After Lin Xiao left, Qin Yao returned to her room, changed her clothes again, and went to pay her respects to Consort Yi.
Consort Yi was in the middle of doing her hair and makeup, and Kangping hadn’t gotten up yet. Qin Yao stayed to chat with Consort Yi for a while before going to find Wang Yingning and the others.
In the morning, the mountain wind was bitterly cold, and Wang Yingning and the others were all wrapped in thick cloaks.
The four of them walked around for a while, but Pei Min, being somewhat frailer, was the first to complain she couldn’t bear it, and kept pulling at Qin Yao and the others to head back to the tent.
The group made their way to Qin Yao’s tent, where Caipin had everything ready since early morning. The four of them sat down and drank a round of steaming hot cheese-milk soup, and only then did they feel the chill in their bodies start to fade.
During the day, Kangping didn’t sit still for even a moment. She first used the small gold-threaded bow Lin Xiao had given her to shoot at some mountain finches, then led out the little deer that Prince Wu had hunted for her the day before, riding and chasing it about, shrieking with excitement the whole while—not looking the least bit like a princess.
By evening, the Emperor and the others still hadn’t returned, so Consort Yi simply summoned all the young women to dine together.
At the table, Consort Yi brought up Kangping’s upcoming wedding next month, and recalling how reluctant Qin Yao had looked that morning seeing Lin Xiao off, said with a smile, “Speaking of which, once you’re married, Mother asks for nothing else—only that you and your Prince Consort get along as lovingly as your Eleventh Brother and Eleventh Sister-in-law.”
Kangping was never shy about anything else, but the moment Feng Boyu was mentioned, she would instantly go as quiet as a kitten. Hearing Consort Yi’s words, she lowered her head in great embarrassment and said nothing for a long while.
Xia Yuan and Chen Yuqi both looked toward Qin Yao at the same moment. The former was naturally sour enough at heart to curdle into vinegar, while the latter thought to herself that when Duke Wei’s household had first met this girl, she had been nothing more than the daughter of a minor clerk—who could have guessed she’d prove so resourceful, managing in a mere half a year to win over a husband as exceptional as the heir of Prince Lan, one in ten thousand.
By comparison, her own family background and looks were clearly nothing to scoff at—so why had her parents matched her with that fat oaf Kong Weide?
Liu Bingyu happened to be sitting across from Chen Yuqi and saw her expression with perfect clarity. Knowing that Chen Yuqi had always been Xia Yuan’s lackey and was no doubt scheming something unpleasant, she quickly tugged at Pei Min’s sleeve, signaling her to look at Chen Yuqi.
After dinner, Consort Yi stayed in the tent to rest. Kangping behaved herself for only a little while before dragging all the young women off to Zhuliao Terrace to grill meat and play drinking games.
Consort Yi had Qin Yuan go along to join in the fun as well, saying with a smile, “It would be far too dull staying by my side all the time—you might as well take this chance to spend more time with girls your own age.”
Qin Yuan agreed with a smile and went out together with Kangping and the others.
Since they were all young women of noble families, Chang Rong and the others, to avoid any impropriety, kept watch from several dozen feet away from Zhuliao Terrace.
After grilling meat for a while, they began the drinking game. Just as the flower landed in Qin Yao’s lap and she was about to answer with a smile, she suddenly heard the compass in her sleeve give a click and start to sound.
Her heart jolted. For the moment, she didn’t dare let anything show, much less take out the compass in front of everyone, so she could only tilt her head and listen closely to what was happening inside her sleeve.
She heard the needle slowly turn half a circle, then stop again.
Just as she was caught in uncertain alarm, Chen Yuqi, seeing that Qin Yao hadn’t answered for so long, assumed she simply lacked the wit to match the verse and was merely putting on airs, secretly intending to bluff her way out of it. So Chen Yuqi said with a smile, “Young Madam, stop daydreaming—everyone’s waiting for your turn.”
Qin Yao, with all her focus bent on sensing the malevolent energy around them, had no spare attention at all to pay to Chen Yuqi.
Seeing that Qin Yao was paying her no mind whatsoever, as though she didn’t even register, Chen Yuqi could no longer contain the resentment she had been suppressing for so long.
Turning her head, she saw Xia Yuan sitting still with lowered eyes, her face plainly showing displeasure too. Emboldened by this, Chen Yuqi tugged at the corner of her mouth and said, “It’s just a drinking game, yet you can’t even follow the rules.”
The remark was clearly meant to provoke. Liu Bingyu, who had long held a low opinion of Chen Yuqi’s conduct and character, shot her a sidelong glance and said, “What did you say? Who isn’t following the rules? It’s just a drinking game—look at you acting so capable!”
Chen Yuqi sneered. “I’m talking about that kind of person who doesn’t follow the rules. Why are you so eager to pick a fight with me?”
She added in a low, bitter mutter, “They’re nothing but birds of a feather, the lot of them.”
Though the words weren’t spoken loudly, they carried just far enough to reach Pei Min and the others’ ears.
Liu Bingyu slammed her hand on the table and stood up. “Who are you calling birds of a feather?! I’d say it’s the two of you who—”
Seeing how recklessly she spoke without restraint, Wang Yingning’s expression changed slightly, and she quickly grabbed Liu Bingyu’s sleeve, signaling her to be quiet.
Pei Min looked at Chen Yuqi and said seriously, “It’s only a game, yet you’ve managed to drag in all sorts of things—not following the rules, birds of a feather, and who knows what else. I think you’ve held a grudge for some time now and are deliberately using this as an excuse.”
Chen Yuqi hadn’t expected that someone of Pei Min’s family standing would dare confront her so directly, and let out a scornful laugh. “Heh, I know exactly what you’re getting at. Do you think that just because you’ve latched onto a powerful family, you can climb to greater heights from now on? I’d advise you to back off and keep your tail tucked between your legs while you can, or you might not even graduate next year!”
The words were genuinely vicious, and even Wang Yingning couldn’t bear to listen any further. She said in a stern voice, “Miss Chen, since you’re well aware that we’re all schoolmates from the academy, why must every word out of your mouth cut like a knife? It’s only a small matter—we could each simply take a step back.”
“Exactly.” Wang Yingning was well-liked, and several schoolmates nearby immediately chimed in. “Saying something like ‘birds of a feather’ is truly too vicious—it hardly sounds like something a young lady of good family would say.”
Chen Yuqi had never been scolded by so many people at once. Lacking, as she always had, any knack for handling difficult situations gracefully, she failed entirely to recognize that the trouble had started because of her, and felt instead that Wang Yingning and the others were ganging up to attack her. Flushed with both shame and fury, with a thread of long-held envy toward Wang Yingning woven through all her emotions, she immediately let out a string of cold laughs. “When it comes to thick skin, no one could possibly compare to you, Fourth Miss Wang. Having brought death upon two betrothed fiancés in a row, and still able to show your face around so calmly—if I were you, I’d have died of shame long ago.”
The words struck like the sharpest blade, driving straight into Wang Yingning.
Qin Yao was so startled that she forgot all about the compass in her sleeve, and looked up sharply at Wang Yingning. Though Wang Yingning still sat steadily in her place, her face had gone pale as paper, clearly showing how deeply the words had wounded her.
Anger surged up in Qin Yao, and setting aside the compass for the moment, she rose to her feet and looked toward Chen Yuqi, intending to give her a proper piece of her mind.
Kangping, who had originally been watching from the sidelines, immediately switched sides upon seeing Qin Yao’s anger, and pointed fiercely at Chen Yuqi. “Your words are far too vicious—shut your mouth right now!”
Chen Yuqi’s face instantly turned the color of gold-leaf paper, and unable to keep up appearances any longer, she rose in disarray and fled down from Zhuliao Terrace.
From beginning to end, Xia Yuan hadn’t said a single word.
Qin Yuan, seated beside Kangping, had tried several times to smooth things over, but lacking the presence to carry it off, was cut off by one side or the other each time she opened her mouth, her pretty face flushing red with frustration. Now that the quarrel had finally ended, her color eased considerably. Qin Yao walked over to stand in front of Wang Yingning, just about to comfort her in a low voice, when suddenly the compass in her sleeve sounded again.
She straightened abruptly and turned to look back toward the dark, shadowed ravine, seeing that the malevolent energy showed a growing tendency to surge. Her conviction grew firmer, and she said urgently to Kangping and the others, “Something’s wrong with this valley. Everyone, don’t linger here any longer—quick, head back to the tents right away.”
Kangping was utterly bewildered. “Huh?”
Wang Yingning and the others, however, knew that Qin Yao was a practitioner of the Dao, and that such words could never be false. Not daring to linger any longer, they all rose at once, ready to head down from Zhuliao Terrace.
Suddenly, the maidservant attending Chen Yuqi came stumbling over and said, “Princess, young ladies—my mistress ran off too quickly just now, and this servant accidentally lost track of her. I’ve called out for her everywhere, but there’s been no answer at all. In such a wild, desolate place, what will we do if my mistress is lost?”
Kangping hadn’t expected Chen Yuqi to have such a temper, and frowned, saying impatiently, “What are you waiting for? Get a few more people to help you search.”
Xia Yuan, on the other hand, genuinely looked somewhat worried, and quickly sent her own maidservant over to help Chen Yuqi’s maid search.
Wang Yingning and the others had by now made their way down from Zhuliao Terrace, and following Qin Yao’s lead, hurried back toward their sleeping quarters. Recalling the ghost swordsman they had seen the last time, their faces couldn’t help but betray a measure of panic.
Being only human, everyone has a tendency to follow the crowd. Even though Kangping and the others hadn’t taken Qin Yao’s words seriously at first, seeing so many people heading back to their tents made staying behind seem pointless, so they too followed the others down from Zhuliao Terrace.
The scene grew rather chaotic for a moment.
Qin Yao simply took the compass out and held it in her hand, following its guidance as she pushed forward through the crowd to search for the source of the malevolent energy.
As she walked, Qin Yao kept looking up to search for Caipin or Chang Rong, intending to have Chang Rong find some way to get word to Lin Xiao as quickly as possible. But along the way, many schoolmates and palace servants were moving back and forth without pause. She searched the whole way and never once came across Chang Rong.
Qin Yao decided she would first go investigate the source of the malevolent energy herself. Lowering her head and focusing intently on the compass needle, she slowly made her way to a secluded spot, where the presence of people thinned out at once. The mountain wind grew unusually strong, howling past her ears.
Once she arrived, the compass needle, which had been still for a moment, suddenly began spinning wildly again, and faintly, she could make out the sound of a woman sobbing.
Qin Yao stopped in her tracks and looked up ahead, finding herself before a cliff.
Where she stood was a narrow path, lined the whole way to the cliff’s edge with a screen of trees, dense enough to easily conceal dozens of people.
The path ended right at the cliff.
A figure sat hugging her knees beside a rock on the cliff, sobbing without pause, crying out between sobs, “Who would want to marry that fat oaf! Who would want to marry that fat oaf! Why does everyone else get to marry a good husband, while I alone am so unlucky?”
Qin Yao recognized the voice as Chen Yuqi’s.
Qin Yao watched the cliff behind her warily—the malevolent energy surging there had already grown so dense that it could be seen even without opening her Heavenly Eye.
She tucked the compass back into her robes, took out the Soul-Devouring Bell, and carefully approached Chen Yuqi, calling out as steadily as she could manage, “Chen Yuqi, it’s me.”
Chen Yuqi looked up with tears in her eyes, and seeing it was Qin Yao, her expression immediately darkened. “What are you doing here?”
Qin Yao swallowed nervously, lifted her skirt warily as she stepped onto the rock, and bent down to pull at Chen Yuqi. “Stop crying in a place like this. If you must cry, can’t you do it somewhere else?”
Chen Yuqi shook off Qin Yao’s arm and shifted herself further toward the cliff’s edge, saying spitefully, “I don’t want to live anyway—what does it matter where I cry? I don’t need you putting on this fake show of kindness.”
Qin Yao had no time at all to waste arguing with her further, and seeing how stubbornly unreasonable she was being, said nothing more. She swiftly bent down and struck the acupoints on Chen Yuqi’s body, intending to get her away from the cliff as quickly as possible.
The two of them stood at the cliff’s edge, only a single step away from the bottomless abyss. Qin Yao’s heart couldn’t stop pounding wildly; not daring to look too long into that abyss thick with malevolent energy, she summoned forth the Fire Dragon to shield herself and Chen Yuqi.
Just as she was about to bend down, a faint sound suddenly came from behind her. Qin Yao had been guarding against the cliff’s edge where the malevolent energy had gathered, but by the time she sensed something was wrong, a powerful force had already struck her back.
Caught completely off guard, Qin Yao’s body was shoved forward in a sudden slide, and in an instant, she and Chen Yuqi were falling toward the endless abyss.
Chen Yuqi was falling even faster than she was. Greatly alarmed, Qin Yao kept her hand clamped tightly around Chen Yuqi’s, refusing to let go, while she twisted her body with all her strength, trying to grab hold of the cliff’s edge.
In her panic, she managed only to grasp a loose piece of rock, which couldn’t bear the weight of two people, and soon began to creak and groan.
Qin Yao gritted her teeth and clung to the rock, her hand trembling slightly from the strain, and with all her remaining strength struggled to inch slowly sideways, trying to seize the next outcrop of rock face before this one broke away.
Just then, a shadow fell across her from above, and in the next instant, an extra weight pressed down on Qin Yao’s hand—as though someone had lightly touched the toe of their foot against the already-teetering rock.
Qin Yao’s pupils contracted sharply. “Who are you?”
The figure said nothing, but pressed the tip of their foot down firmly onto Qin Yao’s fingers where they gripped the rock, grinding down hard.
Qin Yao felt a piercing pain shoot through her, but she held on with all her might, refusing to let go. Then a shower of rustling dirt fell from above, and the rock in her hand, unable to bear that extra outside force any longer, finally and irrevocably broke away from the cliff’s edge.
The fierce wind rushing up from the base of the cliff quickly enveloped Qin Yao. Her mind went utterly blank as she watched herself drift farther and farther from the cliff’s edge, and before the roar of the wind could swallow her voice completely, she cried out in despair, “Weijin——”