Chapter 53: Fire!

Lin Jiaojiao was startled awake from her sleep. She realized she was sleeping on the bed and pondered for a long time before realizing she was currently in General Lu's mansion. "Oh no! I must hurry to the Dali Temple and swap Bai Zhi back!" Lin Jiaojiao hurriedly threw off the quilt, quickly put on her clothes, and was about to run out. At this time, the sky outside was completely dark, and the sound of the night watchman could be heard.

"The weather is dry, watch out for fire." The night watchman's voice sounded sleepy and drowsy.

But before he could report a few more times, his voice suddenly rose in pitch, becoming panicked, "Fire! There's a fire at the Dali Temple!!"

"What?!" Lin Jiaojiao felt anxious all of a sudden. She didn't even put on her shoes properly and ran out of General Lu's mansion in a panic.

Suddenly someone called out to her from behind, "Lin Guniang, wait!"

"I can't wait! If they burn the witness to destroy the evidence, my charges won't be overturned!" Lin Jiaojiao anxiously ran out of the General's Mansion gate, not caring about others calling her from behind.

But the person behind her caught up in three steps and grabbed her hand, "I'll go with you to take a look!"

After speaking, the man brought over a black horse, helped Lin Jiaojiao up first, and then rode on the horse himself, sitting behind her. Lin Jiaojiao then discovered that the person who brought her onto the horse was Lu Zhenting.

Lu Zhenting taught her to grab the reins with her hands, and holding her from behind in a hugging posture, he also grabbed the reins, "Giddy up!" With a shout, he rode the horse and galloped through the streets.

Lin Jiaojiao felt her head resting on Lu Zhenting's chin, and it hurt a little from the friction of his stubble, but being held in his arms while riding a horse gave her an inexplicable sense of security.

The black horse galloped fast, and soon they could see the Dali Temple from afar. The people inside were busy fleeing for their lives and using water to put out the fire. In front of the huge fire, some people seemed so small. From time to time, screams of people being burned could be heard, and surrounding people hurriedly went to help put out the fire on those who were burning.

"The place being burned is the women's prison!" Lu Zhenting had sharp eyes and immediately saw the fierce fire licking towards the women's prison.

"Bai Zhi!" Lin Jiaojiao subconsciously exclaimed. Before the black horse could stop steadily, she broke free from Lu Zhenting, jumped off the horse's back, and ran straight towards the women's prison!

"Lin Guniang!" Lu Zhenting hurriedly followed, but Lin Jiaojiao jumped into the fire!

He couldn't care about so much and immediately rushed in regardless of his own safety!

"Bai Zhi! Bai Zhi! Bai Zhi!" Lin Jiaojiao ran in the big fire while shouting loudly, but apart from the screams of women being burned in the fire, no one responded.

"Hahahaha! Burn! After burning away the sins, we will go to hell, and then drag you down to hell together! Hahahaha"

Suddenly she heard a crazy laugh. Lin Jiaojiao recognized it immediately: that was Mo Siniang from the cell next to hers!

A glimmer of hope rose in her heart, and she hurriedly ran towards the source of the sound, soon discovering Mo Siniang, whose legs were pressed by wood!

Lin Jiaojiao used all her strength to barely move the wood aside, giving Mo Siniang a gap to pull her legs back.

"Mo Siniang! Where is Bai Zhi! The girl who replaced me, have you seen her?"

"Turned to ashes, turned to ashes, no survivors, turned to ashes! He said, burn the one surnamed Wang first, yes, the one surnamed Xu is a bad person! Is a bad person! Hahahaha! Bad person! Burn him to death!"

Mo Siniang was running around crazily in the fire. Lin Jiaojiao couldn't help but blame herself: why save a fool! Saving Bai Zhi was more important!

But the thick smoke in the fire made Lin Jiaojiao unable to open her eyes. The closer she got to her own cell, the bigger the fire became!

Just as she was choked with tears and unable to distinguish the direction due to the fire, someone suddenly shouted at her, "Careful!"

Lin Jiaojiao subconsciously looked up, and a hundred-pound beam was smashing towards her!

At the critical moment, someone rushed over! Hugging her, they rolled on the ground, helping her avoid the heavy beam that smashed down!

The one who saved her was none other than Lu Zhenting!

With a "boom," the beam smashed heavily onto the ground, popping out many sparks. Even though Lu Zhenting quickly raised his arm to block the fire for her, sparks still landed on Lin Jiaojiao's body and face.

"Lin Guniang, the fire is too big! Let's leave this place quickly!" Lu Zhenting shouted in a muffled voice. His left arm had already been scalded, but he still endured the pain, picked up Lin Jiaojiao, and escaped from the big fire.

By the time they escaped from the big fire, the fire-fighting soldiers had just arrived late. But by now, the fire was already higher than a two-story building, and it was already difficult to put out the fire.

Lu Zhenting saw the scalds on Lin Jiaojiao's face in the firelight and couldn't care about anything else. He carried Lin Jiaojiao horizontally onto the horse, ran through the chaotic streets, and headed straight back to the mansion.

As soon as they entered the gate of General Lu's mansion, Lu Zhenting sent someone to call the house physician to check Lin Jiaojiao's scalds.

After Liu Zhongyi was woken up by the chaotic noise outside in the middle of the night, he didn't sleep again. He soon arrived in the room, and the first thing he saw was General Lu, who had a tight face and large-area scalds on his arm.

"You don't want your life like this! The fire was so big, and you actually rushed in yourself!" The General was furious, and even Liu Zhongyi, the house physician who had served him for many years, had never seen him so angry.

A scald the size of an egg appeared on Lin Jiaojiao's left cheek, her clothes were burned with many holes, and the skin under the holes had blisters. There was also a burnt smell of hair scorched by fire on her body, and her face and body were black and white, looking extremely disheveled.

She was a bit dazed, only pulling Lu Zhenting's hand and asking, "Bai Zhi escaped, right? She must have escaped, right?"

She suddenly remembered Mo Siniang's crazy words, "Yes! It was that corrupt official who wanted to kill me, he set the fire! The person he wanted to kill was me," she said, standing up and wanting to leave, "The person the corrupt official wanted to kill was me, not Bai Zhi! Mo Siniang said, he wanted to burn me, the one surnamed Wang, first, and not leave me, this survivor... I'll go find him and swap Bai Zhi back."

"Quick, quick take me to find him and swap Bai Zhi back." Lin Jiaojiao seemed to have been possessed by a demon, only wanting to save people.

Lu Zhenting could only strike her neck with his palm, knocking her unconscious directly!

Looking at the unconscious Lin Jiaojiao, Lu Zhenting only felt heartache in his eyes. He signaled Liu Zhongyi, "Check her first."

The fire in the Dali Temple women's prison burned for a whole night before it was put out. Dali Temple Minister Xu Xiao led a group of subordinates to walk into the ashes, searching on the ground.

Although the order given by the Dali Temple Minister was to see if there were any survivors, the subordinates knew that it was difficult for the female prisoners trapped in this big fire to have any survivors.

At this time, an capable subordinate of Xu Xiao took a piece of iron with the General's Mansion totem and reported, "Minister Xu, this was found next to that charred female corpse. It is something from General Lu's mansion."

A trace of doubt appeared in Xu Xiao's eyes, "Are you sure?"

"I am sure. Yesterday I saw General Lu bringing a cook, carrying a food box to visit the women's prison. When they left, the two were not carrying the food box."

This sentence immediately hooked all of Xu Xiao's suspicions, "You mean, he also brought a woman yesterday?" ===== CHAPTER 54 =====