“I understand your concerns. But you’re ill, yet because of me you can’t rest properly. Even your illness came from suffering alongside me. I feel very uncomfortable about this.”

Pang Xiao held Qin Yining’s hand, his eyes only seeing her cheeks flushed with the unnatural redness of low fever, the cold sweat beading on her forehead, and her pale lips.

Qin Yining smiled gently and shook her head, tugging at his rough large hand: “Why think like this? You and I are husband and wife. Spouses are one body—no matter what happens, I will accompany you.”

“Sister Ning…”

“Don’t you like me accompanying you?”

“I like it, of course I like it.” Pang Xiao’s voice was low and tender, filled with deep love for her.

Qin Yining smiled brilliantly: “Then that’s settled. I also like accompanying you. Isn’t that enough? Besides, people eat grains and cereals—where is there someone who doesn’t get sick? If I hadn’t come with you and fell ill at home without telling you, wouldn’t you also know nothing? Not knowing doesn’t mean one never got sick.”

The reasoning was sound, but Pang Xiao still felt a sense of guilt for not being able to properly protect the one he loved.

Though he thought this in his heart, he still smiled and said: “Whatever you say is right.”

Qin Yining rolled her eyes at him.

“What do you mean ‘whatever I say is right’? What I’m saying is right to begin with. Your way of putting it makes it sound like I’m being unreasonable.”

Pang Xiao adored this playful manner of hers, especially when she was ill—there was a hint of mischief in her weakness. When she spoke to him like this, her voice was both sweet and soft, with a touch of hoarseness, almost like she was acting coquettishly.

Pang Xiao practically loved Qin Yining to his very bones. He leaned down and held her tightly in his arms, his cheek rubbing against hers. The warm, smooth sensation made him reluctant to let go even a little.

“Sister Ning, I like you so much. You’re so fragrant and soft. I just want to stay with you like this every day—it would be fine even if we did nothing else.”

Qin Yining couldn’t help but laugh: “So now you understand why there were those emperors in history who never held court in the morning?”

Pang Xiao buried his head in her neck, nodding with laughter, his warm breath spraying all over her.

Qin Yining couldn’t help but laugh, unconsciously placing a cherishing kiss on Pang Xiao’s forehead.

Pang Xiao’s senses were sharp—he immediately noticed her kiss and couldn’t help but place a gentle kiss on her neck in return.

Pang Xiao had originally wanted to let Qin Yining rest more, but Qin Yining insisted they couldn’t continue delaying the disaster relief. Pang Xiao also knew the severity of the situation. After all, with so many eyes watching, if he couldn’t immediately comply with the edict and word reached Li Qitian’s ears, he feared they would be charged with delaying disaster relief. Then the originally delayed relief efforts would become his fault even though they weren’t.

Preparations were quickly completed, and the convoy departed the next morning.

Qin Yining had a severe fever during the night and only broke it at dawn, so she fell into deep sleep once in the carriage.

Pang Xiao had no mood to ride ahead with the Dragon Soar Army soldiers. He just sat worriedly against the carriage wall with furrowed brows, holding half of Qin Yining’s body in his arms, as if this could reduce some of the carriage’s rocking and jolting for her.

Bingtang and Ji Yun sat near the carriage door.

Seeing Pang Xiao so anxious, Bingtang couldn’t help but whisper: “Your Highness, the Princess Consort’s health is not seriously affected. It’s just that the mosquito carried some toxins, which caused the wound to become infected and inflamed. The Princess Consort will recover in a couple of days.”

Pang Xiao understood Bingtang’s kind intentions and slightly curved his lips, nodding.

Actually, they all misunderstood.

His sadness, worry, and heartache over Qin Yining’s illness had nothing to do with how serious her condition was. Even if Qin Yining had just been pricked by a needle while mending clothes for him, he would still have these same emotions, because it was caused by him.

He had married Qin Yining intending to give her a carefree life, but in the end, he was still the one causing her to suffer.

This was a frustration more severe than self-blame—a sense of helplessness.

Bingtang and Ji Yun didn’t know what Pang Xiao was thinking, but seeing his troubled expression, they didn’t say much more. They truly followed Qin Yining wholeheartedly, so seeing Pang Xiao care for Qin Yining this way, they felt genuinely happy for their mistress.

The convoy continued forward. The closer they got to Great Yan’s former capital, the more desolate everything around them became.

The Dragon Soar Army soldiers and Pang Xiao’s Elite Tiger Guards didn’t think much of it, but the four Jingzhe followers beside Qin Yining, along with Ji Yun and Bingtang, had all lived in the former capital with Qin Yining and experienced that great famine.

Though this was an earthquake, the closer they got to the former capital, the worse the road conditions became. Gradually, landslides increased, and chasms or crevices would suddenly appear in the ground, forcing the carriage to stop and struggle to proceed.

Rivers that once flowed now revealed dried riverbeds with cracks that continuously swallowed water.

Previously lush forests had become crooked and askew.

Qin Yining finally felt better on the second day—no longer feverish, though she still lacked strength.

So she remained in the carriage, lifting the curtain to observe everything.

The group riding ahead on horseback now had a direct understanding of the devastation caused by the earthquake.

After the convoy bypassed a boulder as large as half a house, they reached a turn in the mountain road leading into the capital.

From there, they could overlook all the buildings and houses of the former capital.

The vast city showed collapsed houses and toppled palaces, looking like spilled eight-treasure porridge mixed into chaos.

Their group didn’t need to get closer to appreciate the miserable condition of the people within.

This wasn’t famine—it was just that the court had no money to buy grain, and even if people in the city had money, blocked roads prevented grain from being transported in. There wasn’t even a place to buy grain.

Moreover, people had to work together daily to dig out those buried under the rubble.

In the northwest and southeast corners of the capital, white smoke could be seen rising continuously from a distance.

Bingtang was somewhat curious: “What are those two places doing? When we left, there weren’t any workshops there.”

Hearing this, Qin Yining shook her head, her voice hoarse: “Those might be cremation pits.”

Upon hearing this, all of Bingtang’s curiosity was blocked by this horrifying answer.

The corpses and remains dug from the rubble could only be cremated to reduce the spread of plague—no other solution could be conceived.

The closer they got to the capital, the worse the roads became.

Qin Yining simply got out of the carriage to walk, but Pang Xiao couldn’t bear to let her suffer such hardship and simply carried her on his back.

Soon, the group arrived at the city gates.

Looking at the earthquake’s aftermath, the originally sturdy city wall surface had been shaken until bits of plaster fell off, and several cracks had opened.

Looking through the city gate tunnel, they could see a scene of broken walls and ruins.