Li Hua couldn't find Gan Qiongying.
He entered the pitch-black room and had the servants who had followed him back light the lamps. The room was no different from usual, but it inexplicably felt empty.
Without the person sitting at the table or lying in bed, cheerfully saying "You're finally back," Li Hua felt as if he had stepped into thin air, his whole body and even his heart were hanging in the air.
He soon saw the letter left on the table, saying that there was a problem in the palace, and she went to the palace to help Gan Lin. She said that the Empress Dowager had learned of the strange things in the Regent's Palace and might take some action.
She sent everyone out of the princess's residence to avoid being implicated, and told Li Hua to go home, find Tian Jiao in the underground palace, and leave the princess's residence as soon as possible.
In her letter, Gan Qiongying told Li Hua to return to his own residence, where he could wait peacefully for a few days. She assured him that he didn't need to do anything or worry, and that she would definitely return safely from the palace.
Everything seemed perfectly reasonable. Li Hua held the thin piece of paper and read it over and over again.
He found his people in the underground palace. Sweetheart had been knocked unconscious by a cup of tea given to her by Full Moon and was still unconscious when she was found. The rest of the people were ordered by the princess to enter the underground palace and were then locked inside.
It seemed like she was protecting them, but no matter how Li Hua thought about it, something felt off.
He sat for a long time in the vast, empty princess's mansion, not leaving as Gan Qiongying had instructed, but instead sending Sanjiu and the few remaining men from the battle with Song Ci's men to gather information.
Li Hua quickly discovered that all the people Gan Qiongying had arranged to wait in the manor outside the city had also disappeared.
Li Hua's chest felt as if it had been ripped open. He felt the cold wind blowing through him all night. Even though he was sitting indoors and surrounded by incense, he still felt the cold wind pouring into his chest turn into countless ice spikes, traveling through his limbs and pinning him firmly to his seat.
Unable to reach into the palace, he could only spend a fortune to send Sanjiu to find some martial arts figures to help him retrace the routes he and Gan Qiongying had agreed upon.
Li Hua had considered that Gan Qiongying might have hidden all those people as well, but was it really necessary to go to such lengths?
Why did she hide everyone else, but keep herself behind?
All of this made no sense. Li Hua, with his eyes closed and clutching the letter in his hand, his eyes bloodshot, suddenly guessed at a conclusion that he couldn't believe and refused to accept.
He sat like a soulless puppet in a dimly lit room with only one lamp lit, his breathing becoming extremely slow.
There were still some people... and some of the people he sent out to investigate Gan Qiongying's whereabouts had not returned.
If they return, they can corroborate Li Hua's conjecture. However, Li Hua is deliberately avoiding this situation, wanting time to stand still. He is willing to believe everything written on this thin piece of paper.
He will obediently return to the Prince Consort's residence to wait, and those people should not come back... do not tell him anything.
He didn't believe Gan Qiongying... he didn't believe her...
Li Hua closed his eyes, his fingers clenching tighter and tighter, the letter in his palm already crumpled into a ball. He immediately unfolded it again, pressed it on the table, and smoothed it out with his palm.
But how can a crumpled piece of paper be restored to its original shape?
As Li Hua looked at the hastily written words on the paper, those strokes seemed to transform into sharp knives leaping from the paper, stabbing towards Li Hua's chest from all sorts of tricky angles.
When the messenger returned from the courtyard and entered the house, he knelt before Li Hua and said, "Everything is as the eldest young master guessed. There are indeed some very fresh hoofprints and footprints outside the Jin Chuan hostage residence. They do not belong to our horses, nor to the group of assassins who secretly infiltrated the Jin Chuan hostage residence."
"We have inquired with all the shops and merchants in the city, and the princess has indeed sent people to search for a consort."
Li Hua's heart skipped a beat, almost bursting out of his chest.
Gan Qiongying almost never sent anyone to look for him when he returned home late at night; they had a tacit understanding that was not known to outsiders.
That is, they never pry too much into each other's privacy, which is the basis for their ability to coexist peacefully from the beginning.
Why did Gan Qiongying suddenly start looking for him? If she couldn't find him... she would definitely think of Zhongli Zhengzhen.
Tonight, Li Hua was originally hosting a banquet for dignitaries at Zhongli Zhengzhen's residence. No dignitaries would come on horseback; everyone would be in carriages.
Song Ci and his men sneaked in quietly, so it's impossible for them to have entered through the main gate. Therefore, logically speaking, the main gate of Zhongli Zhengzhen's mansion should have been marked with cart tracks rather than horse hoof prints.
Li Hua's eyelids twitched uncontrollably, and even with his eyes closed, he couldn't stop them. His breathing became lighter and lighter, and even though no one was blocking his throat, Li Hua felt like he was about to suffocate.
He was so clever; how could he not guess that Gan Qiongying, in her haste to find him, must have assumed that Zhongli had truly kidnapped and imprisoned him?
So many hoofprints must mean that Gan Qiongying led people to rescue him.
The knocking sound was naturally theirs. No one answered the door because Li Hua was dealing with Song Ci and his accomplices at that time. The wandering knights who had taken the money had already left, and the mansion was littered with corpses, with no one answering the door.
So if you can't get through the door, you have to climb over the wall.
Li Hua suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes blood red like a beast's pupils.
What was the reason why Gan Qiongying did not reappear after she and her men scaled the wall and entered the mansion?
Li Hua's hand gripped the edge of the table, but it couldn't stop shaking violently, even causing the table to rattle.
At the moment someone knocked on the door, he was... committing murder.
Li Hua personally killed only two people tonight, both of whom were Song Ci's confidants. The reason he did it himself, and in front of Zhong Li Zhengzhen and Song Ci, was to intimidate them.
Li Hua couldn't imagine what Gan Qiongying would think if she saw this scene.
He had never revealed any harsh methods in front of Gan Qiongying, let alone... cruelly beheading someone.
Was that why Gan Qiongying came secretly and then left secretly with her people?
She discovered his true colors, realized he was completely different from the kind and gentle person she had imagined, and found him to be incredibly terrifying and cruel.
So that's why he left with his people without even showing his face?
That's why he led a group of people back to the princess's residence, arrested all his men and stuffed them into the underground palace, and then dismissed everyone in the princess's residence...
She abandoned him and left.
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