Exile? A mad, wicked woman empties the national treasury to escape famine.

Chu Jingrui rolled his eyes at Chu Jinsheng. The thought that Chu Jinsheng's sudden appearance had made Wang Zheng wary, preventing him from capturing Wang Zheng alive, filled him with anger!

Without saying anything more, he tucked the map into his pocket, strode to his horse, mounted it, and rode away without looking back.

As soon as he left, Liu Zi and the rest of his men followed closely behind, and the group quickly returned to Liancheng on horseback.

As soon as they left, Xiao Wu quickly moved closer to Chu Jinsheng's side:

"Your Highness, what should we do now? Should we send someone down to look for Wang Zheng? What if he's still alive?"

"Nonsense, we definitely need to send people to search. They sent so many people, we need to send more people than they do!"

Chu Jingrui only has Liu Zi as his capable side, but I have the two of you by my side. Xiao Wu will come back to Liancheng with me, and Xiao San will lead people to search down the cliff.

Once we find them, it's still the same old story: we need to see them alive or dead, understand?

"You must bring him back before Chu Jingrui's men find him. You all saw Wang Zheng's appearance clearly just now, so hurry up!"

Having received the order, Xiao San dared not linger any longer. He summoned a group of men from behind and asked several of the guards for directions down the cliff.

Having decided on the direction they would go, without wasting any more time, Xiao San and his men mounted their horses and rode away without looking back.

According to the Prince's men, there is only one path leading down the cliff, and it is not very wide and quite steep. The Second Prince's men have already left, and they need to hurry up and catch up.

After Xiao San and her entourage left, Xiao Wu and Chu Jinsheng watched the direction they went before mounting their horses and departing as well.

In just a short while, the noisy cliff became deserted.

Meanwhile, Xie Moyao, holding onto the vine he had tied, had already reached halfway up the cliff.

He had considered going around to the bottom of the cliff from the other side to search for Wang Zheng, but seeing the way Wang Zheng fell, he worried that Wang Zheng might get stuck on the cliff.

Left with no other choice, he tied a few vines together and bound them to his body, relying on his light-footed skills to descend the cliff.

While we're on the way, let's see if there's any sign of Wang Zheng getting caught.

Halfway down, he was starting to feel weak. Remembering the bundle on his back, he reached behind him, took out a few chocolates, tore open the wrappers, and popped them into his mouth. After a couple of bites, he regained some strength and pulled himself up the vine to continue his descent.

Having not seen Wang Zheng along the way, Xie Moyao didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

He could only pray that Wang Zheng had fallen into the pool below. Wang Zheng could swim a little, so if he had fallen into the pool, there was still a chance of survival.

He would rather Wang Zheng had been taken away by Chu Jingrui and Chu Jinsheng, at least he would know that Wang Zheng was safe.

Even if Wang Zheng falls into the hands of Chu Jingrui and Chu Jinsheng, he and Ji Yunshu have a way to bring him out safely.

Just then, I vaguely heard the sound of horses' hooves coming from the valley.

Xie Moyao understood that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, it was likely that the First Prince and the Second Prince's men had gone to the bottom of the cliff to look for Wang Zheng.

Thinking of this, Xie Moyao quickened his pace, took out a few biscuits or something from his bundle, and stuffed them haphazardly into his mouth to fill his stomach.

He then grabbed the vine in his hand and slid down the cliff while observing his surroundings.

Meanwhile, Ji Yunshu from Anjia Village felt somewhat uneasy all day.

In the morning, everyone broke the ice and loaded the fishing nets. She was busy at home, occasionally checking the area behind the house to see if Xie Moyao had returned.

For some reason, her eyelids kept twitching today.

My original plan to go into town for a stroll was abandoned.

She just wanted to wait at home for Xie Moyao's news, and from time to time she would go out into the yard to observe, hoping to see if Xie Moyao was sending any signals in the air.

She waited all afternoon but still didn't see him. She started to panic and couldn't sit still, pacing back and forth in the yard from time to time.

Xiao Lan and Chen Shi occasionally appeared in the courtyard and noticed that she seemed a little uneasy, assuming that she was tired from going into the mountains to catch wild boars alone.

"Third Sister-in-law, are you tired? Why don't you come inside and lie down for a while? We're already taking care of the rest of the wild boar."

"Yes, Third Sister-in-law, you look exhausted today. Xiaolan and I will start a fire later to smoke the meat. Why don't you go inside and rest for a while? You look a little pale."

Ji Yunshu said, "Second sister-in-law, I'm fine, and I'm not that tired."

It's still early, you two stay home and smoke the cured meat, I'll go check on the fields.

By the way, the fish we caught that we didn't finish can also be salted like pork and then hung up to smoke.

Then we can eat smoked fish; the taste is different from cured meat.

Fearing that Xiao Lan and Chen Shi would worry, Ji Yunshu did not directly say that she was worried about Xie Moyao.

She can worry about it alone. Since there's no news about Xie Moyao right now, bringing it up will only upset everyone.

After Ji Yunshu finished speaking, she didn't linger in the yard. She picked up a small hoe from the corner, went straight out of the yard, and headed towards her own field.

The wind and snow have been getting heavier these past two days. The shed she built was made of oil paper, which is fine for short-term protection against the wind and snow, but it might not be able to withstand the ravages in the long run.

She had to go to the field and reinforce the oil paper.

Meanwhile, on the ice, many people were still fishing on the river. Many of them had hands and feet that were almost frozen, and they would breathe on them from time to time to keep warm.

Ji Yunshu glanced around and saw that almost every household had someone fishing on the ice.

The number of miners not far away was much larger than before.

With a large number of miners, the openings in the ice became larger and larger, but as their activity grew louder, many fish under the ice were scared away.

At this moment, there was a pile of fish in front of them, probably around a hundred.

When they first started breaking the ice, the miners were incredibly excited, but now they've calmed down and keep glancing at the river surface.

Ji Yunshu passed by without making a sound, guessing that the miners had probably caught most of the fish in the river.

After all, apart from her fishing net, the miners caught the most fish on the entire river.

No matter how many fish there are in this river, after being caught by so many people for a day, they should be almost gone. If we keep adding fish, we can only catch a couple every now and then.