Jiuxi

Chapter 3 003 [Surprise]

On the tenth day of March, at midnight.

In the backyard of an inn in Wuhe County, Baoying Prefecture, Huaizhou, a group of people gathered around the caravan's various carts, seemingly looking for something.

"Master, all the goods on the twelve carts have been inspected, and nothing suspicious has been found."

In the misty night, a young man in his 20s came to Lu Chen and carefully reported back.

They were Li Chengen's specially selected reliable confidants. After staying at the inn, they were responsible for taking care of the goods. Then they received Lu Chen's order to search all the trucks again, but nothing was found.

Li Chengen and Song Yi stood nearby, admiring Lu Chen even more in their hearts.

Yesterday outside Panlong Pass, they saw with their own eyes the response of their young master, who was neither humble nor overbearing. Song Yi was filled with emotion at that time, secretly lamenting that the master's earnest teachings for so many years had not been in vain. It was clear that the Lu family had a successor.Seeing that Lu Chen was so cautious and had to double-check afterwards to avoid being framed, Song Yi couldn't hide his joy in his eyes.

Li Chengen stared in thought for a moment, then said uncertainly: "Master, do you want to check your carriage?"

Lu Chen nodded and said: "In addition to the truck, other accompanying items must also be thoroughly investigated, including my carriage."

The young man took the order and left. After about a stick of incense, a soft shout sounded in the carriage, and then the young man jumped out of the carriage and trotted over quickly, holding an envelope in his hand.

When he got closer, he said excitedly: "Master, I found this in the compartment under the blanket in the carriage!"

Lu Chen did not open it immediately after taking it, but praised: "Well done, you continue to search. Don't bother me. When I return to Guangling, I will ask the accountant to reward each of you with two taels of silver, and I will give you another two taels. But you guys have to keep your mouth shut, and what happened tonight must not be revealed."

The young man thanked him quickly and returned in a hurry.

Next to them, Li Chengen and Song Yi both looked solemn. Song Yi looked at the envelope in Lu Chen's hand and said firmly: "Master, this is definitely not ours."

Li Chengen also said: "Master, what Shopkeeper Song said is right. Before setting off this time, I never mentioned the need to retrieve a letter from Beiyan."

Lu Chen said: "You are people that my father can trust, how can I have doubts? Furthermore, if this envelope was originally hidden in the carriage, I couldn't have known it, and it would have been guarded by the guards at Panlong Pass during the day." The army discovered it.”

Lu Chen's last words instantly calmed Li Chengen and Song Yi, but a sense of fear immediately arose in their hearts.

Based on the intensity of the inspection conducted by the Panlong Pass defenders, they should have discovered the existence of this envelope, but the fact was completely opposite.

The scene of yesterday's day flashed in their minds. All the goods on the twelve carts were dismantled and inspected, and even Lu Chen's carriage was not spared.

If the envelope was not found despite such intensive inspections, there was only one possibility - the Panlong Pass defenders secretly hid it when everyone in the caravan was taken for questioning.

Song Yi looked at the envelope in Lu Chen's hand, swallowed subconsciously, and said in a trembling voice: "Master, why...why did the Panlong Pass defender do this?"

Lu Chen said calmly: "Don't panic yet."

More than half an hour passed, and all the luggage of the caravan had been searched, and no other extra items were found.

Lu Chen issued a hush order to everyone, and then took Li Chengen back to his house.

He sat at the table and opened the envelope. Inside there was only a thin piece of letter paper with a few hundred words written on it, and a strange-shaped seal stamped in the lower left corner.

Lu Chen handed the letter to Li Chengen who was opposite him and said calmly: "Take a look."

Li Chengen was naturally touched by his act of trust, but this was not the time to express his loyalty, so he took the letter respectfully, and his expression changed drastically after just a few glances.

Judging from the title of this letter, it is addressed to Yuan Yuan. The content seems simple, but it is shocking to read.

The writer of the letter asked Lu Yuanwai to ascertain the military layout of the Huaizhou Governor's Mansion in the Southern Qi Dynasty as soon as possible, focusing on the troop deployment at Panlong Pass, the northwest gateway of Huaizhou, and the northern defense line. He also asked Lu Yuanwai to find a way to infiltrate the Guangling Mansion garrison.

Even though Li Chengen was determined and determined, he couldn't help but turn pale at this moment.

He absolutely did not believe that Lu Yuanwai would collaborate with the enemy and treason, and immediately said resolutely: "Young Master, this letter must be a fake. Someone is trying to frame the Lu family!"

"It's not important. At least for now, there is no point in discussing the authenticity of this letter." Lu Chen raised his hand and tapped the table gently, his eyes fell on the strange seal in the corner of the letter paper, and asked: "Do you recognize this seal?" stamp?"

Li Chengen observed carefully. Later, the fear in his eyes could no longer be concealed, and he whispered: "If I am not mistaken, this is the seal of the official document of the Puppet Yan Prosecutor's Office."

"Prosecutor's Office?"

"The Detective Yamen established by the Puppet Emperor Yan personally has similar responsibilities to the Weaving Department of Daqi. Over the years, the Procuratorate and the Weaving Department have been fighting fiercely on the boundaries of Huaizhou."

Lu Chen knew in his heart that there would be no shortage of this kind of spy organization in all dynasties. The difference was only in the size of their powers.

He looked at Li Chengen meaningfully and said slowly: "The secret letter from the Puppet Yan Procuratorate appeared in the compartment of my carriage. Once it is discovered, I can't explain it. Even if I jump into the Hengjiang River, I can't clean it up. However, this matter is still Something strange is that the Lu family and Captain Ning Li have no enmity, so why would he go to such great lengths to frame him?"

Li Chengen said in surprise: "Yes! Master, what exactly does this person want to do?" Lu Chen moved the letter to the edge of the candle, then watched it burn to ashes on the table, and chuckled: "It's hard to say, but probably There are two possibilities. One is that Ning Li did not know about it, and this letter was hidden by someone else when we were not paying attention. The other is that Ning Li was instigated by others, and the mastermind behind the scenes had another plan to get Lu The charges of collaborating with the enemy and treason are proven, and there is no chance of getting over it."

Li Chengen was a little confused after hearing this. He was originally from a rough and treacherous background and was not good at these evil thoughts.

When Lu Chen saw this, he stopped talking and said with relief: "Don't worry too much. As long as you return to Guangling to see your father, I believe he can handle the matter properly. By the way, starting from tomorrow, you have to keep an eye on the interior of the caravan. Is there anything unusual?"

Li Chengen quickly agreed. Seeing Lu Chen's slightly tired look and remembering the serious illness he had suffered half a month ago, he said with concern: "Master, you'd better rest first and don't work too hard."

"it is good."

After Li Chengen left, Lu Chen lay on his back in bed, his eyes fixed on the top of his head, not feeling sleepy at all.

He was thinking about the illness of the original owner of this body.

If he hadn't traveled through this world, the original Lu Chen would have become a corpse.Judging from the descriptions of Li Chengen, Song Yi and others, the disease was extremely strange.

On the fifth day of February, the Lu family caravan arrived at Beiyan Tieshan City and delivered the goods to a wealthy local businessman as agreed in advance.That night, everyone in the caravan was having a banquet at a restaurant called Qingchenzui. During the dinner, Lu Chen suddenly fell into coma and has been unable to wake up since.

Song Yi asked people to return to Guangling Mansion to report the news, and at the same time invited famous doctors from everywhere for treatment.But let alone resuscitating Lu Chen, those doctors could not even determine the cause of the disease, and finally said it was caused by evil spirits.

At that time, Lu Chen was as sleepy as if he had lost his soul. On the surface, he had no symptoms, but his vitality was gradually passing away. Everyone in the caravan had already prepared for the worst.

Lu Chen sadly passed away due to a terminal illness in his previous life, but he had never heard of such a strange disease in the world. He felt that it was more like poisoning than an illness.

After thinking about it for a while, Lu Chen felt helpless, as if there was a thick fog in front of him.

Fortunately, because of the cautious nature he developed in his previous life, he was still worried after leaving Panlong Pass, so tonight, when no one was paying attention, he had someone check the goods again, and indeed he made an unexpected discovery.

But... what does this letter mean?

Unknowingly, he thought of the father of the original owner of this body, Lu Tong, a well-known wealthy businessman in Guangling Prefecture, Huaizhou.

The ancestral home of the Lu family is in Shanyang County, below Guangling Prefecture. It took several generations of hard work to build the family business it has today, and it is now being carried forward in the hands of Lu Tong.

This land member has always had a good reputation in the local area. He always does good deeds and benefits the country, and his business methods are also upright.

Another thing that is commendable is that although Lu Tong is wealthy, he is still an infatuated person. Lu Chen's biological mother passed away seven years ago, and he has never renewed his relationship.Although there were two concubines in the house, he had no heirs. He only devoted himself to living with his only son. He always took him with him and taught him carefully. It was not until Lu Chen turned 19 this year that he was allowed to go out to practice.

But Lu Tong probably didn't expect that this trip would be so dangerous. Lu Chen almost died in a foreign country, and encountered such strange things on his return trip.

Lu Chen thought hard about the conspiracy behind the letter, and the details of that day at Panlong Pass kept appearing in front of his eyes.

Panlong Pass, Huaizhou North Defense Line, Guangling Mansion, these words have been swirling in Lu Chen's mind.

He suddenly sat up and turned to look at the candlestick on the table. The ashes of the letter next to him came into view.

"Why frame the Lu family?"

Lu Chen murmured to himself, stood up and came to the table, then took a stack of white paper and wrote quickly with the pen and ink prepared in the room.

……

Two days later, the Lu family's caravan passed through Jiangdu County, Guangling Prefecture, only about twenty miles away from the capital city.

Lu Chen got off the car and changed horses, walking side by side with Li Chengen and Song Yi, chatting casually while admiring the pastoral scenery in the warm spring breeze.

The outline of the city finally appeared in the distance. Just as everyone in the caravan looked happy, a figure suddenly jumped out from the side of the road and rushed straight towards Lu Chen's mount.

Li Chengen subconsciously held the handle of the knife at his waist, but the next moment he said in surprise: "Xiaojiu?"

Lu Chen looked down and saw that the person who came was young, about seventeen or eighteen years old.His appearance was fair, but his face was pale and his eyes were frightened, as if he was extremely frightened.

Li Chengen heard Lu Chen mention that he couldn't remember some things after his serious illness. When he saw this, he reminded him: "Young master, he is the servant next to the master. His name is Sun Yu, and everyone in the house calls him Xiaojiu."

Lu Chen nodded slightly, looked at this person and asked, "Why are you looking like this?"

Sun Yu said with a cry: "Master, something big happened, I was arrested by the government!"

Lu Chen was stunned, Li Chengen and Song Yi suddenly changed their expressions, and the caravan immediately stopped on the official road.

(End of this chapter)