"Please give me something to eat too, I'm begging you, I'm starving to death."
"I'm not a criminal. There's a stall in town giving out herbal tea. I drank a cup and was kidnapped here. Miss, you must save us."
These people threw themselves at Lin Yanxi's feet, treating her as their last hope, and pleaded in low voices.
She felt guilty and said, "I, I have no food left."
A woman from the crowd lunged in front of Lin Yanxi and said, "Miss, I can see you are a good person. Please help me. I am not a criminal. We were originally refugees from another town. We had just arrived in town and drank a cup of herbal tea before being kidnapped here."
"I can still manage, but my two children... the younger one has already died, and this older one is also struggling to hold on. Please, miss, save us."
As she spoke, she pulled a child from the crowd. The child looked no more than eleven or twelve years old. He was shaking as he knelt on the ground, clearly having not eaten for a long time.
The others also rubbed their hands together, begging Lin Yanxi to rescue them.
"Give us some food, we really can't hold on anymore."
The drought in the Southern Plains was becoming increasingly severe, and many places set up tea and porridge stalls to aid refugees.
Lin Yanxi realized that the commotion here would soon attract the guards' attention. She couldn't stay here any longer. She couldn't take these people with her now.
"Shh—listen to me first. I'm looking for someone named Gu Qing. Once I find him, I'll find a way to rescue you all."
The people kneeling on the ground looked at each other and whispered about the name she mentioned.
The woman from before shook her head. "Miss, there is no one here by that name."
Lin Yanxi was startled. She glanced at the guards, who seemed to have gone outside the pit to eat, with no one watching this area.
She asked again, "Think carefully. A man, with one hand missing. Perhaps you don't know him?"
The old man who had eaten the bun recovered some strength. His voice was hoarse and weathered. "Miss, the officers call out names from a roster every morning before dawn and take attendance. I've been caught here for five years, and I remember almost everyone. There has never been anyone named Gu Qing, let alone someone with a missing hand. If he were here, I would surely remember him."
"Yes, there really is no one named Gu Qing."
The others echoed in agreement.
The woman tugged at Lin Yanxi's sleeve and whispered in her ear, her eyes darting left and right, afraid of being noticed by the guards. "Miss, there are more people captured inside, but we only see them go in, never come out."
The woman's rough, dirt-covered fingers pointed subtly towards a certain area. Her hands were cracked in several places from excessive manual labor, and the others also bore wounds and wore ragged clothes.
Lin Yanxi's heart felt heavy. She followed her finger and looked into the distance. A pit with two large iron gates stood there, guarded by several people, with a few others patrolling in front of the gate.
It seemed this was a heavily guarded pit prison.
She carried her food box and hid beside a haystack, observing. She noticed that all the rubble and wood were being transported into this pit.
"Hurry! Quickly!"
Two guards, one at the front and one at the rear, herded about a dozen people in the middle, bound by an iron chain. The end of the chain dragged on the ground with a clinking sound.
They walked to the leftmost side, separated from Lin Yanxi by only two wooden crates and a haystack.
A guard said, "We'll go in later. Let's count how many people have been captured first."
"Let me go, I don't know you! Why did you capture me!"
"I have young children and an elderly mother waiting for me at home. Please let me go. What do you want? I have no money."
The two guards chuckled sarcastically. "Quiet down. You want to leave once you're here? One, two, three..."
One guard began counting the people from the front. Lin Yanxi deliberately dropped her food box to the ground, making a noise.
He paused and said to the guard at the end, "Go see what's happening."
After a moment, he called back to the other guard, "Ah, my stomach hurts. I'll go. Just need to use the latrine."
The guard at the end teased him, "Go on, you're always the one with the most trouble."
Lin Yanxi carefully hid behind the haystack, listening to the guard's footsteps growing closer. She twisted her wrist a few times, formed a hand seal, and whispered, "Sleep!"
A woman suddenly emerged from behind the haystack. A yellow talisman in her hand flew towards the guard. He was startled, and just as he opened his mouth, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed.
She managed to put on the guard's uniform and took his waist token. She emerged from the other side of the pit, her head lowered, attempting to enter the pit. However, she was stopped by several guards.
"Waist token."
Lin Yanxi took out the token from her waist and handed it to the guard. Her hands were slender, her fingertips round, appearing exceptionally fair against the dark grey bronze token.
The guard stared at her fingertips for a moment, then looked her up and down. The guard uniform hung loosely on her, and the long saber dangled from her waist to her calves, looking inexplicably strange.
"Which gate's guard are you?"
She tried to maintain her expression, but a flicker of panic flashed in her eyes. "I..."
When she faltered and couldn't speak clearly, the guard's suspicion intensified. He asked again, "Who is the leader?"
Lin Yanxi's small hands, hidden in her sleeves, clenched into tight fists. Her fingertips dug into her flesh, and she gently bit her thin lips.
At worst, she would fight them to the death.
She had already prepared for the worst. She looked around. Each gate was heavily guarded, and her talisman arts might not be enough against so many people.
Just as she was about to focus and activate her talisman arts, a clear, familiar voice rang out, "Why are you still lingering here? If this group isn't sent in soon, you'll be punished."
Her dark eyes lifted. Shen Muzhou's face, with its clear features and sharp angles, came into view. He casually took out his waist token, flashed it before the guards, and then put it away.
The moment she saw him, her tension eased considerably, and she felt more at ease.
He urged, "I've been waiting for you for ages. Time is being wasted. Why did you come over yourself?"
Lin Yanxi reacted quickly, playing along. "I thought you had gone in first."
Shen Muzhou pulled the iron chain, on which the ten or so people from before were tied. Lin Yanxi followed behind.
The guard glanced at him, his suspicion instantly vanishing, and smiled. "Hurry along, don't keep the boss waiting. It'll be hard to explain."
Upon entering the pit, it revealed a two-tiered underground space. The air inside was stale, dim, and stuffy, filled with the smell of rust and sweat. Lin Yanxi instinctively wrinkled her nose.
She asked softly, "Why are you here?"
Shen Muzhou had waited for her outside for a long time without any news. Worried about her safety, he found a side entrance and climbed in. He saw a guard watching about a dozen civilians bound by chains. He lured the guard behind some wooden crates and knocked him out, then put on his uniform.
He unexpectedly found a guard, stripped of his clothes, inside the haystack.
His gaze shifted from her face and he replied, "Afraid you'd mess it up."
Lin Yanxi rolled her eyes at him, too annoyed to argue. She detested his self-important demeanor.
Shen Muzhou carefully observed their surroundings. "It's too dangerous here. We need to leave quickly."
Lin Yanxi grabbed his arm and said, "Let's go inside and take a look first. I think there's something suspicious about this pit prison."
He hesitated for a moment, then nodded, agreeing with her assessment. They walked further inside together.
Within the pit were small cells, each containing several blacksmiths, and each cell was guarded. Further inside were several large wooden crates.
Shen Muzhou leaned closer, pushed aside the weeds covering the crates, and saw rows of white-gleaming arrows neatly stacked inside.
"Illicit manufacture of weapons?" Lin Yanxi exclaimed in a low voice, surprised.
There were several more crates beside them, all covered with weeds. They contained spears, halberds, and armor.
She instinctively looked at Shen Muzhou. His expression was grim, his eyes frighteningly dark.
In addition to these items, there were many stacks of fodder for horses piled layer upon layer.
"Everything is stored in the warehouse. Please come this way."
Footsteps approached from outside, accompanied by conversations. Shen Muzhou pulled Lin Yanxi by the waist, looked around, and they ducked into the deepest part, behind the horse fodder. When they entered, he had noticed a hidden compartment there that could accommodate them.
The hidden compartment was narrow and dark. They held their breath, afraid of being discovered by the people outside.
The two of them were almost pressed against each other. Shen Muzhou's arm was still tightly around Lin Yanxi's waist. Her face turned crimson, but she dared not move.
In the silence, they could even hear each other's breathing.
Soon, footsteps approached the stacks of fodder. The person was facing away from the hidden compartment, so they didn't discover them. "Sir, are you satisfied?"
The man casually flipped through a few boxes and said, "Not bad, but the progress is a bit slow."
"Alas, sir, please don't blame us. To avoid attracting the attention of the common people, we can only capture the homeless refugees and orphans. We've captured almost everyone nearby. Especially these blacksmiths, they work while confined. We have to replace them every three months. We don't know where to find blacksmiths anymore."
The man listened in silence for a moment, then asked, "Have those bodies been disposed of properly?"
Lin Yanxi frowned. So, replacing people every three months meant killing them and bringing in new blacksmiths.
"Sir, rest assured, everything here has been handled cleanly... Could you put in a word for me to be transferred back to the county?"
The man snorted and remained silent. When he spoke again, the footsteps had already moved further away. "The magistrate isn't that simple. First, handle the matters of the Ghost City. There will be plenty of opportunities."
"Alright, with your words, I'm reassured."
Lin Yanxi heard the footsteps recede. She tilted her small head slightly to look at Shen Muzhou. Her almond-shaped eyes were as alert as a young deer's, filled with tentative inquiry.
She had originally intended to investigate the jade talisman, but instead, she stumbled upon hidden weapons and a pursuit.
What rotten luck. However, Shen Muzhou showed no particular expression, yet she could still discern the thoughtfulness in his gaze.
"Let's leave here first."
Lin Yanxi said and started to walk out. Suddenly, a series of hurried footsteps sounded. A guard shouted, "Check the storeroom, someone has infiltrated!"
As he spoke, he entered the storeroom. Shen Muzhou reacted first, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the hidden compartment they had just used. Lin Yanxi lost her balance for a moment. As she turned around, she stumbled towards Shen Muzhou.
Lin Yanxi's pinned-up bun instantly unraveled, her long, soft, and smooth hair cascading down her neck and shoulders. Her temples were like mist, and her fine, soft hair brushed against his cheek, its fragrance lingering in his nostrils.
Her eyes widened, and she desperately suppressed the scream that threatened to escape her lips. The moment they fell to the ground, their four red lips, separated by a veil, pressed tightly together.