Chapter 470 – I offer you my heart (1)
Most of Yuzhen’s princesses had weapon training. Pengyue’s weapon of choice was her whip. Pengxin’s preferred weapon was her three-ring large sword.
Once, Pengyue had been the most favored princess in Yuzhen. However, after she got married, Yuzhen’s queen passed away. Yuzhen’s king’s secret lover became the new queen, and her daughter, Pengxin, became a legitimate princess. In order to make up for the grievances that Pengxin went through in the past, the king acceded to her every request.
After Yuzhen’s civil strife ended, war was waged at the borderland to get justice for Pengyue’s death. Pengxin didn’t hate Pengyue. Even after Pengxin became a princess, she still revered Pengyue. Pengxin actually felt that she had wronged her half-sister. Although she and her mother had been kept a dirty secret, hadn’t they also been secretly taking away a portion of the king’s favor from Pengyue and her mother?
And so, out of mischievous impulse, she followed the army to the borderlands and participated in the battles. Riding on a horse and using her awe-inspiring sword, she felt refreshed as she sliced down the enemy soldiers like they were only daikon.
—
“Your Highness, the commander of the enemy army has been sighted on the battlefield. There’s bound to be a breach in the boundary lines. Please, you should head back to safety.” A loyal subordinate anxiously tried to persuade her.
“You want this princess just to idly watch as the city’s walls are breached?” Pengxin glowered at him, then immediately climbed up the stairs to top of the city’s gate tower with her large sword. Looking into the distance, she saw that Great Song’s flag was getting increasingly close. From the horizon, there was an unstoppable wave of rising dust as Great Song’s army marched forward.
A great battle was on the verge of starting. She went around the loyal subordinates as she went down the city’s gate tower. She grabbed a horse’s reins and mixed into the troops that were in the outer part of the city. Her martial art skills were extraordinary. No matter what, she would be able to kill a few more enemies, right?
However, to her surprise, the large wave of soldiers hadn’t come here to besiege the city. The news of her coming to the borderland had been leaked out. For this battle, the enemy’s commander was aiming to capture her.
Dream on! Pengxin swung her large sword fiercely and powerfully. She wouldn’t allow anyone to get closer to her.
However, out of nowhere, a man urged his horse forward with his spurs. He grabbed hold of her large sword. In one forceful pull, he directly pulled her onto his horse.
Furious, Pengxin wanted to flip the blade and give him a hard stab. But, when she looked up, she saw his face.
Wah, this was a devastatingly beautiful face that could bring a nation down to its knees. Immediately, the surrounding sound of killing became muted. She seemed to smell the scent of peach blossoms and hear the tranquil sound of a flowing stream.
“Who are you?” She instinctively asked.
The man indifferently said, “Great Song’s commander, Ning Mingjie.”
Great Song’s commander! Pengxin’s eyes brightened. If she killed him, then this war would end, right?
However, when she lowered her head, she saw that this man had already taken away her sword and tied her up when she was dazed over his beauty!
How shameless! He had actually used his beauty to trap her!
Ning Mingjie saw the rich assortment of expressions that was displayed on her face and found it quite funny. Anyways, he had already achieved his objective of capturing her, so he quickly returned to the military camp and ordered the troops to withdraw. The city wasn’t breached, so a report could be written that at the last moment, they had inexplicably suffered defeat.
Right now, Yuzhen was filled with the fury over Pengyue’s death. He only kidnapped Pengxin so that he could exchange her for an opportunity to have a successful negotiation.
—
“Why are Great Song’s beds so strange?” Once Pengxin entered the tent, she behaved as if she was stepping into her home and without awareness that she was now a captive. She even disdainfully looked at the makeshift wooden bed.
Ning Mingjie ignored her. He had someone untie her and left her on the side while he went to his desk to write a military report.
As soon as the ropes were united, Princess Pengxin became even livelier. She immediately tried to dash outside. She was more agile than a rabbit. However, as soon as she got to the entrance, a pair of swords blocked her way. Behind her, the man, who was engrossed in writing a war report, didn’t even raised his head when he said, “Princess, don’t try to run. This tent is surrounded by armed guards.
Pengxin angrily stamped her feet. She pointed at those two swords and yelled, “What lousy swords! They’re far worse than this princess’s three-ring large sword! It’s only because this princess doesn’t have my sword. Otherwise, I would hack all of you to death!”
The two guards stationed outside restrained their impulse to laugh.
Fuming, Pengxin put down the tent’s curtain and turned to look at Ning Mingjie. “Where’s this princess’s sword?”
“Threw it away,” Ning Mingjie calmly answered.
“You threw it away?!” Pengxin’s eyes widened. When she recovered from her shock, she was furious. Like a ferocious tiger coming down from a mountain, she rushed over to attack him. Ning Mingjie avoided her attempt, but she madly continued her attempts to attack him. “How dare you throw away this princess’s sword?!”
It wasn’t possible for a young woman like her to win against him. Within ten moves, Ning Mingjie had her restrained, but when he lowered his head to say a few mocking words, he saw the young woman’s eyes had turn red.
“My king father gave me that sword!”
Slightly freezing in shock for a moment, Ning Mingjie pursed his lips. “I didn’t throw it away. I hid it. If I give it back to you, isn’t that the same as letting you free?”
Pengxin felt extremely wronged. After he let her go, not caring about her image at all, she sat down on the ground and bawled. “You’re a bad person! To think, I initially admired your beauty. But, you’re just an awful, very bad person!”
It had been a long time since someone dared to praise him for looking beautiful. Ning Mingjie’s expression blackened. He returned to his desk and resumed writing the war report. Pengxin remained in the center of the tent and continued crying. She cried so much that the guards stationed at the tent’s entrance couldn’t resist lifting the curtain to take a look.
By the time she had tired herself out with crying, Ning Mingjie finished writing the war report. He offered her a handkerchief, then he went outside to hand the report to a loyal subordinate to deliver it for him.
Pengxin wiped her face with the handkerchief. When she lowered her head to look, she was puzzled. Why would a man use such a womanly handkerchief?
