The mountain road was rugged, and the carriage swayed and jolted along.
Su Xiao, having just recovered from a serious illness, was delicate and frail. Even sitting inside the carriage, she was like a drifting leaf, swaying back and forth with the bumps and jolts.
As the wheels rolled over crushed stones, the carriage jolted violently once more. Su Xiao, who had been deep in thought, was abruptly thrown forward and collided with a broad, solid chest.
Xiao Jinyan let out a muffled groan as she crashed into him, the wounds on his chest that had not yet fully healed beginning to ache faintly once again.
“My lord?!”
Su Xiao’s heart trembled in shock, and she instinctively reached for his wound.
Xiao Jinyan narrowed his eyes slightly.
Su Xiao suddenly realized how intimate the gesture was, her palm feeling as if it had been scalded, pulling back the moment it made contact.
The next second, her wrist was seized tightly.
Xiao Jinyan would not let her escape, pulling her close to him.
“It hurts…”
Su Xiao felt as though her wrist was about to be crushed, a burning pain spreading through it.
“Who are you, really?”
Xiao Jinyan stared deeply at her, his voice cold as he pressed for an answer. “Why do you know Lin Wanru?”
Su Xiao trembled all over, panic instantly spreading through her entire body.
“Tell me the truth…”
Relying on his own suspicions, Xiao Jinyan deliberately tried to trick her. “Don’t think about deceiving me. Think about your adoptive parents—whether they have the chance to live again.”
Su Xiao’s face paled, and she was so shocked she almost forgot to breathe.
“I heard everything you muttered in your dreams while you were unconscious.”
Xiao Jinyan continued to probe. “Now it’s up to you. Confess or defy—you choose. But before you speak, think carefully about whether you can bear the consequences of lying.”
“It was… a dream…”
After a brief moment of panic, Su Xiao forced herself to calm down.
Reincarnation was too bizarre to explain, so she dared not speak of it. She could only use a dream as an excuse.
“What dream? Speak quickly…”
Hearing the word “dream,” Xiao Jinyan’s nerves tightened instantly, and he gripped her wrist even tighter.
“My lord, it hurts…”
Su Xiao couldn’t help but cry out in pain.
The word “lord” struck his ears, stirring his heart once again.
Xiao Jinyan loosened his grip slightly, but his gaze grew even more profound and inscrutable.
He was almost certain now that the dream Su Xiao spoke of was related to the one he had seen.
He was eager to hear what she would say next.
“It was… something like this…”
Su Xiao recounted the events of her past life, mixing truth with falsehood, selecting the important parts to share while omitting the part about becoming his concubine.
“Is that all?”
Xiao Jinyan didn’t believe her. He lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Then tell me, what about Liu Qinghan?”
Su Xiao was horrified, a flicker of panic flashing in her eyes.
How could he even know about that?
“Think about your adoptive parents…”
A faint, elusive smile played at the corner of Xiao Jinyan’s lips.
She must have been truly delirious!
What nonsense had she babbled while unconscious?!
No matter how much Su Xiao racked her brains, she could never have guessed that Xiao Jinyan had also dreamed. She was so filled with regret she almost wanted to bite off her own tongue.
“I have no patience to wait.”
Xiao Jinyan was eager to confirm his suspicions.
Left with no choice, Su Xiao had no choice but to reveal the part she had omitted.
When she spoke of how, by a twist of fate, she had become his concubine, a faint blush of embarrassment spread across her delicate, beautiful face.
So that’s how it was!
Xiao Jinyan's current state of mind could no longer be described as merely complicated. Hearing with his own ears a scene that closely matched his dream was even more shocking than when he had first woken from it.
Recalling her coquettish charm in the dream, his gaze fell upon her flushed cheeks, deepening further.
"Master, that was just a dream. It shouldn't be taken seriously."
Sensing danger, Su Xiao struggled to break free.
"Whether it's real or not, we'll know once we try."
Xiao Jinyan would not allow her to escape. He pulled her forcefully into his embrace and lowered his head to kiss her lips.
A figure flashed by the carriage door. The curtain was lifted slightly, then dropped again as quickly as lightning.
A Shadow Guard who had come to deliver a message stood frozen for several seconds with a rather peculiar expression, then leaped onto a tree branch faster than he had arrived and vanished after a few more jumps.
"Hey, what's up with that guy?"
Two carriages moved forward one after another. Aside from the two guards disguised as coachmen, Feng Xiao was the only one riding a horse, accompanying the procession.
Seeing the Shadow Guard flee as if he had seen a ghost, Feng Xiao wore an expression of utter disbelief.
"Sniffle, sniffle…"
Not long after, faint sobbing could be heard from inside the carriage.
"Master, how can I ever marry anyone after this?"
"You already belong to this prince. Who else do you think you can marry?"
"I won't be a concubine."
"…"
Feng Rao was so startled that his treacherous heart trembled violently.
In an instant, he understood the reason for the Shadow Guard's odd behavior earlier.
Was this something he was supposed to hear?
If the prince became furious out of shame, wouldn't he kill him to silence him?
A gust of wind swept by. Just as he was trembling with fear, wondering if he should also keep his distance, he saw Xiao Jinyan emerge from the carriage with a dark expression, sweep him off his horse with a single palm strike, and then gallop away on the horse himself.
Feng Rao suffered innocently, but fortunately, his skills were decent. He executed a backflip mid-air and landed steadily on the ground.
Could Miss Su really cause the prince to lose control of his emotions?
After all these years by the prince's side, this was the first time he had seen someone anger the prince yet remain completely unharmed and alive.
It seemed Miss Su held no small weight in the prince's heart!
Once they returned to the manor, he would have to serve her with even greater care.
Prince Rui's residence had been too quiet for too long. It was about time it had a gentle and virtuous mistress.
Inside the carriage.
Su Xiao's feelings were the complete opposite of Feng Rao's.
She genuinely sensed that Xiao Jinyan was angry.
A man as domineering and forceful as him could hardly tolerate repeated defiance.
It wasn't that she was being overly sensitive or deliberately trying to provoke him.
Rather, she truly did not want to repeat the tragedy of her past life.
Back then, she had been incredibly foolish, thinking that with her unparalleled beauty, she could capture a man's heart, enter the prince's manor, rely on his favor, and naturally approach her enemy to avenge her family.
Lin Wanru was the legitimate daughter of the prime minister, with countless loyal servants and followers at her command. How could Su Xiao alone contend with her?
The outcome was predictable—she was killed before she could even enter the prince's manor.
In this life, she would not be so foolish again.
Revenge could wait; she could take her time planning it.
For now, the most urgent matter was to find that old traveling physician. If she could persuade him to take her as his disciple and learn even a fraction of his skills, she would at least have some means of self-protection in the struggles to come.
"Guard Feng, before we enter the county town, please stop at the City God Temple. I wish to visit an old acquaintance."
With her mind made up, she no longer hesitated. Rising from the seat, she lifted the curtain and stepped out of the carriage.
Feng Rao was now sitting on the front carriage shaft, pondering how to persuade Miss Su once they entered the county town to ease the tension with their master.
Their master was probably seething with anger at this moment.
The Shadow Guards were of no help, each fleeing faster than the last.
In critical moments, it still fell to him.
He wouldn’t boast about anything else, but his skill in sweet-talking was second to none.
If he could just coax Miss Su into a good mood, get her to take the initiative and apologize to the master, the master might be so pleased that he’d reward him with the only remaining jar of thirty-year-old treasured Nu Er Hong in the prince’s mansion.
The thought of that taste was simply delightful!
“Guard Feng?”
Seeing Feng Rao smacking his lips and lost in thought, Su Xiao waited patiently before asking again.
“Yes, absolutely yes…”
Feng Rao snapped out of his daydream about the wine jar and turned around abruptly, meeting Su Xiao’s charming eyes.
His gaze lingered for a moment on her slightly swollen lips, and he was startled into a flurry of guilty thoughts before quickly averting his eyes.