Chapter 468

"Will there be any trouble leaving the city today?" the sharp-tongued woman asked with a worried look. "Should we wait a few more days?"

"We've already been delayed seven or eight days; I'm afraid of missing the delivery if we wait any longer. Don't worry, sister-in-law, I've observed that the heat has died down. I went to the city gate yesterday to take a look, and the inspections for leaving the city aren't as strict as before."

"This is my fault for not inquiring clearly about that fat girl's background. To think a money-losing item would be so highly valued. They actually mobilized the Military Garrison to search house by house. It's fortunate we have a stronghold here and the cellar entrance is very well-hidden, otherwise, it's really uncertain if we could have escaped unscathed this time."

"It's good that you know the danger; don't be so reckless next time. Fortunately, our method of hiding the goods has always been proper, so it's not easy to be discovered."

"Big Brother, everything is arranged properly."

"Then let's set off!"

The bearded, burly man leading the group said, looking back at the carriage.

He had a nagging feeling that something was going to happen.

But thinking about how the carriage was packed full of goods, even if the straw mat on top were flipped open, underneath were still bags of silver-thread charcoal and wool felt; no one would discover that children were hidden at the bottom without a thorough search.

They had always done it this way and never failed; there was no reason they would slip up today.

Thinking this, the bearded, burly man set his mind at ease and drove the caravan toward the city gate.

【Host, we are about to leave the city. That woman just slipped a tael of silver to the city guard.】

Hearing this, Xie Yang knew the time had come.

She asked the Main System to help deploy a Robot Bodyguard identical to an ancient swordswoman.

A swordswoman wearing a black veil hat and holding a long sword descended from the sky in an instant.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

She threw a handful of medicinal powder, causing the five burly men driving the carriages to immediately tilt their heads and fall into a deep sleep.

The woman who was still nodding and bowing to the city guard was knocked unconscious by a single strike from the swordswoman.

Before the surrounding people, including the city guard, could react, a series of toddler cries rang out from inside the carriage.

"Wah— Mommy! I want Mommy!"

Xie Yang scrambled with her chubby little legs, crawling out of the carriage, crying as she crawled:

"Daddy! Mommy! Bad people caught me! Wuu wuu..."

"They also caught little brother and little sister. Little brother and little sister are dead, wuu wuu..."

"Daddy! Mommy! Yang Er is scared! Yang Er wants to go home!"

"!!!"

The city guard finally reacted. Just as he wanted to step forward, he saw the swordswoman leap, soaring over his head and heading straight for the carriage.

Her speed was as fast as a gust of wind.

Upon landing, she picked up the chubby girl who was crying like a little kitten with one hand, then waved her long sword to rummage through the carriage, finding another toddler in a comatose state.

Following that, she found seven other children in the same comatose state from the four carriages behind.

A passerby shouted out, "Hey! Isn't this the little grandson of Chen Yuanwai from South Street?"

"He went missing seven days ago, and no matter how they looked, they couldn't find him. So he was kidnapped by these people!"

"Then are these people on the ground child traffickers? They deserve to die!"

No one could hear the word "child trafficker" without feeling angry, and they began to kick the five men and one woman lying on the ground in a deep sleep.

"The official is here! Make way, make way!"

The garrison commander arrived upon hearing the news, and looking at the adults and children unconscious on the ground, his scalp tightened.

At this moment, someone in the crowd asked, "Eh? Why is one child missing? What about that fat girl?"

"That's right! Where is that fat girl?"

The fat girl who had first crawled out of the carriage was gone!

Along with her, the swordswoman who had descended from the sky with extraordinary skills had also vanished.

Instead, pinned to the roof of the lead carriage by a throwing dart was a sheet of rice paper, with a few sentences written in cursive script. A literate scholar read them out:

"This girl has excellent natural talent and is a prodigy for martial arts. I have taken her as my disciple and am taking her away for training; the date of return is uncertain. Signature: Saintess of a Thousand Faces."

"!!!"

"Bang!"

"Clatter—"

Ju'an Tang in the Main Courtyard of the Zhenguo Duke Mansion.

Xie San was frantically smashing the porcelain and ornaments in the room.

"Stop! Stop!"

The Old Matriarch, heartbroken over the famille rose flower-and-bird vase, clutched her chest and shouted.

The eldest master, Xie, looked at the mess on the floor in astonishment: "Lao San! Have you gone mad! Why are you throwing things around like a shrew!"

The second master chimed in: "Lao San, calm down! Isn't Yang Er fine? Being spotted by a martial arts swordswoman and taken as a disciple isn't a bad thing, what are you going crazy for?"

"Not a bad thing?" Xie San swept a cold gaze over everyone present. "It's easy for you to say since it wasn't your daughter who was kidnapped! Since that's the case, Big Brother, Second Brother, go call all my nieces here; I'll send them out of the city right now to be disciples for martial arts experts."

"You!" Xie the second master pointed at him in anger and flicked his sleeve. "What kind of nonsense are you spouting!"

"Isn't this what you meant just now? How does it become nonsense when it's my turn to say it?"

"Enough!" The Old Matriarch stomped her cane and said sternly, "Lao San, things have reached this point; it's useless for you to take your anger out on the family. Stop making a scene!"

"I can stop making a scene." Xie San stiffened his neck and said angrily, "You have the eldest sister-in-law take back all the maids and nannies from my branch, then give me a sum of silver; from now on, I will buy and manage the servants of my branch myself."

"..."

"Mother!"

The eldest mistress, who had been watching from the sidelines with her eyes on her nose and her nose on her heart, could no longer sit still and knelt down before the Old Matriarch with a "thud."

"Mother! Third Brother's words are going to cost me my life!"

Pay-to-Win Palace Intrigue System (3)

"Ever since I, your daughter-in-law, began assisting Mother in managing the household affairs, I have considered my performance quite satisfactory. I have always treated the East and West wings with absolute impartiality. Whenever they came to me regarding any shortages, even if I faced difficulties, I would rather use my own dowry Silver to prioritize their needs."

"Regarding the incident with my niece this time, it is indeed the fault of the maidservant for not serving with due diligence, and I severely punished her that very day. One cannot blame me just because of one or two lazy and cunning servants. How am I to face everyone in the future! *Sob, sob, sob... *"

The Matriarch felt this made sense; she patted her eldest daughter-in-law's shoulder to soothe her, signaled the head maidservant serving by her side to help her up, and then looked at her youngest son with displeasure:

"Lao San, you truly cannot blame your eldest sister-in-law for this. Although the servants in your quarters were arranged by her, since they were assigned to you, you should have been mindful of disciplining and managing them yourselves."

Xie San sneered: "Mother, you also said they were arranged by the eldest sister-in-law. She spends money to buy servants and reports every single one, good or bad, on the accounts. In the end, the good ones are picked by her own branch, and the inferior ones are left for us. The second sister-in-law is shrewder than my wife; every time servants are distributed, she goes to the courtyard early to wait, and all the crooked melons and cracked dates left over are dumped onto our third branch. Then she turns around and says I don't know how to manage servants, to the point where even outsiders mock our Xie Mansion's third branch for having the most lax, lazy, and unruly servants."

"!!!"

The Matriarch looked at her eldest daughter-in-law: "Eldest, is there any truth to this?"

The eldest Madam choked, and her movement of wiping away tears with a handkerchief stiffened slightly.