Chapter 300: Chapter 292: Searching for a Person

Hu Changlin woke up from his afternoon nap, intending to check on the construction site at Zhao Lan’s place. But just as he stepped out of his courtyard, he saw a carriage charging madly toward him. He quickly dodged aside, narrowly avoiding the impact.

The horse stopped a short distance ahead, snorting erratically.

He rushed forward to investigate, calling out Hu Feng’s name, but there was no reply.

He saw an arrow embedded in the horse’s rump, with blood trickling down from the wound.

"W-w-what... what happened?" He scrambled onto the carriage and pulled back the curtain to see what was inside. The compartment was empty. A packet of medicine lay scattered in a corner, and next to it was a single shoe. It looked like Bai Zhi’s.

Zhao Lan approached from behind. "Is Zhi’er back?"

Hearing Zhao Lan’s voice, Hu Changlin scrambled out of the carriage. "Zhao Lan, something terrible has happened."

Zhao Lan froze for a moment before rushing over. "What’s wrong?"

Hu Changlin jumped down, holding Bai Zhi’s shoe in his hand. "Something’s happened, something definitely happened. Is this... is this Zhi’s shoe?"

Zhao Lan snatched the shoe from him. A single glance was all she needed. "Yes, this is Zhi’er’s shoe! What in the world happened? Why is her shoe here? Where is she?" Zhao Lan grew frantic.

Hu Changlin pointed to the injured horse. "It came back by itself. Hu Feng and Zhi are gone. All that’s left is this shoe. And look at the carriage frame—there are sword marks. Don’t tell me... did they run into bandits?"

Zhao Lan, on the verge of tears, grabbed Hu Changlin’s arm. "What do we do? What do we do now?"

Hu Changlin, being a man, was naturally a bit calmer in a crisis than most women. He composed himself and said to Zhao Lan, "I’ll go find the village chief right now. You go get Doctor Lu and have him treat the horse."

Zhao Lan shook her head. "I’m in no mood to worry about the horse. I’m going with you."

Hu Changlin knew how anxious she was, so he nodded. "Alright, let’s go together."

The pair rushed to the village chief’s home. After they explained what happened, the chief grew anxious as well. He quickly sent Hu Changlin to the construction site to ask the laborers for help, while he went to round up a group of men who were idle at home. Bai Zhi had earned a lot of goodwill for selling rice at a low price before, so when everyone heard that she and Hu Feng were in trouble, they were all eager to help. A large crowd followed them out of the village in a great procession.

They searched from dawn until dusk. As darkness fell, they lit torches and kept going. Eventually, they found an area with clear signs of a struggle. The ground was littered with feathered arrows, identical to the one in the Hu Family’s horse. They scoured the nearby woods and hillsides, but still found no trace of the pair.

The village chief saw that everyone was exhausted. They had searched every possible place along the road and found nothing. He suggested they all head back for now and go into the city to report it to the officials as soon as the gates opened in the morning.

Although Hu Changlin and Zhao Lan were unwilling to give up, they had no other choice but to return with the rest of the group for now.

A Wu, holding a torch, carefully inspected the path as he walked. On a hillside not far from the scene of the struggle, he noticed some unusual marks.

The edge of the hillside showed clear signs of being trampled, and part of it had collapsed. There were also slash marks from a longsword. Holding his torch out, he peered over the edge into a seemingly bottomless drop. Even if it wasn’t a true cliff, the fall would be fatal.

’Did they fall off the edge?’

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