The carriage flew out of the capital at full gallop.

Behind her, the massive city gate slowly closed in the golden-red sunset. As the distance from that city grew, night gradually seeped in, dyeing the canopy of sky pitch black and concealing the originally bustling sounds, making the clip-clop of hoofbeats on the official road clear and distinct.

Jiang Xuening sat quietly inside the carriage for a long while.

In the end, she still couldn’t help herself. She lifted the curtain by the window and looked back: the bright lanterns on the city tower grew farther and farther in her line of sight, slowly dimming, looking remarkably like the sparse cold stars hanging in the night sky.

She had always thought that if there came a day when she finally cast everything aside and left the capital, she should feel as joyful and delighted as a bird freed from its cage.

However, reality went against her wishes.

Xie Wei’s disappointed and resolute words at their parting were like a vicious curse, transforming into dark clouds and sinister winds that continuously swirled in her mind and shrouded her heart, impossible to drive away or dispel.

There was no such thing as true freedom under heaven.

Even if one fled to the ends of the earth, as long as there were attachments in one’s heart…

One would forever be trapped in a cage!

What did he understand?

He was merely threatening her, coercing her, unwilling to let her leave the capital—nothing more!

Jiang Xuening withdrew her gaze and slowly closed her eyes.

She forcibly cleared away her chaotic thoughts, merely counting the sounds of the driver ahead wielding his whip, preventing herself from thinking any further about those extremely unexpected events that had occurred at Xie Wei’s residence.

From the capital to Shu region, the journey was distant—a full three thousand li away.

Although official court communications had express services of three hundred li, six hundred li, or even eight hundred li that could complete a trip in just over ten days or even several days, Jiang Xuening’s departure, while not carrying much luggage, still required one carriage, and she brought along the two maids Tang’er and Lian’er, plus guards from the household to ensure her safety. Though the horses selected were of excellent quality, they still couldn’t compare with official court horses. Therefore, on good weather days, traveling over a hundred li in a day was already pushing the limit.

Summer days were long and nights short, which should have been suitable for travel.

However, summer also brought many violent storms. Whenever they encountered unsuitable weather, they had no choice but to stop at relay stations or inns, sometimes even lodging in villages.

Having grown accustomed to a pampered and comfortable life in the capital in her previous life, Jiang Xuening stubbornly insisted on reaching Shu region early. The eating and lodging conditions along the way were all inconvenient, and she ended up forcing herself to lose a considerable amount of weight, becoming quite haggard and emaciated.

When they reached the Yellow River banks, they caught the aftermath of a recent flood.

Disaster victims were everywhere the eye could see, with corpses of the starved littering the roads.

From who knows where, many members of the Celestial Doctrine had emerged, spreading rumors everywhere that the court was incompetent and the emperor tyrannical and without virtue, claiming that the emperor’s poor governance had brought about this natural disaster. They also opened soup kitchens to distribute relief, thereby grasping the people’s hearts in their hands.

Jiang Xuening was neither at court nor an official. Even though she couldn’t bear to see such a tragic scene, she was unable to aid so many disaster victims. Although she could see the Celestial Doctrine’s schemes crystal clear and felt worried in her heart, when she turned it over in her mind, those words the Celestial Doctrine spread couldn’t really be called “rumors.” Moreover, Xie Wei was a master strategist who in her previous life had completely eradicated even the Celestial Doctrine—surely he had his own insights into these matters and didn’t need reminders from others.

In the end, she hardened her heart and ordered the driver to continue onward.

They crossed the Yellow River, passed through Luoyang, traversed the Shu Roads, and arrived in Chengdu. The journey took them from early summer all the way to early autumn. The scenery they encountered along the way also changed from vast plains to the torrential Wei River and the treacherous Shu Roads, finally arriving at the fertile lands of Tianfu enclosed by towering mountains and steep ridges.

You Fangying had received news early on that she would be coming to Shuzhong and had used her own private funds to purchase a residence each in Chengdu and Ziliujing—one for permanent residence and one for temporary stays. She calculated the timing and arrived half a month early at the Chengdu relay station to receive her.

When she saw Jiang Xuening descending from the carriage, she almost didn’t recognize her.

Her delicate face was pale and covered in the dust of arduous travel. The fatigue from long days of journeying had made her much thinner than before. Her entire person seemed to carry an indescribable sense of loneliness and dejection. At first sight, You Fangying’s tears nearly fell.

Ren Weizhi stood at a distance looking somewhat awkward yet curious, not approaching for quite some time.

However, Jiang Xuening smiled and helped up You Fangying, who was bowing to her.

She raised her eyes to look around at the surroundings. Everything here differed from the capital—passersby spoke in Shu region dialects, and apart from You Fangying who had come to greet her, everything was utterly unfamiliar, giving her a sense of drifting in a foreign land.

In one fleeting, disoriented moment, Xie Wei’s words echoed in her ears once more.

But what followed immediately was a sense of novelty and joy.

She ignored that strange melancholy and emptiness.

Over the next two years, Jiang Xuening concealed herself behind the Ren family salt business. To fulfill her promise to Shen Zhiyi, she expanded the business territory without regard for consequences. Any trade that brought in money quickly bore traces of her involvement. Moreover, through the method of issuing silver shares to rapidly accumulate wealth, she gradually promoted this approach in commercial centers along the Yangtze River.

In the second year, she had already secretly established contact with Yan Lin.

Jiang Xuening made herself too busy to think. She never deprived herself of good food, clothing, and necessities. Those below her all obeyed her commands, and there was no one above to control her. Moreover, she no longer had to deal with those hypocritical and tedious social obligations.

Yet even so, she still dared not stop.

She feared that if she stopped for even a moment, if she had even a brief period of leisure for quiet contemplation, she would discover that although the choice to come to Shuzhong hadn’t been wrong, her two years of running away had merely been a physical demonstration proving just how right that person had been all along.