Wei Yanxi had never placed much importance on women, always feeling that women knew nothing but crying and whimpering, which was truly annoying. Seeing them gave him a headache.

But there were always exceptions to everything. The Song sisters were典型examples among these exceptions. Both sisters were different from any other girl in the world. Expect them to cry and whimper? They could probably make you unable to smile for the rest of your life. He agreed to Song Chuning’s words and immediately reined in his horse, ordering the convoy to change routes.

Song Chuning was right. They were extremely familiar with Tongzhou. Han Zhi had opened many illegal gambling dens in Tongzhou. They had traversed the paths of Tongzhou, large and small, countless times. Now with Song Chuning’s order, he immediately thought of a route.

The honest-looking man waving his hat to fan himself by the roadside stood up and walked toward the nearby tea pavilion. He set down his hat and loudly called for tea. Watching the convoy turn the corner and disappear from sight, he wiped the sweat from his face, whistled, and gave the waiter a look: “They went east. Looking at the spots we scouted, they should be taking that mountain road. Tell Ma Yongfu and the others to make their move.”

Ma Wangkun put down his teacup and watched the waiter go to the back. He picked up his hoe and followed unhurriedly behind Wei Yanxi’s group. This was the first time Song Chuyi had assigned them such a major task. They dared not be negligent in the slightest. After receiving the instructions, they rushed to Tongzhou overnight, managing to rent a civilian residence without alerting anyone. Keeping a low profile and disguised as Fujian tea merchants, they finally found the residence in Tongzhou that Zhang Run had mentioned belonged to Han Zhi, and following the trail, found the person Song Chuyi might be interested in.

The message was delivered by Ma Yongfu. When they learned that Han Zhi was escorting an eight or nine-year-old girl out of the city, Song Chuyi issued the order without hesitation—she wanted that girl, and everyone escorting her, all dead.

When Cui Shaoting had agreed to assign them to Song Chuyi, they had anticipated this young lady wasn’t an ordinary noble daughter. But anticipating it was one thing—having the first assignment be killing people, and killing so many people at that, was still somewhat unexpected.

Fortunately, they were accustomed to being bandits. After they stopped being bandits, they became soldiers and began killing pirates and Japanese pirates. Killing people was truly too easy a matter for them.

Moreover, they had already made thorough preparations, considering every detail.

In fact, this matter was far less complex than they had imagined. For something Song Chuyi had solemnly entrusted to them, they had thought it would be difficult to handle. But although those people were formidable, they weren’t indestructible.

Taking advantage of the darkening sky, their familiarity with the terrain, and their numerical advantage, they quickly beat the opposition into retreat, step by step forcing them toward the cliff.

Song Chuning was jolted violently inside the carriage, nearly vomiting. With great difficulty suppressing the nausea in her heart, she threw open the curtain with one hand. The sky had completely darkened. By the weak light, she could only see dark red blood surging everywhere on the ground.

This wasn’t bandits robbing travelers. Her expression darkened as she coldly gripped the carriage curtain—at the foot of the imperial capital, if bandits truly dared to rob such a large convoy, the Tongzhou magistrate would probably be finished. She had never heard of large groups of bandits appearing within Tongzhou’s borders, so this meant—

She bit her lip hard, truly unable to bear it any longer. Waves of fury rolled in her heart as she cursed: “Bitch!”

This bitch! This bitch who had never been taken seriously by her before had repeatedly anticipated the enemy’s moves first, constantly forcing her into desperate straits everywhere!

Starting from when Huang Yao pushed her and she fell ill, everything had changed.

Li Shi had gradually lost favor with Old Master Song and Old Madam Song step by step. Fifth Madam Wang Shi, who had always had a good relationship with Li Shi, also met with misfortune and was not tolerated. She herself had avoided going to Changsha after Li Shi was forced to death, then had to return to the capital from Changsha and nearly died from Madam Sun’s poison.

With great difficulty, she had faked her death using Han Zhi’s power, thinking she could finally fly high and far. Who knew Song Chuyi would haunt her like a ghost that wouldn’t go away!

This person! This bitch!

Song Chuning bit her lip tightly. At this moment, she strangely felt no fear at all. Apart from the full hatred and unwillingness in her heart, she couldn’t muster any other emotion.

She truly couldn’t understand how Song Chuyi could have undergone such a complete transformation, changing from a fool into someone now so full of schemes from head to toe.

She felt her finger joints swelling and aching from being clenched too tightly, but at this moment she couldn’t care about that at all. She still didn’t want to die, at least she couldn’t die now.

It wasn’t that she feared death. In her dreams, she had already lived a complete life, experiencing glory and wealth, as well as ups and downs. Regarding life and death, she had always been able to take it in stride.

She was unwilling to die before Song Chuyi.

Before Song Chuyi died, she absolutely couldn’t bear to die.

The wailing outside continued. She struggled to steady her mind, calmly smiling at the little maid cowering in the corner, saying softly: “I’ll go down to draw away the pursuers. You escape forward.”

The little maid was already scared half to death, unable to speak, trembling violently while hugging her shoulders.

Song Chuning kept her patience. The dimples at the corners of her lips grew deeper and sweeter: “They want to capture me. There’s no need to implicate innocent people. Like this—I’ll go down first to draw them away. You don’t worry about anything, just don’t make any sound.”

Not expecting this young lady to be such a good person, the little maid’s teeth chattered loudly, her tongue not very agile as she stammered agreement.

Song Chuning took advantage of the darkness and Wei Yanxi and the others desperately resisting in front to nimbly jump down from the carriage. The rough, uneven road made her unstable, causing her to kneel on the ground. Her knee hit a sharp pebble, the pain making her bite her lip. She quickly stood up, pulled the golden hairpin from her head, and stabbed it fiercely into the horse’s rear.

The horse, in pain, frantically charged toward Wei Yanxi and the others like it had gone mad, trampling and overturning quite a few people at once.

Song Chuning endured the pain and ran frantically in the opposite direction without looking back.

She couldn’t die, absolutely couldn’t die. She must leave this place. As long as she preserved her life, as long as Song Chuyi’s strike missed, she would still have opportunities in the future. While alive, everything could still turn around. If she died, then there would truly be nothing left, and Song Chuyi would have gotten her wish.

Ma Wangkun, with quick eyes and hands, pulled Ma San aside first. Watching the wide, sturdy carriage heavily crash into quite a few servants and charge forward frantically, he was shocked by the courage of the young lady inside, but his reaction was extremely quick. He grabbed his horse and swiftly chased after the carriage.

Whether the lives of those escorting outside mattered was secondary. What was important was the person inside. Song Chuyi had instructed that she definitely wanted the life of the person inside.

He just never expected that the carriage he had expended tremendous effort to catch up to only contained the corpse of a maid who still had some warmth—the reason he knew she was a maid was because she wore a maid’s clothes and had a maid’s hairstyle. This maid had clearly been jolted to death, her temple striking the carriage, injuries all over her head and face. He lowered the curtain. Even someone accustomed to death couldn’t help but feel somewhat stifled.

He knew this carriage going mad was absolutely not accidental. Otherwise, how could the Song family young lady from inside be missing?

This was clearly that Song family young lady deliberately using this carriage to draw away their attention.

She was truly ruthless enough. An empty carriage could also deceive people, but to make it realistic enough to fool them, she completely disregarded human life, leaving the maid in the carriage to lead them chasing all the way—

Clenching his wrists with renewed vigor, she was probably not inferior to the General’s niece. The two were mortal enemies, and both had the hatred of having their mothers killed. No wonder Song Chuyi had issued such a death order, absolutely requiring Song Chuning’s life.

At this thought, he quickly closed the curtain, trying hard to ignore that faint discomfort in his heart. Song Chuning being so vicious, her death would be well-deserved.

He turned and ran back to the original location. Ma Yongfu and the others had already handled things almost completely. Wei Yanxi’s group had never been their match to begin with. He counted the numbers and found they matched up. He nodded and lowered his voice to speak of the carriage matter: “We can’t let that person escape. The Sixth Miss said it very clearly—she definitely wants Song Chuning’s life. Search everywhere for her. She’s just a girl, and we’ve already stationed people all around outside, strictly preventing anyone from escaping. She can’t run far. Let’s hurry and search. We must find her before daybreak!”

After daybreak, if passersby came through, things would be very inauspicious.

Everyone agreed and dispersed, searching bit by bit. Fortunately, it had rained a few days ago, so wherever someone walked would leave traces. They searched until late into the night and finally discovered some clues.

Song Chuning huddled in a clump of wild grass, still gripping the blood-stained golden hairpin in her hand. Cold, hungry, and utterly exhausted, she still didn’t dare close her eyes.

Only when all was silent and there was no sound anywhere except the wind did she relax slightly and stand up to move her body—she had been crouching for too long and her legs were numb.

Who knew that after just taking a few steps out of the grass, she would discover torches everywhere.

These people were actually so persistent! Song Chuyi had truly spared no expense. She hurriedly tried to shrink into nearby grass to hide, but had already been spotted by sharp-eyed people. Finally feeling some fear, she turned and began running frantically.

But after running only a few steps, she was seized by a sudden pain. Somewhat incredulous, she looked down at the arrow protruding from her chest, her entire body falling to the ground in an extremely wretched posture.