Still, no one responded.

Jiang Yanyi sensed that something was wrong.

This place was situated in a recess, and the sentries in the watchtower couldn’t see this area.

She was worried about Qiu kui but also knew that as a woman, if anything were to happen, she wouldn’t have the strength to defend herself.

Without any hesitation, she shouted, “Help—uh—”

Suddenly, a shadow sprang out from the grass.

Just as Jiang Yanyi managed to utter a “help,” someone covered her mouth and pushed her down to the ground.

The chestnuts in the basket spilled everywhere, and the lantern fell to the ground, the candle inside quickly igniting the paper covering.

Jiang Yanyi’s back was pressed against the sharp stones on the ground, the intense pain causing her to cry out, but only muffled sounds escaped her lips.

The person tightly covered her mouth and nose, emanating a rancid odor from not bathing for a long time.

Jiang Yanyi clawed and scratched at him, her nails digging deeply into the flesh of his hand.

The man winced in pain and forcefully drove his knee into Jiang Yanyi’s abdomen.

She instantly curled up in agony, her vision darkening.

“You’re in my hands now, you filthy bitch!”

The man spat, his voice sounding somewhat familiar.

Struggling to lift her eyes, Jiang Yanyi, with the flickering light from the burning lantern, managed to see the man’s pockmarked face, which was covered with dark spots.

It was the pockmarked face who had teased her on the day she arrived at the Fire Camp, the one she had splashed with a bowl of porridge!

The pockmarked face lightly tapped Jiang Yanyi’s face with the back of his hand, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth as he smiled, his eyes filled with unabashed desire: “You’re quite a pretty little thing…”

Jiang Yanyi felt nauseous and didn’t know where her strength came from.

As soon as she felt that the pockmarked face wasn’t covering her mouth as tightly, she twisted her head and bit down hard on his hand, almost tearing off a chunk of flesh.

The pockmarked face contorted in pain but dared not cry out, only gritting his teeth to endure it.

“You slut—”

In his agony, he gave Jiang Yanyi a resounding slap.

Jiang Yanyi felt the sting in her ears, finally loosening her mouth, but she didn’t care about anything else and shouted, “Help me—”

This piercing cry echoed far into the night.

Feng Shuo was leading several personal guards around a bend near this recess, with Chi Qing riding alongside him.

“Why isn’t there another watchtower around this bend?” After years of military experience, Feng Shuo immediately recognized that the recess ahead was a dead angle for sight.

Chi Qing replied, “The watchtowers were all set up beforehand.”

He glanced at the nearby terrain and analyzed, “The watchtower this side is less than a hundred paces from the next one. Setting up another watchtower just to monitor a recess isn’t cost-effective.”

However, as soon as he finished speaking, a woman’s chilling cry for help echoed from ahead.

Before the nearby sentry could react, Feng Shuo furrowed his brows and was already riding ahead, with his guards hastily following.

Chi Qing slapped his forehead and quickly urged his horse to catch up.

As they reached the road section around the recess, they lit torches and glanced around, but there was no one in sight.

The only place where someone could hide was a patch of grass near the wooden fence.

The guards formed a fan shape around the grass, using knives to search through it.

Feng Shuo noticed a patch of black ash left behind, seemingly from something that had burned.

He approached, keenly spotting a few candied chestnuts that had been trampled into the mud.

His eyes instantly turned cold as he drew his sword and pushed aside some taller grass, discovering even more candied chestnuts and a bamboo basket hidden in the underbrush.

“Master, there’s a woman here!”

One of the searching guards shouted.

Feng Shuo rushed over and saw that lying in the grass was a kitchen helper he had seen before in the Fire Camp.

If the helper was here, then the cook should also be around.

Feng Shuo glanced at Qiu kui, who lay in the grass with blood seeping from her temple, a palm-sized rock beside her stained with blood, indicating she had been hit on the head.

“Is she still alive?” Feng Shuo asked.

One of the guards checked Qiuli’s breath and replied, “She’s still breathing.”

The night concealed the signs of the disturbed grass.

From his vantage point on horseback, Feng Shuo’s sight was broader than that of his guards.

With the torchlight, he suddenly noticed something in the grass behind that seemed to have been dragged away.

He dismounted, took the torch from a guard, and followed the path through the grass all the way to a wooden fence that was over a meter high.

Indeed, he found a large hole at the bottom of the fence.

Moreover, the grass outside the fence seemed to have drag marks.

The guards following behind were startled, realizing that under the cover of weeds, one wouldn’t be able to see there was a hole large enough for two people to escape through at the same time.

Feng Shuo’s expression darkened as he kicked off from the wooden fence, leaping outside.

He discarded the torch and, relying on the moonlight, followed the traces in the grass, moving as quietly as a cat, making no sound at all.

Behind the grass was a poplar forest.

Following the drag marks for a while, he found that the traces suddenly disappeared.

He scanned the surroundings and fixed his gaze on a tall poplar tree not far away.

The pockmarked face was hiding behind that tree, desperately trying to control his heavy breathing, keeping a wary eye behind him, a dagger clutched in his hand.

After Jiang Yanyi shouted for help, he had been knocked unconscious with a single strike.

He was already prepared to take drastic measures; if he got caught, he could at least use Jiang Yanyi as a hostage.

However, when he looked back again, he found that the young man who had come earlier was nowhere to be seen.

Ma Zi’s face suddenly felt ominous.

He raised his dagger high, cautiously peeking out from behind the tree.

Suddenly, a dark shadow dropped down from the tree.

Feng Shuo stepped on Ma Zi’s head and, as he landed, delivered a spinning kick to Ma Zi’s chest.

Ma Zi immediately flew back and crashed into a poplar tree, spitting out blood and passing out.

His life was nearly gone.

Only then did Feng Shuo glance at Jiang Yanyi, who had fainted under the tree.

He momentarily gasped.

She had her head bowed, and the strands of hair that fell by her temples seemed to exude a seductive beauty amidst the tragic scene.

Her lips had little color, evoking an inexplicable desire for both pity and cruelty.

Five clear fingerprints marred her left cheek, accentuating her pale complexion and making the sight particularly shocking.

Two ties of her clothing had been torn apart, revealing her delicate collarbone and half of a rounded shoulder.

The begonia-colored garment, obscured by the outer layer, was barely visible, wrapping around her bosom, which was plump and full.

Though the embroidery was indistinguishable, it sparked the imagination.

The slender red tie extended to her snow-white neck, tied in a fragile knot behind her dark hair.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the trees, illuminating her porcelain-like skin as if it glowed.

A crow’s caw in the forest startled Feng Shuo back to reality.

He quickly looked away, took off his cloak, turned his face, and wrapped Jiang Yanyi in it.

After hesitating for a moment, he picked her up horizontally.

His ears flushed red under the moonlight.

When his followers arrived, they saw their master carrying someone, tightly wrapped in his cloak, striding forward while leaving behind the order, “Bind the people inside and take them back to the military camp!”

His followers exchanged glances, surprised.

In all these years, their master had never brought a single sparrow back to the estate; this was the first time they had seen him carry someone like this.

It was already the hour of Hai, and the military camp was dark, with no signs of light in the various quarters, except for the burning torches in the watchtowers and fire basins on the tripods.

The women in the Poplar Forest quarters noticed that Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui had not returned, and worry began to creep in.

“Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui still haven’t come back at this hour. Could something have happened?” a woman whispered.

Immediately, someone replied, “Should we tell Lieutenant Guo?”

Lieutenant Guo was the small leader managing the quarters here.

Chunxiang lay on her bed, staring at the empty beds of Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui across from her, her heart pounding like a drum.

Earlier in the evening, she had seen Liu Cheng in the Poplar Forest, and his words echoed in her ears once again.

She didn’t know Liu Cheng’s plans, but since Jiang Yanyi had yet to return, he must have done something.

Fearing that the camp might discover someone was missing and disrupt Liu Cheng’s plans, Chun Xiang put on an impatient demeanor and snapped at the two women who had spoken earlier, “What are you making so much noise about? Can’t anyone sleep?”

She was always the most domineering among the women, and when she was angry, they usually wouldn’t provoke her.

However, tonight, the two women didn’t back down from Chunxiang.

Instead, they murmured softly, “Who knows what she’s so proud of? Jiang Yanyi is just a cook now, and she’s not as ostentatious as she is.”

“She thinks she’s special because she’s close to a general. She doesn’t consider her own identity. Does she expect to become someone’s concubine in this military camp?”

“If she drinks too many medicines, she can’t give birth anymore; what use is marrying her?”

Each word hit Chunxiang where it hurt.

Furious, Chunxiang jumped up from her bed, walked over, grabbed the nearest woman by the hair, and slapped her face. “You filthy woman! When you were benefiting from me, you had one face; now that that new little vixen is in power, you have a different face!”

As a fight broke out, the women who had initially wanted to pretend to be asleep were forced to intervene and break it up.

Chunxiang, still struggling against the women who held her back, shouted, “Do you think that Jiang is anything good? She’s not back at this hour; she’s probably in that wild man’s bed!”

“If you’re not afraid of her taking revenge on you later, and you want to report her absence tonight and ruin her plans, go ahead and try!”

With that, she angrily returned to her bed.

The women in the quarters hadn’t interacted much with Jiang Yanyi, but Chunxiang’s intimidation made them feel that it was better to avoid trouble, so they all settled down.

The next day, when they arrived at the Firehead Camp, Chef Li asked about Jiang Yanyi, and they realized she hadn’t come to the kitchen either, feeling a sudden sense of foreboding.

Chunxiang had already taken Liu Cheng to a secluded spot, secretly asking him about what happened last night.

“Did you… deal with that little vixen?” Chun Xiang made a throat-cutting gesture.

Liu Cheng’s eyes darted around cautiously, but he still wore a smile, seeming no different from usual. “What are you talking about? I was in the quarters with Head Zhao and the others all night.”

Chunxiang felt that Liu Cheng was not being truthful.

Just as she was about to ask something else, Liu Cheng said, “Don’t worry; whether she’s dead or alive, no one will trace it back to us.”

Upon hearing this, Chunxiang immediately understood that Liu Cheng likely took action last night.

She couldn’t help but feel anxious; she didn’t care about Jiang Yanyi’s life or death, but this was a human life.

If suspicion fell on her, even her own achievements would be investigated, and she wouldn’t be able to clear her name even if she jumped into the Yellow River.

“Wait, what if…” Chunxiang had just begun to speak when Liu Cheng interrupted her.

“Enough, I’ve been out for too long and need to return; otherwise, it’ll draw suspicion.” Liu Cheng finished speaking and left first.

Chunxiang stomped her feet in anger, feeling both anxious and distressed.

Liu Cheng clearly wasn’t concerned about her safety.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted outside, with someone calling Chun Xiang’s name.

She had to temporarily set aside her thoughts and head outside.

“What’s all the shouting about? Are you calling souls?”

For some reason, since that morning, her right eyelid had been twitching incessantly, making her feel particularly uneasy.

When she arrived outside the quarters, Chunxiang’s face immediately changed.

It was the flag officer who had previously taken her to receive her reward.

The flag officer already had a fierce appearance, and now, looking at Chunxiang, the scar on his face appeared even more menacing.

He gestured to the soldiers behind him and shouted, “Bind this lowly person who impersonated a cook from the Firehead Camp and received rewards from the Grand General!”