Just as Song Yinghuai finished his question, a scout came galloping from afar.
"Report!" the scout said in a hurry. "My lord, Sheng Jiangli was spotted in the west of the city. He's riding a horse with someone towards the outskirts. General Zhang has gone after them!"
No sooner had the words fallen than a whirlwind swept by.
Song Yinghuai's warhorse let out a long neigh and galloped towards the western outskirts with hooves kicking up!
In the pitch - black western outskirts of Yanjing City, the crisp sound of horse hooves suddenly rang out.
The silhouette of a black - horse rider quickly approached along the grassy slope opposite the Tieshan River and then leaped into the river.
Water splashed from the horse's hooves, and the night wind flapped the man's black cloak straight.
Behind them, the majestic Yanjing City loomed like a towering mountain rising out of nowhere in the flat land of Yanbei under the night sky.
It was not until they crossed the Tieshan River that the warhorse gave a low whinny and the man tightened the reins.
The horse stamped its hooves in place, snorting white breath from its nostrils.
The mountains along the Tieshan River stretched and undulated, disappearing into the endless darkness.
Caiyu poked her head out from behind Sheng Jiangli. She saw a dark mass moving quickly under the mountains, moving, and gradually disappearing into the mountains.
This is...
The Kaiping Huqi Battalion!
She suddenly grabbed the back of Sheng Jiangli's clothes, instantly understanding something.
"Brother A Li, what's going on in Yanjing City?"
She had no idea what Song Yinghuai was doing.
But Sheng Jiangli's sudden and silent withdrawal of the army in the middle of the night must mean something major had happened.
Sheng Jiangli felt a tickling in his heart when he noticed a soft little hand tugging at his back.
He stopped the horse, dismounted, and then lifted Caiyu off the horse. He took off her wind - cap, revealing a charming face.
After the gallop of the horse and the caress of the spring wind, Caiyu's cheeks were like peach blossoms with dewdrops. Some of her raven - black hair fell on her forehead. Her eyebrows were like silver moons, her eyes like autumn waters, and her skin like congealed fat.
Sheng Jiangli reached out to tuck the bangs in front of her forehead behind her ears and said with a gentle smile:
"I'm going to cross the pass. Sister Shu'er, would you like to come with me?"
Caiyu's heart skipped a beat.
When Sheng Jiangli suddenly appeared in the Lianyin Pavilion tonight and abducted her without a word, she had already had some guesses.
After all, he was the Crown Prince's man, and their stances were different. It seemed that he had encountered an urgent matter, broken with Song Yinghuai, and was going to take her as a hostage.
She just didn't expect that Sheng Jiangli would actually ask her. For a moment, she didn't know what he was thinking.
Caiyu thought carefully for a while and then spoke cautiously: "Brother A Li, if I go with you, what will happen to your thirty - thousand Huqi soldiers if the prince chases us out of the pass?"
Song Yinghuai had two hundred thousand Yan troops under his command. The difference in numbers was so great. Was Sheng Jiangli crazy?
"Forget about them." Sheng Jiangli said, as if joking but also serious. "His Highness the Prince of Yan is not a blood - thirsty man. As long as I leave the Huqi Battalion, he won't do anything to these thirty - thousand fellow soldiers."
Caiyu was even more shocked. "If you leave the Huqi Battalion, where are you going?"
There was a clear smile in Sheng Jiangli's eyes, like gentle moonlight, glistening.
"The world is vast. There must be a place for us. Sister Shu'er doesn't know that beyond the Shanhaiguan Pass, the world is still very big.
"Beyond the deserts of the border sands, there are the Sixteen Yanyun Tribes of the Tatars, the Western Regions countries, and the Brahmin... I remember that when Sister Shu'er was a child, she was very fascinated when I told her about the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions. You always clamored to go out of the Yanmen Pass to see the blond and blue - eyed people from the Western Regions.
"Brother A Li will take you to see them, okay?"
"In the Saha World, there are three thousand great thousand countries, all under the guidance of one Buddha. Now, the four continents under the sun and the moon are located in the middle of the three thousand great thousand worlds. All the Buddhas and World - Honored Ones manifest their transformations here, being born and passing away..."
Caiyu's vision blurred. It seemed that she could hear Sheng Jiangli explaining that strange and wonderful world word by word when she was a child.
She loved freedom and dreamed of one day traveling all over the country like the holy monk.
She was never willing to just be a boudoir woman who served her husband and raised children.
However, all her dreams were shattered when the Lan family fell.
Sheng Jiangli stared at her without blinking.
He had been thinking about taking Lan Jinshu away for nine years.
Back then, he was too young and had no ability. Lan Jinshu was still a young lady from a wealthy family, and he couldn't take her away.
But now, Lan Jinshu was just a servant girl, while he had become a sharp blade of the court.
He had the ability to take her away and protect her.
Even if the opponent was Song Yinghuai, the Prince of Yan, who was as hard to overcome as a mountain.
He would not be afraid.
Sheng Jiangli could hear his heart pounding.
If... if she agreed.
He would give up everything and take her far away!
The gloomy sky seemed to be exhaling a stuffy breath, and the Tieshan River flowed with a damp and dull sound.
The past days were like a prosperous and dreamy memory, floating like green smoke above the misty river surface, twining around the promise in the memory and then being scattered.
Caiyu blinked, and the light in her eyes gradually dimmed. She said calmly:
"Brother A Li, you go by yourself. I'll stay in the Prince of Yan's Mansion, by the prince's side."
"Why?" Sheng Jiangli grabbed her slightly cold hand, his grip a bit tight. "Why? I remember you love freedom the most. Why do you want to stay by his side? Do you have some hidden difficulties? Tell me, and I'll solve them for you. Or..."
Sheng Jiangli's eyes swept over Caiyu's charming face like spring water and then moved down to her graceful figure.
Sheng Jiangli was not an innocent boy. He understood Caiyu's situation at a glance.
He hesitated to speak, and a flash of pain passed through his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a relaxed look. He smiled and said:
"I don't mind what you've been through these years or who you've loved in your heart. Just come with me. From now on, the sky is high and the waters are wide. I'll be with you. Why do you want to be that man's servant girl?"
"Sister Shu'er, be my Miss Lan San again!"
A dense pain suddenly rose in Caiyu's heart, making it hard for her to breathe.
She didn't want to be a servant girl either!
Who would want to live under someone else's roof and be a person walking on the edge of a knife every day?
But who would save the Lan family?
Sheng Jiangli didn't show up when the Lan family had trouble. Even if she told him now, how could Sheng Jiangli solve it for her?
"Brother A Li!" Caiyu's face became cold and heartless. She took a step back and pulled her hand out of his palm. "I'm no longer Lan Jinshu. I'm Lan Caiyu.
"Let the past be like the dead of yesterday. Forget those childish words. I no longer yearn for freedom, and I no longer like being Miss Lan San."
"You'd rather be the Prince of Yan's servant girl?" Sheng Jiangli looked at her in disbelief. "If this is your reason..."
The pupils under his eyelashes were completely black, and the smile on his lips slowly froze. "If Sister Shu'er insists on being a servant girl, then I have no choice but to forcefully take you away regardless of your wishes!"
His Miss Lan San couldn't just degrade herself and be content to be the Prince of Yan's servant girl.
His Miss Lan San should be a wild goose soaring freely, capable of flying across the sea and over the mountains!
Feeling the gloom and madness in Sheng Jiangli's eyes, Caiyu's heart pounded like a drum.
She also knew that Brother A Li was hard to deceive and hard to persuade. Without a proper reason, it would be really difficult to convince him to leave.
Caiyu bit her cheek hard and said in a cold voice, "Who would want to be his servant girl? He's fallen in love with me! I'm going to make him sink deeper and deeper. I'm going to make him fight for me against this world! I'm going to be the woman of the God of War of the Great Ye and the legitimate Princess of Yan! I'm going to trample those who once abandoned the Lan family under my feet!
"Brother A Li, you can't do it. You're just the commander of the Huqi Battalion. Moreover, if you take me away, you won't even be able to be the commander. Do you want me to be on the run with you and hide from him for the rest of my life? I don't want to..."
Sheng Jiangli's eyes dimmed, and he said nothing.
Caiyu's voice softened, like gurgling water, seeping into his heart bit by bit:
"Brother A Li, I've been wandering for three years. I've been a wanted criminal of the court, a thin horse in Yangzhou, and now a servant girl... I don't want to be a vagrant anymore."