The sitting room in Yan Yiwen’s courtyard was spacious and airy. A line of large windows ran along one side of the room while a round moon gate was cut into the wall opposite to it, opening into the garden beyond. The garden outside was filled with a wide variety of plants in all shapes and sizes that were given free rein. The gentle melody of a trickling stream and the sweet trill of birdsong sounded from somewhere deeper.

With a flawlessly polite smile, Yan Yiwen bit into a pastry and chewed daintily. A cup of steaming tea rested in front of her. Across from her at the table sat an official from the opposing faction who had introduced himself as Ming Zhengye.

Ming Zhengye was a sparsely built man with a slightly stooped back and eyes that flitted around unconsciously with the watchfulness of a thief evaluating his next mark. Despite being only forty, he could easily pass for someone two decades older due to the wrinkles gathered at the corners of his eyes and bracketing his mouth, along with the generous amount of gray peppering his hair.

As Ming Zhengye sipped his tea nervously, he studied the woman opposite to him with crafty eyes.

He carefully set the cup down and finally broke the silence, “Third Young Mistress Yan, I apologize for intruding when you must be busy managing the household.”

Yan Yiwen’s smile was unchanging as she corrected mildly, “I’m married into the household of someone surnamed Lin, so please address me as Madam Lin.”

“Ah, pardon me, Madam Lin,” Ming Zhengye immediately corrected himself with a self-deprecating chuckle. He peered at Yan Yiwen, trying to gauge whether she was content or dissatisfied at having to call herself Madam Lin, but he found nothing from her expression or posture.

Ming Zhengye rubbed the side of his cup absentmindedly and spoke, “You must be wondering what I’m doing here when I stand with the faction that opposes your brother’s. In truth, I’m actually here to discuss something important with you that might give you a chance at a better future.”

Yan Yiwen’s eyebrows rose. She could guess what he was about to say, but still nudged, “Do go on.”

Encouraged, Ming Zhengye leaned forward and continued, “Now that you’ve held the entirety of the Yan household in your hands for these past few days, you must know how considerable its power is. And you must know how much your brother has deprived you of by hoarding all this to himself.”

Yan Yiwen sighed. “Please be more specific, Official Ming. What do you want to propose to me?”

With a knowing look, Ming Zhengye smiled and suggested, “Would you like my faction’s help in fully taking over the Yan household and burying your younger brother where he is?”

Yan Yiwen’s gaze deepened.

Ming Zhengye gave her a smile, confident that his was an offer she couldn’t refuse.

The opposition’s rationale in approaching Yan Yiwen at this time was simple. When she ran away from home all those years ago, Yan Yixuan didn’t try to find her even after he obtained the resources of the Yan household. Even when Yan Yiwen returned with her family, Yan Yixuan made them stay at a separate house near the capital’s edge rather than letting them stay at the main residence. It was as if he was banishing them. All of this only strengthened their belief that Yan Yixuan didn’t care for his sister much.

Conversely, soon after Yan Yixuan got into trouble, his whereabouts unknown, Yan Yiwen took over the household and began running it as if it was hers. Obviously, she must want to snatch it all from under her brother during his absence and replace his position as the head of household.

The opposing faction wanted to use this to convince her into joining them in return for their help in toppling Yan Yixuan. For them, eliminating Yan Yixuan and having someone with less cunning and experience serve as the matriarch would be very good. It would be even better if they could obtain the Yan household’s considerable resources through her.

Even if Yan Yiwen disagreed with joining them after gaining their help or chose to oppose them after that, they could use the proof of her seeking to murder her brother and getting the Yan household by illegal means to blackmail or pressure her, thus keeping her under control. No matter which way one looked, there were only benefits for them. Thus, Ming Zhengye was dispatched to convince Yan Yiwen.

With all this in mind, Ming Zhengye put on a kindly expression and said, “Madam Lin, consider this carefully. All you need to do is agree to join us and we will get rid of that obstacle called Yan Yixuan for you. You can then have this entire household to yourself as you deserve. Think about it; you are the elder sister and should have been the rightful heir, yet your brother stole that position from you. And unlike him, you have a child to inherit the household and carry on the family line, while he is playing around with a rough male soldier without concern for continuing the bloodline. You will certainly make a more suitable family head than him. All you have to do is let us help you.”

Yan Yiwen hummed thoughtfully as she delicately nibbled on her pastry, but she didn’t react to the passionate speech in any other way.

Ming Zhengye’s face jerked with impatience, but he quickly restrained himself and prodded, “What is your opinion, Madam Lin?”

“It’s certainly something to think about,” she answered without a change in expression.

However, inwardly, it was all she could do to maintain a calm façade while hearing someone speaking like that about her younger brother. All the suppressed anger slowly crystallized into cold rage within her.

Yan Yiwen serenely dusted the pastry crumbs off her fingers and reached for another while casually ignoring Ming Zhengye’s expectant look. She couldn’t help but notice how much this official resembled her tyrannical brothers-in-law who used to terrorize her family. Beneath Ming Zhengye’s veneer of civility, there lay the same predatory look, selfish greed, and the intent to squeeze every bit of usefulness out of her.

By the time Yan Yiwen leisurely finished her snacks and tea, Ming Zhengye was almost bouncing with mounting annoyance.

Putting down the empty cup, Yan Yiwen smiled at him placidly and stood up. “Official Ming, I don’t suppose you’ve been to the Yan residence before? Come, let me take you on a short tour.”

His restlessness disappearing, Ming Zhengye got up and smiled at her graciously. “I would be delighted.”

At first, he had begun doubting whether his faction had miscalculated. If Yan Yiwen wanted to agree to their terms, she should have seemed enthusiastic; if she was wavering, she should have appeared torn; and if she actually felt loyal towards her brother and wanted to refuse, she should have looked angry or insulted. So her complete lack of reaction and apparent apathy puzzled him. But now that he was being invited to look around, he perceived her increased friendliness as a sign that she was viewing his suggestion more favorably, and naturally felt happy.

While Ming Zhengye was lost in his own thoughts, Yan Yiwen whispered a message to a servant and sent them away with an unreadable smile.

Soon, Yan Yiwen led Ming Zhengye around a few rooms in the house, then took him to stroll outside through the garden and the peach trees lining one side of the boundary wall. Ming Zhengye made the due exclamations of admiration and appreciation that he thought was expected.

However, he noticed that he was gradually being led towards a more remote part of the estate’s grounds. He eventually realized they were approaching an inconspicuous little building that sat quite a distance away from the main residence.

Ming Zhengye gulped. Could this be that infamous secret dungeon of the Yan household that Yan Yixuan was said to have established after becoming the head?

Before he could feel any stirrings of alarm, Yan Yiwen smiled innocuously and led him inside. “Since I was bringing you on a tour, I thought I might as well share this place with you.”

Ming Zhengye didn’t notice any abnormality in her behavior and followed with equal parts caution and curiosity.

Within, there were enclosures made of warped glass with various varieties of snakes and scorpions, some in the midst of feeding on dead animals like mice and rabbits while others were asleep or watching the new arrival with focused interest. Sibilant hissing, disconcerting slithering, and eerie scuttling sounded, seeming amplified in the mostly closed space.

To his horror, Ming Zhengye discovered that the glass enclosures weren’t in fact closed at the top. Some of the snakes had stuck their heads through the gap between the top edge of the glass walls and the ceiling to peek out. They flicked their forked tongues in his direction and slowly slid down, easily leaving their enclosures.

Feeling too alarmed to remove his gaze from these critters, Ming Zhengye gulped and spoke without looking away, “M-Madam Lin, I’ve seen enough. Shall we leave now?”

Not hearing anything, he turned around, only to find that there was no one else here with him. Panicking, he fled towards the door and desperately tried to open it, but found that it had been locked from the outside.

A shrill and miserable shriek echoed out of the building along with frantic banging. But the hysterical calls for help went unanswered.

About an hour later, Lin Changyuan returned from the forge after a day of work. Now that Yan Yiwen had to take care of the Yan household, Lin Changyuan also came all the way here at the end of each day to accompany his wife.

Yan Yiwen poured two cups of tea and the couple sipped from them in tranquil silence.

As usual, Lin Changyuan asked, “Did anything of note happen today?”

Yan Yiwen drank another mouthful of tea gracefully and smiled. “Yes. A guest managed to get himself locked in with Yixuan’s pets.”

Lin Changyuan almost shuddered. He put down his cup and asked concernedly, “Was the guest alright when he was rescued?”

Shrugging, Yan Yiwen took another gulp. “He hasn’t been let out yet.”

Lin Changyuan was flabbergasted. “Shouldn’t we help him get out then?”

Yan Yixuan acted like she was considering it seriously, then said, “Since that guest wanted to harm my little brother…no, we shouldn’t.”

Turning queasy, Lin Changyuan asked, “But wouldn’t those pets kill him if we left him in there for too long?”

Casually refilling her cup, Yan Yiwen replied, “Not really. Yixuan buys pets from a household that breeds them docile, and our household’s pet keeper also extracts their poison regularly. There’s very little chance of that idiot official getting more than a few harmless stings or bites…as long as he doesn’t provoke them terribly, that is.”

Lin Changyuan, “……” That doesn’t reassure me at all!

Seeing her husband’s expression, Yan Yiwen chuckled. She reached out to affectionately pinch his cheek and reassured, “I’ll have someone release him in a while when I’m sure the lesson has sunken in.”

Lin Changyuan shook his head with a helpless smile but didn’t press the issue any further. He trusted that his wife would know how far she could take things.

As silence was restored, the husband and wife continued calmly sipping tea.

↢∘●∘↣

Yan Yixuan and the bandits managed to avoid the first prince’s people for a couple of days, but the search party soon caught on and began actively following them. After all, there was only so much they could do to hide the tracks of such a large group of people, not to mention that their speed of travel was much slower to accommodate the young man.

Once the first prince’s people realized they’d found a group who in all likelihood held Yan Yixuan, they chased them with single-minded fervor and soon began gaining on them. This left the group with only two options. They could either continue to run and risk being caught or try to hide somewhere and let their pursuers pass. Yan Yixuan and the bandits naturally chose the second option.

The current terrain Yan Yixuan and the bandits were passing through was one filled with knotty tree roots growing both above and within the ground. It impeded the group’s movement and caused them to slow down enough that they were at risk of being overtaken by the prince’s people at any moment. In the end, they stopped and decided to begin searching for a place to hide.

“The ground here is full of holes, so we should be able to cram ourselves into a few,” one of them observed.

Another bandit scoffed. “Why do you think there are so many pits here in the first place? The land here is unstable! If you get into one of the pits and do something it doesn’t like, you could get buried alive!”

Some of the men who heard this shuddered inwardly.

Li Yang looked at Yan Yixuan. “What do you think?”

The young man observed their surroundings. “Either way, we have to find a place quickly. We’re running out of time.”

A bandit suggested, “How about we all climb up these trees?” He patted one of the trunks and noted, “They seem pretty sturdy and stable, so the branches should be able to bear at least a few of our weights. It also has thick enough foliage that we won’t be easily visible from the ground.”

Yan Yixuan shook his head. “Putting aside how risky it is, I’m afraid that the one chasing me is sure to check the trees in particular.”

The bandit frowned, unconvinced. “People don’t usually think of looking at trees. Why would this person do that?”

The young man sighed. “Please understand that my concerns aren’t without basis. The person after me is Sui’s first prince, Tai Long, and he was after me even when I was staying at the palace recently.

“One of the times he chased after me—and I meant that literally—I climbed a tree to get away from the annoyance. He ran in circles before figuring it out, and in the meanwhile, I ate some fruits from the tree, relaxed a bit, and ended up sleeping on the tree branch. It was quite smooth and sturdy, and I was a bit tired because of a few stunts that darned prince pulled the night before while trying to get into my room. But I digress.

“When the first prince found me on the tree, he proceeded to make a nuisance of himself again. I was certainly not in a pleasant mood when I woke up to his irritating existence, so I decided to forego propriety and directly lobbed hard and unripened fruit at his head until he ran away while shielding his head. I do have good aim, so he definitely took some damage. After all that, I don’t think the prince will be stupid enough to dismiss the possibility of me hiding in the branches.”

The bandits just stared at him.

The second-in-command, Wang Yin, cleared his throat and finally said, “Are you saying you are acquainted with the first prince of the kingdom of Sui? And that he’s…pursuing you?”

“I think harassing would be the right word,” someone corrected.

Wang Yin nodded, conceding the point.

Yan Yixuan shrugged. “Unfortunately, yes, I know him. And yes, he does seem interested in me in his own twisted way. Why else do you think his people have been chasing us so persistently like predators stalking prey?”

Li Yang’s expression turned grave. But he knew they didn’t have time for that now. “Let’s find a place to hide first before discussing this.”

The group thus dispersed, continuing their attempt at locating a place to conceal themselves.

In the end, Yan Yixuan and Wang Yin were the ones who found a way.

Wang Yin called everyone over and pointed to a hole hidden between the densely packed roots of one of the trees. “I hopped in and checked. The space under this tree seems big enough to fit us all if we squeeze in and make some allowances.” The hole in question was one and half times as wide as an adult male and filled with dense shadows.

The person who’d cautioned against hiding in the pits before said, “But what’s the guarantee that the pit won’t collapse on us when we’re inside?”

Yan Yixuan answered, “The tree roots are holding the ground together well here. It’s much more stable than the other pits that have nothing but crumbling soil supporting them.”

The man nodded. “It should probably work.”

Wang Yin shrugged. “Since we don’t have time, we can only directly try it.”

Another bandit scratched his head and asked, “Why do we have to hide though? Isn’t that prince only after the brat? Can’t we just hide him and, I don’t know, just stay outside?”

Everyone turned to look at him incredulously.

Li Yang coughed. “Did you forget what we do for a living now?”

The man still looked puzzled.

Someone enlightened him, “We’re bandits. It’s an illegal profession. If the prince’s people find us, even if we can make them believe we don’t know where the brat is, they’ll still be duty-bound to apprehend us.”

The bandit showed an expression of realization. “Ah… I forgot that.”

The others could only shake their heads in disbelief.

Wang Yin crossed his arms and said, “Now, we have to think of how to cover that hole. It won’t make a lick of difference whether we fit in there or if it’s stable if all they need to do is look down to find us.”

Yan Yixuan spoke, “I have a way that’s simple enough. I just need someone to get some sand that looks the same as the one near the hole.”

The bandits looked at each other and a few bent down to begin collecting dirt from near the pit. Once Yan Yixuan was satisfied with what they gathered, the whole group of around twenty men jumped into the hole, one by one.

Vaguely rounded in shape, the pit was dry, dark, and musty on the inside, with loose earth shifting under them easily. Thick tree roots hung down through the soil above and held on tightly to the earth making up the walls. In a corner, there were some dead insects and a half-decayed bird that stank up the pit, and they were all promptly buried so they wouldn’t take up space.

After they entered, the last outside was instructed by Li Yang to wipe any footprints or telltale marks outside to avoid tipping off their location. Once that was done and everyone was inside, the space turned cramped and difficult to move in. Some of the lighter bandits even had to sit on a stronger companion’s shoulders to fit inside. But other than muttered grumbling and restless shifting, the bandits didn’t project any displeasure. They knew there was no helping this.

To hide the hole through which they entered, Yan Yixuan instructed one of the men, who had climbed atop another bandit and was located just under the hole, on what to do. Following Yan Yixuan’s suggestions, the man under the opening filled a piece of cloth with the dirt they collected earlier and held it up flat to the opening. After shaking the cloth so that the dirt in it would be evenly distributed and blend in with the surrounding land, the edges of the cloth were fixed around the hole’s mouth with daggers. For additional reinforcement, the man doing all this even dragged over a nearby loop of tree root to cradle the cloth full of sand from underneath. With that, the hole should blend in with the surroundings from the outside.

Now all that was left was to wait.

About forty anxious minutes later, the soft ground vibrated almost imperceptibly with footsteps. The sound of a large group of people treading above grew closer and clearer. A few voices could be heard speaking one after another, with only a few distinct words audible:

“…had to leave the horses…”

“…uneven ground…trip up……maybe in the holes?”

“…soil…too loose……went on ahead…”

“…unconfirmed……way…for the prince…”

A few minutes later, the footsteps paused, and the muffled thud of something heavy being put down could be heard.

Yan Yixuan frowned. Was it boxes of supplies or…maybe some sort of a sedan? But that didn’t make sense.

And then he heard a familiar voice shouting loudly enough that it was easy to make out its contents even through the ground.

“How can you not have found him yet? Search faster! Don’t miss a single hole or tree!”

Yan Yixuan’s expression twisted to one of distaste as if he’d just had a hearty gulp of the herbal concoction. Why the heck had that damn prince followed him even into the forest?!

The first prince and his people milled around for a few hours, searching every hole and every tree thoroughly. Thankfully, the pit the group was in was big enough vertically that they didn’t lack air while waiting it out. Once the prince’s people confirmed they couldn’t find the group, they went back the way they came, probably to retrace their path and see if they could spot another route the group could have snuck over along the way.

After waiting for twenty more minutes to make sure they were really gone and would be far enough to not notice them, Yan Yixuan and the bandits pushed aside the cloth and helped each other climb back up. They wiped away their sweat and let out big breaths in relief.

Yan Yixuan looked around contemplatively and asked Li Yang, “Leader Li, how many people do you estimate was with the prince?”

Li Yang looked at him with wide eyes. That man who was shouting orders before was the actual first prince?!

“Leader Li?” Yan Yixuan prodded.

Li Yang came to himself and looked around. “From what I could hear before, there were definitely more than a hundred. I’ll need to look around at the footprints to give you a more accurate number.”

Yan Yixuan nodded. “Then I’ll have to bother you with it.”

Li Yang walked around the area and returned before telling his guess, “There are at least two hundred men.”

Yan Yixuan’s eyebrows flew up. “That’s…a lot more than I was expecting.” It seemed the prince really didn’t want to let him get away.

“Well,” Wang Yin interjected. “What are we going to do now? We had to go off-course to throw off those bastards and now we’ve left our original route far behind. We can’t even go back or we’ll bump into them and have to fight dozens to one.”

Li Yang pressed his lips together and said, “I think I remember there being another route to the empire’s border nearby, though it might be longer than the previous one. I’ll go check.”

Gathering the people with whom he usually plotted the routes, Li Yang confirmed that there was indeed another path to the empire. They would have to cross a bridge across a chasm partway, but it was a straightforward enough route.

Now that it was decided, the group cautiously made their way along the new path, trying to leave as few tracks behind as possible.

On the morning of the next day, they could already see the bridge in the distance from an elevated vantage point. By the time noon rolled around, they had almost reached it.

About a hundred meters around the bridge’s end, the land was flat and clear of trees or thick vegetation, giving them a direct view of their route. The group approached the bridge from the side, focused on traversing this plain stretch of land as soon as possible to avoid being seen by their pursuers.

But just as they were about thirty meters to the bridge, the sound of hoofbeats suddenly rushed towards them from the opposite side, heralding the arrival of the first prince’s people.

The group froze as one.

Shock and realization struck them at once. They had been tricked! While they were running away from one group, there must have been other groups arranged to hide beside all possible routes to the empire in an attempt to catch them off-guard!

“What do we do?” a bandit asked.

“What can we do?” another returned irritably. “They have horses, so we can’t even outrun them.”

“But if we escape deep into the forest, they can’t use the horses,” someone said hopefully.

“I’m sure they can catch up to us before we get anywhere near the forest,” yet another man refuted.

Li Yang, Wang Yin, and Yan Yixuan looked grim as they watched the oncoming tide of horses and riders gradually slow and come to a stop. With a casual glance around, Yan Yixuan confirmed that the first prince wasn’t among them. This truly seemed to be another team.

The captain riding at the front sat straight on his horse and studied the crowd of brawny men in front of him, easily spotting Yan Yixuan from among them.

“Duke Yan,” he called sonorously. “We have been searching for you. It eases my mind to see that you are unharmed. Now, please come with me and I’ll take you back.”

The bandits’ eyes widened. Wait, this brat was really a duke?!

Yan Yixuan smiled at the man. “Take me back where? To the empire or your first prince?”

The captain grew impatient and dropped his mask of politeness. “Pardon my insolence, but I don’t think you have the right to question where I take you when you’re here practically unprotected.”

Yan Yixuan narrowed his eyes. “No, I don’t think I will pardon your insolence. And you seem quite sure that I don’t have anyone else looking for me in this forest.”

The captain allowed himself a small, smug smile. “The first prince has graciously chosen to ease your nation off the burden of looking for you and has volunteered to undertake all the searching on his own. I’m afraid, Duke Yan, that you have no help coming.”

 Yan Yixuan stilled, his eyes deepening. This was not good. What could he do in this scenario?

The captain continued in an almost mocking tone, “Since it might be a difficult decision for you to make, why don’t you discuss the consequences of not agreeing with your friends. I’m sure they’re unaware.”

Li Yang scowled at the captain. He spoke to him sarcastically, “Since you’re giving him time to discuss it with us, we’ll take it.”

The captain raised an eyebrow at him. “Very well, then. But be warned that if you even look like you’re trying to use this opportunity to escape, my people will chase you down and not care if you fall under a horse to become meat paste.”

Li Yang grunted dismissively, then turned to Yan Yixuan and gestured at him to come closer so they could talk.

The young man looked at him hesitantly, then firmed his expression and went to him.

The other bandits gathered into a rough circle to see what their leader had to say.

Li Yang peered at Yan Yixuan. “Brat, I’ve noticed that we’ve spoken about the danger of me and my men falling into the hands of those prince’s men, which is obvious enough. But you’ve never told us what’ll happen to you.”

Yan Yixuan paused, surprised. He then wiped all expression from his face and answered tonelessly, “The prince will probably give me to his father to curry his favor and have a better chance at being chosen as the heir. I will most likely be locked away, then be forced to cater to the whims of an old man and become his plaything until my people come to rescue me.”

The bandits frowned as one, some looking worried and the others irate.

Li Yang grew thoughtful. “Do you have any way of escaping that predicament after being captured?”

The young man looked away. “No.” If he was restrained, gagged, and kept under strict guard all the way, he wouldn’t exactly have the chance to do much.

Li Yang sighed.

Yan Yixuan couldn’t figure out what he was thinking, so he could only guess that he didn’t like the current odds. “Leader Li, you should take your men and leave.”

All the bandits looked at him with startlement.

He continued to reason with composure, “The prince and his people only want me. As long as you leave to show that you won’t get in the way, they won’t come after you. Though I said I would pay you to escort me to the empire, I won’t be able to compensate you enough if you lose your lives.”

Wang Yin squinted at him. “Brat, I didn’t think you would be this charitable. I always guessed you would be the ruthless sort.”

Yan Yixuan smiled but didn’t explain himself. The moment he asked them if they wanted to be employed under him and guard his residence, he’d already started treating them as partial members of his household. After all the kindness they’d shown him…he couldn’t bear to see them hurt or worse. Even if he were to be captured and dragged back to the palace now, it wasn’t the end of the line for him.

Li Yang studied him quietly with dark eyes. He sighed, scratched his chin, and turned to his men. “I’ve chosen to stand by this brat. I will understand if you don’t want to throw yourself into danger and almost certain death. But I just can’t see him putting himself into the tiger’s den to protect us while I turn away to save my own life. I’d like to think I have a bit more dignity left than that.”

The others looked at him with complex gazes. There was reluctance, uneasiness, and even fear in their eyes, but also stubbornness, courage, and hotblooded anger. As the bandits wavered between various emotions, a tense silence stretched, growing heavier by the moment.

Then one of them said, “Well, we did take the job to be his guard. I still have some professionalism left in me. I won’t let a client get hurt on my watch.”

Another quickly followed with, “That’s right, just because we lost our reputation doesn’t mean we lost our backbone!”

“Letting a kid face all that is just not right,” someone said while shaking his head disapprovingly.

“The brat caught us a lot of meat and cooked so much delicious food. I’m already set on following him back,” yet another added half-jokingly.

“Since he’s rich, I reckon that’ll be profitable,” Wang Yin observed with a smirk. “And since he’s apparently a duke, I say we accord him the due respect from now on and stop calling him 'brat'.”

Shouts of approval rang out from the others and Yan Yixuan smiled helplessly. He supposed it was about time he gave them his name and let them call him by it.

And then, as the cheers died, Wang Yin continued, “In return, let’s call him ‘Lord Brat’!”

Even louder shouts and hoots of laughter rang out in response.

Yan Yixuan, “……” He really regretted not introducing himself properly that first time!

When all the yelling piped down, Li Yang turned to the young man and said with a smile, “Well, there’s your answer. We’re all honorable men who won’t abandon someone when they’re in danger just to save our own skins, especially when that person is someone we’ve come to like. We’re not going anywhere, brat.”

Yan Yixuan pressed his lips together and swallowed. “Thank you,” he said softly. Then smiling, he joked, “And apparently it’s Lord Brat now, Leader Li.”

Li Yang laughed.

“It seems you’re having quite the celebration over there,” the captain’s voice sounded, cutting through the cheerful atmosphere.

The bandits quietened and faced him again with gazes that ranged from fury and apprehension to blatant disgust.

The captain questioned, his sharp gaze fixed on Yan Yixuan, “Duke Yan, have you decided what to do yet? You wouldn’t want to refuse our offer of hospitality and risk getting your happy friends hurt, would you?”

Yan Yixuan’s turned to him, unperturbed. “It seems the choice has already been taken out of my hands in that regard. The gentlemen wish to stay.”

The captain frowned. “They seek their own deaths then. How foolish.” Without delay, he turned to his people and gestured at them to charge forward again.

The prince’s people urged their horses into a gallop and the thundering of hoofbeats sounded again.

Yan Yixuan remained calm while the bandits formed a line in front of him. Their gazes were fixed on the approaching line of riders apprehensively. They knew there was a good chance they would die here.

Just as the prince’s people were about to cross over the halfway point to the group, the sound of more hoofbeats and vegetation being crushed came from the side. Within moments, more troops burst out of the forest, wearing the empire’s distinct armor.

Shock and confusion slapped the prince’s people in the face.

On the empire’s side, two men on horses led the charge. One was a slender man Yan Yixuan had never seen before while the other was Jian Lan, Ning Wei’s former deputy.

“Get in between them!” Jian Lan bellowed, his usually mild expression hardened with resolve and stamped with authority. “Don’t let that fuckwit prince’s cronies get to our general’s man!”

The soldiers behind him roared as one in assent, their voices blending into that of a giant beast while their eyes glinted with inextinguishable fervor.

As the troops led by Jian Lan poured in between the bandits and the first prince’s people to guard them, Yan Yixuan looked on, stunned.

If Jian Lan was here…could it be that Ning Wei was nearby as well?!