Chapter 22: Set off at Daybreak (III)

Wei Jingxian and the other girls understood the reason for Jiang Pengji’s request.

If their families had found the girls listless with their clothes in disarray, they would surely jump to conclusions. Even if their chastity were still intact, people would still gossip.

Jiang Pengji looked far out into the horizon and suddenly said, “They finally found us…”

“Eh… Lanting, how can you tell?” With the brightening sky, Feng Jin could finally see what Jiang Pengji looked like.

He had to say that he was lucky he managed to see through her disguise.

She still looked quite delicate after cleaning, tying her hair, and changing into a fresh set of clothes, but she had a refined, albeit sickly, boyish look to her.

“The bird over there looks alarmed… And it’s making its way towards us. It might belong to one of the search parties.”

Though Jiang Pengji replied with conviction, she still felt a little off.

If it were her old self, she would have been able to see even the people moving in the distance. And if she had tools, she would have been able to see even farther out. Sadly, Liu Lanting’s body was not like her old one, so she could only see the search bird.

“So… my guards and I should hide?” Feng Jin asked after thinking carefully.

They were a group of seven men. Even if Jiang Pengji was a “man” and had stayed outside to guard, Feng Jin and the rest were outsiders. If someone were to point that out, the girls’ reputations would be ruined.

Jiang Pengji gave it some thought before nodding. “I had not thought of that. Sorry to inconvenience you.”

Her mood turned sour as she thought about the oddity of this era.

“Where are you from?”

After Feng Jin and his group hid, Jiang Pengji appeared before the search party and questioned them.

The party was tired and hungry after a night of searching. A plump middle-aged man was the party’s leader. He wiped sweat off his brow and did his best to recognize her.

“You are…? Liu Langjun!”

Everyone knew that the Liu family’s second son, Liu Lanting, was with the missing girls.

He stared in shock at the boy before him. Was this not the Liu family’s young master who had gone missing for a day and night?

“I’m the Wei’s head servant…” the plump man replied as he wiped his brow. His eyes were red from fatigue. He had finally found one of the missing people and was about to cry from relief. “Our young mistress and you were captured by bandits… Langjun…”

The Wei’s head servant was so excited that he nearly grabbed Jiang Pengji’s hands…

“Oh, it’s Jing’er’s family. Don’t worry, she’s fine.” Jiang Pengji smiled.

“This, this… Langjun… Please don’t make light of the situation…” The head servant did not seem to believe her.

“Come with me. Jing’er and the rest are safe, albeit a little shocked from the events. They’ll need to rest for a few days once we return.”

Jiang Pengji looked at the tired search party and held her tongue. She was tempted to insult them.

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The Wei’s head servant should know about Liu Lanting and Wei Jingxian’s betrothal, and thus be able to recognize Liu Lanting immediately. The situation felt odd to Jiang Pengji…

“I was afraid that you wouldn’t be able to find us, so I burnt a whole day’s worth of fire. I just saw the search bird and figured you were coming.”

Even though they had spent so much effort searching for them, it was hard to say that they were successful because it had taken them a full night and a day.

“Jing’er and the other families’ girls are in that house… Please send the maids in.”

Jiang Pengji looked indifferent as she stepped into the bandit’s village, but the head servant nearly fell over from shock.

Jiang Pengji had enlisted the help of Feng Jin’s guards to drag the bandits’ bodies out into the open for the sake of making an impact. They had haphazardly piled them together to create a dramatic effect.

“Liu, Liu Langjun…This, this…all…”

The head servant collapsed from fright and was rendered speechless. He turned his frightful gaze to the quiet Liu Lanting.

Was it possible that… his family’s eldest mistress was actually dead and the Liu Langjun before him was actually a ghost? Maybe they had turned into vengeful spirits overnight and killed all the bandits?

“Those bandits got what they deserved.”

Jiang Pengji did not turn around at first, but she did after noticing that the footsteps behind her had stopped. “What’s with the expression?”

The head servant started bawling on the floor. “Liu Langjun… You died an unjust death…”

Jiang Pengi thought, “…I don’t really get how brains work in the old days…”

System: “They were misled and jumped to conclusions in their fright.”

Nobody had a glimmer of hope for the kidnapped girls. Even if the search party could find them, everyone expected that the girls would already be dead. Some of the families had even started preparing for the funerals.

But now the search party found Jiang Pengji unscathed, and the bandits’ den was piled with dead bodies. Who would not be surprised by this discovery?

Wei Jingxian heard her head servant’s familiar voice from the shack and cried from relief. “It’s my head servant. They’ve finally found us.”

“Hmph. A bunch of useless people. If Brother Lanting had not spent the night tending to the fire, when would they have found us?” Shangguan Wan pouted angrily. “Probably when we’re dead…”

“What are you talking about? And who taught you to be so rude?” Wei Jingxian said. “It’s inauspicious.”

After a while, the other families’ search parties finally found them. After seeing the pile of dead bandits, they all reacted in the same way.

Even though the sun was high in the sky and they were dressed warmly, they still felt an inexplicable chill in their bones.

Jiang Pengji had waited half a day for all the other families to find them. Even the governor of Hejian County had made his way to them, yet Liu Lanting’s family didn’t come… That was odd.

“This… Aren’t all these bandits to be executed?”

The governor wiped his sweat and panted from his trek. When he saw the bodies, he involuntarily shivered. If not for the person holding him up, he would have collapsed from shock and exhaustion.

Jiang Pengji put her hands together in greeting and replied, “When we were kidnapped yesterday, I thought of ways to escape. I then instigated a fight amongst the bandits. While they were distracted, I killed them to protect the girls.”

The governor was at first doubtful when Jiang Pengji said that she had killed all those bandits, but then he began feeling frightened. He frowned before beckoning her closer.

“Start from the beginning.”