assassin?

Tao Ti's heart suddenly skipped a beat and her face was filled with shock.

These assassins were coming for the prince? Who sent them?

The first thing that came to her mind was the resentful and hateful look of Princess Mu...

Could it be Princess Mu? But Prince Mu is also outside, she won't go crazy and ignore her husband, right?

Tao Ti stood up with her hands on the table. The sounds of fighting outside became more and more intense, and her calves felt a little weak.

"What should we do? There are so many soldiers guarding here, how could there be an assassin?"

"Ah, my husband is still outside, wuwuwuwu..."

"Guards, where are the guards? Help!"

The other women in the private room suddenly became a mess, screaming in panic. Some hid in the corners, and some hid under the table. Their instinct for survival made them ignore their status and etiquette.

Tao Ti didn't care about them. She pursed her tender red lips and was about to walk out.

Linglong stopped her and said, "Don't go, Crown Princess. It's dangerous outside!"

Tao Ti grabbed Linglong's hand and said anxiously, "Linglong, you also know martial arts. Go out and protect His Highness. These assassins should be coming for His Highness!"

Linglong was startled. Although she was also worried about the situation outside, she thought of His Highness's special instructions last night and gritted her teeth and said, "Crown Princess, His Highness told me to put your safety first in everything."

"I'm fine, look, they haven't come in yet!"

“…”

Seeing Linglong silent, Tao Ti frowned. This feeling of only being able to hear the voices but not being able to see what was happening outside was really terrible. She was in agony. She said, "Then don't hold me back. I have to go take a look."

Linglong was about to stop, but Taoti pulled her sleeve and said in a pitiful and coquettish way, "I know I don't know martial arts, and it would be a mess if I went out. I will hide by the door to see what the prince is like now. If I don't see it with my own eyes, I won't feel at ease."

Her dark eyes were full of water and her voice was light and soft. Linglong was a little hesitant for a moment.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Taoti rushed to the door and poked his head out through the crack of the door.

The fight outside was very fierce, with the guards on the ship tangled with a bunch of men in black. The flashing of swords and the shadow of sabers made people's hearts tremble with fear. There were already many corpses lying on the ground, some of assassins and some of officers and soldiers. Flesh and blood were flying everywhere, and the air was filled with a strong smell of blood.

The lantern was shaking in the wind. Tao Ti frowned and tried hard to find Pei Yan.

She saw Prefect Sun shivering in the corner, Prince Mu surrounded by guards, Zhan Ping fighting fiercely with five or six assassins, and Fu Xirui covering his shoulder and rolling his eyes in pain... She looked around but couldn't find Pei Yan.

Tao Ti was anxious: Where is the prince? Such a big prince!

She wanted to squeeze her head out of the crack in the door, and said anxiously, "Linglong, where is His Highness? Why can't I see him?!"

Seeing her stamping her feet in anxiety, Linglong felt a little depressed.

Tao Ti's brows were tightly furrowed. She was very panicked when she couldn't see Pei Yan. Countless bad situations had already appeared in her mind.

Was he stabbed? Or was he captured by an assassin? Or did he accidentally fall into the river?

No, no, she couldn't just stand there and watch.

"I have to go out and take a look--" Tao Ti said. Just as she was about to open the door, she remembered something and turned around to look around in the private room.

Tables and chairs? No, they are too heavy to move.

Incense burner? No, it burns my hands and is difficult to hold.

This long vase...is okay.

Tao Ti strode forward and poured out all the flowers and water inside. She held the neck of the vase in her hand and was about to push open the door when she heard a lady calling out, "Crown Princess, Crown Prince... Your Highness!"

Tao Ti was stunned and looked in the direction the lady pointed. She saw outside the right window of the houseboat, Pei Yan and several guards were being besieged by a dozen men in black.

Those men in black were like cockroaches, pouring out from every corner. After one was chopped down, another one appeared again.

Seeing that the number of guards around Pei Yan was decreasing, Tao Ti felt nervous and her hands holding the vase were shaking.

When she saw Pei Yan's arm being slashed and blood staining his light-colored clothes, Tao Ti could no longer stand, and her voice broke due to excessive tension, "Your Highness!"

Ahhhh, damn assassin, how dare you hurt him!

Tao Ti was so angry that she was shaking all over!

………

Pei Yan was being attacked by the leader of the men in black. He kept dodging with a sword in his hand. However, he was hit on the waist and arm, and blood was flowing out.

The man in black, with powerful moves, stared at Pei Yan intently. Above the black scarf covering his face, his sharp eyes flashed brightly.

When their eyes met, Pei Yan's face turned pale and his gaze was firm.

The leader of the men in black suddenly changed his sword moves. The long sword glowed coldly in the night. The next moment, the sword head broke through the wind and went straight towards Pei Yan's chest.

"Swish!" The sound of the sword piercing through brocade and flesh.

"Bang!" The sound of the vase hitting the black-clad man's arm.

Before the two could react, a petite figure swiftly and nimbly rushed towards them, "Your Highness, run!"

Pei Yan was shocked.

The figure directly hit the waist of the man in black. The man in black dodged nimbly, and Taoti didn't have time to brake, and crashed through the railing directly.

"ah--!"

What a shoddy railing!

"Ati!"

"Your Highness—"

In the dark night, two figures fell into the water one after another.

The man in black swayed and almost jumped down. He looked up and saw Zhan Ping breaking through the siege and rushing over with a group of guards. The man in black had a gloomy look in his eyes, put away his sword, and quickly retreated.

"Crown Princess, Crown Princess!" Linglong lay beside the broken railing and shouted down, her eyes red.

"Where is His Highness? Where is the Crown Princess?" Zhan Ping asked anxiously.

"The Crown Princess fell down, and His Highness followed her."

Upon hearing this, Zhan Ping cursed anxiously, and then quickly said to the guards, "Everyone who can swim, go down and make sure to find the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess!"

Soon, the guards went into the water to clean up.

Soon, Prince Mu and Prefect Sun also came over, "Master Zhan, how is His Highness?"

Zhan Ping looked at them unscathed, his stern face tensed, and sneered, "You hid quickly just now, but now you care about me."

Prince Mu's grandson, the prefect, "..."

Zhan Ping was as calm as water. "Your Highness's accident happened in your territory of Luoyang. It was you, Prefect Sun, who arranged the farewell banquet on the painting boat tonight. If anything happens to Your Highness, you will not be able to escape responsibility!"

After all, he was too lazy to play along with them, so he quickly got off the pleasure boat, changed to a small boat, and organized people to start collecting.

Prince Mu and Prefect Sun stood where they were, each looking uglier than the other.

Prefect Sun asked, "Your Highness, what is going on here? For the prince's safety, I have deployed heavy troops on both sides of the river today. Where did these assassins come from and how did they get on the boat?"

Prince Mu glared at him angrily, "Why are you asking me this? How would I know?"

Prefect Sun: "You, you..."

Prince Mu guessed what Prefect Sun meant, and angrily cursed, "Do you think I'm a fool? How many heads do I have to chop off for assassinating someone at a banquet like this?!"

Prefect Sun was so shocked by the shouting that he trembled all over and said angrily, "Your Highness has misunderstood me. That is not what I meant."

Prince Mu stroked his beard and looked at the soldiers who were hunting in the dark with a complicated expression. What exactly was going on with this assassination tonight?

Could it be that Chang'an arranged this? Or... the princess? ! !

As soon as this guess came up, the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. He angrily cursed the narrow-minded woman in his heart, saying that she was going to kill the entire Prince Mu's Mansion!

"Hey, Prince, where are you going?"

"I will return home first. You stay here, Prefect Sun. If there is any news, send someone to inform me immediately." Prince Mu said this and left in a hurry.

Prefect Sun clenched his fist and pounded his palms twice, his face fell. What on earth was going on?

………

Batch after batch of soldiers dived into the river, only to return with disappointment again and again.

"Master Zhan, the water is too fast, and it's pitch black at night. We can't see anything, so it's really hard to find it."

"We have to look for him no matter how hard it is. If we can't find the prince, we'll all clean our necks and wait for our heads to be chopped off!"

"Master Zhan, why don't we wait until daybreak and send more people to look for him?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? When the day breaks, I don't know where the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess have gone."

Zhan Ping was almost pissed off by these people. If he didn't have to stabilize the situation on the shore, he would have wanted to dive into the water to look for it himself.

He clenched his fists, stood on the shore, and looked at the surging Luo River as the night spread. His thick brows were tightly wrinkled into the shape of a "川" character.

——

Tao Ti could swim, and she fell into the river suddenly. Apart from swallowing a few mouthfuls of water at the beginning, nothing serious happened to her.

The problem was that she never expected that Pei Yan would also jump down——

At first he tried hard to swim towards Taoti, but he had several wounds on his body, especially on his chest. The harder he swam, the faster the blood flowed.

By the time he finally managed to hold Tao Ti's hand, he was already exhausted. Under the cold moonlight, his handsome face turned pale.

"Ati." He called softly, and his hands and feet felt extremely heavy.

Seeing his weak appearance, Tao Ti became anxious and quickly grabbed his shoulders, "Your Highness, hold on, I'll take you ashore..."

She tried hard to swim towards the shore, but Pei Yan was tall and strong, and the water was flowing fast, so she became weaker and weaker.

The feeling of my strength slowly draining away from my body was so clear, so clear that it was frightening.

When it came to this, she was no longer afraid of death. At worst, if she died, she could just go to the underworld and be reborn.

But she couldn't give up, Pei Yan was still by her side, and she couldn't let him die.

Before her strength was about to run out, Tao Ti hugged his arms tightly, pulled off her belt, and tied their wrists tightly together to prevent them from being washed away by the river water.

After doing this, she was exhausted and in a state of emptiness, relaxing her body and floating down with the river.

I don't know how long it floated, as if I was in a deep sleep. When Tao Ti opened her eyes again, the sky was crab shell blue and the water flow had slowed down a lot.

Tao Ti bit her tongue hard, using the pain to stay awake. Looking at Pei Yan, who was floating beside her with his eyes closed, she gathered her last bit of strength and swam towards the dark shore.

The moment her body touched the ground, she almost cried.

Finally got ashore!

She took two deep breaths and without taking a rest, she turned over to check on Pei Yan's condition.

"Your Highness, we've reached the shore, wake up!" She reached out and patted his face.

Pei Yan's face was as pale as paper due to excessive blood loss. Hearing the call, he forced himself to open his eyes. Tao Ti's face in front of him gradually became clear from blurry.

Tao Ti was delighted, "That's great, you still have consciousness..."

She turned her head and looked around. It was now slightly bright in the sky, revealing a remote forest.

She had little idea of ​​the direction, only that they seemed to be drifting very far away.

Retracting her gaze, Tao Ti looked at Pei Yan's torn robe. There were arrow wounds of varying degrees on his arms, chest and back. The bloodstains that had just been diluted by the river water had dyed his robe red again.

Tao Ti wiped the water off her face and dragged him to a big rock on the shore with all her might. "Your Highness, I will bandage your wound first. You can't bleed any more."

She murmured an "offense" and used her small hands to untie his robe, layer by layer, until his thin and strong upper body was completely exposed in front of her.