“Didn’t you say you wanted my life? Take a good look at what your grandfather looks like, so you don’t find the wrong person later!” The young man put one hand on his hip, pointing at Concubine Fang with his other hand that still held the worn felt hat, showing off smugly.

Concubine Fang paid him no attention at all. Her gaze was fixed on the black-clothed man still sitting on horseback.

The other two men walked toward Concubine Fang’s cart while joking with the young man.

“You little brat calling yourself grandfather?”

“A grandfather who still wets the bed?”

Except for the young man, all the others burst into laughter. The atmosphere was quite cheerful, as if they had just come out for a horse ride rather than to kidnap someone.

Nanny Yu poked her head out to look, somewhat confused about what was going on.

The two men seemed about to restrain Concubine Fang and Nanny Yu. When Nanny Yu realized what was happening, she screamed in fright. Concubine Fang scolded harshly: “Get away, don’t touch me!”

She looked at the black-clothed man, studying him: “You’re their leader? I think we can talk first!”

The man who was about to grab Concubine Fang listened and didn’t touch her. Instead, he whistled and turned to tease the black-clothed man: “Boss, she says she wants to talk with you! Does she know you haven’t married a bandit queen yet?”

The black-clothed man cursed with a laugh: “Go to hell!”

After cursing, the black-clothed man rode his horse closer to Concubine Fang’s cart, picking his ear: “If you have something to say, say it quickly!”

Concubine Fang looked at the other men, then said coldly to the black-clothed man: “I’ll only talk with you. Make them withdraw!”

The others started whistling from the side. Concubine Fang ignored them and only looked at the black-clothed man.

The black-clothed man clicked his tongue, then waved his hand: “You all get lost for a bit. Let me hear what this woman wants to say.”

Though the other three appeared somewhat casual and careless, they obediently moved away some distance.

Only after seeing them leave did Concubine Fang look at the black-clothed man: “Are you people from the jianghu?”

The definition of “jianghu people” was quite broad. People liked to call laborers who sold their strength, street performers, gang members, mountain bandits, and such, all “jianghu people.”

“Why so much nonsense?” The black-clothed man raised an eyebrow. “You called me over simply to negotiate terms with me, to get me to release you.”

“What do you want? Might as well name your price!” Concubine Fang said with composure, appearing confident.

The black-clothed man stroked his chin and looked her over, then said: “What if I said I wanted a thousand taels of gold? Could you give that too?”

Concubine Fang frowned: “No. But I don’t believe whoever hired you could give you a thousand taels of gold either. I can give you a hundred taels of gold, as long as you release me.”

The black-clothed man laughed, showing his white teeth. He looked more like a cheerful young man than a bandit: “For an unfavored concubine, you sure have big talk. Where would you get a hundred taels of gold?”

Concubine Fang said coldly: “Just take the silver, that’s all you need to do.”

The black-clothed man thought for a moment, then smiled again: “That won’t do. If you don’t explain clearly where the money comes from, I don’t dare take it. Who knows if there’s some trap? It doesn’t matter if I’m unlucky, but I have over a hundred brothers under me. Oh, and don’t tell me the Ren family would spend silver for you. I’ve encountered situations like yours before – the husband’s family would rather see you dead than spend money to ransom you from bandits.”

Concubine Fang gritted her teeth: “Naturally, I wouldn’t ask the Ren family for this money! My natal family brother deposited some private money for me at Guangli Bank, about a hundred taels of silver. I originally intended it for my daughter’s dowry.”

Concubine Fang found a small seal from her pouch and handed it to the black-clothed man: “Take this seal to Guangli Bank and tell the manager: ‘Old Madam Bian is ill. Third Master Bian has come to withdraw money to buy medicine for Old Madam Bian.’ The manager will give you the silver.”

The black-clothed man took the seal and examined it. This seal was just an ordinary wooden seal with no carved characters, only a simple pattern. This pattern was very similar to the knot tied on the hemp rope he had earlier untied from that crooked-necked tree.

The black-clothed man knew there must be something fishy about this seal, but he didn’t show it on his face. He just raised an eyebrow and asked: “Old Madam Bian? Who’s that? Neither your husband’s family nor your natal family is surnamed Bian, right?”

Concubine Fang said, “My mother’s surname was Bian. This is a code phrase my natal family brother and I agreed on beforehand. After all, it wouldn’t be good if people knew that a mere concubine like me had such a large sum of private money.”

The black-clothed man nodded and tucked the seal into his clothes, then said: “Alright, get back in the cart.”

Concubine Fang said, “Just leave us here. We’ll find our way back.”

The black-clothed man chuckled: “Who said I was letting you go back?”

Upon hearing this, Concubine Fang’s expression changed: “Didn’t you just agree to release me if you took the silver?”

The black-clothed man showed his white teeth and said wickedly, “Did I agree to that? I don’t remember. Besides, talking about credibility with a bandit – isn’t that laughable?”

Concubine Fang persisted: “If I disappear, Old Madam Ren will send people to search for me out of consideration for my natal family’s face. You won’t have a good outcome either!”

The man laughed heartily: “Still trying to threaten people at this point? You are capable! But who says you were kidnapped by us? Even your maid will say you ran away secretly, right? You fled in fear of punishment because your crimes were exposed. How could the Ren family not account to the Fang family?”

Both Concubine Fang and Nanny Yu were shocked to hear this.

Nanny Yu pointed at the black-clothed man: “You… shameless!”

Concubine Fang opened her mouth to say something more, but the black-clothed man wouldn’t give her another chance to speak. He struck with the edge of his palm, and Concubine Fang felt sharp pain in her neck, then her eyes went black and she fainted.

The black-clothed man showed no mercy to women. Concubine Fang’s head hit the cart door heavily.

Then Nanny Yu was also knocked unconscious by the black-clothed man.

The three men who had moved away earlier ran back over.

The young man bounced over and circled the black-clothed man excitedly: “Big brother, what did she say to you? Why did you make us leave so we couldn’t hear? I just saw her give you something – what was it? What was it? Why didn’t she offer to give me anything earlier?” As he spoke, he tried to reach into the black-clothed man’s clothes.

The black-clothed man avoided him and knocked him on the forehead: “Stop fooling around. Let’s go back first before talking!”

The other two men continued teasing the young man: “Your hair hasn’t even grown properly yet, naturally, she wouldn’t give you good things! She gave them to big brother because he’s the best-looking!”

The young man retorted: “No wonder she offered me fifty taels of silver and jewelry earlier but gave you nothing, and wouldn’t even let you knock her unconscious. Now you know how ugly you are!”

Upon hearing this, the two men looked at each other, then both burst out laughing and reached out to ruffle the young man’s hair.

“Not bad, kid! Sharp tongue! Who taught you that?”

The young man pushed away their hands and jumped onto the black-clothed man’s shoulders like a monkey, hugging his neck and refusing to come down: “Of course I learned from my Brother Zhu!”

The black-clothed man, namely Zhu Ruomei, patted the young man’s bottom: “Alright, go drive the cart and take them away. Otherwise, if someone comes looking, we’ll be in trouble.”

Only then did the young man stick out his tongue, climb down from Zhu Ruomei’s back, and jump onto the cart.

The other two men also mounted their horses.

Zhu Ruomei gripped his horse’s flanks with his legs, shouted, and led them away.

A quarter-hour later, Concubine Fang regained some consciousness. Before realizing the danger, she had quietly taken a pungent awakening pill, but Zhu Ruomei had struck hard, so even though Concubine Fang had some consciousness, she couldn’t move.

She glanced at Nanny Yu lying on the ground beside her, then tried hard to see the scenery outside the cart through the gaps in the curtain blown by the wind, but couldn’t focus her mind.

Finally, she barely made out that the cart was heading toward Yunyang City.

Before losing consciousness again, Concubine Fang secretly congratulated herself that she had never trusted the black-clothed man from the beginning.

Now she had no way to escape by herself and could only wait for those outside to learn the news and find a way to rescue her.

The seal Concubine Fang had given the black-clothed man was indeed fishy, and the supposedly money-retrieving code phrase also had a hidden meaning.

If ordinary bandits had taken Concubine Fang’s seal to get money, they would be traced and exposed in the end.

Unfortunately, today was Concubine Fang’s unlucky day – she had encountered no ordinary bandits.

Zhu Ruomei brought Concubine Fang and Nanny Yu to an ordinary-looking civilian residence in Yunyang City, then went to find Yuan Dayong.

The first news Ren Yaoqi received was about Lady Sun Eleven.

Xia Sheng had a maid tell Ren Yaoqi that after Lady Sun Eleven evaded Fifth Master’s people and slipped away, she first went to inquire about her daughter’s whereabouts. Learning that Yu Qing’niang had been detained and was to be sent to the authorities, she was very anxious, but she didn’t show herself.

Finally, after disguising herself, Lady Sun Eleven secretly hired a cart and went to White Cloud Nunnery.

Xia Sheng had been following her the whole time, watching her enter White Cloud Nunnery and make contact with a nun there.

That nun was someone Ren Yaoqi had heard of before – the promiscuous nun Sister Liang who had previously been involved with Li Tianyou.

Upon hearing this, Ren Yaoqi was somewhat surprised: “White Cloud Nunnery?”

White Cloud Nunnery, like White Dragon Temple, was located on White Dragon Mountain, and Zhu Ruomei and his people had been near White Dragon Temple all along.

The matter of hiding soldiers in temples had become semi-public by now. After all, the southern court was always watching the Yanbei army closely due to their wariness. With so many soldiers hidden in the temples who needed to train regularly, it was impossible for no word to leak out.

But would the court use such women as their vanguard?