It was Yun Jiuqing who reacted the fastest, quickly propping up the quilt over Prince Yan and signaling to the guards and steward, “Cover him up!”
The quilt, originally meant for warmth, was spread open and draped over Prince Yan, just enough to shield him from the onslaught of filth.
Yun Jiuqing scanned the crowd. “His Majesty has decreed Prince Yan’s exile—he never authorized vigilante justice. Whoever did this, get the hell out here?!”
The king from the underworld deliberately unleashed his oppressive aura, and the intimidation was anything but ordinary.
The crowd glanced around nervously, and without needing to search, the one who had stirred up the mob was isolated on his own.
Yun Jiuqing strode forward and dragged the man out. “Speak—who sent you to assassinate Prince Yan?
What secret does your master harbor that you’d incite the crowd in broad daylight, using the people’s hands to kill Prince Yan and silence him?”
The man was instantly dumbfounded. He never imagined that merely stirring up the populace to ruin Xie Ciyuan’s reputation would be elevated to the level of assassination.
By then, Prince Yan’s guards had caught on, and one quipped cleverly, “I know him—his name is Chen Jinbang, son of the steward of Xiangguofu!”
Xiangguofu was none other than the maternal clan of the reigning emperor, and the passersby instantly turned into melon-eating spectators.
Prince Yan had already been exiled, yet the steward’s son of Xiangguofu still came to incite them to assassinate him—those with vivid imaginations couldn’t help but let their minds run wild.
Just then, the escort officer in charge of the exiled prisoners rode up on horseback. “What’s all this racket, what’s all this racket?
You’re already exiled convicts and still can’t stay put—waiting for a beating, are you?”
As he spoke, his whip lashed toward Yun Jiuqing, who was only spared the sting of the leather by a guard from Prince Yan’s residence yanking her aside.
The escort officer’s face darkened. “Put him down this instant! You, an exiled convict, dare to strike someone—are you afraid your crimes aren’t heavy enough?”
“Are you blind? He struck first—I was only defending myself.”
Yun Jiuqing grabbed the man and dragged him off his horse. “Prince Yan is gravely wounded. Hit by all that filthy garbage, who knows when he’ll kick the bucket.
Your job is to escort him to Bei Huang. If he dies right here in Chu Jing, have you figured out how you’d like to die?
I know you’re trying to curry favor with the Deng family, but at least mind the occasion. When gods clash, mortals dying doesn’t count for anything!”
The man seemed lost in thought but still felt his pride wounded. “You’d better stay this sharp-tongued forever!”
With that, he gestured for two officers to take away the rabble-rouser, and the procession continued on its way.
They finally made it to Shiliting outside the city, where a few scattered carriages were parked near the pavilion, all there to see the exiles off.
The emperor had called it exile, so on the surface, there was no intention of killing him outright.
With a bit of greasing of palms on all sides, sending some food and valuables was permissible—the officers wouldn’t be too strict.
After all, the more people came to bid farewell, the more bribes they’d collect along the way. No one would cut off their own source of income.
Prince Yan’s residence was full of bachelors, and now that Yun Jiuqing had finally emerged, she’d long since offended her natal family, so no one sent anything more.
Over at Cheng En Gong Fu, however, the crowd was thriving, with plenty of people coming to see them off.
Yun Jiuqing ignored them and quietly wandered over to Prince Yan’s side. She casually lifted his quilt, but before she could make a move, a guard blocked her. “What are you doing?”
The residence had been struck by sudden disaster, and no one had time to bother with this nominal princess. Whether she was there or not, no one cared.
Still, she’d spoken up at the residence and on the street, sparing Prince Yan a great deal of trouble, and she’d put that Deng family lackey in his place—the guards were somewhat grateful to her.
But remembering how Yun Wanqing had said she’d run home to beg for help rather than be exiled with Prince Yan, the guards couldn’t help but feel a twinge of discomfort.
“I’m taking my own things. Besides, I’m his princess. Even if I truly meant to do something to him, what standing do you have to stop me?”
She said she was retrieving her belongings, but as she gathered them, she also took hold of Prince Yan’s wrist.
With people around the whole way, this was the first chance she’d had to check his pulse.
She wasn’t worried about Prince Yan croaking—after all, her very existence was proof that he’d survived a great calamity.
Besides, judging by the way he’d killed that man with a flying stick that morning, he didn’t seem likely to kick the bucket anytime soon. But what was this?
Yun Jiuqing lifted the quilt a bit more and saw that everything she’d casually stripped off Yun Wanqing and stuffed onto Prince Yan’s stretcher had been gathered into the man’s palm.
His hand was large, big enough to hold all of it in his grip.
Yun Jiuqing didn’t dare make a sound. She gave a slight tug at the butterfly hairpin, the one hardest to grasp—its wings nearly came off, yet the man’s hand didn’t budge.
She looked up. The man’s eyes were tightly shut, his breathing faint—indeed, the picture of grave injury.
She checked his pulse again and confirmed that Prince Yan wasn’t just badly wounded—he was also poisoned. His blindness was caused by the toxin.
But his wounds and the poison wouldn’t have knocked him unconscious, and he’d been lucid enough to kill a man and throw out threats not long ago. So this man was faking unconsciousness, and stealing her jewelry was deliberate too.
Yun Jiuqing glared at Xie Ciyuan, cheeks puffed with indignation.
There was no denying that her clan’s old ancestor was exceptionally handsome, worthy of the historical praise of being elegant and striking, with a beauty unmatched by any other.
Sword-like brows, starry eyes, a jade-like nose, and thin lips—these were already superior features on their own, yet when combined on his face, they created an extraordinary harmony.
“But let go of me. Even if you’re handsome and my old ancestor, you can’t steal my silver!”
Yun Jiuqing didn’t lack this bit of silver, but the things in the Space certainly couldn’t be used openly.
She had deliberately snatched Yun Wanqing’s jewelry in front of everyone, intending to use these items to trade for food and drink when it wasn’t convenient to use the gifts from the Space. Now that someone had taken them, how could that work?
She had still hoped that the old ancestor would leave her more ancestral property so she could coast through life and live off the family legacy, but now the old ancestor was already starting to rob her of her money—what was that about?
Yun Jiuqing didn’t want to expose Xie Ciyuan’s pretense of fainting in front of the escorting officers; that would do her no good.
But this meant she couldn’t use too much force when trying to snatch things back, and without force, she couldn’t retrieve them—which was utterly infuriating.
As Yun Jiuqing was secretly straining, her fingers slipping off the gold hairpin once again, the guard holding the stretcher finally couldn’t bear to watch and couldn’t help but whisper a reminder, “You’d better not waste your effort. Our Prince is like a Pixiu—he only takes in, never gives out. Once something enters his hands, no one has ever been able to get it back.”
When Yun Jiuqing had taken Xie Ciyuan’s pulse, she had deliberately concealed the movement with her sleeve, so the guard had no idea that Yun Jiuqing already knew Xie Ciyuan was faking unconsciousness.
He was merely gleefully informing Yun Jiuqing of their Prince’s miserly nature.
Yun Jiuqing felt like she was about to crack apart. “So, when I was throwing things at him earlier, the looks on your faces weren’t because you were annoyed at me for throwing things at him, but because you were laughing at me for throwing meat buns at a dog?”
Having just arrived, Yun Jiuqing had maintained a state of vigilance, keeping her eyes and ears open at all times.
Of course, she hadn’t missed the way the guards and the old steward’s mouths twitched when she tossed those pieces of jewelry at Xie Ciyuan.
At the time, she had only thought that the guards beside Xie Ciyuan were brothers who had fought through life and death with him, and those who remained by his side now must be trusted confidants. If anyone truly set their sights on Xie Ciyuan, these people would surely do their utmost to stop them.
So during the exile journey, there was no place safer to keep important things than on Xie Ciyuan’s person.
Seeing their mouths twitching endlessly, she had simply taken it as these confidants of Prince Yan being displeased with her disrespect toward their master, never imagining they were laughing at her foolishness.