Jiang Xingyan watched the two figures, one chasing the other, disappear around the corner.
When she turned back, Huo Ci was staring fixedly at her, a look of profound remembrance in his eyes, as if an eternity had passed.
She shot him an annoyed glance. “What are you looking at? If you have nothing to do, go back to your General’s Manor.”
Huo Ci hadn’t yet snapped out of the trance induced by the genuine, spirited joy he had just seen radiating from Jiang Xingyan.
She was like a green sprout.
Battered by the cold wind and winter rain, she had once curled tightly into herself, responding to the outside world with cold rigidity, retaliation, and revenge.
Back when their souls had first swapped, she was wound tight, terrified of being too late to save Little Ya, too late to exact vengeance.
Now, with everything turning for the better, the spring breeze prevailing over the winter gale, she held great power, had wealth, leisure, and people who loved her. Gradually, she had relaxed back into her original, clever and mischievous form.
Precisely the form that had captured his heart at first sight back in Jiangnan.
If only life could always be as it was at first meeting.
Tears welled up in Huo Ci’s eyes.
How had he lost that initial heart, brewing this irreparable catastrophe!
“General, another letter has arrived from the manor. Those few are causing trouble again.”
Wang Qi came running from a distance, panting slightly.
Jiang Xingyan had no time to dwell on when exactly Huo Ci had developed this tearful habit. She turned and led Yun Chunfeng and Wang Qi towards the command tent.
Huo Ci swiftly wiped his tears and hurried to follow.
Upon entering the tent, Qiu Yan approached to greet them, her neck tilted awkwardly, her face full of gloom.
“Miss, Chunxue has managed to coax Little Ya to sleep.”
She had come here specifically to join the Huo Army, so why was she the one getting injured?
Jiang Xingyan felt both sympathy and amusement. She quickly had Xia Feng take Qiu Yan to the Imperial Hospital to find Sun Yaxiang for a proper adjustment.
In the blink of an eye, only four people remained in the tent.
Wang Qi respectfully detailed the whole sequence of events.
——-
On the second day after Jiang Xingyan left for Qingzhou, a fight broke out in the side courtyard.
The side courtyard had only one main room, one dilapidated kitchen, and one abandoned woodshed.
Li Yishu and Yinzhu had formed an alliance and occupied the main room together.
The three rough-serving maids slept on the floor in their room.
The later arrivals—Dowager Huo, along with Baozhu and Yuzhu—could only squeeze into the woodshed.
The steward of the side courtyard strictly adhered to the rules Huo Ci had set: one tael of silver per day, divided equally among the eight people.
With careful budgeting, they managed to have simple, plain meals that at least filled their stomachs.
While the others didn’t complain much, the pampered Dowager Huo couldn’t stand it at all. Every day, she would stand in the courtyard, hands on hips, and curse loudly.
“That wicked, lowly merchant girl! A reincarnation of the most vulgar vixen! She’s bewitched my son so completely he doesn’t even care for his own mother anymore!”
“You dog of a servant! An opportunistic, disloyal cur who’d sell out your master for glory! If it weren’t for me, your parents would have sold you into a filthy brothel long ago! How could you have lived to this day?”
“Oh, my fate is so bitter! I thought my own niece from my maternal family would do her utmost to help me. Who would have thought she’d be a heartless, ungrateful wretch!”
Yinzhu didn’t tolerate this at all. Taking advantage of the darkness, she led the three sturdy maids into Dowager Huo’s room and smashed their only bamboo bed and wooden bowls.
Baozhu and Yuzhu refused to be outdone. They rushed forward and got into a tussle with Yinzhu.
The covertly watching death guards saw this, but estimating it wouldn’t lead to fatalities, they didn’t intervene at all.
The attention of the four courtyard guards was also fixed on them.
In a moment of distraction, they failed to notice Li Yishu sneaking out.
Holding her breath, she ran without stopping all the way to the gates of the imperial palace.
In her heart, she thought that once she reached the palace, ideally during the morning court session, she might encounter a prince. That way, she could first marry into the royal family, and then deal with her cousin’s household later.
If she didn’t meet one, then she would lodge an imperial grievance, accusing “Jiang Xingyan” of embezzling the household funds and mistreating her mother-in-law in Huo Ci’s absence.
She had risked her life to escape the manor, seeking only justice.
The only world Li Yishu had ever seen was the General’s Manor.
Subconsciously, she assumed meeting a prince or the Emperor would be as simple as meeting Huo Ci.
She was also supremely confident in her own beauty, believing few men could resist her upon sight.
Only Huo Ci had been the exception.
Heaven rewards the determined.
It actually allowed her to encounter the Grand Prince, Xiao Mingxu, who had just returned from an inspection tour in Jiangnan.
To speak of Xiao Mingxu’s assignment, it was far more comfortable than those of his two younger brothers.
Surrounded by fine wine and beautiful women daily, he only needed to review account books and have his advisors record the findings.
If not for hearing from his imperial mother that both his second and third brothers had gained face in front of the Emperor, he wouldn’t have wanted to return so early.
“Who dares block the path here? Disturbing His Highness the Grand Prince’s carriage—how many heads do you have to spare?!”
Li Yishu’s heart leaped with joy. She felt she was truly about to turn her misfortune around, flying onto a lofty branch and transforming into a phoenix.
She knelt and prostrated before Xiao Mingxu’s carriage, crying out loudly, “I beg Your Highness the Grand Prince to grant this humble girl justice!”
Her voice carried three parts sorrow, two parts mellowness, and five parts delicate tenderness, almost enough to hook Xiao Mingxu’s soul right out.
He lifted the carriage curtain and, at first glance, saw Li Yishu’s profile, her vermilion lips pressed tightly together, resembling a stubborn water lily emitting a unique radiance in the dark night.
He had seen plenty of the charming, alluring “Yangzhou slim horses.” But such peerless beauty—untainted by the mud, cleansed by clear waves yet not seductive—this was his first encounter.
Seeing from the corner of her eye Xiao Mingxu staring dumbfounded at her, Li Yishu felt secret delight, yet her tone held a trace of urgency and reproach. “Your Highness the Grand Prince?”
Xiao Mingxu hurriedly snapped back to reality. With a grand wave of his hand, he declared magnanimously, “What grievance does the beauty have? Come into the carriage and explain it to this Prince in detail.
This Prince will certainly see justice done for you!”
Li Yishu lifted her eyes gracefully. Her limpid, almond-shaped eyes were like mountain sprites, captivating and soul-stealing.
“Truly?”
At this moment, Xiao Mingxu couldn’t care about anything else. If it meant winning the beauty, he was willing to swear oaths, climb mountains of blades, or tread through seas of fire.
“Come up quickly, beauty.
In such deep night, you kneeling on the ground… it pains this Prince’s heart.
Rest assured, no matter the matter, this Prince will stand up for you!”
Xiao Mingxu personally reached out his hand from the carriage. Li Yishu, adopting an extremely alluring posture, placed her hand in his, and he pulled her into the carriage in one swift motion.