Around the second half of the night, Yu Linzhi vaguely saw a figure flashing at the entrance of the cave while half asleep and half awake. He immediately woke up Mu Lingsu, holding a hidden weapon in his hand, ready to attack at any time.
At this time, the figure of an adult man walked into the cave and moved closer and closer to the two of them.
"Brother, why are you here with Miss Mu?"
After Yu Linzhi saw that the person coming was Sutijia, he was more confused than surprised, but he resisted the urge to show it, and asked calmly: "Why are you here?"
Sutija waved his hand, and several followers came in with torches behind him, lighting up the cave for them. He replied, "I don't know what happened to those people. They first captured Princess Yongjia and me, but when we got to Dunhuang, they released me and only took Princess Yongjia away. Princess Yongjia is of noble status, and I know you will definitely bring people to rescue her. I thought you would pass by Dunhuang when you leave the country, and I happened to have a business in Dunhuang, so I decided not to leave and wait for you here."
Yu Linzhi chewed on his words carefully, and always felt that something in his words was not right. But he had no time to figure it out, and just wanted to take Mu Lingsu out of the cave as soon as possible. He said: "In that case, let's leave quickly."
Sutijia turned around and spoke a few words to the people around him in Kushan's native language, then turned to Yu Mu and said, "Brother, please wait a moment. It is not appropriate for Miss Mu to ride a horse with a group of rough men like us. I will send someone to hire a carriage for Miss Mu to ride alone. It will take a while."
Mu Lingsu was about to refuse, saying that she was not particular about trivial matters, but Yu Linzhi grabbed her hand. She immediately understood Yu Linzhi's hint and turned to thank Su Tijia, saying, "Thank you, Mr. Su." After that, she retreated behind Yu Linzhi, looking as if she was watching what would happen.
The carriage was soon brought up from the foot of the mountain, and the group immediately headed for Dunhuang. Sutijia had been doing business for several years, and his family wealth had already reached tens of millions. The house he bought in Dunhuang was also surprisingly large. Yu Linzhi and Mu Lingsu were both from extraordinary backgrounds, and had been in the palace since childhood, but they were still shocked by the grandeur of this private house.
Gold carvings and jade bricks are nothing more than this, and embroidered phoenixes and painted dragons are still beyond description. It is conceivable that the profits made by Sutijia over the years are really amazing. The numerous courtyards seem to be linked one after another, and you can't see the bottom at a glance from the main gate of the house.
"I never knew he was so rich." Although Yu Linzhi had a blank expression as usual, his tone revealed the shock that he could not conceal.
Sutijia's assets are so huge here, not to mention in his hometown of Kushan. I am afraid that even if he is not as rich as a country, he is still the richest in the world.
Mu Lingsu did not express any sighs, but just looked around the courtyard in front of him, and counted the number of entrances in the entire house. He lowered his voice and whispered in Yu Linzhi's ear: "The structure of this house is complicated. I'm afraid that the owner took great pains to hide a lot of mechanisms when building it."
Yu Linzhi raised her eyebrows and was about to say something to her when Su Tijia came up to them and asked with a smile, "This house was bought two years ago. I have been trading goods in Central China and rarely come here to live. It just so happens that you two came recently, so we can just stay in this house for a while and move when we get news about the princess."
Sutijia was extremely enthusiastic and personally led the two to the small courtyard in the east, bypassing the hanging flower gate and the corridor, and directly led them to the wing room: "Temporarily clean up the Tingyin Pavilion in the north and a small courtyard here. I am used to living in Tingyin Pavilion, so you can live in Lushui Pavilion first. When I clean up a better courtyard in the future, I will invite you to move there."
"No need to go through all that formality, we're just brothers, just be casual." Yu Linzhi was being polite while pretending to casually observe the small courtyard called "Lushui Pavilion". He found that it was just as Mu Lingsu said, there were hidden weapons everywhere. He drew a question mark in his mind, but didn't say anything.
He asked, "I live in Lushui Pavilion, so where does Miss Mu live?" He didn't really want to know how Su Tijia arranged it, but he wanted Mu Lingsu to live in two different places from him so that he could observe whether Su Tijia had arranged mechanisms in every room.
Su Tijia smiled ambiguously, covered his mouth with the folding fan in his hand, and whispered in Yu Linzhi's ear: "Brother, I know you like this Miss Mu, so I specially created an opportunity for you. Don't be ungrateful."
"Nonsense." Yu Linzhi felt his heartbeat suddenly speed up, almost out of control. He glanced at Mu Lingsu next to him with a guilty look. Although her attention was elsewhere, he was still a little afraid that she would see through his guilt at this time, "Men and women should not touch each other, do you understand?"
Sutija said: "I am a barbarian. I only know that if I have a woman I like, I must do everything I can to get her quickly."
When Yu Linzhi heard Su Tijia say this, he suddenly regretted proposing to Mu Lingsu rashly. Get it quickly? Perhaps for him, knowing that he would have a shorter lifespan than ordinary people, it would be right to get it quickly.
But Mu Lingsu is only 23 years old now, in the prime of her life. If she marries him and becomes a widow early, wouldn't that be pushing her into the fire pit?
He was like a possessed man in the past few days, and was completely awakened by Sutijia's words today. However, he was filled with regret and reluctance at the moment. He wanted to tell Mu Lingsu that he regretted it, but he was reluctant to let Mu Lingsu be too far away from him.
He always considered himself calm and rational, but he never expected that one day he would be so greedy.
Mu Lingsu seemed to like this yard very much, walking around in the yard, looking very happy and excited. Yu Linzhi looked at her and couldn't help laughing with her.
Mu Lingsu was so beautiful in his mind that he couldn't bear to destroy her. He sighed and tried to let the resentment in his heart disappear: "It's true that I like her, but she should never belong to me."
She may not be his, but she definitely belongs to her. Loving someone is certainly mixed with possessiveness, but more importantly, it should be compromise and respect.
He didn't want to see that because of his selfish desires, Mu Lingsu spent the rest of her life in loneliness and suffering.
"Let's forget it." Yu Linzhi pointed to the wing room on the other side of the yard and said, "Please clean up the wing room over here for your short-lived senior brother and give it to Miss Mu to live in." After saying this, he felt much more at ease.
Sutijia didn't say much, so he found a servant and asked him to take a few people to clean up the room. When he saw that it was almost noon, he said to Mu Lingsu in a loud voice: "Miss Mu has come from afar, please go to the front hall to eat some unique flavors of the Western Regions."
Just as he finished speaking, a maid in her thirties came running from another courtyard and whispered something to Sutijia. Sutijia was shocked when he heard it, and after asking the housekeeper who could speak a little Chinese to entertain the guests, he followed the maid in a hurry.
"What happened to him?" Mu Lingsu came out of the room when she heard Su Tijia calling her, but when she came back, Su Tijia had already left. She looked at Su Tijia's back and asked Yu Linzhi.
Yu Linzhi also looked at Sutijia's back, frowning, and his thoughts kept going back and forth in his mind. Why did the woman whisper in Sutijia's ear when she came just now? I'm afraid everyone in this house knows that the two guests who came are Han Chinese and can't understand Hu language, but this woman is very alert, just to explain two points.
First, the woman was not speaking a foreign language, but something he and Mu Lingsu could understand; second, the woman did not know that the guests were two Han Chinese. The former means that there were other Han Chinese in the house, and the latter means that there was a place in the house where servants were not allowed to enter and leave at will, so no one notified them of the guests.
No matter which of these two points is true, plus the fact that this house is full of traps, it shows that there is something wrong with Sutijia. It can even be concluded that he might be the one who kidnapped Princess Yongjia, and the so-called kidnapping was just a self-torture trick he arranged.
"Master Yu, Miss Mu, please come this way." The housekeeper came over and guided Yu and Mu in a distorted Chinese accent. "My master is busy and can't leave for the time being. Please take a seat first, and my master will be here soon."
The two of them went to the front hall to eat without saying anything.
But before they finished their meal, Su Tijia rushed directly to the front hall and pretended to kneel down to Mu Lingsu: "Miss Mu, I know you are a rare expert in medicine in the Central Plains. Please condescend to save a life."
Seeing how serious he was, Mu Lingsu was very worried, fearing that something serious had happened, and quickly went over to help him up: "Mr. Su, you are too serious. Saving the dying and the wounded is my job, so why should I condescend to you?"
Su Tijia was really anxious. Although he was helped up by Mu Lingsu, he still bowed to her several times: "There is a lady named Ru in my house. She was quite favored before, but she is jealous by nature. She had an argument with me a few days ago, and just now, suddenly..." He seemed very frightened and paused before saying, "She just took the scissors on the dressing table and stabbed herself..."
Mu Lingsu was horrified when she heard his description. She knew that this behavior would definitely cause serious trauma. She made a request to Su Tijia with her instinct as a doctor: "Please, Mr. Su, take me to Madam Ru's residence as soon as possible so that I can check the injury and treat it in time."
The strange thing was that Sutija, who was originally extremely anxious, had a somewhat stiff expression and unnatural movements, as if he had forgotten something in his panic and had just remembered it now.
For a moment, Mu Lingsu seemed to see a trace of guilt flashing in his eyes, and the smile on his face was a little stiff. She subconsciously turned her head and glanced at Yu Linzhi next to her. Yu Linzhi noticed her gaze, looked at her, raised his eyebrows, and didn't say much.
Su Tijia laughed, turned around and asked the butler to come to him, and whispered a few words to him. After exchanging a few words, he nodded and said to Mu Lingsu and Yu Linzhi, "Miss Mu, my wife Ru has had a lot of acne on her face since the beginning of spring. She has been taking medicine for several months, but has not seen any effect. In order not to pollute your eyes, I will ask the maid to lower the bed curtains in her room. You can examine her from a distance, how about that?"
When Yu Linzhi heard that Su Tijia was unwilling to let Mu Lingsu have close contact with this Madam Ru, his doubts grew deeper and deeper.
It was obvious that Sutijia and Princess Yongjia were kidnapped together, and the kidnappers' intention to arrest him was also very obvious. There was no possibility of "catching the wrong person". How could it be possible that only Princess Yongjia was left and Sutijia was released? Moreover, Dunhuang is vast and sparsely populated. It is not easy to find two people in a cave, but Sutijia found them quickly, as if someone was showing him the way...
Mu Lingsu was always smart, and she had learned to read people's expressions since she was a child in the palace. She could see at a glance that Sutijia was reluctant for them to see the face of this Madam Ru. It was very strange that he still cared about the appearance of this Madam Ru despite such a serious injury.
Logically speaking, concubines and maids are just slaves. It is fine that Sutijia treats them so tenderly on normal days, but now that Madam Ru has severe acne, he refuses to allow anyone to treat it. There may be other hidden motives behind this.
She naturally thought of this, and deliberately avoided mentioning Madam Ru's injury by Sutijia, and only mentioned the matter of acne, testing Sutijia and saying: "Sir, don't worry about Madam Ru's acne. I have learned some skin care techniques for the harem, and I am willing to do my best to help Madam Ru recover."
How could Sutijia have expected Mu Lingsu to suddenly mention this? His heart skipped a beat, as if something heavy had fallen into the abyss. He pretended to be relaxed and waved his hand, saying, "No need. This Madam Ru has been with me for many years. Even if her beauty has faded, I am confident that I can treat her as before."
How could he have expected that after he had finally asked a doctor to treat Shen Hanyan's wound, she would struggle violently as soon as she woke up because of the unbearable pain in the wound, damaging the bandaged area and causing her to bleed a lot more?
If it wasn't for a life-threatening situation, he would never ask Mu Lingsu for help. But it would be hard to guarantee that Shen Hanyan's whereabouts would not be revealed. As long as Mu Lingsu got close to Shen Hanyan, he would definitely see through everything at a glance.
The housekeeper urged, "Sir, the blood from the lady's wound has been collected in a copper basin. If you don't go see her, I'm afraid even Hua Tuo would be unable to save her."
This woman who hurt herself at every turn was brought back by Sutijia from the Central Plains. She was fine when she entered the mansion, but as soon as Sutijia left the house, she moved around like crazy on the bed and injured the accompanying palace maids and doctors with the silverware on the side. If she had not lost too much blood and was not very weak, she would definitely have made a fuss for a while.
"There is no time to lose, go quickly." Mu Lingsu then remembered that this "Mrs. Ru" was probably semi-comatose due to excessive blood loss. If she was not treated, it would be difficult to save the woman's life.
Su Tijia was originally worried that the two of them might discover his flaws, but when he thought that Shen Hanyan might die, he didn't care so much and immediately took Yu Linzhi and Mu Lingsu to Tingyin Pavilion in Dongyuan where he lived.
When he arrived at the Dongyuan Chuihua Gate, Yu Linzhi saw the word "Qilin" on the plaque, and suddenly remembered that during the years when he was learning from a master in Shushan, Su Tijia was a person who did not like reading. Somehow, Yu Linzhi asked, "What does Qilin Pavilion mean?"
"Hmm?" Sutijia was about to enter the house, but was stopped by this question. He stood in front of the door, turned around and looked at Yu Linzhi who was looking up at the plaque, and blurted out, "Golden scales should not be kept in a pond. I like this sentence, so I named this house this way. Brother, is there anything wrong with this name?"
Yu Linzhi's anxiety grew stronger and stronger. He could only swallow the words that were on the tip of his tongue because he could not get any solid evidence. Perhaps Mu Lingsu's inference was really accurate. There was a high probability that one of the kidnappers was very familiar with the Central Plains culture.
"Brother." Su Tijia was concerned about Shen Hanyan who was still struggling for life and death, so he pointed to the door and said, "If there is nothing else, I will go in first."
Yu Linzhi nodded and watched Mu Lingsu and Su Tijia go in together.
"Did Madam really stab herself with scissors just now?" Mu Lingsu looked up and saw that there was not much blood in the room. There was only a bloodstain as big as a soybean three steps away from the bed, and there was no blood in front of the dressing table. She looked again and saw that there was a gauze curtain hanging in front of the bed. There was a large blood-red area on the gauze curtain. Through these bloodstains, she could see a vague figure moving inside, probably a maid serving the person lying on the bed.
She subconsciously wanted to take a step forward, but Sutijia quickly stretched out her hand to stop her: "Miss Mu, my wife Ru is now disfigured and looks terrible, you'd better not come forward."
After saying this, he called over the little medicine boy beside him and handed the pulse diagnosis equipment to Mu Lingsu: "Miss Mu, please use this to diagnose the patient."
Sutijia's carefulness made Mu Lingsu more curious about who the person lying on the bed was. She guessed that it might be Shen Hanyan. Could it be that Shen Hanyan had hurt herself with scissors beforehand and resisted treatment, so Sutijia had no way to treat her and had to find her?
Otherwise, how could Sutijia repeatedly stop her from approaching that woman and not let her see that woman's face?
Although Mu Lingsu was afraid that Sutijia would use force to stop her, she did not dare to move forward, but she kept staring at the figure behind the heavy curtains. She wanted to verify who this person was and looked for an opportunity.
She said, "But sir, your Madam Ru has suffered a serious injury, and it won't work just by taking her pulse."
This is true. No one can treat injuries without contacting the patient. She guessed that Sutijia would be shocked by Shen Hanyan's self-harming behavior. He was caught off guard. The medical resources available to him were too poor. If he didn't treat her, Shen Hanyan would probably die. That's why he designed this series of actions to lure Mu Lingsu into this jar.
Mu Lingsu didn't know Su Tijia well, so she couldn't figure out why he didn't find another famous doctor, but instead took the great risk of his plan being exposed and went to so much trouble for her. It was obvious that he could find someone with better medical skills than her in the next few days, but he just didn't want to go.
Sutijia was a little embarrassed, his facial expression could not hide his awkwardness, and he was speechless for a while, as if he didn't know how to respond appropriately to Mu Lingsu's question.
Mu Lingsu pretended to casually peek at Sutijia's expression and found that his panic could no longer be hidden, but he still tried to remain calm.
She knew that her guess was almost right, and she did not dare to push Su Tijia too far, for fear that he would take Shen Hanyan's life in desperation.
She took out a bottle of hemostatic medicine from the medicine box beside her and handed it to Su Tijia: "If you really mind, you don't have to comply with my request. This is my family's exclusive secret medicine. If you think it's suitable, you can use it to stop Madam Ru's bleeding first."
Su Tijia's reaction told her that he was obviously overjoyed by this proposal. He quickly took the medicine bottle from Mu Lingsu, turned around and asked the butler to take it inside. Then he turned around and thanked Mu Lingsu, "Miss Mu is kind-hearted and kind-hearted. Su is very grateful."
Mu Lingsu was being polite, but secretly observing the details of Sutija's expression. She found that Sutija was obviously much more relaxed, but still cautious and kept a close eye on her every move.
Mu Lingsu became more and more certain that the person lying inside was definitely Shen Hanyan. But she had no way of knowing whether her guess that Shen Hanyan had self-harmed was correct.
If Shen Hanyan was injured by self-harm as she expected, then it would be easy to deal with, which means that Sutijia had no intention of hurting Shen Hanyan, and she and Yu Linzhi could still be sure to take Shen Hanyan away safely. If Shen Hanyan was stabbed by someone, it would be hard to say. It is very likely that both sides will be killed, and Shen Hanyan will definitely die, and she and Yu Linzhi will also die here.
Mu Lingsu thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Su, please find a quiet place so that I can prescribe medicine for Madam Ru's injury."
She just wanted to meet Yu Linzhi as soon as possible to discuss countermeasures.
Sutija did not doubt him and readily agreed: "It's a small matter."
After the butler came out, Su Tijia asked the butler to take Mu Lingsu and Yu Linzhi who was waiting outside the door to a remote quiet garden, and sent someone to buy a batch of expensive supplements.