Chapter 643: Preparing a Gift

As night fell, curfew time arrived.

Gu Jiu Ling and Young Master Li were wrapped in the exhausted crowd, heading toward their camp.

Young Master Li and Gu Jiu Ling exchanged a look, gradually moving to the rear of the crowd, just about to seize a chance to leave, when suddenly hurried hoofbeats sounded from behind.

"Make way!" the horseman was a young noble in dark silk robes, clearly from one of the Eight Great Aristocratic Families.

The descendants of the Eight Great Aristocratic Families, used to luxury, even in wartime still wore fine silks, dressed extravagantly.

At that moment the man seemed to have an urgent matter; his horse's path was blocked by Gu Jiu Ling and their group, he could not help but Ren Ao Nu Xu, and lashed out with a whip.

Instantly those exhausted people were whipped, falling to the ground, wailing nonstop.

"What's going on?"

The others began to whisper among themselves.

"I heard Prince Rui's Azure Dragon Army has already reached the city walls!"

"What? So fast?"

"Great, are we saved?"

"Nonsense! If Prince Rui fails to take the city and besieges Yingzhou, we'll all die here; the Eight Great Aristocratic Families would never let anyone alive remain in the city."

"What then?"

"Go!" Young Master Li seized Gu Jiu Ling's wrist and whispered, "Go! If we don't go now, it'll be too late!"

At this moment the squad returning to camp was scattered by the noble youth's horse; if we want to leave, now is the perfect moment.

Young Master Li somehow picked up a shard of tile, quietly cut the rope binding his wrist along the way, then helped Gu Jiu Ling cut hers.

They each had their own troubles, and no one else had the leisure to help.

Taking advantage of the chaos as the crowd fell into disarray, they grabbed Gu Jiu Ling's hand, crouched low, and fled into a nearby sewage ditch.

Soon after, the guards recounting the numbers discovered two were missing and immediately shouted.

Another group came over, lashing the slow-moving crowd with their whips, then began searching along the roadside.

Gu Jiu Ling had to admit, Young Master Li was quite quick-witted; this stinking ditch they hid in was actually an excellent spot.

Those people would never imagine that the escapees hadn't gone far at all, but were hiding right under their noses.

Earlier Young Master Li had prepared two reed tubes, each biting one, and they submerged their heads underwater.

They waited until the pursuers went farther away, then finally lifted their heads to breathe.

"Have they left?" Young Master Li, handsome and jade-like, stared wide-eyed from extreme tension.

"They've left," Gu Jiu Ling gasped heavily, involuntarily shivering.

Although it was midsummer, the frontier remained bitterly cold.

"Go!" Young Master Li grabbed Gu Jiu Ling's arm, pulled her out of the ditch, and fled toward the base of the city wall by moonlight.

Soon they reached the place where stones had been quarried by day, and Young Master Li directly pulled Gu Jiu Ling to the dog hole.

"It's right below; I've crawled through once before, there's a passage ahead that probably leads out of the city."

After saying that, Young Master Li lowered his body and first crawled into the dog hole.

Gu Jiu Ling couldn't help but wryly smile; she had truly tasted every hardship along the way.

But she still couldn't leave Yingzhou City; having finally entered, it would be inexcusable not to bring a gift, having come all this way for nothing.

She had already planned her escape, waiting for Xiao Yin to attack Yingzhou, then she would coordinate inside and out with him.

But then this cute, enthusiastic little fatty appeared midway, forcing her to change her plans temporarily.

"Young Master Wu, be careful!" a somewhat muffled voice from ahead came from Young Master Li.

Gu Jiu Ling responded, quickening her steps a few paces to keep up with Young Master Li's pace.

Although Young Master Li ahead was stout, he was also a nimble fatty.

He took the lead, weaving through the narrow passage, but his increasingly heavy breathing echoed in the dark tunnel, making everyone unusually tense.

Gu Jiu Ling took out chocolate beans from her space and patted Young Master Li's shoulder from behind.

"Young Master Li, eat some sugar!"

Young Master Li was already hungry; earlier Gu Jiu Ling had given him sugar, but he hadn't expected there to be such delicious sugar in the world, tasting somewhat different from maltose.

He hurriedly stopped, turned around, took the sugar cube Gu Jiu Ling handed over, tore off the wrapper, and shoved a piece into his mouth.

"Fifth Young Master, where did you get this delicacy?"

"It's so delicious; once we escape this time, will you sell me the secret to making this sugar? Then we'll market it all over the land and make a fortune."

Gu Jiu Ling blinked, thinking inwardly, I'd like to sell it to you, but do you have cocoa? That would have to come from abroad; even with the recipe you couldn't make it.

Gu Jiu Ling placated, "Sure, sure, we'll talk about it after we get out."

Gu Jiu Ling didn't want to chat idly with him at this moment.

Young Master Li was also starving; eating the chocolate sugar made his trembling less severe.

He picked up another piece, just tearing open the chocolate wrapper, when his expression twitched slightly and he looked incredulously at Gu Jiu Ling before him.

"Young Master Wu, this... this sugar..."

Before Young Master Li could finish, his eyelids grew heavy, he staggered back in terror, staring at Gu Jiu Ling with utter fury on his face.

"You... you scoundrel... you actually..." Before he could finish, Young Master Li collapsed with a thud.

Gu Jiu Ling sighed, knelt before him, then took an anesthetic needle from her space and jabbed it into his neck, causing him to fall into a deeper sleep.

Gu Jiu Ling placed him into her space; she originally didn't want to bother with this child.

But after all, they'd moved stones together, shared hardship as brothers, and the boy had decent character; Gu Jiu Ling couldn't bear to abandon him alone here.

Although finding a place to hide him would be fine, on the battlefield swords and eyes are blind; if we ran into stray soldiers who discovered his hiding place, what would we do if they killed this boy?

Helpless, Gu Jiu Ling had no choice but to put Young Master Li into her space.

After finishing all that, Gu Jiu Ling again took a light source from her space and retreated back along the lower passage.

It was still that dog hole; she didn't crawl out of it, but instead completely blocked the hole's entrance.

Now I estimate that no one can discover this place.

Gu Jiu Ling turned and went deeper into the secret passage, made two left turns, and stopped her steps there.

Soon after, sparse footsteps came from ahead, followed immediately by a cat's meow.

Gu Jiu Ling said, "Come out; it's just me, no need to call out there."

From the shadows slowly emerged a tall young man—none other than Meng, chief of the dark guards of Rui Wang Fu: "My lord, Prince has brought the Azure Dragon Army to set up camp fifty li outside the city."

Gu Jiu Ling couldn't help but freeze for a moment, the corner of her mouth curling into a smile: "This person arrived quickly; it's time to prepare the gift."