Zhao Yanke found a sheltered spot and fumbled shakily in his bosom for a fire starter. After trying seven or eight times, he finally managed to light a bonfire.
Thankfully, his experience traveling south with Liu Yiyi and Pei Yanqi had given him some basic survival knowledge. Before leaving the city, he had specifically brought a fire starter. Otherwise, in this dark and deep forest at night, he really wouldn't have known what to do.
In the flickering firelight, Zhao Yanke skewered a cold bun on a twig and roasted it. Looking at the meager flame, he couldn't help but feel a deep sense of sorrow well up inside him.
It turned out that General Guo and the others... were right.
He was just a pampered mascot. Without his guards and servants, he couldn't even manage the most basic aspects of survival. General Guo's "over - protection" of him was actually the correct way to treat him.
I'm such a useless person...
Zhao Yanke thought sorrowfully.
The bonfire crackled softly. The poor emperor hugged his knees and curled up into a ball.
The dancing flames cast flickering shadows on his face. Sleepiness washed over him like a tide. His eyelids began to droop, and his head slowly sank. Finally, he leaned against the rough tree trunk behind him and fell into a deep sleep.
...
"Once I find that useless emperor, I'll stab him seventeen or eighteen times until he's full of holes!"
Wan Mo gritted her teeth and hacked through the thorns blocking their way. The blade of her knife glinted coldly in the moonlight.
"Second sister, stop talking..." Wan Xin said anxiously. "It's more important to find His Majesty first."
"There aren't enough people in the city as it is, and we still have to send out troops to look for him!" Wan Mo stamped on a dead branch lying across their path, still seething with anger. "If the military scouts hadn't spotted his trail into Dayi Mountain, we wouldn't even know where to look for him!"
The two sisters blazed a trail ahead, while He Muhao stumbled along behind them, gasping for breath.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, full of grievances. He was already exhausted, and now he had to climb a mountain in the middle of the night!
Moreover, for fear of being discovered by the Anluo people outside the city, they didn't even dare to light torches. They could only fumble their way through the forest clumsily.
"What on earth is His Majesty doing? Why did he suddenly decide to run away from home?"
"Who knows what crazy idea he got!" Wan Mo hacked at the vines blocking their path fiercely, her face full of murderous intent. "He'd better pray that I don't find him!"
"Second sister..." Wan Xin said worriedly. "We still need to find His Majesty quickly. What if... what if the Anluo people find him first? That would be a disaster!"
Wan Mo's face darkened, and she fell silent. She just continued to hack through the thorns in front of her with a dark look on her face, looking like a Shura returning from the underworld.
Zhao Yanke must not be found by the Anluo people!
To lose the emperor during a war - just thinking about it made one feel ashamed and indignant!
If Zhao Yanke fell into the hands of the Anluo people, no matter whether they won or lost this war, they would all be beheaded and their families exterminated...
The wrath of Empress Dowager Kang and the hidden arrows of all the court officials would burn them to ashes!
The night was as dark as ink. The group groped their way through the dense forest. The ancient trees and vines were intertwined, and the decaying leaves under their feet were thick and soft. Every step felt like stepping into a swamp.
"This won't work!" Wan Xin suddenly stopped. The sweat on her forehead was sliding down her chin and into her collar. "Dayi Mountain is too big. We have to search separately!"
Although General Guo had sent out a search team of fifty people, looking for one person in this vast forest stretching for hundreds of miles was like looking for a needle in a haystack!
They had to expand the search area and find Zhao Yanke as soon as possible.
Wan Mo didn't say much. She just tightened her grip on the machete, whispered "Be careful", and then turned around to continue hacking at the thorns in front of her.
They were both girls who had grown up in Fujian and were no strangers to traveling on mountain paths at night. Wan Mo knew that her elder sister could take good care of herself and there was no need to worry.
Wan Xin nodded, drew out the sickle from her waist, and with a single stroke, the waist - high grass on the right side fell to the ground.
She shed her previous fragility and slipped into the grass like a nimble old ape in the mountains. Her lithe figure quickly disappeared into the lush vegetation.
He Muhao stared in disbelief. "Elder sister... is she that agile?"
Wan Mo didn't even turn her head. "When we were kids and our parents were away, it was always elder sister who took us into the mountains to pick mushrooms... She's even better at walking on mountain paths than I am!"
...
The night grew darker. Wan Xin groped her way south alone for about a cup of tea's time. The sounds of Wan Mo had long since faded away. All she could hear was the rustling of the night wind through the treetops, occasionally interrupted by the shrill cries of an owl, which were particularly eerie in the silent forest.
Sweat had already soaked through her inner clothes, sticking to her back. A gust of night wind blew through the mountains, sending a chill down her spine.
But she didn't dare to stop. She mechanically hacked at the shrubs blocking her way with the sickle in her hand. With each ridge she crossed, Zhao Yanke had one more chance of survival.
Suddenly, a faint glimmer of light appeared among the tree shadows in the distance. Hidden beneath the layers of tree shadows, it was hazy and hard to make out.
Wan Xin wiped the sweat from her forehead, squinted her eyes, and stared intently.
It was a bonfire.
Who would light a fire in this deep mountain forest?
Could it be the Anluo people...
Wan Xin's heart tightened. She immediately crouched down and tiptoed forward carefully. Her footsteps were silent, and she even held her breath, like a vigilant wildcat.
The tree shadows swayed, and the firelight revealed Zhao Yanke's sleeping face.
It wasn't the Anluo people.
It was that useless emperor...
That useless emperor... actually had the nerve to sleep here!
Wan Xin gritted her silver teeth. She was both angry and amused, and at the same time, she let out a long sigh of relief in her heart...
Thank goodness. He wasn't dead.
Thank goodness. He hadn't been captured by the Anluo people.
She rushed forward in three big steps and used the sickle to scoop up soil from the ground and throw it on the fire. Since they didn't even dare to light torches for fear of being discovered by the Anluo people, how could he build a bonfire? Was he trying to get himself killed?
"Who's there?!"
Zhao Yanke woke up with a start. He jumped up like a rabbit, grabbed the twig beside him as a weapon, and stared nervously at the dark figure in front of him, trembling all over as if facing a great enemy.
"It's me..." Wan Xin said softly.
The sound was like music to Zhao Yanke's ears. He trembled all over and couldn't believe it. "Wan Xin?"
Wan Xin continued to shovel soil to put out the bonfire in front of her. "Lighting such a bright fire in the mountains, are you trying to make it easy for the Anluo people to find you?"
Zhao Yanke had been scared and on edge all night. He was cold and hungry. At the sight of Wan Xin, he was so excited and aggrieved that he almost burst into tears. "But... there are wolves in the mountains!"
"What's so scary about wolves? As long as they're not in a pack, they're not that terrifying. Besides, isn't it normal to have wolves in the mountains?"
Wan Xin smiled softly. She rummaged through her waist bag and took out a roasted sweet potato with a delicious aroma and handed it to him. "Hungry? Here. Have this to fill your stomach first. After you're done eating, I'll take you down the mountain."
There was a hint of indulgence in her tone that she didn't even notice, and she looked especially gentle in the moonlight. In Zhao Yanke's eyes, she was like a fairy descending to earth.