Chapter 1 Search
"Quick, surround the Pan family and don't let even a fly fly out!"

The sound of hurried footsteps and the sound of horse hooves rang out in the alley. The leading few people reined in their horses in front of the gate of Pan's house, and then jumped off their horses. The fish scales on their flying fish costumes sparkled in the sun, stinging Pan Yun's eyes.

Almost at the moment they dismounted, she dodged and hid behind a wall, holding her breath, and then slowly exhaled after making sure that no one noticed her.

I heard a "bang" and the door was pushed open, followed by my aunt's panicked voice and my uncle's angry scolding.

The scene from two months ago happened again. She clenched her fists, suppressed the murderous intent in her heart, turned around and left without looking back.

But she did not go far. Instead, she walked around the corner, around several neighbors, and stopped at a small door in a side alley where there was a pile of firewood.

Just as the second brother said, the Qiao family liked to pile firewood at the west corner gate. There was a wall at the end of the alley here, and usually no one came here.

Pan Yun crouched down and hid under the firewood, then sat cross-legged, pinching her fingers and silently reciting a mantra. It seemed as if a ray of starlight fell into her eyes, and the two paper birds she left at the Pan family opened their eyes at the same time.

Through the eyes of the paper bird, she saw the three Jinyiwei who first broke into Pan's house. The man standing in the middle had a solemn expression on his face, "Catch all the living people in this house and check them one by one!"

"Yes!"

There were not many members of the Pan family. After her father and brother were exiled, there were only Mrs. Pan, her uncle's family of three, and two servants, Aunt Gui and her son, in the family.

Pan Tao stood in front of his family, glaring at the Jinyiwei with a dark face, "What do you want to do? My brother Pan Hong's case has been closed, and this is my home now!"

Cao Ye sneered, "It's not up to you to decide whether it's tied or not, search for me!"

The Jinyiwei rushed into each room like wolves.

The Royal Guards searched the house and dug deep into the ground. There was a sound of objects being smashed in the house. Pan Tao tried to endure it. His wife Wang was standing by with a terrified look on her face. She held on to old lady Pan tightly and buried her head, not daring to raise it, for fear that the Royal Guards would see something on her face.

The Pan family was not big, and soon the Jinyiwei came out and reported to the three people: "Sir, we didn't find it."

Cao Ye frowned slightly and asked, "We haven't found the person yet, but where is the thing?"

The Royal Guard lowered his voice and said, "No clothes or supplies for the little girl were found in the house."

He suspected the intelligence was wrong.

Cao Ye glanced at Wang Yong standing beside him.

He brought the information.

Wang Yong wanted to take credit for this, but he loudly refuted: "Impossible, my information cannot be wrong. Someone saw a little girl of six or seven years old in their yard..."

When Mrs. Pan heard this, tears suddenly fell from her eyes. She looked up and cried loudly, "Nannan, Nannan, are you back? You also know that your father and brother are in trouble, so did you come back to see them?"

"But you came back too late. Your father and brother have already gone to Datong. If you want to see them, you have to go to Datong. You are only seven years old. It is not the right place to go. You should go back to the underworld quickly and stop thinking about the people in the world of the living..."

Pan Tao also had a sad look on his face, and explained to the Jinyiwei: "My brother did have a seven-year-old daughter, who died of illness in the early spring of last year. This is known to all relatives and neighbors. If you don't believe it, you can ask the neighbors or my relatives."

After a pause, he turned to his son Pan Bai and said, "Go get the letter that the clan leader wrote to your uncle last year. I remember it was mentioned in it." Pan Bai agreed and was about to go when a Jinyiwei dropped a box with a snap and grabbed a dozen letters. He presented them to Cao Ye and said, "Sir, all the letters found in the search are here."

He took out a letter and handed it to Cao Ye.

Cao Ye took it and scanned it quickly. It was a letter from the patriarch of the Pan family to Pan Hong. There was a clause in it that he agreed to record the name of Pan Hong's youngest daughter, Pan Yun, in the family tree, but he did not agree to bury her in the ancestral tomb. The reason was that she was only seven years old and died young, and there was no precedent in the family for burying a daughter who died young in the ancestral tomb.

Cao Ye checked carefully and confirmed that the words on the letter were old. He then held the envelope up to the sunlight and examined it carefully to confirm that the stamps on it were those left by the various post stations. Only then did he put the letter away with a sullen face.

His face looked ugly, but he tried hard not to glare at Wang Yong. After all, he recognized the eunuch Wang Zhen as his uncle, so he had a powerful backer.

He dropped the letter. Although he made a mistake, he would not apologize to the Pan family. He sneered and said, "You'd better behave yourself. If you violate the rules, we, the Jinyiwei, will never let you go."

He glanced at Old Lady Pan and Pan Tao and warned them, "If there are any complaints, it means that they are dissatisfied with the court and His Majesty. Pan Hong accepted bribes and released criminals. His Majesty has shown mercy by only sentencing him to exile. You must not let the emperor down."

The Pan family members didn't even dare to show any resentment on their faces.

Cao Ye was satisfied with what he saw, so he turned around and led his men away.

Wang Yong didn't want to leave, and his eyes swept across the Pan family with a vicious look. However, Old Lady Pan and Aunt Gui were the oldest, so Wang didn't fit the bill. Aunt Gui's sons Changsheng and Pan Bai were two teenagers, and they were both male, so they didn't fit the bill either...

He gritted his teeth secretly and despised them at the same time. The Pan family was so poor that they didn't even have a young maid in the house. If there was one, no matter if she was seven or eight years old, or seventeen or eighteen years old, he would beat her until she admitted that she was Pan Hong's daughter.

Unable to frame him, Wang Yong could only leave unwillingly.

Liu Jing, another captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who had been silent, finally turned his gaze away from the pile of letters. He swept his eyes around the yard and paused when he saw a paper bird hanging under the corridor.

The paper bird's eyes were so vivid that he felt like it was looking at him.

Pan Yun, who was sitting cross-legged under the firewood pile, looked at him through the eyes of the paper bird. They both felt something strange and became alert.

Pan Yun: Can he see her?

Pan Jun did not dare to underestimate these Jinyiwei. This world had spiritual energy. Although it was not as strong as the world she came from after the recovery of spiritual energy, there must be extraordinary people in the world.

If there are extraordinary people, there must be extraordinary things. As one of the emperor's eyes, the Jinyiwei will most likely be involved in some of these things.

Thinking of her current level of cultivation, Pan Jun did not dare to be arrogant. Seeing Wang Yong turned around and left unwillingly, she immediately cut off the connection with the paper bird.

So she didn't see it. Before leaving, Liu Jing walked past Pan Tao, walked up to him, pulled down the paper bird hanging on the corridor, looked at its eyes carefully, then held it in his palm and took it away.

Pan Tao's heart was pounding. Those were the things Pan Jun had hung up before she left. He didn't know why she had bothered to hang up two paper birds in such an emergency, but he vaguely knew that they were important things.

He clenched his fists and wanted to stop him from taking the paper bird, but was stopped by Old Mrs. Pan. She shook her head at him calmly, and the whole family watched in silence as Liu Jing took the bird and left.

(End of this chapter)