The jade pendant connects the past and present; the exiled crown prince's wife takes her entire

After a day and a night, rumors began to circulate in the group. They said that Jiang Jinning from the eldest branch of the family had shamelessly clung to Chen Jiechai for a bite to eat. Gradually, the clansmen looked at Jiang Jinning with increasing contempt and greed.

Jiang Jinning didn't refute anything. After returning from Song Wanzhen's place, she was very quiet.

Zhao didn't know how to comfort her. On one hand, there was her own daughter. She had gone to the second house alone. How could a mother not worry? The second house was easy to deal with.

On one hand, there's Jiang Jinning, who has sacrificed so much for them and their children. If she were to ask her to back down again, wouldn't that break her heart?

Zhao was conflicted, but one thing was certain: she absolutely did not believe such absurd rumors. Even if she didn't know about the fairyland adventure, she still trusted Jiang Jinning's character.

In contrast to Zhao's inner turmoil, Song Qingyan quickly calmed down after his initial anger subsided.

His gaze fell on the Liao family, who seemed oblivious to everything.

As an elder noblewoman in the clan, Liao's words carried great weight, and she would not believe that this incident could have been caused without her indulgence.

His grandmother was foolish, but very effective.

Song Qingyan narrowed his eyes slightly, his hand unconsciously rubbing against something. This was a habit he had developed on the battlefield; he would always make this gesture when murderous intent welled up in his heart.

"Yes, I'm sorry, I messed things up."

Jiang Jinning lowered her head and spoke in a very soft voice.

After spending time together these past few days, Jiang Jinning has become much more cheerful, and Song Qingyan has almost forgotten what she used to look like.

But now, she's back to being that cautious person again.

He didn't know about Jiang Jinning's upbringing. When the veil was lifted at their wedding, all that was revealed was a flustered little face. Before he could find out the truth, the imperial decree to confiscate her property came down abruptly. He could only learn some details about Jiang Jinning's background from scattered words from others.

All he knew was that Jiang Jinning had always been known as a jinx and had been locked up in a desolate courtyard since childhood.

Thinking of all this, Song Qingyan's heart ached. He wanted to say that this had nothing to do with you, that Wanzhen was stupid and easily believed others' instigation, and that no matter what others said, it was just barking.

He had a lot to say.

He wasn't usually a man of few words. In his youth, he had been a playboy, but now he couldn't say a word, as if nothing could soothe Jiang Jinning in front of him.

Song Qingyan grasped her slender wrist and carefully tied the crossbow to Jiang Jinning's wrist.

He slightly modified the crossbow and sharpened the wooden arrows, turning it into a weapon that could save his life.

Jiang Jinning saw the crossbow on her wrist and anxiously tried to remove it.

"This is for the young general..."

"This is for your protection; I'm worried about you."

Jiang Jinning looked up and stared blankly at Song Qingyan.

She always knew that the young general was a good person, a very, very good person.

"Jin Ning, we are family."

Jiang Jinning stared in astonishment, her eyes gradually welling up with tears, before she slowly broke into a smile and stopped refusing.

Her eyes were as bright as stars, unforgettable.

Tonight, the caravan couldn't reach the next post station and stopped to rest in a grove of trees.

The forest was damp, so the team tried to find a dry spot, but this spot was too close to a wild forest.

Chen Jiechai initially disagreed with stopping here, but Yuan Jiechai somehow persuaded his leader to let the group stop here.

After eating the steamed buns and drinking water, we prepared to rest.

Song Wanzhen still hadn't returned. Jiang Jinning wanted to persuade her, but even Zhao Shi disagreed this time. She could only look longingly in the direction of the second branch of the family.

Jiang Jinning felt uneasy and had a bad feeling. She wanted Song Wanzhen to come back. She had a feeling that the second wife's family would definitely do something bad to Song Wanzhen.

When the moon was high in the sky, everyone was asleep, but Zhao and Jiang Jinning were not. They had just finished arranging a few flowers and were preparing to rest.

"Mother, why don't we secretly bring my sister back? She won't react if she's asleep."

Zhao was both amused and exasperated by Jiang Jinning's words.

"Although Zhen'er is hard to wake up once she falls asleep, she is very stubborn. If she can't understand why tying her back won't work, let her stay in the second room for a few days."

"But……"

As night deepened, Jiang Jinning grew increasingly uneasy, feeling that something was wrong, that nothing around her was right.

Zhao thought she was just worried that Song Wanzhen wasn't eating or speaking well, but Song Qingyan noticed her unease.

"Jin Ning, what are you worried about?"

Jiang Jinning shook her head.

"I...I just feel it's too quiet, a little too quiet."

A simple sentence, yet it suddenly reminded Song Qingyan.

His expression suddenly changed drastically, and he hurriedly got up.

"Qingyan, what's wrong with you!"

Zhao was startled, thinking something had happened to him, and quickly went to check on him.

"I'm fine. We need to inform Officer Chen as soon as possible. We must leave here quickly, or it will be too late!"

"Oh? But everyone's asleep. How are we going to travel at this hour...?"

While Zhao was still hesitating, Jiang Jinning rushed towards Chen Jiechai's direction immediately.

Chen Jiecha was very unhappy when he was woken up. He was called to Song Qingyan and had a stern face.

"There are wild animals nearby; we need to leave as soon as possible."

Chen Jiecha stared intently at Song Qingyan, his expression somewhat hesitant.

Why?

"It's too quiet around here."

"So what if it's too quiet? How could it not be quiet in the middle of the night..."

Halfway through his sentence, Chen Jiecha's expression changed drastically.

This wasn't his first time escorting prisoners, so he naturally understood what those words meant.

"Yes, how could it be quiet in the wild? Insects crawling by, flying insects flapping their wings, they all make sound. But there's no sound now because..."

"They all hide away, seeking advantage and avoiding harm."

Chen Jiecha strode forward, his figure tinged with anxiety.

"I'll go tell the boss, we're leaving right now!"

After Chen Jiechai left, Song Qingyan and the others went to the second branch of the family, intending to bring Song Wanzhen back.

In fact, Song Wanzhen had wanted to come back for a long time. On this day, she calmed down and felt that she couldn't just listen to Song Yanxi's side of the story.

However, she harbored resentment towards her older brother for hitting her, and now he was ordering her to go back, which she naturally refused.

Song Qingyan was unable to bring Song Wanzhen back, and things weren't going smoothly with Chen Jiechai either.

The leader of the exile group was surnamed Zheng. He was a burly, middle-aged man with a typical northern build and a rugged physique.

"Boss, Song Qingyan has been fighting on the battlefield for many years and is very experienced. He would not speak nonsense. Let's set off immediately and rest at the next post station."

Zheng Jiechai frowned but remained silent, clearly disagreeing with the matter.

"There are no ferocious beasts here. I've led many exiles and encountered all sorts of things. Everything is fine here. I think some people are just blinded by women and believe even the words of traitors."

Yuan Jiecha speaks in a sarcastic and unsettling way.

Chen Jiechai can be scolded and slandered, but he absolutely cannot tolerate anything that concerns his innocence.

"Yuan Er, what do you mean by that!"

Seeing that he was getting anxious, Yuan Jiecha became even more smug.

"What could I possibly mean? Everyone knows you're entangled with Song Qingyan's woman!"

"That's slander!"

"Alright!" Zheng shouted, his suspicious gaze falling on Chen. "Let's assess the situation first..."

"Boss, it's unusually quiet here. Think about it, this isn't the first time we've camped in the wild these past few days, but it's never been this quiet before. That's enough to tell something's wrong!"

Chen Jiecha was so anxious that sweat beaded on his forehead, and he wished he could drag Zheng Jiecha away with him.

However, the magistrate Zheng kept stirring things up, and perhaps because he had spent more time with his superior these past few days, the magistrate Zheng was clearly siding with him.

"Boss, why don't we walk a few miles first? If nothing happens, that would be best."

"You just leave like that? Who's going to be responsible if the boss doesn't get a good night's rest tonight!"

"roar!"

A shout interrupted their conversation.