I am a cat in the palace

Lying in the corner of the mule cart piled up with cloth and some miscellaneous goods, I narrowed my eyes and looked at this horrible country.

Everything in front of me is very strange, barren land, farmers in ragged clothes, low and dilapidated houses built of mud, in these places, I can no longer find a little bit of the splendor and prosperity of the capital.

It seems that I have never been so far away from the palace.

The mule carts moved very slowly, mainly because the places they passed were all muddy country roads, and sometimes people didn't even ride the carts, but people had to carry the carts to walk across.

Shang Xin, Wei Yin, and Ying Er, Ying San, Ying Liu, and Ying Jiu, four shadow guards, have been walking in the wilderness for nearly half a month.The Forbidden Army and Luohewei moved faster than they expected. The official pass to Cangzhou has been completely blocked. My spiritual power is insufficient, and it is okay to cover up my eyes, but there is no way to guarantee that they can stay in the city for a long time. Official roads and activities in the city are not discovered, so they can only travel in a roundabout way through country trails or mountain forests and wilderness where there are no roads at all.

On the afternoon of the second day after fleeing the capital, I regained my cat shape.

I can still clearly recall the ghost-like expressions of the four idiots in the dark guard. Thinking about it, a living person suddenly turned into a cat in front of my eyes, and everyone would have to go crazy for a while.

However, it is also very beneficial for me to become this body. At least, no matter whether they are really loyal enough or not, at least they will not dare to give birth to two hearts under my nose. In an instant, they became loyal believers who respected ghosts and gods and respected all monsters and strange things.

On the night when they decided to sneak in, they abandoned the gorgeous clothes they used to have. On the third day, because they were too eye-catching, even the horses used for transportation were also discarded.

It was replaced by a mule cart commonly used by rural landowners or foot traders.

It's the one that's shaking under my buttocks and feels like it's about to fall apart.

I sighed, lying down on a straw mat in boredom, basking in the west sun, the weather is getting warmer and warmer, but if I keep walking at this speed, I can only reach Cangzhou in the Year of the Monkey, not to mention——

I raised my head slightly and looked in the direction of the mule cart, but it still didn't seem to be north.

"Master, how long will it take for us to get out of Luohewei's control?" Rourou and Wei Yin sat side by side on the rear of the car and whispered.

"Ten more days." Wei Yin didn't seem to be in a hurry.

"Master, why do we keep going south? Instead of going north?" Rourou asked puzzled.

"We all know that we are going to Cangzhou, and the most stringent inspection is naturally the road to the north."

"Moreover, the land next to the north of the capital belongs to King Liu. King Liu has a deep relationship with the Zhao family. The previous concubine Liu and the current concubine Liu are both daughters of the Zhao family. Since the Zhao family has taken refuge in the false emperor, Liu Naturally, you can’t go to Wang’s side.” Wei Yin’s injuries were not much better, but he insisted that he was a wounded person, and he just stayed on the car and refused to get off.

"Then we don't need to go in the opposite direction. Isn't it okay to go east to west?" Rourou didn't understand the intention of Wei Yin's route arrangement, and looked a little anxious. Are states getting farther and farther away?

"To the east is the direction of Jingzhou where the second prince and the others are going. There is the main force of Luohewei over there. I'm afraid that road will be more difficult than the road to Cangzhou."

"To the west, you have to go through the Xiling Mountains to go north. The Xiling area is sparsely populated, with high mountains and dense forests. If you go into a mountain, you may not be able to get out for ten days and a half months. In case we get lost in it , What has changed in the situation outside, we can't even hear a letter."

"Let's go to the south first. The situation in the south is much better. This side was originally the fiefdom of King Huan and King Hui, but it has been taken back by the imperial court in the past few decades. It has always been under the jurisdiction of officials directly sent by the imperial court. It’s still uncertain where their winds will go, but they won’t be as monolithic as the prince’s fief.”

"Besides, we don't go all the way south. If we go three days further, we will arrive at Hongzhou. Hongzhou is the confluence of the Dingshui River and the Canglan River. At that time, we can take a merchant ship all the way to the north. It saves effort and time, and as long as the people on the boat don’t recognize us, we can rely on Daxian’s magic to temporarily deal with the interrogation all the way across the water, which is much safer than traveling long distances on land.”

"Really? Immortal?" Wei Yin bared his big white teeth, turned around and smiled obsequiously at me.

I gave him a contemptuous look and didn't bother to talk to him.

At this moment, my stomach made a slight "cuck~".

"Hungry?" Rourou immediately turned his head to look at me with pointed ears.

I lay weakly on the straw mat without saying a word.

"Come on, I've specially left half a piece of sweet potato here for you."

I refuse contemptuously, cat—that is a meat eater!

Rourou looked up at me helplessly, "Great Immortal, you haven't eaten two meals, if you continue to be hungry, you will really become an immortal."

I lowered my head to look at Rourou, and suddenly found that Rourou's small face has lost a lot of weight. It was indeed too much hard work for a prince who had been pampered and pampered for more than ten years.

Of course, no one can work harder than me, but I have left the great country in the palace behind and wandered with Rourou.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little gray slipping past the edge of my field of vision.

I immediately jumped up and jumped out of the car.

Frightened, Rourou hurriedly stopped the car and jumped down, trying to chase after me, but was stopped by Wei Yin.

A quarter of an hour later—

I pointed to the dozen or so voles that I lined up next to the mule cart and said to those useless guys: "Ying [-], Ying [-], you two go and clean up the first big skinny here!" Clean, those who haven't grown hair can just wash them directly, Ying Liu and Ying Jiu, you two go pick some dry firewood to make a fire, I want cooked ones."

"This—is this really edible?" Looking at the crispy and golden voles, Rourou hesitated a little.

"It's not a big problem. When the harvest is bad, many people who can't eat will go to the fields to dig vole nests, and if they catch them, they can skin them and eat them. They can also find food from their nests."

"The year I was sold by my father was a great famine. Even the voles in the fields were eaten up. A three-year-old boy from the uncle's house next door to my house was snatched away by some villains in the village in the middle of the night. The next day, when his parents found him, there was only a skeleton left of him, and there were teeth marks of those villains on the bones." Ying Jiu, who had always been silent, first picked up a field mouse that had been roasted a little , took a bite hard, even the bones of the belt were crunched.

Rourou looked at him in shock, "You... I thought... how old are you this year?"

"21."

"How old were you when you were sold?"

"Seven years old."

The old emperor came to the throne 20 years ago, which means that such a tragedy happened under the rule of the old emperor known as Mingjun.

Rourou was silent for a while.

"Your Highness, don't think too much. The minister's hometown is not under the rule of the former emperor." Ying Jiu took another bite of the vole, and when reminded by Ying Er's wink, he realized that what he said just now seemed to make flesh uncomfortable, so he quickly explained.

Rourou looked at him puzzled when he heard the words, "Aren't you from my Great Xia?"

This is almost impossible. As a dark guard personally selected by the old emperor, the most important thing is to have a clean foundation. It is too risky to appoint a foreigner, and unless it is a special case, it will not be considered at all.

"No, I don't mean that. My hometown is in Xiangzhou, which belongs to King Shun."

"However, everyone in Beijing said that although King Shun lost to his father in the battle for the throne, he worked hard to govern after he arrived in Xiangzhou. Everyone said he was a good king."

"Shang Xin, a prince who failed in the battle for the throne, was able to escape and get a large fief, and was praised by everyone as a virtuous king for the next 20 years. Do you think the word 'virtuous' can be included What are you hiding?"

Rourou was startled, thoughtful.

However, I tried my best to get out of Rourou's arms, and said to the group of people very unhappy: "Hey! Are you still eating or not, are you almost burnt without seeing it? I have spent a long time trying, if you If you don’t eat them all properly, don’t even think about getting them for you next time.”

"Yeah, thank you for your hard work, come on, come on, this food is actually quite delicious. I was in the army... I have eaten it before, and it tastes like rabbit meat." Seeing my stare, Wei Yin quickly picked up one Eat up.

But Rourou took two, and while eating by himself, he blew it cold and fed it to me.

Well, the heat is a bit too high, but at this time, I can’t pay so much attention. Eating this is better than eating sweet potatoes. After eating sweet potatoes for three days, I almost vomited. Although this thing has thin skin and brittle bones There is not much meat, but it is meaty anyway.

After another two days of wandering in the wilderness and mountain villages, I finally saw the shadow of the town ahead.

The past two days have been really hard, because we have already reached the border of Hongzhou, and the population is getting more and more. Wei Yin led everyone to be more and more careful in their actions. Even if there are villages and towns, they basically avoid them carefully and do not make much contact.

Occasionally, I never used money to exchange some food, but used the goods on the cart.

However, they have learned a lot along the way. They have a clear understanding of the barter market, and they will no longer be silly and suspicious like they did at the beginning.

"The smell of cow dung on your body really kills me." Since yesterday, I have been reluctant to get into my fleshy arms, it is too stinky.

But Rourou didn't seem to be able to smell it. When it was camping at night, he still picked up cow dung for the fire by himself.

Seeing Rourou reaching out to hug my hand, I recalled the big pile of cow dung that was burning vigorously in the fire, so I quickly dodged and stretched out my paw to cover my nose, but the paw almost reached the tip of my nose It was only when I was walking that I realized that the smell was getting stronger and stronger. I took a closer look at my eyes: ah!When did cow dung get under my paws?

Looking at the thin and black layer of things that had been stepped on, my whole cat suddenly became ill.

Rourou found that I held up a paw and the whole cat was frozen there, and looked at it strangely. After reading it, he quickly grabbed a bunch of straw used to pad the car and wiped it under my paw: "It's okay, it's okay. , it should be just a little mud, not necessarily cow dung."

The smell is almost killing me, you have no sincerity in consoling me!

I looked at the straw angrily, then lifted my paw to look at my own meat pad, after thinking about it, I finally decided——

flutter!

"Daxian? Are you tired? Do you want to sleep? Then sleep with me tonight."

Sure enough, that idiot Wei Yin caught me with a smirk on his face, and held me in his arms and smoothed my fur vigorously. He didn't even pay attention to my behavior of rubbing my paws vigorously on his clothes. Of course, after rubbing my paws, I immediately went Kicked him away and returned to Rourou, wanting to hug me covered in cow dung, hum!

Three days later,

We finally landed on the edge of a small town near the Hongzhou Water and Land General Wharf. This is a stronghold of the dark guards. It is relatively safe and we can also get some latest news.

"The empress is missing?"

Even I was shocked to hear the news.

"Isn't she surrounded by Duke Wei's heir with the Tiger Cavalry Army and Southern Army horses to protect her?"

"I heard that they were besieged by chasing soldiers. Wei Guogong's son She Che Baoshuai protected the second prince and rushed out, throwing the empress as bait. It's just that I don't know whether the empress is lucky or unlucky. In the process of being chased Her carriage fell into the Canglan River, and then disappeared."

I just feel that Shang Xin's hand holding me is slightly tighter, and I think he is still a little worried about the little kindness shown by the queen on the night of Lantern Festival.