Day broke. Yang Ying, who had tossed and turned all night, finally settled down to rest. Taking advantage of the uneventful morning to catch up on sleep was by no means a bad idea.
During the time she slept, Ren Ruyi and Ning Yuanzhou shared a brief yet earnest farewell.
"Keep the thunder-fire bomb for yourself. Use it for self-defense when necessary." Like a child, Ning Yuanzhou solemnly handed his most cherished treasure into Ruyi's hands.
He had long since seen through the situation: although Ruyi had cheated death on this journey, she was indeed severely injured. Her internal energy was vastly diminished and almost impossible to channel.
When protecting A-ying, she could only rely on her swordsmanship to parry and maneuver. If she truly encountered any top-tier master, she might not be able to retreat unscathed.
"Don't worry, I am no longer Ren Xin. I no longer need to rely on an assassin's methods to survive. Now, strategy is what matters." Ren Ruyi tapped her own head, her face full of smiles.
"Good." Ning Yuanzhou pulled Ruyi into a tight embrace. The two pressed close, feeling each other's presence for the very last time before parting with a mutual smile.
"Aren't you going to say goodbye to A-ying?" Ruyi asked.
"No. We shall meet again in Wu in days to come." With that, Ning Yuanzhou slung his pack over his shoulder, turned away with his sword, and after a moment of hesitation, finally set off.
Watching his receding figure, Ruyi still harbored a lingering hope that Ning Yuanzhou would turn back, but in the end, he did not.
It was not that Ning Yuanzhou was unwilling to look back; he was simply afraid that if he glanced at Ruyi one more time, every ounce of his resolve and conviction would be chipped away. He had to leave. He wanted to be Chief Ning, he wanted to be their leader Ning, and everything ahead was what he wished to do.
The direction he forged forward was his long-lost homeland—the Wu Kingdom.
What they did not know was that at this very moment, storm clouds were already gathering in the royal court of the Wu Kingdom.
Inside the Empress's bedchamber within the imperial palace of Wu.
"Your Majesty, push hard! The head, this maid sees the head!" the midwife shouted at the top of her lungs.
Bathed in sweat, the Empress gripped the quilt tightly.
With the cry of an infant, the hanging hearts of everyone present finally dropped, though the Empress's did not.
Anxiously, she looked toward her personal maid-in-waiting. The maid hurried over to check the baby, and when she raised her head to look at the Empress, her expression was grim as she gently shook her head.
The Empress deflated all at once. She closed her eyes, only to open them moments later to look at her maid. "Go."
Gritting her teeth, the maid nodded and carried the swaddled infant toward the back door.
Drained of all strength, the Empress could only lie helplessly on her back on the bed, a single tear slipping down the corner of her eye.
The child she had carried in her womb for nine months was to be sent away into the distance before ever seeing the light of day, never to be seen again in this lifetime. No matter which mother in the world faced such a fate, it would be difficult to accept.
Before the Empress could recover from her grief, a commotion arose from the outer rooms.
"Your Highness, you cannot!"
"Your Highness, you cannot enter! This is Her Majesty's delivery room!"
"Your Highness!"
"Get out!" With a wave of his sleeve, Prince Danyang shoved the blocking wet nurse sprawling to the floor, then barged into the Empress's chamber flanked by two close bodyguards.
Panic-stricken, the maids and nurses in the room were hurriedly gathering the Empress's private belongings. Despite her terror, a loyal maid still stood desperately before the Empress's bed to block Prince Danyang's line of sight.
The stench of blood still lingered in the room. Frowning in displeasure, Prince Danyang covered his nose with a gesture, signaling his bodyguards to step forward and pull the maid away from the bedside.
"Imperial Sister-in-law, it has been a long time."
"You are impertinent!" The Empress's voice trembled.
"This younger brother has merely come to catch a glimpse of my newly born little niece." He bit down heavily on the word "niece."
The astonishment in the Empress's eyes could no longer be concealed.
With a flick of Prince Danyang's sleeve, two pieces of infant swaddling cloth were tossed onto the Empress's bed. One was made of cloud brocade laced with gold thread—the very one she had personally chosen for her child, the one the maid had used to wrap the baby just moments before.
The second piece was plain cotton.
"At the estate ten miles north of the city, the male infant you carefully selected beforehand has already been thrown into the pond," Prince Danyang said, his voice laced with murderous intent.
"Tell me, might my little niece have also..."
The Empress completely panicked. At that moment, all her schemes and plans were rendered useless.
She looked up at Prince Danyang. He was smiling, but his face was filled with a repulsive complacency and ambition. This game, she had lost...
The next day, the palace released the news: the Empress had safely delivered a princess. Prince Danyang declared in his capacity as Prince Regent that he would treat his imperial brother's flesh and blood with kindness, and took numerous exquisite trinkets from his private treasury as congratulatory gifts.
For a time, civil and military officials, imperial concubines, and noble matrons acted as if they had received some sort of hint, frantically preparing congratulatory gifts to send to the Empress's palace.
No one knew that amidst this mountain of gifts, the Empress clutched a single piece of swaddling cloth, tear tracks lingering at the corner of her eyes.
The court officials also seemed to have caught the signal from these events: the Empress no longer had an heir of direct descent, so wouldn't the realm of Wu now fall squarely into Prince Danyang's grasp?
The most indignant of all was Zhang Song. He had been holding out hope, eagerly waiting for Ning Yuanzhou to bring back the imperial edict passing the throne to the Empress's legitimate son, only for Prince Danyang's stroke of pulling the firewood from under the cauldron to instantly reduce it to nothingness.
Wu was about to undergo a seismic shift...
At this time, the Emperor of Wu was entirely oblivious to the birth of his daughter, as his entourage traveled day and night to reach a small border town on the Anwu frontier.
Once Qian Zhao used the seal left by Ning Yuanzhou to contact the local branch, the group finally had a chance to catch their breath, resting for the night at a local inn before entering Wu.
The brothers of the branch guarded the inn so tightly not a drop of water could leak through. Sun Lang and the others all let down their guard, hugging the already exhausted Chief Du as they fell into deep slumbers in their rooms.
Only Yu Shisan and Qian Zhao had yet to drop their guard.
"Go and get some rest. I'll keep watch for a while. Even though old Ning entrusted this troop to you, you can't keep yourself strung up like this all the time. There's still a long road ahead."
Leaning halfway against a chair, Yu Shisan spoke directly to Qian Zhao.
Standing ramrod straight right in front of the window, Qian Zhao gazed outside.
"Here, I dare not rest."
Following the direction of Qian Zhao's gaze, Yu Shisan suddenly remembered: the place he was looking at was the very site of the final battle where the Emperor of An had been captured, and where Chai Ming and the others had met their deaths.
"Fine. Since you won't rest, I, Yu Shisan, will accompany a gentleman to the death and have a drink with you." Yu Shisan tried his best to help Qian Zhao relax; he was somewhat unnerved by Qian Zhao's current state.
"What time is it, and you still dare to drink? If Ning Yuanzhou ever finds out, he'll skin you alive." Qian Zhao shot Yu Shisan a sideways glance.
"Who said I was drinking? Can't a man drink tea?" With that, he picked up the teacup beside him and drained it in one gulp, finishing by batting his eyelashes at Qian Zhao. "Come on, bottoms up."
What could Qian Zhao say? He could only roll his eyes again. Yet thanks to Yu Shisan's nonsense, the boundless gloom weighing upon his heart seemed to dissipate just a little...