Baili Xiaosheng was studying the barrier that confined Shiliang, while Jun Buli sent a shadow guard to bring Consort Li over, then lay flat on his back on the grass to rest. He planned to hand everything here over to Baili Weisheng once he returned, and head back to the capital first himself.
He didn’t like keeping Consort Li out for too long, especially since Baili Weisheng had trailed him the previous night—clearly he suspected something.
With the Beast Clan’s Xiao family having lost their beast army, their influence was basically negligible now. Once he made it back to the capital, he could send troops to attack Nanzhao—he had no intention of leading the campaign himself.
If he personally led the campaign, Consort Li would inevitably become a liability. If Baili Weisheng suspected him, that meant Mother and Father suspected him too, and hadn’t given up investigating.
So returning to the capital and staying within the palace was the safest and least troublesome choice.
By the lake, all was silent.
Meng Duo’er sat on the grass, feeling rather exhausted herself, and was about to follow Jun Buli’s example and lie back too, when Baili Xiaosheng suddenly spoke up. “Hey, are you from the Dream Clan?”
Unlike Situ Jing’er, Meng Duo’er remained quite polite—after all, she knew Baili Xiaosheng’s original personality had always been blunt and straightforward, and now, having lost her memory, her hostility toward them was understandable.
“Yes, Dream Clan. Meng Duo’er. We knew each other before,” Meng Duo’er said with a smile, deliberately moving closer to sit.
“If we know each other, why not just let me go?” Baili Xiaosheng shot back.
At those words, Jun Buli’s eyes suddenly snapped open, though he showed no other reaction. “There’s a misunderstanding between you and us. Wait until your master arrives,” Meng Duo’er said.
“Didn’t Jun Buli just explain everything clearly? There’s no misunderstanding. I believe you people—so let me go!” Baili Xiaosheng pressed again.
“But I don’t believe you,” Meng Duo’er said, still smiling. But these words made Baili Xiaosheng feel like she was being toyed with. Her phoenix eyes glared furiously—she’d assumed this Meng Duo’er would be easy to reason with, but apparently not.
If she wasn’t willing to be reasoned with, why pretend to be so friendly?
“Hypocrite!” Baili Xiaosheng spat out, very much in her rough, masculine manner.
To actually be called a “hypocrite”—how ugly a word!
Meng Duo’er only ever lost her temper around Baili Weisheng—when it came to temperament, she had plenty of her own. She frowned at Baili Xiaosheng, then stood up and walked away, ignoring her entirely.
“You!” Baili Xiaosheng choked with anger.
Meng Duo’er turned back and asked, displeased, “What, are you going to hold a grudge against me too?”
As if struck by the truth of it, Baili Xiaosheng fumed silently and turned her head away, refusing to look at her.
Meng Duo’er sat down beside Shiliang. Though she said nothing more, she wove several more layers of barrier, clearly a deliberate provocation aimed at Baili Xiaosheng.
Jun Buli, watching and listening to all of this from the side, thought to himself, Women… truly, each one more terrifying than the last!
Indeed, women only revealed their true colors in front of other women!
Baili Xiaosheng knew she had completely lost this round and didn’t bother dwelling on it further. She looked off toward the direction of the Xiao Manor, wondering when her brother would come to save her.
In her heart, her brother was utterly capable of anything! She only listened to her brother’s words—she wouldn’t even give face to the Xiao patriarch and his wife.
Jun Buli assumed Baili Weisheng wouldn’t be gone too long—after all, no matter how Sheng Zimo tried to flee, he couldn’t escape the Xiao Manor. Even if he did manage to escape, the Xiao couple would still be there, and they could surely get some answers out of them.
But who would have known that after most of the day had passed, two shadow guards came rushing to report, “Master, something terrible has happened—Consort Li has been kidnapped!”
“What!”
Jun Buli leapt up instantly, his face changing color.
Meng Duo’er had never seen him this tense before, and beside her, Baili Xiaosheng was equally baffled—who exactly was this Consort Li, that she could make this practically expressionless man so agitated?
“Watch over them!” Jun Buli tossed the words at Meng Duo’er, and his figure flickered and vanished into thin air, the two shadow guards immediately following after him, heading toward the Xiao Manor.
Baili Xiaosheng couldn’t help her curiosity and asked, “Hey, what is Consort Li to him?”
Meng Duo’er glanced at her but didn’t answer.
“Hey, I’m asking you!” Baili Xiaosheng pressed again.
Meng Duo’er simply picked up the cloth strip from before and gagged Baili Xiaosheng’s mouth again, dusted off her hands, and ignored her completely, sitting back down beside Shiliang. With a casual gesture, she wove a large barrier that trapped Baili Xiaosheng inside it as well.
“Mmph, mmph…” Baili Xiaosheng struggled desperately, resolving in her heart to hold this grudge for good.
Meng Duo’er lay back lazily, thinking that once Jun Buli got there, the Xiao Manor was probably doomed. She might as well take a nap while waiting for them to return.
Indeed—kidnapping the consort Jun Buli favored and valued most meant the Xiao Manor’s destruction was certain.
When Jun Buli arrived at the Xiao Manor, he found Baili Weisheng standing off against a large group of guards and archers.
Having lost their beast army, the Xiao Manor could only field human troops.
Standing at the front were the Xiao patriarch and his wife, along with several young masters and misses. But Jun Buli disregarded all of them, because his eyes had immediately locked onto one person—Sheng Zimo!
And Consort Li was right in his grip, her hands bound behind her, held under tight guard.
Jun Buli landed beside Baili Weisheng, standing together on the rooftop. There was no one else in his eyes—the only person he saw was Sheng Zimo.
“You’re certain it was you who kidnapped my consort?” Jun Buli asked coldly.
“Yes!” Sheng Zimo said, quite arrogantly.
The Xiao patriarch was equally arrogant, believing that kidnapping Consort Li gave him enough leverage to threaten Jun Buli!
“Hand over Baili Xiaosheng and Shiliang, or else… Jun Buli, you decide what happens next,” the Xiao patriarch snorted coldly.
Just as they’d reached the point of despair, Sheng Zimo had managed to find Consort Li—truly heaven’s own intervention for the Xiao family!
Over these past ten years, Jun Buli had shown no interest in Nanzhao, but the Xiao family had been very interested in the goings-on of the Da Zhou court. Even though they’d never actually laid eyes on Jun Buli or Consort Li, they knew that Consort Li was Da Zhou’s most favored consort, the one Jun Buli cared about most.
Heroes, more often than not, fall at the feet of a beauty—and Jun Buli would be no exception.
“Are all of you accomplices too?” Jun Buli asked again, his sharp, cold gaze sweeping across the group.
“Yes! If you don’t want her dead, send Baili Xiaosheng back!” the Xiao family’s young master, Xiao Yu, stepped forward arrogantly, waving a signal at the archers to stand ready at any moment.
Jun Buli nodded, the corner of his lips curling into a sinister, seductive smile as he said quietly, “Scholar, your disciple and Meng Duo’er are having an argument, seems to be about you. Don’t you want to go check on it?”
Baili Weisheng was startled and was about to speak, when Jun Buli continued, “You can leave things here to me. Go on. If that fool Meng Duo’er ends up releasing Baili Xiaosheng, you’ll bear the responsibility.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Baili Weisheng said, displeased—but he genuinely couldn’t rest easy about it. Knowing Meng Duo’er as he did, that girl was capable of anything, and releasing the prisoner wasn’t out of the question at all!
He’d been at this standoff with the Xiao family up till now mainly waiting for Jun Buli to arrive anyway. If the shadow guards hadn’t been there to make the situation clear, he might well have let the Xiao family kill Consort Li before going to inform Jun Buli.
“Hurry up, don’t dawdle with them. I’ll go take a look,” Baili Weisheng said, and truly did walk off, not noticing the flicker of bloodthirsty, cold light that crossed Jun Buli’s eyes.