Seeing that the head of the family, Yi Shangkun, had finally arrived late to greet the emperor with his entire family, Cheng Liang glared at him angrily, but he couldn't care less about him. He was busy carefully searching the large crowd kneeling in front of the Yi family mansion.
The accompanying guards, each holding a bright torch, quickly surrounded the men, women, and children in the crowd, illuminating everyone's face clearly.
However, after walking around and searching repeatedly to make sure that he hadn't missed anyone, Cheng Liang found that he couldn't find Yi Shangyun's figure.
Before Xuan Yuanhan could speak, Cheng Liang glanced at his master behind him with a puzzled look. Seeing his furrowed brows, he suddenly turned back to look at Yi Shangkun's face and asked, "Pharmacist Yi, I heard that Miss Yi returned today, but I don't see her."
Yi Shangkun lay prostrate on the ground with his head down, already feeling uneasy about Xuan Yuanhan's sudden visit to the Yi residence late at night.
"Yun'er?..." Upon hearing Cheng Liang's words, she was instantly shocked and at a loss for words. She hadn't figured out the truth about Yi Shangyun's pregnancy yet, so how was she supposed to bring it up now?
He never expected that Xuan Yuanhan would find out about this news so soon after Yi Shangyun returned.
...
As Cheng Liang was pondering this, he noticed that the other people kneeling around him were lowering their heads even further, as if they wished they could dig a hole and crawl into it.
It was obvious that something was amiss, so he called out again, "Pharmacist Yi? Pharmacist Yi?"
Yi Shangkun instantly seemed to wake up from a dream, looking up at the person in front of him. Who was this man? It was clearly impossible to fool him.
So he stammered, "My daughter...she...she did come back..."
Upon hearing this, Xuan Yuanhan could no longer contain his excitement and asked in a deep voice, though he was sparing with words, "Where is she now?"
Yi Shangkun dared not tell him a complete story of what had happened in the mansion that night, so he lowered his head again and stammered, "My daughter, she...she..."
Seeing this, Cheng Liang could no longer hold back and raised his voice to sternly rebuke him: "Why don't you speak up now? Do you want me to send men to search your entire mansion?"
Sure enough, Yi Shangkun trembled slightly in surprise and hurriedly said, "My daughter, she... she did come back during the day, but... but she left last night."
"They've left?" Upon hearing this, Cheng Liang was startled and looked at Xuan Yuanhan's face again.
Unexpectedly, despite rushing to catch up as soon as they received the news, they still couldn't make it.
After glancing at his master, Cheng Liang turned back and asked, "Where did she go now?"
Because of nervousness and fear, Yi Shangkun's body was trembling, and even his voice was shaking: "Your Highness, this humble subject does not know where my daughter went after she left?"
Cheng Liang felt that Yi Shangkun knew nothing when asked, and seemed to have no way to deal with him. He was wondering where Yi Shangyun could go.
Xuan Yuanhan looked at the people kneeling before him, all of them with their heads bowed as if they were very nervous, and felt that there must be something strange about Yi Shangyun's departure tonight.
Suddenly, a very bad premonition welled up in his heart, so he asked himself, "When did she leave the Yi residence?"
Yi Shangkun's earlier concerns were indeed correct; the person before him was not one to let anyone off easily: "She...she..."
Seeing that he was stammering again, Cheng Liang immediately scolded him, "His Highness is asking you a question personally. How dare you stammer like that? Speak up now!"
Startled, Yi Shangkun blurted out, "It was when the torrential rain started in the first half of the night."
"What did you say?"
Upon hearing this, Xuan Yuanhan's eyes widened immediately. He strode forward, grabbed Yi Shangkun by the collar, and lifted him up, gritting his teeth as he said fiercely, "If anything happens to her tonight, I will make your entire Yi family pay for it!"
Upon hearing this, the kneeling crowd knelt down and begged in unison, "Your Highness, spare our lives! Your Highness, spare our lives!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xuan Yuanhan shoved him away forcefully. Yi Shangkun was so shocked that he stumbled back several steps before regaining his footing.
Just as Xuanyuan Han turned around angrily, about to mount his horse and leave, Yi Shangkun, emboldened by some unknown source, suddenly spoke up: "Your Highness, please wait. May we speak in private?"
Xuan Yuanhan had absolutely no desire to have anything to do with someone who was so cautious and self-protective in the palace.
But when he thought about how he had kept Yi Shangyun hidden so safely all these years, a pang of pity rose in his heart.
So he took a few steps and stopped at a street corner. Yi Shangkun quickly stepped forward and approached him.
Xuanyuan Han stood with his back to him, hands behind his back, waiting.
After a moment's thought, Yi Shangkun took a deep breath and mustered his courage to speak, "Your Highness, my daughter is now pregnant and is afraid she can no longer serve you. Therefore, I implore Your Highness to spare Yun'er!"
"Let her go?" Xuan Yuanhan repeated in a deep voice.
Seeing that Xuan Yuanhan remained completely unmoved upon hearing the news, Yi Shangkun knew that Xuan Yuanhan must have already known about it. After a moment's thought, he firmly replied, "Yes."
Then, continuing meaningfully, he said, "Your Highness surely already knows everything about Yun'er, perhaps far more than I do. Now, I can no longer hide this child, and in the future, I can no longer protect her in the slightest. Therefore, perhaps, only by letting her return to where she rightfully belongs can she survive."
Having said that, he suddenly clasped his fists in a gesture of unprecedented seriousness and respect toward Xuan Yuanhan's back: "Your Highness, I implore you... to spare her, to spare this poor child? Although she is a princess of an enemy country, she has been kind-hearted since childhood and has never harmed anyone."
Upon hearing this, the surroundings fell silent.
After a while, Xuan Yuanhan suddenly laughed coldly.
He then slowly said, "Whether she is pregnant or not, and regardless of whether she is Princess Yongning of Dongning Kingdom or Yi Shangyun of Xiqin Kingdom, it seems that I am going to disappoint Pharmacist Yi."
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangkun stared in astonishment at his retreating figure: "Your Highness..."
All that could be heard was Xuan Yuanhan's resentful words: "In this life, Yi Shangyun, she was born a member of the Qin Prince's Mansion, and in death, she will be a ghost of the Qin Prince's Mansion. No one can stop her."
For a moment, Yi Shangkun could hardly believe his ears and staggered, almost falling over.
He watched helplessly as Xuan Yuanhan, dressed in a black cloak, walked past him with firm steps, but he could no longer utter a single word.
And so, this large group of people, in an instant, followed closely behind Xuan Yuanhan and disappeared into the vast night.
At dawn.
Suddenly, a golden light shone down from the distant east, breaking the silence of the night and instantly illuminating the hazy world.
Xuanyuan Han led his men in a relentless pursuit throughout the night, but to their dismay, they were unable to catch even a glimpse of Yi Shangyun.
At this moment, though unwilling to admit it, she had no choice but to think that after leaving the Yi family, she would have nowhere to go, so she rushed back to Dongning overnight.
As if grasping at the last glimmer of hope in his life, he galloped eastward along the only road leading to Dongning Kingdom, and now he was far, far away from the capital of Western Qin...
Cheng Liang carefully investigated the situation along the way, and after a long period of puzzlement, he finally couldn't help but speak up: "Your Highness, we have been chasing her all night, but we still haven't found any trace of Miss Yi. Perhaps... perhaps we were heading in the wrong direction from the start?"
As Cheng Liang spoke, he carefully examined the surroundings again, becoming increasingly puzzled: "Could it be that Miss Yi never left the city at all? Last night's fierce winds and torrential rain must have blocked the waterways. The route we've taken is the only way to Dongning, so there's no reason we would have missed it. Yet, we've been so focused on chasing after them that even though the heavy rain has passed and the roads are muddy everywhere, we haven't seen any traces of any other vehicles or horses besides ourselves."
As he spoke, he became even more certain of his doubts, and then looked at his master's face beside him.
To his surprise, despite all his analysis and explanation, his imposing and aloof master seemed to be possessed, gripping the reins tightly and staring straight ahead, showing no intention of slowing down even slightly.
Left with no other choice, Cheng Liang reached out and forcefully grabbed the reins from Xuan Yuanhan's hand, stopping the horse. He loudly pleaded, "Your Highness, please be clear-headed! I know you're more worried about Miss Yi than anyone else. But think about it: during your conversation with Yi Shangkun, I heard from Yan'er that Miss Yi overheard the argument between Yi Shangkun and his wife before going to bed and went to investigate. She then suddenly left the Yi residence without even having time to pack her bags. Not to mention the heavy rain and the dead of night, what coachman would be out soliciting passengers? Even if she managed to hire a carriage in the pouring rain, do you think an ordinary commoner's carriage could outrun the horses we're chasing?"
Xuanyuan Han remained motionless, gripping the reins tightly, his gaze fixed on the empty road ahead, without uttering a word.
As Cheng Liang spoke, he was thinking, and suddenly, even he couldn't believe it. A very bad premonition arose in his heart.
He paused, then stammered, "But...but if Miss Yi is really still in the city right now, then...with such a strong wind and rain tonight, and the sky so dark, a frail woman, and pregnant...what if she collapses from exhaustion on some deserted street corner, some hidden place, and goes unnoticed..."
At this moment, Xuan Yuanhan's eyes suddenly flashed, as if he had finally come to his senses.
Before Cheng Liang could finish speaking, he saw Cheng Liang turn his horse around in a flash and gallop back towards the imperial city.
Cheng Liang shook his head and immediately ordered the guard beside him, "Send a message back immediately, ordering all the secret guards in the city to conduct a thorough search of the Yi family mansion in the west of the city. Once they find any trace of her, report back immediately, quickly!"
"Yes," the guard replied earnestly, clasping his hands in a respectful gesture.
After saying that, the group of people spurred their horses and hurriedly chased after them.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com