Thirteen 1
Liu Qingye was also locked in the cage. The palm that Zhong Rui hit him with was really heavy. In an emergency, he managed to hold on and not fall down. As soon as Mang Keshan threw him into the cage, his throat immediately felt sweet and he became confused. After a long time, he felt a stream of true energy slowly entering from the Zhiyang point on his back, going up to Dazhui and Baihui, and going down to Mingmen and Yaoyangguan; another stream of true energy entered from the Tanzhong point on his chest, going up to Tiantu, Lianquan, Chengjiang, and going down to Zhongwan, Shenque, Qihai, Guanyuan, and Zhongji. He immediately felt relieved from the depression in his chest and woke up.
He saw the two people who had treated him for his injuries, one was Wang Chunshan and the other was Liaoyuan, and he asked in surprise, "Uncle Wang, Master Liaoyuan, has the Imperial Concubine Huimou among you been cured?"
Wang Chunshan asked, "Didn't your Uncle Meng Liu throw in the antidote?"
Liu Qingye's face changed and he said, "Then...then you ate it? Didn't Mr. Li tell everyone not to eat it...and you ate it?"
Wang Chunshan snorted coldly: "Can you believe the words of a traitor like Li Yunsheng?"
Liao Yuan also said, "Sixth brother didn't hesitate to let us misunderstand him. He obtained the antidote with great difficulty, but Li Yunsheng actually scared us into not taking it with just one sentence. Humph, he is dreaming. He and the old thief Fu Cha are playing the good cop and the bad cop respectively. Do they want us to be fooled?"
Liu Qingye knew that the people in the Lantern Festival had deep prejudices against Li Yunsheng, so it was difficult to argue. Moreover, everyone's internal strength had been restored, and they were using their internal energy to heal him, so it was true that he had detoxified the medicine. Perhaps Li Yunsheng was just worrying too much. But he thought again and felt something was wrong. He said, "Uncle Wang, Fu Chakang and Zhong Rui all knew that Uncle Meng had thrown the medicine in. They couldn't just let us detoxify him like that!"
Wang Chunshan was stunned for a moment, but didn't answer. Wu Shuiqing next to him said coldly, "Look, even the child knows this, but you just don't want to listen - why are you doing this, to make things difficult for Li Yunsheng?"
Wang Chunshan said nothing. Liaoyuan said, "Fourth sister, if we want to believe, we have to believe our brothers, not traitors. Although... although Li Yunsheng is yours... but he is already a traitor, we can't believe his words. Besides, this medicine is indeed real."
Wu Shuiqing sneered, "I don't trust him just because he's my husband. Why don't you think about it, Fu Chakang is so cunning, from Zhong Rui, to the fake Dragon Slayer Society, to the fake poisoned wine, which step is not in his plan? Why did he suddenly get confused and send us the antidote so that we can work together to break this cage?"
Everyone was silent. Yan Tiebi was holding a pill in his palm, but he hadn't swallowed it yet. Suddenly, he raised his hand and threw the pill out of the cage, saying, "Yes, I believe him too. I won't eat it."
Liu Qingye looked at the situation, as if there was a dispute among the people about the authenticity of the pill. Wang Chunshan, Liaoyuan and others did not believe Li Yunsheng, so they had already taken the pill. Wu Shuiqing was determined not to take it. Some others were originally hesitant, but now seeing Yan Tiebi throw away the pill, some of them also made up their minds and threw the pill away.
Wang Chunshan could not help but get furious: "What on earth are you doing? At this juncture, are we brothers going to quarrel over that traitor?" He was so angry that he should have taken his anger out on Wu Shuiqing, but he raised his hand and slapped Yan Tiebi instead. This slap knocked Yan Tiebi to the ground: "Third brother, what's wrong with you? When you drank the poisoned wine just now, you were hesitant. Were you deceived by them?"
Yan Tiebi's mouth cracked and two teeth fell out. He stood up and stared at Wang Chunshan: "Brother, I was not deceived. I hesitated , not because I was afraid of death - since I took this path, I knew that one day I would lose my head. I was just wondering if it was worth it for us to die like this - drinking poisoned wine can indeed show that we would rather die than surrender. But, what great cause would we have left after death? If it weren't for Brother Meng Hu pretending to surrender, how could we have controlled the old thief Fu Cha for a moment?"
Wang Chunshan looked at him angrily, and he continued, "It is said that a real man can bend and stretch. Big brother, Li Yunsheng is a traitor, yes, but he has saved us time and again. In Adaler, in Shanshan, in Alebu, and just now, he can't save himself, but he still saved my fifth and sixth brothers. Even if he is a traitor, we don't have to fall into the Tartar's trap just to avoid his favor!"
"Enough!" Wang Chunshan interrupted him angrily, "You have to believe Li Yunsheng - just look at Zhong Rui, and you will know what kind of person Li Yunsheng is! If it weren't for these two traitors, how could our Lantern Festival have ended up like this today!" When he said this, he glanced at Wu Shuiqing again, but Wu Shuiqing was calm and just sat there quietly.
For a moment, everyone was speechless. Only Wang Chunshan, Liao Yuan, Chen Luohui, Chi Yunzi and a few others who had taken pills to restore their strength lined up beside the cage, ready to gather their energy and strike out with their palms to destroy the steel railing.
Liu Qingye looked at them, and at the same time, at the dimly lit stone chamber outside. The more he looked, the more he felt something was wrong. There was not even a soldier guarding the stone chamber. There were only two guards outside the door. Suddenly, he heard a "gulp", and the two guards fell down. He stood up in shock, and saw Cao Mengsheng and Meng Hu jumping in from outside. Cao Mengsheng was holding a bunch of keys in his hand. Liu Qingye was overjoyed and shouted, "Master!"
The people in the Lantern Festival were also overjoyed. Cao Mengsheng ran up the steps, came to the cage, took out a key and inserted it into the keyhole. With a "click", the iron door opened.
As they walked down the stairs together, Wang Chunshan asked, "Fifth brother, sixth brother, how did you escape? Where did you get the key?"
Meng Hu said, "Brother, we can't stay here for long. Let's get out first - Li Yunsheng is still waiting for us at the exit!"
"Li Yunsheng?" Wang Chunshan grabbed Meng Hu's arm. "Did Li Yunsheng let you out? Did he give you the key? Did he ask you to lead everyone out?"
Meng Hu was stunned for a moment, and said, "Brother, now is not the time to worry about these things - there is no one at the south exit now, if we don't leave now it will be too late."
Wang Chunshan said, "You--are you all confused? He let you out and gave you the key. Now he is leading everyone to the South Gate to die!"
Meng Hu was anxious: "Brother, Li Yunsheng saved us and let us out. He offended the general and couldn't save himself. We were already imprisoned well, why did he let us go and then arrest us again?"
Wang Chunshan was speechless for a moment, but the others were convinced by Meng Hu's analysis and advised him: "Brother, don't worry about what Li Yunsheng is up to. Let's escape first. If he dares to betray us, we can kill him!" "After all, we are imprisoned here, why not give it a try, maybe we can escape?"
There was a lot of chatter, but Wang Chunshan just stood there motionless. Cao Mengsheng came up and pulled him, saying, "Brother, let's go——"
But before he finished speaking, he heard a strange laugh at the door. It was Mang Keshan's voice. Before the laugh died down, a huge rock in front of the door was dropped with a "boom". Mang Keshan said from outside: "Sure enough, I guessed right - it was Li Yunsheng who betrayed you, haha! But don't worry, after you die, I will kill him and bury him with you!"
Everyone was shocked and looked at each other. Someone immediately cursed: "Man Keshan, if you have the guts, then fight me. What kind of hero are you to trap me like this?"
Mang Keshan laughed loudly outside and said, "I am a brave warrior from Manchuria. Why would I care about the heroes of you Han people? You should just die as heroes. What do you think will happen to you if you become a traitor?"
Wang Chunshan said angrily: "Humph, whether our fate is good or not is none of your business - your fate will definitely be struck by lightning and you will not die a good death! You Tartars occupy other people's land... and there are traitors who help the tyrant... you will not die a good death!"
Mang Keshan laughed and said, "You can curse as much as you want - you will know what your fate will be when Li Yunsheng comes. I will make sure you live until he comes, haha. If you die first, he will be buried with you!"
His strange laughter came through the thick stone door and echoed in the stone room, deafening and causing a buzzing sound around. It seemed that they were discussing - if Wang Chunshan had not been so stubborn in pursuing the matter of Li Yunsheng, he would not be trapped here now.
"If it weren't for Uncle Wang..." Liu Qingye thought to himself, "If it weren't for Uncle Wang, many things would be different... However, how can this be Uncle Wang's fault? He has devoted his entire life to this great cause, with all his passion, is this what he is going through today?"
"Quiet down!" The speaker was Wu Shuiqing, who was still calm. "Quiet down, what's the point of quarreling like this? Doesn't that dog Tartar want us to be suspicious of each other? He wants us to be suspicious of Li Yunsheng, and now he wants us to be trapped here and blame each other - do you want to make that dog Tartar happy?"
She had lost all her internal strength, so her voice was not loud, but it immediately penetrated the buzzing sound, and the discussion came to an abrupt end. Wang Chunshan looked at her in astonishment: "Fourth sister..."
Wu Shuiqing said: "I have just said that we don't need to fall into the trap of the Tartars. Whoever betrayed us, we have been betrayed anyway; whoever delayed us, it has been delayed anyway, there is no point in discussing it, for now, let's find out if there is any other way out!"
Everyone nodded in agreement and started searching the stone chamber separately. They knocked on the wall here, turned the handle there, took down the torches one by one, and carefully checked every groove for the torches.
Mang Keshan, who was outside, heard the constant "dong dong" and "bang bang" sounds from inside and guessed everyone's intention, so he sneered, "Take your time to look for it. You won't find it even if you look for three hundred years." But everyone listened to Wu Shuiqing and ignored him. Soon, they searched the entire stone chamber.
Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads, but Meng Hu was staring at the wall in a daze. Liao Yuan went up to him asked, "Sixth brother, did you see anything?"
Meng Hu pointed to the top of the wall and said, "Look, second brother, I wonder what's so strange about those round holes."
Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, at the junction of the wall and the roof, there was a row of round holes, with a diameter of several inches and about a foot apart.
Meng Hu said, "We have just checked this stone chamber. It is solid on three sides and built underground. The round holes are probably for ventilation, so they must be connected to the outside. If we want to break through the wall and get out, we should probably start from there."
Liao Yuan said, "It doesn't matter if it's a vent or not, let's go up and take a look first." Then he jumped onto the wall, climbed up with his hands, and with a push of his feet, he quickly climbed up the slippery stone wall to the roof. He put his eyes on a round hole, looked around for a long time, and said, "I can't see anything, pass me a torch."
Chen Luohui threw a torch up. Leyuan took it and looked at it for a long time, but still couldn't see anything. Chi Yunzi said anxiously: "I'll come and see too--" and rushed over.
At this moment, a voice was heard outside the door, and Mang Keshan asked, "Fu Rui, what are you doing here?"
