Volume 1, Chapter 48: You Are Taking Her to Her Death
On the official road, the horse-drawn carriages moved steadily forward.
Ye Xuan and Su Qingxue rode in separate carriages, with an empty carriage carrying some belongings between them.
Zhongshu personally drove the lead carriage with Su Qingxue inside. Though his expression appeared relaxed, his grip on the reins remained firm and steady.
Inside the carriage, Su Qingxue leaned against the soft cushion, eyes closed in quiet rest, her delicate face revealing no trace of joy or sorrow.
Everything in Yun’an City had already settled.
Suddenly,
“Coo coo—”
A gray messenger pigeon descended from the sky, landing precisely on Zhongshu’s shoulder.
Zhongshu’s eyes sharpened as he quickly removed a small wax pellet from the pigeon’s leg. Breaking it open, he found a tiny slip of paper inside.
A single glance was enough to slightly alter his expression.
Without revealing his change in mood, he crushed the note into powder and then calmly spoke toward the carriage interior:
“Miss, hold on tight.”
Su Qingxue slowly opened her eyes, a flicker of inquiry shining in her cold gaze.
Zhongshu offered no explanation but suddenly jerked the reins with a sharp cry.
“Drive!”
Crack!
The whip cracked through the air!
The carriage that had been moving smoothly suddenly surged forward as if infused with new life, hooves flying, speed skyrocketing!
Ye Xuan, following behind, sensed something was wrong immediately.
Zhongshu’s strength was no weaker than his own; he would never accelerate without cause.
Something was wrong!
Ye Xuan’s pupils contracted slightly. Without hesitation, he threw back the curtain and barked sharply at his driver:
“Keep up! Full speed ahead!”
The driver dared not slacken and immediately cracked the whip to urge the horses.
The three carriages, one ahead and two behind, began racing wildly along the official road.
Behind them, on the distant horizon, a black tide rolled up a cloud of dust, surging forward with terrifying speed!
Cold murderous intent had locked onto them.
Ye Xuan turned to look back. At the horizon, a black line thickened and grew larger at a visible pace, stirring dust clouds that blotted out the sky like a black tsunami!
They were not soldiers.
They were cavalry!
Elite riders, bearing unmasked lethal intent, pursuing with deadly purpose!
A thought flashed through Ye Xuan’s mind like lightning.
Could it be... that news of his purchase of armor to frame Wang Defa had been exposed?
No!
Impossible!
That thought lasted only a fraction of a second before he extinguished it completely.
The imperial edict had been issued; the Forbidden Army was already mobilized. This meant the emperor was utterly convinced of the matter, leaving no room for compromise.
The Wang family case was ironclad!
Moreover, even if it had been uncovered, the reaction would never have been so swift.
Then these riders’ target...
Ye Xuan’s gaze instantly shifted to the carriage racing ahead.
They were after Su Qingxue!
Realizing this, Ye Xuan’s heart stilled, leaving only cold calculation.
He watched the pursuers behind drawing closer, their figures becoming distinct.
There was no time to wait!
“Stay close! Full speed!”
Ye Xuan issued his final cold command to his driver.
In the next instant, he shot out of the speeding carriage like an arrow loosed from a bow!
The wild wind whipped his robes.
Mid-air, he reached out, grabbing the collar of the driver who had not yet reacted, lifting him effortlessly like an eagle snatching a chick.
Then, twisting his waist mysteriously in midair, he lightly tapped the carriage shaft with his toes, propelling himself higher and transforming into a blur that flew straight toward Su Qingxue’s carriage with deadly precision!
Thud!
A muffled sound.
Ye Xuan landed steadily on the shaft of Su Qingxue’s carriage, holding the driver. The carriage rocked violently but regained balance under Zhongshu’s steady control.
The carriage he had left behind, now out of control, caused the horses to panic and veer off the road, galloping toward the barren land beside it.
Sure enough, from the black tide behind, a detachment of about forty or fifty riders broke off, chasing after the runaway carriage.
A simple maneuver had successfully drawn away part of the pursuers.
A pure white hand gently lifted the carriage curtain, revealing Su Qingxue’s serene and exquisitely beautiful face, utterly calm despite the situation.
Her clear eyes looked quietly at Ye Xuan as she asked in her usual steady tone, “What’s going on?”
“Pursuers,” Ye Xuan replied, tossing the terrified driver onto the floor with a terse tone.
Before Su Qingxue could ask more, Zhongshu’s calm voice came from the wind, steady as a mountain:
“They are not the Forbidden Army from Yun’an City. Their banners are wrong. They are an unknown cavalry unit, deadly and fierce.”
His words instantly froze the atmosphere inside the carriage.
Ye Xuan’s pupils contracted sharply.
They were not the Forbidden Army, yet dared to openly hunt down the prime minister’s daughter outside Yun’an City, so close to the emperor’s presence?
Across all of Great Qian, who else had the audacity and strength?
One name emerged without doubt.
The Crown Prince! Ye Tian!
Had his whereabouts been revealed?
A flash of murderous intent flickered and vanished in Ye Xuan’s heart.
He had believed his concealment flawless, yet the Crown Prince had still sniffed out a clue.
“It’s me.”
Su Qingxue’s cold voice interrupted Ye Xuan’s thoughts.
She lowered the curtain, dimming the light inside the carriage. Her voice carried a hint of self-mockery and icy detachment:
“Seems I still couldn’t escape.”
She looked at Ye Xuan and slowly said, “I didn’t leave the capital all for recuperation. I was also running from someone.”
“The Crown Prince, Ye Tian.”
“He wants to take me as a concubine. My father refused, and so did I. If I stayed in the capital, I’d only become a pawn he uses to blackmail my father. That’s why I left under the pretense of recuperation, fleeing to Yun’an.”
She spoke calmly, as if recounting a matter unrelated to herself.
But Ye Xuan heard beneath the calm a suppressed torrent of humiliation and turmoil.
So that was it!
The root of it all lay here!
Though their meeting seemed coincidental, from the start, their fates had been invisibly bound by the same man.
Their enemy had always been just one.
The Crown Prince, Ye Tian!
“Talking about this now is useless,” Ye Xuan’s voice regained absolute calmness. “The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is how we survive.”
He looked ahead at Zhongshu’s broad back and asked, “Zhongshu, can we lose them?”
Zhongshu gripped the reins tightly, replying in a deep voice, “Yes!”
“Miss, rest assured. The master prepared long ago! Ahead lies Luofeng Slope, with a dense forest. Our people are waiting inside the woods!”
“As long as we break into the forest and use the terrain, we have a chance to shake off these riders!”
Zhongshu’s words were like a shot of adrenaline.
Yet Ye Xuan keenly caught the critical detail.
He narrowed his eyes and pressed, “Our people? How many?”
Zhongshu’s hand on the reins tensed sharply, hesitating slightly.
“Zhongshu!”
Su Qingxue’s voice suddenly grew heavy, carrying an unyielding pressure.
“Tell the truth!”
Zhongshu was silent for a moment, then finally squeezed out a number between clenched teeth.
“Fewer than a hundred... all are the mansion’s elite guards.”
No sooner had he spoken than Ye Xuan laughed.
There was no warmth in that smile, only bone-chilling cold and unabashed scorn.
“Fewer than a hundred foot soldiers against over three hundred well-trained cavalry?”
His voice was low but struck Zhongshu and Su Qingxue like a heavy hammer.
“Zhongshu.”
“You’re not leading your lady to survive.”
“You’re leading her to her death!”