When Ji Feiyu woke up groggily, she felt as if her whole body was swaying. She seemed to be curled up in a dark box and kept having dreams.
She woke up from a dream only to fall back asleep and then wake up again. When dawn broke, Ji Feiyu opened her eyes and saw a sea of bright red.
What... was going on?
She hurriedly struggled to sit up and found herself sitting on the seat of a carriage. When she saw that she was dressed in a red wedding gown, she almost let out a scream. Maybe her movements were too loud, for soon a gentle female voice came from outside the carriage, "Princess Shuanghua, are you feeling uncomfortable sitting in the carriage?"
"N-no..." She couldn't help but lower her voice. Staring blankly at the entirely red wedding carriage, she wondered what on earth was going on.
Just as she was in a daze, she suddenly noticed her bag of hidden weapons and poison on the seat, as well as a light-yellow paper envelope. She eagerly picked up the envelope and saw several neatly written characters on it, "To Xia Ling."
She quickly tore open the envelope and unfolded the letter paper with the faint fragrance of ink. The entire inner page was filled with elegant handwriting.
It was actually Ran Wei.
"Xia Ling, don't doubt it. By the time you see this letter, you're already on your way to Dayong. Please forgive Yan Yan and me for making such a hasty decision for you. I heard that you were going to Liuyun. We thought we couldn't let you keep running away like this. As someone who has witnessed the ten-year emotional ups and downs between you and my elder brother, I really can't bear to see such an ending for you two.
"Shuanghua is just a child. Maybe she's just heartbroken and doesn't understand what true love is. The long and gloomy palace life isn't suitable for her, especially when her efforts go unrewarded. You also know my elder brother's character. He's willing to marry and take care of her, but he may not necessarily love her. Don't think that an emperor's heart is really that big. Sometimes, an emperor's heart can be very small, so small that it only cares about one person. And you happen to be the one he cares about. Although I don't know how Shuanghua managed to get my elder brother to agree to marry her, I think it might have something to do with the mark you left on her.
"Stop denying my elder brother's feelings for you, and stop denying your own feelings for him. If he didn't love you, he wouldn't have let you go. If you didn't love him, you wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to find medicinal herbs for him and tried every means to treat his eyes back then. Although you didn't say a word at that time, Yan Yan and I watched you busily searching for medicinal herbs for him. We both felt that you were truly alive back then. I don't know why you chose to let an unrelated person treat him while hiding yourself behind the scenes, but I know that you still had feelings for him at that time.
"Actually, even now, you still have feelings for him. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been so affected when you learned that he was going to marry Shuanghua. Please stop lying to yourself, okay? It's been four years. It's time for you to go back and see him. Yan Yan and I will handle Shuanghua and Hua Hudie. We won't let them bother you. But if you really don't want to go back, then run away from the wedding. If something goes wrong, Yan Yan and I will take the blame. Ran Wei, who cares about you."
After reading the letter, Ji Feiyu fell silent. She thought that Ran Wei's courage had really grown. She actually managed to pull off the trick of substituting the real with the fake in such a situation. She couldn't even begin to imagine Shuanghua's reaction when Ran Wei told her the truth, nor could she imagine whether Hua Hudie would think it was all just a dream when she learned that Ji Feiyu was getting married back to Dayong.
Aargh—such a headache! Why did she have to make a choice at this moment? If there was only a dead end, she would just go all the way to the end.
Ji Feiyu stared blankly at a certain spot in the carriage. After a moment of daze, she finally came to her senses. The bright red and heavy wedding gown restricted her movements so much. She didn't expect that the wedding gowns in Beihan were just as useless as those in the Central Plains, beautiful but impractical. Dressed like this, it would take two people to support her just to walk, let alone run away from the wedding. She found it rather amusing in her heart. "Ran Wei, Ran Wei. If you really wanted me to run away from the wedding, why didn't you even prepare a spare set of clothes for me?"
Ji Feiyu sat down by the carriage window helplessly and lifted the curtain to look at the scenery outside. The vast land was lush and green. There were a few wild sheep scattered here and there, either grazing with their heads down or looking into the distance. They looked so leisurely. However, the carriages and horses she was in were flanked by two extremely long processions. Was this really the setup for her to run away from the wedding? Without water and food, how many days could she survive in the grassland wearing this tight-fitting dress? After a careful thought, she knew there was no point in subjecting herself to such hardships. So she placed her bag of poison and hidden weapons in a convenient position on her body.
Maybe Ran Wei had given instructions, for the servants outside were not allowed to enter her wedding carriage. So when it was mealtime, she could only see a pair of hands holding a covered plate put the food through the curtain of the carriage and then withdraw.
Thus, her life on the journey became boring again. But this situation didn't last for three days before the convoy suddenly came to an urgent halt.
"Someone's trying to hijack the bride! Protect the princess!" Someone outside the carriage shouted in panic, and then came the sound of swords being drawn from their sheaths. Ji Feiyu was quite surprised. She didn't expect that she could encounter such a thing even in this situation. This was really depressing...
The sound of swords clashing outside was getting closer and closer, and Ji Feiyu became more and more nervous. Who were these people? Ordinary horse bandits? Or was it Hua Hudie?
At this moment, a man's voice shouted out forcefully, sounding a bit crazy. "Shuanghua, are you really going to do this? I've told you everything. Can't I stop you from going to Dayong?" The man outside seemed to be out of breath, either because of the fight or his intense emotions. But Ji Feiyu still recognized that the voice was somewhat familiar!
So it was actually someone trying to hijack Shuanghua. Ji Feiyu let out a sigh of relief. But just as she relaxed, she felt something was wrong. She immediately opened her eyes wide and realized what was going on. What the hell! How could it be him!
At this time, the voice outside the carriage shouted again, "If you don't want all the people sending you off to die in vain, you can just sit inside and keep silent."
"Stop!" Ji Feiyu blurted out as soon as she heard this. Then she realized her rashness and quickly covered her mouth. Imitating Shuanghua's tone, she said, "Let him come over..."
"But, Princess, he..." Someone began to hesitate. The voices of discussion outside immediately drowned out the second half of this sentence.
"Let him come over. I guarantee he won't hurt me." Ji Feiyu continued to imitate Shuanghua's tone, thinking that even though her voice might be a bit off, she could at least manage to deceive them for a while.
"Get out of the way! The princess said she wants to see me!" The man outside said.
Alas, he was really arrogant!