You put me in charge of the prison and turned all the female prisoners into female military goddesse

No sooner had Qian Si and his gang left than Fang Shengtian approached, glanced around, and whispered:

"Brother Lu, he said we'd talk another day, but I bet he'll dig up all our secrets once he gets back."

Lu Jing slung the bow over his shoulder: "Let them flip it over, they won't find anything anyway."

Fang Shengtian glanced at him, then didn't continue the topic, but simply patted his arm: "I'll have someone send two jars of wine over tonight to celebrate your victory."

One jar will do.

"Why are you saving money for me?"

"I'm afraid they'll drink too much and collapse during training tomorrow."

Fang Shengtian laughed loudly and left, the sound of his horse's hooves clattering away along the street.

Lu Jing led the female prisoners back, the sun already high in the sky.

The autumn sun wasn't too strong; it felt warm on my back, making me want to yawn even while walking.

Just as they turned through the gate of the Flying Cavalry Camp, Ji Tangtang caught up with them, crumbs of biscuit still hanging from the corner of his mouth:

"Lord Lu, how did you shoot that arrow? It was right in the center of the bullseye at two hundred paces. I couldn't even see the target clearly."

Lu Jing glanced at her sideways and said, "Just practice more."

"I've practiced so much that my arms are swollen, but I still can't aim accurately."

"That's because you haven't practiced enough."

Ji Tangtang pouted and slowed down to fall behind.

Mu Jiangli interjected from the side and nudged her with her elbow: "It's good that it's swollen. It looks thicker and makes your arms look stronger."

"Get lost."

"Look at you, you've even lost the energy to curse. Drink a couple more bowls of mutton soup tonight to replenish your energy."

The two women walked away bickering, and Lu Jing ignored them, turning straight into a side courtyard.

The courtyard was empty; Ye Qingqing and Nilumeduo were still washing arrow shafts by the well.

The arrow shafts left from last night's archery practice were covered in mud, so they wiped them clean one by one with strips of cloth and stacked them to dry at the base of the wall.

Lu Jing walked over, squatted down, picked up one of the arrows, and examined it: "The fletching isn't crooked, is it?"

"It's not crooked, I checked it all," Ye Qingqing said, wiping the stick in her hand and setting it aside. "Sir, are we practicing again tonight?"

"I'm not practicing tonight; I have something else to do."

Ye Qingqing didn't press the matter, nodded, and continued wiping the arrow shaft. Nilumeduo squatted beside her and gestured a couple of times, indicating that she wanted help.

Lu Jing waved his hand: "No need, I can go by myself."

He stood up and walked into the house. When he pushed open the door, Chang Qingzhou was sitting at the table fiddling with the key. Hearing his footsteps, she didn't look up: "You're back? Did you win the shooting contest?"

"We won."

"I knew you'd win," she said, looking up and twirling the key between her fingers. "Are we still going to that abandoned shrine?"

"Go, go now."

Chang Qingzhou stood up and handed the key back to him: "I'll go with you, so we can talk if we can't open the door."

Lu Jing took the key and put it in his pocket, then tucked a short knife into his waistband and casually grabbed a gray cloth robe from behind the door and put it on.

The two of them left without disturbing anyone else; the front yard was bustling with activity.

Ji Tangtang somehow got hold of a bag of roasted chestnuts and was squatting under the eaves sharing them with Mu Jiangli.

No one noticed the two figures slipping out from the side courtyard.

Go south from the east gate of Dangning City, passing through two harvested wheat fields and a dried-up ditch.

From afar, you can see that abandoned shrine perched on a low slope.

There was no courtyard wall, only two mud-brick houses that had collapsed halfway. The front door panels had long since disappeared, and the dark doorway looked like a big mouth.

Chang Qingzhou stood at the bottom of the slope, looked up, and said in a low voice, "This place doesn't look like a place where you can hide anything."

"It's precisely because it doesn't look like it that it's worth coming to see."

The two of them climbed the slope on the gravel, stopped at the doorway, and Lu Jing leaned inside. Sunlight slanted in, allowing him to see what was inside:

Half of a clay statue remains on the earthen platform directly opposite the door.

Its appearance was gruesome: its head was gone, only a neck connected to its shoulders remained, and the altar at its feet was tilted, with a large crack in the tabletop.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of dry soil, and broken tiles and bricks were piled up in the corner.

Lu Jing stepped inside, his boots making a soft rustling sound as they trod on the dry earth.

He took out his key, held it up to the light streaming in from the doorway, and looked again at the inscription on the handle.

Then I matched the direction of the inscriptions with the directions inside the house one by one, and finally my gaze fell on the third floor tile on the left side of the altar.

That brick was a bit darker than the others, and there was a thin mark on its edge, as if it had been pried open.

"Here," Lu Jing squatted down and tapped the brick with his finger; the sound was hollow beneath the surface.

Chang Qingzhou also squatted down and tried to pry the bricks together with an iron skewer, but the bricks didn't budge.

She tried from a different angle, but it still didn't work, so she looked up at Lu Jing and said, "It's being pressed down, not pried open."

Lu Jing stood up, pressed down hard on the brick with both feet, and with a click, the brick sank about half a finger's depth before sliding to the right.

Below, a hidden compartment about a foot square was revealed.

There were no gold or silver treasures in the hidden compartment, only a palm-sized stone box. The surface of the box was smooth, without any patterns or keyholes.

Lu Jing reached out and took out the stone box, placing it on the remaining surface of the altar. The box wasn't heavy, and when he shook it, he could hear something rolling inside.

Chang Qingzhou leaned closer to take a look: "Can it be opened?"

Lu Jing tried to pry open the box lid, but it was tightly closed, as if it were stuck by something.

He looked down at the key in his hand, then at the case, and noticed a thin groove on the side, its shape somewhat resembling the outline of the key handle, but much shallower.

I tried to press the key handle against it; it fit perfectly. Then I turned it gently, and a slight clicking sound came from inside the box. The lid popped open a crack.

Chang Qingzhou held her breath as Lu Jing lifted the lid of the box.

It was lined with old silk cloth, on which lay a tightly rolled roll of kraft paper, tied with a red string.

Lu Jing took out the parchment and untied the red string to unfold it.

The drawing on the paper is a map.

The marked terrain vaguely indicates that it is a mountainous area southwest of Dangning City. One area is circled with cinnabar and has four small characters written next to it: "Hidden place for troops".

Chang Qingzhou leaned closer for a look, lowering her voice even further: "A hiding place for soldiers... does that mean there are soldiers in the mountains?"

"Not soldiers," Lu Jing stared at the cinnabar circle, "but a place where soldiers can hide. There are caves and water sources, it's well-hidden."

He paused, rolled up the parchment and put it into his pocket, then put the stone box back into the hidden compartment, put the brick back in place and tamp it down, then stood up and patted the dirt off his knees.

"Let's go back first," he said. "We need to examine this carefully."

Chang Qingzhou nodded without asking further questions. The two of them left the abandoned shrine one after the other. As they walked down the earthen slope, she glanced back at the two dilapidated houses, then caught up and asked in a low voice, "Was that map useful?"

"Whether it's useful or not depends on whether the road is still passable. I'll take two people to test it out tomorrow."

Chang Qingzhou quickened her pace to catch up with him: "So, are you going to sleep tonight or not?"

"Sleep, go back and sleep."

"Do you even believe what you're saying?"

Lu Jing didn't stop walking, but the corner of his mouth twitched: "Whether I believe it or not is none of your business."

The side courtyard became quiet after nightfall.

Lu Jing didn't light an oil lamp; instead, he unfolded the parchment map again and looked at it by the little moonlight coming in from the window.

He had already memorized the location of the cinnabar circle during the day. Now he needed to confirm how to get there from the southwest gate of Dangning City in the least conspicuous and safest way.

He traced the dotted lines on the map with his finger.

He noted down two forks in the road and a low hill that needed to be crossed, then rolled up the map and put it back in his pocket.

Two night birds called out outside the window, and the watchman in the distance struck his clapper; it was already the second watch of the night.

Lu Jing leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, mentally reviewed tomorrow's route, and finally fell into a deep sleep.