After a long while, she pushed away the person on top of her and got up.

The other party had fallen into unconsciousness from the knockout drug. His features remained sharp and stern as before, his brow furrowed, his lips pressed extremely tight. Even in his stupor, his whole person still revealed a fierce wildness.

Wen Yu withdrew her gaze and forcefully endured the discomfort on her body as she went to the bathing pool behind the sleeping chamber to wash.

Fortunately, the medicine’s effect took hold in time, otherwise she feared she wouldn’t be able to leave tonight.

This rash was deliberate on her part.

The Liang army led by Gu Xiyun was already close to reaching the royal court. If she wanted to leave the royal palace with the Azure Cloud Guards, she had to make him remove the chains from her neck.

Since childhood, she would break out in wind rash whenever she smelled animal fur. There were still her people in the royal palace. Sending live animals to her wouldn’t work, but having the clothes sent to the laundry bureau for washing come back stained with the smell of cat or dog fur wasn’t difficult.

It was just that her sudden rash, and her scratching her neck bloody, practically laid her purpose bare before him.

That day, Xiao Li’s gaze at her was extremely fierce. After removing the chains from her neck and having an imperial physician examine her, Wen Yu deliberately requested a palace maid to come change her medicine daily.

Her rash had already made Xiao Li realize there were still her people in the palace. His concession seemed like anger that she could be so ruthless even toward herself to achieve her goal, not daring to push her too far anymore. It also seemed like he wanted to use this to find the people she had hidden in the palace.

Both of them were clear about each other’s purposes, engaging in a cold war throughout, like a showdown and maneuvering between hunters.

Xiao Li still stayed at Zhaohua Palace, eating and sleeping with her, but barely spoke a word to her.

Wen Yu wouldn’t proactively say anything to him either. Most of the time, she simply acted as if there wasn’t such a person in the sleeping chamber.

At night, he silently yet forcefully embraced her to sleep. She was enveloped by his scent like an overwhelming tide. Struggling only resulted in being restrained immobile. When her temper flared, the two of them struggled in the bed until both were covered in sweat. Finally, she flew into a rage, using the reason that her rash was too hot and inconvenient for recovery to demand Xiao Li leave her sleeping chamber.

In the darkness, she couldn’t see the expression on Xiao Li’s face clearly, but he finally made another concession. He got out of bed, pulled out a quilt from the cabinet, spread it on the floor and directly lay down on it, not even going to the soft couch in the outer hall.

After several days of this stalemate, Wen Yu released countless smokescreens—suddenly wanting some pastry and ordering the imperial kitchen to make it, having the palace maid who came to apply medicine bring her a fragrance sachet to calm the mind and aid sleep next time, or mentioning that the incense commonly burned in the hall had run out and needed to be replenished…

She let Xiao Li go to great lengths to investigate, ultimately finding nothing.

During the day, Xiao Li looked at her that way, probably also discovering that she was deliberately creating confusion.

He hadn’t been able to catch those shadows she had hidden, which meant she had already successfully deployed everything. He knew she would leave, but aside from locking her up again, he didn’t know what other way he could use to keep her.

Wen Yu felt stifled under his gaze and couldn’t help but jab at him with that remark, only to unexpectedly receive this suffering in the evening.

Fortunately, the knockout drug was brought back by the Azure Cloud Guards, sewn into the clothes she sent out for washing. After dissolving it in water, she coated it on the inner walls of all the cups in the hall. Before falling asleep, she personally saw Xiao Li drink a cup of tea from her drugged cup.

Because the dosage wasn’t heavy, the medicine’s effect shouldn’t have taken hold this quickly, but the two of them had struggled in bed for so long, accelerating the drug’s spread—a fortuitous accident that helped Wen Yu.

—

In the deep of night, the royal palace suddenly caught fire. The heavenly prison also seemed to have someone staging a jailbreak. The Wolf Riders guarding the royal palace had to split up to provide aid.

When Xiao Li was at Zhaohua Palace, he invariably forbade the Wolf Riders below from entering. After the Wolf Riders reported from outside for a long time without hearing a response from inside, Zheng Hu rushed over upon hearing the news. Even knocking on the door yielded no response.

Realizing something was wrong, he broke down the door and only then awakened Xiao Li.

The knockout drug’s effect hadn’t passed. Listening to the Wolf Riders’ reports, Xiao Li only felt his head splitting with pain. He pressed one hand to his temple, the whites of his eyes still covered with a thin layer of red, his entire aura oppressive: “Seal all palace gates. Not even a fly can leave tonight.”

The Wolf Riders below hurried down to relay the orders.

Zheng Hu saw Xiao Li in such a disheveled state. After the Wolf Riders withdrew, he hesitantly asked: “Was it Sister-in-law?”

Xiao Li endured the headache as he threw off the covers and got up, only saying coldly: “The four city gates of the royal court must also be firmly guarded tonight.”

The drug’s effect hadn’t passed. When he supported himself on the bed to get down, even his steps were unsteady. He took the wide ink-colored outer robe draped at the head of the bed and put it on, covering the ambiguous marks on his shoulders, back and arms. Below he wore only plain white inner trousers.

Zheng Hu saw his unsteady footing and reached out to support him, but was shouted at by Xiao Li: “Go!”

Zheng Hu knew he feared Wen Yu had already taken advantage of the chaos to leave the palace. If she made contact with the Chen Kingdom reinforcements outside and they coordinated from inside and out to breach a city gate at night and escape the royal court, given their current situation, the next time they met they would truly become enemies.

Zheng Hu hurriedly said: “Alright, alright. I’ll go to the city gates first to send word. I guarantee I won’t let Sister-in-law leave the city. When Sister-in-law returns, you two should talk things through properly…”

After Zheng Hu left, Xiao Li struggled to go to the armor stand where his helmet and armor were kept. Passing by a trunk for storing clothes, he accidentally knocked over one of the trunks. The things that rolled out made dull sounds on the bright mirror-like floor tiles.

One of them rolled in a circle and even rolled back to Xiao Li’s feet.

Xiao Li supported himself on a taller wooden trunk nearby and looked down. In an instant, his entire person froze, the murderous intent in his eyes gathering more and more. A moment later, even his breathing became somewhat trembling.

He slowly crouched down and picked up the round little cat wood carving at his feet, which after a year had become extremely dark in color. He gripped it in his hand and rubbed it forcefully.

It was the wood carving he had carved for her when Wen Yu left the military camp last year.

Not far away also lay scattered a little dog, little pig, little fox wood carvings, as well as some small animal dolls sewn from velvet cloth.

What that trunk held seemed to be dolls specially prepared for a small child.

But why… why were the dolls he carved also there?

At this moment, Xiao Li had completely lost the ability to think. His mind remained muddled for quite a while.

He gripped that wood carving for who knows how long, then suddenly went mad and started overturning all the trunks storing clothes in the hall.

The people around Wen Yu did things meticulously. Clothes of different seasons and different fabrics were all categorized and stored for her in trunks. A’Li’s clothes were also organized neatly according to season and month.

It was just that the clothes the Garment Bureau made for A’Li had already been made up to age two and beyond.

From those tiny little clothes, Xiao Li couldn’t discern exactly how old the child was. But he didn’t find that white jade lock, nor did he find the koi wood carving he had originally carved for Wen Yu.

Too many extreme emotions weighed heavily on Xiao Li’s heart, brewing into sourness. In this night’s great ups and downs, his eyes burned hot.

He had so many uncertainties, so many whys.

Only by finding Wen Yu, only by asking her personally, could he get answers.

—

When the Azure Cloud Guards created chaos at the royal palace and heavenly prison, Wen Yu had already left the royal palace.

As soon as the group arrived at the separate courtyard the Azure Cloud Guards had secretly established outside the palace, Wen Yu ordered: “Notify the reinforcements outside the city to attack.”

Tongque wasn’t quite certain: “Are we leaving the city overnight? General Gu’s troops won’t arrive until tomorrow at the earliest. The Wolf Riders are skilled fighters. Relying only on the border reinforcements outside the city to escort you and the Young Princess to escape might not be thorough enough.”

Wen Yu said: “If we don’t let him know ‘I’ left the city, I fear the Wolf Riders will dig three feet deep searching for people in the royal court tonight.”

Tongque understood Wen Yu’s meaning and hurriedly said: “This servant will issue orders immediately.”

Having the reinforcements attack the city to escort them out was false. Making Xiao Li believe Wen Yu had already escaped the royal court was the truth.

As Tongque went out, another Azure Cloud Guard came over holding A’Li, who was crying incessantly: “Usually after coaxing the Young Princess to sleep, she always sleeps until dawn. Tonight for some reason she woke up and is crying terribly. She probably knows the Princess has come.”

Wen Yu hadn’t seen her daughter for nearly ten days. At this moment, hearing her daughter’s tender crying voice, her heart also felt as if squeezed by something. She said: “Give A’Li to me.”

The wind rash on her face hadn’t completely faded yet. When leaving the palace, she used thin gauze to cover her face.

After little A’Li was handed to her, even though she couldn’t see her mother’s face, smelling that familiar scent, her originally heart-wrenching cries still gradually quieted. Her strong chubby hands also forcefully gripped a corner of Wen Yu’s sleeve. Pouting, she hiccupped from crying, her pair of big black grape eyes washed clean still rolling down teardrops, making tender babbling sounds from her mouth.

The Azure Cloud Guard who had always been responsible for caring for A’Li couldn’t help but smile at the sight: “The Young Princess missed you.”

The veil not only covered those unfaded rash marks, but also covered the marks on Wen Yu’s neck that hadn’t faded these days. Fortunately, no new marks had been branded on her fingers these past two days. She used her fingertip to wipe away the teardrops at her daughter’s eyes, patting her back and gently coaxing: “It’s Mother’s fault. Mother shouldn’t have left A’Li for so long.”

Little A’Li continued hiccupping from crying, both hands clinging tightly to Wen Yu. She released the fragrance sachet she had been clutching even in her sleep. Inside seemed to contain some hard object, which made a dull sound when it fell to the ground.

When Wen Yu looked down, the Azure Cloud Guard had already picked up the sachet. Because the sachet had been clutched and kneaded by A’Li these days, the knot had loosened. Now with this drop, the thing inside fell partially out.

The Azure Cloud Guard looked and smiled: “When the Young Princess left the palace, she kept clutching this sachet of yours. These days, she cries if she can’t see this sachet. So inside is the Young Princess’s wood carving. Now seeing you, she’s finally stopped treasuring this wood carving.”

Wen Yu took that already somewhat worn koi fish wood carving and gently rubbed it with her thumb. In the past, when she placed A’Li’s cradle beside her to handle political affairs, A’Li always liked to reach out and grab this sachet hanging at her waist. Later, whenever Wen Yu wasn’t at Zhaohua Palace, she would leave the sachet containing the koi wood carving for A’Li.

That Azure Cloud Guard continued: “It’s a pity that with the urgent situation that day, we couldn’t bring out the Young Princess’s other wood carving dolls together.”

Hearing these words, Wen Yu furrowed her brow slightly. She hadn’t seen A’Li’s things in the cradle and thought the Azure Cloud Guards had taken them all. She murmured very lightly: “He probably won’t…”

The Azure Cloud Guard didn’t hear clearly and asked: “Princess, what did you say?”

Wen Yu lightly shook her head, only saying: “Nothing.”

He had been at Zhaohua Palace for so long without discovering those stored wood carvings. Now that she had left the palace, he probably wouldn’t go through things in her hall anymore.

—

After Xiao Li cut his palm, the pain completely dispersed the knockout drug’s effects. He donned his armor and left the palace. Just as he spurred his horse to the palace gate, a Wolf Rider came to report: “Your Lordship, a female cavalry unit within the royal court coordinated with the reinforcements outside the city to launch a surprise attack on the East Gate. Although we’ve held the breach at the East Gate for now, that female cavalry unit still escaped the city.”

Zheng Hu galloped over from afar, panting: “I’m sorry, Second Brother. I went to all the city gates to send word, but Sister-in-law’s side moved too fast. I hadn’t even reached the East Gate when I heard it was attacked…”

Xiao Li sat on his horse, his heart colliding with various emotions, his expression particularly cold and gloomy.

That Wolf Rider continued: “Scouts also discovered a Liang army appearing a hundred li away. It looks like reinforcements from Great Liang.”

Zheng Hu said in astonishment: “They came this quickly?”

Crossing horizontally through that great desert from Bairen Pass to Chen Kingdom would take at least half a month. They had only conquered the royal court for ten days, and Great Liang’s reinforcements had already arrived—it was truly quite inconceivable.

He turned to look at Xiao Li: “Second Brother, what do we do now?”

When Wen Yu was here, regardless of whether it was Chen Kingdom’s border reinforcements or Great Liang’s reinforcements surrounding them outside, they had bargaining chips to negotiate peace with the outside, with no need for a fight to the death.

Now that Wen Yu wasn’t at the royal court, once the reinforcements from both Liang and Chen sides surrounded the royal court, the ones trapped would become them.

Xiao Li ordered: “Go to the heavenly prison.”

—

When King Chen was brought out from the heavenly prison again, he started trembling from afar upon seeing Xiao Li.

But Xiao Li ignored him and walked straight past him.

King Chen didn’t understand why Xiao Li brought him out yet seemingly didn’t plan to interrogate him about anything. After Xiao Li walked far away, he turned his head to look, only to be slapped on the head by Zhao Youcai: “Be honest! What are you looking at randomly!”

Only then did King Chen turn his gaze back.

When Xiao Li appeared outside the large prison holding Qi Simiao and a group of other ministers, the people across in the cell like Duke Yingguo all showed full faces of alarm. Duke Yingguo even gripped the wooden bars of the cell tightly with both hands, questioning Xiao Li with anger tinged with sobbing: “Xiao thief, what have you done to my son? Return my son to me!”

To prevent them from colluding on their stories, after interrogation, Xiao Li ordered his subordinates to hold prisoners in solitary confinement.

That fear and suspicion bred more intensely. When he subsequently interrogated other ministers, with just slight intimidation, they themselves would pour out everything they knew like spilling beans.

It was just that at present, he no longer had much to interrogate from that group of ministers.

Under the astonished gazes of Qi Simiao and the group of ministers, he drew his blade and severed the chains on the cell door. Turning to leave, he only said: “Serve your Princess loyally.”

Qi Simiao and a group of colleagues and students looked at each other in bewilderment.

The people like Duke Yingguo opposite stared blankly at this scene. After Xiao Li left, Duke Yingguo began shouting hoarsely: “Demon woman! That Wen Shi demon woman unfaithful to the King!”

Qi Simiao and the others shook off the shackles in their hands, all looking coldly at the aristocratic ministers of Duke Yingguo’s faction.

From the moment Wen Yu stood up to protect them in the great hall, whether this Chen Kingdom royal family was surnamed Chen or Wen no longer mattered.

—

When Xiao Li assembled the Wolf Riders and killed his way out through the East Gate carrying King Chen, the reinforcements outside the city, fearing they would harm King Chen’s life, could only make way and let them leave.

After all the Wolf Riders who had entered the royal court withdrew, the reinforcements outside the city chased for over ten li. Only then did Xiao Li throw the shrieking King Chen off his horse.

The reinforcements rescued King Chen and understood that with their military strength, they couldn’t detain the Wolf Riders in this wilderness. They only sent a small portion of troops to follow them from afar as a show, so they could report their whereabouts to their superiors afterward.

Xiao Li ordered a forced march. After shaking people off for some distance, he reined in his horse and instructed Zheng Hu: “Tiger, you lead the brothers to withdraw toward Tiger Gorge Pass first.”

Zheng Hu hurriedly said: “Then what about you, Second Brother?”

Xiao Li’s face appeared particularly cold and hard under the frost-white moonlight: “She left the city—she must be going to rendezvous with the Liang army. I’ll intercept her on the road.”

Zheng Hu said: “Then the brothers will go with you.”

“If all the Wolf Riders move out, the target is too large. You withdraw westward. I’ll take a dozen or so elite cavalry.”

When Xiao Li turned his horse to leave, Zheng Hu called out to him again. Xiao Li turned back to see Zheng Hu scratch his head, only managing to squeeze out: “Second Brother, when you catch up with Sister-in-law, talk to her properly.”

After Xiao Li and the dozen elite cavalry’s figures disappeared into the great desert, Zhao Youcai said somewhat uncomfortably: “Your Lordship didn’t select me. I wanted to stay by Your Lordship’s side in the future. Does this mean I have no hope of becoming Your Lordship’s personal guard?”

Zheng Hu gave him a knock on the head and said: “You brat, have you forgotten you’re one of my sister-in-law’s people? If my sister-in-law saw you following my Second Brother, she might get angry and my Second Brother’s trip would be wasted again!”

Zhao Youcai covered his knocked head. After sudden realization, he became cheerful again: “So that’s what it is! Thank you, Brother Hu!”

Zheng Hu said disdainfully: “You seem so clever, but when it comes to reading people’s expressions, you’re not as good as Aniu!”

“May I ask who Aniu is?”

Zheng Hu patted his own chest: “My brother.”

Zhao Youcai said sweetly: “Then from now on, he’ll also be this one’s Brother Niu!”

…

Far away in Dingzhou, Tao Kui sneezed loudly. He rubbed his nose, looked at the darkening sky, picked up the winnowing basket for drying medicinal herbs in the courtyard and placed it under the eaves. After entering the house, he squatted beside Doctor Tao, who was grinding medicinal materials with a medicine grinder.

Doctor Tao shooed his grandson away: “Go, go, go. Don’t block the light.”

Tao Kui moved aside a bit, picking up a small twig to draw circles on the ground. After being dejected for a moment, he said: “Aniu misses Lord Brother…”

He was accustomed to calling Xiao Li “Brother.” Doctor Tao corrected him every time to call him “Your Lordship.” He simply combined them into “Lord Brother.” Xiao Li always let him call him as he pleased. Doctor Tao couldn’t correct him, and others wouldn’t comment on this form of address, so he continued calling him this way.

Doctor Tao said: “Your Lordship went to Western Frontier to capture that traitor Pei Song. It’ll be several months before he can return.”

An old woman’s voice came from outside the courtyard: “Niu’er, go deliver food to your Brother Song at Peony Slope.”

Tao Kui responded: “Coming.”

The slope where Peony was buried was called Peony Slope by the local people.

Peony’s death made Xiao Li’s several godmothers very sad. Like Song Qin, they stayed here refusing to leave, saying their old bones wouldn’t be much help elsewhere. Staying here, Xiao Li could also be at ease outside.

So Xiao Li had Doctor Tao and his grandson also remain in Dingzhou. When his godmothers learned that Tao Kui was Xiao Li’s newly recognized younger brother and had only a few years of a child’s mentality, they all doted on him dearly.

Thus, out of ten times Tao Kui was called in a day, at least eight times were to feed him cakes or sweet soup.

The other two times were to deliver food to Song Qin on the mountain.

—

When the Azure Cloud Guards’ latest intelligence report was delivered to Wen Yu’s desk, she had just finished feeding A’Li rice paste.

A’Li only had four short shallow little teeth, but was extremely enthusiastic about eating various pastes. Occasionally, the Azure Cloud Guards would give her a pear cut into small pieces. She could hold it in her hand and gnaw for a long time. Although she gnawed out a bunch of marks without successfully biting off a single piece of fruit flesh, she still enjoyed it endlessly.

As long as she didn’t go an entire day without seeing Wen Yu, most of the time A’Li was extremely easy to care for. She was curious about everything. When alone, she could play vigorously with her own fingers and toes.

After the Azure Cloud Guard responsible for caring for A’Li carried her away, Wen Yu opened the intelligence report, somewhat surprised: “He withdrew his troops?”

Tongque said: “The Wolf Riders withdrew westward on the surface, but last night the Azure Cloud Guard who pretended to be you leaving the city sent word back saying a team of a dozen or so Wolf Riders has been pursuing and blocking them.”

She paused before continuing: “The leader should undoubtedly be Xiao Li.”

Wen Yu’s slender white fingers pressed on that intelligence report. Beneath the veil, where the scabs on her neck had fallen off, there was still a faint itching, reminding her of what he had once fastened around her neck.

Her long lashes lowered slightly as she said: “Send more personnel. Capture him alive.”