Chapter 237 Distress
Chapter 237: In Danger

A whole day and night had passed, and there was still no sign of Zhu Huan. He neither returned to the inn nor asked anyone to take a message to Cui'er.

Cui'er was almost driven crazy during these twelve hours. She wanted to go to the Quanzhou government office to reveal her identity so that she could ask the Quanzhou prefect to send troops to search for Zhu Huan's whereabouts.

But in this case, Cui'er herself would be sentenced to death.

Throughout the day, the innkeeper was extremely anxious and would come to ask about Zhu Huan's whereabouts and whether he had returned every once in a while.

Because of the legislation in the Ming Dynasty, all guests staying in the inn were required to register the name, number of guests, arrival and departure dates in the inn calendar, which had to be submitted to the Military Affairs Department for inspection at the end of each month.

If one of them is missing for no reason and the military inspection fails to match, the innkeeper will be in big trouble.

Especially in a coastal place like Quanzhou Prefecture, there are many merchants coming and going, including many Japanese ronin and pirates at sea, so the prevention efforts are particularly strong. If the government investigates, the trouble will be neither big nor small.

Seeing that the shopkeeper was about to lose patience and wanted to report to the police, Cui'er was terrified and quietly slipped away when the waiter was not paying attention.

But when she got to the street, Cui'er suddenly became at a loss.

She had been in the palace since she was a child and served Zhu Huan. How could she know how to survive among the people? But with Zhu Huan by her side and a tall man to support her, she was not worried.

Now I felt as miserable as a stray dog, and was worried about my future. Needless to say, I was terrified and worried, and I started crying while walking.

There happened to be a few young men on the roadside who were idly looking at passers-by. When they saw Cui'er, a pretty girl, acting all by herself and attracting their attention, they immediately became malicious.

"Why are you crying, young lady? Since you have been separated from your family, why don't you follow your brother and find a place to wait for your family to find you?"

A young man with two bald spots on his head came up first, looking up and down at Cui'er's well-proportioned figure with a smile, and the drool from the corner of his mouth was almost dripping onto his clothes.

Cui'er was frightened out of her wits. Although she was just a palace maid, she was the personal servant of the emperor's eldest daughter after all. Besides, most of the eunuchs in the palace were inhumane and none of them would look at her with such naked eyes. She was so frightened that she stepped back, just wanting to get around the scoundrel in front of her as soon as possible.

But Cui'er wanted to leave, but these young men were not willing to do so.

The leper's move just now was actually just a test. If Cui'er had not been afraid and scolded them, or even called on passers-by on the street to denounce these hooligans, then these young men would never have dared to bother her.

But Cui'er was at a loss at the moment, and she was panicking and just wanted to avoid these people as soon as possible, which made these young men see through her true colors on the spot.

With just a whistle, four or five wretched young men surrounded her, opened their arms and blocked Cui'er's way to prevent her from leaving.

"Why are you panicking, little lady? Why don't you find a place to rest with your brother?"

"The young lady is married, you can choose any one of us, we are all strong men, we guarantee you will be happy!"

"Hahaha!"

A few young guys immediately started laughing.

Cui'er was already panicking, and now she was surrounded by a few young men. She started crying in panic and took out ten taels of silver from her belt and handed it over.

"Brothers, please don't tease me. I'll give you some money to drink."

When the young men saw the ten-liang silver ingot, their eyes widened.

The leper in the lead looked around and saw that no one was passing by, so he winked at his accomplices. They understood and said soothing words, but in fact they walked towards Cui'er quietly.

"Since young lady is so polite, it's not easy for us brothers to make things difficult for you, right?" Laizi pretended to step forward to take the silver, but the moment he reached out to grab the silver, his free hand suddenly stretched out and hugged Cui'er's neck.

Before Cui'er could scream, Laizi covered Cui'er's mouth with the hand that was pretending to hold the silver to prevent her from calling for help.

Then Laizi dragged Cui'er into an alley and called out to his accomplices, "Hurry up and help. Kidnap this girl. Don't forget the silver on the ground. It's ten taels of silver!"

Several young men came over, some holding hands, some lifting their feet, and some trying to pick up silver. Soon they disappeared into the alley.

Occasionally, passers-by saw it, but didn't take it seriously.

However, this scene was seen by a group of people not far away.

"Look, sir, they kidnapped people in broad daylight. The public security in Quanzhou Prefecture is really terrible. No wonder Hu Weiyong fled here." Wang Feihu pointed to the place where Cui'er disappeared and said to Ye Xuan.

Ye Xuan turned his head and took a look, frowning slightly.

Seeing this, Wang Feihu thought Ye Xuan wanted to speak up for justice, so he immediately whispered, "Do you want me to take a few people to rescue the girl?"

Ye Xuan waved his hand and said, "The most important thing now is to find Hu Weiyong's whereabouts. Don't get into conflict with the local gangsters for the time being, so as to avoid unnecessary trouble."

Wang Feihu nodded and said, "I obey your command!"

Ye Xuan put down the teacup in his hand, took out a piece of silver from his pocket and threw it on the table.

Seven or eight Jinyiwei immediately put down their teacups and stood up.

Everyone set out again, looking for any clues about Hu Weiyong.

Just as he was passing through the alley, Ye Xuan was about to leave, but he felt a little hesitant.

After a moment, he sighed and said to Wang Feihu and others, "I am not a cold-hearted person after all. Forget it, it won't take much time to rescue the girl."

Wang Feihu and others naturally had no objection and followed Ye Xuan into the alley.

Among the Jinyiwei who were traveling with them, there were some who were good at tracking and searching for the enemy. After a while, they found the trace of the gang of young men and immediately took Ye Xuan and others to chase after them.

…………

Cui'er's neck was strangled by the beggar. She knew something was wrong and wanted to call for help but the beggar covered her mouth tightly.

Before she could think of a way to escape, she felt someone grabbing her hands and feet tightly, and then her whole body was lifted up in the air and rushed towards an alley.

Cui'er struggled hard, but what she got in return was a heavy blow on her head. She vaguely felt that it was a hard object like a knife handle or a wooden stick, but before she could figure out what was going on, she lost consciousness and passed out.

When Cui'er woke up again, she was already in a dilapidated temple.

However, what frightened Cui'er the most was that not only were her hands and feet tied, but her entire body was stripped down to only her underwear and white pants. If she twisted her body, her naked body would be exposed.

(End of this chapter)