Mo Zi’s two slaps were delivered with full force, causing Consort Xiang to stagger backward and fall sitting on the ground.
The black-armored warriors saw their mistress struck and immediately moved forward.
Wu Yan waved his hand, and the shadow guards blocked them.
Consort Xiang heard Wu Yan say something and immediately lost all color in her face.
“Have you vented your anger?” He was speaking to Mo Zi.
The man she loved with all her heart, the man she thought would at least pity her, showed complete indifference to her pain before another woman.
In that instant, she suddenly didn’t want to endure anymore. Although her father constantly advised her to consider the long term, saying that if Song Mo Zi returned, she should yield in all things, she had endured long enough. Half the guards in the palace answered to her command, she reigned supreme in the inner palace, many royal ministers and officials stood on her side, and the common people loved her like a national mother. She already had the power to dispose of Song Mo Zi, and Wu Yan couldn’t stop her. Under such self-inflation and vengeful psychology, she stood up, pulled a phoenix hairpin from her hair, and with lightning speed stabbed toward Mo Zi’s neck.
Wu Yan didn’t expect it. The shadow guards saw it but only followed Wu Yan’s commands. The black-armored warriors were Ke Na family people and naturally wouldn’t call out a warning.
Dou Lu cried out a warning to be careful, circling to Mo Zi’s other side, wanting to shield her from this bloody disaster.
But Mo Zi was even faster than Dou Lu. Her form like flowing wind, she suddenly vanished from before Dou Lu. Her right hand now held a small sword flashing with cold light. She knocked away Consort Xiang’s hairpin, her left hand gripped Consort Xiang’s neck, and in the blink of an eye, the sword plunged into the other’s shoulder and was ruthlessly pulled out again.
Consort Xiang screamed miserably and fainted from pain, blood dyeing her golden phoenix robe red.
Mo Zi watched her fall with cold eyes, wiped the fresh blood from the sword with her sleeve, and sheathed it.
The black-armored warriors were at a loss from this great upheaval. They wanted to punish the true culprit, but the shadow guards wouldn’t budge, so they could only urgently call to the King to make the decision.
Wu Yan’s gaze was complex as he looked at Mo Zi… Finally he ordered people to carry Consort Xiang away for medical treatment and dismissed the black-armored warriors.
“Are you satisfied now?” His tone was helpless, but he indulged her willfulness.
Mo Zi smiled. “What do you mean by that? She tried to kill me… I merely defended myself. What’s there to be satisfied or unsatisfied about? Your calmness does surprise me though. As the saying goes, one day as husband and wife brings a hundred days of grace. I was fully prepared to be torn to pieces.”
She wasn’t stupid—she knew he had feelings for her, so she exploited that to counterattack. Yue Xiang had tried to put her to death more than once. This sword strike was to tell her… from now on, don’t stir up trouble for nothing.
“The women in the palace are yours to dispose of. These words don’t mean you can do as you please. Even if you wanted to kill Consort Xiang, I wouldn’t interfere, much less when you avoided vital points.” Wu Yan wasn’t provoked by her. “Mo Zi, return to the palace with me. The wedding day is set for the sixth of the fourth month. Everything is arranged—only my bride is missing.”
“What if I simply refuse to marry you?” The sixth of the fourth month? Why not just put it on Qingming Festival? How auspicious that would be. No need to bow to heaven and earth—just burn incense and paper money… and be done with it.
Wu Yan’s gaze didn’t waver. “You must consent whether you’re willing or not. Mo Zi, even if I die… you must accompany me.”
“You want me to be buried with you too?” Mo Zi wasn’t moved by such a declaration. “Thanks, but I don’t want to die with you, nor do I want to marry you.” So love truly could vanish. The same face, the same speaking tone, yet her heart produced not a single ripple.
Wu Yan grasped her wrist, his eyes blazing. “Don’t challenge my patience again. Mo Zi, whether you’re willing or not, in this lifetime you can only be my woman.”
Mo Zi felt pain from his grip… but said nothing, only resisted.
“Elder brother, when men marry and women wed, there have been proper rites since ancient times.” Dou Lu spoke eloquently. “Much less when a nation’s sovereign holds a great wedding. Though we sisters have neither parents nor elder brothers to preside over the marriage, does everyone else bully us for being orphans and alone… will elder brother also bully us for having no family or clan? Taking elder sister into the palace like this—she has no name or status; marrying from palace to palace—it’s unclear and improper. A Han woman as empress already faces much controversy. Such wronged wedding rites, lacking propriety, will saddle elder sister with an evil reputation of unchastity and impropriety in the future. If elder brother truly cares for elder sister, he should consider everything thoroughly for her sake and stop letting her suffer undeserved censure.”
Wu Yan pondered for a long while. “I hadn’t thought of these things—this is indeed my oversight. Your sister marrying from the Song residence would be more proper.”
Mo Zi thought to herself: At a time like this, we’re still discussing where to marry from?
“As expected of a real younger sister, truly thinking of her elder sister.” Wu Yan also understood that Consort Xiang calling Mo Zi “elder sister” held no genuine feeling. “These next few days, you’ll stay at the Song residence first. I’ll arrange everything immediately. However, to prevent your elder sister from wanting to run away again, you won’t mind if I use people from the palace, will you?”
“If I said I minded, would you not use them?” Mo Zi mocked. The Song residence or the palace—either way, it was a birdcage, trying to trap her to death.
Dou Lu had said all she needed to say and fell silent.
Wu Yan personally escorted the sisters to the Song residence and only returned to the palace for court after the shadow guards and palace people were all in position.
“Elder sister, his sincerity toward you is true. You severely wounded Yue Xiang with your sword, and he didn’t even furrow his brow.” Dou Lu pushed open the window. Dawn had already broken, yet she had no desire to sleep.
“When I needed his sincerity, he couldn’t give it. Now that I no longer care, he wants to force it on me. Do you know what this is called?” Mo Zi had no mind to watch the sky’s colors. “At first, meeting the right person at the wrong time in the wrong place, then meeting the wrong person at the right time in the right place. No matter what, it’s impossible to be together anymore. Besides, if I really married him, within three years I’d be killed by someone. I consider myself not stupid, but the problem is you can’t guard against everything—wave after wave coming, even immortals couldn’t save themselves.”
Dou Lu sighed. “The people here are truly strange—just because of birth, they negate everything.”
Mo Zi narrowed her eyes at her. “You’re the strange one. Actually speaking up for Wu Yan—do you really want me to marry him?”
“Elder sister, perhaps if we leave this time, there won’t be another chance to return. Consider it a final farewell.” Dou Lu said softly. “Imprisoned here is still better than in the palace.”
Mo Zi scrutinized her expression carefully. “Dou Lu, you…”
“Elder sister, how did Chu Liu die?” Only now did Dou Lu think to ask.
“He died from committing too many evils.” Min Feng’s hidden weapons were quite useful. “Dou Lu, where are your earrings? The pair with the names carved on them.”
“I left them at the young master’s house in the capital. Why does elder sister suddenly ask about this?” Dou Lu didn’t understand the reason.
Mo Zi feared walls had ears, and it was also a very long story, so she didn’t speak directly. She smiled and said, “You just gave them to Jin Yin as a love token?”
“No!” Dou Lu quickly waved her hands. “Something so important—I wouldn’t give it to anyone. I just didn’t have it on me.”
“Why do you say the earrings are important?” Her younger sister had vague memories of the fire—Mo Zi thought she might remember other things too.
“Mother gave them to us.” Dou Lu said matter-of-factly. “Didn’t I tell you before?”
As expected.
“By the way, elder sister, Jin Yin is at the Hawk God Temple.” Dou Lu hurried to tell her.
“I saw your pot of yaohuang.” Startled to realize dawn was nearly here, but no news had come from Yuan Cheng. “Dou Lu, are you certain Jin Yin is alright?”
Dou Lu nodded. “When Consort Xiang tied me up and took me from the temple, Jin Yin was in the cell next door. What is it?”
Mo Zi told her about Chu Liu killing someone. “Though I didn’t think it could possibly be Jin Yin, I couldn’t see the face clearly, so my heart wasn’t at ease. Hearing you say this, it should indeed be a deception Wu Yan set up.”
“Yes. Though Wu Yan imprisoned us at the temple, he didn’t torture us severely. We could even move around inside the temple. The most miserable were probably Qian Liang and Bai Liang—their pressure points were sealed so they couldn’t use their martial skills. They hung their heads in dejection all day…”
“So Qian Liang and Bai Liang were indeed captured. What about Yi Liang and Ba Liang?” Finally able to get news, yet she herself was in a cage.
“Uncle Yi Liang is together with us. Uncle Ba Liang I don’t know about.” Dou Lu wrinkled her nose at this. “The young master only knows how to talk big—saying he’d protect us thoroughly, but in the end we were all discovered by those temple people.”
“I’m afraid it’s not that Jin Yin talked big, but that he underestimated the temple’s power. Yuan Cheng explored the temple last night—I hope all is well.” But Mo Zi’s heart was very worried.
“Does elder sister like Master Yuan?” Dou Lu discovered this and showed delight on her face.
“My judgment is terrible, isn’t it? A corrupt official, a power-grabbing chancellor, a traitor’s son, a national rebel, and also a fugitive by imperial decree.” As Mo Zi spoke, she laughed. “He’s a very troublesome, very troublesome person.”
Dou Lu’s beautiful eyes also smiled. “Troublesome people solve troubles. I think that’s quite good.”
Just as they were laughing and talking, two people flew down from the roof.
Huayi made Mo Zi’s heart settle at once, but the other person shocked and delighted her.
“Xiao Yi?!”
In night-traveling clothes, with slender eyes and slender hands, her hair tied in a high chivalrous topknot, a slender sword at her waist—Xiao Yi in male attire appeared dashing and lively.
“Mo Zi.” Xiao Yi grasped her hand. “Miss has the final say there—no one dares provoke her, so she doesn’t need me for now. It just so happened that senior martial brothers needed help, so I came.”
“You’re not afraid of your senior martial brothers anymore?” Mo Zi asked quietly, avoiding Huayi’s gaze.
“They’re very good to me now. Actually, they were good to me when I was little too, it’s just—” How to put it? Xiao Yi tilted her head thinking.
“They just didn’t know how to show it.” Huayi helped Xiao Yi complete the thought.
Xiao Yi said that was right.
“How is the temple situation?” Yuan Cheng is alright, isn’t he?
“Solid as gold and impregnable—no way to enter. We could force a breakthrough, but the timing isn’t right.” Huayi replied. “The master already knows about the young lady’s situation and asked me to convey some words to you.”
“Please speak.” Somehow, she felt a bit excited.
“The Daqiu King’s great wedding must be conducted in the temple. The master says it seems the young lady must marry once first. Since the young lady was rash to begin with, this can actually go with the flow. This is a letter from the master for the young lady—generally an action plan. However, unexpected changes may occur, so remember to adapt to circumstances.”
Mo Zi read it carefully once, had Dou Lu help look at it too, then burned it with candle flame. “Understood.”
“The master will arrange for Xiao Yi, Zan Jin, and the others to protect the young lady nearby. The young lady needn’t worry.” After Huayi finished speaking, he signaled Xiao Yi to leave.
“Huayi.” Mo Zi called out to him. “Does Yuan Cheng know Chu Liu is already dead?”
Huayi turned back. “The master said, if the young lady doesn’t ask, then that’s that. But if she asks, to help him say thank you.”
To be Yuan Cheng’s messenger required being clever—even slightly dull wouldn’t do.