At this moment, Lady Nian was pacing anxiously in her tent. She wasn't actually worried about Lanqin and Lady Li, but rather about whether the Fourth Prince would be disgusted with her after finding out what she had done.
"My lord, I saw that after you came out of Consort De's tent, you went back to your own tent. Then you went out again and rode away on horseback with a few people," Cui Ling reported back.
"He must be going to Niohuru. In fact, Mother had already sent people to look for him, but he chose to leave the Emperor behind and go to look for him himself." When Lady Nian heard that the Fourth Prince had gone to look for Lanqin, she felt both jealous and resentful.
Meanwhile, Emperor Kangxi was sitting behind the imperial table, and Consort De was already reporting to him about the events involving Lady Niohuru and Lady Li that day.
"Send people to search immediately, and also dispatch another group," Emperor Kangxi said immediately after hearing Consort De's report. Regardless, the two princes' concubines were lost, and people certainly needed to be sent to find them. Although Consort De had already sent people, as the emperor, he also had to take action. However, he specifically ordered that this matter not be spread, and that no one should speculate about it after learning about it. It was not advisable to make a fuss until the matter was clear.
Meanwhile, Lanqin was unaware that three groups of people had already come out to look for her. She followed Li Shi on horseback through the woods, but after walking for a long time, she still couldn't see the exit.
Looking up at the sky, Lanqin saw it growing darker and darker, and her anxiety grew. She felt that if she continued walking like this, she would lose her way back.
“Sister Li, are you sure you’re not mistaken? I feel like I’ve been to this place before,” Lanqin couldn’t help but say.
"Have we been here before?" Li asked.
“Yes, we really have been here. Look at that tree, I remember we saw it before, didn’t we?” Lanqin saw a strangely shaped tree, and she was sure she had been here before.
Li looked frightened and said, "I'm sorry, Sister Niu, I'm afraid we're still lost. I remember that little bit of stuff won't help."
After glancing at Li Shi a few times, Lan Qin had no choice but to calm herself down and start thinking of a solution: "If I don't get out soon, it will get dark. Someone must be looking for me now, they just haven't found me here yet. Or maybe I've gone too far."
“Sister Niohuru, why don’t we wait here? We’re getting more and more lost,” Li suggested again.
"Why don't we try to start a fire by rubbing sticks together? We need to find a way to let them know where we came from, otherwise it'll be too hard to find us in this huge forest," Lanqin said. She had already given up hope of ever getting out.
"How do we start a fire?" Li asked in surprise, not expecting Lanqin to ask such a question.
"You'll find out soon enough." Lanqin didn't want to delay any longer. After dismounting, she tied her horse to a tree. She didn't care whether Li Shi dismounted to help or not, and instead started looking for dry branches herself.
"What are you doing?" Li had no choice but to dismount and ask as she watched Lanqin bustling about on the ground.
"Can you come and help me start a fire by rubbing sticks together?" Lanqin said. She found some relatively thin and pointed pieces of wood, but they weren't thin enough.
Li walked up to Lanqin and squatted down to look at what she was holding. Lanqin looked at the jewelry on Li's head, then reached out and took the flat hairpin off her head.
"What are you doing?" Li looked at Lanqin's actions in surprise, finding her behavior very strange.
"May I borrow this hairpin of yours?" Lanqin said. Then, she picked out a relatively thin wooden stick and began to whittle one end of the stick with Li's flat hairpin.
Watching Lanqin struggle to whittle it with the flat hairpin, Li asked in bewilderment, "What's the point of all this?"
Lanqin was too lazy to explain. While peeling the leaves, she said, "Sister Li, go and find some dry leaves over there."
Li had no choice but to go and pick up the dead leaves. She still didn't understand what Lanqin was doing, so she had to do as she was told.
Lanqin sharpened one end and then found a flat piece of wood. "Sister Li, come here and hold this stick. Make sure you hold it firmly," Lanqin said to Li. She had just wiped it and realized that it was necessary to secure the stick, and it would be easier for two people to hold it in place.
Li had no idea what Lanqin was trying to do, so she had no choice but to follow her instructions and hold the wooden stick in her hand.
"Hold one end with one hand and apply some force. Otherwise, I'm afraid it will fall when I start spinning it later," Lanqin said.
Li did as instructed, and Lanqin then took the sharpened stick and began rubbing it against the stick in Li's hand. Based on her memory of wilderness survival from television programs she had seen before, Lanqin began rubbing the sharpened stick against another stick.
Li felt her hands starting to ache, but Lanqin continued rubbing the wooden stick, showing no intention of giving up.
"Sister Niu, what's the point of doing this?" Li couldn't help but complain. Her hands were already starting to ache. But Lanqin continued her movements without stopping because of her complaints.
"Don't move, just hold on a little longer, you'll see soon enough. Besides, it'll get dark soon, what will we do if we don't have a fire?" Lanqin said.
Li seemed to have never considered this question. She only knew that she had brought Lanqin here, but she didn't actually know what the Crown Prince would do next. Now that Lanqin had said this, she could see that it was indeed going to be a terrible situation for the two of them in this dark forest when it got dark.
Lanqin spun the small branch faster and faster. Although Li Shi had strange thoughts, she still didn't want to stay here in the dark, so she endured the discomfort in her hands and continued to rub the branch.
A wisp of smoke finally rose from the spot where Lanqin had been rubbing.
"It's smoking! It's smoking!" Li exclaimed in surprise, staring at the wooden stick in her hand.
"Don't move! Keep going!" Lanqin was also very excited. She continued to speed up her movements, afraid that the tiny spark would disappear before her eyes.
Gradually, the smoke grew thicker, and then red sparks began to appear. Lanqin quickly placed the dry leaves that Li had collected onto the visible sparks.
In no time, bright red flames began to leap and dance. Lanqin quickly placed the dry branches she had just gathered on top of them.
Li looked at Lanqin in disbelief; she hadn't expected Lanqin to be able to start a fire.
"Sister Li, why don't you go and gather some more dry branches? I'll stay here and watch over things," Lanqin said.
Li nodded and quickly went to gather more branches from the surrounding area. It was getting darker and darker; without fire, this place would be extremely dangerous.
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