8
It looks like these people are scared.
After all, with Big Brother at the top of the wanted list, Liuyun Stronghold has always been the head of the bandits throughout the land.
I turned around leisurely, intending to lead away the red-clad fat man who’d been bullied.
To my surprise, a dagger suddenly pressed against my throat.
I glanced at the fleshy face beside my head and asked in shock, “Are you all in cahoots?!”
The red-clad fat man burst out laughing. “What else?”
“Then why was he tormenting you just now?”
The red-clad fat man paused, then laughed loudly. “This prince only had a sore shoulder.”
“Then why did you capture me?”
I heard a sinister, cold laugh by my ear. “If we capture you, surely we can get your big brother too.”
What?!
Did my father have an illegitimate child out there?!
The red-clad fat man stared at me as I wept bitterly, as if I had nothing left to live for.
“Stop crying! If you keep crying, this prince will kill you!”
And I’m a bandit chief—do I look like I’m hooked on being called a prince?!
I stuck out my neck toward the fat man. “Go ahead and kill me. My father had an illegitimate child on the side. I don’t want to live anymore.”
“An, an illegitimate child?”
The red-clad fat man hurriedly checked the information in his hand.
“That’s right. Your big brother has the same mother as you… What nonsense are you talking about? Your father’s been dead for years. How could he have an illegitimate child?”
I wasn’t happy to hear that. My father might have been a womanizer, but he was still my father.
“Your father just died? Your whole family is dead…”
The red-clad fat man’s face flushed. So angry he stuttered, he said, “Y-you—you—you dare speak to this prince like that? Do you know who I am?!”
“I don’t care who you are! You cursed my father, so I’ll curse your whole family!”
“I am Prince Chen!”
“Never heard of you.” I tilted my head, thinking. I’d never heard of a bandit named Prince Chen. “Is your younger brother called Defeated Bandit?”
Prince Chen sighed up at the sky. “What a pity, what a pity… General Ji was such an unparalleled man. How could he have fathered such a foolish daughter?!”
I was completely confused. “What are you talking about? My father’s surname is Su, and his name is Su Nantian. If you don’t know him, you can check the wanted posters.”
“S-Su Nantian?”
Prince Chen took out his little notebook of information again, flipped through it, then laughed. “So that’s how it is. Su Nantian is actually Su Yu’an…”
This is so confusing!
Before I could make sense of it, I heard footsteps approaching the cave entrance from far away.
Feng Mo, dressed all in black, looked at me with a pale face as a group of black-clad men surrounded me.
Prince Chen raised his head with a false smile. “Seventh Brother, long time no see.”
“Feng Yang, you’ve been stripped of your title and made a commoner. You have no right to call me Seventh Brother.”
Oh?
So this guy named Feng Yang really was a prince?
And Feng Mo’s older brother, too?
Then when I cursed him just now, saying his father and whole family were dead, wasn’t I cursing…
I’m doomed. They’re going to execute my entire clan!
9
I don’t remember how I escaped death that day.
I only remember Feng Mo and I snatching two swords and fighting for our lives against a hundred men in black.
Both of us were covered in wounds.
The final sword stroke came at me. I had no strength left, so I closed my eyes and waited to die.
But the pain I expected never came. I fell into a warm embrace.
After that, I passed out from exhaustion.
When I woke up, I was in the Crown Prince’s residence, with Ji Nanzhu beside me.
No, wait. From the time I was little, whenever I was sick or had period cramps, Feng Mo was always the one by my side.
This time, he wouldn’t abandon me either.
A terrible premonition stirred in my heart.
I tried to get out of bed, but Ji Nanzhu, his eyes red-rimmed, held me back.
I felt even more uneasy.
The Crown Prince’s residence was draped in white mourning banners, and a mourning hall had been set up in the rear hall.
I was devastated, yet I still didn’t realize anything was wrong.
The Empress came in, her eyes slightly red and swollen, and comforted me. “Tang’er, don’t be sad. It wasn’t your fault. Mo’er…”
“I won’t listen! I won’t listen! I have to find him…”
I ran like a madwoman, ignoring everyone trying to hold me back, charged into the mourning hall, and lifted the coffin lid.
My eyes were so blurred with tears that I couldn’t make out the person in front of me.
But without a moment’s hesitation, I climbed into the coffin and hugged him.
“Feng Mo, this is all my fault.”
“I never got the chance to tell you how I feel.”
“Didn’t you say I was your Crown Princess? You haven’t even formally given me that title—how could you die like this?”
“Feng Mo, you died so horribly. Your body’s so swollen I can’t even hold you…”
The Vice Minister of Rites stood outside the mourning hall, gaping.
“The future Crown Princess is embracing Prince Chen’s corpse and wailing like this. This, this is completely improper!”
Prince Chen had rebelled and been killed.
The Crown Prince was benevolent. Remembering that Prince Chen’s mother, Consort Huệ, had once saved the Empress when she first entered the palace, he personally asked to oversee the funeral.
But Prince Chen had gone too far. Even dead, he was still seducing the Crown Princess.
[Prince Chen: “This is so unfair! She’s the one who opened my coffin…”]
The Vice Minister of Rites shook his head and sighed. “It seems the investiture ceremony is off…”
I must be hallucinating.
I actually saw Feng Mo standing in front of me, his face pale.
I clutched the body in my arms and looked at Feng Mo’s ghost, sobbing so hard I could barely speak. “F-Feng Mo, don’t, don’t go. I—I’m willing to marry, marry you…”
Feng Mo’s ghost smiled, but helplessly.
“Su Beitang, if you don’t let go, Feng Yang is about to come back to life.”
Feng Yang? What does he have to do with Feng Yang?
But this soft, squishy feeling really was a little like a fat man.
Feng Yang, fat man…
I looked down and saw who was in my arms. My soul nearly left my body. I hurriedly tossed him aside and jumped out of the coffin.
[Feng Yang: “Good grief, is no one going to speak up for me?”]
I fell into Feng Mo’s arms.
So reassuring.
Why hadn’t I noticed before?
With tears in my eyes, I looked at Feng Mo and instinctively wrapped both arms around his neck. “Are you a person or a ghost?”
“Do you want me dead that badly?”
I looked plaintively at the Empress and Ji Nanzhu, who had started cracking melon seeds. “They didn’t tell me…”
The Empress: “How unfair. You interrupted me.”
Ji Nanzhu: “How unfair. I hadn’t even had a chance to speak before you ran off.”
“Then why are all your eyes red?”
Ji Nanzhu: “Because you were injured.”
The Empress: “Because my son was injured.”
[Prince Chen: “So no one feels sorry for me? Destroy it, this heartless world…”]
“Are you hurt? Is it serious?”
I hurriedly let go of Feng Mo and pulled him over, looking him up and down.
Feng Mo patted my head and said calmly, “It’s not serious, just a flesh wound.”
When the Empress heard that, she was displeased. She tossed aside the melon seeds in her hand and, right in front of everyone, stripped Feng Mo’s shirt off.
His entire back was wrapped in bandages, soaked through with blood that had turned dark red.
“This is what he calls a flesh wound? One slash, and you can see the bone.”
I couldn’t see the wound, but the vivid red of the blood still made my heart ache.
“Feng Mo, I’m sorry.”
Feng Mo and I had been together for ten years. All that time, no matter who was right or wrong, he was always the first to comfort me.
This was the first time I’d ever apologized to him—truly, from the bottom of my heart.
Feng Mo seemed unaccustomed to seeing me like this. He stared blankly for a long while before pulling me into his arms.
“There’s nothing to apologize for. As long as you’re safe and sound, that’s all that matters.”
“Why are you so good to me?”
“You silly girl. Because you’re the Crown Princess I chose myself.”
Inside the Vice Minister of Rites’s head, two people were arguing: “Is it okay to interrupt someone else’s romantic moment?”
Ji Nanzhu, unwilling to leave the Vice Minister of Rites in an awkward spot, kicked him straight over to Feng Mo and me.
“Y-Your Highness, I’d like to ask… Is the investiture ceremony in three days still going ahead?”
“It is!”
“It is!”