Li Hua deftly took off his outer robe, during which his waist sash fell to the ground, and he even bent down to pick it up with remarkable ease.

After that, only the inner garment and trousers remained. Li Hua stopped, and Ying Jiu pressed her eyes against the gaps in the tiles to look down.

He walked calmly toward the washroom, without the kind of bandages Gan Qiongying had mentioned on his legs, nor was he limping; he walked with remarkable agility.

Ying Jiu frowned. Logically speaking, the Crown Prince of Jinchuan should be the consort, but he watched for a long time, until the Crown Prince started to take off his last clothes, before Ying Jiu finally left the room quietly.

After waiting another day, on the evening of the second day, he found a person in the room next to Prince Jinchuan who looked exactly like Prince Jinchuan.

Ying Jiu remained lying there observing, watching him return in a huff from who-knows-where that evening, sitting listlessly at the table for a long time before finally getting up to wash up.

The maidservant beside Prince Jinchuan came over and personally untied the black bandages on his legs. Ying Jiu's eyes flickered; these were exactly the long, black bandages his master had described.

He also noticed that the man's shoes were specially made, just as his master had said.

Not long after, Ying Jiu saw him limping toward the bathtub, dragging his left leg.

Ying Jiu's brows relaxed; she had finally found the person.

However, Ying Jiu did not rush down to deliver the message. Instead, she waited for the maidservant beside the Crown Prince of Jinchuan to leave, observed for a while, and then left as well.

The next day, Ying Jiu went to observe the Crown Prince of Jinchuan, and the third day, she went to observe the man. The two looked exactly alike, and their attire and clothing were identical; it was truly difficult to distinguish them with the naked eye.

Ying Jiuwan's father was cautious, and it wasn't until the fourth day that he finally confirmed that the one who was lame, the one whose ligaments were tied for him every morning when he woke up, was the prince consort.

Ying Jiu, however, did not rush to send the message because the current situation was somewhat different from what her master had said.

If the prince consort is not the Crown Prince of Jinchuan, then why is he dressed up as the Crown Prince of Jinchuan? Was he being coerced?

If that's true, Shadow Nine will try to rescue him.

However, during the two days that Ying Jiu followed the prince consort, she observed that every day after he dressed up as the Crown Prince of Jinchuan, he would go to a manor outside Jinchuan City to find a woman.

The woman ignored him, sometimes even ignoring him and just cursing him through the door, sometimes seeing him as if he were an enemy, and sometimes crying and laughing at the same time.

Because the prince consort was always accompanied by guards, Ying Jiu could not get too close, so she did not get a clear look at the woman's appearance.

The prince consort returned late from the manor today, with few attendants with him. Ying Jiu followed behind him and finally found a chance to get close enough to hear what the two were saying when they parted.

"I can marry you, but you have to release my father! How could you do this to me? You only want to marry me now because your subordinates in Jingxi refuse to cooperate with you!"

"You are already the Crown Prince of Jinchuan. All you need to do is lead your troops to crush Nanzhao. Why do you still insist on bothering me? I am already the daughter of a traitor!"

Ying Jiu then remembered that this woman was Princess Xue'e, whom he had seen a few times before when he was serving his master.

Princess Xue'e pushed away the obsequious and fawning prince consort in front of her, her expression filled with grief.

"Since you were so ruthless to my father, do you really expect me to treat you the same way..."

Princess Xue'e began to sob as she spoke. She had lost a lot of weight and looked so frail and helpless.

Ying Jiu watched as the prince consort stepped forward, embraced Princess Xue'e, and coaxed her gently.

“Your father was never cut out to be emperor. No one in the court would support him. By doing this, I have actually saved his life. Now everyone outside thinks he is dead. If he were alive, how could the rebels survive? They would be executed along with their entire families.”

Wen Xueling slammed her fist hard against the person in front of her, tears streaming down her face, but her strength was very limited.

"You lied to me! You weren't sincere in proposing to me at all; you were just lying to me! You never loved me! You just wanted to bring my father down!"

"Don't cry, don't cry..." Ying Jiu heard the prince consort patiently trying to comfort her at first.

He quickly lost all tenderness and shoved Princess Xue'e hard: "Enough! What are you crying for! If I didn't like you, you wouldn't be a princess anymore, so why would I marry you? Do you really think I can't do anything about those Jingxi King's subordinates?"

Princess Xue'e staggered a few steps after being pushed, and fell straight to the ground, her innocent big eyes wide open, filled with sadness and pain.

Ying Jiu watched as the prince consort seemed to want to step forward and help the person up, but then quickly stopped.

Looking down at Princess Xue'e, he said, "In short, we will get married when we return to Jinchuan. If you obediently become my Crown Princess, you will continue to enjoy wealth and honor, and you will also be able to save your father's life."

"If you refuse, I'll use your father's head to collect those former subordinates of the King of Jingxi!"

"What are you saying! How dare you!" Princess Xue'e got up from the ground, ran towards the prince consort, grabbed his hair and beat him hard.

"You bastard! You lied to me! Who wants to be your Crown Princess!"

"Smack!"

Ying Jiu hid in the tree and watched as the prince consort slapped Princess Xue'e hard across the face.

Princess Xue'e did not fall this time, but she covered her face and took two steps back, her eyes filled with fear.

The prince consort glared at Princess Xue'er with a sinister look, snorted coldly, and quickly left the mountain.

On the return trip, they traveled by carriage, with Ying Jiu following closely behind, leaping through the woods.

After returning to the inn, he drank and lay on the roof beam, watching through the gaps in the tiles as the prince consort still sat there in a daze.

After standing there in a daze for two or three hours, he prepared to wash up. Then the maid came over again and personally untied the leg bindings from the prince consort's legs.

When the maid left again, Ying Jiu finally confirmed that the prince consort had not been kidnapped; he was simply... going to marry another woman.

Ying Jiu felt heartbroken and indignant for her master. Thinking that her master was even pregnant with two children, Ying Jiu gripped the hilt of the knife at her waist.

But he was a shadow guard, his master's blade, and he could not disobey his master's will to do anything else.

So when the prince consort finished washing up and was about to rest, Ying Jiu quietly slipped in through the window and landed beside his bed.

The lights in the room had just been turned off. Ying Jiu's tall figure, like a terrifying ghostly shadow projected from the light, enveloped the entire bed.

The person who had just lain down on the bed screamed in fright, immediately sitting up and rolling to the other side of the bed: "Who is it! Help! Stab—"

Ying Jiu stepped forward and covered the prince consort's mouth.

He wore a face covering and frowned as he said, "Princess Consort, do not shout. I am the princess's bodyguard, here to deliver a message to you."