After passing through several archways, just as they were about to reach the door, a group of people suddenly appeared outside.
In the end, only two people went inside; the rest stayed outside to guard the door.
After the two entered, they encountered no obstacles along the way, and all the guards they saw bowed to them with utmost respect.
Yi Shangyun murmured, "Who is this person? How can they move freely in the General's Mansion?"
So he stopped and took a closer look.
The person walking directly in front of him, the most conspicuous one, had a cold and stern face with a familiar-looking profile.
As the distance drew closer, Yi Shangyun quickly retreated and hid in a corner.
Soon, they finally saw the person's face clearly and exclaimed in surprise, "It's His Highness..."
In an instant, the man, who seemed like a god of the night, appeared to hear her voice.
He suddenly stopped and looked around in the shadows.
The guard beside him, seeing this, asked in confusion, "Your Highness, why have you stopped?"
Even Xuan Yuanhan himself couldn't believe that at this moment, in this unfamiliar place, he could actually sense Yi Shangyun's aura.
He then asked the guard, "Did you hear any sounds coming from here just now?"
Upon hearing this, the guard listened carefully and said, "Aside from the sound of the wind, there doesn't seem to be any other sound in this courtyard."
Xuanyuan Han clearly did not think so. He stood still for a moment, and then suddenly began to move slowly.
The direction he was heading was precisely the corner of the wall where the cloud on his clothes was hidden.
At this moment, Yi Shangyun's heart pounded, she held her breath, and covered her mouth with both hands to prevent herself from making a sound.
step
Two steps
Three steps
...
He was just one step away; one more step and he would find the person he had been searching for all his life.
But at that moment, after having a conversation with Yi Shangyun, Wang Chong, who was still watching her leave and had not actually left, saw that Yi Shangyun seemed to be intentionally avoiding Xuan Yuanhan.
She couldn't help but wonder, "Why does this Princess Consort of Qin seem to be deliberately avoiding the Prince of Qin?"
Without a second thought, he quickly stepped forward from the backyard, approached Xuan Yuanhan, and bowed, saying, "I was unaware that Your Highness, the Prince of Qin, was visiting so late at night. Please forgive my failure to come out and greet you properly!"
Upon hearing this, Xuanyuan Han, interrupted, suddenly stopped and turned around, saying, "General Wang..."
Wang Chong immediately knelt down and bowed to him, saying, "Your humble servant Wang Chong greets Your Highness the King of Qin, may you live a thousand years!"
Xuan Yuanhan said in a deep voice, "General Wang, please rise!"
Upon receiving the order, Wang Chong stood up and deliberately raised his voice towards the corner of the wall not far behind him, saying, "It's windy outside, Your Highness, please come inside with me to talk."
At this point, Xuanyuan Han finally stopped and gave up.
He glanced behind him and then stepped inside, led by Wang Chong.
Finally, Yi Shangyun slowly released her hands and let out a long sigh of relief.
Then, she gently patted her chest again and again, as if she had been quite frightened: "Thank goodness, I almost got discovered."
"The gate is heavily guarded; it seems there's no way out." Just as she caught her breath and was about to look for another way out, a hand suddenly reached out from behind her.
Without anyone noticing, they covered Yi Shangyun's mouth from behind, and Yi Shangyun instantly fainted.
When I woke up again.
She then realized that her hands and feet had been tightly bound with ropes. Perhaps to prevent her cries from attracting others, her mouth had also been gagged, and she was left in a corner of an empty, secret room.
Inside, a dim yellow light flickered on and off, almost disappearing under the ravages of the strong wind.
The light inside was so dim that she couldn't see the person's face clearly at all; she could only make out the silhouette of a man in the faint light on the wall.
"Mmm...mmm..." With her mouth gagged, Yi Shangyun could only manage a few weak, intermittent sounds to attract the other person's attention.
Upon hearing the sound, the figure hiding in the shadows inside the room finally emerged slowly.
But she found out that he was a lame man, limping, relying on a pair of crutches, who, though struggling, seemed to have long been used to it as he approached her.
He then bent down and removed the handkerchief that was covering Yun's mouth and clothes.
When Yi Shangyun met his eyes, she was surprised to find that the face in front of her was exactly the same as someone else's.
He was extremely surprised and called out to the man, "General Wang... no... you are not General Wang."
Indeed, the face in front of him looks remarkably like that of General Wang Chong, but he is not Wang Chong.
The light emanating from Wang Chong's eyes was one of justice, while the gaze of the person before him was truly unfathomable.
Yi Shangyun seemed to have a vague idea in his mind, so he tentatively asked, "Who are you? Why are you tied up here?"
The lame man chuckled coldly for a moment, then turned to her and said, "You don't need to know who I am. It doesn't matter. In this world, no one has ever cared who I am. From the moment I was born, I was the one who was abandoned. But what matters is that you need to know that you are about to die!"
"What did you say? What are you going to do?" Yi Shangyun asked, feeling terrified.
As he spoke, he backed away and shrank into the corner.
The lame man continued, "Why would you give up being the Queen Consort of Qin and come to this desolate Lu County?"
Although he had lived on the border for a long time, he had heard that King Xuanyuan Han of Qin had abandoned the marriage alliance with the royal family of Dongning Kingdom and married an ordinary woman from Xiqin Kingdom. How could a woman who could catch the eye of the God of War Lingkong be just an ordinary woman? She must have something extraordinary about her.
Now that I've seen it, it's nothing special.
Yi Shangyun felt increasingly frightened: "I... don't do anything rash."
As the lame man spoke, he slowly shifted his gaze back to Yi Shangyun's face, and suddenly his expression turned ferocious as he said, "I'm not like my brother, who only knows how to be soft-hearted. It was one thing for him to go along with those unruly people before, but now he's becoming more and more arrogant, daring to defy the imperial decree and wanting to sacrifice the lives of my entire clan, not even sparing the two newborn babies, just to let you, you wretched woman, go!"
Unexpectedly, this excitement ultimately exposed his true colors.
Yi Shangyun exclaimed in surprise, "Your brother...you're really General Wang Chong's brother?"
The cripple realized his slip of the tongue and stopped trying to pretend: "You're smart. You're going to die anyway, so what's the harm in knowing? My brother and I are conjoined twins. I was born without legs to save my brother and have to rely on prosthetics to live."
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangyun couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy.
He then quickly explained, "I think you must have misunderstood. General Wang hasn't let me go. I'm just begging him to give me one more day so I can finish one last thing for the people of Lu County. After tomorrow, you can do whatever you want with me."
The lame man immediately became angry: "Do you think I'm a three-year-old? I may be crippled, but I'm not brain-dead. I'll give you one more day. What if you run away?"
Yi Shangyun said confidently, "I won't..."
The lame man said, "How can I believe you?"
Just as Yi Shangyun was truly at a loss as to how to convince him, another person entered the secret room.
"Brother Yin, what are you doing?"
Wang Chong quickly saw off Xuan Yuanhan's men with a few words, and also learned from the guards in the mansion that he had not seen Yi Shangyun leave.
Therefore, she realized that Wang Yin must be trying to make things difficult for her.
So they followed him all the way here. As soon as they entered, they saw Yi Shangyun huddled in a corner, terrified. They asked Wang Yin.
"Brother..." Upon hearing the voice, Wang Yin turned around and said in surprise to the person behind him.
"What are you doing? Do you know who she is?" Wang Chong walked up to Wang Yin and asked, puzzled.
Wang Yin said bitterly, "Of course I know who she is. She is the beloved of Prince Qin, Xuanyuan Han, and also the damned woman who led the desertification control efforts this time."
Wang Chong looked carefully at Yi Shangyun's face, pondered for a moment, and then suddenly ordered, "Release her, she doesn't deserve to die!"
Upon hearing this, both Yi Shangyun and Wang Yin looked at Wang Chong's face in utter astonishment.
"Let him go... Does that mean our entire Wang family deserves to die? Do your two adorable newborn children deserve to die? Your sister-in-law practically walked through the gates of hell to give birth to this son and daughter for you. How are you going to explain this to her?"
Wang Yin was devastated upon hearing this and spoke with heartbreaking grief.
Wang Chong replied, "Brother Yin, look around, whether it's the late emperor or those later petty officials. Do you think any of them could be like her, working alongside the people from sunrise to sunset every day? Besides, she's a woman, and pregnant!"
“I…but…” Wang Yin had no way to refute this.
Just as the two brothers were arguing about this, Yi Shangyun, who had been silently standing by, finally spoke up.
"Stop arguing, you two. I will absolutely not let either of you die in my place. I'm not lying to you. I do have something very important to do tomorrow. This matter is closely related to the upcoming sandstorm and may very well play a decisive role. Once this is done, I will definitely return here and let you two decide my fate."
"Knock knock knock..."
Just as the three of them were deep in thought again, there was another urgent knock on the door.
Who could it be in the dead of night?
Wang Chong then hurried over and slowly opened the door a crack, peeking out only his head.
Upon seeing that the visitor was a servant from the manor, who seemed somewhat flustered, he asked, "It's the middle of the night, can't we talk about this tomorrow?"
The servant hurriedly said, "Master, something terrible has happened! His Highness Prince Qin has returned with his men."
Wang Chong panicked and asked, "What did you say? What is he doing back here? Did someone tell him that the Princess Consort had come?"
The servant said, "Since the general has given the order, no one in the manor will say anything. General Wei only said that His Highness Prince Qin seems to have left something behind and came back to retrieve it. Master, you should go and see for yourself. They are on their way here right now!"
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