Xiang Mingzi was quite restless, forcing Qing Luo to go out once. When she returned and reported that both Song Chuyi and Song Yan had gone to the mountain peak, she couldn’t help becoming even more panicked, pacing back and forth in the room several times without being able to stop. Yusheng watched until her eyes swam. Glancing at Qing Luo and Han Yan, whose expressions were similarly tense, she couldn’t help feeling utterly confused. “Miss, what’s wrong? The Sixth Miss and Fourth Young Master are merely going to look for Master Qingfeng. Why are you so anxious?”

Xiang Mingzi said nothing, hands clasped together, so nervous her words became somewhat incoherent as she ordered Yusheng to go fetch water. Only then did she ask Qing Luo, “They won’t come to harm, will they? Usually we always go to the Qingxu Temple on Baitou Mountain for memorial services…” She organized her thoughts, considered for a moment, then suppressed her worry and dread to glance outside. “That place is familiar—if anything happened, those Taoist masters couldn’t shirk responsibility. Here we’re complete strangers…” She stopped herself there, realizing that precisely because they were strangers here, it would be possible to draw people out. But though she understood the logic, she still couldn’t help worrying. She turned to ask Qing Luo again, “Xiaoyi brought enough people with her, right?”

Qing Luo and Han Yan were themselves anxious beyond measure. They were sent to Song Chuyi by Zhou Weizhao, and their duty was to protect Song Chuyi’s safety. Now, knowing clearly that Song Chuyi was going into danger but unable to participate in protecting her safety, they felt deeply uneasy. However, since the incident at Yangquan, they had become completely obedient to Song Chuyi’s words. Now that Song Chuyi had strictly ordered them to protect Xiang Mingzi, no matter how worried they were, they dared not overstep by half a step. They could only turn around and comfort Xiang Mingzi instead.

On the other end, on the mountain path, Song Chuyi led Qing Ying and Qing Tao, the two of them walking at a leisurely pace. On both sides of the narrow trail grew wild grass nearly reaching their knees. When the wind blew, great swathes of it rose and fell like waves. After walking for a while, human presence gradually thinned. Even the young priests gathering firewood and the farmers gradually became fewer. Qing Tao supported Song Chuyi, her palm somewhat sticky with sweat. She cautiously glanced to both sides and asked in a low voice, “Miss, shall we continue forward?”

The wind gradually picked up, causing Song Chuyi’s lake-blue gauze dress to flutter and snap. Her expression remained unchanged, her gaze fixed on the mountain peak. Without a moment’s hesitation, she squeezed Qing Tao’s hand. “Yes. If they’re not here, they’ll surely be at the mountain peak.”

The sweat in Qing Tao’s palm intensified, but she didn’t hesitate in the slightest. Since Song Chuyi said to continue walking, even if there was a pit of fire ahead, she would jump in without hesitation—she had followed Song Chuyi for so long, accompanying her from being a young lady in the rear courtyard to now being about to become the Grand Prince’s consort, and in the future the Crown Princess or even Empress. She had accumulated enough courage.

In fact, things turned out exactly as Song Chuyi had predicted. Just as they were about to cross over one more ridge to reach the mountain peak, the incident occurred.

It seemed to happen in an instant. From the steep slope not far ahead came an abnormal sound. At first it wasn’t very obvious, but as the sound gradually grew louder, Qing Ying pressed her body to the ground to listen for a moment, then immediately widened her eyes and quickly stood straight up. “It seems like an earthquake…?”

But Song Chuyi shook her head. Her gaze fixed on the steep slope ahead as she let out an extremely light sigh.

If before this moment she had still harbored a thread of fantasy in her heart, it had now been completely shattered—in her previous life it had been a flash flood, in this life it was an earthquake. How they loved to work under the guise of such “irresistible fate”—it was almost identical, making it difficult for her not to believe it came from the same hand.

Qing Ying and Qing Tao followed her gaze and could only see dust flying up, almost blotting out the sky and sun. This dust blew so fiercely that people could barely keep their eyes open. But with Qing Ying’s vision, she still detected something wrong—wrapped in the dust filling the sky were clearly also enormous boulders rolling toward them!

It truly was a trap. Qing Ying covered her mouth and nose with one hand while the other swiftly grabbed Song Chuyi, pulling her toward the side slope—that slope ahead was steep, and those massive boulders were rolling down at tremendous speed. If they were even a moment slower, the three of them would likely be crushed into meat paste!

But she had barely managed to throw Song Chuyi away and roll down herself, landing on the ground, when she was about to ask if Song Chuyi and Qing Tao were injured—from within the knee-high wild grass came rustling sounds. Before long, many masked men emerged.

Song Chuyi quickly scrambled up and looked toward where she had rolled down—there too, many black-clothed men surged up. They were on all sides, with absolutely no intention of leaving them a way out—those massive boulders seemed to have been meant precisely to force them into this dead corner, leaving them nowhere to escape. Everything was just as she had guessed—perfectly so. But when she wanted to laugh, she found she couldn’t quite manage it. That intuition that had flashed through her mind hundreds of times but which she hadn’t dared believe was actually real. This realization left her both shocked and heartbroken.

Shocked that there truly existed such a father in this world. Heartbroken that Zhou Weizhao had such a father.

While these thoughts filled her mind, those black-clothed men gave her no time for melancholy. In an instant, several people lunged toward them, raising their blades to strike.

But from who knows where, an arrow flew through the air. The first black-clothed man to reach Song Chuyi fell from mid-air in response. Immediately afterward came a second and third arrow cutting through the air, and not one arrow missed its mark. Qing Ying and Qing Tao weren’t surprised in the slightest. The two positioned themselves in front of and behind Song Chuyi, slowly retreating while surrounding her.

Before this volley of arrows had ceased, many more people surged onto the path Song Chuyi had just traveled, swiftly rushing forward with weapons to engage the black-clothed men on the slope in close combat. The others also found opportunities to slip down and guard Song Chuyi’s side.

They had prepared for this in advance?! The black-clothed men finally sensed something was wrong. But at this point, even if they had fallen into a trap, they could only steel themselves and carry the plan through—they had already lost many people here. If they didn’t achieve their objective, not only would they be unable to give a proper account when they returned, but they might also leak secrets.

The one closest to Song Chuyi, who also appeared to be the leader—a tall, large-framed black-clothed man—glanced toward the highest mountain peak, then raised his blade and lunged toward Song Chuyi. So what if this Sixth Miss Song had brought estate guards? They were merely the guards of an Earl’s manor—they had neither fought in wars nor killed people, usually just holding empty positions and drawing pay. What great ability could they have?

A trace of assured victory brewed in his eyes, as if he had already seen Song Chuyi’s blood. But in the next moment, this fantasy shattered. His blade met another blade, and the tremendous impact force knocked him back two steps as he fell from mid-air, the webbing between his thumb and forefinger shocked painfully. He looked over in alarm and met a pair of bloodthirsty eyes.

No—these weren’t ordinary estate guards kept by an Earl’s manor. These were clearly the eyes that only people who had been on battlefields and seen human blood would have! He was somewhat dazed, but the person across from him had already lunged toward him.