“Send people to follow Prince Xihuai, and send messages back at all times! When necessary, have them lead Prince Xihuai on a detour. Order our people to set out—they must meet with the Rongdi Ghost-Faced Prince before Prince Xihuai meets with Xiangliang, and then… have our people protect Prince Xihuai well!”

Xiao Rongyan’s voice paused before continuing: “Also, send word back to Wei State. The time has come. Have the hidden agents planted in Wei’s court personally meet with Wei’s Grand Chancellor Gongsun Chichong, and tell Chancellor Gongsun… if he is willing to persuade the Wei Emperor and Wei Empress Dowager to surrender to Yan, his life can be spared. If not, since Chancellor Gongsun has once again so coincidentally maintained close ties with Xiliang this time, then let us fulfill his wishes and pin on him the crime of colluding with Xiliang.”

Xiao Rongyan had not yet extracted from Prince Xihuai what deal Gongsun Chichong had struck with Xiliang. If Gongsun Chichong refused to surrender to Yan, then he would be too much of an obstacle and could not be allowed to remain!

Yan State had laid plans early and prepared in Wei State for so many years, exerting all efforts to set traps and schemes precisely for this Chancellor Gongsun.

The Gongsun family of Wei State… was just like the Bai family of Jin State—both were generations of unwavering, loyal, and upright ministers, the backbone of their nations. Xiao Rongyan admired them…

But admiration aside, Yan State had struggled through hardships to reach this point today, and could not tolerate the slightest error. No matter who became a stumbling block… Xiao Rongyan would remove them.

“Yes!” Yue Shi responded and quickly leaped down from the roof tiles, stepping across the roof tiles to arrange for people to follow behind Prince Xihuai.

Since Prince Xihuai had the intention to live and die together with his mother Kingdom, if he truly found a way to make Prince Xihuai remain in Great Liang, perhaps… it would cause Prince Xihuai lifelong regret.

Everyone had the right to choose their path. Xiao Rongyan regarded Prince Xihuai as a friend, so he respected his choice.

Just as Prince Xihuai had said, regardless of success or failure in this meeting with the Rongdi Ghost-Faced Prince, when he returned to Wei State, he would feel that his mediocre life still had redeeming qualities and was not entirely that of a wastrel prince who only knew how to eat, drink, and make merry.

In Xiao Rongyan’s view, Prince Xihuai was far better than the Jin State’s Crown Prince in terms of self-awareness.

If their positions were reversed, Jin State’s Crown Prince would surely be unable to weigh his own abilities properly and would beg Xiao Rongyan to help him assume a false identity to preserve a trace of royal bloodline for future restoration of the Kingdom.

Xiao Rongyan lowered his gaze, rubbing the finger that Bai Qingyan had hurt yesterday, his lips curving into a faint smile as his heart secretly anticipated the day he would compete for supremacy alongside Bai Qingyan.

However, today he feared he would not have time to bid farewell to Bai Qingyan.

·

After Bai Qingyan returned from meeting Prince Xihuai yesterday, she had the Bai family guards pursue Shen Qingzhu to tell him that there were spies among her people, and he must inform her people to be careful in their responses…

As long as the Bai family guards brought these words to Shen Qingzhu, he would understand what Bai Qingyan meant.

Shen Qingzhu would surely find a way to get this message to A’Yu.

It wasn’t that Bai Qingyan didn’t trust A’Yu’s intelligence to discover the spies around him, but she couldn’t take that risk. After all, A’Yu had no one reliable by his side and was in the enemy camp. If his energy flagged and he became careless, it might bring disaster upon A’Yu.

For the next step, Bai Qingyan had to accelerate the pace of taking Han City.

On the seventh day of the first month in the eighteenth year of Xuanjia, Princess Zhenguo Bai Qingyan led her troops from Daming Prefecture toward Yingdu.

On the twelfth day of the first month in the eighteenth year of Xuanjia, Princess Zhenguo led her troops and took Yingdu with lightning speed.

Xiao Rongyan’s group, on the fifteenth day of the first month, met with the Ghost-Faced Prince, who had separated from the Rongdi forces and was traveling disguised as a merchant caravan, at the Kuaihuo Tower in Xiangliang, using the identity of Yan State’s Ninth Prince Murong Yan.

Kuaihuo Tower was an extremely famous flower house in Xiangliang. Despite its common name, it was said that the proprietress’s mother was from Liang and her father was Rongdi. She had lived among the Rongdi for a long time in her childhood, so her behavior carried much of the Rongdi people’s rough and bold character, hence she gave the flower house such a name.

Although Great Liang was now embroiled in war, since Jin’s army had not reached Xiangliang City, it remained lively and prosperous. The multi-eaved buildings hung with lanterns still blazed with candlelight, and Kuaihuo Tower was especially bustling with customers coming and going. The young ladies leaned charmingly against the intricately carved railings of the building’s galleries, laughing and chatting to attract customers, their faces glowing red under the red lanterns hanging from the eaves, creating a dreamlike scene.

They saw an extremely luxurious carriage made of fine elm wood, surrounded by azure brocade with auspicious cloud patterns, topped with a canopy whose four corners were carved with lamp-holding auspicious beasts and wrapped with copper edges, stopping in front of the brightly lit and bustling Kuaihuo Tower.

The carriage was preceded by armed guards riding four fine horses to clear the way, followed by two rows of twenty guards.

The servants stationed at Kuaihuo Tower’s entrance to welcome guests saw this formation and immediately knew an absolute VIP had arrived. Three of them formed a line and came running down from the golden and splendid high platform of Kuaihuo Tower according to protocol. The frontmost servant, wearing a gray cloth short jacket with a gray cloth belt, hurriedly knelt and prostrated himself on the ground to serve as a stepping stool for the distinguished guest.

Two servants wearing azure long robes with brown belts lowered their heads and raised their arms high to support the distinguished guest as he alighted from the carriage.

A man wearing brocade robes with a golden belt stepped out from Kuaihuo Tower’s main entrance, lifting the hem of his garments as he hurried out to greet them. His voice reached them before he did: “Oh my, truly distinguished guests have arrived…”

Kuaihuo Tower’s servants were ranked in a hierarchy. The handsome ones wore golden belts and only escorted VIP guests inside.

White belts escorted ordinary customers, brown belts helped guests dismount from horses or carriages, and gray belts… naturally served as mounting blocks.

Yue Shi lifted the carriage curtain for his master.

Xiao Rongyan followed local customs, his deerskin short boots stepping on the servant’s back as he alighted from the carriage. With a smile on his lips, he signaled for Yue Shi to give a reward. Yue Shi pulled out several pieces of broken silver from his belt and casually tossed them. The gray-belt servant serving as a stepping stool hurriedly crawled forward on his knees to gather the silver pieces with his hands, afraid that the two brown-belt servants would compete with him for them. He quickly kowtowed repeatedly to Xiao Rongyan: “Thank you for the reward, honored guest! Thank you for the reward, honored guest!”

“This must be the honored guest’s first visit to Kuaihuo Tower! Please come in quickly! Please come in quickly!” The golden-belt man in brocade robes immediately put on a fawning expression, bowing and scraping as he invited Xiao Rongyan inside.

The young ladies upstairs saw that this distinguished guest was so handsome and generous with his money, and hurriedly threw their handkerchiefs toward Xiao Rongyan.

With a handkerchief falling into his embrace, Xiao Rongyan, draped in an azure-blue cloak with gold thread trim, looked up. His profound eyes gazed toward the group of young ladies upstairs. He saw a naturally shy young lady covering half her face with a round fan. Her voice, delicate and melodious like an oriole, laughed as she said to Xiao Rongyan: “Paying respects to the honored guest.”

Xiao Rongyan lowered his head to smell the faint fragrance on the handkerchief, chuckled softly, lifted the hem of his long robe, and stepped up the high stairs of Kuaihuo Tower, perfectly playing the part of a dissolute young master.

Bai Qingyu, wearing a mask covering half his face, stood with his hands behind his back at the carved lattice window on the third floor, looking down at Xiao Rongyan, who was stepping up Kuaihuo Tower’s high stairs. His eyes were cold and clear. The swaying red lanterns hanging from the flying eaves cast shadows that made his cold black iron mask gleam with an eerie light.