Edited by Tnyhy
Chapter 140: Soon Cannot Make It (Part 2)Shen Miao still wanted to say more but that horse carriage suddenly came to a stop, and Shen Miao and Luo Tan were unable to react before they crashed against the horse carriage. The curtain was suddenly torn off and a person came in to drag Shen Miao out.
Luo Tan clinged onto Shen Miao’s thighs, “Biao Youngest Sister.” She put in every single effort from her body but even as such, the person outside still dragged Shen Miao away. That person was very angry and kicked Luo Tan.
Even if Luo Tan was trained in martial arts all year round in the Luo family, she was still after all a young female. To be kicked that devastatingly, she immediately fell out of the carriage. The ‘dong’ sound shocked Shen Miao when she heard it.
The remaining guard urged on, “Hurry up, do not be discovered by others.”
They directly tore the carriage apart. One of the two persons did not even say anything before stuffing a cloth into Shen Miao’s mouth, and tied her hands and legs before making Shen Miao faint and throw her to the back of the horse, making Luo Tan spit fire when she saw those actions. Luo Tan’s gaze suddenly landed on a short sword that fell from the horse carriage. Today after shopping with Feng An Ning at the jewellery store, they also mercifully went to the weapons shop with Luo Tan, and that short sword was bought then. She did not even thought about it and grabbed it before heading towards that person.
That person was however one that practises martial arts and with a few moves, tossed Luo Tan onto the ground. Luo Tan’s gaze suddenly changed and said, “Military family.”
This was not a common guard. These few moves were clearly unique to military families. At least these two people were related to the military.
When that person heard Luo Tan’s words, he suddenly exposed his viciousness and grabbed the short sword from Luo Tan’s hands and slashed her.
Luo Tan leaned over and slowly fell down.
The other person urged on, “Do not dally, quickly leave.”
That person then throw a knife away and rode another horse. Both of them quickly disappeared into the small alley.
In the gloomy dark alley, there was only a dismantled horse carriage as Luo Tan collapsed onto the ground. A large patch of a red stain gradually spread across her apricot coloured dress, making it look particularly frightening.
Feng An Ning raised her hand and slapped both of the guards.
Both guards suddenly collapsed and kowtowed, “These subordinates were unable to protect the masters, may Young Lady punish.”
“Punish?” Feng An Ning did not burst in anger but laughed, “How would I punish you? Beating or sell off? What is the use of punis.h.i.+ng? Will Shen Miao and Luo Tan return?”
Both guards remained silent. They had tried to catch up with the carriage, but that horse carriage was extremely fast and when they started chasing, there was already a distance. The other party seemed to be prepared and the routes that were taken were all small roads, thus they did not know at the end where did they go.
Feng An Ning almost gone crazy. She only just went up the restaurant to ask the waiter if he had seen her cats-eye hairpin and when she returned back, the carriage had disappeared and the surrounding people were all pointing around. After enquiring from the maid, she then realised that someone had stolen her horse carriage.
And in that carriage, Shen Miao and Luo Tan were inside.
After not too long, the two remaining guards returned but they did not know the whereabouts of the carriage. Fen An Ning looked at the hairpin on the floor that was filled with dust and closed her eyes. Even if she was oblivious normally, she was well aware of things at this moment. Someone has planned and infiltrated into their Feng family’s guards, and it was all to kidnap Shen Miao and Luo Tan.
What kind of people Shen Miao and Luo Tan were? One was the Di daughter of Shen Xin’s and the other was Luo Xue Yan’s blood niece. No matter which one, they were both reputable and famous in the Ding capital. For someone to even dare to scheme against them, it meant that the other party was willing to take such a risk, and everything bodes ill as there was no positive signs for Shen Miao and Luo Tan.
Thinking till here, Feng An Ning started to tremble. It was her who invited Shen Miao and Luo Tan out to shop in the Ding capital. It was her who wanted to go up to the restaurant. If she did not return to look for that hairpin, perhaps the few more guards would have been able to defend against those perpetrators. If she had not said that it was inconvenient and agreed to let Shen Miao bring more guards from Shen residence, there would not be such a setback like this. If she did not invite Shen Miao out, such a thing would not have happened today.
It is her. It is all her fault.
Feng An Ning’s body was wavering and when the maid by her side saw it, she jumped in shock and quickly went up to support her, “Young Lady must not blame oneself and harm one’s health. Master’s and Furen’s heart will ache upon seeing this.”
Feng An Ning shook her head and smiled bitterly, “Father’s and Mother’s hearts will ache with me like this, so how would Shen Furen and General Shen not be like that? Even if they were to kill me, I would not be able to make up for the mistakes I made.” With a sullen expression, she burst into tears in the middle of the restaurant, not caring of her ident.i.ty.
“What happened? Where is Jiao Jiao and Biao Younger Sister?” She heard a strong sober male voice coming from outside the restaurant. Feng An Ning loosened her hands and saw Shen Qiu striding in, and there was a small group of soldiers following him. Each one had an imposing manner and formidable might that the people in the restaurant could not help but shrink their heads.
Today Shen Qiu left from work early, and wanted to go back to the residence to ask Shen Miao and Luo Tan to go hunting on another day, but who knew that before he returned back to the residence, he heard his subordinate reported that Shen Miao and Luo Tan went out with Feng An Ning and an incident happened at the restaurant.
Shen Xin and Luo Xue Yan had yet to returned to the residence so naturally they were not aware of this news. When Shen Qiu knew about it, he rushed over without stopping his horse. Who knew that when he reached, he saw the baleful appearance of the restaurant, and that usually proud Feng family’s Young Lady in the middle bursting into tears, in a short moment Shen Qiu had a dreaded feeling to it.
He strode over to Feng An Ning and asked, “What happened?”
Feng An Ning was startled. Shen Qiu stood in front of her and he was tall in stature but was anxious. Suddenly Feng An Ning became somewhat speechless.
Shen Qiu and Shen Miao had a good relations.h.i.+p and this was a fact that everyone knew of. Shen Qiu was even willing to murder and commit arson for Shen Miao, so what would happen when Shen Qiu knew that Shen Miao was kidnapped by others?
She said with much difficulty, “After shopping Shen Miao, Luo Tan and me came to eat, when we were done I returned to the restaurant to find something. Shen Miao and Luo Tan stayed in the horse carriage and traitors infiltrated the Feng residence guards. They stole the horse carriage and kidnapped Shen Miao and Luo Tan. My Father already sent people to secretly inquire but…” Feng An Ning resolutely held her tears back, “Sorry. It is all my fault.”
Shen Qiu did not even look at Feng An Ning, but everyone saw him clenching both of his fist tightly, and could almost hear the cracking of the joints.
He took a deep breath and his voice was very calm as he instructed Mo Qing, “Report to the authorities, seal the city and search. The Shen family army is to be dispatched. Take my tally and instruct it down, search through the entire city and if the person is found, the Shen family will reward with ten thousand of gold.”
Ten thousand of gold. The surrounding people sucked in a lump of cold air.
Feng An Ning was also stunned when she heard this, but when she recovered to her senses she felt even more remorseful in her heart. Shen Qiu did not even blink when he willingly offered ten thousand of gold and that meant that in his eyes, Shen Miao was like a treasure, but now Shen Miao’s life was uncertain. This must be the meaning of the phrase ‘I did not kill Bo Ren but Bo Ren died because of me’. (Bo Ren is a character in Three Kingdom and this is a phrase to describe regret, remorse and sadness.)
Mo Qing also looked solemn as he turned away to carry out the orders accordingly. Feng An Ning said, “Even though it is easy to seal the city upon reporting to the authorities, but like this rumours would be raised in the Ding capital, and this would be detrimental to Shen Miao’s and Luo Tan’s reputation.”
Feng An Ning was a female and naturally understood the importance of reputation to a female. Once the matter of Shen Miao and Luo Tan being kidnapped was spread out, other would inevitably be malicious enough to conjecture rumours. Besides, there were enemies of the Shen family in the Ding capital and they would indeed make use of it.
Shen Qiu said, “Reputation compared to life is not worth a single Wen (aka cent). Even if their reputations are damaged, the Shen family can afford to feed them for life.”
He turned away and walked off. Feng An Ning said, “I’m sorry. I am implicated in today’s incident. I will definitely pay a visit to apologise one day.”
“This matter has nothing to do with you.” There was no emotion in Shen Qiu’s voice, “Those people were well prepared, and took action even with the knowledge of their backgrounds. Even it was not you, they would also find an opportunity to take action.”
Feng An Ning was a little comforted when she heard this but before she could speak, she heard Shen Qiu’s faint words again.
“However, my apologies. When seeing you, I will inevitable be angry so it is ideal for Feng Young Lady not to pay a visit for the time being.” (Translator: I hear hearts cracking…)
He did not even turn back as he strode off, leaving Feng An Ning standing alone blankly in the hall.
Outside, Ah Chi asked Shen Qiu, “Young Master directly mobilised the Shen family army and not ask Furen’s and Master’s opinion?”
“Ask what fart.” Shen Qiu scolded, “How would one have more effort to think about this and that now? With those people dare to take such risks, Jiao Jiao and Biao Younger Sister are in a dangerous situation. To actually dare to scheme on my Shen family, wait till I catch those people. I will make sure they are mother-f***ing dead.” The young and kind-hearted Vice General was no doubt extremely angry at this moment. He flipped up to the horse, “Go to the Administration Office of the Capital. Even if one need to dig up three feet of the entire capital, the persons have to be found.”
The news that the Shen family’s Young Lady and Biao Young Lady were kidnapped by evildoers were spread all over the Ding capital. This was a fact that could not be concealed. Firstly because when Shen Miao and Luo Tan were kidnapped, the commoners surrounding were all looking, and a few also knew of Feng An Ning’s ident.i.ty. Second was that the Administration Office of the Capital, the City Garrison, the Officials at the Government Office, the Shen family army, the Feng family’s guards were all activated. With such big movements, it was difficult not to be aware of it.
Everyone all knew that Shen Xin doted on his daughter, but this kind of doting almost turned over the entire Ding capital and scared a number of people. After Luo Xue Yan and Shen Xin knew of the matter after court, they personally brought along people to do a door to door search.
They searched the rest of the night without any intake of water and rice.
When Xie Jing Xing returned from outside, he saw Ji Yu Shu and Gao Yang waiting in the residence. Both of them would usually gather at the Feng Xian p.a.w.nshop because of Gao Yang’s particularly sensitive ident.i.ty, and generally speaking he would not come to the residence of Prince Rui.
Xie Jing Xing glanced surprisingly at both of them and handed the thing in his hands to Tie Yi. When the white tiger in the courtyard saw him coming in, it pounced jubilantly and fluttered to Xie Jing Xing’s feet and bit his trousers affectionately.
Xie Jing Xing bent down to pick the white tiger up and asked, “What is the matter?”
Gao Yang looked at Ji Yu Shu as Ji Yu Shu stared at the white tiger. After staring at it for a moment, he said determinedly, “There is something to inform you of.”
“What?” Xie Jing Xing went out of the city alone today, so he really did not know what happened in the Ding capital.
“Lately the public security of the Ding capital is not very good and is in some chaos.” Ji Yu Shu scratched his ears and spoke around the matter, “Just today, there was a Young Lady that went shopping on the streets and was robbed of his horse carriage at the restaurant, even with a number of family guards around. There were two Official families’ Young Ladies in the carriage. Till now, the search still came up with nothing.”
Xie Jing Xing stared at Ji Yu Shu.
Ji Yu Shu s.h.i.+vered as he felt that his gaze on him was somewhat cold and trembled, “Both Gao Yang and me wanted to warn you. Your beauty is not worse off than those Young Ladies, so you must be careful.
Xie Jing Xing said calmly, “Ji Yu Shu.”
“You also know the person I am speaking of. It is the Fifth Shen Young Lady.” Ji Yu Shu quickly said it out and quietly took a step back to hid behind Gao Yan.
There was a moment of silence in the room.
“And the person?” Ji Yu Shu looked blankly at the room. There was only the white tiger that was thrown on the floor, howling in pain.
“Are you stupid?” Gao Yang looked at him coldly.
“Smarter than you.” Ji Yu Shu replied.
At the same time, Shen Qiu who was searching within the various parts of the city for Shen Miao heard the news that Luo Tan had been found.
Mo Qing said, “Luo Young Lady soon would not make it.”