CH 58

Chapter 58

(20.4)

Sheng Wenlin remained silent for a while, but after thinking about it, he decided not to conceal it, “I’ve seen her.”

“You’ve seen her?! Where?”

“Last night, at the inn outside the city, but she must have run away from there since last night.” Sheng Wenlin did not understand what she was running away from? Was it some kind of playing-hard-to-get game ? Or some trick to fight for favor because of her jealousy ?

He calmly gave his analysis: “She must have gone in the direction of Jiangnan, order people to follow this direction to chase after her, and you should be able to catch up very soon.”

Wei Liu bowed to him, “Thank you, Shizi.”

“You’re welcome.” Sheng Wenlin couldn’t resist asking, “What were the crown prince’s orders ?”

Such a big commotion, he was most probably quite angry.

Wei Liu told the truth: “If the person is alive, he wants to see the person, if dead, he wants to see the corpse.”

There was another sentence, if the person is caught but refuses to return, there was no need to be polite, bring the person back to the capital no matter what, it was fine as long as the person was still breathing.

Sheng Wenlin distractedly said “mmh”, he hadn’t slept all night long and now his head was starting to ache. He did not have extra energy to care about other people’s matters, thus he got on his horse and went back to his residence to rest.

Wei Liu led the search according to the direction indicated by Sheng Wenlin and interrogated the innkeeper. When he got the news, he immediately went back to the crown prince’s residence to make a report.

Inside the study, Zhao Zhi had a chess game in front of him, there was no change on his face as he asked indifferently, “Have you found the person?”

Wei Liu respectfully replied, “She ran in the direction of Jiangnan.”

This answer wasn’t surprising to Zhao Zhi. Ming Zhu’s mother was from Jiangnan.

He just couldn’t understand how she still managed to escape without even saying a word.

The way he treated her wasn’t bad at all.

On the bed he occasionally lost control, but he also knew the limits and wouldn’t hurt her. When the young girl, with a flushed face, hooked his neck and started crying, his heart would turn soft.

Except for a slightly tight watch placed on her, he didn’t order any restrictions on other aspects.

She had gold and silver, silks and satin, he never treated her unfairly on any of those things.

During this year, Zhao Zhi thought he had already softened her heart. There were a few times, as he got up early to leave, when the small girl on the bed, still in a blurry state, would hook his fingertips, unwilling to see him leave. Inside those eyes which were looking at him, there were definitely some feelings of affection.

Could it be that these were all a pretense?

“Three days, I’ll give you three days at the most. When you find the person, I want to catch the person back myself.”

“Yes.”

As Wei Liu left the crown prince’s residence, he broke out in cold sweat for this Ming family’s young lady. What the future held for her, he really couldn’t be certain.

Zhao Zhi sat in silence for a moment, frowning as he was pondering.

He began to wonder, from what point in time had she been planning this ? It began from that time when she repeatedly said she was homesick and shed a few tears in front of him, to trick him into letting her go back to the Ming family.

Sure enough, she was still a little liar.

All the words coming out of her mouth were all lies.

But she got smarter this time, she managed to steal her slavery papers as well as her travel documents from his study.

Zhao Zhi remembered that she had never liked going inside his study, but these days, she was different from usual, and she would come see him, bringing along some tonic soup, from time to time.

She, who was timid and shy, even kissed him in the study with a red face, requesting for intimacy and acting well-behaved.

So it turned out that she did all that with an ulterior motive.

She took advantage of that rare moment where he was lost in infatuation to steal these two important documents from his study.

Zhao Zhi started sneering at this thought, he held back for a moment, but the chess game in front of him still ended up being knocked over by him.

Hearing the loud sound, all of the maidservants standing outside the room each kept as quiet as cicadas in winter, not daring to breathe out loud.

After a long time, Zhao Zhi ordered in a cold voice, “Bring her little maidservant over to me.”

Very soon, Ah Rou was carried over in front of Zhao Zhi. Her legs went weak and she fell directly on her knees with a thump.

Zhao Zhi snorted coldly.

Ah Rou’s eyes turned red as she was cowering with fear, extremely frightened.

“Where did she go?”

“This slave doesn’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Zhao Zhi kicked her on the shoulder. Ah Ruo’s entire body flew off, hitting the corner of the table very violently. Her back started to ache terribly.

Zhao Zhi knew that this maidservant was loyal to Ming Zhu, he couldn’t inquire anything out of her, thus he ordered with no expression on his face, “Take her away and lock her up.”

Zhao Zhi had deep thoughts and was able to consider the whole picture. He originally did not give Ming Zhu a penny of silver, for fear that once she’d save enough money she would try to run away. Thus he gifted her those gold and silver jewelry, all of which were all hard-to-find treasures. He originally thought that no one in the capital would dare to buy them, but who knew that were people who weren’t afraid of death, they wanted money and not their life.

That made her able to exchange those jewels for money and escape.

If she really couldn’t be found ……

No, even if he had to dug up three feet inside the ground, he would definitely get her back.