Farewell Flower Festival

The sound of gurgling water meanders down, and the sunlight shines through the branches and leaves onto the clear water, sparkling like diamonds.

Everyone sat on the ground, drank wine and talked about the past and present.

Chao Yan was the only girl present. She didn't recognize the literati invited by Shang Ye. She couldn't drink much and couldn't get a word in their chats about quoting from classics. After all, she hadn't made up for the history of this place and only had a rough idea of ​​the famous writers of this dynasty.

After sitting for about an incense stick of time, Chao Yan had almost finished the cakes in front of her. She gave Shen Cheng a few words of advice, asking him to drink less and not get drunk. Her feet were numb from sitting, so she went for a walk. Shen Cheng told her not to walk too far.

Chaoyan walked to the gurgling stream, looked at the little fish swimming in the puddles, and broke a piece of cake in her hand into small pieces to feed the fish. The cake disappeared as soon as it was scattered in the puddles.

Mu Tianqi glanced at Chao Yan and saw that she was feeding the fish, so he asked someone to bring the plate of pastries in front of them to her.

Seeing this, Shen Cheng asked someone to take the plate of pastries in front of him to Chao Yan. When it comes to caring for his sister, how could he, as a brother, be outdone by others.

Everyone started talking about the beauties praised in poems and songs, and talked about the life stories of these beauties. Suddenly, they heard a ding-dong sound. They looked in the direction of the sound and were all a little stunned.

Chao Yan scooped up a handful of water, and the crystal clear water droplets slipped from her white and slender fingers, one by one, falling into the stream like pearls, making a tinkling sound.

The sunlight shining through the woods shone on half of her face at just the right angle. She seemed to be enveloped in the clear and pure light, like an elf in the mountains and forests, pure and flawless.

Shen Cheng noticed that everyone was looking at Chao Yan, so he immediately waved his arms to distract everyone's attention. He once again emphasized that Chao Yan was his sister, and warned Shang Ye's friends not to look at her blindly.

Chaoyan heard her brother's voice, turned around and looked over there. She saw her brother standing up and looking a little angry. She wondered if he had an argument with someone?

Shang Ye told Shen Cheng not to be angry and asked everyone to change the topic. Only then did Shen Cheng sit down.

"This mountain and the temple are both named Yuquan. There must be a spring on the mountain, but we don't know where it is. Now that we are here, we might as well follow the stream to look for it," Mu Tianqi suggested.

Everyone became interested when they heard it.

Shen Cheng went over and told Chaoyan that they were going to look for Quan, and asked if they should have someone send her back first?

Chaoyan is also interested and wants to go look for it too.

On the way, Shen Cheng kept paying attention to the road under Chao Yan's feet, and reminded her to be careful not to fall every few steps.

Mu Tianqi casually talked about the pot of green chrysanthemums, saying that Chao Yan's previous words had benefited him a lot, and he still had questions to ask her.

"I was just talking nonsense that day, Your Highness, don't take it to heart." Chao Yan said

Mu Tianqi said: "My Lord, you are too modest."

Everyone walked up the mountain along the stream, and Chaoyan felt that it was almost the same as climbing a mountain.

When we reached an open space with a wide view, the stream turned and changed direction.

There are deep forests ahead, and it looks like there may be wild beasts lurking there.

Two people backed out, fearing that it would be dangerous to go any further, and suggested bringing more people to find the spring next time.

Shang Ye was in high spirits and joked that even if there were tigers inside, they had been influenced by Buddhism and would not eat people.

Hearing about the tiger, two more people backed down and advised Shang Ye to put safety first and bring more people next time.

"Then you stay here, I'll go explore the way first." Shang Ye was about to leave when Shen Cheng called him. Seeing that the Second Prince Mu Tianqi was quite calm and reliable, Shen Cheng asked him to take care of Chao Yan, and he went with Shang Ye to explore the way.

At this time, an accident happened.

A cold arrow shot over and everyone fled in fear.

The other party did not hurt anyone and seemed to just want to create chaos and then take advantage of the situation.

Then he took the fish Asagao away.

Asagao felt someone hit her on the back of her neck, and then she lost consciousness.

The second before she passed out, the thought that flashed through her mind was:...

A dark shadow whizzed into the woods ahead, carrying Chao Yan on his shoulder.

After Shen Cheng discovered that Chao Yan was missing, one second had passed. He immediately started sprinting 100 meters and rushed into the woods in front, shouting "Stop" while chasing. Mu Tianqi and Shang Ye also chased after her. The rest of the people quickly retreated and ran down the mountain to report the case.

The deep woods blocked their view and all three of them were lost.

Mu Tianqi suggested that they split up and chase after them, and if they didn’t find the person after an hour, they should come back here to reunite, and warned the two not to act rashly.

In less than an hour, Mu Tianling arrived with his men and quickly divided them into the searching team. Qianfeng led one team, Captain Yu led one team, and he led one team, with Feiyu following him.

Then, Qianfeng and Captain Yu’s teams found Shen Cheng and Shang Ye respectively in the woods, but Mu Tianling did not find any trace of Mu Tianqi or Chao Yan.

Afterwards, Han Lie came with four Tianwu Guards.

A group of people conducted a carpet search and there were also people guarding the foot of the mountain.

……

When Chao Yan woke up, she found that everything in front of her eyes was black. Her heart skipped a beat and she thought she was blind.

After getting used to the dim light around her, she found herself in a cave. The entrance above was covered with vines, and it was estimated to be four or five stories high. She heard another person talking, which startled her.

"The princess is awake."

Chao Yan heard a familiar voice and turned around to see a person leaning against the stone wall, his face shrouded in shadow and unable to be seen clearly.

"Your Highness?"

Mu Tianqi agreed, and a series of questions popped up in Chao Yan's mind. Why was she here? Why was Mu Tianqi here? How long had she been unconscious? Did the person who kidnapped her leave?

"Don't worry, someone will come soon." Mu Tianqi comforted.

Chaoyan saw him sitting there and asked if he was injured. Mu Tianqi said it was nothing serious, just a sprained ankle. Chaoyan asked how long she had been unconscious, and Mu Tianqi said about half an incense stick of time.

Half a stick of incense lasts about a quarter of an hour, which is not a long time.

Chaoyan asked again why the two of them appeared here. She looked up at the hole above her head. If she was thrown down, she would have died long ago.

Mu Tianqi briefly recounted what had happened.

He, Shen Cheng and Shang Ye went to look for people separately. He was lucky as he ran into the masked man on this road. The man was about to throw Chao Yan into the cave, but when he saw him throw the person into the cave, he ran away. He jumped down to save the person and sprained his ankle.

Does the other party want to kill her to silence her?

Chaoyan's first suspect was Lin Rou. In terms of who in the capital had the greatest motive to kill her, the other party must be ranked first. The second suspect was Zhao Zhong. Her father was investigating the Liu family's affairs recently, and the other party might have realized that the investigation had hit him.