The Prince of Qin's Mansion in the east of the city.
After finishing the morning court session, Cheng Liang Xuan Yuanhan returned to his residence. He had just sat down in Chenghua Hall when he seemed to remember something.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Liang quickly entered and respectfully bowed to him, asking, "What are your orders, Your Highness?"
"Where are the princess and the crown prince?" Xuan Yuanhan asked.
Cheng Liang hesitated for a moment, then timidly replied, "Just after His Highness left this morning, the Crown Prince and the Princess also left the palace together?"
"They've returned to the palace?" Xuan Yuanhan asked, seemingly somewhat surprised. He knew that these two were not the type to obediently return to the palace on their own so easily.
Cheng Liang hurriedly replied, "No, before the Crown Prince and Princess left, they left a message for the guards in the mansion, saying that if Your Highness asked, they should say that they went to the market in the east of the city. I think they probably went to the Yi residence to find Miss Yi."
Xuanyuan Han suddenly realized what was going on. He then lowered his head to deal with the urgent documents at hand.
At this moment, a troubled look suddenly appeared on Cheng Liang's face, and he hesitated. Xuan Yuanhan looked up at him again, and while reaching out a large, well-defined hand to a document placed on the corner of the table, he asked indifferently, "What happened?"
To everyone's surprise, Cheng Liang was stunned for a long time, then bit his lip, and suddenly knelt down with a "thump," blurting out the shocking news he had just received: "Your Highness, I deserve to die. I just received a message from Wanjiao Pavilion saying... Yu Niang is missing."
Xuanyuan Han looked up sharply in surprise and angrily asked, "What kind of work is this?"
Cheng Liang said in a panic, "My men stationed at Wanjiao Pavilion have been keeping a close watch on her. Recently, I planned to hand over the portrait of the First Prince of Beilie, Tuoba Ze, to Yu Niang, but suddenly I discovered she was missing. I immediately sent men to search almost every inch of Wanjiao Pavilion, but we couldn't find her. Could it be that she has already..."
Xuan Yuanhan pondered for a moment, "If the deployment is correct, then she must still be in Wan Jiao Pavilion..."
After saying that, he looked out the window and continued to ponder.
Cheng Liang was also extremely puzzled. "I have already sent people to guard Wanjiao Pavilion from all sides, making it airtight. There is no way she could have disappeared into thin air, but now we really can't find any trace of Yu Niang."
Just as the two were deep in thought, Xuanyuan Yue and Xuanyuan Hao rushed into the main hall as if their pants were on fire. Xuanyuan Hao ran ahead, shouting, "Uncle Qin, something terrible has happened!"
Upon hearing this, Xuanyuan Han quickly snapped out of his daze, raised his eyebrows, and glanced outside, wondering what trouble these two little devils had gotten into this time...
Xuanyuan Hao ran in, panting heavily. When he crossed the threshold of the main hall, he was not careful and almost tripped and fell to the ground.
Xuan Yuan Yue reacted quickly and grabbed him from behind, but Xuan Yuan Hao didn't have time to think about anything else. He rushed forward to Xuan Yuan Han's side and stammered before he could catch his breath, "Qin Emperor... Emperor... Emperor... Uncle, something bad has happened! Yun'er... she... she went to Wan Jiao Pavilion." Xuan Yuan Yue also looked at him with a panicked expression and nodded frantically.
Xuan Yuanhan was greatly shocked. He immediately stood up, hesitated for a moment, and said, "What?!...Cheng Liang?"
Cheng Liang reacted quickly: "Yes."
Before Xuan Yuanhao and Xuan Yuanyue could catch their breath and finish speaking, Xuan Yuanhan and Cheng Liang had already disappeared from the main hall.
Before they could catch their breath, they quickly turned back and hurriedly followed him out.
As soon as they stepped out of the Prince's Mansion, the four of them spurred their horses and galloped towards the Wanjiao Pavilion in the south of the city.
Xuanyuan Han then inquired in detail, "Tell me exactly what happened."
After gathering his thoughts, Xuan Yuanhao said, "This morning, Hao'er and my elder sister planned to surprise Yun'er at the Yi residence. However, a maid named Yan'er who opened the door told us that Yun'er had left early this morning. When we asked her where Yun'er had gone, she stammered and couldn't give a clear answer. Later, she led us to a small teahouse on the corner of Yi residence. The owner was hesitant at first, but Hao'er had no choice but to reveal his identity and force him to tell the truth. He said that Yun'er had gone to Wanjiao Pavilion with two men."
"Two men?" Xuan Yuanhan asked with suspicion.
"Yes, Hao'er has already pressed him for answers. The teahouse owner said that recently, a very generous stranger came to the teahouse and asked many questions about the Yi family's past, especially about Yun'er. These past few days, he has been guarding the teahouse almost all day. This morning, Yun'er came to the teahouse to ask him for the address of Wanjiao Pavilion. He was mindful that Yun'er was an unmarried woman, so he tried his best to stop her, but in the end, he still couldn't stop her."
Xuanyuan Han asked urgently, "Then what is the connection with those two strange men?"
Xuan Yuanhao hurriedly said, "Because it is the New Year, most of the coachmen have already closed their shops at home. So, those two men claimed that they were also going to Wanjiao Pavilion in the south of the city to discuss business, so they used this as an excuse to travel with Yun'er."
Xuanyuan Han pondered for a moment, then murmured, "This is no coincidence; it was clearly premeditated, someone deliberately waiting to ambush me. I was careless again; I should have sent people to guard the Yi residence day and night."
After saying that, he asked, "Have you found out where those two men came from?"
As Xuan Yuanhao was recalling, Xuan Yuanyue quickly interrupted, "The teahouse owner said that the two people were not from Western Qin, but claimed to be... from Dongning Kingdom."
Xuan Yuanhan was startled upon hearing this and immediately looked up at Xuan Yuanyue, who also had some doubts in her heart.
At this moment, Xuanyuan Hao interjected with a question, "Uncle, what do you think Yun'er was doing going to a place like that?"
Suddenly, Cheng Liang, who was following closely behind, seemed to remember something and hurriedly spoke up, "Your Highness, on New Year's Eve, I went to deliver clothes to Ling'er and her grandmother. When I passed Lin Yuexuan, I saw Miss Yi alone at Muxue Tinghan, so I went over and said a few words to her. She knew at the time that Ling'er and her grandmother were still in the Prince's mansion. Could it be that she later went to see Ling'er's grandmother and learned about Yu Niang's matter? Oh no..."
Before Cheng Liang could finish speaking, Xuan Yuanhan's gaze sharpened even more. He cracked his whip and shouted "Giddy up!" before spurring the horse into a gallop.
Everyone frowned deeply, a sense of foreboding immediately rising in their hearts.
In Wanjiao Pavilion, south of the city.
In a dark, empty, damp, gloomy and cold room, Yu Niang was huddled in a corner, sitting on the floor, terrified.
Her hands and feet were tightly bound and tied, making it impossible for her to move at all. No matter how much she struggled, it was all in vain.
Her eyes were covered by a thick black cloth, and her mouth was gagged. She had no idea how many days she had spent there.
All she knew was that every now and then, someone would come in and quietly feed her.
She could clearly sense that sometimes the person fed her water, sometimes food, and sometimes the medicine soup that she swallowed tasted different each time.
At first, she resisted and struggled desperately. But no matter how much she made a scene, the man remained cautiously silent, like a deaf and mute wooden figure.
So, gradually, she calmed down and gave up those hopeless struggles and resistance.
At that moment, she was certain that she was going to die like this.
Suddenly, she thought of her warm husband Zhao Ping'an, her little darling Ling'er, and her mother-in-law who treated her like her own daughter.
She thought of her family of three, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, with wisps of smoke rising from their chimneys and the evening breeze carrying the fragrance of birdsong and flowers to their yard. Although they ate simple meals every day, they lived a very comfortable and happy life.
If it weren't for the fact that every tough, passionate man harbors a heart devoted to protecting his country, she thought their family would have lived a peaceful and happy life.
Now, she doesn't even know whether her husband is alive or dead, yet she has to embark alone on that heartbreaking journey to the underworld.
As she thought about it, tears welled up in her eyes again and silently streamed down her face, wetting her fair and beautiful face.
Then, he silently recited in his heart: "We became husband and wife, our love unwavering. Joy fills this evening, a beautiful and auspicious time. The traveler, longing for his distant journey, rises to see how late the night is. The stars have all set, and I must depart from here. My journey is on the battlefield, and there is no hope of reunion. We hold hands in a long, joyful farewell, tears for this lifetime. Cherish the spring blossoms, and never forget the joyful times. If I live, I will return; if I die, I will forever yearn for you."
Then came another heart-wrenching cry. Finally, utterly exhausted, she silently prayed, "Ping An, the luckiest thing for Yu Niang in this life was being able to marry you; in the next life, you must remember to hold Yu Niang's hand tightly and never let go..."
Separated by a wall from the dark outside, Tuoba Ze, dressed in a black outfit, stood tall and straight at the door with his hands behind his back.
He squinted, peering through a tiny window, the dim light streaming in through the small window, at the restless woman inside, and felt a pang of pity and tenderness in his heart.
After a long while, he murmured, "Even if I owe you in this life, I will definitely repay you in the next."
He has lost himself. He doesn't even know why he has become the way he is today.
He seemed incapable of being a true king, yet also incapable of being his true self. He seemed never before so indecisive.
Suddenly, he began to envy his younger brother, whom he had previously looked down upon the most.
Why is it that he can win the emperor's favor without doing anything, while I, despite fighting on the battlefield and achieving great feats, am ignored by the emperor?
The poor man, even knowing it was all in vain, still desperately kept moving forward. Because he knew that since his efforts had already resulted in this outcome, if he didn't do anything, he would be ignored even more.
Was fate truly so unfair to him from the start? He hated everyone who ignored him, who was disrespectful, and who provoked him.
He believed that one day, this world would surely be his, and he would defy fate to create a great land for himself, so that the entire Lingkong Continent would respect him.
The first step was to eliminate the Spirit God of War—King Qin of Western Qin—and then sweep across the land, flattening the Western Qin Kingdom.
In an instant, his eyes seemed to shoot out a thousand sharp swords, their cold light chilling and terrifying. His fists behind his back clenched tightly, cracking loudly...
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