Chapter 394: Chapter 390: Graceful Girl_1
 

Yingbao didn’t mind at all and followed Chen Wan into a bamboo grove.

Indeed, there were people in the bamboo grove, but it’s not just Chen Zhao and Chen Xubao, but also four unfamiliar men.

Chen Wan grabbed Yingbao’s arm and said to the four men, “I… I brought her here, now you must release Ahzhao and Xubao.”

Chen Zhao exclaimed in surprise, “Big sister! How could you do this?”

Chen Wan trembled, gripping Yingbao tightly and urged the men, “Hurry up, I have brought the person you wanted. Release my brother and sister.”

The four men looked at each other and smirked. Two of them walked over, reaching out to grab Yingbao. Suddenly, a cold glint flashed before their eyes, aiming right at their faces.

The two instinctively dodged, but they were so close that one of them had his arm slashed open, flesh and blood exposed.

“Ah~~” The man yelled in pain as he fell backward onto the ground.

Only then did the men see that the young girl had somehow slipped out of Chen Wan’s grip and was now wielding a two-foot-long sharp cleaver, chasing after another man.

“Stinking girl! You’re asking for it!” Seeing the situation unfolding unfavorably, the remaining two men hastily drew out their daggers to assist.

At this point, many people gathered around them.

“Baobao! Get out of the way! Daddy’s here!” Jiang Sanlang rushed in, swinging his pole to strike one of the men in the back.

The stricken man yelped, ignoring the pain and turning tail to run.

The remaining men also tried to flee but were surrounded by the villagers.

A fight ensued.

Although these men are well-trained fighters, they couldn’t outnumber the villagers and soon were overpowered, trussed up like dumplings.

After capturing the four men, Jiang Sanlang turned around and glared fiercely at Chen Wan, barking, “Chen Wan! Who told you to trick my girl here?”

Scared to shivers, Chen Wan shook her head, tears streaming down, “It…it was them. They kidnapped Ahzhao and Xubao, I… I had no choice, wu wu wu…”

But it was not only that, her dad also promised her that if she could bring Yingbao, she and her sister wouldn’t have to serve the nobles, and he would even ensure they got to live in the county town.

Jiang Sanlang gave Chen Wan a hard slap and commanded his men to tie her up as well.

He then led a few others to search the surrounding area, finding a carriage and a few horses.

But there were no helpers on the carriage; it seemed that the coachman had escaped on horseback when he sensed something wrong.

Jiang Sanlang ordered his men to throw the captives onto the carriage and bring them back to Dongchen Village for interrogation.

One of them kept screaming, “You lowly commoner! Release us now! Do you know who we are? Believe it or not, I can have your entire family thrown into jail…”

Jiang Sanlang, wielding a bamboo stick, gave him a harsh strike on the face.

After a few more strikes, the man’s face was bruised and bloody, shutting him up.

Jiang Sanlang then interrogated each of the men separately, and in the end, one of them gave in and spilled the truth.

As it turned out, these men were the subordinates of Commandery Prince Cheng’s staff member, Yan Jinshan, who had intended to seize Jiang Yingbao and bring her to Chengzhou County. However, to avoid alerting anyone, they had pressured Chen Wan to lure Yingbao there.

After the interrogation, Jiang Sanlang was filled with lingering fear.

However, thinking about his daughter’s extraordinary ability, he felt a bit reassured.

Finally, Jiang Sanlang handed over Chen Wan and the four men to the station master at the post station to deal with.

Upon hearing that this involved the Commandery Prince Cheng, the station master didn’t dare to delay, and immediately sent the captives off to the County Government without stopping to rest.

Soon after, someone from the County Government came to inform Chen Lao Shuan’s family to bring the money to ransom Chen Wan.

But Chen Lao Shuan had no money left, and could only turn to his eldest and youngest sons for loans. However, both sons claimed they were short of funds and couldn’t afford 80 taels of silver.

Chen Changhai’s wife quietly said to her husband, “Chen Wan is responsible for what she has done, why do we have to cover for her? Your second brother is getting out of hand, daring to conspire with outsiders to harm another family’s daughter. The Jiang Family is not what it used to be, their children are all set to become officials. You must not get involved in their confusion, my husband.”

Chen Changhai sighed, “I know.”

Their son was also fourteen or fifteen years old and was studying martial arts at the Martial Arts Hall in Dongchen Village. They would likely need the help of the Jiang Family’s children in the future, and they couldn’t afford to mess up.

Old Chen Shuan could not borrow money from his son, so he had to go to the Clan Leader Chen for a loan. Clan Leader Chen scolded him harshly, criticizing him for not teaching his children and grandchildren properly. He said if Chen Shuan dared to bring Chen Wan back to the village, he would expel his entire family from the clan.

In the end, it was Chen Zhao who took out the sixty taels of silver given by Yingbao last time, allowing their grandfather to redeem their eldest sister.

Chen Laoshuan brought this money to the County Government. After buying his granddaughter’s release, he sold her to a family in another county under a death contract, and returned home on his own.

Back home, thinking about his second son’s repeated mistakes and lack of repentance, he guessed that his scholarly honor could not be preserved, which was extremely depressing.

Under considerable stress, Chen Laoshuan fell ill and could not get up. If it weren’t for Clan Leader Chen stealing his old wife’s medicine pills and giving them to him, Chen Laoshuan probably would have died.

Two months later, Chen Fengshi decided to marry the fifteen-year-old Chen Zhao to the second son of a family from another town.

This family was fairly well-off, but their ancestors were executioners, and those who knew about it were reluctant to marry into the family.

Chen Zhao did not object, but after getting married he continued to conduct business in Dongchen Village, taking care of his younger brother along the way.

In this period, Yingbao was forbidden by her parents from leaving the village. Even if she wanted to go to the market, she was not allowed to go alone, she needed a companion.

Even when Wen Shu was having her baby, Chunniang accompanied her.

In the blink of an eye, another year had passed.

Wen Shu’s baby was already one year old, and the fourteen-year-old Yingbao had grown into a graceful young girl.

A lot had happened over the past year.

The biggest event was undoubtedly that the Commandery Prince of Chengzhou County suddenly launched a rebellion, allying with forces within and outside of the Little Zhou Dynasty to attack the cities of the new dynasty.

For a time, wars broke out everywhere.

Upon hearing the news, the Jiang Family became worried.

Chunniang sat on the heated bed talking to her daughter, “Baobao, do you think Xiaowu and the others will go to the battlefield?”

Yingbao kept silent for a while, then comforted her mother: “Xiaowu is still so young, how could he go to the battlefield?”

Actually, she was very anxious as well, regretting not giving Xiaowu more medicine to carry with him, and regretting even more allowing her brother to take the martial examination.

But her brother should also have his own life, and she couldn’t make decisions for him.

With a sigh, Chunniang thought of something else and said to her daughter, “I really don’t know what your second sister Dani is thinking, she is determined not to get married. Your grandma is almost angry to death.”

Yingbao didn’t know what to say.

It’s not only Dani, she herself also didn’t want to consider such things so early.

She always wanted to go to North Mountain to take a look, but her parents were watching her closely, not allowing her to run around, and forbidding her from going out with other people. They said that she was older now and must keep distance from village boys, otherwise people would gossip about her.

“There’s another thing I need to talk to you about.” Chunniang glanced at her daughter and whispered: “Madam Wen mentioned your marriage the other day and asked me to ask you what you think of Wen Hengyin?”

Yingbao blinked her eyes, “Mother, I’m still young.”

“What do you mean young?” Chunniang glared at her daughter, “Sister Dani was engaged when she was twelve. See how old you are now.”

Seeing that her daughter was not answering, Chunniang continued, “Madam Wang told me about her son, Wei Zhan, a few days ago. She said he has been appointed as a Colonel of Zhechong Prefecture, commanding three hundred cavalry soldiers.”

Yingbao: “That’s quite good.” Being appointed as a colonel of Zhechong Prefecture at just the age of seventeen suggests a bright future.

Chunniang twitched at the corner of her eyes, took a sneaky glance at her daughter, and asked, “Do you really think Wei Zhan is good?”

“Yes,” Yingbao nodded.