However, facing this sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl with a charming face and luxurious clothing, Qing Xia was truly stunned for a moment, because in this rear palace, young women still wearing maiden hairstyles were truly rare.

“Your Ladyship, this is Princess Jiayun, our Highness’s younger sister.”

Seeing Qing Xia staring speechlessly at the young girl before her, Xiangju softly reminded her. Who would have known that the girl who had barged in without any manners would suddenly raise her tender white hand, step forward, and shout sternly: “Talkative! Who asked you to announce my name?”

Qing Xia frowned. Though she acted a beat later, she quickly grabbed Jiayun’s arm and applied a little force, redirecting her momentum so that the princess staggered several steps to the side.

“You! How dare you!” Jiayun barely managed to steady herself, turned around, and pointed angrily at Qing Xia, shouting: “You dare to be disrespectful to me?”

Qing Xia glanced coldly at this willful, ignorant, spoiled girl out of the corner of her eye, snorted coldly, and didn’t even want to look at her again. She turned and sat in a chair, saying in an indifferent tone: “Princess, you should go back where you came from. You won’t get any advantage here. In the future, use your brain before acting. Don’t let people manipulate you with rumors, making you their pawn while they call you an idiot behind your back.”

“You…” Princess Jiayun was stunned, her round eyes widening enormously. After a long while, she came to her senses but still maintained her arrogant attitude: “What did you say? Who dares slander this princess behind my back? I’ll have their tongues cut out.”

Qing Xia turned to look at this willful girl, showing unbearable pity as she slowly shook her head. She thought to herself whether the Southern Chu royal family was in the habit of producing fools – Chu Li wasn’t necessarily smart, and this girl was ridiculously stupid. She no longer wanted to say more. Dealing with this pile of women today had already exhausted her, and she felt that these hypocritical pleasantries were more tiring than fighting ten burly men. She gently rubbed her shoulders and said to Xiangju beside her: “Xiangju, prepare hot water. I want to take a bath.”

“Hey! This princess is talking to you!” The forgetful Jiayun flew into a rage and charged forward to grab Qing Xia’s arm.

Qing Xia raised an eyebrow, and a trace of impatience immediately swept over her. At this moment, if it were the 21st century, friends familiar with her would know this was a sign of Qing Xia’s anger, and smart people would quickly retreat to find a safe place to hide. Unfortunately, this willful, spoiled princess had completely forgotten how easily the other person had just pushed her aside, and she still charged forward yelling, shouting sternly: “You bold woman, didn’t you hear this princess talking to you?”

Just as Jiayun’s hand was about to touch Qing Xia’s shoulder, a dark aura suddenly struck Qing Xia’s brow. The elegantly dressed, noble-tempered woman quickly turned around, her arm coiling around Jiayun like a water snake, and with a standard over-the-shoulder throw, she heavily slammed the most precious Princess Jiayun of the Southern Chu dynasty onto the luxurious floor.

“Ah!” “Princess!” “Your Ladyship!”

Countless terrified screams rang out simultaneously. Jiayun was thrown dizzy and disoriented, lying on the ground unable to get up for a long time. Qing Xia looked down at this immature, willful girl, smiled faintly, slowly crouched down, and said calmly to the girl’s blazing eyes: “If your parents didn’t teach you what politeness means, then let me teach you.”

A row of palace maids followed behind Qing Xia with small steps as she walked majestically toward the spacious bath house, leaving only the fuming Princess Jiayun in the grand hall and a crowd of flustered princess servants.

She really had no patience to socialize with these little girls who knew nothing of worldly hardships, nor did she need to be careful and fawning toward them. This seemingly massive cage actually had no restraining power over her whatsoever. If she wanted to leave, she could do so effortlessly. The reason she remained here was entirely due to a latent sense of responsibility.

Everyone knew that when selecting agents in modern society, the primary requirement wasn’t martial skills or intelligence, nor family background or clean records, but absolute loyalty and firm sense of responsibility. Qing Xia didn’t dare claim she had absolute loyalty, but in terms of responsibility, she was definitely a qualified agent.

Previously, she had thought Zhuang’s father was merely a feudal bureaucrat who had lost his humanity and family affection for wealth and glory. But after meeting him, Qing Xia’s opinion of this old man cursed by the world instantly changed. Perhaps others found it hard to understand, but Qing Xia, who had spent years undercover in Afghanistan and Iraq, deeply understood the so-called cruelty of war.

She had personally witnessed hungry children eating charred human flesh in ruins after a round of terrorist bombing attacks, having lost their parents. She had also seen with her own eyes an elderly man in his sixties who had lost a leg to bombing, crawling alone through the streets with hemp rope tied to his back, the rope binding the unrecognizable corpses of his entire family of eight. She had also personally witnessed war refugees who had lost their homes, their bodies covered with white maggots. Since ancient times, conflict had been humanity’s inherent flaw. In chaotic times, human lives were as worthless as grass, not even worth as much as pigs and dogs. Those tragic scenes still echoed in her mind, so although she didn’t share Zhuang Dianru’s optimism about Southern Chu and Chu Li, she still couldn’t bear to let Zhuang Dianru’s life’s work and dreams be destroyed because of her.

Zhuang Qing Xia could leave, could die – she had at least a hundred ways to leave the Southern Chu imperial palace without anyone knowing and without arousing any suspicion. But absolutely not at this time.

Absolutely not at this time when Prince An of Qi had just escaped from Southern Chu.

Because she didn’t want to implicate that hunched old man. The real Zhuang Qing Xia might not understand him, but she did. So she absolutely could not personally destroy all of this.

The sound of rushing water flowed quietly. Qing Xia dismissed the servants who wanted to attend her and stood by the pool, just perfunctorily wiping her body once. Though the wound on her lower abdomen wasn’t deep, she still couldn’t rashly enter the water like this. Last night’s operation was still due to her underestimating the enemy and looking down on these ancient warriors. She had originally thought Chu Li wouldn’t dare torture Qi An, and that apart from the stab wound she had given him, Qi An’s injuries shouldn’t be severe, so dealing with three to seven people should be fine. It was this thought that earned her this wound. She couldn’t help but smile self-mockingly.

If it came to open combat, she might only be able to barely handle two Iron Buddha guards. But the terrifying aspect of agents wasn’t their obvious martial skills – they were often good at hiding, ambushing, tracking, using poison, assassination, and disguise. As long as they caught an opportunity, their enemies would have no chance of recovery. Qing Xia happened to be such a person, and what was more advantageous was that looking across the entire world, except for Prince An of Qi, no one else knew this. Moreover, Qing Xia was very confident that Qi An wouldn’t reveal it.

Just as she was thinking, a subtle sound suddenly came from the direction of the tunnel entrance. Qing Xia frowned, and a cold gleam flashed in her eyes.

The footsteps were light, but the breathing frequency was slow – it was a man.

Could it be Chu Li?

Qing Xia couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. The person was obviously being cautious, unlike when Chu Li had come before so casually. Could last night’s operation have aroused his suspicion?

Throughout the entire day, no news of Qi An’s escape had been spread outside. Presumably, Chu Li knew that this was a critical time when the two armies were confronting each other, and Qi An’s escape at this time would deal an immeasurable blow to Southern Chu’s military morale. Moreover, Qi An certainly couldn’t have escaped Southern Chu’s borders yet, so there was still some confidence in capturing him. If word got out and attracted large numbers of Qi rescue troops, it would be even more counterproductive.

Therefore, regarding last night’s search, they only claimed that spies had infiltrated the city. Qing Xia understood the reasoning behind this, so she hadn’t been particularly alarmed all day.

But now, someone was suddenly sneaking into the bath house. Qing Xia had to be alert. If Chu Li’s suspicion had truly been aroused, facing several thousand Imperial Guards in the Chu palace, Qing Xia wasn’t arrogant enough to think she could escape with certainty.

She looked down at the scar on her lower abdomen, frowned slightly, and decisively walked down into the water, submerging her entire body. A tingling pain immediately struck her. Qing Xia closed her eyes slightly, secretly channeling all her hearing, not missing any slight movement outside.

Secretly counting the slightly chaotic footsteps, Qing Xia couldn’t help but feel alarmed.

The footsteps were light and chaotic but landed steadily – clearly those of martial artists. The breathing frequency was roughly consistent, about 10 times per minute, indicating the visitors’ martial skills were not weak, unlike ordinary people, with ages approximately between twenty and thirty. From hearing the first person’s sound to the last person entering the tunnel took about five seconds. Comparing the visitors’ skills and ages, she could judge there were about five people. When walking, each person had the habit of swinging one hand in slightly large movements, indicating all the visitors were accustomed to using swords. And interestingly, among this group, one person primarily used chest breathing with a slightly rapid breathing frequency – this could be determined to be a woman.

In a flash, Qing Xia had already figured out the general situation of the visitors. But she was trying hard to calculate what had gone wrong last night. Logically, this should be impossible – she had done everything extremely carefully, and anyone who had direct contact with her was no longer in this world. How could she have been exposed?

It was too late to consider these things now. Qing Xia concentrated, waiting for the moment the other party would strike.

Agent and spy guidelines, Division 9 – Chapter 2, Article 1: Until the very last moment of absolute necessity, one must not abandon their spy identity. This was the typical “won’t cry until seeing the coffin” – without direct evidence, never voluntarily admit to anything you’ve done.

So even at this moment, Qing Xia didn’t strike first, nor did she hide everywhere, but maintained the appearance of a beautiful woman bathing, leaning in the pool.