Chapter 87 — Kidnapped
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
Dou Yan tried to stand up, her head swimming, but a cry of pain from Sujuan reached her ears. Only then did she realize the carriage had overturned and she was sitting on its roof. Bie Suxin was crouched at her side, watching her anxiously, while Bie Sulan lay at the carriage window looking out, and behind them Sujuan huddled in the corner, curled into a ball from the pain.
"Miss, are you all right?" Bie Suxin asked her again, worried.
"I'm fine." Dou Yan heard how hoarse her own voice was.
Bie Sulan turned back, uneasy. "Elder Sister, what do we do? Those two with the three-section staffs are terribly fierce, and there's another with a saber. The guards can't hold against them."
"Let me see!" Dou Yan crawled to the carriage window.
The seven or eight men besieging them were all burly fellows with villainous faces. Apart from the two with three-section staffs and the one with the saber, the rest had been cut down by the Dou estate guards, and six or seven of the guards were wounded too. Only their leader and two others, quicker than the rest, were still barely holding on, and even they looked about to give way and be struck down. The coachman had been flung into a ditch not far from the carriage, his face buried in the water, motionless—plainly there was little hope for him. Liu Wan, who had come to warn them, was cowering in the roadside shrubs, trembling too hard to move.
Dou Zhiwei's mind raced.
This was an age of peace and plenty. In Zhending County one did not speak of bandits—there had not been a murder case in years. These men had demanded the Dou estate's carriage by name, so they had clearly come prepared. But which did they mean to rob—the Dou estate's carriage, or hers, Dou Zhiwei's? If it was the Dou family they were after, that was one thing. She had merely blundered into it; the Second Madam and Dou Zhen would surely do all they could to manage the affair. But if they had come for her... then why had they come?
If it was for money, her uncle would not harm her, and the Dou family would not wish her harmed either.
That left only one possibility.
Ransom!
Dou Yan broke into a cold sweat.
If these men merely wanted to make a fortune, then her third uncle, who managed the Dou family's affairs, and her third cousin, who was always out and about, were both renowned. If anyone was to be robbed, it should have been the third uncle and the third cousin.
What she feared was that these men had been put up to it!
And the only people who knew of the great fortune in her name, and could also know her movements, were the Dou clan!
The Second Madam was merely her father's cousin's wife; her third uncle merely her father's cousin.
Would this person's influence make the Second Madam and her third uncle give up on rescuing her?
More than half these robbers were dead or wounded already. Would they fly into a rage and kill her to vent their spite?
The shadow of death had never been so close to Dou Yan.
She asked the Bie sisters, "Are you absolutely certain you can cut a way out and get me to safety?"
Bie Suxin and Bie Sulan looked at each other, both wearing expressions of hesitation.
Dou Yan thought it over, then clenched her teeth. "Suxin, isn't Chen Lanxu working as a guard for someone? Go to him at once and tell him what's happening here. I'll offer a reward of ten thousand taels of silver. Then go back and see how Aunt Cui is doing, and send word to Dou Yan that I've been robbed. Sulan, slip out of the carriage quietly and follow after them however you can, and see where they hide me. So long as they do not take my life along the way, do not strike. Meet back here when it's done. Sujuan, you can't even outrun me—sending you off would only do you harm. You stay with me!"
Sujuan clutched Dou Zhiwei's arm tightly.