“Your Highness the Crown Prince, please halt.” Outside the door, Huo Yan stepped forward and blocked Zhan Yuheng.
The Crown Prince had arrived!
Feng Jiu’er immediately dropped the carriage curtain, leapt up onto the front of the carriage herself, and drove the horses out toward the exit.
After boarding the carriage, Mu Mu sat quietly inside.
The curtain of the carriage window hung down, obscuring the finer details of his features, yet through the curtain one could still faintly make out his profile and the shape of his figure.
To ask whether the person inside was the Ninth Prince — never mind those standing at a distance who could not see clearly, even those standing nearby might not necessarily be able to tell the difference.
Jiu’er’s impression from inside the room had not been wrong. Mu Mu, once dressed and styled, truly did bear a seventy percent likeness to the Ninth Prince.
Now, with a curtain between them, the resemblance was even stronger. Who would dare to suspect that the person inside was not the Ninth Prince?
Huo Yan was no match for Zhan Yuheng and could not hold him back. So by the time Jiu’er drove the carriage out, Zhan Yuheng had already forced his way to the entrance.
“Jiu’er…” He looked up at Feng Jiu’er seated high atop the carriage, that flawless and perfect face filling him with a moment of stunned admiration.
Up close, she was even more strikingly radiant, even more beautiful — an incomparable, singular beauty.
“My apologies, Your Highness the Crown Prince. This subordinate has urgent matters to attend to and cannot dismount to pay her respects. I ask Your Highness to forgive this transgression.”
Feng Jiu’er gave him a clasped-fist salute and continued to drive the carriage forward.
Zhan Yuheng did not stop her, but followed alongside the horses’ movement as they passed through the great hall and emerged outside.
He kept his eyes fixed on the figure behind the carriage curtain. That half-glimpsed profile was unmistakably the Ninth Imperial Uncle. And yet, why had word reached him that the Ninth Imperial Uncle had already left the city three days ago?
Could it be that the news from three days ago had merely been a cover — a ruse to ensure the Ninth Imperial Uncle’s departure would go undisturbed?
But the Ninth Imperial Uncle had always been indifferent to petty threats and intrigues. Why would he need any kind of cover story?
“The person in the carriage — is it the Ninth Imperial Uncle?” Uncertain, he decided to probe.
The person inside gave no response. Silence.
Zhan Yuheng furrowed his brow and continued to follow: “Ninth Imperial Uncle, why put out word that you left the city three days ago? The Emperor has not yet issued the campaign edict — are you heading to the border city without authorization?”
Zhan Yuheng’s words were not without reason. Ordinarily, the Ninth Imperial Uncle’s departure on campaign should have been preceded by the Emperor issuing a campaign edict, after which the Ninth Imperial Uncle would ride out, with the common people of the imperial city gathered to see him off.
This time, was it not all rather too hasty?
But the person in the carriage continued to pay him no heed.
For the reigning Crown Prince of a nation to be ignored to this degree was truly quite a loss of face.
And yet Zhan Yuheng appeared entirely unbothered. The more the Ninth Imperial Uncle ignored him, the more suspicious he became.
But the one sitting atop the carriage driving it forward was Feng Jiu’er, and however much he suspected, he was not inclined to expose anything openly in this moment.
“Ninth Imperial Uncle, your nephew will come to see you off shortly.”
This was, after all, the Longwu Courtyard’s grounds, and outside there were still so many of the Longqi Army’s new recruits.
Whatever Feng Jiu’er intended to do, he did not want to interrupt her now.
“Longqi New Army, hear my command.” Feng Jiu’er drove the carriage before the assembled soldiers and raised the token high: “Set out at once!”
“Yes!”
The fifty-some soldiers of the Longqi New Army, under Huo Yan’s lead, immediately split into a forward and rear formation, flanking the carriage on both sides in escort.
Yet just as everyone had left the Longwu Courtyard and had not yet cleared the main military compound, a group of people came charging in from up ahead.
“This Palace has urgent matters to discuss with the Ninth Prince — stand aside!”
The Empress arrived with a retinue, striding in haste. Huo Yan hesitated for only a moment before stepping aside to clear a path.
One could not simply bar the way of imperial family members. In the end, everything still had to defer to General Feng’s command. After all, the token in General Feng’s hand was as good as the Prince’s own presence.