Such ambiguous words—what would people who didn’t understand the situation think? Mu Yanyan would likely misunderstand greatly!

Sure enough, Mu Yanyan listened with wide eyes, looking at Feng Qiwu up and down in disbelief, suspecting he had been possessed, then glancing at the distant carriage.

Mu Yanyan simply couldn’t understand what charm that little concubine possessed to make even the Third Prince fall at her feet.

“Feng Qiwu, you… you…”

After speaking these words, Feng Qiwu still held his neck high. It had been a long time since he’d been so firm in front of the Mu family’s young lady.

Princess Anqing couldn’t tolerate her daughter’s straightforwardness and said coldly, “Enough! You’ve been so disrespectful in front of the Third Prince. Go back and kneel in the ancestral hall as punishment!”

After speaking, the princess softly apologized to the Third Prince, saying her daughter had been spoiled by her father, and upon returning home, she would properly discipline her.

Xiaoying listened attentively to the commotion, growing hungry in the process, so she opened the cake box, preparing to eat while continuing to listen.

Just then, a large hand suddenly reached into the carriage.

Feng Yuan snatched the two boxes of cakes from Xiaoying’s lap and hurled them in front of Mu Yanyan’s carriage with a clang.

Mu Yanyan was nearly hit on the head by the box thrown by Feng Yuan. She could no longer contain her anger and crouched in the carriage, covering her face and sobbing.

Meanwhile, the uncouth Feng Qiwu was only concerned with asking his attendant whether it was the young lady Ying’er who had thrown the cake box, or his eldest brother.

If it was his eldest brother throwing it, that would be better. If it were Ying’er, wouldn’t that mean she was angry that he had used the cakes to humiliate her?

In that case, he would need to apologize and explain clearly in person!

Xiaoying had just taken a piece of cake to eat when Feng Yuan threw the entire box out.

Not stopping there, he also seized the piece she was holding in her mouth and forcefully threw it under the carriage wheel, reprimanding her coldly: “Anyone with dignity doesn’t eat food given out of pity. I’m surprised you could swallow it!”

Xiaoying had been holding in her frustration the entire journey—was he never going to stop?

And not eating food given out of pity? When she had brought food to the Desolate Palace back then, how come he wasn’t so dignified? He had eagerly followed her around, begging for food!

She put on her veil, stuck her head out, and shouted: “What did the cakes ever do to you? All that white sugar and oven work wasted, just so you can throw them back and forth! Have you eaten too much and gotten bloated?”

Feng Yuan didn’t respond, but the sobbing Mu Yanyan thought she was being scolded and immediately jumped down from the carriage, hands on her hips, ready to fight: “Who do you think you’re scolding! I’ll throw them if I want to. You eat someone else’s cakes and still have the nerve to complain!”

Well, Mu Yanyan was willing to pick up the scolding, but Xiaoying didn’t want to engage.

Seeing Mu Yanyan lifting her skirts and running over, she quickly ducked back inside and whispered to the coachman: “Go quickly! Go quickly!”

Otherwise, if the Mu family young lady rushed over and pulled off her veil, it would create a whole different kind of chaos.

Having stirred up this confusion, Feng Yuan felt satisfied. Once they entered the city gate, he separated from Xiaoying’s carriage and went to the Court of Judicial Review to settle Meng Zhun and the others first.

Since Meng Zhun and his group were brought to the capital under custody, although they didn’t need to enter the prison at the Court of Judicial Review, they still had to go through the proper procedures.

So Feng Yuan needed to take Meng Zhun and the others to the Court to register, then record the documents to be submitted to His Majesty before entering the palace.

Yan Xiaoying had originally wanted to hurry to her destination to rest, but unfortunately, Mu Yanyan kept following her carriage like a persistent ghost.

It turned out that earlier, when Mu Yanyan had jumped down from the carriage to confront the Grand Prince’s concubine, Princess Anqing could no longer tolerate her daughter’s public disturbance. Growing angry, she simply tapped on the carriage, signaling the driver to urge the horses forward, leaving her loudly arguing daughter at the city gate as she entered the city and departed.

Mu Yanyan hadn’t expected her mother to leave without a word, abandoning her just like that. She quickly lifted her skirts to chase her mother’s carriage, but couldn’t catch up.

The Mu family’s young lady had never suffered as many grievances in her life as she had today.

If she didn’t get some retribution, she would change her surname!

So Mu Yanyan angrily seized a horse from the Third Prince’s guard, mounted it, and gave chase.

But she wasn’t pursuing her own family’s carriage—she was following Yan Xiaoying’s.

The Third Prince, concerned about Mu Yanyan, naturally followed as well.

After traveling a distance, Shen Jing looked back and quietly said to Yan Xiaoying: “Young lady, that Mu family young lady has been following our carriage and is about to catch up.”

Xiaoying thought for a moment: “Don’t go back yet. If these two know where I live, they’ll come and make trouble every day, and I won’t be able to stay in the capital. Let’s go out through the West Gate again, make a circle outside the city, and then you choose an isolated place to stop the carriage. I want to see what this Mu Yanyan wants.”

Shen Jing heard this and immediately instructed the coachman to change course.

After leaving the city and passing a roadside pavilion, Yan Xiaoying ordered the carriage to stop, then called out: “Young lady, why have you followed me all this way?”

Mu Yanyan dismounted angrily: “I ask you, why did you scold me?”

Xiaoying sat cross-legged in the carriage, saying leisurely, “Using crude language to humiliate someone is scolding. Young lady says I scolded you—which sentence was it?”

“You said I had eaten too much and gotten bloated!”

“How is that scolding? That’s admiration! Look, young lady, you’re annoyed that the Third Prince doesn’t value you enough, angry that the Grand Prince threw boxes around embarrassing you, yet you don’t confront them but instead vent your anger on someone as lowly as me, chasing me all this way. Isn’t it because you believe I’m not as well-fed as you, don’t have your strength, am of lower birth, so even if you pull my hair and drag me down from the carriage, no one would dare stop you?”

“You…” Mu Yanyan had never been rendered so speechless before, but she couldn’t refute what the woman in the carriage had said.

“You… you rely on your beauty, making me lose face in public!”

Hearing this, Yan Xiaoying laughed and simply stepped out of the carriage, leaning against it with arms folded, saying casually: “Since you know losing face is embarrassing, why did you embarrass the Third Prince in public? He merely admires you—even if you don’t like him, you could simply reject him directly and stop seeing him or playing with him. Why must you blow hot and cold, stringing him along? Aren’t you the one using your beauty to trample on someone’s sincere feelings?”

The Third Prince, who had caught up, heard these words and his bull ears turned completely red: “Lady Ying’er, please don’t say such things! I haven’t… I haven’t…”

This drama between these two people was something Yan Xiaoying had seen plenty of when she was the Crown Prince.

She wasn’t afraid of offending the Third Prince—after all, thoroughly offending both of them meant neither would bother her anymore!

“If you don’t see me as easy to bully, then please stop following me. Resolve your awkwardness between yourselves and don’t drag others into it!”

Speaking of this, she turned her gaze to Feng Qiwu: “Third Prince, you’re quite grown up now. Can’t you handle such a small matter? A true man doesn’t fear having no wife. If she doesn’t think highly of you, can’t you have some self-respect and dignity as a man?”

If anyone else had said such words, the Third Prince would have charged forward with his bull hooves.

But the speaker was his life-saving benefactor. This young lady’s vision and insight were beyond those of ordinary women, and now she was disdaining his sentimentality, as he was being humiliated by a young lady who didn’t love him.

Thinking of it this way, every word she said made sense!

His blood rushed to his head, and he fiercely threw the horsewhip in his hand to the ground, saying defiantly to Mu Yanyan: “Miss Mu, don’t take your anger out on others. I’ll have someone escort you back to your home right away, and I will never bother you again. If I break this promise, may heaven strike me with five thunderbolts!”

Mu Yanyan was stunned by what she heard.

The Third Prince was close friends with her brother, and they had grown up playing together.

She was also very familiar with the Third Prince, always being pampered by him, never thinking that her attitude toward him was inappropriate.

In the past, when they’d quarreled, the Third Prince would just be too angry to speak, but things would be fine after a few days.

How was it that today he was so swayed by that Ying’er concubine, even swearing such a terrible oath to break things off cleanly?

Mu Yanyan didn’t know why, but seeing Feng Qiwu’s unusual reaction, she felt deeply wronged. Yet she stubbornly said: “Fine then! You said it yourself. Don’t come bothering me anymore!”

With that, she angrily mounted her horse and rode back toward the capital without looking back.

The Third Prince indeed didn’t follow, only instructing one of his guards to escort the young lady back to the Mu residence.

But his gaze lingered on her retreating figure with reluctance.

Xiaoying looked at his expression and couldn’t help shaking her head: “You’re unwilling to let go in your heart, yet you swore such a terrible oath? Aren’t you truly afraid of being struck by lightning?”

The Third Prince pressed his lips together without making a sound. Xiaoying smiled and said, “But constantly humbling yourself won’t lead to any results. Why not leave her alone for a while? If there’s truly a seed that can sprout, she might come looking for you.”

The Third Prince’s eyes brightened at her words: “Really? Does the young lady have experience in this matter?”

Xiaoying’s face immediately fell.

Because she remembered that Feng Yuan seemed to always treat her this way.

Every time the two of them didn’t speak for a few days, she would feel stuffy inside, just like now.

But having just lectured Mu Yanyan, she needed to examine herself and not behave with false rejection. From now on, she would break things off cleanly with that Feng Yuan, otherwise… may heaven strike her with five thunderbolts!

Yan Xiaoying couldn’t be bothered to engage with the Third Prince any further. After giving this little troublemaker a good lesson, she prepared to go back and rest.

But just as Xiaoying was about to return to the carriage, she saw more than a dozen burly men riding horses on the official road not far away, hurrying toward the northwest.

They seemed to be in a rush, not noticing the group at the roadside pavilion.

Xiaoying’s sharp eyes were immediately drawn to the quivers carried on the backs of two of the men.

The arrows in those quivers had uncommon, colorful feathers.

Hadn’t the people who attacked the post station used just such colorful-feathered heavy arrows?

Could these people be from the same group that had attacked the post station?

As her thoughts raced, Xiaoying suddenly asked: “What village or town is in that northwest direction?”

The Third Prince casually replied: “I think it’s Yuxiu Village?”

Xiaoying’s eyelid twitched slightly—Yuxiu Village? Didn’t she remember that Master Ge and his wife Madam Sun had established a residence in Yuxiu Village?

That village was also a favorite lodging place for scholars coming to the capital for imperial examinations in previous years. Being close enough to the capital yet not as expensive as city inns, it often gathered scholars and literati, making it a very refined village.

Feng Yuan frequently visited Master Ge’s small courtyard for private meals. Unfortunately, as the Crown Prince, she hadn’t earned Master Ge’s favor and had never been there.

Although she wasn’t certain if the group was headed to Yuxiu Village, Xiaoying had a strong intuition that something big was about to happen.

She had always trusted her intuition, so she decided on the spot.

She waved at the Third Prince, calling him over, and said quietly: “Third Prince, there’s an urgent matter that requires your assistance.”

The Third Prince waved his hand: “Lady, please give your orders quickly!”

“You’ve always overseen the security forces stationed outside the city. How quickly could you dispatch men from the nearest military camp?”

Feng Qiwu calculated: “This place is very close to the Jifeng Camp, it would take at most the time of burning one incense stick.”

“Then could you send some men to Yuxiu Village?”

The Third Prince was puzzled: “What’s wrong?”

Xiaoying hadn’t yet prepared her words, so she pondered: “That group of people who just passed by didn’t look like good people…”

This certainly wasn’t a proper reason.

If it had been Mu Hanjiang, he would have elegantly questioned her thoroughly to get to the bottom of it.

But the bull in front of her didn’t even think about it: “Alright, young lady, wait here. I’ll go dispatch men right away!”

Xiaoying hadn’t expected to convince the Third Prince so quickly—the carefully prepared words she’d been formulating were completely unnecessary.

She suddenly understood why Mu Hanjiang enjoyed the Third Prince’s company.

After all, even clever people need to rest their minds, and dealing with the Third Prince… was truly suitable for giving one’s brain a break!

If she were Mu Yanyan, she would choose the Third Prince, not that Feng Yuan with his scheming mind and strange temper!

The Third Prince went to the military camp to dispatch men, while Xiaoying instructed Shen Jing to quickly head to Yuxiu Village to first ensure Master Ge and his wife’s safety.

When they reached the entrance of Yuxiu Village, Xiaoying didn’t know Master Ge’s residence. Shen Jing, having joined the Grand Prince’s side only in Jiangzhe, also didn’t know Master Ge’s courtyard.

So she casually asked some elderly people sunbathing at the village entrance.

The old folks cheerfully replied: “You’re asking about that childless elderly couple? They live in the independent courtyard by the old peach tree in the eastern part of the village… Why are so many people looking for them today? Look, a group just went there…”

Hearing these words, Xiaoying and Shen Jing exchanged a deep look, then immediately led their men toward the east of the village.

When they found the courtyard, the gate was tightly closed, seemingly very quiet.

However, the clear footprints on the closed gate indicated that someone had kicked it open earlier.

Those escaped Wei people had come to this place. Were they planning to use Ge Danian to threaten the Grand Prince?

Xiaoying found it strange that these Wei people would so clearly know one of the Grand Prince’s few remaining vulnerabilities.

Shen Jing also wanted to kick the door open, but Xiaoying grabbed him: “No! Master Ge likes peace, and there seem to be no servants in his household. If those people have already captured Master Ge, any noise could provoke them to harm him…”

After speaking, she whispered something into Shen Jing’s ear.

Shen Jing hesitated: “Young lady, are you determined to court death this way? If anything happens to you, the Grand Prince will certainly not spare me. I still have… some life left to live!”

After Xiaoying nodded resolutely, Shen Jing immediately turned without hesitation and stood outside the courtyard gate, then called out loudly in the Wei language.

The general meaning was that the Dafeng supreme expert who had killed Sui Yin was here and wished to enter the courtyard to meet them!

Xiaoying stood behind him with folded arms, waiting for a response from inside.

The people inside seemed startled. After a while, someone finally replied in somewhat stiff official language: “Let the person who killed Sui Yin come in! If anyone else dares to enter, I’ll kill this old man immediately!”

Shen Jing tried to stop the young lady, wanting to pose as the expert who killed Sui Yin and go in himself. But the young lady waved him off, telling them to wait outside while she pushed open the gate and walked in calmly.

As soon as she entered, the gate was immediately closed behind her.

Inside, she saw Ge Danian and Madam Sun already tightly bound, their mouths gagged firmly with coarse hemp rope.

A tall young man with a scarf covering his face, wearing a high ponytail and a bamboo hat, was sitting in a chair.

When he saw a veiled woman enter, he laughed and said in stiff official language: “It seems you don’t value this Master Ge’s life! You send a woman to fool us. Come, first cut off one hand of that old woman and throw it outside!”

Xiaoying smiled and said, “What? You don’t believe I killed Sui Yin?”

As she spoke, she flicked her wrist, launching a sleeve arrow that pierced the wrist of the brute who was about to stab Madam Sun.

The man screamed in pain, dropping his knife with a clatter.

The young man’s guard whispered to him, “That night at the post station, there was indeed a woman continuously firing stealth arrows, taking down many of our men. Later, Uncle Master Sui Yin went to kill that woman, and then…”

Hearing this, the young man’s eyes blazed with killing intent. The next moment, his curved blade was out, directly attacking Yan Xiaoying’s face.

Although he was much younger than Sui Yin, his moves were seasoned, seemingly no less skilled than Sui Yin.

However, this time Xiaoying had more confidence—after being trained by Feng Yuan all the way, practicing daily with four sandbags tied to her arms, her arm strength had notably improved compared to before.

She didn’t even move her position, simply raising her single blade vertically, merging it with her arm as one, vibrating with her arm strength to sweep a half-circle, her gaze unwavering as she cleanly and efficiently sent the curved blade flying.

When experts clash, three moves are enough to reveal one’s skill level.

This time, no one questioned that such a seemingly fragile young lady could have killed Sui Yin.

How the situation had unfolded inside the second-floor room that day, those outside didn’t know. In reality, this young lady had used trickery to eliminate Sui Yin.

Nor did they know that the lady before them only knew three basic moves.

But with her impressive feat of killing the Wei expert Sui Yin, followed by her just-demonstrated “Unmoved Stabilizing Heaven and Earth” technique—

These three basic moves were so domineering that they intimidated all the experts in the courtyard, and no one dared to act rashly.

Xiaoying’s skills weren’t fully refined, but she had the Little King of Hell’s imposing presence, coupled with her silver tongue that could deceive without consequence. Combined, it was enough to establish her authority.

“You’ve come from afar. Fighting and killing aren’t how we treat guests. Today the weather is fine—why don’t we have a good chat? You previously tried to capture the Third Prince, and now you want to kidnap Master Ge. What’s your ultimate goal? If it’s not too difficult, perhaps I can help you gentlemen.”

If they wanted to kill someone, two knife strokes would suffice. But they had bound the couple neatly, clearly intending to take them away, suggesting other objectives.

Xiaoying’s only purpose in entering the courtyard was to buy time until the Third Prince’s reinforcements arrived.

Having temporarily intimidated this group of bandits, she began to divert the conversation.

The young man heard her and smiled: “How can I negotiate terms when I don’t even know who you are?”

Xiaoying smiled: “Likewise, sir, your face also dares not be seen!”

The man showed no intention of removing his scarf, only fixing her with his piercing gaze, saying coldly, “Originally, I thought to use this old gentleman to lure Feng Yuan out, but I’ve changed my mind. I now want to exchange him for someone else.”

Xiaoying nodded: “Who? Please share.”

The man was silent for a moment: “Can you make decisions? The person I want is from your dog emperor’s palace!”

Xiaoying pointed at Master Ge and said, “He is the esteemed Imperial Tutor! The current Emperor values his reputation most highly. Would he jeopardize the lives of his teacher and the teacher’s wife for someone in the harem? As long as you treat Master Ge and his wife respectfully, even if the Emperor is asked for his birth mother, he would likely agree!”

The masked young man laughed: “You dare speak so boldly. It seems I’ve captured the right person this time… However, for such a significant matter, a mere Shadow Guard cannot make decisions. Call your master, Feng Yuan, here!”

This person had determined that this martially skilled young lady was Feng Yuan’s Shadow Guard, so he disdained negotiating with her.

Xiaoying simply pulled over a bamboo chair and sat down, crossing her legs, looking the young man up and down with a hint of amusement before speaking: “Your status in Wei country is not ordinary! The pigeon blood ruby on your knife—I recall only members of the Wei royal family are permitted to wear those?”