Fleeing Marriage (2)

But no true gentleman would lurk in an alley corner. While the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole waits behind.

Zhou Yao eyed Qi Yanhan warily, but Linglong tugged at her sleeve and whispered, "Your Highness, your betrothed..."

Zhou Yao's face lit up with a radiant smile. "Sir Qi, today is your wedding day. Why aren't you inside changing into your ceremonial robes and waiting at the mansion?"

"That was my intention, but seeing Your Highness in peril, I couldn't bear to stand by and watch."

He claims he couldn't bear to watch, yet here he lurks in an alley—a veritable coward.

Despite their shared childhood, Zhou Yao had always found Qi Yanhan's sanctimonious hypocrisy grating. Handsome and spirited he might be, but those fox-like eyes held a calculating glint.

The sounds of fighting outside gradually faded. Zhou Yao knew time was running out and hurried to leave the city with Linglong.

She had no time to spar with this man—she took Linglong's hand and tried to slip around him.

Before she could move, shadow guards materialized with lightning speed, blocking their path.

He remained standing, hands clasped before him, smiling as though amused by their futile attempts to flee.

Venom lurked beneath his gentle facade.

"Since Your Highness has come here willingly, I ought to play the host. But as we were to be wed and you've seemingly changed your mind—if His Majesty catches wind of this, you might find yourself in trouble."

Zhou Yao stopped, turned, and looked at him.

"What exactly do you want?"

She tried to read his eyes for any hint, but Qi Yanhan's composure was impeccable; not a trace slipped through.

She narrowed her eyes, mulling over his words.

Impatient, she said, "Neither of us wants this marriage. Why not go along with it and do each other a favor? If Father punishes anyone, you'll come out unscathed. Isn't that better for all of us?"

She was certain he didn't want to marry her—otherwise, he wouldn't have dragged his feet this long.

The man let out a low chuckle. "Your Highness is astute when it comes to weighing gains, but you've overlooked something."

The setting sun painted half of Qi Yanhan's face, lending his gentle features a measure of genuine warmth.

He closed the distance between them, as if no one else were present.

But his next words sent a chill down Zhou Yao's spine.

"A marriage contract will always exist—who the final bride is makes no difference to me."

"All I've ever wanted... is just one thing..."

His slender fingers wound around a strand of her hair as he whispered in her ear, "Why not turn this to our advantage, Your Highness?"

He didn't care who the marriage partner was.

Compared to other princesses, Zhou Yao, who had no backing in the palace, was easier to control—and more beneficial to his grand plan.

"What do you want?"

"What I want is simple." He glanced at the situation outside the alley and lightly tapped his finger in Zhou Yao's direction. "Please, Your Highness, accompany me somewhere more suitable to discuss this."

Inside the mansion, bamboo shadows interwove, and pavilions and towers reflected in the pond, with occasional birdsong drifting through the air.

The incense burner in the room had long burned out, yet no maidservant came to replenish it.

A chess game sat half-finished on the table—black and white stones evenly matched, one wrong move would lose it all.

Zhou Yao's wound had been simply bandaged.

"Earlier, I mentioned something I wanted from Your Highness," Qi Yanhan said, his fox eyes brimming with a smile. His gentle, unhurried tone betrayed none of his deep scheming.

"If I said I want you to accompany the envoy to the Western Regions to retrieve a treasure, would you agree?"

"What treasure?" Zhou Yao asked, puzzled.

Qi Yanhan smiled without answering, merely instructing the servants to dress her up as him.

All the while, he sat calmly reviewing scrolls, occasionally receiving whispered reports from those who entered.

Despite the subtle fragrance of cosmetics, Zhou Yao quickly learned, with the servants' guidance, to apply powder and paint her brows with elegance.

It required no elaborate disguise—their faces were already eighty or ninety percent alike.

"What I want is evidence of the Suzhou Governor's corruption," he said slowly as he rose, the jade ornaments at his waist clinking. "The evidence has been assembled. I'll trouble you to retrieve it."

"As for the marriage, I'll naturally shield you from His Majesty's scrutiny." A self-assured smile curved his lips. "Though we may be nominal spouses, we can still treat each other with mutual respect."

And so Zhou Yao slipped out of the city, leaving Linglong at Qi Yanhan's manor outside the city for her safety.

Time passed, and the group hurried along until they reached Suzhou.

One night, the moon hung high, and the crackle of burning firewood broke the silence.

*Thud!* An arrow embedded itself in a tree trunk.

In the dead of night, Zhou Yao sat up warily and looked at the arrow. A strip of paper was tied to the shaft, reading: *Mao hour, three ke—under the ginkgo tree.*

She immediately thought of Qi Yanhan's instructions, tossed the note into the fire, and turned her gaze toward the ginkgo tree she'd passed earlier.

Who was this?

Even here, in this desolate borderland, Qi Yanhan's reach extended.

Not waiting for the Mao hour, Zhou Yao rose and went immediately.

Beneath the ginkgo tree, two dark figures were locked in combat, at their feet a field of corpses. The dead had perished in various ways—some pierced through the heart with an arrow, some with a single slit across the throat.

She frowned, nausea overwhelming her, and vomited against the wall.

Her noise drew the attention of one figure, who broke off and ran straight toward her.

She grabbed a clay jar at her feet and hurled it at his head. He dodged just in time, but it gave Zhou Yao her chance to flee.

Under the moonlight, the black-clad figure pulled down his mask. Beneath it was a face Zhou Yao recognized...

Seeing that he wasn't pursuing, she stopped by the wall and looked back. The ground around the ginkgo tree was clear of bodies.

At the Mao hour, the third ke, she returned to the ginkgo tree. Unlike yesterday, there was now a pit covered by a clay pot. Digging another three feet down, Zhou Yao found the box containing the sealed reports on the governor's corruption.

During the journey to the Western Regions with the envoy, Zhou Yao heard many stories and customs.

But somehow the governor had learned of her mission and kept sending assassins to pursue her in the shadows.

She often barely escaped with her life, but luck seemed to favor her, and the villains never succeeded.

The group would enter the city to pay respects to the local king. Zhou Yao found it tedious, so she stayed at the camp, and in the daytime she wandered the nearby market, taking in foreign customs.

"Wer wer wer wer wer!!!" A long, piercing howl of a dog erupted from somewhere.

Zhou Yao initially wanted to ignore it, but the noise was unbearable.

Going over to investigate, she learned that a family had fallen on hard times. They'd been forced to slaughter their cattle and sheep, only for this dog to steal their food, so they decided to kill and cook it—yet even so, people were condemning them as cruel.

"Everyone, judge for yourselves—does this dog deserve to die or not!"

After hearing the whole story, Zhou Yao thought for a moment, drew a hairpin from her robes, and stepped forward to buy the dog from the family.

"A life is a life, but it did steal from you first. This hairpin can support your family of four for a year, so I'll take the dog."

—— —— —— ——

Two years later, the envoy returned laden with goods, but many brothers had died of thirst along the way in the endless desert.

The sands of Dunhuang stretched endlessly. Camel bells jingled as the group slowly made their way toward Chang'an.

The swirling sand obscured much of the view—even the lead rider disappeared without anyone noticing.

Along the route, several of their number were quietly replaced, and before Zhou Yao realized what was happening, hands reached for the bundle at her chest.

"Ah!" Zhou Yao was yanked off her camel, the sudden loss of balance terrifying.

"Hand over the goods and you'll live," the man threatened, pressing a blade to her neck.

Suppressing her panic, Zhou Yao devised a plan within a few breaths.

"The... the information is actually buried beneath the biggest camel thorn to the north. Someone previously contacted me to bury it there."

She watched the man's expression, probing cautiously.

With a sycophantic smile, she asked, "How about lowering the sword? We can talk things out. Right now everyone here is your people—I can't possibly run."

"Don't try any tricks."

"Yes, yes."

They herded her ahead to lead the way. In such a short time, she couldn't prepare much to deceive them, so she simply went with it.

While everyone rested by a rare pool of water, she slipped some castor powder she'd brought from the Western Regions into the water. It wasn't fatal, but it would give them all enough stomach troubles to keep them down for a while.

Seizing the chance, Zhou Yao grabbed Bige and ran.

"Damn it," the man who couldn't stand up cursed, watching her leave.

Outside Jiayuguan, the whole world was a wash of yellow. Zhou Yao walked steadily across the sharp gravel of the Gobi.

The northwest lived up to its reputation—*a lonely plume of smoke rises straight in the desert, the setting sun sinks round over the long river.* Jiayuguan sat at the foot of the Qilian Mountains, where melted ice and snow provided drinking water.

After filling her canteen and eating her fill, she would camp there for the night.

Zhou Yao hadn't expected to feel such emotion at drawing near to her homeland again.

Four years ago she hadn't yet met Bige, nor been captivated by the looks of that big-eared, howling donkey.

Back then she was free...

In all of Chang'an, there couldn't be found a second creature that made such noisy, ghostly sounds.

A long, mournful horn echoed from afar.

Rapid hoofbeats and whistles came closer. But what reached them first was a rain of arrows from the enemy.

Arrows rained down, shattering much of the wine and glass cups brought from the Western Regions.

Those in the group who couldn't dodge—some who'd survived their days of scorching sand—now died at the border of their own country.

Four long years, and they'd never had the chance to see their parents, wives, or children back in Chang'an.

"Rong tribe raiders! Beware!"

Amid the alert calls, Zhou Yao looked in the opposite direction.

Indeed, behind the raiding Rong warriors, another force hadn't yet moved.

She skirted the corpses beneath the camels' hooves and dropped down.

Her plain traveling clothes couldn't block the wind-blown sand, nor could they stop her resolve to draw their attention.

"Woof, woof!" At the critical moment, Bige wouldn't stop barking, giving Zhou Yao a headache.

There was no choice—while dodging the arrows, she tried to shove the silly dog into a wooden crate, but the more she panicked, the less he'd fit.

She was so furious she wanted to give the dog a good thrashing.

But she didn't.

One look at Bige's adorable face and she gave up.

She placed Bige in a relatively safe spot and went alone toward that waiting band of riders.

Water is scarce in the Gobi, so the group had swapped their horses for camels—now she wished they had horses.

Using the swirling sand to conceal her approach, she crept closer and closer to the enemy captain.

One step...

Two steps...

The knife in Zhou Yao's hand was nearly at his throat.

"Awoo awoo awoo! Awoo awoo!" The big-eared howling donkey's piercing bark came from behind her, successfully alerting the riders.

In an instant, Zhou Yao was pinned down.

"Damn, trying a sneak attack."

"If not for that yapping dog, this brat would've gotten us."

The men laughed and joked, entirely unfazed by the turn of events. One of them ground Zhou Yao's face into the dirt.

"Hey, look closer—this one's a woman, dressed as a man, hahaha." The man crouched beside her, gripping her chin and leering.

He never noticed that Bige, who'd been yapping earlier, had just left a sizable pile on his shoe.

Zhou Yao watched, dumbfounded.

She'd had this dog for nearly two years. He never did his business outside, only waiting until they got back to the room.

Because of that, the group leader had always treated her coldly, and every time they stayed at an inn, she had to compensate the owner with extra silver.

The Rong tribesman, enraged by Bige's sabotage, decided to kill Zhou Yao in one blow before finishing off that wretched beast.

As the blade came down, Bige went into a frenzy of frantic barking, startling the man so badly he dropped the sword.

Zhou Yao snatched Bige and ran.

The man tried to chase, but in the nick of time, an arrow whistled past Zhou Yao's ear, grazing her hair.

It struck the man straight through the heart! Such precise archery reminded her of the warning arrow from the day she fled her wedding.

Zhou Yao warily twisted toward the direction the arrow had come from—but there was no one there.

All she could see was Gobi and sand.

Though it was over a mile away, there were few in all of Chang'an with such exact marksmanship.

The only one—and he always seemed to be there...

Who was it?

Soon, the Rong raiders were wiped out, and bodies littered the field.

Out of the swirling sand gradually emerged the figure of the archer. It was Qi Yanhan.

He exuded a gentle, refined air, every gesture an epitome of noble bearing. Though his face was pale with illness, his spirit seemed vigorous—far from the cold exterior he usually presented.

What a coincidence?

Once she handed over the information, their business would be concluded. After that, they'd go their separate ways.

Two strikingly similar faces met in the same place at the same time.

They stared at each other, both seeing the smile in the other's eyes.

Before Qi Yanhan could speak, Bige squirmed out of Zhou Yao's arms, his fluffy tail wagging as he bolted straight for the jade pendant at Qi Yanhan's waist.

The man's pendant was knocked loose by the impact, fell to the ground, and shattered into pieces on the sharp gravel—a fine piece of mutton-fat jade, ruined.

Zhou Yao stammered, "Sorry... I'll give you the dog as compensation, plus half a month's worth of its food."