On the ground, the snowfield that experienced a terrible collapse was in complete disarray.
Zhang Hu nearly fell in, buried in it, but it was Long Yi who saved him just in time.
At this moment, the two stood twenty steps away from the collapse point, behind them were a hundred guards maintaining a back-facing, eyes-closed posture.
Zhang Hu didn’t have the time to issue the order to open their eyes. He looked at the collapsed snowfield, his legs went weak, and he kneeled on the ground.
It’s over, it’s all fucking over!
Marquis Xuanping and Princess Xinyang were both in trouble right under his nose!
If this incident spreads back to Capital City, he won’t escape blame for failing to protect them. Failing to protect others might still have a slim chance, but these two are one, the Empress Xiao’s most trusted dear brother, and the other, the Emperor’s most beloved sister.
Even if they wanted a scapegoat, he and these hundred people would not be enough to quell the Emperor and Empress’s fury!
His eyes swiftly turned to Long Yi beside him.
Though it shouldn’t be said, he did indeed have a fleeting thought of silencing him.
Of course, it was just a thought. Against Long Yi, he and the hundred guards behind him probably wouldn’t stand a chance.
Heaven wants him dead... heaven wants him dead!
Long Yi looked steadily at the collapsed snowfield, paused for a moment, then turned around and walked forward.
"Lord Long... Long Yi!" Zhang Hu mustered his courage to call out to him, "Are you going back to Capital City to report?"
Could you delay your departure for two days, at least let him make arrangements for his family?
"Find an exit, rescue people." Long Yi said coldly.
Zhang Hu was initially taken aback upon hearing this, then overwhelming joy surged in his heart. Even though he guessed it, he still had to confirm: "Lord Long Yi, do you mean... the Marquis and Princess... are still alive?"
"Yes." Long Yi nodded.
Though the entrance was completely sealed, blocking sound transmission to some extent, Princess Xinyang cried so loudly that even a deaf person could hear.
Zhang Hu, who heard nothing: ...felt offended.
Zhang Hu intended to join him in the search, but Long Yi refused: "Don’t come over, it’ll collapse."
Zhang Hu’s foot, which he had just lifted, froze in mid-air. He awkwardly withdrew his foot and said to Long Yi: "Then what can I do?"
Long Yi thought for a moment and honestly said, "Disappear."
Underground, the two trapped in the pitch-black cave were unaware of the conversation above.
Princess Xinyang’s body was stiff as she was held in someone’s arms.
All around was darkness, pitch-black, but the lack of sight amplified the other senses immeasurably.
His warm breath fell on her head, his strong heartbeat echoed in her ears, reverberating through her entire heart.
His words, "Qin Fengwan, I heard you," ignited like a fire in her heart, swallowing her with thirty-some years of embarrassment, making even her cheeks burn red.
She was a person who valued face.
She was a princess. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹•𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒•𝙣𝙚𝙩
She thought he was dead, which is why she cried and shouted, saying those words she found unbearable in retrospect.
If she had known he was still alive, she, she—
That’s how people are; they come prepared to say those words but refuse to admit it when truly overheard.
"I said nothing," she stubbornly declared, "you heard wrong."
Xiao Ji repeated her words verbatim, his thick-skinned nature rendered him stress-free in doing such things.
Princess Xinyang wished she could find a hole to stuff him into!
Why didn’t he have such good memory when reading books?
Xiao Ji, pale-faced, gave a weak smile: "And the last sentence, ’I like you’."
Princess Xinyang blurted out: "There was no such sentence! You’re talking nonsense!"
Xiao Ji said, "So you admit, the first few sentences were said."
The unexpectedly trapped Princess Xinyang: "...!!"
"Cough, cough, cough!" Xiao Ji started coughing violently. After all, he was seriously injured and should not speak much, yet he had said so many mischievous words in one breath, courting danger.
"You, you’re , don’t you know to say a few less words!" Princess Xinyang’s shame and anger turned into heartache, fearing she would press on his wounds, she reached out to leave his embrace.
He tightened his fractured left arm, holding her firmly in his arms, uttering nonchalantly: "To die under a Peony Flower, even as a ghost one would be romantic."
Princess Xinyang: I feel like you’re courting a beating again.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
The injured person could only act nonchalant for three seconds before coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Princess Xinyang decisively straightened up from his embrace and felt around his chest, finally finding the flint.