After refusing marriage, she was pampered by the prince who acted as a shield.

Chapter 507: Preparations Begin

They finally stopped working after the entire map was covered with various simple or one-word annotations.

"Go down, and remember to make some noise in the next room, so that no one goes in to probe."

"Yes, please take care of yourself, Madam. The master doesn't want you to fall ill."

Lin Rusi didn't answer, but just pinched the bridge of her nose and waved for people to leave immediately.

Once there was no sound from the door, the outside world was fully awake, and the streets, which had been completely still last night, came alive once again.

Lin Rusi watched all this, but quickly looked away, leaning against the bed to think and rest.

But how could this state possibly provide any rest? It only made the already throbbing head ache even more.

Lin Rusi was forced to open her eyes, took out a pill and threw it into her mouth.

The bitter taste filled her mouth, completely waking her up.

"Since we're staying here, we should do something for the people here."

After all, this place is very likely to become a battlefield, and how many of these defenseless civilians can survive?

In order to keep these people here and prevent them from suffering the pain of displacement again, she got busy once again.

Although she had a few ideas in mind, she dared not risk leaving the city directly because she did not know the situation there.

After much deliberation, the only solution seemed to be to continue adding more people to the organization.

Most importantly, those people cannot be ordinary people; they must be people with ordinary appearances but high martial arts skills to deceive others.

"Go find Ye Ruoruo, and also find some soldiers. Have them disguise themselves as civilians and infiltrate every weak point in the city."

"But wouldn't that reduce our troop strength? Wouldn't that be too dangerous, since if..."

The guard cautiously looked at Lin Rusi, whose eyes were slightly bloodshot, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything more.

She didn't give the other party another chance, and pointed to a not-so-obvious mountain road on the map.

"If we can get out, we will take men to the next city to demand our people back."

"If they are unwilling to give, then tell them that if this place can't take it, they will be next."

Knowing that time was of the essence, the other party did not hesitate and went to the next room to change clothes before quickly leaving.

Setting up defenses without making a sound is nothing; the most crucial thing is that Fan Zhe came to find Lin Rusi as soon as he returned.

"Brother Jingyang hasn't returned yet?"

"By the way, I went out of town to collect rent, and there was already some chaos not far away. I didn't sleep all night and came to find you as soon as I got back."

Lin Rusi knew he went out yesterday, but she didn't expect him to come looking for her as soon as he returned. She rubbed her eyes to make him look at her more closely.

“After you went back yesterday, Changning started making a fuss and even ran away by herself.”

As she spoke, Lin Rusi sobbed twice and looked up at the room with the door tightly closed.

"And then, what if the person disappears? I'll send someone to look for them right away."

"No need to trouble Young Master Fan."

Fan Zhe felt something was amiss upon hearing this and wanted to go upstairs to take a look, when a tall figure appeared in front of him.

"I heard about what happened yesterday. I'll take the doctor and go up there to see how Changning is doing now."

The bodyguards dressed as Li Jingyang stood to the side, revealing a man wearing a bamboo hat.

"I am from Peking University Medical School. I heard that the young master fell into the water yesterday."

"That's right. He almost died yesterday when he came up here. Luckily, a passerby had a way to run him around several times and make him vomit up all the water, which saved his life."

Upon hearing this, the two went upstairs.

Fan Zhe wanted to follow and see, but Lin Rusi stopped him first.

“Young Master Fan, there’s only so much space here. If you go up, I’m worried the doctor won’t have enough room to work properly. Besides, you’ve been busy all night. Why don’t you go back and rest first?”

“Madam is right. As an outsider, I can only get in the way and be of no help. I will come to visit again after the young master has recovered a bit.”

Lin Rusi nodded, forced an extremely awkward smile, and quickly ran into Changning's house.

"lady."

"You've done well. As long as he doesn't receive any letters from the outside world, he won't know if you're real or not."

Knowing that this was just a bluff, everyone stayed in the room without Changning and did nothing further.

There was no movement for two consecutive days, which made Lin Rusi a little nervous, and she kept urging Master Fan to take action.

After all, as long as there is evidence that this fake Fan Zhe is not the real person, they will have a way to drive him away, making it easier to carry out their actions in the city later.

Mr. Fan did speed up the search for evidence in the house, but since the person was still at home, he still needed to be a little careful to avoid being discovered in advance.

Finally, after receiving a message from Master Fan at night, confirming that the evidence had been collected to a large extent, I breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to get a good night's rest before settling the accounts the next day.

But before they could make a move, they heard a commotion coming from all directions as dawn broke.

Without Lin Rusi's instructions, the guards went out first to inquire about the situation.

Upon learning that all the doctors in the city had been summoned, the group realized something was amiss.

Once it was confirmed that everyone had gone to the Fan residence, it became clear that something must have happened at the Fan residence.

"How is the situation? Can you still contact Master Fan?"

"The Fan family is only taking in people now and not letting them out, so there's no way to go find him."

So you can't get in touch with them?

Lin Rusi frowned slightly, wanting to have someone try another way to contact them, but two guards blocked her only path.

"What are you doing? Are you turning against me and planning to lock me up here?"

"Please, Madam, do not take the risk."

"So how do you plan to get those collected clues? You know, without them, this Jiangnan region will be dominated by Fan Zhe."

After all, most of their wealth was in the Fan family's hands, and the supplies most needed for the later battles were also tightly controlled by them.

If Fan Zhe were to secretly send them out, not only would this city be doomed, but they themselves would not be able to escape.

Lin Rusi's face grew increasingly pale at the thought, and she was about to push the two of them away when she was interrupted by a knock on the door.

The frequency was extremely unique; it was a communication method known only to their group of secret guards.

The door was opened the next moment, and a familiar face appeared in front of the three of them.

"You're back? Didn't you say it was a no-go zone?"

"That's true, but Master forgot that I'm ranked second in terms of concealment among them. No one in Jiangnan can catch me so easily yet."

This is not bragging; if he wants to hide, very few people can catch him.

Lin Rusi looked at what the other person was holding tightly in their hand and reached out to snatch it away.

Never having imagined his wife would look like this, he glanced at the two people beside him in astonishment, but still tiptoed into the room.

He quietly recounted the events of the past two days before falling silent and awaiting further instructions.

"How exactly did he realize something was wrong?"

"It must be because we were too radical. One day, we were reading in the study and Fan Zhe became suspicious."