Seeing Baili Weisheng and Xiong Xiaobao joking around, the young man quickly explained, “Don’t be in such a rush — going to Flame Valley requires a lot of preparation, you can’t just up and leave.”

At this, Yingzi chimed in urgently too. “Exactly, exactly, Your Highness, we still don’t have everything ready — we can’t leave just yet!”

“I know. Take your time getting things ready. Prince Yao probably won’t be arriving quite that soon anyway,” Ziqing said flatly.

Joking aside, they obviously weren’t going to rush off to Flame Valley immediately. Jun Beiyue had made it clear beforehand — they had to wait for him.

Yingzi finally let out a breath of relief — but Ziqing’s next words sent him right back into a panic.

Ziqing said, “I need to personally go to West Jing’s capital.”

“Your Highness, please wait for His Highness to arrive first,” Yingzi said urgently. If anything happened to his mistress, he wouldn’t have enough lives to atone for it.

But before he could say more, Baili Weisheng sprang up from his seat at once. “I’ll go with you!”

“Now?” Ziqing asked.

“Let’s go!” Baili Weisheng said without hesitation, the two of them essentially treating the increasingly pale-faced Yingzi as though he weren’t even there.

But Ziqing’s next words very nearly made Yingzi faint on the spot.

She said, “Guard Yingzi, keep close watch over Xiong Xiaobao for me. Don’t let him leave Mobei town until I get back.”

“Your Highness, you…” Yingzi felt like crying without any tears. Mobei town was extremely safe, heavily garrisoned with Jun Beiyue’s elite troops — it was practically the safest place on earth.

But none of that mattered — what mattered was whether the little prince would actually listen to him!

Xiong Xiaobao stayed silent off to the side, simply blinking those devastatingly charming eyes of his, staring at Yingzi.

Baili Xiaosheng stayed silent too. She figured that since her master hadn’t told her to stay behind, she should probably be able to sneak along after them, so she quietly backed a few steps away, hiding behind the table.

Sure enough, with Baili Xiaosheng nowhere in sight, Baili Weisheng completely forgot about his disciple entirely.

Jue Mingzi pretended to nap off to the side, having no intention of adding to his daughter’s troubles, while Madam Jinjiao stayed quiet too — Baili Weisheng’s continued indifference toward her these past few days had considerably dampened her enthusiasm as a would-be matchmaker.

But just as Ziqing and Baili Weisheng were about to head out the door, Meng Duo’er suddenly spoke up. “Ziqing, I want to go too…”

Uh…

Instantly, every eye in the room turned toward her.

Her? Going along, to do what?

Her martial skills seemed to be the weakest of anyone’s.

Xiong Xiaobao scoffed openly, Baili Xiaosheng rolled her eyes, Jue Mingzi showed no reaction, while Madam Jinjiao grew anxious, wanting to speak up on Meng Duo’er’s behalf but not quite daring to.

Ziqing laughed, about to say something, but Baili Weisheng, showing remarkable foresight, cut in first, demanding with clear displeasure, “What are you going to do?”

Meng Duo’er had no answer.

“Do you even know what kind of place West Jing’s capital is?” Baili Weisheng pressed further.

Meng Duo’er stayed silent still.

“Have you even mastered the instant seal technique yet?” Baili Weisheng asked again.

Meng Duo’er dropped her head at once, saying timidly, “I… I was just joking.”

“That wasn’t funny at all, you know?” Baili Weisheng rolled his eyes several times and strode out the door.

Ziqing, thoroughly embarrassed, said hastily, “Duo’er, we’ll be back soon, I promise. We’re off now.”

The moment she stepped outside, she found Baili Weisheng waiting there, arms crossed, clearly displeased.

Ziqing bumped his elbow, laughing. “What’s with you?”

“Nothing,” Baili Weisheng said flatly, striding forward.

“Are you actually mad? You foul-mouthed scholar, treating a young lady like that is genuinely rude, you know,” Ziqing said, laughing.

“Annoyed,” Baili Weisheng said honestly. Not angry — annoyed.

That girl Meng Duo’er had absolutely nothing to do with him — why did everyone keep trying to pair her with him?

Ziqing stopped in her tracks, genuinely surprised. “You get annoyed too?”

Baili Weisheng turned to look at her, catching her questioning gaze, and gave a start — whether he’d startled himself or been startled by Ziqing, he wasn’t sure — but he denied it at once. “Why so much nonsense, let’s go!”

Ziqing watched his retreating back, murmuring thoughtfully, “Only the things you actually care about can annoy you, I suppose.”

Other people’s annoyances — that was hard to say.

But this heartless, carefree fellow, actually getting annoyed too? Something was genuinely off.

Even anger would have been normal enough.

But annoyance… that was a different matter entirely.

Ziqing looked thoughtful, deep in consideration, while Baili Weisheng suddenly strode back, seizing her hand and hauling her along…

“Let go, hey!”

“Did you hear me, I was joking!”

“You foul-mouthed scholar, I’m warning you, if you don’t let go this instant, I’m going to get angry!”

“Baili Weisheng, I hit the mark, didn’t I?”

…

Ziqing kept warning him the whole way, but Baili Weisheng never let go, until finally he simply leapt into the air and took flight, yanking her forward so hard she slammed straight into his back.

Ziqing, caught somewhere between laughter and exasperation, gave his shoulder a smack. “You foul-mouthed scholar, the ancients say men and women shouldn’t touch so casually, you know!”

Baili Weisheng said nothing.

“You foul-mouthed scholar, the ancients also say you shouldn’t covet a friend’s wife.”

Baili Weisheng still said nothing.

Finally, Ziqing sensed something was genuinely off — this man actually seemed to be truly upset.

“Hey…” she said timidly.

But the next moment, Baili Weisheng suddenly laughed. “Little Qingqing, thinking it over, I’ve decided I won’t take you home to meet the family after all — I’ll just take you off to roam the world instead!”

Seeing Baili Weisheng smile again, Ziqing let out a breath of relief, continuing the joke. “Haven’t I already met the family, though?”

What Ziqing didn’t notice was that Baili Weisheng’s gaze, in this moment, had gone dim — dim enough that no one could see through it, could see into his heart at all.

“So you’re saying you won’t come?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ziqing laughed. With this man, she’d never minded taking a joke too far — it had been like this between them from the very start, always so playfully sharp-tongued.

“I’m going to wait for our Beiyue!” Ziqing said with a smile, her face full of happiness.

But Baili Weisheng didn’t answer her at all — instead, without warning, he simply let go!

“Ah—!”

Ziqing, caught completely off guard, went sprawling face-first onto the ground. By the time she scrambled back up, Baili Weisheng had already vanished into the distance.

“You foul-mouthed scholar!”

Ziqing shouted furiously, a blur of motion as she immediately gave chase.

The two of them, one fleeing, one chasing, raced on and on until, before they knew it, they’d arrived at West Jing’s new capital.

The moment they reached the city gates, Ziqing sensed something was wrong. Hadn’t there been unrest in West Jing? So why was the capital so eerily calm?

According to what the Shadow Guards had found, the unrest had started right in the capital itself!

West Jing’s capital was different from other nations’ — few commoners lived there, no real markets or streets, nothing but palace after palace.

And yet, even so, one would normally still see plenty of nobles moving about on the roads.

Today, the entire city looked utterly deserted, like a ghost town!

Baili Weisheng, too, turned serious at once, saying quietly, “Careful. Let’s check the Consort’s residence first.”

Ziqing nodded, and together with Baili Weisheng, they scaled the wall, heading toward the western side of the capital. But when they climbed over the wall into the Consort’s residence, they ran into someone entirely unexpected…