Nine out of ten gamblers lose; I've run into a jerk!

Chapter 32 Unexpected Events Always Arrive

Shen Qing didn't expect to be exposed in less than half a day after setting off. He had been pretending to be sick and eating in his room for the past two days, thinking he could stall for a day or two.

Fortunately, fearing that Shen Shi would send people to catch up, he left a letter but did not say where he was going.

After seeing Shen Che off with Qin Zhen in the morning, Li Su was supposed to return to Jin Garden to handle household affairs, but she felt inexplicably uneasy and decided to go to Yi Lan Courtyard to see her daughter.

Upon entering the courtyard, Li Su saw maids and servants sweeping and watering the flowers. She walked straight to the main house, tried to open the door, but couldn't.

Li Su frowned, wondering why Qingxi would lock the door in broad daylight, since Fangyu and Wenying hadn't seen it either. She reached out and knocked on the door, calling out a few times.

"Qingxi, are you awake?"

"Qingxi?"

He raised his voice and shouted several times, but no one answered. Li Su had a bad feeling and ordered, "Someone, break it open!"

"Bang—" The door was kicked open by two strong maids.

Li Su waved his sleeves to disperse the dust, strode into the room, and walked around the screen to see a bulging mass wriggling on the bed. Startled, he quickly went forward and lifted the covers.

Fangyu and Wenying were seen with their hands and feet bound, their mouths stuffed with cloth, their eyes wide with panic.

Seeing this, and not seeing Shen Qing, Li Su was filled with shock and anger, and demanded, "Where did the young lady go!"

Fangyu and Wenying were sobbing and unable to speak, so Qiaoqiao quickly stepped forward and untied their ropes.

As soon as they were untied, the two tumbled and crawled to their knees on the ground.

"The young woman called us into the house one after the other. As soon as we entered, everything went black, and when we woke up, we were like this."

Li Su almost fainted upon hearing this, but her personal maid Sang Ning quickly steadied her and advised, "Since it was the lady who knocked them out, the lady herself should be fine."

Upon hearing this, Li Su realized what was happening, looked around, and finally found a letter on the dressing table. After opening it, her vision went black, and she truly fainted this time.

The servants were in a flurry of activity, pinching her philtrum and searching for the physician. Li Su finally recovered, which led to the scene of servants kneeling all over Yilan Courtyard.

Seeing that no one dared to respond, Li Su was so angry that she was about to resort to family discipline, but then she remembered what Shen Qing had said in his letter and held back.

In his letter, Shen Qing briefly explained that he felt he had made some progress in martial arts and wanted to go out and explore the world. He said he would return in a few months and asked the servants of Yilan Courtyard not to make things difficult for them, as they were completely unaware of the situation.

He reassured her and Shen Shi that he had disguised himself when he went out and would not expose his identity or bring shame to the family.

Li Su was so angry she didn't know what to say. If you said she was sensible, she ran away from home; if you said she was immature, she knew how to protect the family's reputation.

If I had known she dreamed of being a female knight-errant, I wouldn't have let her learn martial arts in the first place!

Now they are in a dilemma: they can't rest easy if they don't contact someone, but a large-scale search will damage their reputation.

In the end, he could only repeatedly tell everyone in the mansion that if this matter were to be spread, they should atone with their lives!

Meanwhile, Shen Qing, hiding in Jingchuan's carriage, was unaware that the household was in chaos because of her.

Traveling far from home in this era was not a comfortable experience. Once outside the city, even the official roads were full of potholes, and the infrastructure was really poor.

Shen Qing had already experienced the appalling road conditions on his last trip to Anguo Temple. The difference was that last time it took half a day to travel, but this time it would take more than half a year. What was worse was that because the road was so remote, they couldn't even open the windows for ventilation.

Therefore, after the initial excitement of successfully smuggling himself out, Shen Qing slumped listlessly in the carriage. He didn't dare to use much of the dry food and water that Jing Chuan had kindly saved for him, for fear of needing to relieve himself, and kept his energy needs to a minimum.

Finally arriving at their next destination, it was nightfall before Shen Qing dared to go out and relieve herself. She then retreated back into the carriage and slept in the stable with the smelly horses, having to endure their snorting.

In practice, it's always much more difficult than imagined.

The next day, Jingchuan got into the carriage and saw that Shen Qing was listless, with dark circles under her eyes, looking miserable. He felt that she deserved it, but at the same time he felt a little sorry for her, after all, she was a noblewoman who had never suffered before.

He couldn't help but ask curiously, "What is Madam Shen trying to achieve?"

Shen Qing said weakly, "Just for a quick and satisfying experience."

Jingchuan was puzzled, and Shen Qing didn't explain further; there was a generational gap between them.

People are forced to their limits; you don't know how strong you are until you try. After enduring this for seven days, Shen Qing completely adapted to the rhythm.

He could meditate and enter a state of deep concentration even while the carriage was bumping along, and he even had the leisure to find a small river to bathe in at night, mainly because Jingchuan simply couldn't stand the smell on him anymore.

On the sixteenth day, the carriage suddenly slowed down, as explained by the guard at the front.

"Ahead lies Eagle's Sorrow Gorge, a steep and difficult terrain."

Upon hearing this, Shen Qing, who was sitting cross-legged in meditation, calmly covered his face with a veil and gripped the hilt of the knife at his waist with his other hand.

Seeing that he looked like he was about to kill and rob, Jingchuan's alarm bells went off.

"what are you up to!"

Shen Qing rolled her eyes at him and said indifferently, "There's an 80% chance of encountering bandits in such treacherous terrain."

"...Have you been listening to too many stories from teahouses and taverns?"

Ha, young. According to the usual pattern, someone like you who has a throne to inherit will almost certainly encounter assassins on your way back home.

Sure enough, rocks suddenly rolled down in front of them, and the horses, startled, neighed and bolted, causing chaos and disarray.

"Protect the Emperor! Protect the Emperor!"

Jingchuan was so shaken that he swayed from side to side and could only brace himself against the carriage with his arms to prevent himself from falling.

Shen Che realized something was wrong and quickly led his men towards Jingchuan.

Jingchuan's horse suddenly went out of control and galloped wildly toward the cliff, pulling the carriage along.

"Stop it! Stop it quickly!" shouted the ministers of Qi.

Shen Che also ordered Du Zhong to stop it, but the maddened horse charged wildly, and the guards had to dodge the rolling rocks. They couldn't stop it in time and could only watch helplessly as the horse and the carriage plunged off the cliff.

"Your Highness!"

"Your Highness!"

Eagle's Sorrow Gorge, as the name suggests, is a place where even eagles would be distressed to fly over, for the cliffs are so deep that the bottom is nowhere in sight.

"It's over, it's over," the Qi Kingdom envoy slumped to the ground, his eyes unfocused, muttering to himself.

Shen Che's heart sank. This place was still within the territory of Xuan State. This accident was obviously deliberate. No matter who was behind it, it gave Qi State something to talk about. He pondered how to give Qi State an explanation.

Just then, Jingchuan's cries for help came from the bottom of the cliff.

"Someone come here! Quickly, pull me up!"

The Qi Kingdom envoy was startled and scrambled to the edge of the cliff to look down. He saw a man holding the hilt of a knife stuck in the cliff face, while his other hand was grabbing Jing Chuan's collar.

"Quick! Someone come and lower the rope!"

If Shen Qing were alone, he could easily fly up, but since he was carrying someone else, he was pulled down with them. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and stuck his knife into the cliff. Luckily, the journey had forced him to train his internal strength, otherwise he would have had to abandon Jing Chuan.

Amitabha Buddha, I would rather die than see my fellow practitioner die.