it any longer, so I managed to escape. I beg you all to show mercy and take me a short distance. Just let me hide from my pursuers and leave this place!”

As she spoke, she bent down and began to knock her head against the ground, “Bang bang,” until her forehead turned red.

At this point, Si Yun felt confident that she had made her case.

Everyone has a bit of compassion; even those who might look down on her beauty would likely feel some sympathy when they saw her in such a pitiful state.

After all, she wasn’t asking them to take her in, just for a lift along the way.

However, the voice above remained cold and distant, “If you don’t rise on your own, we will have to help you up.”

Si Yun paused in her bowing, surprised as she lifted her head. She first saw an unremarkable face, then noticed the plain, coarse robe the person was wearing.

She had asked the wrong person!

Quickly, she turned her head and looked to the younger gentleman nearby, moving forward a few steps on her knees and suddenly collapsing at his feet, “Please, young master, save me!”

Seeing the enchanting yet clearly not-so-respectable woman throw herself toward him, Wei Mingxuan jumped back in alarm.

The light-footed skills he had learned over the past few days finally came in handy.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Why couldn’t this family be more amenable to reason?

Desperation filled Si Yun’s eyes as she cried out, tears welling up and threatening to spill over. Tears streamed down Si Yun’s face, smudging her already disheveled makeup, making her look even more ragged.

At this point, her charm was completely gone.

“Um, miss, if you’re escaping for your life, you should get up and run quickly. If you keep delaying here, what will you do when your pursuers arrive?” Dong Da, the one driving the carriage, offered his sincere advice.

“……”

Si Yun felt utterly disappointed with this family. She glanced around, realizing that the road was still empty, and her pursuers were closing in fast. There was no time left to find anyone else to help her.

Gritting her teeth, she pulled out a silver hairpin embedded with jewels from her bosom. “I will offer this hairpin as a reward, begging you all to take me a short distance.”

As she lifted the curtain of the carriage, Wei Yunlan, who had been listening intently, was taken aback.

Si Yun?

Could it be the Si Yun she was thinking of?

Wei Yunlan jumped off the carriage and quickly approached, her gaze falling on the woman kneeling on the ground. The wind blew, lifting the hair from the woman’s face, revealing her features.

Wei Yunlan’s pupils constricted as she struggled to contain her shock.

It really was her!

Even though the woman’s makeup was smudged, Wei Yunlan recognized her by the red mole at the corner of her eye and the slightly recessed earlobe on her right side.

After all, her time as a ghost had been extremely dull; she could remember the appearance of every person in the courtyard of the Jinyang Marquis’s residence.

And this woman in front of her was none other than the concubine Yuanyuan, who was brought back to the Marquis’s residence by Chen Feng five years later!

According to Chen Feng, she was a gift from a high-ranking official in the court, and he dared not refuse. On the day she entered the residence, he had even assured Xue Linglong that he would keep her in the house without ever touching her.

But barely two months after that assurance, Chen Feng, drunk one night, took her into his favor. After that, he would often visit the most secluded courtyard in the back.

Xue Linglong was furious upon learning this, and the two nearly had the biggest argument they had had in ten years.

Wei Yunlan still remembered how she had floated above and heard Xue Linglong say, “What’s so good about her? Isn’t she just a little fox spirit?”

“Or are you still thinking about your late wife? Since her name also has a ‘Yun’ character, Si Yun, Si Yun, which one are you really fond of?”

Regardless of how those two quarreled, Wei Yunlan had found their words repulsive.

After all, she had been dead for over five years, yet they still hadn’t let go of her, even comparing a seductive concubine to her!

Just as Wei Yunlan was recalling who Si Yun was, the road ahead…

At that moment, the sound of hooves echoed from ahead.

Two carriages were approaching from a distance.

Seeing this, Si Yun’s eyes flickered with hope. If this group didn’t agree to help her, she would turn and plead with the carriages that were almost upon them!

But just then, two fast horses galloped in from the distance.

They intercepted the two carriages, and the riders shouted, “We are servants from the county magistrate’s residence, here to capture a runaway Liu family concubine. Has anyone seen a woman in a green dress pass by on this road?”

A runaway Liu family concubine?

At this moment, the Liu family concubine who was to be captured and taken away couldn’t be anyone other than the one who had just dismounted—the one who loved to send people into the back courtyards.

In a flash, something seemed to explode in Wei Yunlan’s mind.

Previously, she had suspected that the “sisters and younger sisters” of Young Master Liu, who were sent into various households, were cultivated by some powerful force behind the scenes.

If that force could support the Liu family and place people into the bureaucracies of Lianzhou, Suizhou, and Chongzhou, then surely they could also infiltrate the capital.

At that time, the Jinyang Marquis’s residence had been quite close to the Second Prince, making it a hot family in the capital. If even the Marquis’s residence could be infiltrated, one could only imagine the extent of such infiltration in the capital…

This was a clue that had completely gone unnoticed in her previous life.

Si Yun might just be an insignificant pawn in all this, but following the thread could lead to some significant clues!

Seeing that the servant from the Jiang residence was about to approach after questioning the two carriages, Wei Yunlan hurriedly said to Qi Xu, who was near Si Yun.

“Mr. Xiao, quickly hide her!”

“Big Sister?”

“Miss?”

“Don’t ask questions, just do it!”

Wei Mingxuan and Ningshuang, who had followed Wei Yunlan, looked puzzled.

But there was no time to explain.

Fortunately, in an instant, Qi Xu had torn off the oilcloth draped over the carriage and wrapped Si Yun up entirely, tossing her directly into the carriage.

From the moment Wei Yunlan spoke until the sound of “thud” echoed inside the carriage, it took no more than two breaths.

There was not a moment of hesitation.