Mian Tang grew wary of the man’s intense gaze, keeping her head lowered to avoid eye contact.
Fortunately, the group didn’t impede their passage. Mian Tang led the Imperial Consort, along with Bicao, Fangxie, and two guards, smoothly away from the thatched hut, leaving it to the newcomers.
Without shelter, they ventured into the wilderness.
For some reason, Mian Tang adapted easily to this life of outdoor dining and sleeping in the wild. She directed the guards to cut branches and build temporary shelters for the Imperial Consort to rest at night. However, fearing discovery, they couldn’t light fires, making their situation even more challenging.
During the day, Mian Tang led Bicao to gather branches for fuel. To minimize smoke, they sought dry poplar branches.
As Mian Tang searched intently, she suddenly spotted a person clinging to the mountainside, softly calling out, “Big Boss…”
The spider-like figure startled Mian Tang. She reached for the small bow at her waist, ready to shoot.
Recognizing the danger, the man quickly ducked his head and said, “Big Boss, I’m Lu Quan! Don’t shoot, I’ll climb up to talk to you…”
Mian Tang cautiously replied, “Don’t come up, stay there! Who are you? I don’t know you!”
The man called Lu Quan, eyes brimming with tears, said, “Big Boss, are you angry that I failed to protect you? I was knocked unconscious then, and when I woke up, I didn’t know where you’d gone. Later, I heard you were thrown into the river. I’ve been searching ever since… Then my brothers and I decided to avenge you… I never expected to find you here… *sob sob sob*…”
The young man clung to the cliff, crying like a 100-pound child.
Mian Tang now recognized him as the youth who had been watching her intently outside the thatched hut. It seemed he had been secretly following her since then, proving to be quite skilled at tracking without making a sound.
From his words, it appeared he knew her from the time she had lost her memories.
Mian Tang eyed him warily and asked, “You say I know you. What proof do you have?”
Though the question seemed unreasonable, the man answered honestly, “We were all orphans begging on the streets with no parents. You took us in and made us your servants, teaching us skills. We all have tattoos you inked. No one can fake that!”
Intrigued, Mian Tang told him to climb up slowly and show her the tattoo from a distance.
The self-proclaimed Lu Quan climbed up, knelt on the ground, and removed his outer garment to reveal four crooked characters on his shoulder: “Loyalty and Righteousness Complete.”
The ugly tattoo on the otherwise fine shoulder was quite an eyesore. Mian Tang was speechless, recognizing the hideous handwriting as her own.
Beside her, Bicao winced at the sight. Though she was devoted to the County Princess, if her mistress wanted to carve such ugly characters on her shoulder, she’d rather jump into a well!
The young man, however, looked proud and honored: “Only your most trusted followers receive your tattoos, Big Boss. I’m not an imposter in disguise…” He thought Mian Tang doubted his identity, which explained her feigned ignorance.
Mian Tang hadn’t realized she once had a penchant for tattooing like her mother-in-law and wondered how many good shoulders she had ruined. Embarrassed, but still unable to remember who he was, she probed, “How many of you are there, and where are you now? What brings you here?”
He answered honestly, “It’s the group you saw at the thatched hut. We saw you had many people with you and feared exposing your identity, so we didn’t dare approach… After you disappeared into the water, we couldn’t find you and decided to avenge you. You were originally captured by a group of officials, surely the Huaiyang Prince’s men, so we planned to assassinate him. But his martial skills were too strong for us, so we decided to start a rebellion in Dongzhou and fight our way to Zhenzhou…”
Mian Tang couldn’t bear to hear more and interrupted, “Rebellion?”
Lu Quan nodded earnestly, “The Dongzhou Lu Prince is our second brother, Lu Yi. But we’re not as capable as you, and our uprising was too small. That Huaiyang Prince suppressed it…”
Mian Tang was shocked to realize the troubles in Dongzhou were right before her eyes. She gripped her small bow tightly and asked with a furrowed brow, “Me? What capabilities do I have?”
Lu Quan looked at her with admiration, “Lu Wen of Yangshan, skilled in both civil and military affairs, who doesn’t know your name? Your abilities are immense!”
Mian Tang’s head buzzed with this information.
The name Lu Wen wasn’t unfamiliar to her. After all, Cui Xingzhou always mentioned it with disdain. This Lu Wen was the bandit leader of Yangshan, Cui Xingzhou’s sworn enemy.
“Lu Wen… Isn’t Lu Wen Young Master Ziyu?” Mian Tang asked, confused.
Lu Quan spat at this, “Those former Eastern Palace officials all relied on you for support. They were practically building golden palaces on Yangshan, unwilling to do the dirty work of bandits. You were the one doing all the dirty work. In the end, they… they even drove you off the mountain… If not for that, how could you have been captured by officials?”
Mian Tang’s mind was in chaos. She wasn’t just living in Yangshan and helping with accounts; she was the true leader of the Yangshan stronghold—Lu Wen!
Suddenly, a childhood conversation with her grandfather surfaced in her mind: “Grandfather, you’re Lu Wu, so I’ll be Lu Wen in the future. One for civil affairs, one for military, we’ll conquer the world!”
Those words had made her grandfather laugh heartily. But she had turned that childish jest into reality?
Mian Tang stood dazed for a long while before coming to her senses. Bicao, listening nearby, was also confused. She cautiously looked at Mian Tang and said, “County Princess, we’ve been out too long. We should head back.”
Lu Quan, however, fixed his gaze on Bicao and asked, “Big Boss, can this maid be trusted? She’s been listening to our conversation. If she’s an outsider, I could push her off the cliff to prevent her from revealing your secrets!”
Bicao protested, jumping up and down, “Push your big ghost head! I’m the County Princess’s most trusted maid. Who are you to talk to?”
Mian Tang, composing herself, said to Bicao, “Not a word of what he said leaves your lips, not even to Fangxie. If you breathe a word of this, I’ll deal with you myself before anyone else can!”
Bicao shrank back, realizing the gravity of the situation. In truth, she hadn’t understood much of what was said and wouldn’t have spread it anyway.
As Mian Tang prepared to leave, she quickly asked why they had come here.
Lu Quan answered honestly, “Most of our Dongzhou rebel army was defeated by the Huaiyang Prince, and many of the survivors were pacified and recruited by him. The second Brother confronted him on the battlefield and was critically wounded in the chest. We rescued him with all our might and fled. Originally, Big Brother was leading us through Zhenzhou towards the south. But with Zhenzhou sealed off, we couldn’t leave and had to hide to avoid capture by officials.”
Mian Tang now understood that she had originally saved four brothers, whom she had named Lu Zhong, Lu Yi, Lu Liang, and Lu Quan. The clever second brother had instigated an uprising among disaster victims in Dongzhou. After their defeat, they fled here, coincidentally running into people impersonating them to cause trouble.
They were unaware that these imposters were trying to capture the Huaiyang Prince’s family, thinking instead that they were being lured into a trap. That’s why they were desperately fleeing, leading to their encounter at the thatched shop.
The young man didn’t seem to be lying; many details were too precise to be fabricated on the spot.
If what he said was true, at least the Huaiyang Prince wasn’t in any great danger. He had already quelled the rebellion in Dongzhou and was only temporarily trapped by someone with ulterior motives, unable to return in time.
Mian Tang told Lu Quan to go back for now, saying she would seek them out at the thatched shop when she had the chance.
Upon returning, she had Fangxie light a fire to cook while she sat silently, pondering the truth she had just learned.
A question arose in her mind: she had always believed her fall into the water was Sun Yunniang’s doing. However, according to Lu Quan, she had been pursued by officials. However, she knew these officials couldn’t have been sent by Cui Xingzhou.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to use her as bait for “Lu Wen.”
Recalling the Huaiyang Prince’s gritted teeth whenever he mentioned Lu Wen, and the time and effort he spent trying to capture Lu Wen, Mian Tang could imagine his cat-and-mouse obsession with Lu Wen.
She had previously admired her man’s persistence, but now her heart was filled with anxiety—if she truly was Lu Wen of Yangshan, would Cui Xingzhou accept her once he knew?
However, the pressing issue wasn’t pondering these matters, but how to escape the pursuit of these fake bandits.
Mian Tang leaned against a tree in the shade, gazing wistfully at the distant mountains, unable to stop wondering what Cui Xingzhou was doing at that moment.
Mian Tang wasn’t the only one thinking about the Huaiyang Prince.
At that very moment, the Sui Prince sprang up from his couch, roughly pushing the beauty on top of him to the ground, and snarled, “What did you say? Say it again!”
The guard, looking nervous, stammered, “Y-Your Highness, the Huaiyang Prince has had people kidnap the Princess Consort and young heir who were on their way to the capital. He left a message for you, demanding an exchange—the Chu Imperial Consort and Huisang County Princess for them…”
It turned out that the previous night, the Sui Prince’s wife and heir, who had already set out for the capital, were suddenly abducted by a group of masked men. The kidnappers didn’t leave a written message, only a verbal one for the Sui Prince, and their actual words were even more offensive.
They told the Sui Prince to behave himself and treat the Imperial Consort and County Princess well, or else they’d let the whole world know that the Sui Prince was a cuckold, and his son would gain countless adoptive fathers!
Upon hearing this, the Sui Prince’s face flushed with anger, and he burst into a tirade: “Exchange? I haven’t caught a pair of them, what the hell am I supposed to exchange with him!”