Chapter 3

Chapter 3

But it was precisely thanks to those little schemes that Mu Yuchang escaped disaster when the Beidi soldiers burst in to search the rooms.

The remaining royal children, however, likely had no bait as tempting as a secret passage to offer, and so they were all dragged out.

A princess had her clothes yanked loose by soldiers in the street. Humiliated and furious, she threw herself onto a blade.

A noble heir bent his heavy knees, then arched his back and braced his hands against the ground, shaping himself into a low stool so a Beidi general could step on him to dismount.

Once off his horse, the general swaggered into the palace.

For one thing, the higher-ranking Beidi commanders had already begun treating the imperial palace like their own home these past few days.

For another, the Grand Princess and the Imperial Grandson were under house arrest inside. If these people did not go check on them every day, they could not feel at ease.

At first, everyone had assumed the Grand Princess and the Imperial Grandson were as good as dead.

But because they had stayed behind instead of following the capital relocation, and because they made no attempt to hide, the Beidi actually regarded them a little more highly for it.

Of course, being regarded highly or not was all empty talk.

It was said that the real reason those two had been kept alive was to help steady the people’s hearts after the city fell.

The Beidi had no intention of massacring the city.

They had come to occupy the Central Plains, so naturally they wanted both the people and the city.

Disobedient wretches had to be killed.

And while they were at it, they would frighten those who were getting restless into confusion, until they settled down and behaved.

At a time like this, they had to offer a little sweetness too.

Leaving the Grand Princess and the Imperial Grandson alive was a way to show the people in the city that since even the Mu imperial clan could coexist peacefully with them, everyone else would not meet too miserable an end as long as they behaved themselves.

This was what they called tempering grace with might.

When Zhu Qingyun told me all this, my reaction was mild. I always felt that these games of power were far removed from me. Mu Yuchang, on the other hand, broke out in cold sweat all across his forehead.

Even in his dreams, he did not forget to beg me, “Miss Daoning, I don’t want to fall into their hands.”

I replied, “How many times have I told you? Right now, just like you, I’m a young man.”

He seemed to take it in and stopped muttering.

But I tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

After the turmoil of the past two or three days, I had already understood that my parents had not left me some token I absolutely had to come take charge of.

They had simply forgotten to wake me.

And now, what I needed to worry about was how to get Mu Yuchang to bring us siblings into the palace, find the secret passage, and escape once and for all.