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

Attracted by the shouts, the group went out of the house to look and saw that the bandits who had been drinking in the courtyard not far away were now lying on the ground, curled up and rolling around, with food and wine scattered all over the floor.

Upon closer inspection, their bodies were covered with a dense swarm of various insects, seemingly gnawing at them.

This scene is terrifying to look at.

"Weren't these insects raised by their own village? Why are they fighting amongst themselves?"

"Perhaps Jin Ning and Qing Yan did something..."

Meanwhile, Jiang Jinning and Song Qingyan were searching for the scarred man.

The scarred man was no longer drinking in the courtyard. Song Qingyan stopped a bandit and asked him, only to find out that he had gone back inside.

But he wasn't in the house.

The house was ransacked, and apart from the porcelain ornaments, all the money was nowhere to be found. It was as if someone had taken advantage of the infighting within the village to steal the boss's gold.

There was another box in the room, unremarkable, but the faint sandalwood scent emanating from it was strange, as the box itself was not sandalwood.

Since it's not inside, let's go outside and look for it.

Hearing the chirping sounds coming from not far away, the two guessed that it was probably insects scurrying around biting people, so they didn't care about anything else and hurried to find the person.

Finally, in the waist-high grass, they saw the scarred man, who had been killed with a single blow and was now dead.

The scarred man's eyes were wide open in anger, his death unresolved, as if he had been killed by someone he never expected.

His left hand, however, was severed and could not be found anywhere.

Song Qingyan, who had hoped to find some news, was disappointed.

His father died on the battlefield and was falsely accused of treason. He was exiled before he even had a chance to return to Luoyang. He always wanted to find out the truth, but the truth was obviously not so easy to find out.

Now that the person is dead and the trail is broken, there's no point in leaving them here.

On their way back, the two found a house filled with the escorts' knives.

When Song Qingyan and Jiang Jinning appeared before the crowd, carrying knives, Chen Hui and his men struggled to fight them.

Even though most of the bandits had died at the hands of those youngsters, many of them were still capable of fighting. Chen Hui and his men, who were unarmed, struggled to fight back until Song Qingyan appeared with weapons, which turned the tide of the battle.

Song Qingyan also joined the battle, wielding his sword.

Seeing that the two were alright, Zhao and Song Wanzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm so glad you're all okay. Heaven knows we were terrified when we saw those bugs."

Zhao patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sister-in-law, do you know why those worms suddenly became like this?" Song Wanzhen shuddered when she saw the worms still wriggling.

However, I don't know if it's just my imagination, but I feel that the creepy feeling has gotten a lot better since my sister-in-law came.

"Of course, I have my own ingenious plan..."

Xiaoqiang should keep it a secret from Wanzhen.

Song Wanzhen is a very curious person. Now that her older brother has joined the fray and the situation has turned around, she is full of energy and wants to get to the bottom of things.

Jiang Jinning noticed that Zhao Shi looked unwell and assumed she had been frightened.

"Mother, it will be over soon, please bear with it."

"Jin Ning... I... I'm sorry..."

Jiang Jinning was slightly taken aback, but quickly realized what Zhao was talking about. The young general had already mentioned it, but she didn't think Zhao was wrong.

Zhao was kind and treated her very well, even though they had only known each other for a month. This was even more true for her clansmen who had known her for a long time and the second branch of the Song family.

"Mother, you did nothing wrong, it's just that sometimes being soft-hearted isn't good."

Zhao was slightly taken aback, feeling that the little girl seemed to have grown up quite a bit, but when she looked over, her innocent and carefree smile clearly showed that she was still the same as before.

The three of them turned their attention back to the battle that was not far away.

Although the bandits were all strong, many of them died from the insects, and even the leaders were killed. Without a leader, their morale plummeted, and they quickly retreated in defeat.

Just as they were about to finish dealing with all the bandits, Zheng Jiechai and Sun Quan arrived with local government troops.

Song Qingyan stared at Sun Quan not far away: "When did he go out?"

"I don't know. They weren't imprisoned with me, but if I can escape, it wouldn't be surprising if they could too."

It's not surprising that they managed to escape, but what's strange is that they not only escaped but also had time to call for reinforcements. That's very unusual.

Song Qingyan stood to the side, his eyes lowered, remaining calm and composed, revealing nothing.

Zheng Jiechai and the officers and soldiers exchanged pleasantries for a long time, naturally taking credit for capturing the bandits.

Therefore, as he set off on his journey, the man's smile never stopped, likely because he was happy that his contribution would be significant when the trip ended.

Jiang Jinning rolled her eyes, realizing for the first time the true meaning of the word "scoundrel".

The group set off again. Now, there were three fewer escorts and several fewer elderly and weak members of the Song family. However, none of the second branch of the family were missing. Even Song Tianci, who was bitten by a snake, was fortunate enough to escape mortal danger because the snakes that bit him were non-venomous. However, he was still frightened and developed a high fever. He became delirious and started talking nonsense.

Tian was so anxious that she developed blisters on her lips. Seeing her only son burning with fever, she looked at Liao.

She knew the old lady had been hiding the money well, but at this critical juncture, she still showed no intention of taking it out.

"mother……"

Liao covered her forehead and cried out in pain.

"Oh, Guangying, your mother is feeling terrible. The rash I had before hasn't fully healed. It's all because of certain people who insisted on making me go and beg for a cart. The eldest son's cart is so easy to steal. Now look what happened! They dismissed us with a 'We used it and it didn't bother us. It's all because of your bad character.' Now some people are trying to take advantage of me. Oh, Guangying, your mother did all this for you. Now that we've given up the money, how are we supposed to live? Tianci just has a fever. Does he need any medicine?"

Song Guangying hurriedly helped Liao Shi sit down. In his heart, he was also fed up with his mother who couldn't help with anything. However, there was one thing his mother was right about: with money, he could go to Lingnan to remarry and have another child. As for his stupid son Song Tianci, it didn't matter whether he had him or not.

Seeing her sarcastic tone, Tian knew perfectly well that she was being targeted. She was so angry that she almost vomited blood. She glared at Song Guangying, who shrank back, looking like he was afraid of trouble, but the disgust in his eyes was already impossible to hide.

Tian had no way to deal with Liao and couldn't rely on Song Guangying, so she vented her anger on Song Yanxi.

"It's all your fault, you worthless slut! If you hadn't pushed your brother, he wouldn't have gotten a fever. And you still haven't settled the score for hitting me, you bitch..."

The insults continued unabated. When Zhao passed by, Song Yanxi seemed to call out "Auntie," but Zhao did not stop.

"Why are you calling her? Calling her will give you the divine medicine. Her family is on the list of successful candidates in the imperial examinations. What about you? Why don't you try to get one? You useless thing. Oh, how did I give birth to such a thing..."

Song Yanxi listened to those words almost indifferently, but her eyes were fixed on the direction of the eldest son's family with resentment.