The autumn sun hung high and distant. Dust rose from the earth as galloping troops seemed endless, obscuring the sky and sun.
Pedestrians on the road all fearfully moved aside.
“What’s happening?”
“So many troops?”
“Has Xi Liang attacked?”
Xiao Xun sat in his carriage, lifting the curtain with one hand covering his mouth and nose to block the dust, watching the troops with the same curiosity as the pedestrians.
The troops quickly passed.
Pedestrians returned to walking on the main road, their steps quickening due to their alarm.
“Your Highness.” The driver Tie Ying turned back and called quietly. “We should go.”
Xiao Xun had insisted on personally confirming that real troops were coming before he would leave.
“Let’s go.” Xiao Xun said, somewhat helpless. “Going back, Father King will laugh at me again.”
Again and again—after being laughed at so many times, it wasn’t funny anymore.
Why was it that facing that girl, things could never go smoothly as desired?
It was truly infuriating.
……
……
The sound of horse hooves echoing in the valley and the trembling of the ground startled Chu Zhao’s group who had just emerged.
Were they still unwilling to give up? Were they going to brazenly assassinate now?
“It’s government soldiers!” A scout came running first, shouting. “Government soldiers have come to support us!”
Government soldiers. Chu Zhao let out a sigh of relief and looked back into the distance, faintly seeing banners like clouds and the sound of armor clashing.
“The government soldiers came quite fast.” She was also somewhat surprised.
Xiao Man at her side snorted: “Fast enough to collect our corpses.”
Chu Zhao smiled: “Don’t say that. I didn’t tell them my movements—they didn’t know I would encounter danger. That they can rush here at this moment is already very fast.”
Xiao Man turned her head to the other side and said nothing more.
……
……
The large army stopped not far away. A military officer was brought over and bowed deeply: “I greet—”
Chu Zhao quickly stopped him: “I’m traveling with concealed identity. There’s no need for such formality, sir.”
The officer stood stiffly at attention, acknowledging, about to apologize when Chu Zhao once again spoke first, saying she didn’t blame him for arriving late. The whole point was not to be discovered—they didn’t know, so it wasn’t a crime.
“Clean up the mountain,” Chu Zhao only said. “See if you can determine their identities.”
If they could prove it was Prince Zhongshan’s handiwork, that would also be a good thing.
Of course, Chu Zhao felt there was little possibility. If Prince Zhongshan dared to do it, he would certainly be confident in leaving no trace.
The officer acknowledged and accepted the order. He couldn’t apologize, couldn’t be overly formal. He thought for a moment, then turned and called someone.
A soldier ran over quickly and stood before Chu Zhao, his expression somewhat constrained.
“This is from Chen County’s postal station.” The officer said. “He was the one who reported to us that you might be in danger. He also had emergency transfer orders, which is why we were mobilized to search—”
Chu Zhao looked at the postal soldier with some surprise: “How did you know I was in danger?”
And moreover, how did he know she had reached here?
Although she would inform postal stations of her movements—this was A’Jiu’s requirement before she departed. She could avoid being tracked, but when passing through a certain place, she must leave a message.
“Otherwise that kid will pester me with questions I can’t answer,” he had said.
But generally she would only say something when leaving, also to indicate to A’Jiu that she had safely passed through.
She hadn’t sent word to Chen County’s postal station yet.
She had thought postal stations passively received messages. It turned out they actually knew her movements?
The postal soldier took out a map and a written order from his chest: “Orders came down from above, writing that you would arrive in these few days. If we didn’t have word from you immediately, we were to mobilize troops to search.”
Would arrive in a few days? Chu Zhao was somewhat puzzled. She reached out to receive the map. This was a very common map of Da Xia’s western postal stations, but what was uncommon was—
Chu Zhao leaned closer. In the sunlight, beside each postal station name on the map were small characters writing dates—from such-and-such month and day to such-and-such month and day.
……
……
Standing in the mountain forest by the roadside, hidden among several large trees and mountain rocks, people on the road couldn’t see them, but they could see the travelers clearly.
Especially that girl.
“Look, she’s smiling.” The woman lifted her conical hat, saying softly. “What good news did she see? She’s smiling so happily.”