Chapter 210 204. Escape
"Gulu gulu..."

Xu Shu drank one cup of wine after another under the oil lamp. Finally, the small jar of wine was empty. Xu Shu threw the cup in his hand to the ground, making a crisp sound of breaking.

"My Lord?! What happened?"

The servants waiting outside the door were frightened by the sound and hurried over to ask Xu Shu.

"Nothing, you guys can leave first."

Xu Shu's face was a little red because he drank too quickly, but he was conscious. After sending the servants away, he folded the two letters on the table, went into the house to change his clothes, picked up his sword that had not been unsheathed for a long time from the shelf beside him, and hung his official seal in the middle of the house with a long rope like Guan Yu's.

Then Xu Shu took out paper and pen, wrote a few words, pressed it with his inkstone, and placed it under the official seal.

After doing all this, Xu Shu opened the door of his room and walked out.

"Sir, you..."

The servant saw Xu Shu walking straight out and hurried over to ask.

"I'm drunk and I need to go out for a walk. You don't have to follow me, just clean the other rooms. If I come back and find you slacking off, I'll punish you."

Xu Shu just looked like he was going out for a walk, so the servant naturally didn't suspect anything. After all, it was not like Xu Shu had been out before, so he quickly agreed and didn't dare to ask any more questions.

Xu Shu left the gate and went straight to Yuelai Inn two streets away.

It was almost dawn, and Xu Shu had been drinking alone in his house all night. There were people walking on the street, but no one paid attention to Xu Shu as everyone had their own things to do.

"Sir, you are...?"

When they entered Yuelai Inn, the guy on duty saw Xu Shu coming so early and hurried forward to greet him.

"Looking for someone. A guest named Wang."

When Xu Shu described Wang Yi's appearance, the servant immediately understood.

"Sir, please come this way. This gentleman said that if someone comes to see you, he will take them to see him immediately. Please follow me."

The waiter did not dare to slack off and immediately took Xu Shu to a room.

"The master is inside. I will leave first."

Xu Shu nodded, and after the waiter left, he knocked on the door.

"who is it?"

Wang Yi's voice came from inside, and he seemed to wake up immediately, which shows that he is definitely not an ordinary messenger.

"It's me. I have something to say."

Xu Shu lowered his voice at the door, but Wang Yi had just met Xu Shu last night, so he would know what he was saying. He hurriedly opened the door and saw Xu Shu standing at his door. A look of surprise appeared in his eyes.

"My lord, please come inside."

Wang Yi hurriedly let Xu Shu into the house, and it was unknown what the two of them talked about inside.

After waiting for half an hour, Wang Yi called on all the soldiers disguised as guards to prepare to set off. Several people drove a carriage loaded with some Luoyang specialties. As soon as the city gate opened, they went out of the south gate and prepared to return to Jingzhou via Nanyang.

After all, Luoyang was the heartland of Cao Wei and the seat of the emperor, so the gatekeepers made a quick inspection and let them pass after confirming that there was nothing suspicious. They did not notice that their caravan had an older guard with half-white hair and beard compared to when they came.

"My Lord... My Lord?"

After a while, the servants in Xu Shu's house had not seen Xu Shu for almost a day, so they knocked on Xu Shu's door, but no one responded, so they pushed the door open. "My lord? I'm sorry..."

As expected, the room was empty, with only an empty wine jug and broken wine glasses on the floor. A large official seal was hung on the table by a rope, with a piece of paper underneath.

As a native of the Central Plains, this servant had naturally heard about Guan Yu being given the golden seal. He hurriedly looked at the letter on the table, and it was indeed a farewell letter. Frightened, he hurriedly ran towards the palace with the letter and the official seal.

Although Cao Cao said that he was more confident in Xu Shu, it was impossible that there was no one monitoring him. The servants in Xu Shu's house were all Cao Wei's spies, in case Xu Shu really ran away one day.

However, Xu Shu had been well-behaved for more than a decade, which inevitably made them relax. Even yesterday, they did not have any sense of crisis. Who could have thought that Xu Shu actually ran away.

"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened. The servants in Xu Shu's mansion have reported that Xu Shu has hung up his official seal and has disappeared."

Cao Pi was walking in the back garden after lunch. He had almost finished today's affairs, so he took a half-day to relax, enjoy the breeze and look at the scenery. As a result, the guards came to disturb his good mood.

"What? Xu Shu left without saying goodbye?"

Cao Pi was confused. Although Cao Cao had told him about this possibility, Xu Shu had many opportunities to escape before, but he chose to stay put, so even Cao Pi did not expect it.

The guards followed Cao Pi's instructions and took the servant to the back garden.

"what happened?"

Although Cao Pi was sitting in the pavilion, his imperial aura was so intimidating that he still frightened his servants and made them kneel down.

"Your Majesty... I don't know. Lord Xu said he was going out for a walk this morning, and he hasn't returned yet. I opened the door of his room and saw the official seal and this letter."

The servant hurriedly handed over the paper left by Xu Shu, and the guard passed it to Cao Pi.

"If your heart is not here, you should leave. When we meet again someday, we will settle our grudges."

Just sixteen words fully expressed Xu Shu's meaning.

"Damn you Xu Yuanzhi! How dare he...!"

Even though Cao Pi was in a good mood, he was a little angry at this moment. My Cao family provided you with good food and drink, high positions and generous salaries, and you ran away, but you still want to settle accounts with me in the future? Who do you think you are, a ranger? Oh, I really was...

"How could he get away? Who has he been meeting recently?"

Cao Pi calmed down a little and immediately interrogated the servants in Xu's mansion, hoping to find some clues.

The servant did not dare to be negligent and told the man the news that Wang Yi had come yesterday.

"Investigate, investigate! Have the city gate captain and Luoyang magistrate investigate! Once you find out, send someone to chase him immediately, and bring him back to me even if he's tied up!"

Cao Pi stood up and issued the order in a swift and resolute manner. The guards did not dare to slack off and naturally went to find the relevant person to pass on the order immediately.

"As for you, you bunch of useless people! A whole yard of people can't even keep an eye on one person?! Come on, drag him away and give him fifty lashes."

Cao Pi is now annoyed when he sees this servant. If he can't even keep an eye on someone, isn't he just a piece of trash? Whether he can survive these fifty strokes of the cane depends on his luck.

"Your Majesty, please spare me... Your Majesty, please spare me..."

The servant was so frightened that he fell to his knees, kowtowed and begged for mercy, but the guards ignored him and dragged him away. Soon, the servant's screams like ghosts and wolves were heard from outside, but as the sound of beating became louder, his screams gradually disappeared.

"Come here, send Sima... No, Taiwei Jia Xu to discuss countermeasures."

Cao Pi was too lazy to care about the life and death of the small people, so he asked the guard beside him to call someone who could discuss countermeasures.

(End of this chapter)