Xia Xun stayed in the corner of the wall for too long, which aroused Zhi Gui’s suspicion. She stepped forward slowly and said softly:

“Young Master, what do you want to do? Shall this slave help you?”

Xia Xun stood up immediately:

“It’s nothing.”

He kicked  the soil a few times, filling the pit dug out by Yuzhu to cover the exposed wall.

Qi Hui stood ten steps away from him, holding the sword hanging from his waist, guarding him responsibly.

It was impossible for Xia Xun to go back to Xia Mansion with Yuzhu under the supervision of these two people. He had to wait for the opportunity.

He thought of the potion the Hu gave him.

Yuzhu refused to give up and walked back and forth along the base of the wall.

Xia Xun picked him up and went straight back to the house, pretending that nothing happened.

At dinner time, when Zhi Gui served the dishes, he asked her: “Is Qi Yan back yet?”

Zhi Gui replied:

“The lord hasn’t returned yet. Is Young Master looking for him for something?”

Xia Xun shook his head and said nothing.

When Zhi Gui served him a bowl of soup, he looked outside the house and said:

“Apart from Qi Hui in the yard, why are there no other guards?”

“Young Master said that he liked it to be quiet,” Zhi Gui replied, “so the lord withdrew everyone else, leaving only this slave to serve and Qi Hui responsible for Young Master’s safety.”

Xia Xun relaxed.

He pretended to be distracted, took a few sips of soup, then put down the spoon and asked Qi Hui who was standing by the door:

“Where did your lord go?”

Qi Hui said that Qi Yan got an invitation and went to a banquet.

Xia Xun carelessly stirred the soup in the bowl:

“He is running around, why don’t you guard him?”

Qi Hui replied:

“After last night, the lord is very worried about your safety. He left this subordinate to take good care of you every step of the way, and…” He stared at Xia Xun. “With all due respect, in the heart of the lord, you are much more important than him.”

Xia Xun ate the dishes brought by Zhi Gui without saying a word.

When the dinner was over, Zhi Gui removed the bowls. It was getting dark, the flowers and the trees in the courtyard melting into the night.

Xia Xun asked Zhi Gui to come to make tea.

Zhi Guigui hesitated slightly:

“Young Master, I’m afraid it will be difficult to fall asleep after drinking tea at night.”

Xia Xun said, “Don’t worry about this, just make the tea.”

She did as he said, set up the tea set on the table and turned to find the tea can.

Xia Xun was holding the medicine bottle given by the Hu man tightly in his hand. Taking advantage of the time when Zhi Gui turned to pick up the tea, he quickly opened the bottle cap, held his breath and blew lightly at her.

The Hu man didn’t lie to him. The fragrance took effect far faster than he thought. In the blink of an eye, Zhi Gui collapsed to the ground.

The sound of her falling alarmed Qi Hui and he ran in quickly.

“What’s the matter?!”

Xia Xun blocked the mouth of the bottle with his finger and said in surprise:“I don’t know, she fainted suddenly!”

Qi Hui had to check, and Xia Xun uncovered the mouth of the bottle again.

It took longer for the fragrance to work on Qi Hui. He felt dizzy at first, rubbed his temples and tried to look back at Xia Xun.

He had time to turn halfway, and the next moment he fell heavily to the ground just like Zhi Gui.

Xia Xun didn’t dare to procrastinate, picked up Yuzhu and rushed out, not forgetting to close the door of the room. This way, if someone came in accidentally, they wouldn’t see Zhi Gui and Qi Hui on the floor at a glance, and it would buy Xia Xun some time.

Hugging Yuzhu tightly, he left the courtyard and ran forward, bending down.

He didn’t know how long the fragrance would be effective. Qi Yan might have been on his way back to the mansion, too, and his time was very limited.

All along the way, there were actually guards standing around. However, the sky was pitch dark, and Xia Xun nearly crouched walking among the trees, using vegetation as a cover. No one noticed him.

When he came to the wall, he put down Yuzhu and took out a copper spoon from his sleeve.

It was brought by Zhi Gui, and he hid it secretly.

He used his hands to dig the soil at the base of the wall, revealing the peeling plastering. Then he groped to insert the copper spoon into the gaps in the wall.

This dog hole was patched later, and there was still some crack between it and the original wall. As soon as he pried it with the copper spoon, the clay on the wall cracked and fell down.

Yuzhu became fascinated and barked in a muffled voice, his eyes much brighter than before.

Xia Xun whispered: “Shhh… don’t make noise, we’ll be discovered.”

Yuzhu endured pain in his joints, moved closer to Xia Xun and licked off the mud on the back of his hand.

Xia Xun praised him softly: “Good dog.”

He did not dare to breathe, and his hands did not dare to stop, desperately prying open the dog hole.

The moon emerged from the clouds, and under the bright moonlight, he finally dug through the last layer of clay in front of him.

The original dog hole was completely restored.

He first sent Yuzhu into it and then he got in himself.

The dog hole was very narrow; if it were him in the past, he might have got stuck.

But in the days of Lingnan, he had lost a lot of weight; without much effort he got out of the dog hole on the other side.

It was Xia Mansion.

It used to be Xia Xun’s most familiar place.

Nowadays, the large mansion was in a state of disrepair, all parts of it mottled, with few tiles left on the walls, ruins and debris as far as the eye could see.

Xia Xun picked up Yuzhu, took a deep breath, stepped on the broken bricks on the ground and walked into his home after years of being away.

Qi Hui was awakened by cold water.

Stimulated by the coolness on his face, he suddenly woke up.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Qi Yan covered in blood.

He was so frightened that his soul nearly parted with his body. He stood up, his eyes rolling:

“My lord! What’s the matter with you?! Why are you injured —?! Who hurt you?!!”

Qi Yan’s expression was cold: “It’s someone else’s blood.”

Qi Hui looked around; the guards that accompanied Qi Yan to the banquet were also stained with blood.

He was speechless, stuttering as he tried to say something:

“How could it be…? What the hell happened?!”

Qi Yan was attacked on the way back to the mansion.

The assassins came ruthlessly, slashing the two horses pulling the carriage as soon as they got close to Qi Yan’s carriage.

The guards moved to meet the enemy and there was a quick fight between the two sides.

Qi Yan planned to leave a few of the attackers alive to interrogate but the opponents’ moves were full of murderous intent, aimed to kill. He was forced to take action in person, trying his best to fight back along with his guards. Every one of the assassins died under their swords.

Qi Yan was worried that the mansion would also be attacked, so he ordered one man to report to the authorities and hurried back with the other guards.

As soon as he entered the mansion, he didn’t care about anything else and rushed straight to the main house where Xia Xun was.

His clothes were soaked with blood and he was afraid of scaring Xia Xun, so he didn’t rush into the room immediately and stopped outside the door.

The room was quiet and there was not even a candle lit.

Qi Yan felt weird.

“Xia Xun!”

He called a few times, but no one responded.

He stopped waiting and kicked the door open.

Zhi Gui and Qi Hui suddenly appeared in front of him, lying on the floor.

Qi Yan stepped forward and touched them; the two of them still had the pulse. He didn’t care about their safety and looked for Xia Xun anxiously:

“Xia Xun?? Where are you??”

Xia Xun was not here.

The guards and servants immediately went to find him, digging Qi Mansion three feet into the ground, but didn’t even see a trace of him.

Qi Yan ordered sharply:“Wake me up Zhi Gui and Qi Hui!”

When he heard about Qi Yan’s assassination attempt and Xia Xun’s disappearance, Qi Hui’s legs softened and he knelt down.

“Blame this subordinate for being incompetent! How could this subordinate… how could I faint —?! This —”

Qi Yan suppressed his churning emotions and asked:

“What happened before you fainted?”

His voice was hoarse, with a faint tremor, his anxiety extreme.

Qi Hui hurriedly said:

“This subordinate remembers that before fainting, there was nothing unusual in the room! The young master just finished his dinner, and Zhi Gui stayed with him – I remember! It was Zhi Gui who fainted first! When I came in to check, I felt dizzy as soon as I bent over, and then suddenly I fell to the ground! Till this moment I couldn’t wake up! If you think about it, I must have been drugged!”

Qi Yan was so upset that he clenched his fists and pressed them to his forehead.

Xia Xun’s exile was the sentence issued by the emperor personally, and the emperor was also well aware of his death.

He didn’t know if the one who tried to assassinate him and the one who took Xia Xun were the same people.

But he knew very well that if Xia Xun’s identity was exposed, he would undoubtedly die and there would be no chance for him to escape through the second fake death.

He slowly put down his hands, walked into the room and paced back and forth.

He tried to find clues about who had taken Xia Xun away.

There were no signs of fight in the room, everything was in its place safely, except for—

He asked suddenly:

“Where are Yuzhu?!”

No one knew. They said they had rummaged through the whole mansion just now, but they didn’t find Xia Xun, nor did they see Yuzhu.

Qi Yan stood still for a while, and a thought suddenly appeared in his mind.

It was impossible for the people who kidnapped Xia Xun to take the dog with them.

If someone really sneaked into Qi Mansion secretly and wanted to take Xia Xun away, then, according to the situation in the house, Xia Xun should have left with that person voluntarily, and before leaving, he hadn’t forgotten to take Yuzhu.

There was only one man in the capital Xia Xun trusted so much.

—He Cong.

Qi Yan murmured:“Could it be him?”

At this time, Zhi Gui also woke up.

Her words made Qi Yan even more sure that He Cong was the one who took Xia Xun away.

“The young master insisted on drinking tea at the time,” Zhi Gui said. “This slave persuaded him that it was late at night and he couldn’t sleep easily after drinking tea. He told me not to bother, just make tea, I went to get the tea, and then, somehow, I lost consciousness…”

Qi Yan’s heart tightened.

Maybe Xia Xun was not taken away. He might have known that He Cong would come to him tonight, so he cooperated with him, drugged Zhi Gui and Qi Hui, and took the opportunity to escape.

Qi Yan couldn’t tell what mood he was in; there was only one thought in his mind.

He would never let Xia Xun leave him again.

Qi Yan’s face was gloomy as he ordered Qi Hui:

“Take people with you, I’m going to find He Cong!”

He Cong was sitting on the bed, reading a story to his son and his daughter.

His wife’s brother was getting married soon, and his wife rushed back to her parents’ house to help her mother organise the wedding. These days, the children couldn’t see their mother, so they were very attached to He Cong, their father.

He Cong was not a good story-teller, and every time he took a book to read, he felt that the plot was so boring he couldn’t help but start falling asleep.

Besides, the only books he had in the house were the ones Xia Xun had given him a long time ago.

The Xia family’s tutor was extremely strict and did not allow the children in the family to read these books. But Xia Xun was curious and bought a few books. He was severely reprimanded by his father and ordered to throw them away.

He couldn’t bear to throw them away, so he gave them to He Cong.

He Cong held up the book and finished a paragraph as if chanting a mantra. When he raised his head, the two children were asleep, no one interested in listening anymore.

He did not mind, tucked the quilt for the two little ones, blew out the candle and walked out on tiptoe.

Before he returned to his bedroom, the servant who was watching the gate came rushing in and shouted from a distance:

“My lord! Lord Qi Yan is here again! He also brought a lot of people! Please hurry up and have a look!”

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