“A friend helped me on the way here. Check over there.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
At this moment, the aura Ji Xiaoli exuded was no longer the same terrified young lady, but that of a leader. Commander Huan sent his men away while escorting Princess Ji Xiaoli back to her carriage. At the same time, the soldiers were making a circle around them to prevent anyone from seeing the princess.
Ji Xiaoli scanned the area and noticed that there were several people on the intersections to the city. Her eyes narrowed as she understood that if she stayed in that place any longer, her reputation would have gone to drain. It was lucky for her to meet with those two, whoever they were.
Not long afterwards, the soldiers returned with the report.
“There’s mark of battles, but we can’t see anyone there.”
“Not even a dead body?” Ji Xiaoli asked.
The soldiers shook their heads. “There’s only some trace of blood on the ground, but there’s no body.”
Ji Xiaoli pondered a bit. Her eyes darkened. The men escaped, probably with some kind of agreement with that young lady if she couldn’t defeat them. After all, both sides have their disadvantages.
“Princes….”
“On my birthday in three months, I want to invite all young ladies in the capital city including the lower ranking officials,” Ji Xiaoli declared.
Commander Huan’s eyes almost popped out when he heard what the princess said. He was speechless. Wait, was the one who helped Ji Xiaoli was a woman? And that woman didn’t even leave behind any trace whatsoever…
Who in the world would train their daughter with martial arts?
No matter how much he racked his brain, Commander Huan couldn’t think of anything. He glanced to the side and saw a bunch of young masters were sneaking away with several wine casks. He shook his head.
Some young masters only knew how to create trouble.
“We’ll return back.”
“Yes!”
Ji Xiaoli sighed as she watched the soldiers around the carriage. With her failing this time, she understood that there was no other chance for her to escape from the palace anymore. When it was the time for her 16th birthday, it was clear that they would proceed with the deal.
At that thought, Ji Xiaoli’s eyes narrowed. She genuinely needed to find another plan to run away.
…
- Wei Household -
Wei Liuying was the first one to return back to the residence. She knew that her father and his concubines were leaving for a stroll in the city, so she returned back to her quarter directly. After changing her clothes, she burned the dress that she wore just now.
“Miss, is it not a waste to burn it?” Xiao Yu asked in timid voice when she watched the dress burn.
“Which one is more important, money or life?”
Xiao Yu pursed her lips and didn’t reply. Her large eyes were watching the flames burned the dress completely. It was truly a waste in her opinion since Wei Liuying only have a few dress and there was only one with purple color. Now, it had to be burned.
On the contrary, Wei Liuying was perfectly calm. She didn’t want anyone to know about what had happened today. Besides, the bloodstain was harder to erase and it would be difficult to explain the position at her sleeve.
If it was at her back, it might be easier.
Though, she hadn’t started her period yet, but it didn’t really matter. It should be soon considering that she had already reached 14 years old.
“Miss, the others have returned.”
“I’ll be there.”
Wei Liuying came out to the main courtyard and saw Wei Zilin and Wei Hong Zheng. The two of them returned one by one after having enough fun from Lantern Festival. Wei Hong Zheng had the smell of wine. It seemed like he slipped out to drink a bit without any of them.
“Second Sister, Second Brother, do you enjoy the festival?”
Wei Zilin pursed her lips. “It’s not that fun. First Sister got all the fun by meeting His Highness the Fourth Prince.”
“First Sister is lucky,” Wei Liuying said politely. She could guess that they all must be doing everything they could to be able to meet with the Imperial Family. However, some people could easily blend with crowd while some others just simply stuck out even amongst the crowd.
Even though Wei Zilin was still dissatisfied, she didn’t say anything more. She chose to wait for the other’s return.
Not long afterwards, Wei Xiao Hua came back with a smile on her face. Even when they were all greeting each other, it didn’t wipe the happy smile on Wei Xiao Hua’s face. Wei Zilin even had the urge to scratch Wei Xiao Hua just to see whether the latter would still smile even when she was wounded.
“Father will only return back later, so we should rest first,” Wei Xiao Hua said calmly.
“First Brother hadn’t returned yet,” Wei Hong Zheng pointed out. “Don’t we need to wait for him?”
“Ah right.” Wei Xiao Hua glanced to the gate and saw Wei Yijun walked back with a solemn expression. Even though she saw that, her smile didn’t disappear in the slightest bit.
“Father will only return back later, so we should rest first,” Wei Xiao Hua said calmly.
“First Brother hadn’t returned yet,” Wei Hong Zheng pointed out. “Don’t we need to wait for him?”
“Ah right.” Wei Xiao Hua glanced to the gate and saw Wei Yijun walked back with a solemn expression. Even though she saw that, her smile didn’t disappear in the slightest bit.
They didn’t need to wait long as Wei Yijun appeared not far afterwards. However, his siblings were stunned when they saw his appearance. He didn’t look like he was enjoying the festival fully.
“First Brother, do you lose some money?” Wei Hong Zheng asked when he saw his brother’s expression. Wei Yijun’s expression looked as if everyone owed him at least a liang of silver.
“It’s not that,” Wei Yijun denied. He greeted the four of them one by one before he told a startling piece of news. “I just got back from meeting with some people. Apparently, Princess Ji Xiaoli loved to look at ghost.”
This time, Wei Xiao Hua’s expression stiffened. She looked at Wei Yijun with confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Some of them headed to the Eastern Forest. It’s known to be haunted, so no one dared to get close to that place when it’s night time. But when they came there not long ago, they found out that there’s Princess Ji Xiaoli’s carriage.”
“That’s all?”
“What do you mean that’s all?” Wei Yijun was displeased. “It’s already startling enough that a princess actually like this thing. I presume that in the days to come, there will be more and more people coming to Eastern Forest.”
Wei Xiao Hua looked stumped with a weird expression on her face. She could no longer digest what her brother told her because in her mind, she could only remember the news. She didn’t have any interest to the story that Wei Yijun shared about his experience in music.
‘Why is it ghost? I thought that it’s supposed to be Princess Ji Xiaoli’s tattered reputation.’
Thinking about the plot, Wei Xiao Hua felt that something was terribly wrong, but she could not pinpoint what it was. Ever since she had started to change the plot a bit, she noticed that the events around her changed. But how come the change in her attitude lead to a big plot’s derailment like this?
Wei Xiao Hua didn’t understand.
Seeing that his brother was still engrossed in describing how beautiful the dance was, she excused herself first. She thought that her plan would be going smoothly as she managed to start attracting Prince Ji Shu’s interest. However, the chance in Ji Xiaoli’s fate made her a bit restless.
If the plot changed too much, could she still use her advantage to the fullest?
As Wei Xiao Hua was feeling muddleheaded, she didn’t realize that Wei Liuying was watching her from the back. Wei Liuying felt that Wei Xiao Hua was acting strange. It was as if she had hoped something to happen, yet what happened was instead something completely different.
‘Did she also have high information gathering ability?’ Wei Liuying asked the question to herself, but she felt that it was supposed to be impossible. Though, it meant that she still needed to be more cautious as she didn’t know how much Wei Xiao Hua knew about today’s matter.
If Wei Xiao Hua had some relationship with the bandits, her identity would be compromised.
“It’s already late. I’ll excuse myself too, First Brother.”
Wei Yijun, who paused in his story, was pulled back to reality. He flashed an apologetic smile. “It seemed that I was too impatient. We can talk again in the next few days. You should rest too.”
They all exchanged some pleasantries with each other before Wei Liuying headed back to her room. She felt tired after engaging in those talks with Wei Yijun. Whenever it was about art, her first brother was simply too impassionate.
‘I’ll rest for now.’
Wei Liuying didn’t know how much Wei Xiao Hua knew or what her first sister’s capability was. However, she understood that her first sister was very dangerous. She could only hope that things would be fine.
