When Xiao Li and Wei Ang received the news at the training ground and rushed over, they saw several soldiers lying on the ground moaning in pain after being knocked down by a horse, and not far ahead lay that arrow-struck jujube-red horse.

Wei Jiamin, sword in hand and face full of anger, was walking from the direction of the military tent where Wen Yu was confined.

Xiao Li’s gaze almost instantly swept toward her rear, but he only caught sight of Wen Yu’s back as she was escorted by two servant women returning to the tent.

Wei Ang, looking alarmed and miserable, dismounted quickly and walked rapidly toward Wei Jiamin: “Ancestor, how did you answer Uncle Ang? Didn’t you say you’d just casually look around near the training ground? How did you run here and cause trouble?”

Wei Jiamin’s beloved horse had been shot and injured, and she had discovered such an utterly disgusting matter. Full of grievances, hearing Wei Ang’s reproach now, tears immediately rolled out like falling beans. With a sobbing voice she said: “I don’t want to stay in this disgusting place anymore. I want to return to Weizhou. I want to find Father!”

Wei Ang didn’t know about the latter matter, only thinking she felt greatly wronged from being blocked and having her beloved horse shot. He could only first go along with her words to coax her: “Alright, alright, this lowly officer will immediately arrange horses and carriages to send you back to Weizhou.”

Wei Jiamin cried fiercely. Raising her sword, she pointed at the young officer who had blocked her earlier and those soldiers, shouting: “They killed my jujube-red horse. I want their lives to accompany my jujube-red horse in death!”

The jujube-red horse’s leg was injured in the fall, causing the leg bone to break—it could no longer be saved.

Hearing her shout, Wei Ang now felt she and Wei Pingjin were indeed worthy of being brother and sister. But at least Wei Pingjin was often disciplined by Wei Qishan and could distinguish benefits from harm. This County Princess, however, had been raised pampered, and when she threw tantrums, even Wei Qishan might not be able to persuade her. He now extremely regretted agreeing to bring her along on this assignment to the encampment.

Wei Ang endured his headache: “County Princess, they are all good sons protecting the homeland. If they have offended the County Princess, let them apologize to the County Princess, and consider this matter settled, how about it? The Marquis loves his soldiers like sons. The County Princess is the Marquis’s precious pearl and should all the more sympathize with the Marquis’s painstaking efforts, shouldn’t you?”

But at this moment Wei Jiamin could no longer hear any words of persuasion. Hearing Wei Ang say this, the grievance in her heart intensified, and the tears became even more unstoppable. While raising her sleeve to wipe tears, she cried: “Uncle Ang, you’re also siding with these outsiders! Even killing a person requires paying with one’s life—why don’t they need to pay with their lives for killing my horse?”

Xiao Li had already learned the whole story from the young officer. He directly ordered: “Take your men to the infirmary camp.”

The young officer received the command and was about to withdraw.

Seeing Xiao Li completely ignore her and just let the person who killed her horse leave, Wei Jiamin was even more enraged, shouting loudly: “Did this County Princess permit them to leave?”

But Xiao Li had absolutely no intention of paying attention to her, only saying to Wei Ang: “General Wei may handle this yourself.”

Wei Ang was very embarrassed. The soldier who had gone to report earlier had already told them the general course of events. From these soldiers fallen all over the ground and that shot horse, it wasn’t hard to deduce what had happened.

Wei Jiamin riding a horse and trespassing into the restricted military area was already a violation of military discipline. Moreover, she had struck first to injure others, and now was still clamoring to kill that young officer and his subordinate soldiers to vent her hatred. Wei Ang only felt his old face burning with shame.

He cupped his fists toward Xiao Li in embarrassment: “It was this lowly officer’s negligence in not explaining military regulations clearly to the County Princess. This lowly officer apologizes to the Prefecture Lord on her behalf.”

Seeing Wei Ang so humble and submissive, Wei Jiamin was even more resentful and angry, shouting: “Uncle Ang! He’s just a cunning martial brute who puts on one face in public and another in private. Don’t be deceived by him!”

She wanted to say that when she returned to Weizhou and reported to Father that this person wasn’t as upright and self-disciplined as he appeared in public, Father would understand this person was just putting on airs to trick him into favoring him.

When refusing those two beautiful concubines, he was high-minded and righteous, but behind the scenes he was having an ambiguous relationship with a pregnant woman in the camp!

Father actually wanted to arrange a marriage between herself and such a person!

Just thinking about it made Wei Jiamin feel so disgusted she could go mad.

But she still had some brains after all, knowing this was Xiao Li’s territory. She feared that if she exposed everything here, Xiao Li might make trouble, and if he did something to her, her latter half of life would be ruined. For her own safety’s sake, she ultimately didn’t reveal everything.

After glaring fiercely at Xiao Li with extremely disgusted and angry eyes, she turned her head away.

Wei Ang had no idea why this ancestor was so completely unreasonable today. Hearing her continue to insult Xiao Li verbally, he couldn’t help but sternly darken his expression, shouting: “County Princess, you must not be disrespectful to Prefecture Lord Xiao!”

In the two major battles in the northern border, if not for Xiao Li, who knows what state they would have been beaten into by now.

Wei Qishan was already doing everything possible to win him over. Yuan Fang and Liao Jiang, those two veteran generals, also got along extremely well with him. But Wei Qishan’s pair of children somehow had their wires crossed, blindly hostile toward him.

Wei Ang thought of the early-deceased eldest young master Wei and truly suddenly felt sad for Wei Qishan.

Could it be that the early-deceased eldest son truly took away all the intelligence of Wei Qishan’s subsequent children?

After Wei Ang’s shout, Wei Jiamin seemed stunned for a moment. Tears swirled in her eyes. Finally, wiping her eyes with her elbow, she said chokingly: “I want to return to Weizhou by myself!”

After speaking, she grabbed her long sword and kept raising her hand to wipe tears as she walked back.

Seeing her cry like that, Wei Ang had no solution and worried until the wrinkles on his face multiplied: “Prefecture Lord, this I…”

Xiao Li said: “I understand General Wei’s difficulties. The County Princess’s safety is paramount. General, please go.”

Only then did Wei Ang hastily cup his fists toward Xiao Li and lift his steps to chase after her.

After the people had gone far, Xiao Li turned his eyes to look at that young officer, asking: “She went to that military tent?”

He didn’t have an angry intent, yet it frightened the young officer into immediately kneeling on one knee: “It was this lowly officer’s dereliction of duty. I beseech the Prefecture Lord to punish me.”

Before Xiao Li’s eyes appeared that image of Wen Yu’s back returning to the tent. His gaze was cold and heavy as he asked: “What did they say?”

He didn’t care about Wei Jiamin’s sudden hostility toward him, but Wen Yu, in order to conceal her identity, had always strived to avoid people from the Wei camp. Yet today she just happened to appear outside the tent, encountering Wei Jiamin directly.

Xiao Li was very certain she wouldn’t do this without reason.

—

That she would see Xiao Li again after today’s events—Wen Yu was not surprised at all.

He still only stood far away at the entrance watching her, his gaze extremely cold.

Wen Yu sat leaning against the head of the bed, holding half a scroll to read, with no intention of raising her eyes.

After the two servant women paid respects to Xiao Li, sensing the atmosphere in the room was somewhat strange, they looked at Wen Yu, then looked at Xiao Li, completely at a loss for what had happened.

It was still Xiao Li who spoke to order: “Leave.”

The two only felt his voice was so cold it could drop ice chips. They felt uneasy about leaving a weak woman alone in the tent but didn’t dare disobey his command. After hesitating for a while, the plump servant woman ultimately pulled the thin servant woman and they withdrew together.

Wen Yu’s hand turned a page of the scroll, seeming to regard this as if nothing had happened.

Xiao Li looked at her indifferent appearance, again burned by that nameless fire in his chest until his five viscera and six bowels all vaguely ached. Yet he still had to learn her manner of feigning indifference, using an unconcerned tone: “The Princess is clever indeed—constantly able to give Xiao surprises.”

Wen Yu finally raised her eyes to look at him. In the depths of her eyes seemed faint confusion, then understanding. She closed the book pages: “Is Prefecture Lord Xiao coming to demand accountability?”

She wore a veil, her eyes showing a peaceful demeanor: “Prefecture Lord Xiao can rest assured. When Yu escapes confinement, I will naturally explain clearly to the County Princess that the Prefecture Lord and Yu have no entanglement. It’s merely a cloak made of cloud brocade. With Marquis Wei’s regard for the Prefecture Lord, the Prefecture Lord can easily find a pretext to explain it away, can’t you?”

With each “Prefecture Lord Xiao,” she truly drew the distance between them as clearly as possible.

The fire in Xiao Li’s chest burned even fiercer. Furious to the point of laughter, he approached her step by step: “Why need explanations? Wouldn’t it be better to directly confirm that you and I do have an entanglement?”

Wen Yu had originally been leaning against the bed head reading. With him suddenly pressing so close, behind her was the bed—her heart jumped, and she immediately tried to push herself up using the bed, but her movement was a step too slow. Xiao Li had already pressed one palm against the bed post, blocking her path.

This distance felt as if it momentarily returned to that night when she bandaged his wound for him, except Wen Yu was now half-leaning against the bed head, even more restricted.

She wanted to avoid his eyes and not look at him, but turning away her gaze seemed like admitting defeat in some sense.

Wen Yu forced her eyes to calm down, looking at him peacefully: “Why must Prefecture Lord Xiao ruin your own future out of momentary anger? In the future when you become the Wei household’s outstanding son-in-law…”

Before she finished speaking, Xiao Li heavily punched the solid bed post. His eyes, whether from anger or some other emotion, were somewhat reddened, squeezing out a few words from between his teeth: “Bullshit outstanding son-in-law!”

Wen Yu was somewhat frightened by his appearance, momentarily stunned. Seeing his eyes reddened, some indescribable feelings surged in her heart.

She strove to suppress those unusual emotions in her eyes, looking away: “If you’re afraid my words today will ruin your marriage prospects, I said I would explain clearly to the County Princess when I escape… mmm…”

The latter words could no longer be spoken. She had already been grabbed by the head by Xiao Li and through the veil fiercely silenced.

He was probably truly furious. This kiss could no longer be called a kiss—it was almost biting, completely different from her dragonfly-skimming-water touch on his lips that night, simply like a beast devouring its food.

After Wen Yu had been bitten by him just a few times, because her lips hurt terribly she half-gasped for air, but this allowed him to seize the opportunity to gnaw her lips apart, force through her teeth and explore inside.

She was so frightened her scalp went numb. She had never experienced such a thing. That time in the cave feeding him medicine, at least he had only consistently sought the medicinal liquid from her. This time he swept through her mouth completely without method, barbaric and domineering, as if wanting to tyrannically imprint some mark on her.

She was also wearing a veil, obstructing her breathing, and soon couldn’t catch her breath.

Wen Yu’s hands forcefully pushed in front of her in refusal. Bracing against his chest, she only felt as if pushing against an iron wall.

The other party’s breathing was clearly becoming heavier and heavier. Through the veil, his breath sprayed onto her cheeks, making her feel the burning heat.

The five fingers gripping the back of her head, the finger pads also rubbed against her scalp, threading through her satin-like black hair.

The lack of oxygen made Wen Yu’s head somewhat dizzy. Her heartbeat was so fast it seemed ready to jump out of her chest. Finally, she seized an opportunity to bite him viciously, at least making him hiss and temporarily retreat.

Xiao Li’s index finger brushed his lower lip, seeing a trace of blood.

Wen Yu had completely shrunk into the bed curtains. The veil that had been fixed to her hair buns on both sides with fine chains had long since fallen off during the earlier struggle. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes were red, the area around her lips was also red—she looked thoroughly bullied.

Yet in her eyes she still carried several parts shocked, angry, and unyielding stubbornness. Fiercely wiping her lips with her sleeve, she said: “Not interesting.”