“Outside is Lianwan Mountain. If Zhizhi is afraid, come sit closer and lean against Gu.”
So we’ve already crossed out of Nanjiang County’s borders? Nanzhi pulled herself back to reality and forcefully swallowed down her fear. Compared to getting closer to the Crown Prince, she would much rather stay as far away from him as possible.
“Your Highness, your concubine is not afraid.”
Inside the dim carriage, a single oil lamp cast a faint, flickering light that shifted between bright and dark. Nanzhi kept her head lowered, shielding the expression on her face from view.
Shen Huaixu narrowed his eyes, his sharp gaze sweeping over her as though trying to pierce straight through her little schemes. At that exact moment, Qingyu’s respectful voice sounded from outside the carriage, instantly easing Nanzhi’s taut nerves.
“Your Highness, the roasted chicken is ready. Please partake.”
Shen Huaixu withdrew his gaze, his tone cold. “Bring it in.”
Nanzhi let out a quiet sigh of relief. Though she had kept her head down and avoided looking directly at him, the heavy weight of the Crown Prince’s scrutinizing stare had made her skin crawl.
The moment Qingyu stepped inside to deliver the food, her eyes happened to meet Nanzhi’s clear, gentle gaze. She froze for a fraction of a second, then a faint smile broke across her usually expressionless face as she gave a slight nod.
Nanzhi returned the smile with a quiet one of her own, sitting serenely in the corner of the carriage like a solitary lotus blossoming away from the world—a sight that made Qingyu steal a few extra glances.
By the time Qingyu snapped back to her senses, she caught the Crown Prince glaring at her with open displeasure. Her heart skipped a beat; panicked, she hurriedly set the items down and bolted from the carriage like a startled rabbit.
A soft gust of wind brushed past Nanzhi’s ear as she watched Qingyu’s flustered retreat, a silent smile touching her lips.
Right then, Eunuch Chen walked over carrying two bowls of mushroom soup. Seeing Qingyu sprinting off in such a panic, he gave her a puzzled look, muttering to himself, I only asked her to bring the Crown Prince his food, so why is she running faster than a frightened hare?
Shaking his head, Eunuch Chen stepped forward with his tray and placed the soup inside.
Knowing his place, he respectfully set the bowls down without daring to pry or glance at the scene within, then backed out with his head bowed.
As the rich aromas of roasted chicken and mushroom soup wafted through the air, Nanzhi’s hunger flared into something fierce. Try as she might to maintain her composure, her gaze kept drifting toward the food.
Noticing her subtle change in expression, Shen Huaixu lowered his gaze and chuckled softly. “Eat. Or were you expecting Gu to feed you yourself?”
“This concubine wouldn’t dare trouble Your Highness.” With the Crown Prince’s permission, Nanzhi stopped holding back. She extended a fair, slender hand, eager to tear off a chicken leg, but the moment her fingers brushed the crisp skin, she yanked her hand back with a sharp hiss.
Shaking her hand, she brought it to her lips and blew gently on her fingertips to soothe the stinging heat. The chicken had only just come off the fire, and in her momentary lapse of memory, she had accidentally burned herself.
Shen Huaixu had clearly anticipated it. He had watched her actions without offering a single word of warning, coolly observing as she reached out to touch the scorching poultry and flinched away. A trace of amusement flickered deep within his eyes, completely imperceptible to anyone else.
“Reach out your hand and let Gu take a look.”
Nanzhi’s hands were delicate and soft. Noticing the faint red mark blooming across her fingertip, Shen Huaixu felt a genuine pang of distress.
Nanzhi tucked her hand behind her back and shook her head at him, keeping her expression calm as if the person who had just burned herself wasn’t her at all. “Your Highness, it’s nothing. Your concubine was just a bit too impatient.”
The faint smile vanished from Shen Huaixu’s face, plunging it into an instant frost. He furrowed his brow, fixing her with a gaze that brooked no argument and tolerated no refusal. “Let Gu see.”
Startled by his abrupt shift in expression, Nanzhi’s pupils dilated in a brief flutter of panic. They weren’t kidding when they said serving a monarch is like sleeping with a tiger. She already feared him; under the weight of such an intense stare, the desire to flee clawed its way upward in her chest.
“Your Highness, look—it really is fine.” Unable to win against his stubbornness, Nanzhi had no choice but to slowly slide her hand out from behind her and extend it toward him.
If she had waited a moment longer, that tiny red speck on her fingertip would have faded away completely. What was there even to fuss over?
After taking a look, Shen Huaixu finally relaxed his brow. “From now on, whenever Zhizhi wants something like this, just call Gu. Gu will tear it for you.”
His little canary was admittedly a bit delicate, but he liked it.
With that, he gracefully picked up the roasted chicken and, without so much as a frown, tore off a chicken leg and handed it to Nanzhi.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Nanzhi murmured with a gentle, compliant smile, while privately muttering to herself, Are the Crown Prince’s hands made of iron or what?
After taking it with polite detachment, she stopped looking at him. The chicken leg had cooled down quite a bit by now. Holding it to her lips, she took small, deliberate bites, chewing thoroughly. Even though she was starving, her table manners remained exceptionally refined; every little motion of her swallowing was so pleasing to the eye that it almost seemed watching her eat was a pleasure in itself.
Shen Huaixu hadn’t been hungry. As the Crown Prince, what rare delicacies hadn’t he tasted? Yet watching the way she ate somehow stirred a sudden urge in him to sample it himself.
Once Nanzhi had eaten her fill, she reached for a silk handkerchief to wipe the corners of her mouth, then carefully cleaned the grease from her fingers, instantly reverting to her usual dignified and gentle self.
Having finished that bowl of savory mushroom soup, she suddenly felt the urge to relieve herself. But out here in the middle of a desolate wilderness—Nanzhi’s brows knitted together in a soft crease as she wrestled with her predicament, her expression turning awkward.
After hesitating for a long while, she finally raised her eyes to look at the Crown Prince, struggling with her embarrassment as she spoke in a small voice, “Your Highness, this concubine needs to step outside for a moment.”
Hearing this, Shen Huaixu raised his head to stare at her. Reading the subtle changes in her expression and likely guessing her intention, he gave her a meaningful look before withdrawing his gaze. “Take Qingyu with you.”
Nanzhi nodded, maintaining a calm exterior as she walked past him. It wasn’t until she stepped down from the carriage that she finally let out a breath of relief, though her face flushed a deeper shade of red.
Qingyu was waiting for her outside. Once she understood what was needed, she accompanied her the entire way.
The night grew darker, plunging everything into inky blackness, punctuated every now and then by the chirping of insects and the calls of night birds—sounds that inevitably stirred a quiet terror in the stillness of the night.
Nanzhi had never spent a prolonged period in such an isolated wilderness. Looking out into the distance, the surrounding trees loomed dense and thick, the overgrown weeds nearly tall enough to swallow her whole.
Noticing her fear, Qingyu softened her voice to reassure her, “Don’t be afraid, Milady. I’ll keep watch right here, nothing is going to happen.”
For some reason, looking out at that impenetrable sheet of blackness, a persistent sense of unease gnawed at Nanzhi’s heart.
In the blink of an eye, just as she and Qingyu made their way back, a massive horde of assassins dressed in black suddenly materialized around the carriage.
Right on their heels, a deafening roar pierced her ears: “Hand over your lives!”
She had only just emerged when she saw the men in black brandishing long swords, lunging swiftly toward the Crown Prince’s carriage. The shock froze Nanzhi right where she stood.
“Milady, protect yourself!”
Nanzhi felt a sudden rush of wind brush past her, and Qingyu vanished from her spot, plunging straight into the thick of the brutal chaos to join the fray.
This was the first time Nanzhi had experienced the brutal, merciless face of this era so directly. In the span of a single breath, sword lights flashed and shadows danced as several bloodied corpses hit the ground—a sight that left Nanzhi pale with terror and shock.
The assassinating black-clad figures were not few in number. Sweeping her eyes over them, she estimated there were easily a dozen or two, every single one possessing extraordinary martial prowess. Paralyzed by fright, Nanzhi scrambled behind a dense clump of bushes, watching the fierce combat unfold before her while clamping both hands tightly over her mouth to swallow any sound.
She was, after all, just an ordinary woman; where would she ever have witnessed such a frantic, violent spectacle? Try as she might to keep her composure, the hands pressed against her lips trembled uncontrollably.
Then came a sharp whoosh. A lethal arrow cut through the night sky, flying with terrifying speed straight through the front of the Crown Prince’s carriage. Nanzhi’s eyes widened in horror, the expression on her jade-and-fair face completely freezing over in sheer, absolute disbelief.
In a fleeting instant, a daring, terrifying thought flashed through her mind: Could the Crown Prince have actually been hit?