She loses if she divorces, the reborn mistress only divorces her husband

Xiang Mingfang introduced Li Jingwan as he walked forward.

"Miss, most of the people on the first floor are self-selling. Although the price is cheaper, their identities may be fake."

"This is the border, not like the capital or other areas. If we want to buy slaves, we have to choose those with clean identities and clear backgrounds, so as not to leave any trouble behind."

As he was speaking, a staircase appeared in front of him and Xiang Mingfang continued.

"The second floor is where official slaves are bought and sold. Most of these people were sold or exiled because their families broke the law. There are special official guards to manage them. Their backgrounds are clearly recorded. Let's go up and take a look."

Li Jingwan nodded and followed him to the second floor. As expected, it was different from the first floor, which had its own sign and was divided into many areas of varying sizes.

There were varying numbers of official slaves standing in each area, guarded by two or more official guards.

Guanya communicated with buyers because they could get a commission after the official slaves were sold, so they were particularly active.

Xiang Mingfang took a look, selected an area, and walked forward to chat with Guan Ya.

Li Jingwan was waiting nearby, looking around.

Perhaps it was because today was the market day, there was a constant stream of people coming to the human trading market, passing by Li Jingwan.

At this time, an ordinary-looking man from the Sheng Dynasty walked up to Li Jingwan and started chatting with a smile on his face.

"Miss, are you here to buy a slave?"

Li Jingwan glanced at him and nodded slightly.

"I saw you coming up with that master just now." The man pointed at Xiang Mingfang who was talking to the official in front, "I am also an official here. I have a few good official slaves. Would you like to take a look?"

"No need." Li Jingwan was not interested.

"If you look at it, you will definitely find something you like." The man spared no effort to introduce

"The official slaves I have are all exiled from Congzhou. One of them is a cook and the other is a maid. They can cook. Another is a local young lady who can write and draw. She will be a personal maid and is definitely worthy of your status."

Li Jingwan wanted to leave, but when she heard the word "Congzhou", she became careful.

Ma Wenpo, who delivered Lin and was the one who orchestrated the baby swap, was from Congzhou.

The people sent by Chu Tingyu are looking for Ma Wenpo in Congzhou, but there has been no news.

Seeing that she didn't refuse immediately, the man became more enthusiastic.

"Miss, go take a look and ask them a few questions. If it's not appropriate, just leave. I promise I won't stop you. How about that?"

He pointed behind him, "It's right there, in the northwest corner."

Li Jingwan saw that it was not far away and she had nothing to do at the moment, so she agreed.

Xiang Mingfang was looking at the backgrounds of these official slaves. When he heard Li Jingwan say that she wanted to go to the front to take a look, he nodded.

"Miss, don't go too far. I'll come find you later."

This floor is full of official slaves and guards, so he is not worried about safety.

Li Jingwan followed the man forward. When they passed the stairs, another group of people came up and the place suddenly became a little crowded.

She stepped back, her foot stepped on something, and she looked down.

It turned out that she stepped on the man's boots, and she apologized quickly.

"It's okay." The man smiled good-naturedly and stretched out his hand to help her separate from the people next to her. "Miss, please. We'll be there soon."

Li Jingwan nodded, and just as she took a step, something suddenly flashed through her mind.

She lowered her head slightly and looked at the man's boots again.

Looking at the boots of the officials around him, he suddenly became suspicious.

It is now late autumn and it is cold in Tacheng in the mornings and evenings, so most of the men here wear local boots with thick soles made of animal skins.

But the man was wearing soft boots from the capital, the soles and uppers of which were relatively thin and not warm.

Since he is an official and has been in Tacheng for quite some time, why is he wearing boots from the capital in this season?

Li Jingwan looked more closely and saw that he was holding one hand in front of him to point the way, while the other hand was placed under his left abdomen, which made it convenient for him to take things out of his clothes at any time.

This action is indeed a bit strange.

She then took the initiative to ask, "Brother, where are these official slaves in Congzhou from?"

"Several places." The man's answer was very general.

Since they are officials who are engaged in the trade of official slaves, if they want to do business, they should be very familiar with the origins of official slaves.

Li Jingwan's doubts deepened, and she asked again, "Are there any in the Huangjiaqiao area? I heard that's the busiest and most crowded place in Congzhou, and half of the people live in that area."

The man answered immediately, "Yes."

Li Jingwan's heart tightened and her steps slowed down.

There's something wrong with this guy!

Because Huangjiaqiao was a place name she made up casually, but he said it existed.

He is clearly lying!

"Miss, what's wrong?" Seeing that she was walking slowly, the man moved his right hand above his left abdomen.

"I think the official slaves here are not bad." Li Jingwan pretended to be calm, "I want to take a look first."

"Go and take a look at the official slaves I have on hand. If you are not satisfied, come over here." The man said as he walked to the back beside her, "Otherwise, the better ones will be picked by others later."

This was obviously a move to prevent her from running backwards.

At this time, there were more and more people, and it was quite crowded. Li Jingwan knew that she couldn't run fast even if she wanted to.

Moreover, this person probably has a knife on him. If we call for help, he might do something desperate, which would be disastrous.

She didn't have time to think about why this man was targeting her, so she could only think of a way to get rid of him.

Seeing another group of people walking up, Li Jingwan had an idea.

"There are too many people here now." She fanned her nose in disdain, acting like a typical rich lady.

"It also stinks. It must be the smell of those people in front of me. I'll go over after they leave."

The man was a little anxious, "Where is the smell? Miss, over there..."

As they were talking, a new group of people came upstairs. Li Jingwan immediately took out her purse from her bosom, ripped open the opening, and threw the coins inside upwards, scattering them like flowers.

She pushed the man into the crowd and shouted, "Whose money fell? There is so much money!"

When they heard that there was silver, everyone immediately became agitated and turned around or lowered their heads to look.

Caught off guard, the man was squeezed into the crowd of people picking up money. He tried to push them away in frustration, but was unable to move.

Li Jingwan thought she was out of danger temporarily and wanted to find Xiang Mingfang quickly.

As a result, when she turned around, she saw a bearded man running towards her and taking something out of his arms. There was a flash of light.

She immediately realized that the bearded man was the man's accomplice.

More than one person is targeting her!

Li Jingwan turned and ran, and the bearded man immediately caught up with her.

She was not familiar with the terrain here, so she could only run around like a headless fly towards places with fewer people. Her heart pounding almost louder than her breathing.

The sound of the bearded man's footsteps behind her was like a death warrant, forcing her to use all her strength and not dare to slow down at all.

There was someone in the middle of the road ahead. Li Jingwan quickly went around him, while the bearded man pushed the person aside.

The passerby almost fell down, and chased after him, grabbed the bearded man's clothes and started yelling.

"Hey, what are you doing? Do you have eyes? You pushed me down and then left?!"

The bearded man turned around and pushed him away again, with a murderous look on his face.

Seeing that the person who pushed him was holding a knife, the passers-by were so scared that they ran away quickly.

The bearded man had no time to deal with the obstruction and continued to chase Li Jingwan.

Li Jingwan ran all the way until she saw the end of the corridor in front of her, her face turned pale.

Hearing the voice behind her, she turned back and spoke as calmly as possible.

"Big brother, I can give you as much silver as you want, just tell me."

The bearded man approached with a knife in hand, "We have a rule in this business. If we take the money from the buyer, we must kill you."

"Who is the buyer?" Li Jingwan asked as she retreated, glancing down from the corner of her eye.

"I'm sorry." The bearded man said coldly, "We are also paid to do this. Sorry for the offense."

As he spoke, he rushed forward with the knife in his hand. Li Jingwan was prepared. She picked up the flowerpot beside the corridor and smashed it forward. As expected, the bearded man stretched out his hand to block it, and the knife fell to the ground.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Jingwan kicked him in the waist.

Zhu Gaozhi taught her that there was an acupuncture point here that could make the body feel sore and weak.

The bearded man bent his legs as expected, but his physical fitness was much stronger than that of ordinary people. He did not kneel down. Instead, he reached out and grabbed one of Li Jingwan's arms and pulled her forward.

Li Jingwan followed the momentum and turned around, and the two of them leaned against each other.

She knew she couldn't win a fight with force, so she had only one last resort, a desperate battle.

The corridor was narrow, so she jumped up and pushed her feet against the wall.

The railing was not as high as her waist, and under the reaction force, she and the bearded man fell backwards at the same time, fell from the second floor together, smashed through the ceiling downstairs, and fell heavily to the ground.

Li Jingwan felt as if her internal organs were about to fall out, her brain was dizzy, and she felt pain in her ankles.

But the situation was critical now and the bearded man was still there. She didn't dare to delay and quickly rolled to the side and looked over cautiously.

Then, she found that the bearded man was lying on the ground motionless, with blood flowing from under him.

Li Jingwan took a closer look and immediately broke out in a cold sweat, filled with fear.

There was a sharp piece of wood as long as a palm stuck in the bearded man's back.

Just now when she was on the second floor, she saw a shed below and thought of jumping down to try to survive.

Fortunately, the beard served as a cushion for her when she landed, otherwise she would be the one getting stabbed.

There was a noise coming from outside. Li Jingwan didn't dare to go and confirm whether the bearded man was dead or not. She had to leave first.

In addition to these two people, there may be other accomplices!

Thinking of this, she wiped two handfuls of dust from the ground with her hands and smeared them on her face to cover her face.

Since these people were able to find her, they must have seen her portrait.

After standing up, Li Jingwan immediately gasped, her face wrinkled in pain, and a piercing pain came from her right ankle.

Most likely the bones were dislocated when you fell.

But she couldn't care less about that now, she had to leave quickly.

Enduring the severe pain in her ankle, Li Jingwan bent over and walked forward cautiously.

As soon as I walked out of the shed, I suddenly felt a headache.

With a groan, she fell down.

-

When everyone on the second floor was scrambling to pick up the silver, it caused quite a commotion.

Xiang Mingfang noticed it, and immediately dropped Guan Ya and walked away, shouting, "Miss, Miss!"

He struggled through the crowd of people picking up money and walked in the direction Li Jingwan pointed before she left, but he didn't see anyone.

"Miss!" Xiang Mingfang was a little panicked. After all, there were more men than women here, so he had to make sure nothing happened.

He was frantically looking for someone when a man rushed in and shouted.

"Oh no, someone... killed someone, a man with a knife."

Xiang Mingfang's heart sank, and he ran over quickly, "Where is he? Who is he going to kill?"

"He ran to the corridor over there." The passerby was still terrified, "It seemed like he was chasing...chasing a woman..."

Without waiting for him to finish, Xiang Mingfang immediately ran over and walked to the end of the corridor. Looking down, he found the ceiling that had been smashed through and a bearded man lying unconscious on the ground in a pool of blood.

But Li Jingwan was not there.

He was so frightened that his scalp went numb. He ran inside again, tripped over his left foot and fell to the ground. He got up and rushed forward.

The crowd picking up silver on the second floor had already dispersed a little. Xiang Mingfang ran downstairs, but he had to leave the market first and run to the back before he could enter the shed.

As a result, as soon as he rushed out of the market gate, he ran into Chu Tingyu, who was passing by in casual clothes, with Xu Rui and Qi Ming and several personal guards.

"Your Highness, it's Steward Xiang." Qi Ming recognized him first.

When Xiang Mingfang saw them, he ran to Chu Tingyu in panic with a tense expression.

"Your Majesty, someone is chasing the young lady. The young lady...the young lady is missing..."

Chu Tingyu's face darkened. "When did it happen?"

"Just now...someone saw..." He pointed to the back of the market, "the killer fell into the shed..."

Chu Tingyu made a prompt decision.

"Qi Ming, seal all the entrances and exits of the market, and inform the market manager that no one is allowed to leave."

"Butler Xiang, take us to the shed."

"Yes." Qi Ming took the order, anxious in his eyes, and took action immediately.

Fortunately, to prevent official slaves from escaping, the market had only one entrance and exit.

Qi Ming asked two people to guard the place while one informed the steward, and he went in to search first.

News of the murder had spread throughout the market. Everyone was terrified and tried to run outside, but they were stopped by the guards and the market manager.

The killer who initially went looking for Li Jingwan also mixed in with the crowd, trying to escape in the chaos.

Qi Ming's eyes swept across the crowd sharply, his voice loud as a young man's, but without allowing any objection.

"By order of Prince Jing, no one is allowed to leave and everyone must stay where they are. If anyone disobeys..."

He drew out the knife he carried with him and said, "Slash immediately."

As expected, no one dared to move.

Xiang Mingfang brought Chu Tingyu and Xu Rui to the shed. The bearded man was still lying on the ground, with blood all over the floor.

Xu Rui stepped forward, touched his carotid artery with two fingers, opened his eyelids, and then shook his head.

"already dead."

Xiang Mingfang's usual composure was completely gone, even his lips turned pale, "Where's the young lady?"

He quickly looked around, "Miss, Miss?"

Chu Tingyu also wanted to look for it, but he saw a small thing in front of him, so he went forward and picked it up.

It was a broken orchid hairpin, broken into several pieces.

What he picked up was exactly the part of Butou's head, and a small part of the orchid on it was missing.

Chu Tingyu's heart suddenly sank.

Because he seemed to have seen Li Jingwan wearing this hairpin.

Xiang Mingfang walked over at this time, saw what Chu Tingyu was holding, and screamed out.

"This is the hairpin that the young lady wore today. I've seen it before!"

"She loves orchids the most, and many of her jewelry is made in the shape of orchids."