Chapter 331
Chapter 331
"Yes!"
As soon as the man's voice fell, the faint sound of a lock turning could be heard.
Li Tianyou and Xu Qingshi exchanged a glance.
They both quickly closed their eyes.
Xu Qingshi was terrified, but at this moment, they had absolutely nothing to defend themselves with.
Furthermore, they had no idea how many people were outside.
Although Li Tianyou considered himself to be in good physical shape, he was ultimately just a scholar with no martial arts skills.
Xu Qingshi was just a child. Even if he knew a few basic martial arts moves, he was no match for the men outside.
All they could do was stay still and wait to see what would happen.
A servant walked in and saw the two sleeping closely together. For a moment, he couldn't remember if he had left them leaning against each other like that.
However, neither of them looked like they were waking up anytime soon.
"Are they awake yet?" Zhou Zuo, standing outside in the courtyard, asked again with a hint of impatience.
"N-not yet." The servant scratched his head, genuinely confused as to why the two hadn't woken up by now.
Logically, they should have been awake by now, right?
After all, having been suddenly kidnapped and moved to a strange environment, they shouldn't have been able to sleep so soundly even if they did wake up.
Yet these two were sleeping so peacefully that it made the servant wonder if he had given them too heavy a dose of the drug.
"What's going on? Didn't I say that the master has important business today and needs them awake?" Zhou Zuo said irritably upon hearing this.
"Sir, this... perhaps my hand slipped and I used a bit too much." The servant thought for a moment before deciding to tell the truth.
"Useless trash! You can't even drug someone properly! What use do I have for you?" Zhou Zuo grew incredibly frustrated. If he delivered them to Prince Lanhuai like this, wouldn't he incur the prince's wrath?
Thinking of this, Zhou Zuo marched straight into the room. Seeing the two with their eyes shut tight, he impatiently stepped forward and kicked Li Tianyou. "Wake up!"
Li Tianyou endured the sharp pain and refused to open his eyes.
Hearing this, Xu Qingshi panicked slightly, but Li Tianyou's other hand gently squeezed Xu Qingshi's hand when Zhou Zuo wasn't looking, reminding the boy not to act impulsively.
"Sir, what do we do now?" the servant asked, looking at Zhou Zuo helplessly.
"You're asking me? How the hell should I know?" Zhou Zuo snapped impatiently.
He had originally planned to go to the estate of Prince An today to claim his reward. Now, not only could he forget about the reward, but he might even be punished.
"Forget it. In this state, I can't possibly send them over. Who knows if they're dead or alive." With that, Zhou Zuo turned and left.
He didn't even cast another glance at the courtyard.
Hearing the man's retreating footsteps, Li Tianyou breathed a sigh of relief.
Now, there should only be one servant left in the courtyard.
Seeing that they weren't waking up, the servant simply went out and locked the door.
"Grandfather, I think that man has left," Xu Qingshi whispered.
"He's gone." Li Tianyou, however, was carefully trying to recall if he had heard that man's voice somewhere before.
"Do you think we should wait for news since my father hasn't found us yet, or should we make a run for it?" Xu Qingshi asked hesitantly.
"If we can leave, let's leave first," Li Tianyou sighed. Xu Qingshi was so young; why drag him through all this trouble?
If something really happened to the boy, wouldn't Xu Heming chop him to pieces?
At this thought, Li Tianyou patted Xu Qingshi and said, "Come on, let's see if we can escape."
"We aren't going to catch the bad guys?" Xu Qingshi seemed a bit disappointed.
"The bad guys aren't important; you are the most important," Li Tianyou said, rubbing Xu Qingshi's head.
"Besides, catching bad guys is your father's worry. You don't receive a salary from the Emperor, so you don't need to trouble yourself with this," Li Tianyou added after a moment's thought.
He thought to himself that the meager salary provided by the Emperor wasn't enough for them to risk their lives anyway.
"Oh, I see." Xu Qingshi made a mental note: The Emperor pays too little; never become an official.
Li Tianyou helped Xu Qingshi up, and they walked toward the window.
He had assumed the window would be locked, but to his surprise, it opened with a gentle push.
"Huh?" Li Tianyou let out a sound of surprise.
He looked outside.
The courtyard appeared to have been uninhabited for a long time, with weeds growing wildly all around.
One look was enough to tell that the owner hadn't maintained it in ages.
There was no one in sight in the courtyard either.
It seemed the servant had left long ago as well.
"Grandfather, can we get out?" Xu Qingshi asked excitedly.
Li Tianyou looked outside the courtyard and nodded.
"Should we leave now?" Xu Qingshi had actually wanted to leave a long time ago, but Li Tianyou had told him earlier that they needed to catch the bad guys.
Now that they didn't need to catch the bad guys, could they finally leave?
Thinking of this, Xu Qingshi felt incredibly thrilled.
"However, we still need to be careful. We don't know if there's anyone else around," Li Tianyou whispered, instructing Xu Qingshi.
Xu Qingshi let out a soft sound of agreement, then quickly covered his mouth and nodded vigorously to show he understood.
Li Tianyou climbed out the window first, then reached back to lift Xu Qingshi out.
The two of them cautiously made their way to the main gate.
Just as they reached the gate, Li Tianyou frowned. On second thought, he realized it was too risky and quickly led Xu Qingshi to look for a side door instead.
"Grandfather, why didn't we go out just now?" Xu Qingshi asked, looking puzzled.
"If there are people guarding the outside, we might not be able to get away," Li Tianyou explained, acting out of an abundance of caution.
"Grandfather, you're amazing." Xu Qingshi gave Li Tianyou a thumbs-up.
Li Tianyou didn't let the boy's praise go to his head. Instead, he stealthily guided them to a small door in the backyard.
Seeing that no one was guarding the door, Li Tianyou breathed a sigh of relief. He wondered if their captors were just careless or overly confident that they wouldn't be able to escape.
After Li Tianyou and Xu Qingshi slipped out of the small courtyard, they were dumbfounded by their surroundings.
"Grandfather, where are we?" As far as Xu Qingshi knew, there shouldn't be any place like this in the capital.
"This is the outskirts of the city," Li Tianyou sighed.
He actually recognized this area.
It was from back when he wanted to purchase a residence in the capital and had looked at houses around here.
Thinking of this, Li Tianyou sighed again. He took Xu Qingshi's hand and began walking, wondering if he would have to rely on his own two legs to walk all the way back.
Prince Lanhuai arrived at the Cheng family estate carrying generous gifts.
Grand Preceptor Cheng Tianyuan personally received Prince Lanhuai.
Grand Preceptor Cheng was somewhat baffled. What was Prince Lanhuai's purpose in making this sudden visit to the Cheng family?
Could it be that he also had a favor to ask of the Empress?
But he was the Emperor's own uncle. If he needed something, wouldn't it be faster for him to just ask the Emperor directly?