"Yu Zixi! Wait for me!" Wei Dongling panicked. She turned around and was about to chase after him. However, the two horses were already exhausted and couldn't catch up with Yu Zixi's carriage at all. She could only watch helplessly as he disappeared on the fog - shrouded official road.
"Yu Zixi!" Cold sweat rolled down Wei Dongling's forehead in anxiety. She suddenly sat up from the bed and only then realized that she had just had a dream.
But in the dream, Yu Zixi's smiling face was so real that it didn't seem like a dream at all. She was in a daze for quite a while.
Soon, there came footsteps outside the door. Aunt Fang, the innkeeper, pushed the door open. Seeing Wei Dongling on the bed, she bowed and said with a smile, "I haven't seen you go downstairs all morning. I heard from your young servant that you're not feeling well, so I came up to check on you. If you've caught a cold, I have some medicine here. Do you think it will be useful?"
Wei Dongling said softly, "Thank you, Aunt Fang, for your concern. I'm fine. Maybe I've just been over - worked recently. I feel much better after a good rest last night."
"That's good," Aunt Fang nodded. She walked to the window and opened it to let in some fresh air. Looking at the small stalls at the inn's entrance, she said to Wei Dongling with a smile, "Where did you hire those two young servants? They're better at doing business than you."
Wei Dongling was stunned. She quickly got up and looked out. She saw Jingzhe and Tian Qi setting up a stall outside and getting busy.
Wei Dongling was a bit speechless, and the corner of her mouth twitched constantly. The secret guards of Young Master Yu and the secret guards of the Crown Prince were selling milk tea side by side? The most incredible thing was that there was no sense of disharmony in this combination! It was so unbelievable...
Aunt Fang covered her mouth and laughed, "They even know how to raise the price! If you keep selling the milk tea at such a discounted price as in the previous two days, you'll probably be in debt in less than a month!"
Wei Dongling smiled and said, "It doesn't matter."
Aunt Fang leaned over and said mysteriously, "I've seen the words on the milk tea cups. Miss Wei came here from afar to look for your lover, right?"
Hearing this, Wei Dongling blushed a little. But then she thought of Yu Zixi, whose life or death was unknown and who was missing. Her heart was filled with panic again. After chatting with Aunt Fang for a few words, she called Tian Qi up to talk. Aunt Fang tactfully left.
Wei Dongling closed the door. She turned around and looked directly at Tian Qi. She asked seriously, "I'll ask you. Back then when you and Zixi were fighting on the battlefield, did you help the enemy's iron cavalry attack our country's Xue family's army?"
Hearing this, Tian Qi's face turned deathly pale. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he didn't answer for a long time.
Wei Dongling glanced at his facial expression and already knew the answer. She sneered and said, "Sure enough! Yu Zixi couldn't let go of the old affairs of the previous dynasty until his death. He was bent on revenge! He didn't even care about his own life and was willing to ruin the peace of the country! He made a joke of the lives of 80,000 soldiers of the Xue family and the peace of thousands of people in Hanzhong! Do you know how many people would be displaced if the city of Hanzhong was breached?"
Tian Qi rarely saw Wei Dongling so angry. He couldn't help but tremble. He asked in a low voice, "How did the young mistress find out about this?"
Wei Dongling had only just figured out the key point in the past two days. She replied with a heart - wrenching tone, "On the first day of August, when Zixi said goodbye to me at the Blue Mountain Temple, he told me in person that the current emperor was reluctant to deal with the Crown Prince easily because he was supported by 80,000 soldiers of the Xue family. So, in order to weaken the Crown Prince's power, you were willing to watch the iron cavalry attack the city and even help them harm our own army!" The more Wei Dongling thought about it, the more frightened she became. She trembled all over and felt extremely sad.
She had suffered for so long in order to clear the names of her father, Wei Jiang, and Old Master Su, who were wrongly accused of being traitors!
But what about Yu Zixi! At his master's order, he was even willing to do such a thing! Were all those things he did in Xingshan, where he couldn't bear to see the killing and tried his best to help with the disaster relief, just a false appearance?
Tian Qi gritted his teeth. He knelt down in front of Wei Dongling and kowtowed. He said in a trembling voice, "The young master had his own helpless reasons for doing this! Please don't blame him, young mistress!"
Wei Dongling was in a complete mess. She roared at Tian Qi, "Blame him? His life or death is unknown. How can I blame him?"
Tian Qi knelt on the ground, clenching his fists and remaining silent.
Wei Dongling felt extremely sad. She asked with a choked voice, "Didn't you search with that hawk? Didn't it find anything?"
Tian Qi lowered his head and replied embarrassedly, "We've searched every corner within a hundred - mile radius these days, but we still haven't found anything."
Wei Dongling sat on the couch blankly and thought for a long time. She let out a soft sigh. She got up, put on her clothes and shoes, and ordered Tian Qi, "Take me to the cliff where it happened that day."
"Yes!"
So, the two of them rode their horses and took a small path, galloping towards the continuous mountains in the west one after another.
The rugged mountain road was not easy to walk on. Tian Qi led Wei Dongling along winding paths. After about three hours, he finally brought her to a secluded valley.
Tian Qi looked up and pointed to a dense forest on the cliff in the distance. With a pained expression, he sighed softly, "I carefully examined the footprints left by the fight afterwards. The young master should have fallen from that mountain peak."
Wei Dongling felt a sharp pain in her heart. The rocks were so steep. If Yu Zixi had really fallen from such a high cliff, he was probably in great danger.
The forest at the bottom of the cliff was dense. Wei Dongling dismounted and got into the forest, searching around.
Tian Qi said anxiously, "Young mistress, I've searched this forest several times in the past month!"
Wei Dongling didn't stop walking. She pushed aside one branch after another and walked deeper into the forest. She asked him in a trembling voice, "Nothing at all? Not even a piece of cloth?"
Tian Qi was silent for a moment. He lowered his head and replied, "Yes! Not even a piece of cloth!"
Wei Dongling's face turned pale. She still refused to give up and continued to search.
Just as Tian Qi had said, if they didn't find anything, they could still hold on to a glimmer of hope, thinking that he must still be alive.
If they did find something, it might be a skeleton, which would be really despairing!
Tian Qi said nothing and closely followed behind Wei Dongling, afraid that she would be overly sad and accidentally fall.
Soon he found that he had underestimated Wei Dongling. This woman was like a crazy person. She was determined to search this place again.
The sky gradually darkened. The branches scratched her delicate face, and the simple hair bun on her head had come loose.
Tian Qi felt a bit sorry for her. He said softly, "Young mistress, shall we go back and rest first? We can come back with more energy tomorrow."
Wei Dongling seemed to be in a showdown with him. She said unhappily, "I'm a bit hungry. Go and find some wild fruits for me to fill my stomach!"
Tian Qi had no choice but to follow the order.
After a long time, Tian Qi found a crooked pear tree in the forest. He was just leaping onto the tree branch to pick pears when he heard Wei Dongling shouting loudly in the distance, "Tian Qi! Tian Qi, come here quickly!"
Tian Qi's hand holding the branch trembled. He quickly picked a pear and stuffed it into his clothes. Then he turned around and rushed towards Wei Dongling. He shouted anxiously, "Are you okay, young mistress?"