Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Ya Lanzhu did not make a sound. She knew Meng Fuyao’s personality, and she also knew that Hua Zi would travel thousands of miles to help her, and would never let his own family be killed. However, such brutal slaughtering and viciousness were after all, because she, Ya Lanzhu, had been bullied.
You bully my people, I kill your entire family.
Besides, they were going to clash sooner or later, so there was no need to leave any legroom; Meng Fuyao had always disliked leaving things half undone.
Meng Fuyao glanced at Hua Yan and ordered her subordinates to arrange for him to rest first before speaking. Then, she told Ya Lanzhu to rest as well before lazily heading back to catch up on her sleep debt. This time, she knew the way and did not get lost. After entering the courtyard, she glanced at the sky and sighed hopelessly. “I realized that my talent for meeting royalty is getting scarier and scarier, I haven’t even left Dahan and entered Xuanji, but I’ve already bumped into them.”
“That is your inborn talent of attracting trouble.” A person appeared beside her, chuckling. Meng Fuyao glanced sideways and noticed the person’s delicate collarbones peeking from under his open shirt. Immediately, she pinched her nose and, pressing the person against the wall, she reached out to button his shirt.
“Brother, don’t instigate others to commit crimes.”
“Please commit a crime…” Zhangsun Wuji laughed lightly, half his features illuminated under the moonlight, the other half covered by shadows. His charm was like an exquisite dream. “I promise I won’t wreck the bed,” he said in a low tone.
Meng Fuyao hurriedly buttoned his collar before putting down the hand that was covering her nose. “That was close,” she said.
That was close, if she were to get a nosebleed right in front of him, she would never have to see him ever again in this lifetime.
“I’m about to go and sleep, why bother with my buttons?” Zhangsun Wuji touched his collar, his eyes glinting as he added, “Actually, I just realized that I look cooler with my collar open…”
“Then you can slowly go and look cool, I’m going to sleep.” Meng Fuyao pushed him away and stormed into the room, slamming the door heavily after her as she mumbled.
She wanted to sleep, yet she didn’t dare to undress; there was a big, bad wolf outside and before it left, the pure and innocent white rabbit must be on alert.
Sure enough, the big, bad wolf did not leave, leaning against her window as the moonlight cast his relaxed shadow against the thin paper. Meng Fuyao gazed at the person’s exquisite silhouette and thought, ‘What a beautiful figure, just like a jade sculpture, is this the pinnacle of the human realm?’
The figure outside the window did not move, as if he were staring distractedly at the moon. After a long time, he softly murmured through the window, his voice tinged with hesitation and helplessness, “Fuyao, is there any way… to make you stay?”
Meng Fuyao’s heart skipped a beat. This was the first time Zhangsun Wuji asked her so directly, almost as if he were begging her, to stay. Before that, both of them had been avoiding the topic carefully, deathly afraid of receiving rejection from the other party. Yet that night, why did this sly person who had always held double meanings in his words, suddenly become so direct, using the simplest unspeakable question to directly target her heart?
She remained silent for several moments before finally hardening her heart and said resolutely, “There isn’t.”
Two simple words were as heavy as a ton of rocks, and the figure swayed slightly, causing tears to start falling from Meng Fuyao’s eyes.
She shut her eyes tightly and sat up silently in the darkness.
Zhangsun Wuji’s voice drifted softly through the window again, “… What if, I gave you a family?”
Meng Fuyao started for a moment; she knew why he was asking for her hand in marriage, but… didn’t he know that he would definitely get rejected by asking like this?
“Fuyao, you’ve never once mentioned that you wanted to find your previous life,” Zhangsun Wuji said again, sighing sadly.
Meng Fuyao continued to remain silent, immediately understanding what he meant by the family that he was talking about. Her hands gripped the cold blanket above her tightly, the coolness of the silk as cold as her feelings. Finally, she said, “I… do not wish to disrupt other people’s lives… Forget it…”
Since she was determined to leave, then may her parents of this life forget the last fourteen years with her and get used to not having her at all.
Given her current status and skill level, she didn’t need Zhangsun Wuji to easily retrieve even memories from before she was five, but what was the point?
The memories before she was five were like broken shards, but even though they were scattered, she could still faintly make out that it had been a dark, sorrowful, lonely, and nightmarish childhood.
No matter how troubled her parents were, for them to give her such a childhood meant that they were unable to provide for her. If she insisted on going back, she might perhaps be adding on to their problems.
She too was human and wanted to live a bright and happy life, afraid that she would uncover the nightmares of her past if she tried to chase after it.
Outside the window, Zhangsun Wuji had fallen silent. He leaned quietly against the window, not speaking and not leaving, one person outside and one inside, separated by a thin piece of paper, listening to each other’s sorrowful breathing.
The night was short, and the sky already began to lighten, yet the road ahead seemed to become increasingly unclear and winding.
After several days, Meng Fuyao finally headed for Xuanji. Zhan Beiye sent her all the way to the border between Dahan and Xuanji before leaving reluctantly. He couldn’t possibly follow her into Xuanji; although Xuanji had invited him previously, he was still in the midst of building up his empire and shouldn’t have the time to visit other nations. He had to use the excuse of investigating the borders to follow Meng Fuyao this time as well, and he didn’t have any further reason to follow her into Xuanji.
Meng Fuyao would act as his representative in Xuanji instead. “Relax, I definitely won’t be stingy on showing your gloriousness!”
“I’m not scared of you blocking my glory.” Zhan Beiye laughed heartily as he looked at her. “I’m afraid of you revealing too much glory and causing trouble in Xuanji.”
“No such thing.” Meng Fuyao shook her head. “If they don’t offend me, I won’t offend them. Even if they offend me, I’ll try my best not to retaliate.”
“What if someone tried to offend you repeatedly?” Ya Lanzhu asked curiously.
“Then I have no choice but to retaliate viciously!” Meng Fuyao replied, grinning evilly.
Ya Lanzhu cupped her fists in front of her respectfully as Meng Fuyao moved closer and whispered, “Zhuzhu, perhaps you are close to succeeding soon, don’t give up, based on the speed that Emperor Zhan rushed over that night, it’s clear that he still cares about you.”
Ya Lanzhu’s eyes lit up, and she said, “Is that so? Then I guess I’ll stay at Dahan for a little longer, I originally wanted to follow you.”
“Fishing for a husband is more important, go on!” Meng Fuyao pushed her away and laughed as she left with Tie Cheng, Ji Yu and the rest of the guards. This time, she was leaving the country with style, with 3,000 infantry guards behind her, and all of them were elite soldiers handpicked by Zhan Beiye. He was afraid that her own troops had not received sufficient training; hence, he had chosen the bravest and most ferocious soldiers to follow her. A single glance at the army was enough to sense the tenacity and killing intent of the battle-hardened soldiers.
Meng Fuyao turned around slightly and glanced at Hua Yan, remembering the words that he had said to her in the previous night. Focusing back on the present, she raised her head to see Zhangsun Wuji smiling at her on his horse, waiting for her.
She cracked the reins and galloped swiftly ahead, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
‘Xuanji!’
‘I’m coming for you!’
The morning rays cast a faint glow over the road towards the palace.
It was nearing the second month and the wintry days were slowly transitioning into spring as the ice melted and the warm springtime wind blew in. Emerald green leaves were starting to appear on barren branches, and the azure sky was starting to fill with countless flying birds beneath fluffy white clouds.
Perhaps because it was still too early, the path was empty except for two figures, precisely Meng Fuyao, and Zhangsun Wuji.
Behind them, Tie Cheng and the 3,000 infantry guards followed far behind. Even the elite soldiers who were used to traveling at high speeds by horse could only alight and trail after her, watching her back closely as she galloped ahead.
Other than his hidden guard, Zhangsun Wuji never brought any other soldier along. He was the only royalty in the Five Continents that did not have a personal, trusted guard. Meng Fuyao guessed that it was probably because, given his ability, he already did not need any additional protection. Moreover, this guy had so many secrets, it was probably difficult to trust anyone, right?
Oh, wait, no, he did actually have a personal guard, except that this personal guard had already become her object of entertainment and source of income.
Thinking up to this point, Meng Fuyao suddenly felt slightly bad and turned to Lord Yuan Bao, who was sitting atop her shoulder with its arms crossed, enjoying the scenery. “Furball, I’ve saved the money that you earned the last time inside my money pouch, I’ll give you 60% of it, let me know whenever you need it, and I’ll get it for you.”
Lord Yuan Bao’s eyes shone happily, and it began squeaking excitedly, its paws dancing in the air. Meng Fuyao turned to Zhangsun Wuji questioningly. “It’s nothing much, it wants money for fruit honey; specifically the best kind of “Snow Floral Fragrance” honey, the one and only one in the nine realms, the kind that’s worth ten taels of silver for a small jar,” Zhangsun Wuji interpreted mildly.
“Oh,” Meng Fuyao replied, thinking that its share was at least enough to buy a small jar.
“There’s no need for a lot either, about a palace full of it is enough,” Zhangsun Wuji continued translating.
Meng Fuyao: “…”
“The palace doesn’t have to be too big either, about as big as the Xuanyuan imperial palace is enough.” The conditions weren’t done.
Meng Fuyao: “…”
After a long time, Meng Fuyao sighed and said, “You should just sell me and see if you can exchange me for enough money to buy the world’s largest palace.”
Lord Yuan Bao was disgruntled and scolded, “Chi chi chi chi chi chi!”
Zhangsun Wuji translated, “It said you’re a despicable and ungrateful hoarder of wealth, heartless, inhumane, taking advantage and bullying the weak, hurting a small, pure and innocent soul like itself…”
Meng Fuyao promptly stuffed the little rascal that just scolded her and cursed, “You should learn to keep your mouth cleaner!”
Zhangsun Wuji responded moodily, “Actually, I personally feel that the last ten or so words were very accurate.”
Meng Fuyao glanced at the sky. ‘I didn’t hear anything, I didn’t hear anything.’
Zhangsun Wuji glanced at her with a smile as he sighed inwardly. He pointed ahead and said, “We’ve arrived at the Xuanji borders.”
The location of the border gates faced towards Dahan and Wuji, and from afar, they could see the gates open, and two soldiers clad in brightly colored armor headed towards them. A young man clad in bronze robes followed behind the purple cloud embroidery on his sleeves extremely obvious.
Zhangsun Wuji squinted his eyes and said, “It’s the Prince of Xuanji.”
