Rebirth of the High Family's Beloved

Yan Ci thought the smell was unusually pleasant.

She tilted her head slightly and asked, "Xie Chengyin, what kind of incense are you using?"

The horse was running very fast, and Yan Ci's voice came from the front again. Xie Chengyin only heard a faint voice but could not hear clearly what was said.

He lowered his head slightly, leaned close to Yan Ci's ear, and asked, "What did you say?"

The warm breath against her ear made Yan Ci's hair stand on end, and the itchiness on the tip of her ear made her want to scratch it.

She suppressed her overly sensitive reaction, moved a little further away from Xie Chengyin, and said, "I'm asking you, what kind of fragrance do you wear?"

This time Xie Chengyin heard clearly, "There is no incense, but a purse with a camphor ball in it. Why, don't you like the smell?"

Yan Ci looked ahead and said, "No, it smells good."

"If you like it, I'll give you one when you come back."

Yan Ci did not refuse. It was a rare occasion that she encountered a smell that she did not dislike but instead found very comfortable. If he gave it to her, she would accept it.

She didn't like to use perfume before, firstly because she was in the army and the conditions didn't allow it, and secondly because the strong smell would affect her judgment at critical moments. So since her rebirth, she has also developed the habit of not using perfume.

The smell on Xie Chengyin unexpectedly aroused her interest.

As the two were talking, the horses slowed down, and Qicun, who had already set off ahead of them, was now slowly walking behind them.

Yan Ci asked curiously: "Why did it slow down? Did something happen?"

"It's okay, we're just walking too fast. We need to slow down."

Yan Ci was a little confused and asked, "Why do we have to slow down? We were already behind them, and if we were any slower, we would have to catch up to southern Fujian."

Xie Chengyin said patiently to Yan Ci, "The exiles are walking, we will catch up quickly on horseback, and this place is too close to the Eastern Capital, we will be easily discovered if we take action here, we have to go slower and let them go further."

In fact, what is more important is that Shen Zhaoyan has not taken any action yet, so it would be in vain if they go too early.

Yan Ci nodded in understanding. She was the one who was flustered because she was too worried about her brother that she overlooked these details. Fortunately, Xie Chengyin was thoughtful.

Two horses and three people walked slowly, waiting for time to pass while admiring the scenery on the horizon.

They set out in the afternoon and had been walking for several hours. The sun had slowly set behind the mountain, and the clouds and sunset glow in the sky were dyed red by the afterglow of the setting sun.

Looking back, Dongdu was getting farther and farther away from them, and in front of them was an endless open space and woods, with only a long and narrow road extending to an unknown distance.

Qicun suddenly rode his horse forward at a gallop, and came back after a while.

He rode his horse to Xie Chengyin's side and said, "Sir, they have stopped to rest on the roadside ahead. Should we also stop for a while before going on?"

"it is good."

Not far ahead of Yan Ci and the others, Hua Cishu, escorted by five officers, sat on a stone by the roadside to take a rest.

He looked around and felt uneasy.

As the leader of this exile mission, Meng Huailin ordered the remaining four people, two to guard the Hua Ci tree, and the other two to take turns to urinate.

Zhang Xiang and Xu Lin sat on the left and right of Hua Cishu. Meng Huailin walked over and looked at Hua Cishu, who had walked all the way without saying a word. He handed him a kettle and said, "Drink some water."

Hua Cishu did not pick it up.

Meng Huailin saw Hua Cishu's defensiveness, snorted, raised the kettle and took a few big gulps from it before handing it to Hua Cishu again.

"It's not poisonous."

Hua Cishu looked at the leader, who had a cold expression but behaved friendly towards him. He hesitated for a moment before taking the kettle and drank two sips from it. He was indeed thirsty.

He thought that he would inevitably suffer some torture along the way. After all, as far as he knew about exile, no one had ever arrived at the place of exile intact.

But during the half day he was walking, although the five officers did not treat him well, they did not deliberately make things difficult for him.

Normally, there would be two guards accompanying a person in exile, but for some reason, he was accompanied by five people.

He was confused and observed the words and actions of several people as he walked.

They seldom spoke and were a little lazy in their movements, but they were disciplined. Especially once the leader spoke, the other four would obey.

A few people sat and rested for a while, then took turns to go to the bathroom, and after coming back they sat together and muttered.

It takes more than half a month to walk from Dongdu to southern Fujian. Hua Cishu heard them discussing privately that when they were a little farther away from Dongdu, they would hire a carriage and take turns riding in the carriage to southern Fujian to save themselves the hard work.

He was shocked and suddenly had the illusion that he was traveling to southern Fujian.

Seeing that the sky was gradually getting dark, Meng Huailin called a few people to get up, "Let's go, we have to reach the post station before dark, otherwise we will have to sleep in the wilderness tonight."

When the four heard the leader's words, they slowly stood up and urged Hua Cishu to continue on their way.

This time, they had only taken two steps when they heard the chaotic sound of horse hooves.

Before they could react, the six people were surrounded.

The five men immediately surrounded Hua Ci Shu in the middle, drew the swords at their waists, and looked at the people surrounding them with full readiness.

It was a team of more than a dozen people, all riding tall horses, dressed in black, with black scarves on their faces. It was obvious that they were not here with good intentions.

Zhang Xiang swallowed nervously, "Boss, what should we do?"

The leader Meng Huailin frowned, holding the sword at his waist, not daring to relax at all.

"Hold still."

The man on the horse looked at the five thin runners, plus Hua Ci Shu with chains, and began to slowly narrow the encirclement.

They didn't understand that just a few small fish and shrimps required more than a dozen people to come.

Originally they were worried that Hua Ci Shu would be the most difficult to deal with, but now they saw that Hua Ci Shu, handcuffed and shackled, had no fighting ability at all. He was even weaker than those frightened officers.

The man in black at the front had a cold light in his eyes. He raised his hand and pointed directly at Hua Cishu, then said to Meng Huailin and the others: "Our target is him. If you take the initiative to move out of the way, we can give you a chance to live."

Hearing this, Zhang Xiang's eyes lit up and he immediately looked at Meng Huailin, "Boss, they are going to let us go."

Meng Huailin rolled his eyes at Zhang Xiang and said, "If we lose the prisoner, can we survive if we go back?"

"We can say that people died on the way."

Xu Lin curled his lips and said, "It's our fault that the person died on the way. We will be held accountable."

Zhang Xiang scratched his head, "What should we do? How about we run away?"

"Run, where can you run to?"

"Hey, let's go back to our Fengyang village and become a bandit!"

As soon as Zhang Xiang finished speaking, he staggered. Holding his waist that was hurt by the knife handle, he turned to Meng Huailin who attacked him with grievance. He heard Meng Huailin say, "Have you forgotten what the boss told us before we left? We must keep an eye on the good people. You still want to run away now?"

"Then why don't we just run with him?"

The other three people all looked at Zhang Xiang with a look of "you are a fool" on their faces, and then their eyes all fell on the man in black who was gradually shrinking the encirclement.

There were several of them, and they were running with Hua Cishu. It was a miracle that I could run away.