Lu Xiaoyun smiled faintly: "He is my beloved wife, and I cannot live without him. Rest assured, my lord, although he is a little delicate, with me here, I will take good care of him."
"That's good, that's good. If Princess An feels tired, please let me know, and I will arrange a carriage for her to ride slowly."
Zhu Yu really wanted to spit at him. "You're the delicate one! Your whole family is delicate!" He grabbed Lu Xiaoyun's sleeve and said in a high-pitched voice, "Your Highness, it's alright. If you're really tired, Your Highness, would you carry me while riding? I don't want to be separated from Your Highness."
Lu Xiaoyun's eyes were full of doting affection as she said softly, "Okay, if you're tired, I'll hold you. Don't worry, I won't leave you."
"Yes, Your Highness, you are so good to me."
Feng Yan and the others looked around, too embarrassed to watch. It was truly shameful to see the princess acting coquettishly in front of outsiders.
They all felt a little sorry for the governor of Nanliang. They wondered if they would be shocked if they knew that the seemingly delicate princess he spoke of was actually a woman who could kill someone with an arrow from a hundred paces away.
The governor of Liangzhou covered his mouth and smiled. He was a ruthless killer, and even a man as unyielding as the Prince of Zhou could not escape the charms of a beautiful woman.
The group followed him over mountains and valleys, finally arriving at the Third Prince's campsite at dusk.
However, when the governor of Liangzhou saw the camp destroyed by fire, he almost tumbled off his horse in shock: "What, what, what happened? How did it burn like this? What on earth happened?"
Lu Xiaoyun was furious and grabbed the Liangzhou Prefect's collar: "Where is my sister, Princess Ruoling! This morning, the Prefect swore that Princess Ruoling was well. You call that well?!"
The Southern Liang soldiers brought by the Liangzhou governor drew their swords and aimed them at Lu Xiaoyun.
Feng Yan and the others were naturally not to be outdone, and they also drew their swords and pointed them at them.
The two groups were on the verge of war.
Knowing he was in the wrong, the governor of Liangzhou hurriedly ordered his soldiers to put down their swords: "King An of Great Zhou, there must be some misunderstanding here. Rest assured, Southern Liang will give Great Zhou an explanation. Right now, it's more important to figure out the situation and find the person."
Upon hearing this, Lu Xiaoyun released him and ordered Feng Yan and the others to sheathe their swords: "Very well, I will see how Southern Liang explains itself to my Great Zhou. Princess Ruoling is the younger sister of my Great Zhou's new emperor and myself. If anything happens to her, my Great Zhou will surely march north!"
The governor of Liangzhou turned pale. What on earth was the Third Prince doing? Why did he turn into this?
"Go, go find them, go find them quickly!" The governor of Liangzhou ordered the Southern Liang soldiers, his voice trembling as he spoke.
The Southern Liang soldiers immediately split up to search for them.
The governor of Liangzhou prayed to Heaven that Princess Ruoling would not have any mishaps, and that if anything were to happen, it would not happen in his Liangzhou city.
Lu Xiaoyun, "extremely anxious," ordered Feng Yan and the others to also rummage through the ruins.
A quarter of an hour later, Feng Yan shouted, "Master, I'm here!"
When the governor of Liangzhou heard this, he was initially delighted, but when he saw the Prince of An's entourage carrying a long-dead corpse out of the ruins, he felt like dying. He thought to himself, "It's over. I'm sure the Prince of An of the Great Zhou will chop me up today."
Lu Xiaoyun and Zhu Yu immediately ran over, with the Liangzhou Prefect following closely behind, his legs wobbling as he walked.
“My lord, she is not a princess, but Xiaoman, the princess’s personal maid.”
The governor of Liangzhou breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, as long as it wasn't the princess's corpse.
Then another attendant beside Prince An said, "My lord, this is another personal maid of the princess."
Then, one by one, the bodies of the princess's eunuchs and guards were unearthed.
The governor of Liangzhou collapsed to the ground, his face ashen. This was truly the end for him. Would the Third Prince have coveted Princess Ruoling of the Great Zhou and burned all the people she brought with him to death, then abducted her and ran away?
Otherwise, why would they not come to the prefect's residence in Liangzhou, but instead station the wedding delegation in such a godforsaken place?
Fourteen corpses were laid out in a row; all of them had their throats slit, killed with a single blow.
Lu Xiaoyun's face was ashen. She grabbed the Liangzhou Prefect from the ground and lifted him up, her eyes burning with fury: "You Southern Liang had better give me an explanation! Why did Princess Ruoling disappear after only twenty-odd days in Southern Liang, and all the people she brought with her have died tragically here!"
After saying that, Lu Xiaoyun pushed the person to the ground.
The governor of Liangzhou was a civil official. When the military general "Prince An" pushed him like that, he fell heavily to the ground. His palms hit the ground and were scraped by stones, but he dared not utter a single word of dissent.
The Southern Liang soldiers he brought were now even less likely to draw their swords at him as they had at the beginning; they all lowered their heads and dared not utter a word.
The group expanded the search area.
"Find her for me! I demand to see her alive or dead! If anything happens to my Great Zhou princess, I will lead my army to smash down the gates of your Southern Liang palace!"
The governor of Liangzhou dared not refute him, and felt a chill run through his body: "Very well, I will search for it right away."
Half an hour later, the Southern Liang soldiers found Princess Ruoling, who had "fainted," in a mountain cave.
"Sir, there are people in the cave!" a soldier from Southern Liang shouted.
Lu Xiaoyun rushed over first, pushed aside the withered branches and weeds at the entrance of the cave, and carried out a woman who was extremely weak.
The woman's face was covered in filth, her clothes were tattered, and she had several cuts on her hands and legs, with black blood congealed on her clothes. On the right side of her face, there was a burn scar, with the flesh torn open and bloody, a shocking sight.
When Zhu Yu saw the woman Lu Xiaoyun was carrying out, he was stunned for a moment. How could it be Ruoling?
Didn't they arrange for Qi Yu to impersonate her? Why did she still come by herself?
They couldn't bear to see Ling so terrified, so they had Qi Yu disguise herself as her.
Qi Yu was about the same height as her, but Qi Yu had practiced martial arts since childhood, while Ruo Ling was a delicate young lady. From a distance, you could not see anything, but if you looked closely, you could still see the difference.
Upon seeing the woman, the governor of Liangzhou felt a wave of dizziness and his head buzzed. There was no doubt that this woman was Princess Ruoling of the Great Zhou Dynasty. On the day Princess Ruoling arrived in Liangzhou with Prince Hui of the Great Zhou to marry the princess, he and a group of Liangzhou officials met with her.
But in her current state, she'd be better off dead.
"An, Prince An..."
Lu Xiaoyun held the woman who had "fainted" in her arms, ignoring him. She exuded a powerful aura that kept strangers at bay, as if she would tear anyone who came near her to pieces. She strode away.
The governor of Liangzhou was covered in cold sweat. He ordered his men, "Quickly, prepare the carriage."
"Find a doctor, find the best doctor in Liangzhou!"
"Go and prepare the best room in the prefect's mansion. Hurry up, hurry up!"
"Go find him again, go find the Third Prince, hurry!"
His voice trembled as he spoke. Such a serious incident had occurred to the princess sent for a political marriage on his territory, and the fate of the third prince was also unknown. This was no laughing matter. He wondered how much longer he, the governor of Liangzhou, would have his head on his neck.
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