Chapter 245: Chapter 245: Must You Marry Your Savior After Being Rescued from the Water? (Part 16)

The lame man holding Shi Wen and Qin Cheng saw so many people on the slope and realized things were bad, so he let go of them and ran away. But as a lame man, how could he outrun the fairly skilled soldiers? He was quickly caught.

He had never been a mountain bandit, nor had he killed anyone. Even before going up the mountain, he was just a refugee trying to escape disaster. When he saw the soldiers, his legs trembled. At the moment he was stopped, all his courage drained from him, and he collapsed, completely limp.

He hadn’t even considered using Shi Wen and Qin Cheng as threats; he was only concerned with fear and escaping with his life.

Earlier, he managed to catch Shi Wen and Qin Cheng by persistently chasing them and hurling stones at them. He had some accuracy, injuring them both with stones before rushing up to grab them. Having fled for his life, he had strength from eating and drinking well recently, with a knife in his hand. After catching up, he threatened them with the knife, making them too scared to move.

In fact, when it came to actually hurting someone, he hesitated. Earlier, he had merely put on a show of force.

Shi Wen and Qin Cheng were also terrified. This man appeared excessively fierce, scaring them into fearing that if they disobeyed, the lame man would stab them. Being caught wasn’t ideal, but at least they wouldn’t die, so they didn’t resist further.

The two of them were covered in wounds and looked very disheveled, with mud everywhere on them.

Upon realizing they were rescued, they breathed a long sigh of relief, yet felt very reluctant. After all the effort and suffering, they gained nothing in return.

Especially seeing Ah Chen and Ying Bairong safe and sound among the crowd, their expressions were not good.

Fortunately, in their current state, their poor expressions weren’t noticed by others, who merely assumed they were scared.

“Wenwen, are you alright?” The Shi Family members followed them up, and Shi’s mother rushed over upon seeing Shi Wen’s disheveled look. Given it was just half a day, she believed nothing too bad could have happened, and thus she wanted Shi Wen to explain what had transpired.

Shi Wen quickly said, “Mother, I’m fine. After being knocked out and taken to the mountain bandits’ lair, it seemed the mountain bandits had some urgent matters and all left. Seeing no one around, I tried to escape, only to hear cousin’s voice. After meeting cousin, I learned he and Scholar Ying were also captured. We secretly tried to find Scholar Ying, but couldn’t, and got discovered by the lair guard, eventually getting caught while fleeing down the mountain.”

“Thank goodness you came for us.” Shi Wen cried but explained the situation clearly.

Qin Cheng looked toward Ying Bairong’s position and said, “After being captured, I awoke in the woodshed and had no idea where Brother Ying was taken. I only remember being knocked out together with Brother Ying, which worried me greatly. Seeing Brother Ying safe now puts me at ease.”

“Brother Ying, when did you escape?” Qin Cheng now understood that Ying Bairong had escaped first.

His cousin must have been too careless, allowing Ying Bairong to escape. If they had been tied properly, how could he have managed to escape?

Now they gained nothing, but ended up severely injured, which was really frustrating.

“The mountain bandits seemed to have urgent matters. When I heard no sounds from outside, I escaped. Fearing issues, I planned to report to the authorities, and midway, I encountered Second Young Master Shen with soldiers coming.” Ying Bairong said, but did not explain how he escaped the ropes. That was his secret, a handy little trick.

He never imagined that the little gadget he used for fun could help him like this.

“All the bandits in the lair left,” Ying Bairong added, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Ying Bairong was not a careless person. Upon returning to the mountain bandits’ lair, he found the place too desolate, not like a regular bandit hideout. The masked female bandit’s intentions to make him her husband were truly strange, since she didn’t live there.

Was she planning to snatch him here and take him elsewhere? That didn’t make sense.

Ying Bairong couldn’t figure out what was going on.

His gaze fell on Shen Xuan’s face, wondering if Second Young Master Shen noticed something wrong.

Shen Xuan somehow perceived this and yawned, having noticed nothing. Among so many eyes, someone should have detected something; this was his father’s business, not his! With Ying Bairong’s discovery, he would surely inform his father.

Not to mention, his father was very well regarded by Lanru County’s people, and Ying Bairong would surely report his findings to him.

“Chenchen, are you alright?” Shi Wen was pulled along by Shi’s mother inquiringly to Ah Chen, full of concern. “When I woke up, I didn’t see you. I even searched the mountain bandits’ lair but couldn’t find you.”

Ah Chen shook his head, then recounted to Shi Wen: “I’m okay. The mountain bandits didn’t catch me. Earlier, on that somewhat secluded road, I suddenly sensed something wrong and dodged away, discovering a man in black trying to emerge from there. He missed his strike and still tried to catch me, but urgently, I picked up a stone and hit his head, and only then did I see you being captured. I didn’t dare chase, calling for help while guarding against the man in black. Unable to capture me, he intended to flee. Reluctantly, I hurled a stone, hitting his head and knocking him out.”

“People came over, listened to my report, and we went down the mountain together to report to the officials.” Ah Chen added, “Finding this place was thanks to Second Young Master Shen’s dog, Xiangfu, with its excellent nose, tracking your scent to here.”

Being mentioned, Shen Xuan looked over and saw Ah Chen smilingly praising Xiangfu, thinking how fortunate it was that he discovered Xiangfu’s ability and trained it well. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been useful today.

Shi Wen hadn’t expected this outcome. How could Qu Shao have such useless underlings, failing to even catch Lin Chen, and getting caught instead, how stupid!

“It’s good that you’re alright.” Shi Wen wiped her tears, deeply resenting how everything went awry because of Lin Chen.

If Lin Chen had not fled, the authorities would not have been alerted.

If the authorities had not been alerted, Qu Shao would not have hurriedly taken people away.

If Qu Shao hadn’t taken people away, Ying Bairong wouldn’t have managed to escape, and everything would have gone as she wished.

So infuriating.

However, she dared not expose her thoughts, feeling extremely uncomfortable, wondering how someone as capable as Qu Shao failed to outsmart Ying Bairong and Lin Chen.

Similar plans weren’t possible again, Ying Bairong wasn’t a fool.

She wanted to establish kinship, not enmity. Once disliked by him, even marriage wouldn’t help; she needed Ying Bairong’s respect and appreciation, regardless of whether he loved her. She valued Ying Bairong’s prospects.

“Is the man in black still alive?” Shi Wen asked softly.

Ah Chen replied, “He’s in the prison, but they couldn’t get anything out of him. Given the tight schedule, the County Magistrate was eager to find someone, but there’ll be plenty of time later to figure out today’s mountain bandits’ intentions against us.”

“Rest assured, the County Magistrate is most adamant against those wicked bandits, and once the situation is clear, he’ll surely send people to eliminate them.”

Hearing this, Shi Wen felt a pang of fear—this wasn’t good.

Soon recalling what Qu Shao had told her, the captured person was a Death Warrior, she sighed with relief, believing nothing would be revealed.

Descending the mountain, the lame man was first taken to the Government Office.

Qin Cheng and Shi Wen were injured; Shen Xuan instructed them to tend to their wounds before going to the Government Office.

This also required passing near the butcher shop, so Ah Chen thought of this and asked Lin Daming, “Father, did you lock up the shop when you came over?”

“Didn’t have time, called someone to watch it. Not sure how the sales are.” Lin Daming said with a grin, “Probably selling well, since I mentioned offering discounts as I left.”

“Xiangfu accomplished great things today, I’ll go see if there are any bones left to give it.” Ah Chen said.

Xiangfu seemed to understand, wagging its tail eagerly, ready to follow Ah Chen.

Shen Xuan: This greedy dog, can’t resist these words.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep