Hiding

Zheng Qian didn't know when his prison break would be discovered.

So, after jumping over the wall and leaving the County Yamen, he immediately used the Flying Goose Skill at full speed towards the east of the city.

According to the information he had obtained, Tongyang County was divided into five districts: east, south, west, north, and central. The County Yamen was in the northern district, while the wealthy merchants and large households were in the eastern district.

As for the remaining three districts, the central district was the most prosperous commercial area, the western district was a residential area for ordinary people, and the southern district was similar to a farmers' market, with small vendors, gangsters, beggars, dark dens, slums... and so on.

It could be said that the southern district was the most chaotic area in the entire Tongyang County.

According to a normal person's logic, if one wanted to hide, the southern district would be the most suitable area.

But snakes have snake paths, and rats have rat holes. The southern district was indeed chaotic, but it was also crowded with people, and there were many who valued money over their lives.

Being unfamiliar with the place, Zheng Qian's unfamiliar face would definitely be targeted as soon as he appeared there.

If the government issued a wanted notice with a reward, he would just be waiting to die.

On the other hand, the eastern district, where the wealthy lived, although patrolled by constables year-round, and each family had many guards to protect their homes, the population density was less than one-tenth of that of the southern district.

Especially for someone like Zheng Qian, who had martial arts skills, as long as he was careful not to be seen, the safety factor was many times higher.

In addition, the more important point was that none of these wealthy merchants and large households had a clean background, and they would never dare to let the officials enter their homes to search randomly.

Of course, money could make a ghost push the millstone. Unless there was solid evidence, the officials would not casually offend these wealthy and powerful people.

These were naturally not Zheng Qian's own ideas, but what Young Master Hundred Flowers had said.

Although that person deserved to die, he had been able to live so freely for so long, not only because of his strength, but also because of his rich experience in hiding from the government's pursuit.

After an unknown amount of time, as a glimmer of dawn appeared on the horizon, Zheng Qian quickly jumped over a wall and disappeared into a huge courtyard.

On the other side, at the County Yamen, constables, yamen runners, and jailers had all been awakened from their sleep and were quickly gathering outside the prison, their shouts shaking the sky.

A death row prisoner had escaped! The first time in the history of Tongyang County...

The county magistrate was furious and ordered the head constable Liu Yidao to capture Zheng Qian and bring him back for public execution before noon tomorrow.

But it was naturally impossible to do it with Liu Yidao alone. Coupled with the tight schedule and heavy task, he could only summon all his subordinates overnight.

Zheng Qian naturally didn't know all of this, because at this time, he was hiding in a well about five or six meters deep.

This well was in a huge garden and was probably used to water the surrounding flowers and plants.

After Zheng Qian chose this place, he spent half an hour carving out a niche on the side wall at the bottom of the well that could accommodate him.

The entrance to the niche was about one meter below the well water. He first carved horizontally for one meter, and then carved upwards for about two meters.

Of course, not wanting to suffocate to death, he naturally left a vent.

Not long after he finished all this, he heard someone starting to draw water from the well.

Soon, two voices faintly entered Zheng Qian's ears.

Judging from the voices, there were two people, one younger and one older.

"Hey? Old Zhang, why is the water so muddy today?"

"Muddy? It really is."

"There's nothing in the well. Did someone throw stones into it?"

"Who cares? It's just for watering flowers, not for drinking, it's all the same."

"That's true."

"Hurry up and finish, or we'll be late for breakfast."

"Okay."

It was inevitable that the well water was muddy. After all, Zheng Qian had carved a big hole in the well wall. Although he had collected most of the excavated soil into his storage space, there was still a lot of soil that had dissolved into the well water. He couldn't possibly collect the well water into his storage space as well.

However, this was only temporary. It would only take a few hours for the soil to settle.

What he didn't expect was that servants would come to draw water to water the flowers so early in the morning.

Fortunately, the two didn't intend to be nosy and investigate, otherwise he would have been wasting his time.

The two servants at the wellhead drew as many as twenty or thirty buckets of water before stopping, and Zheng Qian was on tenterhooks for a long time.

Fortunately, everything was safe and sound.

"Phew... Next is just waiting, I hope everything goes smoothly!"

Listening to the two people's gradually receding footsteps, Zheng Qian breathed a sigh of relief and muttered to himself softly.

He was temporarily safe, but he had not completely escaped the danger. Only when he completely escaped from this Tongyang County, or even escaped from Xishan Commandery and even the Xingyang Dynasty, would he be truly safe.

However, it would be difficult for him to do these things in the short term.

After all, he didn't know when Tongyang County would relax its search for him.

After thinking wildly for a long time, Zheng Qian, who had been highly focused all night, relaxed and soon fell asleep in a daze.

After an unknown amount of time, when he woke up, it was already dark outside.

The reason Zheng Qian woke up wasn't because he'd slept enough, nor was it because someone had disturbed him; it was because he was hungry.

By his reckoning, he hadn't eaten anything for a full day and night.

"What a miserable life I have as a transmigrator! Sigh..."

In the pitch-black cave, Zheng Qian, covered in dirt, sighed with emotion.

Thinking of other transmigrators, they either became holy sons of sects, princes of dynasties, or were born with monstrous talent and powerful bloodlines. Even the worst-case scenario of being an ordinary person or even a beggar was better than being a death row inmate like him.

Unfortunately, he had no control over any of this. Unless he didn't want to live, he could only accept this disastrous start.

After lamenting his fate, Zheng Qian cautiously crawled out of the well and looked around.

Luckily, there was no one around.

As for the time, he didn't have a watch, nor did he understand astrology, so he didn't know what time it was.

However, judging from the quiet surroundings, it must be after ten o'clock at the very least.

"First, I need to gather some food, then lie low for a while."

After confirming that there was really no one around, Zheng Qian flipped out of the well like a nimble cat and quickly sneaked towards the outside of the garden.

As for the water on his body, he just shook it off lightly, and most of the well water was gone.

It has to be said that the house he randomly chose was really big, covering at least ten acres, with various pavilions, terraces, rockeries, and flowing water. It was obviously the home of a wealthy man.

Walking and observing along the way, it took Zheng Qian a full half an hour to find the location of the kitchen.

Inside, he found a large amount of food. Not to mention rice, flour, grain, and oil, there were chickens, ducks, fish, beef, mutton, pork, steamed buns, stuffed buns, all kinds of pastries, and fresh fruits and vegetables...

It has to be said that this family was indeed a wealthy one. The ingredients in the kitchen were truly all-encompassing.