Ren Yaoying, who lived in the back courtyard, also caught wind of some news.

Although Nanny Zhou had issued a gag order, earlier Li Shi and Ren Yaohua had returned from outside one after another, and then an argument broke out. Ren Yaoying happened to be passing by the corridor and overheard some commotion.

Although Ren Yaoying was quickly discovered by Ren Yaohua’s maid and asked to leave, she still kept an alert mind, wanting to find out what Li Shi and Ren Yaohua had discussed, so she secretly paid attention to the movements of Li Shi and Ren Yaohua’s side. Later, Ren Yaohua left the mansion, and not long after, Ren Yaoqi returned and went to look for Ren Yaohua. After that, Ren Yaoying saw Li Shi successively send several waves of people out as if trying to find someone.

After secretly observing to the end, Ren Yaoying vaguely reached a conclusion that surprised her – it seemed like Ren Yaohua had disappeared?

To verify her guess, Ren Yaoying deliberately found an excuse to visit Li Shi, but it was Xi’er, the head maid by Li Shi’s side, who met her. Xi’er said Li Shi was feeling somewhat unwell and asked her to come back tomorrow.

Ren Yaoying smiled and said, “Then I’ll go find Third Sister. It’s the same if I discuss this matter with Third Sister.”

Xi’er frowned and quickly stopped her, saying, “Ninth Miss, Third Miss went to her maternal grandmother’s house and hasn’t returned yet. If you have anything to say, you might as well tell this servant, and I’ll pass it on to Madam.”

Going to the deposed Prince Xian’s mansion again?

Ren Yaoying didn’t quite believe Xi’er’s explanation. It wasn’t a secret in the Ren family that Ren Yaohua disliked her maternal grandmother’s family. How could she have just returned from there and then turned around and gone again? And go there alone at that. Moreover, judging from the earlier situation, Ren Yaohua hadn’t seemed very happy when she returned from outside.

At this time, Que’er also lifted the curtain and came out, telling Xi’er that Nanny Zhou was looking for them about something.

Seeing both maids’ gazes sweep toward her, Ren Yaoying knew that staying here any longer would definitely make people suspicious of her motives, so she smiled and took the initiative to leave.

When Ren Yaoqi learned that Ren Yaoying had just gone to the main house to look for Li Shi, she couldn’t help but frown. Ren Yaoying was her half-sister. If Ren Yaoying could be sensible from now on and not always try to stir up trouble, she could maintain a peaceful coexistence with her for their father’s sake.

But it seemed like Ren Yaoying didn’t think this way.

Ren Yaoqi was currently worried about Ren Yaohua and had no leisure to deal with Ren Yaoying. She only gave orders to have people keep a close watch on Ren Yaoying and the several maids and women servants around her, forbidding them from going out.

Not long after, someone indeed came to report that one of Ren Yaoying’s maids said she wanted to go out to buy needles and thread but was stopped by the gatekeeper.

Ren Yaoqi knew that no matter what, it would be better for Ren Yaohua to return quickly. Otherwise, if rumors spread over time, it would be very disadvantageous to Ren Yaohua.

When Ren Yaohua regained consciousness, she found herself with her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged, lying in an unfamiliar carriage. Xiangqin, who had been in the same carriage with her earlier, was nowhere to be seen.

It turned out that not long after leaving the city, that group of people had split into two routes. Ren Yaohua’s maids and women servants were thrown into the Ren family’s two carriages and taken toward Jizhou, with Xiangqin also in one of those carriages.

Ren Yaohua, on the other hand, was transferred to an ordinary carriage that had been prepared beforehand and taken toward Zhuozhou.

Ren Yaohua suddenly became fully alert and looked down to examine her clothing. Discovering that her clothes were still intact, she breathed a sigh of relief. She felt somewhat frightened at this moment, not knowing how Xiangqin and the others were doing now, nor knowing where these people intended to take her.

She had originally wanted to use her body to strike the carriage walls and call for help outside. But after carefully listening against the carriage wall for a while, she realized that besides her rapidly moving carriage, there weren’t any other people or vehicles around. They seemed to be traveling on a small road.

Ren Yaohua didn’t dare act rashly. She was afraid that instead of successfully calling for help, she would anger the people outside and bring trouble upon herself. Even if she wanted to save herself, she had to wait for the right opportunity.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when Ren Yaohua felt the carriage’s speed finally slow down until it stopped somewhere.

The man driving the carriage outside said, “Go to the village ahead and buy some dry provisions from the villagers. We need to travel continuously for the next two days. It won’t be convenient to stay at inns or make fires.”

The man driving the carriage seemed to be the one giving orders. Ren Yaohua heard someone respond and then ride away on horseback.

Another person dismounted and came over with a laugh, “Hey, brother. Do you know who our employer is? Making such a big fuss to capture so many people? But the money given is quite generous. Fifty taels per person, and the money from selling those women and girls that my brothers took to Jizhou also goes to us.”

The man driving the carriage outside seemed unwilling to talk and even lifted the carriage curtain to look inside, apparently wanting to see if Ren Yaohua had awakened. After the carriage stopped, Ren Yaohua closed her eyes, slowed her breathing, and pretended she hadn’t woken up yet, hoping to hear some clues from the conversation of the people outside.

The man driving the carriage glanced inside and then lowered the curtain again.

“Hey, I didn’t look closely before, but this girl is quite attractive. No wonder they told us to sell all the others but keep this one. If we sold her, we could get a good price. But then again, a girl this beautiful couldn’t have been raised in an ordinary family, right? Although we brothers aren’t locals from Yanzhou and don’t know the details, we’re all in the same line of work – you can’t help the employer deceive us! If this is a girl with a background, our risk is greater, so naturally we should receive more money.” The man who had been speaking earlier said suspiciously after sneaking a glance into the carriage.

The man driving the carriage said impatiently, “She’s just a merchant family’s daughter! If you’re afraid, why did you follow? You could have gone to Jizhou with your brothers.”

“Hey, you can’t say it like that. We only received half the money before. Now that we’ve captured the person and you’re going to meet the employer to claim credit, what if I get shortchanged by not following? I also have a bunch of brothers to feed – it’s not easy.”

The man driving the carriage snorted coldly, “Suit yourself!”

Hearing this, Ren Yaohua discovered that there wasn’t just one group of people who had kidnapped her – these two men talking outside weren’t together. The group with the man driving the carriage was the one in direct contact with the employer, while the other man speaking and those who took Xiangqin and the others away were a different group. They seemed to be helpers recruited along the way, not from Yanzhou, and didn’t know the employer’s or her identity.

Ren Yaohua heard what sounded like cattle lowing in the distance, along with a herder’s calls. There should be people nearby. Ren Yaohua thought about it and was just planning to use all her strength to strike the carriage walls to attract others’ attention when she suddenly heard someone outside grunt and fall heavily to the ground.

Ren Yaohua’s heart jumped, but she heard the man driving the carriage say, “Why did it take so long? It was just asking you to put on an act and then find a chance to finish him off. These jianghu people aren’t very bright, but their martial arts are quite good. They followed us this far without us having a chance to shake them off. Check his pulse to see if he’s completely dead.”

After a moment, the person who had been sent to buy provisions said, “He’s completely dead. Don’t worry, my dagger was poisoned.”

The man driving said, “Load the body into the carriage first. We’ll find a suitable place to bury it later. That fool’s men took the carriage and that group of maids and women servants to Jizhou. If the Ren family traces us, they’ll also go to Jizhou, helping us divert the pursuers. We can take her to find the employer and collect our money.”

“You’re still the smart one, saving money and reducing trouble.”

Hearing them say they wanted to load the corpse into the carriage, Ren Yaohua felt nauseated and terrified. No matter how tough she usually appeared, she was still just a girl who had recently come of age. She would instinctively feel afraid of dead bodies.

However, the next words from the person carrying the corpse somewhat surprised Ren Yaohua. This surprise even temporarily suppressed her instinctive fear of the dead.

That person muttered, “I don’t know what that employer is thinking. She’s a young lady herself, so why go to such trouble to kidnap another young lady from so far away?”

“Where do you get so much nonsense? She pays, you work – that’s it!”

The person who kidnapped her was a young lady?

Ren Yaohua had previously speculated about who might have captured her. She thought the most likely candidate should be Eunuch Lu, whom she had offended at the Princess’s coming-of-age banquet, or possibly Young Master Zeng Kui from the Zeng family. But how could it be a young lady?

There weren’t many young ladies with whom she’d had conflicts. Ren Yaoyin could be considered one, but she had already gone to Jiangnan. Ren Yaohua didn’t think Ren Yaoyin could hire desperadoes. Ren Yaoying could also be considered one, but the people outside said “so far away,” which didn’t refer to Ren Yaoying, who lived under the same roof. As for the missing Concubine Fang, she was a woman, not a young lady.

But aside from these people, she couldn’t remember offending any other young ladies who would be worth spending such effort to deal with her.

Someone lifted the carriage curtain and threw a man’s corpse inside. The carriage wasn’t spacious to begin with, and Ren Yaohua could even feel the dead person’s hand touch her sleeve. She bit her tongue to prevent herself from screaming.

After throwing the corpse up, that person said suspiciously, “Why hasn’t she woken up after so long? Could she be pretending to sleep?” The person seemed to want to come up and check.

Ren Yaohua’s heart skipped a beat.

But the man driving scoffed, “You threw a dead body next to a young lady – if she were awake, wouldn’t there be some reaction? Those people just hit too hard.”

“That’s true. Even if she woke up, she’d be scared unconscious again.”

“Alright, it’s getting late. Let’s get going! We’re still in Yanzhou territory, and I feel uneasy. We need to hurry to Zhuozhou.”

“What’s there to be uneasy about? After we finish this job, we’ll head south and never come back. Then we’ll marry wives, take concubines, have children – what a happy life!” The man started laughing as he spoke.

“Let’s hope so!” the man driving sighed.