Warm medicine emits fragrance

Two days later, in the early morning.

Siqing woke up suddenly while sleeping, reached out to touch the side of her, but found nothing.

"Sister Liu'er?" She rubbed her eyes and sat up, glancing around the room.

Moonlight streamed in through the window, and there was no one else in the small room.

Siqing put on her clothes and went out to look for the person, who was wrapped up in a ball and squatting on the ground in the yard.

"Sister Liu'er, what are you doing here? Aren't you cold?" Siqing walked over and squatted down next to her.

Fan Liuer looked towards the entrance of the village and said softly, "By now, the rebel army should have already entered the city, right?"

Siqing paused for a moment, then said, "I think so."

Fan Liuer felt very flustered; she had only felt this kind of panic once before, when she fell into the water.

But it was different from that time. That time, it only lasted for a moment when she fell into the water, but this time, she started to panic as soon as night fell last night.

He was so panicked that he didn't sleep all night. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see in his mind was Li Chenbi's face.

She thought she must have fallen for Li Chenbi.

"Sister Liu'er, do you regret it?" Siqing asked her.

Fan Liuer thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No."

She was very clear-headed; even if she had understood her feelings for Li Chenbi before she ran away, she would still have run away.

Her affection for Li Chenbi was not enough to justify her staying and sharing life and death with him.

Call her cold-hearted or selfish, but she still felt that her own safety was more important than anyone else's.

She just...

She stood up, supporting herself on her knees, and wrapped her coat tighter around herself. "Let's go back inside and sleep. It's too cold."

"Okay." Siqing turned and walked into the house.

Fan Liuer walked behind her, and before entering the house, she turned back and glanced at the direction of the village entrance.

Xingzhou City at this time.

The rebel army had arrived at the city walls, two hours earlier than expected.

When Li Chenxin received news that the rebel army was about to reach the city gate, he finally realized that he had been tricked.

At this point, he couldn't care less about anything else, and he prepared to escape through the underground passage in the mansion with his wife and children.

Li Yuhe didn't sleep a wink all night, her heart was with Li Chenbi and Fan Liuer. She hadn't slept much these past few days while being locked in the room.

That night, I couldn't sleep at all.

As she tossed and turned in bed, she heard a commotion outside.

The commotion was quite significant.

She quickly got up and opened the door. The door, which was usually guarded, was now empty, and the courtyard was in chaos. Servants were all hurrying out, each carrying large and small bags.

Her heart tightened, and she stepped out of the room. Just as she was about to walk into the hall, she saw her parents with her younger brother, carrying bundles in their hands, looking like they were about to leave.

She blurted out instinctively, "Father, Mother, where are you going?"

However, no one answered her. A family of three not far away was busy escaping for their lives and completely forgot about her existence.

They forgot that they also left behind a daughter in this courtyard.

At that moment, as Li Yuhe watched the three figures recede into the distance, she felt no sadness at all.

Rather, it's a sense of relief at finally being freed from this kinship.

Li Chenxin originally thought that after the rebel army entered the city, they would definitely plunder the city. He first hid in the secret passage of his house. The secret passage led to the original site of the Li family's ancestral hall. The location was remote and abandoned for many years. No one usually went there. He could hide there for a while and then find an opportunity to leave the city.

Unexpectedly, the secret passage was sealed off.

Within the entire Li family, only a few masters knew about this secret passage, and no one else but Li Chenbi could have been so capable of sealing it off.

Everything immediately became reasonable. Li Chenbi's sudden arrogance and recklessness some time ago, and his frequent actions that gave Li Chenbi leverage to provoke him.

It turns out that all of this was Li Chenbi's plan.

He was so angry he almost couldn't catch his breath, but by then it was too late; he had missed his chance to escape.

The First Madam was so anxious that tears welled up in her eyes. "Let's go find Mother. Second Brother will definitely not abandon her. Let's go to her and beg her to save us."

Li Chenxin then realized that he had forgotten to bring his mother along in his haste to escape.

Yes, no matter how much Li Chenbi hates him, they are still brothers from the same womb, and he can't possibly abandon their mother.

If he just begs his mother, she will definitely save him.

Suddenly hope returned, and the three of them emerged from the secret passage and ran quickly toward the west courtyard.

In the west courtyard, the old lady sat under the Buddhist shrine, gazing at it silently.

The old nanny stood behind her, and after a long while, she let out a soft breath.

"Madam, please don't overthink it. Even family ties are predestined."

The old lady stared at the Buddhist shrine for a long time before turning her gaze away, her voice hoarse, "I just didn't expect Li Chenxin to be so heartless."

"It's one thing for me, the mother, to be indifferent, but she can even abandon her own biological daughter."

"My heart aches. The thought that the child I raised with my own hands turned out to be such a heartless bastard makes it hard for me to breathe."

The old nanny immediately went behind her, patted her back to help her catch her breath, and comforted her, saying, "Even the nine sons of a dragon are all different. Bad bamboo can produce good shoots, and good bamboo can produce bad shoots. How can you be blamed? It's your own fault, sir."

"Look, Second Master, isn't it perfectly fine?"

Speaking of Li Chenbi, the old lady's mood wasn't much better.

She never imagined that all of this was orchestrated by Li Chenbi, and that she had been kept in the dark until just now when Li Chenbi sent someone to explain the situation to her and tell her not to panic.

These days, the old lady has had countless arguments and grumbles with Li Chenxin over Li Chenbi. Now that she knows she's been completely fooled by her youngest son, she feels terrible.

Moreover, this is no ordinary skirmish; it's a battle between brothers.

Regardless of who wins or loses, it's her son who dies.

"Bang, bang, bang." The knocking interrupted the old lady's thoughts, and both mistress and servant turned their heads to look at the door.

The old lady spoke up: "It's Yuhe. At a time like this, she's so polite and knows to knock. There's no one else but her."

The old nanny stepped forward and opened the door; sure enough, it was Li Yuhe.

Li Yuhe's face was expressionless. She walked up to the old lady, squatted down and sat at her feet, hugged the old lady's legs with both hands, and rested her head on them.

She spoke very softly and calmly: "Grandmother, my father and mother don't want me anymore."

The old lady looked down at her, and after a long while, she reached out and touched her hair. "If you don't want it, then don't. Your grandmother wants you."

At this moment, Liu Qing stood alone outside the tightly closed city gate.

The city walls were filled with soldiers, each holding an arrow soaked in kerosene, its arrowheads sparking, and they menacingly aimed at the rebel army.

At his command, these burning arrows would be fired into the ranks of the rebels.

The rebel army did not continue forward, but stopped. A moment later, a man rode out of the ranks and stood at the very front.

Liu Qing first flicked his sleeves to prove that he had nothing on him before walking towards the rebel army.

When he had walked a certain distance, an arrow was shot from the ranks and stuck in the ground in front of his feet.

If he had taken even one step faster, the arrow would have pierced the back of his foot.

Liu Qing swallowed hard and silently withdrew his foot.

After taking a deep breath to compose himself, he opened the door to the other side.

"This must be General Yan. I am Liu Qing, the Prefect of Xingzhou."