Eunuch Liu scrambled into the carriage, weeping and laughing all at once. Not knowing where to put his hands, he could only keep repeating that this was wonderful.
Xiao Yihan stared at the roof of the carriage with hollow, numb eyes. After a long silence, he asked indifferently, “Tell me what happened during the days I was unconscious.”
Seeing this, Gu Feng, who had tidied himself up, sat outside the carriage.
Eunuch Liu’s face stiffened and his throat tightened, but he still tried his best to break it gently: “Her Majesty the Empress has been confined to the Fengyi Palace, and General Shen’s entire family has been sentenced to exile. Fortunately, everyone in the Shen family is currently safe and sound.”
“His Majesty has titled you the Prince of Fei and bestowed upon you the fiefdom of Lingnan.”
“Apart from this old servant, only Girl Qing is accompanying Your Highness on this journey.”
“Your Highness had great foresight in helping that girl three years ago. She knows how to repay a debt of gratitude. Strong as an ox, she has been taking care of you with all her heart along the way.”
Xiao Yihan’s eyes flickered slightly upon hearing the title “Prince of Fei.” He then asked Eunuch Liu to help him up, and Eunuch Liu quickly reached out to assist.
Relying on Eunuch Liu’s strength, Xiao Yihan tried to sit up, but his waist couldn’t exert any force at all.
Hearing the commotion, Gu Feng immediately came in to help. The two of them joined forces to pull Xiao Yihan up.
However, he was completely unable to sit up straight on his own. After several failed attempts, Xiao Yihan’s face turned deathly pale, and his dark, quiet eyes flashed with a mix of shock, confusion, and despair.
Both Eunuch Liu and Gu Feng panicked. They were about to try again, but a bitter smile touched the corner of Xiao Yihan’s lips as he waved his hand to decline their help.
Gu Feng stepped out of the carriage with a dark expression, while Eunuch Liu sobbed softly, offering non-stop comforting words: “We’ll find the best doctors in the future, and it will definitely be cured.”
By the time Ji Qingqing returned holding a large bundle of wild herbs, Gu Feng was standing outside the carriage with a grim look on his face.
Suppressed crying sounds came from inside the carriage. Wanting to forget the earlier awkwardness as much as possible, Ji Qingqing tentatively asked Gu Feng, “Is Eunuch Liu crying out of joy because His Highness woke up?”
Gu Feng gave Ji Qingqing a cold glance and didn’t answer.
Ji Qingqing choked on her words.
After sorting out the wild herbs, she sat on the other side of the carriage.
Thinking back to that embarrassing, cringey moment earlier, she didn’t want to face the noble prince anytime soon.
Just then, the procession set off again. Enduring his injuries, Gu Feng took the initiative to drive the carriage.
As the team moved forward slowly, Ji Qingqing saw how reticent Gu Feng was and closed her eyes to rest.
Leaning against the carriage wall, Ji Qingqing was just about to fall asleep when a sharp burst of crying and wailing suddenly erupted from up front.
Startled awake, she stretched her neck to look forward.
Movement came from inside the carriage, followed by Eunuch Liu’s anxious, low-voiced plea: “Oh, my Prince! In your condition, you can’t be moving around right now. This wound absolutely must not rip open again. Whatever you need done, let this old servant do it.”
Presumably listening to Eunuch Liu, a deep, raspy voice sounded: “Go up front and check.”
Eunuch Liu nimbly climbed down from the carriage and scampered to the front. After inquiring about the situation, he rushed back, his tone hesitating slightly: “Master… it’s the Old Matriarch of the General’s Household. She’s not going to make it.”
From what this old servant saw, she’s simply exhausted. After a long silence inside the carriage, the raspy voice spoke up once more: “Say a word to Feng Yu. Have him bring Maternal Grandmother over here.”
Eunuch Liu looked troubled, yet he gave a crisp response: “Understood! This old servant will go right away.”
When Eunuch Liu found Lord Feng and explained his errand, Lord Feng didn’t adopt his usual indifferent attitude this time.
Instead, he briskly walked over to the guard who was still lashing his whip and said something to him.
The guard spat with a grimace and went off to whip the other prisoners while cursing under his breath.
Seeing this, Eunuch Liu hurriedly asked Ji Qingqing to carry the Old Matriarch of the Shen family over.
Holding the frail old lady, Ji Qingqing noticed her ashen face, cracked lips, and faint breathing, sighing inwardly.
After gently placing her down beside Xiao Yihan, she poured out a small bowl of ginseng water from the canteen and fed it to the old lady bit by bit.
Meanwhile, Eunuch Liu was still worried that Ji Qingqing’s heavy hands might leave two finger-shaped bruises on the old lady as well.
However, seeing how smoothly Ji Qingqing’s feeding went, his expression instantly turned sour—Eunuch Liu now felt that Ji Qingqing had deliberately tormented his Prince before!
Ji Qingqing was completely unaware of this. If she had known, she would have cried out in protest: the old lady slightly opened her mouth on her own when the water was brought to her, whereas Xiao Yihan and Gu Feng had kept their teeth clamped shut! Otherwise, why would she have exerted so much force for nothing?
After a bowl of ginseng water, the Old Matriarch Shen’s complexion improved significantly, and her breathing steadied quite a bit.
When they reached the post station that evening, the Old Matriarch woke up and looked at Xiao Yihan, who was lying flat on his back, with loving tenderness.
Gently stroking Xiao Yihan’s pale face, she offered soft comfort, “Our Shen family doesn’t blame you. Your grandfather, uncles, and cousins are all worried about you too! As long as my grandson is well, nothing else matters.”
As she petted him with her slightly rough hand and offered those soothing words, Xiao Yihan felt a prickle of soreness in his nose. He buried his face in the old lady’s embrace without a word. At that moment, his heart was filled with intense self-reproach—his maternal grandmother should have been living a life of leisure in her old age, yet because of him, she was enduring the hardships of exile and even turning around to comfort him instead.
Gently patting Xiao Yihan’s back, the Old Matriarch continued, “Everyone goes through storms and trials in life, but as long as our family stays together with one heart, no matter how great the hardship, we will get through it.”
Outside the carriage, the rest of the Shen family had gathered. Old General Shen spoke in his booming voice, “Old woman, you just focus on recovering your health. Leave the children’s matters to this old bag of bones!”
Hearing her old man’s booming voice, the matriarch rolled her eyes and replied, “Yes, yes, yes…”
With that, she lifted the curtain to see her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandsons all gazing at her with eager eyes.
With a mock scold, she said, “Why aren’t you all going off to rest? I’m not dead yet! What are you all looking so gloomy for?”
Seeing their energetic elderly mother at last set the four Shen brothers’ minds at ease.
Old General Shen looked speechlessly at his stubborn yet soft-hearted wife, stepped forward, scooped her up horizontally into his arms, and said gruffly, “Pay no mind to them. Just take care of yourself.”
With steady strides, he then carried his wife off to the shared communal lodging to rest.
Eldest Shen made a move to take over carrying his aging mother, only to be glared back by a single look from his old father. Envy flashed in the eyes of the Shen daughters-in-law.
Throughout his entire life, Old General Shen had only ever married the Old Matriarch. He doted on her boundlessly; there were no concubines or maidservants, leaving their inner courtyard impeccably clean.
In his youth, his own mother had tried to force him to take a maternal cousin as a concubine. Instead, Old General Shen had gone out late that same night, found a random man, and forcefully made the two of them perform wedding bows. The next day, he handed the cousin and her husband five hundred taels of silver and packed them far, far away—they happened to be among the exiled group now.
The Shen brothers helped lift Xiao Yihan down. Everyone sat together drinking water and eating coarse wild-herb flatbreads.
Xiao Yihan glanced at Ji Qingqing, who was keeping her distance, and then shifted his gaze to Eunuch Liu.
Catching the look, Eunuch Liu understood instantly and promptly pulled Ji Qingqing over to the carriage to fetch their dry rations.
With a fleeting pang of heartache, Ji Qingqing obediently carried a large bundle of dark, crumbly flatbreads and placed them in the center.
Everyone stared in astonishment at the dark, broken bits of bread, figuring they were no different from the ones in their own hands.
Seeing this, Eunuch Liu realized there was a misunderstanding.
He hurriedly explained, “These flatbreads were made entirely with eggs and fine flour. Qing girl was afraid they wouldn’t keep out of the capital, so she poured in some soy paste. They might not look like much, but they taste delicious.”
The Old Matriarch was the first to pick up a small piece, nibbling on it and praising Ji Qingqing for her ingenuity.
The others began to eat as well. Having eaten wild-herb flatbreads for days, this bread tasted surprisingly fragrant in their mouths, and they showered Ji Qingqing with compliments that made her quite bashful.
After a sound night’s sleep, they rose early the next morning, ate some more flatbread with water, and set off.
This time, the carriage traveled alongside the Shen family, with three little boys aged three or four added inside.
Whether Xiao Yihan had said something to the exile guards or not, today all the members of the Shen family had their wooden stocks removed, leaving only iron chains.
The scorching sun made everyone dizzy and lightheaded. Just as they were approaching a rest stop, a group of people dressed as bandits suddenly appeared out of nowhere, hacking at people indiscriminately without a word of warning.
Chaos instantly erupted in the procession. Lord Feng led fifty of his men to meet the enemy, and the exile guards also drew their swords to fight back.
The Shen men, all skilled in martial arts, did their best to shield their wives.
As the death toll mounted, several bandits charged toward the carriage. Gritting his teeth, Gu Feng went forward to engage them in combat.
Because his injuries hadn’t healed, he was quickly overpowered. One of the bandits lunged at Ji Qingqing with a blade; she ducked just in time, but her horse was slashed and killed.
Seeing more bandits approaching—and weighing the combat-capable bandits against the struggling crowd—Ji Qingqing gritted her teeth. She grabbed Gu Feng by the collar and flung him into the carriage, nimbly looped the carriage harness over her own neck and fixed it across her shoulders, barked a quick warning for everyone to hold on tight, and—before anyone could even process what was happening—pulled the carriage with a whoosh and sprinted off like a flying arrow.
As she ran, Ji Qingqing yelled back, “Lord Feng, we’re not running away! We’ll just wait for you up ahead, I promise we won’t add to the trouble!”
At this sight, guards, prisoners, and bandits alike stared in utter speechlessness at the rear of the carriage, which vanished into the distance in the blink of an eye.