The next day, Long and Shi set off.
The two of them had sex and went to bed late the previous night, so Shi was still very sleepy in the morning.
But they had to go.
Therefore, Long directly carried Shi to the carriage.
The Shadow Guardians had been ordered to put some comfortable and soft cushions in the carriage. Long sat down first. Then, he held Shi in his arms and made Shi sit on his lap. He adjusted Shi’s posture, so that Shi’s head was placed on his shoulder.
Shi’s eyes kept closed.
Long touched Shi’s head with love and care.
Shi wasn’t woken up by him.
The carriage kept moving and in late morning, Shi finally opened his eyes.
Long immediately said, “Qingzhou, you wake up.”
Shi nodded. “What time is it?”
“It’s still early for lunch. What’s the matter?”
“I’m just curious.” Shi yawned and looked outside.
Long hurriedly took some food out of the carriage. “Qingzhou, you haven’t had breakfast.”
“Mhmm.” Shi glanced at the food in Long’s hand, but he didn’t have any appetite.
“Have some food. Aren’t you hungry?”
Shi shook his head. “No. I want some water.”
“Okay. Then drink some water first.” Long immediately took out the water bottle and gave it to his empress, who was really thirsty and drank a lot.
“You’re that thirsty? Don’t drink too much water, or you’ll be too full to eat lunch later.” Long was a little worried.
Shi shook his head. “It’s okay. I’m thirsty.”
Long said helplessly, “Fine, but don’t drink too much.”
“Mhmm.” Shi responded and put down the water bottle after drinking a little more.
Long put the water bottle away. “I plan to stop for lunch later.”
Shi turned to look at Long.
“You said there’s no rush, right?” Long said with a smile.
Shi nodded. “Mhmm.”
Long took Shi’s hand. “So let’s stop and have lunch. No hurry.”
“Okay.” Shi agreed.
After running for less than an hour, the carriage finally stopped.
Long held Shi’s hand and got off.
Outside the carriage, the Shadow Guardians had gone to get lunch.
They brought some food from the inn. At this time, some dim sum and cooked food had been placed in front of Long and Shi.
Long looked back and waved when he saw Liu and Ouyang coming down from the horses.
“Liu Suifeng, Ouyang Chuan, come here.”
They looked in his direction and then went to him.
Without looking at the two men, Shi was holding a branch and fiddling with the fire.
The Shadow Guardians obtained food mainly by hunting.
Ouyang and Liu sat down by the fire and they were close to Long.
“Why do I feel like I haven’t seen you for a long time?” Long said with a smile.
Liu also smiled. “Really? How could it be?”
“I can only say that you were well hidden. I don’t think I saw you when we left in the morning.”
“I didn’t come out until you got into the carriage,” Liu said.
“No wonder.” Long understood. “Here is some dim sum. Take whatever you want.”
“I’m not interested in that.” While speaking, Liu took a piece for his Brother Ouyang.
Ouyang actually didn’t like it, but since Liu gave it to him, he’d better not refuse.
So, Ouyang began to eat.
Long also took a piece and directly handed it to Shi’s mouth.
Shi lowered his head. He looked at the dim sum and then ate it.
That made Long very happy. “Is it delicious?”
Shi didn’t say anything.
Long didn’t mind Shi not speaking and kept feeding him.
As for Shi, he just accepted everything.
Long gave him dim sum and water. He also took a little cooked food with chopsticks and gave it to Shi.
Shi ate a lot at lunch.
Long also ate a lot. It seemed that Ouyang and Liu had been influenced by them and had a good appetite, so they also had lots of food.
After lunch, they resumed their journey.
In the carriage, Long rubbed his belly. “Tut, I ate too much. I feel stuffed…”
Shi took a look at him. “Can I help you?”
“Hmm? How can you help me?”
Shi shrugged. “With my internal strength.”
“No, it’s not necessary,” Long hurriedly said, “How can you waste it like that?”
Shi looked at him. “You don’t need it?”
“Of course not!” Long immediately said, “There’s no need.”
Shi said nothing.
At dusk, the carriage stopped again. This time, they were not in the town, but in the wild.
“We’ll be in Songye city at noon tomorrow,” Long said.
“Mhmm.” Shi responded softly.
Long took Shi’s hand and walked on the grass at will. After a while, they got some news from the imperial palace again.
Two of those ministers had something to do with the explosives and they were arrested by the Shadow Guardians when they wanted to bury the explosives in the secret paths along the way.
Later, the two ministers were beheaded on the spot by two Shadow Guardians when they were crying for injustice.
Long narrowed his eyes after reading the note.
“Why did they bury the explosives?”
“They were waiting for us to pass by.”
“We don’t have to take that road, do we?” Long was confused.
“No, we don’t. But if something goes wrong, we’ll have to go there.”
“Huh?” Long gasped. “So they had a set of stratagems?”
“Mhmm.” Shi sneered. “What a pity. The plan was very good, but all of them have been eliminated before implementing it.”
“No, not all of them…”
Shi turned to look at Long. “Right, there are a few more. What are you going to do?”
“When they take action, the Shadow Guardians will cooperate with Hu Qingyuan to capture them. I have nothing to worry about.”
Shi nodded. “It’s good that the Ministry of Justice and the Shadow Guardians will work together.”
When Shi was about to say something more, there seemed to be a fire in the distance.
They saw thick smoke was billowing over there.
“Is that fire? What’s going on?”
Shi frowned and didn’t say anything.
Long immediately ordered, “Go to check what’s going on.”
“Yes.” A Shadow Guardian left in a hurry.
Soon after, the Shadow Guardian came back. “Master, it should be a hunter’s house and it’s on fire. There is no one in there and I didn’t hear a call for help.”
“Could it be that they fainted because of the smoke, so they couldn’t call for help?”
The Shadow Guardians said after some hesitation, “The fire is too big. It’s difficult for us to get in.”
Long said, “Go to have a check again. Just ignore it if there is no one else.”
“Yes, master.”
“How did that house catch fire?” Long frowned.
Shi shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“The smoke is blown this way,” Long said.
Shi suddenly thought of something and then his expression changed.
At this time, Liu opened his mouth. “No! It’s the knockout drug from Northern Barbarians!”
After that, Liu rushed to Long and made a small cut on one of his fingers with a dagger.
“Hiss…” Long felt a little pain.
Liu took out a small bottle of liquid medicine from his pocket and dripped it on the wound.
Later, Liu quickly walked to Shi.
“Stretch out your hand. There’s a problem with the smoke.”
Shi’s pupils were still a little red. He took a look at Liu and then slowly stretched out his hand.
Liu immediately made a cut on it and dripped some liquid medicine.
“Ask all the Shadow Guardians to come here. This kind of smoke can only be counteracted by this medicine called Frost Flower.”
Long quickly asked all the Shadow Guardians to gather together.
When all the Shadow Guardians received the medicine, the smoke floated there…
Ouyang pinched his nose. “If we didn’t have the antidote, we’d be in great trouble this time.”
Long knitted his brows. “Those people are getting more and more crafty.”
“Let’s move on,” Shi said.
Long thought about it and agreed. Suddenly, he came up with an idea. “There is no enemy around here, is there?”
“No.” Shi looked at him. “What’s the matter?”
Long said, “If there is no enemy, maybe we can pretend to be hit.”
Shi and the others were slightly stunned. Then, Liu said, “That’s a good idea.”
“Qingzhou, what do you say?”
Shi also nodded. “Okay. Maybe some people will be lured.”
“Yes, we should go right now. Let’s pretend to be panicky,” Long said.
It shouldn’t be delayed. After the plan was determined, all of them took action…
Long and Shi got on the carriage.
The carriage roared away.
All the Shadow Guardians, together with Liu and Ouyang, looked very pale.
Moreover, they covered their mouths and noses while running. Obviously, they wanted to show other people that they didn’t want to inhale the smoke.
All of them ran in panic. Half an hour later, a group of men in black appeared.
There were more than twenty people. It could be seen that they took it seriously this time.
And they had been lying in ambush for a long time!
They had expected that Shi and the others would run this way after they were hit!
Because it was not far from Songye city!
They found that their plan really worked!
The assassins thought that Long must’ve known his route had been exposed.
Although Liu was outside and also disguised himself, the assassins thought that it wasn’t a big problem.
Even if Liu was in the team, he didn’t have the antidote. So they could only leave first and make plans when they arrived in Songye city!
They thought that Liu might have some medicine to delay the effect of the drug.
So, those people were running in panic.
All the assassins were very confident that Liu didn’t have the antidote!
However, the truth was just the opposite!
Although Long and the others looked very flustered, it was just their trick to lure the enemy!
The assassins thought that they would succeed this time, but the people who they would fight them were actually powerful Shadow Guardians!
There were many assassins, but compared with the Shadow Guardians, they were still outnumbered!
When they began to fight, the assassins were stunned.
“It’s a trap! They were not poisoned!” Cried one of the assassins.
He finally realized it, but it was already late.
There was no turning back. Even if they had understood everything, they had no chance to escape…
“Don’t show mercy! Kill them all!” Shi commanded in a cold voice.
“Yes!” The Shadow Guardians said in unison and then started the bloody killing.
Instead of participating it, Shi was staying with Long on one side.
In case of an accident, they didn’t sit in the carriage. They were just standing on the ground and watching them…
Looking at the Shadow Guardians taking those people’s lives one by one, Long had mixed feelings.