Cang Lan Dao - Chapter 12.1

Chapter 12.1
Miss, Your Eyes Seem Familiar

“Sister Liu, this is the medicine you asked for.” In the death cell, a young girl held a bunch of herbs and respectfully half-kneeled in front of Luo Wanqing.

Luo Wanqing sat on a chair and rummaged through the herbs inside. Everyone in the surrounding area was far away from them. The young girl with the herbs had been doing her best to restrain the urge to tremble and remain respectful, not daring to raise her head to look at her more than once.

Today was Luo Wanqing’s fifteenth day in the death cell. She had been fighting almost all the time for the previous ten days. She didn’t use internal force in her fight, only her fists, and used her body and her opponent to answer the bar, and only when she was fatally injured would she use her internal force to block it.

She would meditate every night to repair her body, and then on the second day, she would fight with the people in the death cell who had entered the prison earlier.

The actual powerful ones in the death cell wouldn’t fight because they were waiting for the examination from the Inspection Department. Only those ordinary people who had no way out would gang up and make trouble in the death cell.

This situation gave Luo Wanqing a chance. If it was those experts, she might not survive. These ordinary people who were good at fighting were her best opponents. Fighting was the easiest way to grow up. In these ten days, she barely slept a wink. She frequently got sneak attacked in the middle of the night, so she went to the next small room with those people. She took them as many as they came.

Repeatedly weathering death has refined her physical ability and reaction speed. Although she wasn’t good as a student who studied martial arts properly, compared to ordinary people, she was a lot better. After this ten-days-fight, the news of the Inspection Department recruitment finally came. They would start the journey to Dongdu five days after the registration.

Knowing this news, Luo Wanqing gradually reduced the number of fights and gave herself a buffer space to recuperate. But she never neglected her daily meditation, practicing stance, and refining her body. With the previous ten-days-fight reputation, she asked for some necessary things with some person.

After preparing for a few days, the day to leave the death cell and follow the Inspection Department on the road has come. She counted the medicines and put them in her traveling bag.

After waiting for a while, she heard a ringing at the door and then saw the jailer leading a man and a woman to walk through the prison, coming to the death cell.

This man and woman dressed uniformly in black, wearing golden hair crowns and swords on their waist with an ‘inspection’ character on the gold beads. Behind them followed dozens of male prisoners. These prisoners wore iron shackles, but none dared to make a move. They all followed behind the four people honestly, appearing extremely obedient.

“For those going to Dongdu to take the Inspection Department’s examination, all up and come over.” The woman in the lead called out, and several people stood up consecutively.

The Inspection Department examination was before the fall season. Regardless of life and death, those who went there did not return. So those who are capable would rather stay in the death cell and live for a day or so. Maybe if they got lucky, they could wait for an amnesty. Those who dare to participate in the examination are all fearless and capable, so dozens of people are counted as many in the death cell.

Luo Wanqing followed the crowd to the entrance of the death cell, lined up to walk out. When she reached the door, the black-clothed, gold-crowned youth took the booklet and checked it, raising his eyes to look at her, “Liu Xiniang?”

“Yes.”

“What happened to your face?” The other party frowned as he looked at her already scabbed wounds.

Luo Wanqing calmly said, “Scalded during the torture.”

The youth revealed dissatisfaction, and after whispering, “Absurdity,” he let the woman standing next to him put the chains on Luo Wanqing, then turned around and said, “Let’s go.”

The woman who opened the door led Luo Wanqing to the back of the group. The two led the death cell inmates out of the prison together.

At the moment, it was still dawn, the streets were empty, only dozens of officials stood at the entrance, and a row of prison carts used to load in the inmates.

Seeing the two inspector generals, the head official hurriedly dashed toward them and saluted: “Lord, did you check clearly?”

“I’ve already written down the people,” the male inspector general said with a cold face, “If one person is missing in Dongdu, I’ll hold you accountable.”

“Don’t worry, Lord.” the head official hurriedly said. “Every year, this humble servant escorts the prisoners. Nothing will happen.” After both sides exchanged pleasantries for a while, the people from the Inspection Department turned to leave.

Luo Wanqing watched the two men leave, and after thinking about it, she realized that the Inspection Department did not escort them. For one thing, there were not enough attendants. For another, pardoning dead prisoners was a privilege so the emperor would not be at ease. He must insert his own man to supervise the Inspection Department.

As Luo Wanqing pondered, she heard an official shout, “Line up, five people to a carriage, get on the carriage!”

After saying that, the officials came up and drove people away. Luo Wanqing pondered in her heart, five people for one carriage. The probability was that men and women would be separate. The only possible location for men and women to be in the same carriage was where they lined up.

According to what Liu Xiniang said, when she traveled to Dongdu, it would be best to get in touch with Jiangnan’s number one expert, Jiu Shuang. If she could team up with him in the preliminary examination, she could get a higher chance of winning.

She had made inquiries in the death cell that this Jiu Shuang was a man and a swordsman. Not sturdy in appearance, more like a scholar. He was arrested by the Inspection Department and seriously injured. If one wanted to get close to Jiu Shuang, naturally, one couldn’t stay within the confines of the female prisoners all the time.

Luo Wanqing thought, walking towards the back of the group and falling out alone. The female prisoners didn’t want to share the ride with the male prisoners, and they all moved forward to hide far away, vacating their positions.

Seeing Luo Wanqing standing alone outside the group, the official directly shoved her toward where the male and female groups met, urging, “Hurry up and get on the carriage!”

The official turned his head to admonish everyone: “Listen well, the Inspection Department examination will be held in Dongdu three months later. We expect a two-month trip, and the examination will begin when we arrive in Dongdu. If you are all late one day, you won’t be able to catch up with the examination. If you can’t catch up with it, you are all dead! Hear me out! If you’re afraid of dying, hurry up!”

Hearing this, everyone sped up, and soon, everyone was on the carriage.
Luo Wanqing’s carriage had five people sitting in it. Three men and two women.

The other woman in the carriage was skinny. Luo Wanqing had a slight impression that her name was Zhao Yuyan. She seemed to be the woman who stepped by the woman who provoked her on the day she entered the death cell. She had been bullied a lot in the death cell, and for some reason, she had dared to go to the Inspection Department’s examination. Right now, in this carriage where men and women mixed up, she obviously had been shoved over.

As soon as Zhao Yuyan entered the carriage, she hid in the corner, her body lightly trembling, seemingly terrified. As for the other three men, one was born tall and powerful but looked naive. The other was born skinny and scrawny with two thin beards and a pair of dropping eyes but appeared shrewd. These two seem to be two brothers, sitting opposite Luo Wanqing, taking up half of the space in the carriage.

The last person was a man who had stayed in the carriage from the beginning. His head was leaning against the wooden rail of the carriage, his breath was weak, blood seeping out of his white shirt, and he looked like he was seriously injured. His hair covered half of his face, but one could vaguely see that he was handsome. His complexion was fair, and he looked scholarly but had thin calluses on his hands. These calluses were very thin, rooted in the side of the fingers and the edge of the palm. Such calluses were probably because of using the sword. He was a swordsman, heavily injured, and looked scholarly.

Luo Wanqing couldn’t help but leave her mind on this person, trying to figure out how to test each other’s identity. There was a big difference between her strength and Jiu Shuang. If she wanted to befriend Jiu Shuang, she couldn’t let the other party notice her intention. It would be too obvious if she rushed forward. It was better to seek an opportunity and take her time. As she pondered, she moved her gaze away.

The carriage bumped forward, traveling on the dirt road. Not a moment later, the carriage violently swung, and the young man swayed to the side.

The young man weakly climbed the wooden rails, coughing sharply. After a while, the carriage turned the corner and flung again.

Seeing the youth losing weight to the side and about to hit the thin man next to him, Luo Wanqing immediately reached out and stabilized him.

The youth looked up, revealing his clear and moist eyes. He gratefully looked at Luo Wanqing. Smiling while saying, “Thanks …… cough, thanks for your help, Miss.”