Bai Qingyan lowered her gaze to look at the blood and stains on her body, which appeared quite frightening, and said: “This is all other people’s blood. My injuries are all minor wounds. Physician Hong need not worry.”

Physician Hong checked Bai Qingyan’s pulse. Since Bai Qingyan was a woman and it was inconvenient for him to apply medicine to her external wounds, he had Yinshuang help Bai Qingyan go to the inner room to apply medicine and bandages. Just as he was sitting under the lamp writing a prescription, Xiao Rongyan arrived.

Once they reached Shequ, Bai Qingyan had Great Zhou affairs to arrange. With his status as Yan Kingdom’s regent, it was truly inconvenient for him to remain by Bai Qingyan’s side listening to her arrange such major matters as Great Zhou’s troop deployments. Moreover, Xiao Rongyan also had his affairs to arrange.

Now in Yan Kingdom, the feudal princes were joining forces to rebel, and the military forces Xiao Rongyan could mobilize were all in Great Zhou – an extremely tricky situation.

He sent people to deliver a letter to Great Zhou for Wang Hanbing, instructing him to pacify the Yan Kingdom forces and not engage in meaningless sacrifices by confronting Great Zhou’s soldiers within Great Zhou territory due to the warfare between Great Zhou and Yan Kingdom.

He also sent people to deliver a letter to A’Li, telling A’Li that the imperial relatives were untrustworthy. He should gather all available forces to guard the imperial city, and absolutely could not allow the Yan Kingdom’s feudal princes to enter the Yan capital under the pretext of protecting the emperor during the war between the Yan Kingdom and the Great Zhou, lest the feudal princes hold the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords.

Although Xiao Rongyan was unwilling to implicate the Empress Dowager, which would be too cruel for A’Li as a child, now was not the time to be soft-hearted. He told A’Li that if he discovered any connection between the imperial relatives and the Empress Dowager, it was likely that the Empress Dowager would stand on the same battle line as the imperial relatives to seize A’Li’s power.

If Murong Li could not bring himself to eliminate the Empress Dowager, or if it was already too late and someone came to rescue him, he should follow that person. He told Murong Li that it would likely be that Great Zhou’s wealthy merchant Cui Fengnian, and if he hadn’t guessed wrong, this merchant was Bai Qingyan’s third sister, Bai Jintong.

As soon as Xiao Rongyan arrived and saw that Physician Hong was also there, he respectfully saluted this elder of the Bai family: “Physician Hong!”

Physician Hong knew Xiao Rongyan’s identity and also knew that it was Xiao Rongyan who had rescued Bai Qingyan this time.

The news had already spread throughout the Great Zhou army, with everyone saying that this Yan Kingdom regent had captured the families of Yan Kingdom feudal princes and beheaded several people before rescuing His Majesty from the hands of Yan Kingdom’s Xiping Army.

The army was already speculating wildly about this Yan Kingdom regent’s behavior, wondering whether this Yan Kingdom regent had saved people because he was smitten with their His Majesty, or because he feared offending Great Zhou and disrupting the gambling situation between the two countries.

Naturally, seeing their His Majesty being carried back in the Yan Kingdom regent’s arms, they thought the possibility of him being smitten with their His Majesty was greater.

Just as Physician Hong was coming here, he had heard several centurions speculating whether their Great Zhou His Majesty would not hold the Yan Kingdom accountable because of the regent’s life-saving grace this time.

Although the soldiers were grateful to the Yan Kingdom regent for saving their His Majesty, it was also the Yan Kingdom’s Prince Xiping who had ambushed their Great Zhou emperor. According to the Anping Army brothers who returned, Prince Xiping was determined to kill Their Majesty on the mountain. Even with the regent’s grace in saving Their Majesty, the Great Zhou soldiers still wanted revenge.

Ambushing Their Majesty was simply a tremendous humiliation for these Great Zhou soldiers! Was this bullying them because the Great Zhou army didn’t dare fight them, or what?

But they feared that Their Majesty, mindful of this Yan Kingdom regent’s life-saving grace, wouldn’t have the heart to seek revenge!

The soldiers were all gathering together, planning that if the generals summoned by His Majesty returned and said His Majesty wasn’t preparing for revenge, they would collectively kneel and petition His Majesty to wage war.

Physician Hong looked at Xiao Rongyan and also rose to salute him. For a moment, unsure whether to address Xiao Rongyan as regent or as eldest son-in-law, he said: “Yinshuang is applying medicine to the eldest miss. How about… this old man examine Your Highness’s pulse?”

“This time Yan did not engage in battle and was not injured, so I won’t trouble Physician Hong,” Xiao Rongyan said.

“A’Yan, please sit for a moment. It will be ready soon…”

Bai Qingyan’s voice came from behind the lowered curtains. Xiao Rongyan responded and sat down nearby. Physician Hong had already risen to take his leave, going personally to brew medicine for Bai Qingyan.

Yinshuang applied medicine and bandages for Bai Qingyan, then helped her change into a fresh set of clothes. Thinking of how much blood the eldest miss had lost, she took out all the tasty treats she had hidden from Physician Hong – everything she had concealed in her bosom, packed in her pouch, wrapped in handkerchiefs – taking it all out and stuffing it into Bai Qingyan’s arms: “Eldest miss must nourish herself well!”

Bai Qingyan was both amused and touched by Yinshuang’s actions. She wanted to refuse and not accept them, but seeing the little girl’s one eye was red with tears, she smiled and accepted: “Very well… then I thank Yinshuang.”

“Tomorrow I’ll bring more for the eldest miss! Eldest miss must eat more!” Yinshuang earnestly instructed her.

Bai Qingyan nodded: “I understand. You may go.”

Yinshuang came out and used twining branch gold-plated copper hooks to lift the curtains that hung from the crossbeam. She glanced at Xiao Rongyan, who was still wearing his mask, and knowing that this Xiao Rongyan was from Yan Kingdom, she glared fiercely at him before carrying her medicine box and turning to leave.

Seeing this, Weizhong apologized to Xiao Rongyan on her behalf, and together with Yue Shi, they went out and closed the door, standing guard outside like door gods.

Through the landscape painting screen, Xiao Rongyan saw Bai Qingyan sitting on the edge of the bed using a hot towel to wipe her face. His fist clenched at his side, and he walked around the screen toward the inner room, smoothly taking the towel Bai Qingyan was about to put into the hot water copper basin, wringing it out properly for her, then leaning down to gently and tenderly wipe the scratches on her face.

Even now, Xiao Rongyan was still afraid. If he had arrived even a little later and the entire Xiping Army had charged up… even though Bai Qingyan was skilled in warfare, when outnumbered, she would likely have faced more danger than safety.

Bai Qingyan looked at Xiao Rongyan’s mask, which was cast in warm tones by the candlelight, and reached up to move the mask from his face. His thin lips pressed tightly together came into view, and she said: “This time, thanks to A’Yan arriving in time.”

“This time was my oversight…” Xiao Rongyan placed the towel in the copper basin, stepped on the footstool to sit beside Bai Qingyan, carefully avoiding the wound on her arm as he drew her into his embrace.

“Little A’Li has a broad mind, but this time I must wrong him! Yan Kingdom… cannot be unified without force, and I’m sure you understand this too.” Bai Qingyan looked up at Xiao Rongyan. “I originally planned to claim publicly that you were Great Zhou’s deceased imperial husband, impersonating Yan Kingdom’s regent Xiao Rongyan for Great Zhou’s sake, but I was also afraid of making you bear infamy.”

Xiao Rongyan lowered his gaze to play with Bai Qingyan’s slender fingers that trembled slightly, bringing them to his lips for a kiss: “The Yan Empress Dowager has produced handwritten letters from my brother and me. I’m already bearing infamy – I don’t mind.”

He looked up at Bai Qingyan, his eyes and brows carrying a smile: “Since returning to Yan Kingdom, knowing there was a merchant in the Yan capital called Cui Fengnian, I did think this person might not be simple, but I never imagined this Cui Fengnian would be the Bai family’s third miss…”

When Bai Qingyan had the shadow guards return to the Yan capital to deliver orders, she hadn’t avoided Xiao Rongyan, so his guessing Jintong’s identity was not surprising.