His face was ashen pale, and he seemed to have suddenly aged many years. He looked wan and pallid, and no longer seemed like the ‘liquid, gentle beauty’ of before.
Of the other two, one was an army general in military regalia, while the other was middle-aged man in a minister’s garbs.
The general was the first to speak. “We came to speak with you, Lord Pingqu, regarding our efforts to locate Xiang Shaolong.”
Xiang Shaolong’s heart grew cold. He knew that Lord Longyang must have already deduced that he was hiding here.
Surprised, that Lord Pingqu said, “General Fan, how has your search for Xiang Shaolong ended up here in my residence?”
As soon as he opened his mouth, Xiang Shaolong recognized him as the man who was taking liberties with his concubine the other day.
The reason that they were speaking in the inner rooms rather than in the main room showed that they were afraid of the news leaking out.
That showed that they had already concluded that he was hiding here.
He suspected that this General Fan, the commander of the city watch of Dalian, had already ordered men to surround the entirety of Lord Xinling’s manor.
But he still wasn’t concerned, because the exit near the hidden grove was far from Lord Xinling’s manor and would definitely not be easy to discover.
Lord Longyang sighed. “General Fan is willing to use his own head as the guarantee that Xiang Shaolong has yet to leave the city. If he is still hiding in the city, the most likely hiding place would be here.”
Xiang Shaolong heard him speaking in such a dispirited manner and knew that he felt tormented by the fact that he had to capture his ‘old friend’. He couldn’t help but sigh along with Lord Longyang.
Lord Pingqu’s expression changed. “Impossible. Long ago, I ordered my servants to search every inch of the manor. If he was here, he couldn’t have hidden from me, much less the noses of my hounds.”
General Fan said, “We have questioned the former subordinates of Lord Xinling. We verified that in the past, Xiang Shaolong must have used some sort of tunnel-like passageway to escape. But no one knows where the entry point and exit point are.”
Lord Longyang added, “Lord Pingqu, you could go and ask every single person in the manor if they had noticed any food or clothing gone missing. From this, you would be able to determine whether or not Xiang Shaolong is hiding here.”
Xiang Shaolong secretly praised this move as being formidable. How could he dare to stay behind and listen for any longer? He hurriedly snuck back down again and closed the lid, covered it with the previous woven mattresses, then returned to the tunnels.
And then, without a second thought, he snuck out towards the direction of the hilly grove.
In the midst of the snowy night, he could see soldiers light torches as they moved in the direction that he was hiding. The light of the torches and the howls of the dogs were enough to freeze a man’s blood.
Xiang Shaolong put all of the stolen food in one large parcel, put the parcel on his back, then went on the road he had once taken to escape with Zhao Qian, moving in the direction of the nearby houses.
He looked around as he walked, secretly groaning.
All of the nearby roads had soldiers sealing off the passageways. Even the rooftops all had sentries installed, focusing their attention on any and all activity within Lord Xinling’s manor.
Xiang Shaolong felt as though it had become hard for him to take a single step. He fell down within an underbrush next to the road.
But he quickly decided that this wasn’t a safe plan either.
A troop of fifty Wei soldiers was headed in his direction. Poking their spears into every bush, they were carrying out an all-encompassing search, as thorough as a flood of mercury.
Xiang Shaolong had no other options. Before the light had reached him, he clambered towards a nearby street and hid underneath the eaves of a roof.
Because this building was a floor lower than all the surrounding buildings, no sentries were set on its roof.
The soldiers passed. Just as he was dithering over whether or not to sneak into the building, the sound of hoof steps could be heard.
A gaudily-decorated carriage was coming from the direction the soldiers had gone towards, with cavalrymen escorting it front and behind.
Watching the situation, Xiang Shaolong landed on the ground again. Dodging and hiding behind a nearby tree, he quickly climbed up onto a particularly thick branch, tightly gripping the ice-covered branch with his hands.
If it weren’t for the fact that it was snowing heavily right now, he wouldn’t have dared to take this risk.
This could be described as a gamble.
If just a single person amongst those ten plus cavalrymen lifted their heads, they would definitely see him.
But when it was snowing ferociously, everyone would lower their gaze towards the ground instead.
Just as it seemed as though his heart would leap into his mouth, the carriage arrived directly beneath him.