Chapter 738: Madman on the Cliff
The light and shadows in the forest quickly retreated, and the cold wind blew across Gu Qingchen's cheek like a knife.
She leaned on the horse's back, letting the black horse gallop freely in the rugged woodland, trying to use this extreme speed to completely get rid of the lingering figure behind her.
However, the Ferghana horse under Zhao Chenan is, after all, a divine horse picked from thousands.
The sound of horse hooves came from far away, like the beat of a life-threatening drum, chasing relentlessly.
Just in front of a secluded red plum forest, the inky figure rushed out from the side and blocked her way.
The black horse let out a long neigh of dissatisfaction, stood up, and pawed the air with its front hooves.
Gu Qingchen steadied himself, tightened the reins, and looked coldly at the person standing in front of him.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince, is so bored that he has nothing better to do that he has to chase after a servant like me?"
Zhao Chenan dismounted and casually tied the reins to the plum tree next to him.
He didn't answer her question, but just looked at her, his expression as complicated as a tangled mess.
"The first time I met you was in my mother's Changchun Palace," he suddenly said, his voice a little low. "You stole my last piece of osmanthus cake, and after I caught you, you pushed me with a clear conscience."
Gu Qingchen was stunned. He had never expected him to say this.
Zhao Chenan seemed lost in some memories and continued to speak to himself, "The second time, in the Imperial Garden, you shot down my favorite white jade bird with a slingshot."
"The third time, you lured me behind the rockery, but released a nest of hornets..."
He recounted every incident of being "bullied" by her during his childhood. Instead of any resentment, there was a hint of nostalgic smile in his eyes.
"Later, my mother told me that the unruly and headstrong little girl was Gu Qingchen from the Zhenguo Mansion, and my future Crown Princess. I was so happy when I heard that for several days."
Gu Qingchen was stunned when he heard this.
She looked at Zhao Chenan as if he were a monster. After a long while, a hint of extreme sarcasm appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"Zhao Chen'an, are you sick?"
"There are so many gentle and virtuous ladies in the world, but you just prefer one who steals your snacks and hits you? Is it because you have a natural masochistic tendency?"
"Every year on my birthday, you send me a gift." Zhao Chen'an seemed oblivious to her sarcasm and said stubbornly, "Each gift is unique and completely different from the common gifts others give me. If you have no feelings for me, why would you bother with all this effort?"
Now, Gu Qingchen finally understood where his logic was wrong.
She scoffed, her laughter tinged with pity. "Isn't it normal for friends to give each other birthday gifts?"
"On Gungun's birthday, I will also rack my brains to prepare a gift for him. Zhao Chenan, if this has caused you to misunderstand, then I apologize to you. From now on, I promise that I will never give you a birthday gift again."
These words were like a sharp knife, stripping away Zhao Chen'an's last bit of dignity and fantasy.
The smile on his face froze instantly, and the nostalgia in his eyes turned into cold anger.
Just when he was about to attack, a sharp sound of breaking through the air was heard!
"careful!"
Almost instinctively, Zhao Chenan pounced on Gu Qingchen and pulled her off the horse.
The two men rolled to the ground in a mess. A feather arrow with a cold blue light was deeply embedded in the saddle they were riding on.
Something unexpected happened!
Before they could stand firm, several dark shadows suddenly emerged from the shadows of the forest like ghosts, with sharp blades in their hands flashing coldly and murderous intent, ready to take the lives of the two men!
These men in black have strange movements and cooperate well with each other. Every move they make is a well-honed killing move. They are obviously well-trained assassins.
In the face of crisis, there is no room for verbal disputes.
Zhao Chenan stood up and drew the sword from his waist with a clang. The sword light was like a dragon, protecting him in front of him.
Gu Qingchen also reacted very quickly. She rolled over and pulled out her whip from the leather bag next to the saddle. With a crisp "snap" sound, she forced back an approaching assassin.
The two of them didn't even look at each other, but stood back to back in tacit understanding, jointly resisting the tide of siege.
The sword shines sharply and the whip flies.
Gu Qingchen brandished his whip while shouting at the group of masked men in black, "Hey! Do you understand your target? Are you here to kill him, or me?"
Her voice was so powerful that it startled both sides who were fighting.
Even the assassin's attack was slow, as if he was pondering the logic of her question.
Seeing this, Gu Qingchen continued to analyze: "If you want to kill him, go at him, don't hurt friendly forces by mistake!"
"I have nothing to do with him. If you kill him, I'll even applaud you!"
One of the assassins had probably never seen such a scene before, and the knife in his hand paused for a moment. He had only one thought in his mind: Is this woman mentally ill?
"Shut up!" Zhao Chen'an was both angry and amused. He shook the long sword in his hand, deflecting the two attacking steel knives and shouted angrily in a low voice.
He had never seen such a person before. At the critical moment of life and death, instead of thinking about how to escape, he was actually thinking about negotiating with the assassin to clear himself!
But it was precisely her calmness in the face of danger, and even her ability to talk nonsense, that made the flame of paranoia deep in his heart burn even more vigorously.
The assassins quickly came to their senses and their attacks became more ferocious.
To make matters worse, more men in black emerged from the forest and surrounded the two of them.
The two of them were rapidly losing strength, and gradually went from being able to handle things with ease to being stretched thin.
The defense line formed by the sword edge and the whip shadow was compressed step by step.
"clang!"
Zhao Chenan blocked the fatal knife, his knuckles became numb from the shock, and he was forced to take a step back.
Gu Qingchen wrapped his long whip around the ankle of an assassin and pulled it hard, but another assassin took the opportunity to chop the whip with a knife, sending sparks flying.
She was also staggered backward by this huge force.
One step, two steps.
When Gu Qingchen's heel stepped on a loose stone and the stone rolled down with a "gurgle" sound but did not make any sound when it landed, her heart sank suddenly.
Behind him was a bottomless abyss, shrouded in clouds and mist, with no bottom in sight.
The assassins' encirclement is tightening step by step.
"It seems that your target is indeed him."
Gu Qingchen swung his whip in a sharp arc, forcing back an assassin on the side, but he still didn't let him off.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I'll help you hold him down, and we'll split the profits 30-70."
The veins on Zhao Chen'an's forehead throbbed violently. He stabbed an assassin's shoulder blade with his backhanded sword and shouted angrily, "If you say another word, I'll throw you down first!"
"Go ahead and throw it!" Gu Qingchen retorted without showing any weakness, "I'm not at a disadvantage since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is accompanying me on my journey to the underworld!"
Before he could finish his words, an extremely tall assassin took advantage of the gap in their quarrel and pounced on them like a tiger descending from the mountain. The long sword in his hand made a sharp sound that split the air and went straight for Zhao Chenan's head.
This knife was so powerful and heavy that it was unavoidable.
Zhao Chenan's pupils suddenly shrank and he blocked with his sword.
"clang!"
There was a loud bang, which made his arm numb, and the palm of his hand instantly cracked, and blood stained the hilt of the sword red.
The whole person was knocked back by this huge force, and his heels were hanging outside the cliff.
Gu Qingchen's heart skipped a beat.
Without time to think, the long whip in her hand suddenly wrapped around Zhao Chenan's waist like a snake coming out of a cave, and pulled him back fiercely!
At the same time, another assassin's knife had silently reached her ribs.
In a flash, Zhao Chenan used Gu Qingchen's pulling force to stabilize his body. He glanced at the bottomless cliff, and then looked at Gu Qingchen who was in danger because of him. In those eyes that always contained gentleness and calculation, a trace of unprecedented madness and determination flashed.
He did not try to resist the assassin, but instead grabbed Gu Qingchen's wrist.
"Hold on tight!"
"What are you doing..."
Before Gu Qingchen could finish his question, he felt a tightness around his waist and was pulled forward by a huge force, slamming into a hard embrace that smelled of blood.
The next moment, the world was spinning.
She watched the assassins, the red plum forest, and the sky above her head rapidly disappearing from her sight.
The sense of solid ground under my feet completely disappeared.
The feeling of weightlessness was like an invisible giant hand, grabbing her heart.
There was a heart-wrenching sound of wind in my ears, which made my cheeks hurt.
"ah--!"
An uncontrollable scream burst out from Gu Qingchen's throat, and was immediately torn apart by the howling wind.
She was dragged off the cliff by this madman!
"Zhao Chen'an!" Gu Qingchen's scream turned into a curse. She struggled wildly in the air and roared with all her strength, "You lunatic! I don't want to die! You've caused me to die!"
"Even if I become a ghost, I won't let you go!"
In the chaos of the rapid descent and the sound of the wind, the man holding her was not at all panicked, but his chest made a low vibration.
"rest assured."
"I can't die."
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