Chapter 495: Hearing the Thief's Tracks, Beauties Flee at Night (Part 1)
According to Qingwen, the bamboo forest is located near the Fengyao Bridge, not far from the Yihong Courtyard - if you pass through the forest and walk along the Fengyao Bridge to the gate, it will be much faster than walking along the Qinfang Bridge.
After Qingwen said this, Sun Shaozong also remembered that he had indeed passed a bamboo forest when he took a detour at noon.
Sun Shaozong breathed a sigh of relief at that moment, because the Zhuijin Tower where Jia Yingchun was staying was almost separated from the Yihong Courtyard by the entire Qinfang Pond. No matter whether the thieves wanted to escape over the wall or find a place to hide, it was unlikely that they would disturb the Zhuijin Tower.
Therefore, he discussed with Jia Lian that it would be inconvenient to search for thieves in the Grand View Garden in the dark at the moment, so it would be better to disperse the servants first and send them to the courtyards of the female relatives respectively. There was no need to rush to pick up the female relatives, and they could just guard the doors tightly to prevent the thieves from taking advantage of the chaos to hurt people.
As for himself, he would naturally go to Yihong Courtyard first to see what was going on. If Baoyu was fine, he would gather the women in the garden one by one and take them to the front yard for refuge.
"We also need to leave someone to guard the front yard. Otherwise, if those thieves take advantage of the situation and disturb the old lady, aunt, and others, we will be guilty of a great sin."
"This is a serious matter. I'm afraid that others may not be able to take on this task. I'm afraid that I can only trouble my second brother to take charge here."
This was naturally because they saw that Jia Lian was timid and did not dare to take the risk of entering the yard, so they deliberately gave him a way out.
Jia Lian saw that Sun Shaozong's arrangements were very logical and did not require him to put himself in danger. He was like a chick nodding its head at rice, so how could he have any different opinions?
So Sun Shaozong made the decision and left Jia Lian to lead half of the troops to guard the main gate and corner gate leading to the front yard. The rest of the servants were divided into teams of six or seven people and assigned tasks to protect the women in the garden.
Sun Shaozong asked the servants who stayed behind for whistle sticks and torches, and led a team of people to go to Yihongyuan through the bamboo forest. Although it was unlikely that the thieves would still be there, it was still necessary to investigate while they were there.
Besides, we don’t know if anyone has been injured by the thieves. If there are injured people abandoned near the bamboo forest, we can lend a helping hand.
"Lord Sun !"
Seeing that Sun Shaozong was about to lead the team to set off, Qingwen hurriedly came up and asked, "I am very familiar with this garden and am willing to lead the way for you, sir!"
Sun Shaozong glanced at her, turned back and bowed to Jia Lian: "Second brother, please tie up this girl and send her back to me !"
Having said that, he led the team into the garden without looking back.
The crowd first followed the willow embankment to the Qinfang Bridge. Most of them crossed the bridge to look for their respective targets, while Sun Shaozong went down the stream and reached the other side from the Bee Waist Bridge.
After walking about a hundred steps on the other side, you will see a bamboo forest of medium size blocking the way.
Sun Shaozong looked back and saw the six people behind him, all of whom looked a little timid, so he said, "Don't be afraid. I will lead the way in a moment, and the others will line up in the back and shout out their names. If one of them loses contact, I will immediately come to rescue them and will never let you get into danger."
Although the servants were still worried, they saw that Sun Shaozong was leading the charge, so they knew it was not right to retreat. They all expressed their willingness to follow Lord Sun to kill the bandits and protect their master.
So Sun Shaozong took the lead and entered the dense forest. Just after he took a few steps forward, he heard the screams of "Deng Guida", "Zhao Tiedan" and "Wang Amao" from behind. Everyone was afraid that his voice would be drowned out by others, so he shouted at the top of his lungs.
However, this was exactly the effect Sun Shaozong wanted. After all, he was only extremely strong, not invulnerable to swords and guns. If a thief attacked him secretly, he would definitely be hit.
With these shouts, the thieves will flee at the first sign of danger. No matter whether he can find their tracks or catch them, at least his own safety can be guaranteed.
In this peaceful and calm manner, they arrived at the center of the bamboo forest. Sun Shaozong suddenly felt that the view in front of him was clear. It turned out that there was an open space with a small pavilion built with bamboo. It looked quite interesting.
However, this pavilion was open on all sides and could not hide anyone at all, so Sun Shaozong did not pay much attention to it. He lowered the torch in his hand and prepared to pass through the middle of the pavilion.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the pavilion, he stepped on some gravel. Sun Shaozong immediately stopped and took a half step back, looking down suspiciously.
This is because although the upper part of the pavilion is built with bamboo, the lower part is a stone platform, which is more than three inches higher than the ground. Even if no one cleans it on weekdays, it would at most be covered with dust. How could there be so many gravel inside?
But when Sun Shaozong looked down, he saw that on the bluestone slab, there were not only a few pieces of broken stones, but also some moist soil scattered in an irregular circle on the ground.
This is……
Sun Shaozong held the torch and looked around again, and found that except for the ground under his feet, the rest of the place was very flat, without any stones or soil.
"Master Sun, have you discovered anything?"
At this time, he heard someone asking timidly from behind. Sun Shaozong turned around and saw two servants holding torches, who had already searched the open space. He said casually, "Nothing, just some footprints left by those thieves."
As he spoke, he looked at the soil and rubble for a few more times, then he raised the torch and continued searching forward.
This time, there were no other discoveries until we walked out of the bamboo forest.
However, outside the bamboo forest, there were a few lanterns and a pair of embroidered high-soled clogs thrown around in a mess.
Sun Shaozong immediately ordered: "Spread out and shout around to see if there are any injured people abandoned nearby."
After leaving the forest, the servants became much braver and scattered around shouting, but when they heard no response for a long time, they gathered around Sun Shaozong again.
So Sun Shaozong led them towards Yihongyuan again.
But when they arrived at Yihongyuan, they found it was empty inside and out, with not a single person in sight!
"Sun... Lord Sun."
Several servants could not help but panic. One of them could not help but ask, "Could it be those thieves who have captured Master Bao and the others?"
"Do you think it's possible?"
Sun Shaozong asked the servant a question, and seeing that the servant nodded stupidly, he could not help but say, "Even if three thieves can hold all the old, weak, women and children in this yard hostage, the dozen or so people that Steward Zhou brought are all the guards of the mansion. They can't be held hostage by them, right?"
Sun Shaozong led everyone into the west wing and opened one of the cupboards. He saw that it was full of underwear such as bellybands. He then opened another one expressionlessly and pointed to the obvious signs of rummaging in the bundle. He explained, "When the servants in this courtyard left, they also took some clothes to change. It was obvious that they did not leave in a panic. If they were held hostage by thieves, how could they be so calm?"
"In my opinion, he was probably escorted to the front yard by Butler Zhou, but we strayed from each other because we walked along the Bee Waist Bridge."
Turning around, he saw several strong young men, all drooling at the clothes that had just come out of the closet. Who cared about his own reasoning?
Sun Shaozong sighed silently, and took these fools out of Yihong Courtyard, heading north deep into the garden, preparing to make a counterclockwise circle and escort all the women in the garden out.
After walking north for a distance, Sun Shaozong led everyone to leave the main road and walk east along the path. After about a few dozen steps, they saw a temple faintly appearing in the mountains and forests.
This place is naturally the Longcui Temple where people practice Buddhism with their hair uncut.
Seeing that it was so quiet inside, with only the oil lamp on in the Buddhist hall in the middle, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but feel suspicious - logically speaking, he had spent a lot of time in the bamboo forest, and the people assigned to Longcui Temple should have arrived long ago.
Putting aside his doubts, he strode to the mountain gate and shouted loudly: "Is Miss Miaoyu in there?!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a heart-wrenching cry of a baby coming from the meditation room. After a while, someone inside said angrily, "Who is outside? What are you doing in this quiet place so late at night?"
The voice seemed to be from a little nun under Miaoyu's command. There was nothing strange about it, but Sun Shaozong did not relax his vigilance. Instead, he said, "I am Sun Shaozong, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture. Because there are thieves in this garden, I have been asked to take you to the front yard for shelter. Please come to the front door as soon as possible, Miss Miaoyu."
Hearing that it was Sun Shaozong, the little nun took a look through the crack in the door, then hurriedly opened the door and said, "I'll go and ask the abbess to come out!"
Soon, Miaoyu came out, holding a baby girl and leading two little nuns.
Sun Shaozong finally put his mind at ease, secretly noting the missing servants, and said, "I still need to gather the other female members of the garden. Miss Miaoyu is more familiar with this garden. I wonder which girl is the closest to here?"
Miaoyu frowned and asked, "Is there really a thief in this garden?"
Without waiting for Sun Shaozong to answer, she continued, "I'm not close to any other places, but I'm close to Master Bao's Yihong Courtyard - but you should have been to Yihong Courtyard a long time ago."
"Besides that, you can either go back to Yihong Courtyard and then go west to reach Miss Lin's Xiaoxiang Pavilion, or continue north and then west to reach Miss Xue's Hengwu Garden..."
Before she could finish, Sun Shaozong asked, "Which way is closer to Zhuijin Tower?"
Miaoyu was stunned for a moment, then she said, "Of course Hengwu Garden is closer."
Sun Shaozong said decisively: "Then let's go to Hengwu Garden first!"
The person he cared about most in this garden was naturally his eldest sister-in-law Jia Yingchun, followed by Li Wan. And Zhuijin Tower happened to be not far from Li Wan's Daoxiang Village - if not for this, Li Wan would not have been able to sneak into the tower and meet him privately so easily.
So everyone went out from the small road again and headed towards Hengwu Garden along the main road.
Not long after walking out, they saw a few people holding torches coming towards them. When they got closer, they found that they were the team of servants assigned to Longcui Temple.
Sun Shaozong stepped forward and asked coldly, only to find out that they had lost their way and had not been able to find the location of Longcui Temple.
Sun Shaozong's heart moved slightly when he heard this, and he couldn't help but turn around and glance at Miaoyu.
