My Gentle and Pure Sect Leader Husband - Chapter 71

“So that Crown Prince of the King of Taiping… was someone who couldn’t find his way?” Yu Luocha put down the book he had been reading until his head hurt and sprawled flat on the table.

The two of them had disappeared for several days after the ceremony, and they hadn’t yet had time to organize everything stored in the treasury.

Most items were precious treasures and food crops from the imperial court and those brought by Wang Lianhua, and there were even a few withered tea plants that no one knew whether they could survive—whoever had the idea to send tea plants to the desert didn’t seem to understand that even with an oasis, the desert climate was hardly suitable for nurturing such delicate plants.

These gifts from both parties still had inventory registers, and Agha had already organized most of them while the two were secluded. The remaining congratulatory gifts from various mysterious places were more troublesome.

The territories beyond the border were vast, with scattered tribes and small nations, but the merchants who traveled there were quite fixed. Caravans capable of traversing the desert for trade all had their own routes. Under Yu Luocha’s previous instructions, news of the Loulan Queen had already been spread. The Western Region countries that received this news, regardless of their attitude toward this suddenly reappeared Loulan or its Queen, or those kings who vaguely knew who protected Loulan, would not offend Loulan over such matters.

They had rushed to send congratulatory gifts, and some small nations had even carefully sent invitations or calling cards, hoping to make contact with this once-disappeared city that had reappeared.

Yan Hongyin had been pressuring Yu Luocha to sort through these for the past few days. Yu Luocha had never been one who could sit still to review such things, and after forcing himself to read through more than half, he finally couldn’t bear it anymore and collapsed on the table.

“He was always getting lost in the Imperial Garden, and I never saw him recognize roads in the capital either. When the Crown Prince of the King of Taiping went out, he always had people following him,” Yan Hongyin clearly had an impression of the Crown Prince of the King of Taiping. “The Third Prince grew up deep in the palace, his mother died early, his maternal family wasn’t powerful, and naturally, the place where he lived was quite remote. If he didn’t get lost, it would have been hard to find the Third Prince’s chambers.”

The imperial palace was so vast, and the Third Prince was an almost unnoticeable child who rarely left his quarters—it was quite remarkable that the Crown Prince of the King of Taiping could encounter the Third Prince.

“Then it seems they had a good relationship,” Yu Luocha turned his head to the side, his cheek pressed against the tabletop as he looked at the serious-faced Yan Hongyin. “One was kidnapped, and the other followed.”

Yan Hongyin’s hand paused, and her expression became subtle. “Not necessarily.”

“Hmm?”

“The Third Prince…” Yan Hongyin fell silent for a moment, then carefully chose her words, “He was rather… intelligent.”

“And, he greatly longed for life in the jianghu.”

Yu Luocha blinked. “Wow, so he deliberately got himself kidnapped?”

Yan Hongyin nodded, sighed, and seemed somewhat troubled. “After all, he didn’t know that the position of Crown Prince had already fallen on his head.”

****

“Achoo!”

The slender yet delicately featured child sneezed, which annoyed the young boy next to him.

“Have you caught a cold?” The boy frowned tightly and began looking around for something to keep warm, while still complaining, “I told you not to follow me when you’re so weak! You insisted on clinging to me! Before at the relay station, we could have sent you to the officials, but now you can’t even go back if you wanted to!”

The child curled himself up and nestled into the boy’s arms, raising his hand to stroke him in a familiar manner. “Don’t worry, Ninth Brother, I don’t have a cold, I’m not cold, just hold me and I’ll be fine~”

The boy kept a stern face, awkwardly embracing the little dumpling, and began to sulk.

It was he who had run away from home, and he who had been captured by the one called Wu Ming. When the Crown Prince heard Wu Ming hold him and say he had a remarkable physique, he had already planned—this person could definitely be used—especially since this person was planning to go to sea.

If he wanted to run away to a place where the King of Taiping couldn’t find him, to make him suffer in regret for a lifetime, the best method was to go far enough away, to disappear completely without a trace, and when he appeared again before the King of Taiping, to be a thoroughly bad person.

For that man who was dedicated to protecting the Great Ming, who could cruelly kill even his wife for the sake of the country, nothing was more serious than his own son, his only heir, usurping power and rebelling.

The Crown Prince of the King of Taiping had planned everything point by point, but had completely failed to anticipate that the soft little dumpling from the deep palace would somehow mix into his box, and even cling to his leg when Wu Ming came to capture him according to plan!!!

How dare this weak little brat, who could be killed with a single slap, do such a thing!

The two were now locked in a damp, dark dungeon near the Kunlun Mountains, in the Luocha Sect, where the underground was penetrated by ice and snow cold—a place that could be fatal for the little one who was frail due to premature birth.

And the reason they were locked here…

The Crown Prince gritted his teeth, his eyes revealing a fierce look.

That pig-like, lustful, and disgusting young leader of the Luocha Sect had better be truly dead, otherwise…

“Clank clank,” the sound of chains loosening rang out. The Crown Prince and the little dumpling looked up to see a white-robed youth standing by the prison door, holding a long sword.

The white-robed youth sheathed his sword and spoke coldly and indifferently, “Don’t want to come out?”

The wrapped little dumpling poked his head out from the Crown Prince’s embrace, his eyes shining brightly as he looked at the white-robed youth. “Is this a jianghu hero? So amazing… such a handsome…”

Covering the little one’s mouth, the Crown Prince’s mouth twitched. “…”

Here he goes again, this kid’s habit of judging by faces was acting up!

Had this brat forgotten that when he first saw this fellow, he ran up to say how good-looking he was, and then almost got skewered like a candied hawthorn by a sword?

This little brat remembered food but not beatings.

Standing up with the little dumpling tucked under his arm, the Crown Prince walked to the prison door, looked at the broken chains, then at the fallen Luocha Sect members outside, and as he followed the white-robed youth out, he quickly crouched down to examine these people, then hesitantly said, “You actually didn’t kill them?”

“This is the Luocha Sect,” the white-robed youth didn’t look back. “I’m just out on a journey for experience; I don’t want to be hunted by the Luocha.”

The Crown Prince pouted. “The Sect Leader of the Luocha Sect may not care much about the sect. We’ve caused such a commotion, and his son was stabbed by me, but we haven’t seen him appear. Perhaps, as those people said, the old man is so sick he’s almost dead.”

The white-robed youth paused and turned his head, “Rather than worry about that, you should think about something else.”

Crown Prince: “What?”

The white-robed youth who had just successfully rescued prisoners and would soon join the Luocha Sect’s wanted list slowly said:

“Where to stay tonight.”

“Mmm!” The little dumpling pushed away the Crown Prince’s hand covering his mouth and raised his short arm. “Me! I know where to go!”

The Crown Prince looked down, raising an eyebrow.

The white-robed youth also looked at the little dumpling with bright puppy eyes, pondering.

The little dumpling squirmed under the Crown Prince’s arm, somehow produced a key from somewhere. “Go west until you reach a dead tree, then turn left, when you reach a stream turn right, then go straight, there’s a small courtyard!”

The Crown Prince took the key from the little dumpling’s hand and asked the essential question, “Where did you get this?”

Not only did he know about the key, but also where the house was?

“When Ninth Brother was taken to see the young leader of the Luocha Sect earlier, I chatted with a guard brother outside…” The little dumpling, being stared at by both the Crown Prince and the admired white-robed hero, became somewhat shy and mumbled, “Big brother was very nice, but unfortunately died after Ninth Brother stabbed the young leader.”

Crown Prince: “…”

Oh, so the Elder’s rampage had affected quite a few people.

“Then I found Big brother during the chaos and took the key from him.” The little dumpling broke into a big, radiant smile. “But we need to help Big brother water his flowers, raise his chickens, and feed Da Huang, okay!”

Crown Prince: “…”

White-robed youth: “…”

The two tacitly skipped over the chickens and Da Huang, exchanged a glance, and headed out of the dungeon.

The white-robed youth’s gaze fell on the little tag-along for the first time, his tone serious. “You… are good.”

“!!!”

The little dumpling lit up entirely.

The Crown Prince rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue.

****

Loulan City

Yan Hongyin pulled out a gift register and examined it up and down with some confusion.

Yu Luocha leaned over to look and found that this register had no title or signature, but simply and casually wrote two characters.

Yan Hongyin stared at these two simple characters, yet seemed to glimpse the cold resolve of the writer who had fought on battlefields and survived desperate situations, as well as that kind of tenacious vitality born from fire. Her fingers brushed over the handwriting on the calling card, hesitantly saying, “…I seem to have seen this handwriting somewhere before.”

Each person’s handwriting carries their own character traits, unique to them.

Yan Hongyin was certain that she had seen very similar, if not identical, handwriting somewhere.

A knock at the door interrupted Yan Hongyin’s contemplation.

It was Agha.

The white-robed governor walked in and immediately noticed the gift register in the Queen’s hand, smiling. “Your Majesty, this subject was just about to tell you about this matter.”

“This register passed through your hands and was placed here?” Yan Hongyin immediately understood.

“Yes, this is a gift register that this subject’s teacher, upon hearing of the Loulan Queen’s coronation and Your Majesty’s marriage to the High Priest, specifically instructed this subject to deliver.” As Agha spoke, he pulled an invitation from his sleeve and handed it to Yan Hongyin. “This is the invitation that came with it.”

Yu Luocha looked up. “You still have a teacher?”

“Of course.” Agha’s look at Yu Luocha was somewhat teasing. “I was not born knowing everything. To read and write, to learn how to manage city affairs, of course I had a teacher to guide me. But High Priest, have you taken your medicine on time today?”

Yu Luocha stuck close to Yan Hongyin, resting his head on Yan Hongyin’s shoulder. “I’ll drink medicine only when Her Majesty says so. I wouldn’t dare drink those messy concoctions you brew~”

The discord between Agha and Yu Luocha was not a recent development; whenever these two came together, they would bicker non-stop, finding reasons to argue about anything.

Amidst the sound of their bickering, Yan Hongyin opened the calling card, quickly scanning the contents, finally stopping at the name at the end. Her pupils constricted suddenly due to extreme shock, and her fingers tightened, crumpling the paper invitation.

She heard her own somewhat difficult and dry voice squeeze out from her throat. “Your teacher… is…”

In an instant, she found the source of the familiar handwriting—it was from the records once kept by the Jinyiwei about the Golden Wind Fine Rain Tower.

It was the only remaining handwriting in the world from the most colorful and magnificent master in the history of the Golden Wind Fine Rain Tower.

“Su… Meng… Zhen?!”

Yu Luocha, who had been arguing with Agha, was also stunned by this name and couldn’t recover for a long while.

The conflict between the Golden Wind Fine Rain Tower and the Six and a Half Hall occurred during the previous emperor’s reign. The Central Plains were extremely chaotic during that period, and even beyond the borders, there were rumors. In her childhood, Yu Luocha had heard her mother and tribespeople talk about it.

Yu Luocha had not only heard the name Su Mengzhen but also the story of that jianghu hero who, with his own strength, led the Golden Wind Fine Rain Tower to the frontier to perish together with tens of thousands of Yuan soldiers. Because of his deep attachment to his mother and tribespeople, he had a special reverence for this name that appeared in childhood bedtime stories.

But…

“That Su Mengzhen from the Golden Wind Fine Rain Tower? But he…”

—Wasn’t he buried at the frontier decades ago?