Chapter 58 Just what I feared came to pass.

The moon accompanied them on the way there, but on the way back, only Seventeen and Xiao Mowen sat in front of them, riding their horses.

Unlike when they arrived, this time their caravan was much more low-key. Not only did they only travel for three days, but even the royal insignia on the carriages had been removed.

Xiao Mowen was somewhat uneasy, and repeatedly turned his head to look at the carriage that was vaguely visible inside.

Seventeen stared blankly to the side.

His Highness told him all the plans yesterday, so he knew that this return to the capital might involve a tough battle.

I wonder how Yue-ge is doing. Will he stay by His Majesty's side?

As he pondered, his thoughts drifted away, and the jolting of the carriage beneath him made him feel drowsy.

This time they were in a hurry, and they had to reach Yejing within fifteen days. They could only barely make it by traveling day and night.

After riding in a carriage for several days, Seventeen couldn't stand it anymore and asked to ride a horse. Long Zhaoming didn't stop him, but he felt a little uneasy.

He didn't know where this panic came from, but he eventually blamed it on... Yejing.

The letter from his elder brother said that the plan was going smoothly and repeatedly reminded him to be careful.

Long Zhaoming lowered his eyes, fully aware that he was a pawn of the Zhou family, and the Xie family might... not let him go.

This is actually a risky move. No matter how the Xie family tries to deal with him, as long as they do, there will be a weakness, and that's exactly the weakness the Zhou family needs.

The three of them found a town they were passing through and settled down in an ordinary inn. To avoid arousing suspicion, Long Zhaoming's public identity was that of a sickly man.

He slowly stepped out of the carriage, and Xiao Mowen supported him, coughing twice as he did so.

The three were dressed in very simple clothes. Although they were all quite good-looking, their sickly appearance caused many people to move away, just in case they caught something.

"Two rooms."

Xiao Mowen took out a string of copper coins and handed them to the shopkeeper who was using an abacus. The shopkeeper took them, smiled, and beckoned to the young waiter beside him: "Take the three guests to their rooms."

Seventeen originally wanted to have a room by himself, while His Highness and Xiao Mowen shared a room, since the two of them were master and servant and were more familiar with each other.

But Long Zhaoming refused to go anywhere and insisted on sharing a room with Seventeen, so the two of them closed the door under Xiao Mowen's watchful eye.

"Why is Your Highness unwilling to share a room with Brother Xiao? He would certainly be more capable of taking care of you than I am."

Seventeen placed the sword, wrapped in tattered cloth, on the table and asked. Long Zhaoming snorted coldly, "I don't need his care."

Seeing this, Seventeen just smiled and poured Long Zhaoming a cup of tea. Although he didn't quite understand what had happened between His Highness and Xiao Mowen, he could vaguely sense that it was similar to his relationship with Yue Ge.

The journey was relatively smooth, perhaps because the three of them were too low-key and did not encounter any mishaps. Long Zhaoming sat in the carriage, lost in thought, wondering about the situation in Yejing. He was somewhat worried because it was difficult to receive letters from his elder brother on the road.

Fortunately, I arrived safely in Yejing, where the Zhou family...

Long Zhaoming lifted the carriage curtain with his long, slender fingers, and as he looked at the scenery flashing by outside, his unease grew.

Just then, Xiao Mowen shouted loudly from outside, "Who goes there?!"

Long Zhaoming was taken aback, then he heard Seventeen's urgent voice again: "Your Highness, kneel down!"

Just as Long Zhaoming lay prone on the ground, a sharp arrow shot in from outside and embedded itself straight into the wood behind him.

Just what I feared most has come to pass!

Long Zhaoming cursed inwardly, knowing full well that this was definitely the work of the Xie family. Calculating the days, they would arrive in Yejing in about three days. Presumably, the Xie family had been lying in ambush for a long time, just waiting for them to arrive.

Seventeen gripped the sword tightly. As the silver light flashed, blood gushed out and splattered onto his body. His black outer robe instantly swallowed the bright red blood, leaving only the smell of blood.

With a swift movement of his sword, countless men in black attacked from all directions. Xiao Mowen was on the left and he was on the right, neither daring to be distracted for even a moment.

As more and more small pools of blood accumulated on the ground, the horse, startled and panicked, kicked its hooves wildly. Seventeen gritted his teeth and grabbed the reins to try to control it, but a short arrow shot from somewhere hit the horse's left front thigh. The horse was instantly even more frightened and actually tore off the reins tied to a tree and ran away.

Seventeen was shocked; His Highness was still in the carriage!

But there was no time to think now. He quickly flashed to Xiao Mowen's side and shouted, "I'll go after His Highness! You stay behind!"

Xiao Mowen wanted to stop him, but the attack that immediately struck his face left him no time to be distracted. He could only suppress his anxiety and say, "Go quickly! Protect His Highness! I'll return to the capital to report!"

The two quickly divided the tasks: Xiao Mowen stopped the pursuing men in black for Seventeen, while Seventeen used her lightness skill to speed through the towering trees.

Unfortunately, the horse's leg was injured, but fortunately, its foot was also injured, so Seventeen caught up with it effortlessly.

The horse was already moving slowly due to pain and excessive blood loss, so Seventeen immediately cut the ropes connecting the horse and the carriage. Only after watching the horse run away and disappear from sight did he climb into the carriage.

Long Zhaoming's face was a little pale, but he did not lose his composure. He was just annoyed that he did not know martial arts. If he had studied properly back then, he would not be in this situation now.

"Is Your Highness injured?"

Seventeen asked anxiously, but Long Zhaoming shook his head, having regained his composure: "I'm not injured. Are you alone?"

"It's too late. That group of people came in a fierce manner, heading straight for murder."

Long Zhaoming stood up and got out of the car. He looked around and said in a deep voice, "We can't go back now. Xiao Mowen can get away on his own without much trouble, but we are still quite a distance from Yejing. It would be really difficult to walk here. Those people might be lying in wait for us."

Seventeen nodded, stood beside him, looked around, pointed in a direction and said, "There's smoke coming from over there, maybe there are houses."

Long Zhaoming dusted himself off and said, "Let's go lay low for a while."

He touched his pocket; the money bag was still there, which made things easier.

With Seventeen's cover, Long Zhaoming successfully reached the village, but there seemed to be hardly anyone there.

He turned to look at Seventeen, took off his outer robe and handed it to him: "You smell of blood on you, cover it up with this robe."

Seventeen took it and draped it over his shoulders, hiding the sword inside as well.

Long Zhaoming tidied himself up, walked to a house with smoke coming from its chimney, and knocked on the door.

"Hey, who is it?"

A woman's voice came from inside, and then the door was opened. The simply dressed woman was also stunned when she saw Long Zhaoming standing in front of her: "Who are you two looking for?"

"Excuse me, we've come here looking for someone, but..."

Long Zhaoming looked back at the empty and somewhat dilapidated house, his expression troubled: "But it seems they've already moved out."

The woman followed his gaze and looked over, then smiled and said, "That family moved away more than ten years ago."

"I see. It's getting late today. May I ask which way is the nearest town?"

Long Zhaoming was handsome, and the seventeen behind him was wrapped in an outer robe, revealing only her pretty little face. Her hair was slightly disheveled from the fight just now.

The woman stared at them, somewhat lost in thought, her face even turning slightly red: "Well, it takes half a day to walk from here to town, so it's definitely too late to go now. Why don't you come stay at my house?"

Long Zhaoming was taken aback. He hadn't intended to go to the woman's house, since they were both men and it would be inconvenient. He was just asking how far they were from the town to avoid being found.

Then another person came out of the house. He looked quite strong and seemed to have been doing farm work for many years.

Long Zhaoming looked up and was stunned.

"Brother Shen?"

The man who was called Brother Shen was stunned. He met Long Zhaoming's gaze and blurted out, "Your Highness, no, you, what are you doing here?"

The woman blinked, nudged the man beside her, and asked, "Husband, do you know this person?"

Brother Shen strode forward, looked Long Zhaoming up and down, and his eyes lit up with surprise. He smiled and said, "I know you. We're old friends. Go and prepare some good food to entertain him."

The woman responded and turned to leave. Brother Shen grabbed Long Zhaoming's hand and asked anxiously, "Your Highness, what are you doing here?"

After saying that, his gaze fell on Seventeen behind him, and he asked in confusion, "Who is this young lady?"

Seventeen-year-old choked up; this was the first time her gender had been mistaken for someone else's.

Long Zhaoming smiled, lowered his eyes to look at Seventeen, and stopped him from saying what he was about to say: "This is my good friend. We came here together to look for someone, but we couldn't find him."

He pointed to the dilapidated courtyard behind him, and Brother Shen laughed heartily, "That family moved away a long time ago. Your Highness has come up empty-handed this time. But since Your Highness is looking for someone, why didn't you bring more servants with you?"

"Not very convenient."

After saying this, Long Zhaoming didn't explain further. Brother Shen scratched his head, understanding that the prince might have private matters to attend to, so he didn't ask any more questions. However, his gaze lingered on Seventeen, and he had a guess in his mind: Could it be that he brought his little lover out for a trip? Had something unexpected happened?

In a flash, he made up his mind: if he could take them in for a while, he might even get a reward if someone came looking for them later.

Although Seventeen didn't understand why His Highness wanted to hide his identity, he thought that His Highness must have his reasons, so he hid behind Long Zhaoming, which was considered an admission of the "woman's" identity.

Seeing Seventeen's actions and the fact that he was wearing an outer robe that was clearly not a matching set, Brother Shen became even more certain of his thoughts. However, he had no way to help this prince contact anyone else, so he could only welcome him in first.

After the four of them finished their lively dinner, Seventeen remained quiet throughout the meal, keeping his eyes down as he picked up food, occasionally glancing at Long Zhaoming, which made Brother Shen's heart itch.

After finishing his meal, he tidied up a side room and said with a smile, "This room was originally filled with miscellaneous items, Your Highness, please don't mind."

Long Zhaoming shook his head and smiled, "Why would I mind? I'm already grateful to Brother Shen. But Brother Shen and his wife, don't worry, we won't bother you for too long."

Seeing this, Brother Shen left. Seventeen listened for a moment and said, "The person has already gone far away."

Then he turned his head and asked curiously, "Does Your Highness know this person?"

"Yes, he once served in the Northern Army."

"The Northern Army? What are they doing here?"

Long Zhaoming sat on the bed, fully aware of what that man surnamed Chen was thinking, but still insisted on asking for two quilts.

"He disobeyed military orders and was expelled by his elder brother, the Emperor."

Violating military orders. This is a very serious and solemn matter. Seventeen frowned, hesitating to ask, but he was afraid that it was inconvenient for him to know.

Long Zhaoming looked up and understood immediately. Without keeping him in suspense, he whispered to him, "Shenmu is a womanizer. The Northern Army is not all men. There are also some brave and fierce women. Back then, my brother gave a strict order that the Northern Army should be one family and should not fight amongst themselves or look down on the women's army."

At this point, Seventeen understood a little: "He... humiliated those female soldiers?"

Long Zhaoming nodded, his eyes somewhat cold: "It's not so much about bullying. Those female soldiers put in more effort than the men. Shenmu didn't gain any advantage either, but he was still driven out of the camp by the Emperor."

"And then he came to live here?"

"Being expelled from the army is not a good thing. The gossip of others is enough to drown a person. He disappeared after leaving back then. It turns out he was hiding here."

Long Zhaoming had already found out while they were eating that this village was extremely remote and had little contact with the outside world. They would only occasionally go to town to buy some necessities.

As a result, there are fewer and fewer young and middle-aged people in the village, leaving behind only elderly people who are barely surviving. It is rare to see a family like Chen Mu's, who are in their prime, all staying at home.