Chapter 88 Hiding in darkness

"Thank you so much for your great kindness, princess! The grass-roots people will hold the ring knot grass in the next life, and they will also repay the princess for her great kindness!"

The young cook knelt down and kowtowed. The panic on her face was not fake. Qin Tian asked her in a low voice.

"Get up. What happened?"

The cook told the story with a trembling voice.

She was the cook in charge of pastries on the stove. After finishing her work on the stove in the evening, she prepared the dough for tomorrow, but the dough needed to be sprinkled with water several times before going to bed at night. She had already sprinkled water on both sides before.

I thought I would sprinkle it again and it would be perfect for tomorrow.

Unexpectedly, when she came to sprinkle water on the stove for the third time, she suddenly heard strange noises outside. She thought someone was coming to the stove to do things like her, so she went to the door to take a look.

Suddenly, someone jumped out of the darkness, covered her mouth, and dragged her into the darkness.

The cook screamed repeatedly, but was tightly muffled. She struggled hard, but the other person was a man, and there was no possibility for her to break away.

It wasn't until the princess sent someone over to check that she heard footsteps making constant noises. The person who was covering her saw that the situation was not good, let go of her and ran away.

It was late at night, the moonlight was not very clear, and the few lights on the roadside dimmed and brightened.

Qin Tian couldn't help feeling a little cold.

"Who is that? What are you trying to do by dragging you?"

She asked, seeing the cook's face showing a bit of disgust.

"I heard one of them say, let me cooperate honestly and serve you well tonight, and you won't treat me badly."

Looking at the entire villa, except for the princess, there are only women in the kitchen.

But Qin Tian was stunned for a moment, "You mean one of them?"

Wei You obviously noticed this and asked the cook, "How many people are dragging you? Who are they and who do you want to serve?"

The cook said that there were only two people dragging her at first, but she faintly heard a third person watching the wind not far away. It was because of someone watching the wind that she noticed it in advance and escaped when the princess sent someone over.

As for the rest, the cook doesn't know.

Qin Tian and Wei You looked at each other.

The latter lowered his head in Qin Tian's ear and said, "Princess, you should go back to your room first."

The person who wants to arrest the cook and serve him is probably not of low status, but what his identity is, and how he can do this in such a night of secret talks between three parties, is unknown.

The other party obviously didn't want to make a big fuss, so they ran away after hearing the news. If the Su Zhengjun people still go to get to the bottom of it at this time, the secret talks that were originally looking for a delicate balance point may be overturned at any time, and everything everyone has done will be in vain.

.

Qin Tian pursed his lips and gave an order.

"Dedicate some manpower to patrol the cooks' quarters and don't slack off."

"Yes." Wei You immediately took the order and sent a small team over.

As for the cook, Qin Tian originally wanted the guards to send her back, but when he saw her trembling fingertips and pale face, he called Tiandong.

"Take her back with me."

After Qin Tian finished his instructions, he turned around.

Just before turning around, his eyes swept through the dark night outside the back door.

It was as if a thick black fog had enveloped everything in sight. Except for the faint light reflected by the wind lamp on the door, nothing could be seen in the distance.

If you accidentally step into it, it's unknown whether you can escape intact.

Qin Tian did not stay any longer, stayed away from the back door, and returned to his courtyard.

Wei You ordered people to inspect the nearby territory of Suzheng Army, gave a few instructions, and returned.

In the thick black mist-like night, someone looked away from the grated window through the wall.

He looked at the people who were kneeling at his feet and did not dare to get up, and suddenly sighed.

"I suddenly have no interest in that pretty cook."

The three people kneeling on the ground were secretly relieved when they heard this.

But then, I heard another smooth voice floating above my head.

"On the other hand, Her Royal Highness the Princess has a good figure and a good voice, but it's a pity that she can't see her face."

The owner of that voice spoke, paused briefly, seemed to take a breath of the imaginary person's breath from the air, and then clicked his tongue.

"I wonder what it feels like to be a princess"

The bright and clean room has a light soothing medicinal fragrance.

The cook heard the princess' maid asking her what her name was, what was going on at home, and why she was here.

She clenched her hands, trying to calm the trembling of her fingertips.

"The woman's maiden name is Tang, her name is Juanzi, and she is a native of Yanzhou. But when there was a flood in the middle of the year, my family was in a village under the dam. When the flood came, the whole village was gone. The woman wanted to save her.

My little son was also washed away by the flood. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, and there was no trace of him at all."

Qin Tian heard Juanzi speaking and recalling what happened not long ago. Following her words, Qin Tian's whole body seemed to be trapped in that flood.

Juanzi lost her son when the flood came. Her mother-in-law did not die immediately, but she contracted an epidemic and died suddenly after the flood. If Mr. Sun of the Suzheng Army had not foresaw it, he sprayed medicine everywhere and burned the bodies.

The disease after the flood failed to spread, and the cuckoo might have died at that time.

On the day of the flood, Juanzi's husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law all went to the city to look for odd jobs. Later, the surviving Juanzi thought of looking for them in Yanzhou City.

However, the Suzheng Army in Yanzhou City rebelled, and the imperial court and the Suzheng Army clashed head-on. People in the city rebelled, ran away, and of course a lot of people died in the streets.

Juanzi went to the city to look for someone, but only found two of her natal brothers. There was no news at all about her husband, father-in-law, and the others.

If it weren't for the imperial court's refusal to allocate funds to build the dam, Juanzi's family, which was reunited peacefully, would have been destroyed.

All the brothers from her mother's family joined the Suzheng Army, and Juanzi also followed them into the Suzheng Army. While cooking for the Suzheng Army in the camp, she looked for her husband everywhere.

Although the Suzheng Army was only a local rebel army, the rules for running the army were stricter than those in the imperial army.

The silver-faced general was skillful in using his troops, and he was cold and solemn in running the army. All military laws and regulations were nothing more than decoration.

In Yanzhou, where the world is in chaos, the plight of women who have lost their husbands and children can be imagined, but Juanzi has never encountered any soldiers harassing women in the six months he has been in the Suzheng Army.

It was precisely because of this that she relaxed her vigilance.

She first failed to find her husband in the Suzheng Army. She only met a fellow villager who said that she had seen her husband after the flood, but where he went was unknown.

At that time, there was a war, and many people ran outside Yanzhou. Juanzi heard that her husband was probably still very happy and could not find anyone in the Su Zheng army, so she thought about going out to find someone.

But she was a woman, how could she find people in troubled times in a war-torn place? Later, when she heard that Su Zhengjun was going to take some skilled cooks out to work, Juanzi immediately followed her.

But she never expected that she would be targeted and almost fall into the trap of a tiger.

Recalling that someone suddenly covered her mouth and nose and dragged her away, Juanzi was still frightened.

Qin Tian listened and was silent for a long time before he asked her again.

"There are about twenty cooks on the stove. Why are they targeting you?"

Qin Tian explained, "I don't mean to question your meaning, but can you recall whether you did anything during the day and who saw it?"

Even if he couldn't uncover the matter immediately, Qin Tian still hoped to have a rough guess as to who dared to act recklessly here and now.

It's a pity that Juanzi thinks about cooking cakes during the day. If it weren't for the cakes, she wouldn't go to the kitchen to work in the evening.

She thought about it for a while but couldn't figure it out and shook her head.

"I don't know, I don't know."

It seemed like I couldn't get any useful information out of her mouth for a while.

The master who is trying to drag away the cuckoo in the dark is just like the master with sticky eyes through the bead curtain, appearing strangely and disappearing at the right time, wandering under the thick black mist.

Qin Tian could only call Juanzi, "You can stay in my courtyard today. If you can think of anything else, it won't be too late to report it to me."

These words made Juanzi kowtow again to express his thanks, and his tears couldn't stop falling.

"Thank you princess, thank you princess!"

The cuckoo went down, and the night got deep. Qin Tian still felt sleepy, but did not go out or read a book anymore. Instead, he returned to the bed, silently hoping that this secret conversation would end smoothly and go back early.

She suddenly felt that the Suzheng Military Camp in Yanzhou was no longer so strange. At least there was someone there, accompanying her.

What would she do without him?

*

The next day, before noon, Mr. He sent someone to deliver the good news.

The three armies not only reached an agreement on forming a coalition to jointly deal with the imperial suppression, but also had a plan of action.

Originally, Qin Tian had to learn such secrets from the students, but now, she knew what was going on inside.

If the three armies want to join forces to fight against the imperial court, they will not make much progress by just exchanging information. If they only say that they cannot help each other geographically, it will be easy for the imperial court to take the opportunity to defeat each other.

Then there is a most direct way to solve this matter,
To be continued...