Upon learning that Xuanyuan Han had personally visited Sihai Tea House, Tuoba Ze naturally couldn't believe that such a person had come specifically to drink tea.
Last time at Wanjiao Pavilion, he almost fell into their hands and was doomed, so this time he must be extremely vigilant.
So, as soon as he came out of Xuanyuan Yue's room, Tuoba Ze called the woman and together they rushed back to Yi Shangyun's room.
With a creak, the door was opened from the outside.
The room was pitch black, deathly still, without a single glimmer of light.
"Why aren't you lighting the lamps?" Tuoba Ze asked the guard at the door angrily, turning his head to the side.
The guard said in a trembling voice, "Reporting to the master, it was the young lady inside who insisted that we not light the lamps, saying that she didn't want to be exposed to the light and was afraid of the glare."
The woman was startled and secretly glanced inside.
Tuoba Ze exhaled a breath of stale air, and the woman quickly stepped over the threshold and hurried into the house to light the lamp.
After waiting outside for a while, Tuoba Ze saw two figures appear in the window of the inner room. The woman came out of the inner room again, and then Tuoba Ze slowly stepped into the door with his hands behind his back.
Unexpectedly, when he lifted the beaded curtain of the inner room, he saw Yi Shangyun sitting motionless with her back to the door, seemingly listless and lost in thought. He had been sitting silently by the table for quite some time.
The wound on his arm from the sword he had blocked for Mei Xiyuan had long since stopped bleeding, but the floor beneath his feet was covered in bloodstains.
After standing at the door for a moment, staring blankly at his back, Tuoba Ze took a step closer and sat down opposite him, coldly saying, "What? Reluctant to leave?"
Yi Shangyun remained seated, completely unmoved, and ignored him.
Knowing that she had lost her memory, Tuoba Ze stopped bringing up the past and instead advised, "If you insist on staying, the Princess of Qin can't do anything to you. She's not as ruthless as the young lady of Xiqin Academy. If you're willing to bow down to her, perhaps she'll accept you back?"
Unexpectedly, Yi Shangyun remained silent, as if he were nailed to the ground.
Tuoba Ze sighed, then raised his voice slightly to slander and curse: "What's so good about that Prince Qin, Xuanyuan Han? Every woman in the world is crazy and secretly in love with him, yet he can't even protect the woman he loves most, and he still dares to dream of ruling the whole world. What a joke, a huge joke!"
Finally, a slight emotion seemed to appear on Yi Shangyun's face. But then, two streams of bitter tears suddenly rolled down her cheeks.
As soon as she realized it, she quickly closed her eyes, as if trying to hide the remaining tears in her eyes so that no one would notice her grief.
After a while, she opened her eyes, looked ahead, and suddenly asked, "Are you really a merchant from the Northern Lie Kingdom?"
Tuoba Ze paused for a moment, then blurted out, "Yes, I am a merchant from the Northern Lie Kingdom!"
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangyun let out a cold laugh and blurted out, "Are you a human trafficker?"
Tuoba Ze was caught off guard and stared at her back, exclaiming in surprise, "I..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yi Shangyun quickly reached out a hand to interrupt him: "You don't need to explain to me. I don't want to know who you are. But there's one thing I have to make clear to you now."
"Speak freely if you have something to say," Tuoba Ze said generously.
Yi Shangyun remained with her back to him, refusing to look at his face, and said in a low voice, "I only know medicine, so I do nothing but heal the sick. If I cannot have absolute freedom, I would rather die right here in front of you!"
“You didn’t need to do anything. What I value in you is only your medical skills,” Tuoba Ze replied, going along with her words.
Yi Shangyun took a deep breath, as if she had finally mustered up her courage, and decided, "Alright, since that's the case, I'll go with you! The sooner the better."
“Great, it seems you’ve finally come to your senses. That’s more like it. Leaving this heartbreaking place of intrigue and backstabbing, you can come to my vast grasslands, where ‘the sky is high enough for birds to fly and the sea is wide enough for fish to leap.’ I guarantee you will experience a true freedom you’ve never felt before.”
Tuoba Ze said excitedly and confidently.
As soon as he finished speaking, he let out a hearty laugh, stood up, and strode towards the door. He instructed the woman who was waiting outside, "Take good care of the young lady as she washes and gets ready to go."
After saying that, he walked away from the backyard to arrange other pre-departure matters.
The woman outside the door faintly heard the conversation between the two inside. Seeing Tuoba Ze leave, she rushed in and went to Yi Shangyun. While bandaging the wound on his arm, she excitedly said:
"Girl, are you crazy? How could you agree to go to that barbaric land with him? It's not a place for humans to live. It's bitterly cold all year round, and people are always short of clothes and food. The people there are extremely savage and ferocious. If you go, it's like sending yourself to your death."
Unexpectedly, Yi Shangyun slowly rose, sat down in front of a bronze mirror, gently stroked a stray strand of hair, and said calmly to her disheveled reflection:
"Auntie, I've made up my mind, you don't need to try to persuade me anymore. Before you leave, please comb my hair one last time! I don't even know how many days it's been since I tied my hair up. I hardly recognize myself like this."
As he spoke, he casually handed a comb from the table to the woman.
As the woman took it, she carefully walked to the window and peered into the courtyard outside for a while. Then she returned and whispered to Yi Shangyun, "Miss, try to delay for a few more days. His Highness Prince Qin has really come to Sihai Tea House."
"What did you say? His Highness really came. How could he... Could it be you..." Yi Shangyun immediately perked up and turned to the woman in surprise.
The woman shook her head, then nodded, then shook her head again, and finally said hesitantly, "Actually, I don't know what they're here for."
As he spoke, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he continued, "However, I have already subtly hinted to His Highness the Prince of Qin's deputy general, hoping that they can discover the clues on that waist token as soon as possible."
However, Yi Shangyun's face suddenly darkened.
The woman, seeing this, asked in bewilderment, "Why are you unhappy, young lady? Aren't you hoping that His Highness the Prince of Qin will come to rescue you?"
"Times have changed. Before, I acted impulsively and foolishly. But now, I know that they are the perfect match people often talk about, a union ordained by heaven. Moreover, the Princess Consort of Qin is already pregnant, and His Highness the Prince of Qin will soon become a father..."
Yi Shangyun slowly turned around to face the bronze mirror on the table, revealing a bitter smile, and said woodenly.
She paused, then slowly reached out and touched the birthmark on her face, saying sadly, "Perhaps they are right. An ugly woman like me, who is utterly worthless, should not have such expectations of such a noble man. I am not worthy at all. I... should leave."
"girl……"
The woman seemed to want to say something more, but Yi Shangyun stopped her with a hand: "My mind is made up, there's no need to say anything more. In this life, he and I are ultimately not destined to be together."
But with tears in her eyes, she thought to herself, "Your Highness, Yun'er is so reluctant to part with you..."
Meanwhile, in the courtyard behind her, both Xuan Yuan Yue and her maid Jin Lan were inexplicably feeling unbearably hot inside the house.
"Princess, I'm so hot, so hot! What's wrong with us?" Jinlan's face was flushed, her heart was pounding, and her hand reached out towards her sash without her control.
"Jinlan, no, you must hold back, you absolutely mustn't..."
Although Xuan Yuan Yue, who was inside the house with her, verbally refused, her body language betrayed her feelings. She was in a similar situation to Jin Lan, as if she were being burned inch by inch by a raging fire.
Suddenly, there was a loud "bang," as if the outside door had been kicked open forcefully.
Then five or six tall, burly men rushed in, each with a fierce, wolf-like expression and a menacing grin. As soon as they entered, they glared at the two men menacingly.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Upon seeing the man's malicious smile, Jinlan struggled to reach out and tightly embraced Xuan Yuan Yue's shoulders for protection, questioning him.
"Who are we?" The burly men looked at each other for a moment, bewildered.
One of the burly men, whose face was slightly paler, said with a wicked smile, "We...we're here to take care of you, of course."
"Get out! Get out! Who let you in? Get out now, get out of here right now..."
Clearly, Jinlan's words had no effect whatsoever on those heinous criminals.
Xuan Yuan Yue was also anxious and wanted to get up and use her fists and feet, but she couldn't muster any strength at all.
In a moment of desperation, she grabbed a teacup from the table and smashed it at the group of people.
Little did he know, he didn't even have the strength to stand up and aim at the enemy. Everything instantly fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.
The burly man, however, looked smug and continued to grope and approach the two men.
Just as the master and servant could only helplessly bury their heads in their hands and slowly retreat to a corner of the room, leaving everything to fate, a hand suddenly reached out from somewhere and abruptly pulled Jinlan away from Xuanyuan Yue's side.
"Jinlan"
"Princess"
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!" Just as Xuan Yuan Yue raised her head, she suddenly saw several darts flying in from the doorway.
Then, the burly men who had just been swaggering and baring their teeth at them suddenly collapsed heavily to the ground.
Upon seeing this, Xuanyuan Yue fainted instantly.
Just then, a handsome young man with a black mask covering his face leaped in from the doorway and caught him by the waist, preventing him from falling onto the cold ground.
Jinlan immediately burst into tears and rushed to her side, crying, "Princess, Princess..."
“It’s acacia incense! The incense stick inside the room is poisoned.” Another man, also wearing a black veil, carefully examined the room before approaching the man and saying this.
"Damn it! To use such despicable means to deal with these defenseless women, how utterly vile!" The man supporting Xuan Yuan Yue said angrily to his companion.
After a brief silence, the man asked, "Is there an antidote for the acacia incense?"
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