Ran Wei pondered for a moment and sighed, "But it's too late now."
Shuang Hua said, "It's not too late. If we ride at full speed, we can catch up."
Ran Wei couldn't help but frown and said, "I need to discuss this with your elder brother, the king."
Hearing this, Shuang Hua's tears welled up again. "So, Brother also knew that Xia Ling would take my place? So, Brother still found another way to help me?"
Ran Wei said, "How could your elder brother not care about you? But you're really too impulsive when doing things. He wanted to temper your character through this, which is also for your own good."
"I know I was wrong, Sister-in-law." Shuang Hua wiped away her tears and looked at Ran Wei expectantly.
Finally, Ran Wei decided to take her to see Yu Chi Yanyan.
Yu Chi Yanyan was a bit unhappy. He sat on the throne, rubbing his forehead. "I've already prepared a great gift for the Emperor of Yong. Now you want me to take it back and give him a whole bunch of troubles instead?"
Seeing this, Ran Wei said, "Shuang Hua, I think it's better to forget it. When your aunt arrives in Yong, you can write her a letter asking for her forgiveness."
Seeing that her elder brother didn't agree and her sister-in-law was also persuading her, Shuang Hua reluctantly withdrew, feeling aggrieved.
In the afternoon, Hua Hudie woke up. He went to look for Ji Feiyu but found that she was nowhere to be found. Her room was clean and tidy, as if she had never existed.
He started to search for her all over the palace. "Xia Ling, Xia Ling, where are you?"
He even went to Shuang Hua's former palace, but there was no one there. The servants in Shuang Hua's palace complained, "Princess Shuang Hua has already married and left. How could Aunt Xia Ling still be here?"
The festive decorations in the palace made him feel a bit disoriented.
Suddenly, he felt a sense of panic, as if he had lost something very important.
An ominous premonition welled up in his heart. He recalled Ji Feiyu's expressions before, so vivid. He couldn't believe it was just a dream.
Just as Hua Hudie was about to search other parts of the palace, Yu Chi Yanyan appeared in front of him in time. He said, "You're finally awake. Xia Ling asked me to tell you that she had something urgent to do and had to return to Liuyun first. She asked you to go find her as soon as you woke up."
Hua Hudie didn't quite believe it and said, "She promised to take me back with her."
Yu Chi Yanyan said, "That's true, but you were drunk and slept for a whole day. Shuang Hua got married and left for Yong yesterday. Also, Xia Ling received an urgent report from Liuyun yesterday. She came to your room and tried to wake you up for a long time but couldn't. So she had no choice but to pack up in a hurry and set off."
Hua Hudie's eyes were full of doubts. "Yesterday? Has it been that long? But something's still not right. She wouldn't leave me behind!"
Seeing this, Yu Chi Yanyan said seriously, "She really wouldn't leave you behind, but what if Liuyun is at risk of being destroyed? The other route that Xia Ling helped Liuyun open before has affected the interests of another small neighboring country. That small country has now sent troops to invade."
Hua Hudie gasped. "How could it be such a coincidence? No, she's in danger." After saying that, Hua Hudie ran out.
As he rushed out, he ran into a palace servant. He immediately apologized but found that this servant was familiar with Xia Ling. So he casually said, "Sorry, I'm in a hurry to find Xia Ling."
Hearing this, the servant said, "Aunt Xia Ling left the palace yesterday. When the princess got married yesterday, we saw Aunt Xia Ling send off Shuang Hua and then return to her own room. Not long after, we saw her come out in a hurry and then ride a horse out of the palace."
"Where did she go?"
"She seemed to have left through the West Gate." Liuyun was indeed in the west. It seemed that Yu Chi wasn't lying to him. Hua Hudie thought for a while, thanked the servant, found a horse, and headed towards the West Gate.
He was cautious. After leaving the West Gate, he randomly asked a passerby, "Excuse me, did you see a very beautiful girl riding a horse pass by here yesterday?"
The person thought for a while and then said, "I seem to have seen her. She had very fair skin and was very beautiful."
As soon as Hua Hudie heard this, he immediately thanked the person and quickly rode his horse away. Damn it, Ling'er! She didn't even wait for him. What if she encountered danger on the way!
...
After being rejected by her elder brother during the day, Shuang Hua was in a bad mood. She went to a place outside the palace where she often went to be in a daze. Unexpectedly, she perfectly missed Hua Hudie's search for someone in the palace.
After returning to the palace at night, she still wasn't completely convinced. So she decided to go to Ran Wei in the middle of the night to plead her case.
In the middle of the night, when she bypassed the guards to find Ran Wei, she heard Ran Wei scolding her elder brother severely in the room because of her matter. Finally, she even drove her elder brother out of the room.
Yu Chi Yanyan knocked on the door outside the room and said aggrievedly, "My queen, my queen, your husband was wrong. Please open the door, okay? Please listen to your husband explain!"
Ran Wei said inside, "Get out! I don't want to see you or hear your voice tonight!"
Yu Chi Yanyan stood outside the door for a while and couldn't help but cry out, "Wei'er, please listen to me, Wei'er. I'll tell you all my arrangements. Okay? Don't be angry. It's your husband's fault. Don't be angry!"
"Get out!" Ran Wei's voice came out again. "I don't want to repeat what I just said!"
Hearing this, Yu Chi Yanyan quickly wiped away his tears and scurried away. His wife was angry. He couldn't afford to provoke her!
Shuang Hua was stunned. She never expected that her seemingly obedient sister-in-law was so fierce in private. She also never expected that her elder brother, who made decisions on all matters in the Northern Cold Kingdom, would be like this in front of his wife.
Shuang Hua, who had been shocked like this, couldn't come back to her senses for a long time. It wasn't until she saw the light in Ran Wei's room go out that she remembered what she had come here for. So she quickly jumped down from the corner of the wall and went to find Ran Wei.
Previously, because Yu Chi Yanyan might have known that he would be scolded, he had dismissed all the servants. So there were no servants in Ran Wei's courtyard at the moment.
Hearing a sound outside the door, Ran Wei couldn't help but say coldly, "Who is it?"
Shuang Hua immediately said, "It's me."
Ran Wei opened the door. Her eyebrows were still furrowed as she asked, "What are you doing here?"
Shuang Hua said, "Let's secretly go after Aunt. I've already prepared the horses. As long as Sister-in-law accompanies me, and then Sister-in-law can help me explain to Aunt."
Ran Wei had just scolded Yu Chi Yanyan and was still angry. After thinking for a while, she said, "Okay. You said it's unfair to your aunt. Then let's give your aunt another chance to choose. Let's go!"
After saying that, the two of them avoided the guards outside the door and climbed over the wall to leave.
On the third day after Shuang Hua's marriage.
Ran Wei and Shuang Hua finally managed to catch up with the wedding procession. Shuang Hua covered her face and followed Ran Wei, hiding in the dark. They were just about to jump out to stop the procession.
At this moment, a white figure spun down and landed steadily in front of the wedding procession. The person stared at the procession with red eyes and then drew a sword from his body.
The wedding procession immediately stopped. Someone started to shout, "Someone is trying to snatch the bride! Protect the princess!"