act recklessly
The interior layout of the Yang Mansion is intricate, with a winding stream and wine cups placed within it. However, these were all added later, purely out of Yang Li's personal taste.
However, these artificial mountains and strange rocks also became a natural cover for Xiao Diting at this moment.
When she came to find Ji Shuangqiao, she was in good condition and had recovered from her illness. She thought she could accompany her on her solo adventure.
However, she overestimated the body's ability to withstand the strain. Although the original owner was a martial arts practitioner, her physical constitution was extremely poor.
This long and tiring journey caused her to have a fever again.
"Why does this stupid illness even require follow-up visits?"
She gripped the knife tightly and muttered something, then raised her elbow to shoo away the servants who lunged at her. The tip of the knife pierced someone's eyes, and the person was startled by the flash of cold light, letting out a scream of "Ah!"
While he was stunned for a moment, Xiao Diting stepped on the artificial hill and rolled to another corner.
She was lucky tonight; it was snowing and dimly lit, making it difficult to see her movements. She picked up some sand and pebbles from the ground, tossed them into a pond in the distance, and leaned against a rockery to stretch her aching wrists.
Hearing the servants behind the artificial hill being teased by her as they pounced on the source of the sound, she gave a mocking smile.
She used the same trick again, taking advantage of these natural concealments to completely outmaneuver the servants.
"Don't run this way! She's over there!"
"Not here either! It's unbelievable, a bunch of grown men can't even catch a girl?!"
Xiao Diting crouched low and brushed past the furious servants, calculating Ji Shuangqiao's travel distance, figuring he should be able to wait for reinforcements to arrive.
This is Jiangnan, a place far from the emperor's reach. Her status as a princess can only provoke the other party, driving them to take desperate measures. Even under the emperor's nose, there are people who dare to spare no effort to kill her, let alone that greedy and useless Yang Li.
She had been playing tricks on the servants for a while, and just when she thought she could stall for time, a bright light shone down and caught right at the hem of her clothes.
Her heart leaped into her throat.
"Can't find him in the dark? Don't you know how to light a torch?" the servant holding the torch cursed angrily. "Give us all a share... Young Master said that if we don't catch that person, we'll both lose our heads."
Soon the firelight illuminated the courtyard, and it was only a matter of time before her hiding place was discovered.
"There it is! I see the clothes!"
Using the firelight, the servants quickly discovered her hiding place. The dark hem of her robe was clearly someone's outer garment. They excitedly rushed over and surrounded her behind the artificial hill.
It was just Xiao Diting's outer robe!
"Where is he?" The servants, holding torches, looked around and a few of them spotted a thin figure on the eaves.
As Xiao Diting climbed onto the roof, the snow on the tiles was trampled and fell down, but suddenly Yang Li's voice, cold as ice shards, came from behind her, freezing her in place.
"Third Princess, it's windy on this rooftop, where do you think you're going to run to?"
She turned around and saw Yang Li pushing aside the chaotic servants, standing with his hands behind his back in the center of the courtyard, a confident smile on his lips.
The firelight reflected off his wounded arm, blood mixed with snow water, making him look disheveled yet mad: "You don't really think Ji Shuangqiao can bring in any outside help, do you?"
Before he could finish speaking, two servants dragged a figure out of the side door, where the figure fell heavily onto the snow. Xiao Diting's heart sank—
It is Ji Shuang Bridge.
Ji Shuangqiao's hair was disheveled, with snow and mud clinging to it, and there was still blood on the corner of her mouth, yet she still managed to sit up, her back ramrod straight, her eyes showing no sign of fear.
She stood there arrogantly in front of everyone, reaching out to tidy her hair. Her legs ached so much she couldn't stand, but instead of kneeling, she sat ramrod straight.
Ji Shuangqiao seemed to have returned to Qingshan Temple, becoming that aloof and detached person again.
She looked up at Xiao Diting on the roof, but her words weren't directed at her: "Yang Li, we've been husband and wife, you can do whatever you want with me, but don't forget, the Embroidered Uniform Guard is still here in Huaizhou City. You want to touch the princess? You must be completely insane!"
Yang Li was stung by her words and stepped forward, stomping on the snow beside Ji Shuangqiao: "Still being stubborn even when you're about to die! Pei Wenjin is in Danzhou and can't come back."
"Your Highness!" Ignoring the threat behind her, Ji Shuangqiao looked up at the roof, her eyes urgent yet resolute. "Don't worry about me! We'll go through the back wall. As long as the truth comes out, I don't care! I won't regret it!"
As she cried out "No regrets," Yang Li reached out and grabbed her hair, pulling her close to his face. He leaned down, his expression almost ferocious.
You always look down on me.
Ji Shuangqiao glared at him coldly, sneering incessantly: "If you had done even one decent thing, neither of us would have ended up like this today."
Yang Li suddenly smiled with relief.
He gripped Ji Shuangqiao's hair tightly, stopped looking at Xiao Diting, and dragged the thin woman in the snow toward the ancestral hall.
Xiao Diting stood on the roof, gripping his sword tightly, and the servants below quickly surrounded him.
She could only watch helplessly as Ji Shuangqiao was dragged, leaving a mark. The woman was so exhausted from struggling that she seemed to have truly resigned herself to fate, her despair surpassing her sorrow.
Xiao Diting's hands, gripping the tile, turned white, her fingertips numb with cold. She looked at the stubborn Ji Shuangqiao in the snow, then at the menacing servants below, and at Yang Li's back, which seemed to scream "fight to the death." Her throat tightened.
She hadn't forgotten why she came here, and after dealing with people for so long, her body was on the verge of collapse.
Yang Li seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, or perhaps he had just remembered that a mouse had gotten into his residence.
He turned around, suddenly snatched a knife from a servant, and held it to Ji Shuangqiao's neck: "I almost forgot about you. Your Highness, either you come down and be bound, or I'll send her to see my 'miraculous' father right now..."
"Choose one."
Yang Li coldly uttered the last few words, the blade grazing Ji Shuangqiao's neck, leaving a shallow bloodstain.
Ji Shuangqiao didn't even frown. Instead, she shouted sternly at Xiao Diting, "Let's go, Your Highness! This is my karma. You don't need to perish here."
Yang Li's eyes were sinister. Seeing that Xiao Diting remained motionless, he pressed the blade against Ji Shuangqiao's neck again. Blood rolled down her skin, leaving a glaring red stain on the snow: "Third Princess, don't make me say it a second time!"
He turned to the servants and shouted, "What are you all standing there for? Climb up on the roof and grab her! Even if we have to tear this Yang mansion down today, don't let her escape!"
Upon receiving the order, the servants immediately sprang into action like wolves and tigers.
Two strong servants brought a ladder and climbed up the roof beam through the snow. The wooden ladder hit the wall with a "thud," causing the snow on the tiles to fall down in a flurry.
The others, armed with sticks, paced back and forth around the courtyard wall, blocking all the exits completely.
Ji Shuangqiao looked at the increasingly precarious situation on the roof, her throat tightened, but she still gritted her teeth.
She struggled to push Yang Li's hand away, but was kicked hard in the back of the knee. Her knee slammed into the frozen ground, and the pain made her vision go black, but she still looked up at Xiao Diting with pleading in her eyes.
Standing on the roof, Xiao Diting looked at the knife on Ji Shuangqiao's neck and then at the servants climbing up. She exchanged a glance with Ji Shuangqiao, her eyes filled with determination, entrustment, and the unwavering belief that "you must live."
Xiao Diting closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, only coldness remained in them. She turned abruptly and ran towards the other side of the courtyard wall.
But after running only a couple of steps, the original owner's poor physical condition held him back again.
A sudden tightness gripped my chest, as if a stone was pressing down on it. My breathing became rapid, and cold sweat trickled down my face, soaking the hair at my temples.
She stumbled and nearly fell off the roof, managing to grab onto a tile while gasping for breath.
The servants behind her had already climbed up, their knives gleaming coldly in the firelight. These desperate criminals, having long since abandoned all decorum and respect, cried out: "Your Highness, don't run! Surrender obediently, and you'll suffer less!"
Xiao Diting gritted his teeth, swung his knife, and killed several nearby servants. He endured the pain and continued running forward.
Her vision gradually blurred, and she could only move across the rooftops by feel. The tiles slipped under her feet from time to time, and she almost lost her footing several times. She didn't know how long she had been hiding, or where she had run to; she only knew that the pursuers behind her were getting closer and closer, and all she could hear was the sound of the wind and the shouts of the servants.
She felt as if she had returned to the day before she time-traveled, the day she was desperately fleeing.
"I should have told Pei Wenjin."
After their unpleasant parting that day, they didn't have any further communication. Although she knew that if she had informed Pei Wenjin beforehand, it was highly unlikely that the relationship would have succeeded.
Because Ji Shuangqiao didn't trust Pei Wenjin, if she could really ask him for help, she wouldn't have had to clean up the mess so long later.
Just when she was about to give up, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a dark figure riding a horse towards her from the far end of the alley.
The horses' hooves pounded on the snow with a "clattering" sound as they moved at great speed, kicking up swirling snowflakes that flew through the air.
The figure drew closer, and Xiao Diting saw clearly the black cloak he wore, and that familiar face—
It is Pei Wenjin.
She stood in the cold wind, shivering with excitement, unable to tell whether it was from the cold or something else.
Like a lost ship that suddenly finds a lighthouse to escape to.
Xiao Diting dodged around, kicked away a servant who was holding her arm, and quickly climbed onto the roof, stepping on the bricks and tiles towards the outermost wall.
She had been too busy escaping to pay attention to the escape route, and with the night being pitch black and the pursuers behind her holding torches, the path she was sneaking along was truly dark.
Pei Wenjin's appearance, however, pointed her in the right direction.
Joy and pent-up grievances erupted in an instant. Xiao Diting shouted at the figure with almost all his might, "Pei Wenjin! I'm here!"
Pei Wenjin had just spurred his horse into the alley where the Yang residence was located when he heard this shout.
He looked up and saw Xiao Diting on the high courtyard wall, dressed in night clothes, his hair disheveled and covered in snow, with strands of hair mixed with sweat sticking to his forehead.
She looked utterly disheveled after not seeing him for most of the day, but she stood on the high ground with an astonishingly bright pair of eyes, seemingly oblivious to her impending doom, staring at him.
The servants behind her had caught up, and their knives were about to strike her back.
Pei Wenjin's heart tightened suddenly. He was about to rein in his horse and warn her to be careful when he saw that Xiao Diting was completely ignoring the pursuers behind them, her eyes only on him.
She took a deep breath, leaped, and jumped off the high courtyard wall, landing straight into his arms.
Pei Wenjin embraced her tightly, and immediately felt that her body was burning hot and she was trembling slightly. He was filled with fear and grabbed Xiao Diting by the collar, shouting: "You're courting death!"
Xiao Diting raised his chin, snow water smeared on his clothes, sniffed aggrievedly, and whispered accusation: "You yelled at me!"
Pei Wenjin grabbed the reins, his temper flaring, wishing he could strangle Xiao Diting to death: "Are you trying to kill yourself?! What does this have to do with you?!"
Upon receiving a report from his subordinates that the princess was missing, he traveled tirelessly towards Huaizhou. From afar, he saw flames shooting into the sky over the Yang residence and immediately realized where Xiao Diting was.
All the way there, Pei Wenjin prayed to the gods to protect Princess Mingzhao from any mishap. When he finally saw her in person, she was fully recovered and still had the strength to accuse him. Pei Wenjin felt it was absurd and couldn't breathe.
Startled by the shout, Xiao Diting could no longer remain aggrieved. He widened his eyes, filled with indignation.
"What does this have to do with me?" she asked incredulously. "A natural disaster has left the people of an entire city struggling to make ends meet; they can't even afford to eat!"
"There are plenty of people who will worry about these things!"
"That's all bullshit!"
Xiao Diting reached out and grabbed Pei Wenjin's collar. She carefully smelled the stronger medicinal scent emanating from his collar and frowned at the bitterness. Unexpectedly, Pei Wenjin misunderstood and thought she was unwell.
Pei Wenjin took a step back first: "...On my way here, I considered many possibilities."
"Pei Wenjin, do you not have the right to be stationed in Huaizhou?" Xiao Diting licked his lips and asked the question he had wanted to ask since their first meeting.
Pei Wenjin lowered his eyelashes and looked down at her for a long time, long enough to trace her features with his gaze.
He mumbled a reply: "Yes."
Having received a definite answer, Xiao Diting couldn't quite explain what she was thinking. She simply let go of his hand and distanced herself from him.
She craved his warm breath in the cold wind, so she reached out and brought her hand close, his hot breath hitting her face.
Scalding hot, restless.
But miraculously, it calmed her restless heart.
She kissed his lips, and then all the hustle and bustle of the world... became irrelevant to her.
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