"How about I call you Qiao Qiao? It sounds more intimate this way."
Chu Qiao's face was stern, but her patience was becoming increasingly scarce as time went by. She frowned and said, "If it is because of Chu Qiao's offense to Your Highness that day that Your Highness behaved like this today, then Chu Qiao is willing to accept the punishment. Please make it clear to Your Highness."
Li Ce turned a deaf ear to him and continued to smile and asked, "Who else is in your family? Are your parents still alive?"
"Your Highness, you can just tell me what you want to do. Chu Qiao is just a commoner and cannot bear your love and care."
"What month were you born in? How old are you this year? I was born in July, and I am twenty-one this year."
"Your Highness, what exactly do you want to do? Can we talk normally?"
"Where are you from? You are so beautiful and pretty, you don't look like a northerner, but more like a southerner. Has your father ever told you about it?"
"Your Highness!"
"She looks so good even when she's angry. I really have good taste!"
…
Half an hour later, Chu Qiao tried to communicate with Li Ce again. She calmed down her anger and said sincerely, "Your Highness, what do you like about me?"
Li Ce smiled gently, "I like everything you have."
Chu Qiao knew she had said something wrong and shook her head. "In other words, what exactly do you want to use me for? If you don't want to marry the princess of Da Xia, you can do many things. You don't have to use me as a shield. I'm just a small commoner and I have no use value."
"Qiao Qiao," Li Ce frowned and said with a confused expression, "I fell in love with you at first sight, but you misunderstood me like this. I will be very sad."
I'd be surprised if you were sad! Chu Qiao suddenly discovered that talking to normal people was actually a very happy thing, even if that normal person was your enemy, it was not like the situation before you, where you couldn’t tell friend from foe and couldn’t even figure out the other person’s attitude. She exhaled slowly, gave up the extravagant hope of knowing anything from Li Ce, and sat quietly against the carriage, not even willing to open her eyes.
"Qiao Qiao," Li Ce came forward with a faint smile, his voice was evil and charming, his tone was frivolous, and it was a bit hoarse and charming, "My hands are cold."
There was silence for a while, and then with a bang, Prince Li Ce flew out of the carriage like a ball, and fell headfirst to the ground over the heads of many Bian Tang envoys and Da Xia guards.
"Who?"
"Ah! Your Highness!"
"There's an assassin! Protect His Highness!"
A chaotic whistling sound suddenly sounded. Zhao Qi raised his eyebrows and drew the long sword from his waist. His nerves, which had been tense for the past few days because of Wei Jing's disappearance, suddenly became tense. He called on the servants beside him to surround the ridiculously large carriage.
"It's just a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!"
Li Ce stood up awkwardly while saying "Ouch", and staggered towards the carriage, blocking the tense crowd and saying quickly: "It was my own carelessness. I didn't sit firmly. It's okay."
Everyone frowned and looked at each other, not knowing what to say as they looked at the motionless carriage.
Not sitting firmly? This carriage runs slower than a person walking. Who could possibly fly out of it without sitting firmly?
"It's okay, don't be nervous." Li Ce lifted the hem of his shirt, climbed onto the carriage with a smile, and waved to everyone.
Zhao Qi was on the brink of collapse at this moment, exhausted by this fickle prince. The person who went back to report the news had no reply yet, and they were about to reach the city gate. Was he really going to let the future emperor of Bian Tang marry a slave from northern Yan?
As soon as the curtain was lowered, Li Ce rubbed his arm with a grin, looked at Chu Qiao who was sitting coldly beside him with a sad look, and said with a pout: "Qiao Qiao is too cruel and ruthless. You will be punished for treating your future husband like this."
Chu Qiao half-closed her eyes, looked at him coldly, and said in a deep voice: "There is a difference between men and women, please respect yourself, Your Highness."
"Qiao Qiao, please help me apply the medicine." Li Ce came over pitifully with a white jade porcelain bottle in his hand, and stretched out his arm that was bleeding from the fall.
Chu Qiao raised her eyebrows but did not move.
"I'm doing this for your own good." Li Ce said, "If others see me getting hurt again, you will definitely be implicated again."
Chu Qiao sighed, snatched the porcelain bottle, roughly pulled his arm, and started applying medicine to him.
Li Ce screamed immediately. Zhao Qi and others were walking outside, listening to the sounds of ghosts crying and wolves howling inside. Their brows were furrowed more and more, and their faces turned ashen.
The sky is blue, the clouds are white, the air is fresh, the afternoon sun is warm, and birds are circling freely in the sky. On both sides of the official post road, many civilians were kneeling who had no time to hide. They lowered their heads as expected, but secretly raised their eyes when they heard the voices from above. The huge grassland is covered with lush green grass, which is very beautiful. Li Ce changed into an exaggerated red robe embroidered with large peonies. It looked rather tacky, but it looked elegant when he wore it.
He rode a very cool white horse with a purple rose silk flower tied around its neck, just like a groom getting married. He held the reins in one hand and a long sword in the other. He said to Zhao Qi, who was almost crying, "Go back, go back, tell His Majesty the Emperor Xia that I am very grateful for his hospitality. I am leaving now, and we will meet again if we are lucky."
Zhao Qi was speechless, but did not dare to take a step forward. He had just said a few words to ask him to stay one more night, but the prince, whose brain was short-circuited, picked up the sword and chopped it off on his head. If the guards beside him had not been alert and blocked the sword with their arms in time, Li Ce's head might have been split open by now. The pain in Zhao Qi's heart could no longer be expressed in words. He looked sadly at Li Ce's back as he was getting farther and farther away, feeling that God was so unfair to him.
Like Zhao Qi, Chu Qiao also felt very conflicted. She felt that the best way to deal with this Crown Prince who did not play by the rules was to break his neck and shut his noisy mouth completely.
But at this moment, this method obviously didn't work. The development of the situation was too bizarre and strange, and it was out of her control. Now she could only wait quietly. After all, she would never believe, even if she was beaten to death, that Emperor Xia would just let it go and let Li Ce take a slave from Yanbei back to be the Crown Princess.
"Qiao Qiao, are you happy? We're out of town."
Li Ce looked at her with a smile, his eyes slightly charming, "Come with me, you will have endless wealth and glory in the future, and endless silks and satins to wear. I can give you everything that Yan Xun can give you, and I can also give you what he can't give you. You don't have to bow down to others anymore, and you don't have to live under someone else's roof anymore. You see, this is so good."
"You should know that you can't leave."
Li Ce smiled brightly, "How do you know I can't leave?"
Chu Qiao did not comment, and smiled coldly: "If you leave like this, then you don't have to come here." Her eyes suddenly became sharp, staring coldly at Li Ce's handsome face, "What exactly is your conspiracy?"
Li Ce came forward, his nose almost touching her face, "My plan is to take you back and piss off Yan Xun, Zhao Qi, Zhao Shisan and the others."
Chu Qiao suddenly felt weak all over. Looking at Li Ce's face that looked like peach blossoms, she felt that any words she said would be redundant. She shook her head and said in a deep voice: "Li Ce, if you are really pretending and secretly disrupting the situation with ulterior motives, then you are really terrible."
Li Ce smiled proudly, "This prince came to Zhenhuang with ulterior motives to secretly disrupt the situation, but my style is genuine. This prince is always romantic, unrestrained and unrestrained no matter what the circumstances."
Chu Qiao sighed helplessly, and at this moment, a strong sense of uneasiness suddenly surged in her heart!
In just a moment, the woman jumped up from the carriage, pounced on Li Ce, and knocked him off!
"Qiao Qiao! Why are you so rude in throwing yourself into my arms? You..."
"Shut up! Untie me!"
"No, then you should run away."
The woman shouted angrily, and almost at the same time, a dense rain of sharp arrows came shooting towards her like locusts. Countless enemies suddenly emerged from the high slope in the distance, each holding a bow and crossbow, with the bowstrings making continuous sounds. More than a dozen guards in front immediately fell off their horses like sieves, and the ownerless horses wailed in unison. Chu Qiao pulled Li Ce and rolled sideways, avoiding the huge body of the white horse. Countless arrows were densely stuck in the body of the white horse. The arrowheads were flashing a faint blue light, and it was obvious at a glance that they were all poisoned.
"Are you playing tricks on me?"
Chu Qiao shouted, and Li Ce's eyes became blurry. He asked in confusion, "I hired someone to ambush myself?"
“Damn it!”
At the same time, shouts of killing rang out everywhere! Countless enemies suddenly appeared from the tall grassland, each of them holding a thick-backed sword and wearing civilian clothes, rushing up shouting and killing.
"Protect His Highness!" Li Ce's guard commander Tie Youli shouted and rushed forward with several personal guards. Chu Qiao flexibly twisted her hands and broke free from the rope, wielding her sword to block several stray arrows. Seeing Li Ce standing behind her, looking bewildered, she immediately became furious and shouted, "You don't know martial arts?"
Li Ce nodded hurriedly, "Qiao Qiao, you have to protect me."
"Idiot!" The girl suddenly got angry and kicked Li Ce on the knee. The man screamed "ouch" and fell down, just avoiding a flying arrow.
“Don’t panic, meet the enemy in front, shoot arrows to cover in the middle, gather the war horses in the back, and be ready to break out at any time!” Chu Qiao grabbed a crossbow, and fought back fiercely while running. It seemed as if the arrows had eyes, and they never missed their targets. Every arrow was fired, and a shrill scream was heard.
There were shouts of killing from all directions, arrows rafted, and shouts shook the sky. The enemy's troops rushed up like a tide, there were thousands of them. At this time, there were less than a hundred guards left around Li Ce, and all of them were injured. They were unable to fight in such a hurry. Chu Qiao staggered along with Li Ce and saw a dense forest not far away. She was immediately delighted and shouted, "Retreat to the forest!"
The sharp blade came towards him, and Li Ce screamed in panic. Chu Qiao quickly stepped forward and kicked the enemy hard in the lower body, and a pig-killing scream suddenly rang out. However, before the man could lengthen his voice, Chu Qiao swung her sword and cut off half of the man's head with one blow!
Blood spurted all over Li Ce in an instant. Li Ce was startled and took out a handkerchief from his lapel and wiped his clothes vigorously.
"Idiot! What time is it?" Chu Qiao grabbed Li Ce's hand and rushed into the woods. The rain of arrows behind them was immediately blocked by the dense forest. Only a few arrows came in, but their power was not as strong as before.