Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Grand Princess left, and General Wulu left as well.

And I was still Mu Yuchang’s “Little eunuch.”

The guard who had tattled on us was still there too, pouring water in turn for Mu Wanyan and Mu Yuchang.

Mu Yuchang raised his hand and swept the celadon cup in front of him over. The clear water formed a thin curtain, splashing down the corner of the table with a crash.

Mu Wanyan looked at the puddle in disgust.

But the cup didn’t break. I caught it, wiped it dry, and stuffed it into my sleeve.

No one paid me any attention. The guard was busy explaining himself to Mu Yuchang. “The people around His Highness the Imperial Grandson have already been replaced twice. If I didn’t offer some proof of loyalty, I would definitely have been dragged off. Little Prince, please try to understand my position.”

Mu Yuchang said, “But this could get me killed! If the Grand Princess hadn’t come to save me just now, I might not even have kept my corpse intact.”

“Plenty of people in the Mu family have died already.” Mu Wanyan said this out of nowhere, sounding completely unconcerned as he wiped at the water with the sleeve of his mourning clothes.

Mu Yuchang flew into a rage. “Then why aren’t you willing to go die yourself?”

Mu Wanyan said, “Because I’m afraid of dying.”

I stared straight at him.

Before long, Mu Wanyan looked at me too, and smiled faintly. “Why is it that every time I see you, you’re bruised and battered?”

I didn’t explain. Instead, in my coldest, sternest voice, I said, “If you don’t arrange for me to leave Ying’an Prefecture immediately, I’ll tell the people outside what you just said.”

“What?” Mu Wanyan, who had looked so gentle a moment before, suddenly had an austere chill in his eyes.

“I want to leave this place.”

The city gates were sealed, unless the Beidi people themselves wanted to go out.

I had seen with my own eyes Beidi soldiers who had been killed in counterattacks lying on carts, being hauled out through a side gate near the city wall to be buried.

So it wasn’t completely sealed off.

Besides, they still had to transport grain and fodder.

There had to be a way.

I didn’t want to stay in this cursed Ying’an Prefecture for another moment.

And as luck would have it, the man before me was the Imperial Grandson.

No matter how fallen he was, no matter how much he was under someone else’s control, he definitely had far more ways to find a route out than I did.

This headless fly had finally crashed into a life-saving straw.

But even after I had stooped this low, Mu Yuchang actually defended me in a muffled voice. “Imperial Grandson, Daoning was only joking. She isn’t that kind of person. Last time I twisted my ankle and it was swollen black and blue, she massaged it for me until midnight.”

Silly child.

That wasn’t it. Zhu Qingyun and I had played one soft and one hard, all to coax you into taking us into the palace to find the secret passage.

I persisted. “I wasn’t joking. I-”

“Your name is Daoning?” Mu Wanyan suddenly interrupted me.

“Yes. My surname is Zhu. Zhu Daoning.” I nodded, then waited for his response.

Mu Wanyan’s expression had already returned to normal. Calm and indifferent, as though he were hiding his edge. “The Beidi king is on his way. He will arrive at Ying’an Prefecture soon. When that happens, the city gates will open.”

Mu Yuchang asked anxiously, “Then what about us?”

“I can’t predict the future.”

Mu Yuchang deflated. “I want to run away with Daoning.”

I turned my head and said to him, “I don’t want you to. You’re too much of a burden.”

Mu Wanyan said, “He is a burden. Miss Zhu has her own family.”

Mu Yuchang blurted out in his haste, “No, Daoning only has one younger brother left in Ying’an Prefecture. The rest of her family abandoned her and ran off long ago.”

“They didn’t abandon me and run off,” I explained seriously and in detail. “They were afraid something might go wrong, so they quietly left in the middle of the night. It was dark and silent then. They probably didn’t dare light a lamp or say too much, so they didn’t notice I wasn’t there.”

Mu Yuchang said, “Oh. So I misunderstood.”

I said, “Yes. There are several children in my family, and my parents have always favored me. If not for an accident, I never would have been left behind.”

“My royal father had a cat he was very fond of. When he resolved to move the capital, that cat and the imperial jade seal were placed in the same study. Before he left, he checked again and again to make sure they were there.”

I frowned at Mu Wanyan. I didn’t much like what he had just said.

Even though it had nothing to do with me.

But after hearing it, I vaguely felt as if ants were crawling through my heart and gnawing at it.

I asked him tentatively, “His Highness the Imperial Grandson, what do you mean by that?”

“Ying’an Prefecture is an isolated city. Those left behind are those who have been abandoned.”

I pushed myself up, intending to argue with him properly. But perhaps I looked as though I was about to devour someone, because that guard actually lunged over and pinned me down. I kicked and bit to break free, but nothing worked.

“Cui Ping.”

I heard Mu Wanyan call the guard’s name, and only then did he release me.

When I turned my head, Mu Yuchang was staring at me in shock.

But Mu Wanyan looked completely unruffled. He looked at me and said, “You’re too weak.”

Then he asked me: even if he could get me out of Ying’an Prefecture today, what came after that? The journey was long-had I calculated how far I could travel in a day, whether I could reach shelter before dark, and if I ran into snakes or bandits along the way, whether I could run fast enough…

I hadn’t had time to think that far.