He then struck the back of Consort Li’s neck with his hand. Long Ying reached out to check Princess Zhenzhen’s breathing, his trembling fingers accidentally touching the princess’s skin, causing him to instinctively recoil, his expression dark and unreadable.

The extremely faint breathing made Long Ying’s face change color. He gritted his teeth, took out the porcelain bottle, extracted the antidote pill, and placed it in Princess Zhenzhen’s mouth.

Footsteps approached.

Long Ying flashed forward and knocked out the maid who had gone to fetch clothes before she could cry out in alarm, laying her down on the ground.

Returning to Princess Zhenzhen’s bedside, Long Ying hesitated for a moment, then bent down to lift Princess Zhenzhen in his arms, quietly retracing his original path.

As a guard who had been active within the imperial palace since childhood, once he left the princess’s bedchamber, Long Ying was very familiar with the routes. He skillfully avoided the palace patrols and returned to his room, carefully setting Princess Zhenzhen down.

Princess Zhenzhen lay on the unfamiliar bed without any response.

“Your Highness—” Long Ying mustered his courage to grasp Princess Zhenzhen’s hand, lowering his head in extreme anguish.

He couldn’t care about anything else now. If the princess remained there, she would have no hope of survival.

Never mind the talk about the princess being able to hold on until the imperial physicians’ treatment after taking the antidote pill—if those imperial physicians truly cared, they wouldn’t be nowhere to be seen when the princess was already in such a state.

Though Long Ying was taciturn, he was meticulous in thought. Connecting this to what Princess Zhenzhen had said to him the day before, he was certain that the princess’s critical condition was related to imperial secrets, knowing that leaving her there would mean certain death.

Gazing at Princess Zhenzhen’s blackened complexion, Long Ying clenched his fists.

He must find a way to take the princess out of the palace!

As for how Consort Li and the others would react when they awoke to find the princess missing, he could no longer care. As long as Consort Li wasn’t foolish, she should temporarily cover up this matter. If Consort Li was foolish enough to make a commotion, then at worst—

Long Ying gazed tenderly at the woman lying quietly like a painting on the bed, actually revealing a faint smile.

At worst, he would die together with the princess. No matter what, he wouldn’t let the princess go on her journey alone.

Long Ying checked the time, wrapped Princess Zhenzhen in bed sheets, and bound her to his body, taking a moment to catch his breath.

In another half hour, it would be time for the palace guards’ shift change—the most lax moment for defenses. If he timed it right, there would be a good chance of escape.

In Princess Zhenzhen’s bedchamber, the clothes-fetching maid was the first to awaken. Seeing Consort Li and another maid collapsed by the bedside while the bed was empty, she turned pale with shock, stumbling forward to shake the other maid awake first.

“What happened?” the other maid asked in confusion.

“The princess is gone,” the clothes-fetching maid whispered.

“What?”

The clothes-fetching maid firmly covered the other maid’s mouth and scolded: “What are you shouting for? Are you afraid others won’t know?”

“Then, what do we do now?”

“You guard the door. I’ll wake Her Ladyship.”

When Consort Li was awakened, she sat up abruptly: “How did I fall asleep?”

She turned her head and, seeing no one on the bed, was about to scream when the clothes-fetching maid stopped her: “Your Ladyship, please stay calm. It would be terrible if you alarmed others.”

Consort Li had been a dancer by origin. Though she possessed exceptional beauty, unfortunately, she lived at the wrong time, encountering an emperor devoted to pursuing immortality. The palace consorts didn’t even have opportunities to display their talents for winning favor, naturally having developed little composure. Despite the maid’s persuasion, she remained extremely panicked: “Where’s the princess? Where’s the princess? Did the princess already—while I was sleeping?”

“Your Ladyship, the princess is missing. When this servant awoke, the princess was already gone.”

“What is this about?” Consort Li was nearly frantic.

The clothes-fetching maid glanced at the door-guarding maid and lowered her voice: “This servant suspects Long Ying took Her Highness away.”

Consort Li’s face went deathly pale, biting her lip hard in panic: “Isn’t Long Ying the princess’s bodyguard? Why would he do this?”

“This servant doesn’t know either, but this servant feels that only Long Ying could quietly take the princess away. Others have neither the reason nor the ability to do so. Moreover, during the day, this servant heard little maids gossiping, saying they saw Long Ying pacing outside the bedchamber.”

“What did he take the princess away for? Zhenzhen is already in such a state—does he want to torment her further?”

“Your Ladyship, now is not the time to question these things. The princess is already missing. Have you thought about what to do?”

Consort Li’s eyes lit up as she suddenly stood: “I’ll report to the Empress Dowager!”

The clothes-fetching maid knelt to dissuade her: “Your Ladyship, please reconsider! If the princess mysteriously disappeared while critically ill, the Empress Dowager might be even more unfavorable toward the princess upon learning this, and might even blame Your Ladyship for poor guardianship.”

More than just blaming Consort Li, all of them who served the princess would likely meet their doom, all silenced.

Consort Li calmed down slightly but became even more at a loss: “What should be done then?”

“Xiao Ning, come here,” the clothes-fetching maid called.

The door-guarding maid walked over: “Sister A’Lan, what should we do now?”

“You stay with Her Ladyship first. I’ll go get some things to figure out a solution.”

The door-guarding maid nodded and walked toward Consort Li.

Just then, the clothes-fetching maid suddenly turned around and looped her sash around the door-guarding maid’s neck from behind.

The door-guarding maid clawed at the sash with both hands, struggling desperately, but was strangled speechless. She could only widen her eyes and stare directly at Consort Li, pleading for help.

“Your Ladyship, help!” the clothes-fetching maid shouted while tightening the sash with force.

Consort Li awakened as if from a dream, asking with a colorless face: “You, what are you doing?”

“Your Ladyship, only by killing her can you escape from the matter of the princess’s disappearance!”

At this moment, Consort Li’s mind was in complete chaos, unable to comprehend what the clothes-fetching maid meant, but under tremendous panic, she involuntarily stepped forward to help.

With two people against one, the door-guarding maid soon stopped struggling and collapsed softly against the clothes-fetching maid.

The clothes-fetching maid let her lean there while catching her breath before laboriously dragging the door-guarding maid’s corpse toward the bed.

“Why exactly did you kill her?” Consort Li came to her senses, looking down at her own hands, unable to believe she had just helped strangle someone.

The clothes-fetching maid placed the corpse on the bed where Princess Zhenzhen had slept, pulled over the brocade quilt to cover it, and leaned against the bedpost, gasping heavily.

After a good while, the clothes-fetching maid caught her breath and knelt: “Your Ladyship, the princess may pass away, but she cannot go missing, or we’ll all be buried with her.”

“You mean—”

The clothes-fetching maid glanced toward the bed and bit her lip: “If there’s no other commotion in the palace before dawn, then we’ll use her to substitute for the princess.”

“How can this work? Even if the princess passes away, the imperial physicians must confirm the diagnosis.”

“The princess has a body of gold—when imperial physicians examine her, there are bed curtains as barriers anyway, so it won’t be discovered. Everyone who saw the princess yesterday knows her face had turned black. This servant will apply makeup to Xiao Ning before dawn, trying to make her look as similar to the princess as possible. As for the ceremonies of cleansing the princess’s face, dressing her, and arranging her hair, Your Ladyship can completely handle them personally under the pretext of being heartbroken over the princess’s passing. This way, we might be able to deceive others.”