Chapter Six: Burning Incense

  Xu Mingjin stopped his action of untying his robe, and tied it back up. He exchanged a glance with Mrs. Xu, and they both saw the panic in each other's eyes.

  Mrs. Xu said, "We're all women in the house, how can we open the door so late?" But if they don't open it, looking at their attitude, what if they force their way in? Xuming Jin gave Chun Xing a signal with her eyes.

  Chun Xiang understood Xu Mingjin's hint and, suppressing her fear, slowly walked towards the gate. At this time, a slightly hoarse female voice was heard from outside the door, saying loudly: "I am an old slave of Princess Pingxi's household, and it is really impolite to disturb Miss Xu so late at night." After pausing for a moment, Xu Mingjin rolled her eyes heavenward, knowing that this was just a polite phrase. It was clear that they were powerful and had the upper hand, and she couldn't stop them even if she wanted to.

  "It's just that a house slave who stole some valuables escaped, and my lady, the princess, suspects that he might be hiding in one of the rooms in this temple. If we were to disturb all of you guests, it wouldn't be good. That's why I was sent to take a look around, so that everyone can rest at ease." The voice continued, "I'll just take a quick look, please excuse me, miss."

  Xu Mingjin has arrived at the door and is standing beside Chun Xing. Xu Nainai and others also come over. Upon hearing this, Xu Mingjin orders Chun Xing to open the door.

  Outside the door, there were about a dozen or so people standing in a majestic manner. Xu Mingjin took a deep breath and looked at this scene, which was clearly not just looking for a household slave, but rather searching for a wanted criminal of the imperial court. Looking for a household slave was probably just an excuse. The purpose was to search for someone. She didn't dare speak anymore, anyway, there was no one hiding in their wing room, and she wasn't afraid of being searched. She made way, and the old woman who had spoken earlier bowed to Xu Mingjin, then said warmly: "I'm Bai, an old slave, Miss Xu, please don't be alarmed." Then she led the crowd inside.

  Xu Mingjin and Xu Popo followed closely behind, also entering with tension.

  The old woman's sharp eyes scanned every corner of the room, and the people under her also searched around. When she saw a corner of the quilt lifted up, her lips curled up: "Miss Xu is going to bed so early?" Xu Ming thought to herself: nonsense, can't you see that I've already taken off my hairpins? If you came any later, I would have been in bed already. But she said: "Today's journey was a bit rushed, and I'm exhausted, so I just got ready for bed." The old woman didn't respond, still pressing down on the flat quilt that couldn't possibly hide anyone. Then, with a sudden movement, she lifted up the bed sheet, and only when she saw that there was no one under the bed did she slowly put it back down.

  After searching carefully, nothing was found. The old lady then apologetically said to Xu Mingjin: "I've troubled you, I hope Miss Xu will accept this small token of goodwill." She handed over a pouch filled with silver.

  Is this hush money? You're looking down on people too much. Xu Mingjin grumbled to himself, but signaled for Madam Xu to accept it. Anyone who doesn't want silver is a fool.

  Jian took the silver and only then was Bai Niang satisfied, leading the crowd away.

  Xu Mingjin let out a long sigh of relief, thanking heaven and earth that he had finally gotten rid of these pests.

  As soon as Xu Mingjin returned to the bedroom, she felt a chill on her neck and an arm around her waist, which was holding her tightly. Just as Madam Xu and others were about to exclaim in surprise, the man said in a low voice, "Don't make a sound, or I'll kill her!" Madam Xu and others immediately stopped themselves from speaking.

  Xu Mingjin was sorrowfully discovered to have become a hostage. The first time in her past life and this life. If you ask her what she felt, it was the neck that was pressed against the knife tip, a heart lifted high with anxiety. At that moment, when the knife was still 0.01 seconds away from her neck, she clearly felt a gentle breeze blowing across her neck, and then she was taken hostage. She even revealed an intoxicated smile, but after 0.01 seconds, her neck was covered by icy cold air and the hilt of a treasured sword.

  "My goodness", this was all she could think of saying at that time but couldn't say it out loud.

  That person saw that no one was making a sound, so he slightly let go of Xu Mingjin and said, "All of you get out." Xu Mingjin gestured to the others to follow his words and leave. After everyone had left and closed the door, the man finally removed the dagger from her neck. However, he was exhausted and fell backwards with a thud, taking Xu Mingjin down with him. She let out a sharp cry and saw that the man was staring at her with a fierce gaze. She quickly covered her mouth, realizing too late that the man was masked and wearing all black. The pair of eyes visible outside his mask were clear and deep like a bottomless autumn pool. His body had multiple wounds. He glared at her for a moment before fainting! Xu Mingjin discovered that because he had fallen backwards, she was now lying on top of him. Was she too heavy and had she pressed him unconscious?

  Xu Mingjin hastily scrambled up from his body.

  Xu Mingjin's heart was in a state of extreme anxiety, her inner self was struggling fiercely. He had fainted, and she was torn between hiding him or sending him to Princess Pingxi. The former option would put her at risk of being discovered by the princess and killed at any moment, with no benefits to gain. The latter option, sending him to the princess, might allow her to climb up the social ladder and gain a powerful backer. However, everything came with risks, what if the princess wanted to silence him permanently? How could she escape death either way? Xu Mingjin was just a powerless and insignificant woman, her only connection to the nobility, her father, had abandoned her. To Princess Pingxi, killing her would be as easy as squashing an ant. What should she do?

  Xu Mingjin was hesitant, but she knew her time was limited and had to make a decision as soon as possible. Otherwise, she would have to wait for others to decide for her.

  She thought about it and found that he was very clever, hiding in the dark, quietly falling behind the search team, waiting for them to finish searching before hiding again. So, no one would be able to find him. After all, you can only search for a runaway slave once, right? Xu Mingjin made up her mind, she gave up on the reward for turning him in, and decided to hide him instead.

  After deciding, Xu Mingjin opened the door and called in Madam Xu and others. Seeing the person lying on the ground, Madam Xu anxiously asked, "Miss, what to do?" Xu Mingjin instructed Chun Xiang, "Go fetch some water." Chun Xiang left to carry out the order. Xu Mingjin then told Qiu Yun, "Go get the medicine we prepared for injuries." Only then did she turn to Madam Xu and say, "Madam, you help me lift him onto the kang."

  It took a lot of effort to finally lift him onto the kang. Xu Mingjin said to Mrs. Xu, "Nanny, go find a small brazier." Although Mrs. Xu found her actions strange, seeing Xu Mingjin suddenly calm and composed after being flustered earlier, she seemed to have gained confidence. She said, "Okay, I'll go." Just as she had taken a few steps, Xu Mingjin called out, "Nanny." She hastily stopped and heard Xu Mingjin say again, "When you come back, bring a set of men's clothes too." Mrs. Xu somewhat understood what Xu Mingjin meant and nervously said, "Miss, are you planning to change that man's clothes? Why not wait until I get back?" Xu Mingjin nodded and said, "I was originally going to wait for your return to change him anyway."

  Xu Mingjin lowered his head and wiped the blood off the man's body with a handkerchief. Not hearing any footsteps, he looked up in confusion to find that Madam Xu was still standing there. He said, "Madam, aren't you going yet?" Madam Xu then hastily left. Xu Mingjin reached out and removed the cloth covering the man's face because she thought that at least now she had helped him once, and after all the commotion, she couldn't not even know who he was.

  After the veil was removed, Xu Mingjin saw a very young face. She thought that someone who could make Queen Pinghe send so many people to catch him must be quite capable, right? And people who are quite capable usually aren't young. But this person, somehow didn't seem capable at all.

  "Miss, the water has arrived." Chun Xing said.

  "Miss, the medicine is here." said Qiuyun.

  Xu Mingjin waited and waited, but saw that Madam Xu had not returned yet. Time waits for no man. So he instructed the two of them: "You two, help me take off this person's outer garment."

  After a while, the three of them finally managed to remove the man's outer garment and saw that he had suffered multiple knife wounds on his body. The wounds were quite deep, and it was unclear when they were inflicted, but they still hadn't been bandaged up until now. Around each wound, there was a circle of dark purple bloodstains that were almost black. There were five or six such injuries in total. Fortunately, none of them had hit any vital spots. Xu Mingjin seemed to be doing a bit better, and Chun Xiang covered her mouth in shock: "Miss, he's so pitiful!" Upon hearing this, Xu Mingjin's mouth twitched slightly as she thought to herself: He might not necessarily need your sympathy. Qiu Yun said: "Hurry up and clean and bandage his wounds, don't talk so much." Only then did Chun Xiang fall silent. The three of them busied themselves for half a day before finally finishing cleaning and bandaging all the big and small wounds on his body. Throughout this entire process, the man remained in a daze, unconscious.

  At this time, Mrs. Xu returned, with the addition of Mrs. Xu, he was quickly tidied up from head to toe and changed into a small servant's uniform that Mrs. Xu had found back.

  Chun Xiang hastily sat down, and Xu Ming Jin said: "This is not the time to relax, hurry up and throw all the clothes he took off and the cloth used to wipe away blood into the fire basin to burn them." Chun Xiang quickly scrambled up and busied herself with the task.

  "Autumn cloud, you go too, be careful and quiet. If we alert anyone, we'll all lose our lives." Xu Mingjin said: "Burn it completely, remember to light some incense. We must make sure that no one can detect any traces:" Autumn cloud saw her serious expression, and hastily composed herself before leaving.

  "Auntie, can you find some wine?" Xu Mingjin asked.

  "Miss, what do you want to drink?"

  Xu Mingjin was already a bit tired at this time, and when she heard the words, she rubbed her somewhat dizzy forehead and said: "He suffered such a serious injury, tonight he may develop a fever, wine can lower the temperature."

  Madam Xū thought for a moment and said, "This time the cart driver Xiao Dongzi who came with us is fond of drinking. I'll go ask him."

  Send everyone away to work. Xu Mingjin found herself with nothing to do, so she went back to the inner room and fell asleep immediately. She didn't care about anything else anymore. However, in a daze, she felt someone covering her with a quilt from one corner, and she vaguely remembered that person's injury, murmuring a sentence of "Spring Apricot", taking turns keeping watch for that person. Then she fell asleep.

  In the middle of the night, Xu Mingjin, who was sleeping soundly, was woken up by Chun Xing. She opened her sleepy eyes and heard Chun Xing say: "Miss, that person has caught fire, what should we do?" Xu Mingjin immediately became wide awake.

  Because she was sound asleep, as soon as she got up and put on her shoes, she hurriedly went to the outer room to take a look. She saw that the man's cheeks were burning bright red. Xu Mingjin hastily asked: "Where is the wine?"

  Mrs. Xu hurriedly handed over a jug of wine, and Xu Mingjin took it over, instructing Chun Xiang to "bring a clean basin". He also instructed Qiu Yun to "bring several clean handkerchiefs". Chun Xiang quickly brought them over and put them on the ground, and Xu Mingjin opened the stopper of the wine jug and poured all the wine into the basin. He instructed Qiu Yun to wet the handkerchiefs in the wine and use them to wipe down the person's entire body.

  Xu Mingjin said: "Don't stop, wipe it once and then soak it in wine. Keep wiping."

  An hour passed and the man finally broke his fever. Xu Mingjin didn't look at him again, saying: "Now don't bother with him, all of you go to sleep." With that, he led the way back to their room.

  The next morning, Xu Mingjin said to the man who had already woken up: "The people who caught you should still be there. I've ordered someone to burn those clothes of yours. This small servant's attire is just right for you to disguise yourself. Are you going to find an opportunity to slip out on your own or follow me and mix out with a small servant's identity?"

  The man looked at her deeply, and Xu Mingjin met his gaze without fear.

  After a long time, the man took off a jade pendant from his body and handed it to Xu Mingjin: "Great kindness does not need to be thanked. Take this jade pendant, with this jade pendant, if you encounter difficulties, you can go to any branch of Qi's pharmacy to find the shopkeeper to help you solve it."

  Xu Mingjin reached out and took it.

  The man walked past her and went out.

  Xu Mingjin said: "You haven't told me how you got out?"

  He said: "Now each room has eyes watching, I'll go out now and raise suspicions. It will bring you trouble."

  "So what?" Xu Mingjin said dully.

  "Of course, I'll pretend to be a little servant and sneak out of the crowd!"

  Xu Mingjin hummed, feeling that she hadn't slept well the night before and her mind was dull today. Lowering her head to take a look, all she saw was a pair of fish-shaped jade pendants in her hand, with a warm color, smooth to the touch, and at first glance, they were not ordinary goods.

  Digression

  Friends, I won't say anything else