To leave Prince Qin’s residence and exit the city, one had to pass through the Eastern Market.
The morning marketplace was bustling with noise and life.
None of the people in their party wore armor.
The only sign of their status was the insignia on the carriage at the very back.
So many matters had piled up over the past half year. Seated inside the carriage, Xiao Xingcang worked through memorials submitted from all directions.
Though his military and administrative authority had been stripped away, it did not stop him from reviewing reports on waterworks, harvests, and regional affairs.
Riding behind Qi Heng and Hu Wei, Gu Qinglu’s face was filled with curiosity, her gaze sweeping across the shops and street stalls lining both sides of the road.
So this was the capital—under the Son of Heaven’s feet.
The buildings were grand and imposing, the streets wide, clean, and orderly.
After about half an hour, the towering city gate came into view.
Armored soldiers stood guard atop the high walls, patrolling vigilantly.
At the gate, streams of commoners and merchants moved in and out, while guards checked identification documents.
Gu Qinglu watched with interest.
She had never left Miao territory before. The farthest she had gone was once crossing briefly into Xiang Prefecture during an annual winter patrol.
In Miao lands, when she traveled, everything was arranged ahead of time. She never needed to deal with such things herself.
If she was going to wander the martial world in the future, she wanted to see whether identity checks here worked the same way.
“Princess Consort, please wait a moment,” Qi Heng said, reining in his horse and gesturing behind him.
Immediately, a guard rode forward with the credentials to negotiate passage.
“Hey, isn’t that the northern frontier’s brave warrior?” a mocking voice rang out from nearby.“Why aren’t you wearing black armor anymore? Has Prince Qin’s illness worn away that arrogance of yours? Come join my camp—I’ll clear out a spot in the kitchen for you lot. How about that?”
Qi Heng flared up at once.
Hu Wei grabbed him. “It’s just a few words. Haven’t we endured this for half a year already? Hold it in.”
Qi Heng yanked his arm free and spat to the side. “Sooner or later, I’ll deal with these bastards.”
Hearing their exchange, Gu Qinglu turned her head to look. Xiao Xingcang’s carriage still hadn’t caught up.
Too slow, she thought. If they didn’t leave the city soon, the sun would be overhead.
She urged her horse forward and lifted her whip, pointing toward the guards who had been deliberately left waiting.
“You’ve lived like this for half a year?” she asked. “Why?”
Logically, that made no sense. These men had followed Xiao Xingcang through life and death on the northern frontier.
Qi Heng and Hu Wei exchanged a glance, their voices helpless.“After His Highness fell ill, his military and political authority were both taken away.”
In Gu Qinglu’s mind, an image of five hundred gold ingots slowly dissolving flashed past.
She blurted out, “So Xiao Xingcang is just a hollow prince now?”
Qi Heng and Hu Wei nearly rolled their eyes in unison.
Being looked down on by outsiders was bad enough—now their own Princess Consort was doing it too.
What kind of life was this?
They didn’t answer. Gu Qinglu’s eyes shifted. She raised her hand to cover her mouth and whispered quietly,“Then… can he still produce five hundred gold ingots?”
Qi Heng and Hu Wei turned to stare at her in disbelief.
This was the moment she chose to worry about money?
Shouldn’t an ordinary woman feel heartache and sympathy upon hearing her husband had fallen so low?
Hu Wei glanced at her, mimicked her gesture by covering his mouth, and said in a low voice,“His Highness’s private wealth rivals the imperial treasury.”
It wasn’t an exaggeration.
Hu Wei said it partly out of fear she might abandon Xiao Xingcang and stop detoxifying him. In truth, Prince Qin’s private assets far exceeded the state coffers.
Hearing this, Gu Qinglu’s eyes brightened, lively and sly.
She tugged the reins and rode off.
“Then it’s easy. Just wait—I’ll vent that anger for you.”
In reality, she was venting her own frustration through them.
This identity inspection had wasted far too much of her time.
Before the two men could react, they saw her reach out and take the Prince Qin residence plaque from the guard’s hands.
The next instant, the patrol commander’s voice rang out mockingly,“So the Prince Qin residence is run by a woman now? Sending a maid to negotiate?”
Gu Qinglu smiled sweetly, her eyes curved, and casually blew a breath over the plaque before handing it back.
“May I ask your surname?”
The man wore a look of arrogance and disdain, his gaze lingering on her with obvious meaning.
Gu Qinglu noticed—and didn’t care.
A guard rode up and whispered, “Princess Consort, this is Zhou Tan, Chief Commander of the Patrol Camp.”
At the word “Princess Consort,” Zhou Tan’s expression changed. He swept her from head to toe in shock.
“Noted,” Gu Qinglu said lightly, nodding once—then turned her horse and rode back.
Qi Heng and Hu Wei watched her return, utterly confused.
Wasn’t she supposed to vent their anger?
She hadn’t flaunted her status, hadn’t pressured anyone—just showed the plaque and took it back.
How was that venting anything?
They exchanged a look, silently concluding that the Princess Consort clearly had her own interpretation of the phrase “venting anger.”
After waiting nearly a quarter hour, Xiao Xingcang’s carriage finally rolled over at an unhurried pace.
When it stopped, Gu Qinglu knocked on the window frame. The man inside opened it—just a crack.
She could only see his jaw.
In a low voice, she said, “You shouldn’t keep the surname Xiao anymore.”
Xiao Xingcang, hearing her dissatisfaction but not understanding it, asked calmly,“Then what surname should I take?”
Gu Qinglu’s lips curled into a smile.“Wang.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because turtles move slowly.”
She chuckled softly after speaking.
Now Xiao Xingcang understood why she had sounded annoyed earlier.
She thought he was too slow—delaying her entry into the mountains.
After being confined for so long, he had wanted to observe whether city affairs still ran as orderly as before.
That was why he had moved slowly.
He finished reviewing the final memorials inside the carriage, leaned out, and handed the stack to a guard, who immediately rode off.
Then Xiao Xingcang mounted his horse and rode straight toward the city gate.
Zhou Tan and his deputies stared at the man on horseback, momentarily dazed.
By the time they came to their senses, Xiao Xingcang had already halted.
His expression was calm, betraying no emotion.
“This subordinate greets Prince Qin. May Your Highness be well.”
Xiao Xingcang said nothing, only lowered his gaze to look at the kneeling men.
After a brief pause, he raised his hand and brought it down, spurring his horse forward first.
As Qi Heng and Hu Wei passed the still-kneeling figures, they let out soft, contemptuous laughs.
There was plenty of time ahead.
Just wait and see.
When the sound of hooves faded beneath the city tower, Zhou Tan braced himself on his blade and stood up.
Turning toward the city gates, he watched the neatly ordered procession thunder down the official road, kicking up clouds of dust.
……
They rode hard until the sun reached its zenith, when the pace finally slowed.
Gu Qinglu, riding in the middle of the formation, was handed a pack of rations by a guard.
She looked it over, then sniffed it lightly.
From the front of the formation, Xiao Xingcang turned just in time to see this.
Is she a dog? he thought darkly.
In truth, Gu Qinglu was practicing a skill she once possessed—restoring her sense of smell until she could identify gu by scent alone.
The reason she’d decided to retrain this ability was simple: the night before, when she had fainted, she’d thought it was the nanny holding her.
It hadn’t been.
As she sniffed the ration pack, she listed its contents silently in her mind:
Dried meat. Rice strips. Salt cakes. Vinegar cakes. Flatbread.
She glanced at the guards as they began eating.
Correct.
“Princess Consort, should we rest a bit? If you’re not used to it, we can light a fire and cook,” a guard suggested when he saw she hadn’t eaten.
Gu Qinglu wasn’t hungry. She stowed the rations into her pouch and waved him off.
“No need. We need to keep moving.”
When she was young in Miao territory, that damned old woman had once thrown her into the mountains.
Sometimes it took half a month before she saw daylight again.
When food ran out, she had eaten snake gall and snake meat.
This little ration pack was nothing.
Hearing her bold claim from the front, Xiao Xingcang’s lips curved faintly.
She’d regret it soon enough.