Chapter 75 He and she were looking at the same crescent moon...

So bumpy, so dizzy.

A jumble of chaotic thoughts flashed by, and consciousness floated and drifted like drifting wisps of silk, unable to coalesce. My body stiffened inexplicably, my arms and legs went numb and I couldn't move, even my eyelids felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and I couldn't lift them.

Xue Mingyao drifted in and out of sleep for several hours in this chaotic state before finally opening her eyes and barely regaining consciousness. She found herself curled up in a spacious, moving carriage. The carriage walls were nailed shut with wooden strips, blocking out the outside world. Sunlight streamed in through the gaps, stinging her eyes.

Her head was still spinning, and her limbs were weak and sore; even moving an inch required great effort. Xue Mingyao struggled to her feet, leaning against the side of the carriage, trying to recall what she had experienced.

Just moments before, she and Lüzhi were waiting for Yingniang in the meditation room. The incense in the room smelled strange, making her drowsy. She couldn't help but close her eyes and doze off for a while, and then...

Xue Mingyao stared blankly at the wooden cage-like carriage, listening to the frantic clatter of hooves. Had she been drugged and kidnapped?

Where are Green Branches and Yingniang?

Panic surged through her. Fortunately, her clothes were still intact, and she couldn't find any wounds on her body. With difficulty, she raised her arm and patted the side of the vehicle. "Is anyone there?"

The coachman seemed not to hear, and the carriage continued to speed along. Xue Mingyao called out several more times, and finally the carriage stopped. With a few clicks, the carriage door was opened from the outside, and a person entered.

It was Cen Zongjing.

"It was you?" Xue Mingyao's eyes widened. "You're the one who kidnapped me at Yufu Temple?"

The carriage immediately began to lurch and sway. Cen Zongjing calmly sat down beside her and nodded. "Yes, Yaoyao, you're finally awake. Are you feeling unwell?"

He went straight to touch her hand.

Xue Mingyao shivered and shrank back. Cen Zongjing didn't mind, patted her hand lightly, and looked at her with a smile.

Xue Mingyao looked wary. "Cen Zongjing, do you have no respect for the law?! Where do you think you're taking me?"

“Take him to Wuxi,” Cen Zongjing said frankly.

Xue Mingyao was stunned. "What does this mean? Are you not loyal to the Great Zhou, but to Wuxi?"

Cen Zongjing nodded frankly again, "It's a pity I couldn't fool the emperor. He sent people to arrest me, so I had to take you back to Wuxi in a hurry."

"You—" Xue Mingyao was incredulous. After a moment of stunned silence, she said, "The humiliation that King Wuxi inflicted on you was all fake? You surrendered to Wuxi from the very beginning?"

“Of course not.” Cen Zongjing snorted coldly. “Who would willingly serve a barbarian if they could be a subject of the Great Zhou? But I was unlucky and ended up in the hands of the King of Wuxi. He tortured me in every way. How could a mere mortal with flesh and blood endure it? That’s why I surrendered.”

Recalling the past, Cen Zongjing's usually calm face twitched slightly. Eight years ago, in a crushing defeat, he was severely wounded and chased relentlessly by the Wuxi people, his life hanging by a thread. Left with no other choice, he personally stabbed to death a bodyguard of similar stature, slashed his face, and swapped clothes with him, hoping to use this to deceive everyone and escape unscathed.

But fate is cruel. His carefully crafted fake corpse went unnoticed by the Wuxi people and was instead picked up by the people of Da Zhou. He was even more unfortunate to become a prisoner of the Wuxi people and have his identity exposed.

How hateful, how hateful!

"I also want to be a loyal and righteous person, but I need to survive even more." He gritted his teeth, his voice filled with sorrow, "Yaoyao, tell me, can you blame me for this?"

Xue Mingyao remained noncommittal and asked, "So, what's your conspiracy with King Wuxi to come to Great Zhou?"

Of course there was a conspiracy, but it's pointless to discuss it now.

Emperor Deyuan's spies were very capable. His men were a step too late. After realizing something was wrong, they were unable to stop the spies from reporting the news and had to send a fast horse to inform him to leave the capital.

Before he came, he had considered all possible consequences and made plans for both long-term and short-term infiltration. Even if these plans could not be realized in the worst-case scenario, he was determined to accomplish at least one thing during his trip back to Zhou.

Cen Zongjing smiled and said, "There's no conspiracy. I just wanted to come see you and take you home."

Xue Mingyao almost choked on her breath. "My home is in Da Zhou. Why should I go to that godforsaken Uxi with you? Let me go right now, and I won't hold it against you. Go wherever you want, and I'll pretend this never happened."

Cen Zongjing shook his finger, "Yaoyao, Wuxi isn't as bad as you imagine. There are boundless grasslands, towering snow-capped mountains, people eating meat and drinking wine heartily, and singing and dancing under the stars at night..."

"Shut up! Who cares?" Xue Mingyao interrupted him angrily.

Cen Zongjing was not annoyed. "I am already a general in Wuxi, and the King of Wuxi trusts me greatly. You will enjoy wealth and honor there, no less than in Da Zhou. Yaoyao, be my wife again."

His eyes were full of tenderness, which Xue Mingyao had never liked before, and now she felt even more disgusted. She turned her face away and said, "You're dreaming!"

Cen Zongjing smiled faintly, "I've had this dream countless times, and now it's finally come true. There's no need to dream anymore."

"I'll give you time; you'll figure it out gradually. You've slept for a day and a night; you must be hungry. I'll have someone bring you something to eat."

Xue Mingyao heard Cen Zongjing say a word to the coachman, and the carriage stopped again. Cen Zongjing got out of the carriage, and a young woman got in. The carriage door was locked again.

The woman knelt in the carriage and respectfully handed her food. Xue Mingyao looked down at her face; she had dark skin, a narrow forehead, and narrow, slanted eyes, resembling the appearance of a Uyghur.

When asked questions, she didn't understand at all and just mumbled in Uyghur.

Xue Mingyao was furious and wanted to throw away the pancakes she had been given, but she was hungry and had no choice but to accept them and eat them without any taste. Looking out the car window, she saw the car driving through the mountains and forests, withered green shadows flashing by one after another, making it impossible to tell where they were. The sky and the ground were all a grayish-green.

She suddenly disappeared; Xie Zhuo must be frantic with worry right now.

"General, we've been running for over ten hours. Please take a rest!"

In the mountains and fields, Xie Zhuo rode swiftly ahead, with his guards chasing after him on horseback, calling out to him from afar.

Cen Zongjing fled, and Xue Mingyao disappeared. Xie Zhuo, without hesitation, accepted the imperial order and led the imperial guards in pursuit. Cen Zongjing's identity was exposed, and he had no choice but to flee to Wuxi. Xie Zhuo tracked him down and discovered that his group did not take the post roads but instead took mountain paths, both to avoid pursuers and to reach Wuxi as quickly as possible.

Xie Zhuo ignored the guards and squeezed the horse's belly even tighter with his legs; he couldn't rest.

If Cen Zongjing really did bring Xue Mingyao to Wuxi...

He dared not think any further.

Several hours passed in a flash, the sunlight grew stronger and then weaker, and dusk gradually descended.

Xue Mingyao leaned against the car wall, her face gloomy as she looked out the window at the sliver of dark sky.

Cen Zongjing was fleeing for his life. The carriage bumped and sped along for most of the day, hardly stopping, and he had no intention of stopping for a meal in any of the counties along the way. He headed straight for Wuxi.

Xue Mingyao ate something, but her limbs still hadn't regained any strength, and she was almost falling apart from being shaken by the carriage. She suspected that Cen Zongjing had given her a drug that caused muscle weakness, making her feel like a useless person imprisoned in the carriage.

She was only allowed to get off the bus when she needed to relieve herself. The woman from Uxi followed her closely, her arms were very strong and held Xue Mingyao like a pair of pincers. Not to mention that Xue Mingyao was weak, even when she was healthy, she was completely unable to deal with this woman.

It was only after getting off the carriage that they saw that Cen Zongjing had dozens of attendants, each with dark skin and prominent bones, lean and agile. In addition to riding a strong horse, they also brought several empty horses for replacement.

Xue Mingyao was both worried and happy. She was worried because Cen Zongjing had considerable power and was well-trained, but she was happy because so many people had fled, which would inevitably leave traces. As long as Xie Zhuo could guess that she had been abducted by Cen Zongjing, with his remarkable tracking skills, he would surely be able to follow the traces to catch up.

But if they keep running like this, they will reach Xichuan, which borders Wuxi, in just a few days. Even if Xie Zhuo chases after them, can he catch up?

Xue Mingyao grew increasingly anxious as she thought about it, and a dull ache began to creep into her lower abdomen. She clutched her stomach, and a sudden clarity of mind dawned on her.

"Ouch, that hurts..."

Her pitiful groans echoed from inside the carriage. Xue Mingyao curled up on her side like a small animal, weakly kicking the Uxi woman. "I'm in so much pain! Tell the driver to stop the carriage..."

The woman from Uxi knew she was menstruating and had previously helped her change her menstrual pad. Upon hearing the sound, she knelt down without saying a word and massaged her stomach.

Xue Mingyao pushed her away with all her might, howling, "I don't want you... It's no use, call Cen Zongjing, if he doesn't come I'm going to die!"

"Dead! Don't you understand?!"

Xue Mingyao rolled her eyes and made a face as if she had just passed away.

The woman from Uxi looked at her strangely, and finally said something to the driver.

The car came to a stop, and Cen Zongjing quickly came over. "What's wrong, Yaoyao? Are you feeling unwell?"

Xue Mingyao slumped in the car, her little face scrunched up. "My stomach hurts so much. Please take me to the clinic in town."

Cen Zongjing stared at her for a while, then slowly said, "Yaoyao, don't get any funny ideas."

"I didn't have any bad intentions!" Xue Mingyao almost cried, twisting her body in pain, "I'm in so much pain, you can't just leave me to die!"

Cen Zongjing rubbed her head. "You're far from dying. You'll grow old with me in Wuxi and live to be a hundred. Alright, Yaoyao, stop pretending. Your little tricks might fool others, but don't try to fool me. Even if you really have a stomachache, I can only give you some painkillers. I can't take you to a clinic."

“We must get to Uxi as soon as possible,” he said decisively.

Xue Mingyao slowly sat up, propping herself up on her elbows, and gritted her teeth, saying, "You really don't care about my life? I'm just pretending now, but I'll really be going to die later!"

Cen Zongjing frowned. "Yaoyao, I love you so much, of course I care about your life. Believe it or not, I care about your life more than my own!"

“But I know you’re not the kind of person who would commit suicide.” He smiled again. “I’m your husband, I know you best. You love to play, you love wealth, and you’re most afraid of pain and death. Don’t worry, you can continue to have everything you like. I guarantee you can live comfortably in Uxi—”

"Pah!" Xue Mingyao spat at him forcefully.

"Stop disgusting me. Cen Zongjing, my husband is Xie Zhuo, not you anymore. Let me tell you clearly, I didn't like you in the past, I don't like you now, and I will never like you in the slightest in the future! There's absolutely no point in you trying to lure me to Wuxi!"

"You say you're a great general in Wuxi, so you certainly won't have trouble finding a wife. You can just marry someone else. Why are you so fixated on me?"

Cen Zongjing wiped the water from his face and said calmly, "I have married, and more than one, but none of them are as good as you. The more women I have around me, the more I miss you. Yaoyao, I went to so much trouble to get your father to agree to marry you to me, how could I bear to let you go?"

"You don't know, do you, Yaoyao? Your father believed that prophecy that you were destined to marry a martial artist from a humble background who would later rise to prominence. That was something I paid a fortune teller to make up. From the first time I saw you, I vowed to marry you."

When Cen Zongjing recounted the past, he became excited, and his smile appeared somewhat ferocious.

"Despicable and shameless!" Xue Mingyao glared at him. "If my father knew this in the afterlife, he would surely take a knife and chop you up."

"It's a pity he's dead. Otherwise, I would still have to deal with him, which would be quite troublesome."

Xue Mingyao said bitterly, "Although my father is gone, I still have my husband. Xie Zhuo will not let you go; he will definitely come to save me."

“Your husband is quite capable,” Cen Zongjing pondered for a moment, “but the initiative is with me. Unless he grows wings and flies over, he has no chance of saving you.”

"He can save me, I believe him." In her anger, Xue Mingyao felt a persistent pain in her lower abdomen. She hunched over, clutching her stomach, and didn't want to say another word to this person. "If you don't want my stomach to hurt more, then get out of here."

Cen Zongjing looked at her for a long time, but finally said nothing more. He gave the woman from Wuxi a few instructions, then got out of the carriage and got back on his horse.

In just that short time, it had become completely dark.

A thin crescent moon hung in the deep blue night sky, appearing even more forlorn and frail when viewed through the narrow crack of the carriage window. The moonlight was dim and refused to shine in, leaving the carriage in complete darkness.

The carriage was still moving, but the bumps weren't as bad as before. The mountain forest was much quieter at night than during the day. Xue Mingyao could hear the wheels rolling over the dry leaves, the soft snores of the Uxi woman, and the driver's increasingly loud yawns.

She had been unconscious for more than ten hours, but now she could no longer fall asleep. Her head was leaning against the car window, gazing at the crescent moon in the distance.

Where is Xie Zhuo at this moment? Is he also looking at the same crescent moon as her, and thinking of her too?

Will she never see him again?

After finally reuniting with Xie Qinglang, after so much anger and arguments, life had finally settled down. But was fate going to separate them again at this moment?

She even stabbed him in the heart before leaving the house, refusing to kiss him.

Xue Mingyao's tears fell in large drops.

Xie Qinglang, you are so capable, you can come back to my side even when you are on the verge of death. Please, please find me this time, you must let me see you again.