The attic is naturally not equipped with candles.

  The girl had originally worried that these strong men would burn books for light, but unexpectedly they were very proper and only pushed open the window to let the moonlight pour in.

  The windows on this floor are extremely small and can only allow air to pass through, making it impossible for people to enter or exit. As a result, the second floor is only connected to the outside world by a single staircase.

  Let Wu Lang guard the stairs, Chen Ke leaned against the wall with his arms around him, waiting for the other party to come and negotiate. Song Duanping sat on a book box, while Xuanyu and Shang naturally sat on the ground.

  After a moment of silence, Chen Ke broke the silence: "Sorry everyone, putting you in harm's way..."

  "If it were us inside, would you go and rescue?" Song Duanping asked him.

  "Of course." Chen Ke didn't hesitate.

  "That's it." Song Duanping spread out his hands and said: "Are we brothers?"

  "Hmm." Chen Ke nodded heavily and patted his shoulder hard, then said to Xuan Yu: "Monk, you've ruined your cultivation."

  "Amitabha," Xuan Yu said with his hands clasped together, "I have indeed committed many offenses these past few days." He paused before continuing cautiously, "When you return to Chuan, don't tell Master..."

  "Relying on..." The originally solemn atmosphere was ruined by this sentence, and Chen Ke laughed and scolded: "Are you cultivating for your master or for yourself?"

  "These days are a bit confusing," said Xuan Yu: "Maybe this is the purpose of traveling down the mountain."

  "Haha, not bad, not bad," Song Duanping laughed and said: "If you always stay in Sichuan, how can you have such an exciting experience?"

  "This time it's really stimulating." Chen Ke smiled wryly and said, "Actually, I just wanted someone to write a preface... At that time, I never thought that such an encounter would occur."

  "It turns out that this guy is absolutely not a honest monk." Song Duanping changed the subject and accused Xuanyu: "Every tune you blow, he can actually hear the melody!" Scholars of the Song Dynasty were all specialized in studying music theory, but it's unheard of for monks to learn music...and still be lewd songs.

  "Can't monks have personal love?" Chen Ke stood up for Xuanyu and refuted the accusations, but it seemed to make things worse.

  Several people were chatting and laughing there, but the girl and her maid heard the sound of a broken fairy tale... Such a romantic form, such a beautiful atmosphere, was actually just a signal for bandits to communicate? When did bandits become so elegant?

  The truth is too cruel.

  "Impossible!" The little maid held back her anger for a moment, before finally bursting out: "With you bandits, it's impossible to play that many tunes!"

  "It's impossible." Chen Ke took out his willow flute from his bosom and casually tossed it to the little maid, saying: "I'll give it to you to play with." But he didn't realize that his movement was too casual, and the flute fell onto the girl's chest.

  "Just trying it out, sorry." Chen Ke said with embarrassment.

  The young lady tightly hugged her chest, and her maid suddenly became furious, saying: "Rascal, scoundrel! Ruffian!" Earlier, his dirty hands had covered her mouth and nose, and now he was also taking advantage of the princess, which was really unforgivable. However, she lacked a vocabulary for scolding people, and kept repeating these three words.

  "You can leave the window open, just shout." Chen Ke said coldly: "People outside will think something has happened to you."

  "Shameless......" The little maid's cheeks were puffed up with anger, but she didn't dare to make another sound.

  "Sorry little girl, for getting you involved." Chen Ke turned his face and said to the young girl, "Don't be afraid, as long as we can leave safely, we won't hurt a single hair on your head."

  "Thank you, strong man." The girl's greatest worry seemed to have been averted, and she secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She thought to herself: "Looks like I've met a hero..."

  "Wu Lang, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: 'Brother, someone's coming.'"

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  A warrior in the shape of a guardian deity, carrying a lantern, went upstairs under everyone's gaze and shouted loudly: "You dare to be a reckless thief, hurry up and let my daughter go! If you hurt her a single hair, wait for your body to be torn into ten thousand pieces..."

  "Get out!" Before he could even finish saying "ba", Chen Ke kicked him down the stairs with a roundhouse kick.

  After a while, another one came up, and this time the attitude was much better: "Good gentlemen, please, my master said that as long as you let our young lady go, everything can be negotiated."

  "We don't need anything, just let us leave Hengyang safely." Chen Ke said in a low voice.

  "It's easy to say, we can prepare a horse carriage for you, and escort you out of the city at dawn."

  "Will the Imperial Guard outside respond?" Chen Ke asked coldly.

  "Don't worry about this," the guard said proudly: "No one dares to block our carriage."

  "Bold words," Chen Xiao said with a smile: "But it's a matter of life and death, you have to make me believe."

  "The...". The guard did not know how to answer and had no choice but to retreat and report.

  August 1st Chinese

  "Father, let the child go up." After hearing the report, the young man said to the middle-aged man in fine clothes: "They can't solve the problem."

  "It's still better for father to go by himself." The middle-aged man shook his head.

  "The child is not yet grown up, you go again." The young man insisted, his words were few, but there was an unmistakable feeling.

  The middle-aged man nodded his head in confidence towards his son: "Go ahead, be careful."

  "Yes." The young man took over the lantern and went upstairs.

  They stared at each other in shock: "Is that you?" "How is it you?!"

  Isn't this the chat friend who meets every night on the boat?

  Chen Ke felt a bit awkward and coughed twice before saying: "Ah, yeah, it's me. What a coincidence."

  "Is she inside? Can I take a look at her first?" the man asked in a low voice.

  "Look." Chen Ke made Wu Lang move aside.

  "The lantern remains." Gorō said in a low voice: "This is the Toshosho."

  "It was I who was wrong." The young man handed the lantern to Gorō, and couldn't help but feel great wonder, having never heard of a thief who loved books so dearly.

  The young man went up and saw his sister standing there unharmed, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

  "Don't worry, Second Brother." The girl said softly.

  "But don't go to those dangerous places again." The young man didn't exchange pleasantries, but instead gave her a light reprimand before turning to Chen Ke and saying: "Please let my sister go, I'll take her place as hostage."

  "Brother..." The girl softly called out.

  "Shut up." The young man growled in a low voice.

  "Why don't you both stay behind?" Chen Ke sneered, "This brother of yours, is he a paternal or maternal relative? I'm not even clear if this little girl is precious to him."

  "Same here." The young man nodded and looked at Chen Ke, saying: "Perhaps I should introduce myself."

  "It's absolutely necessary." Chen Ke nodded.

  "My surname is Zhao, my name is Zongji. I have a long string of official titles on my head, but there's nothing to brag about. Because I am the son of the Northern Sea King of the Great Song Dynasty," the young man sighed and said: "Now, you know how much trouble you've gotten yourself into."

  "What the...!" Chen Ke's mouth was agape, this time he really went too far, actually hijacking a member of the imperial family. That little girl is basically a princess! But he quickly closed his mouth, barefoot and fearless, even daring to pull down the emperor, what does your imperial family count for?

  "It's impolite not to return a visit, so let me introduce myself." Chen Ke looked at the young man and said slowly: "My surname is Chen, my name is Ke. I have nothing on my head now, because I only have a father who was a county magistrate, but he was sentenced to be executed."

  "Are you Chen Xiliang's son?!" The young Zhao Zongji exclaimed in surprise.

  "Do you think someone will impersonate?" Chen Ke shrugged and said.

  "What brings you here?"

  "I've been caught, and it's also your fault." Chen Ke attacked his heart with an invisible blow, making the other person feel guilty.

  "What's my responsibility?"

  "If you hadn't exaggerated about Yu Wenshuai, I wouldn't have gone to report him." Chen Ke said with a pout.

  "What's going on?" Zhao Zongji asked.

  "Now that it's come to this, I suppose it doesn't matter if I tell you. Chen Ke sighed and said: 'My father was actually framed, the reason he suffered unjustly is because he was investigating the root cause of the defeat of the Lingnan army.'"

  "The whole nation is reflecting," Zhao Zongji said: "Why was he framed?"

  "Because your reflections are all stuck in thought, he has put them into action." Chen Ke looked out the window at the bright moon and said quietly: "As a result, he investigated and found the Hunan-Guangdong-Guangxi military-political gang case, so naturally they had to be dealt with."

  "......" Zhao Zongji remained silent, listening to him continue: "We spent all our efforts to get the evidence into our hands, holding onto it with great hope to find Yu Wenshuai, but... you also saw what happened, I was put under house arrest and the case was suppressed by him."

  "You should also consider Wen Shuai," Zhao Zongji sighed: "He has to consider the overall situation of pacifying the rebellion, this is not the time to investigate the case."

  "I don't know what's meant by the big picture!" Chen Ke interrupted coldly: "I only know that if evil is not punished, this country will be full of evil people; if good deeds are not rewarded, this country will have no good people!"

  "......" Zhao Zongji was speechless.

  Yu Wenshuai wants to win, it's normal. But I've never heard of any commander who can achieve victory with the help of a group of corrupt officials!" Chen Ke had been holding back his words for a long time and suddenly blurted out loudly: "Even if we take a step back and assume that he wins this battle by some heavenly luck, it's easy to imagine that the imperial court will again bestow favors on those corrupt officials, letting them get away with their crimes and even continue to do evil! Even if they pacify one Zhong Yizhi, there will be Zhang Yizhi and Li Yizhi who will be brought out by them."

  "I've heard that the power of Nian's intelligence has grown so strong because many Han people from Lingnan have joined him. Now, in his army, Han people make up more than 80%. Why is this? Weren't they all driven by those corrupt officials? Why should we give them face? Are they worthy?"

  "Merit is merit, fault is fault. We should reward meritorious service with special honors and punish crime with severe penalties. These two principles must be applied simultaneously without contradiction. Your family always likes to disregard the law, offsetting merit with fault, which has caused the hearts of people all over the world to become greatly corrupted!"