Wei Shuwan bit her lip. Just then, she heard footsteps approaching. Looking towards the steps, she saw that the owner of the hunting grounds she had visited that day had also arrived.

The host first greeted Li Qingchen, and then asked, "Young Prince, when you issued the urgent summons, were there any subordinates who could serve you?"

Li Qingchen looked at him and said, "No need, I have already sent Yuan Que and the others."

"Yes." The venue owner bowed respectfully to Li Qingchen again.

Wei Shuwan watched the two talking and suddenly realized something. "Could this hunting ground be yours?" she asked Li Qingchen with some surprise.

Li Qingchen did not answer, but the owner of the hunting grounds answered on his behalf: "Reporting to Lady Wei, this hunting ground is indeed the private property of our young prince."

Thus, Wei Shuwan seemed to have the answers to many of her recent questions. No wonder that when she called someone to reserve a table that day, the owner initially said it was fully booked, but then came back to arrange everything; it must have been Li Qingchen's order.

No wonder she booked this place today, yet Li Qingchen still showed up here. Since it's his private property, he can come here anytime; she hadn't even thought of that.

But she couldn't care less about that right now; she only hoped that Yuan Que and the others could find their uncle and Sister Pan smoothly.

Seeing that Wei Shuwan's expression was unpleasant, the owner, unaware that she was preoccupied with other matters, suspected that she was still blaming him for his disrespect towards the maids of the Wei household. So, he took this opportunity to apologize, saying, "It's all my fault for being so isolated in the mountains that I didn't know the young prince had proposed marriage to the Wei family. If someone hadn't reminded me that day, I'm afraid I would have committed a grave offense. I beg you, Madam Wei, to be magnanimous and forgive my rudeness that day."

As he spoke, the host, Wei Shuwan, bowed and apologized.

Wei Shuwan sighed with worry. Before she could say "It's alright," Li Qingchen waved his hand, signaling the host to leave.

In just a few words, Wei Shuwan felt that the sky was not as bright as before. She looked at the sun, which was already high on the mountain peak and would soon be swallowed up by the mountain.

Just as her heart was in turmoil, a sound like a whistle suddenly came from a certain direction. Wei Shuwan hurriedly looked in the direction of the sound and found that a pinkish-purple smoke was rising in the sky in a certain direction deep in the forest, accompanied by the sound of the whistle.

This was clearly not a signal from the Wei family's servants. She looked at Li Qingchen and asked for confirmation, "Is this a signal from your Qiaochuan Prince's Mansion?"

"Yes." Li Qingchen answered decisively, looking in that direction. Before Wei Shuwan could say anything more, he said, "You wait here, I'll go take a look."

Having said that, he took a step to leave.

"etc!"

Wei Shuwan's voice suddenly came from behind him. Li Qingchen turned around and looked at her, thinking that she wanted to ask him to take her with him. However, she opened her mouth and then swallowed back the words she was about to say, and instead said, "Be careful."

As she spoke, her gaze unconsciously drifted to his right arm, and Li Qingchen understood that she was worried he would be seriously injured again. He merely curled the corners of his lips slightly, said nothing, and with a flick of his robe, vanished.

Wei Shuwan stared at the direction he disappeared in for a long time before returning to the vermilion railing, watching the purple smoke slowly dissipate. She guessed that Yuan Que and the others must have discovered her uncle and encountered great trouble.

In her past life, she had heard that the smoke pellets used as signals by the Prince of Qiaochuan's mansion came in seven colors, each representing a level of urgency: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple, with the later colors indicating a more serious situation.

The purple smoke pellet—perhaps it really did encounter a bear.

When she called out to Li Qingchen just now, she did want to ask him to take her with him. She was the one who tricked her uncle and Sister Pan into coming out. If something really happened, how could she live with herself?

But then she thought that no matter how anxious she was, she had to recognize the reality that if she went, she would only become a burden to everyone. Therefore, she didn't say those words out loud.

All she could do was stand there and wait, silently praying that they would all return safely.

...

When Li Qingchen arrived at the location following the smoke, his other subordinates had not yet arrived; only the person who had sent the signal was there, and he was already lying on the ground, unable to get up.

Li Qingchen stepped forward and roughly examined the man's injuries. They weren't fatal, but there were scratches on his face and head, indicating he had indeed encountered a bear. Judging from the surrounding marks, Li Qingchen also deduced that more than one of his men had been present; Sun Xingjian must have been there as well. This was because the fighting techniques used by his men didn't match the marks left by this encounter.

Judging from the situation, it seems that while Sun Xingjian was fighting the bear, his men spotted him and immediately released smoke pellets to gather their forces. However, releasing the smoke pellets also attracted and angered the bear, which caused it to turn around and pounce on him, knocking him unconscious with a single blow.

Since he could see these things, Li Qingchen could easily follow the traces on the ground and found Sun Xingjian after a short distance.

At this moment, Sun Xingjian had multiple wounds in his arms, kneeling on one knee, his sword held horizontally in front of his chest, protecting a young woman behind him. The young woman was lying on the ground, clutching her chest, but there were no obvious external injuries. This was clearly the daughter of Protector Pan that Wei Shuwan had mentioned.

The bear stood five steps away from the two, creating a standoff.

The bear was bleeding, clearly having been stabbed several times by Sun Xingjian. These stabs posed little threat to its massive body, but the gleaming longsword was enough to intimidate it.

So the current situation is that the bear dares not pounce forward, and Sun Xingjian dares not turn around and run away, and even dares not let Pan Wenjun escape first, because once the two are separated, the bear will definitely chase Pan Wenjun who has no sword in hand first.

In fact, they had temporarily shaken off the bear not long ago, but they got lost and wandered around aimlessly. Unexpectedly, they bumped into it again.

The situation has stabilized for the time being, but while the bear can hold out, the man cannot. The blood loss has little effect on the bear, but it has a much greater impact on him. At this moment, he can no longer stand on both legs and can only kneel on one knee.

Just when he was at his wit's end, a hidden weapon suddenly flew past Sun Xingjian's eyes. He watched as the weapon flew towards the black bear and struck it on the forehead, immediately exploding into a thick cloud of smoke!

As the wind carried the smoke, it gradually spread towards Sun Xingjian's side.

Cover your mouth and nose!

Sun Xingjian didn't need to turn around to know that the person who shouted at him was the Prince of Xiaoqiaochuan. After all, one of his subordinates had already come looking for him, so Sun Xingjian wasn't surprised that he was here now. He simply followed his instructions and reminded Pan Wenjun behind him.

At first, Sun Xingjian thought the thick fog was a trick to help them escape, but he soon discovered that there was a faint pungent smell in the fog, which showed that it was mixed with other medicinal powders.

The standoff was resolved, and Sun Xingjian struggled to his feet, helping Pan Wenjun back, where they soon met Li Qingchen behind a tree.