Song Wanchu's heart skipped a beat.
Counting the time, it had only been two hours since Taoist Priest Qiu rescued her. The Crown Prince's reaction was too swift!
How could he have located her hiding place so accurately?
Did he guess that it was Taoist Priest Qiu who had rescued her?
Recalling what Liang Yuzhou had said about "Taoist Priest Qiu being exposed"...
Taoist Priest Qiu threw a package to Liang Yuzhou, putting away his cynical smile and looking solemn and serious.
"There's a Taoist robe in here. Let Miss Song change into it. You two leave through the secret path in the back mountain. The Crown Prince only brought about a hundred men. It'll be difficult for them to surround the entire Songhe Taoist Temple. I'll go and hold him off. I can surely stall him for an hour or two. How far you can run depends on your own capabilities."
Without a word, Liang Yuzhou tore open the package and wrapped the Taoist robe around Song Wanchu.
Then Taoist Priest Qiu left in a hurry.
While putting on the Taoist robe, Song Wanchu took off the hairpins and jewelry on her body.
She keenly sensed something was amiss with Taoist Priest Qiu and asked worriedly, "Does Taoist Priest Qiu have some secret? As soon as he rescued me, the Crown Prince found out?"
There was no other way to explain how the Crown Prince could have chased them to the Songhe Taoist Temple so quickly.
Even someone as intelligent as Liang Yuzhou couldn't help but admire Song Wanchu's insight.
"He sacrificed himself to protect me."
The word "sacrifice" meant a rather serious consequence in Song Wanchu's mind.
Liang Yuzhou pulled her into the night. Zhou Sheng and Zhou Yan were already waiting with the horses.
"You two, go to the military camp right away and tell Liu Zhonglin to pass on the news to the Crown Prince that Vice General Yue Chengkong is plotting a rebellion. Then we'll meet at Guyun Pavilion."
Zhou Sheng and Zhou Yan took the order.
Song Wanchu understood that Liang Yuzhou was trying to divert the Crown Prince's attention with a more significant matter.
Liang Yuzhou helped her onto the horse. After she was seated firmly, he swung his long leg over and sat behind her.
His long arm tightened around her waist, and Song Wanchu's back was pressed tightly against his broad and sturdy chest.
Although the winter clothes were thick, they couldn't stop the warmth from the man's body from seeping through to her.
The man's steady and powerful heartbeat seemed to be imprinted on her back, resonating with her own heartbeat.
It was a long - lost sense of security.
Song Wanchu's restless heart finally found a place to rest.
Gradually, she became less flustered.
After escaping from the Crown Prince's clutches, she had to admit the fact that in this lifetime, she could only accept intimacy with Liang Yuzhou.
Although she still harbored hatred and resentment towards him, when Liang Yuzhou overcame all difficulties and tried every means to get close to her, she just couldn't completely reject him.
Liang Yuzhou once said that life would be meaningless without her. Song Wanchu thought that perhaps she couldn't live without Liang Yuzhou either in this lifetime.
They were like intertwined vines, clinging to each other until death.
Suddenly, a soft laugh came from the man beside her ear.
They were in the middle of an escape, and he still had the mood to laugh?
Song Wanchu turned her head. The moonlight shone on Liang Yuzhou's face. In the alternating light and shadow, his perfectly chiseled face was smiling like a gentle breeze and a bright moon, full of charm.
"What are you laughing at?"
Taking the opportunity, Liang Yuzhou planted a kiss on her forehead. "I'm elated. I have to thank the Crown Prince. If it weren't for his hasty move, my lady wouldn't have recognized her own heart so quickly and returned to my embrace."
Ripples appeared on Song Wanchu's heart lake, and her cheeks flushed slightly. "When did a Taoist priest get a wife?"
Liang Yuzhou's lips touched her ear and he exhaled ambiguously. "This poor Taoist is willing to fall into the mortal world for you at any time."
His voice was deep, pleasant, and full of laughter. The ending note trembled slightly, like the string of a pipa, creating ripples in her ear.
Song Wanchu's ears burned like fire. "I've never seen such an indecent Taoist priest!"
Her cheeks continued to heat up, but she didn't want Liang Yuzhou to notice. So she quickly changed the topic. "What on earth is the secret about Taoist Priest Qiu?"
"Taoist Priest Qiu didn't originally have the surname Qiu. His real surname is Lu."
"Lu? Isn't that the royal surname? Was Taoist Priest Qiu once a member of the royal family?"
Members of the royal family were born with supreme privileges. Why would Taoist Priest Qiu choose to become a Taoist priest?
"He is indeed a member of the royal family. Moreover, he is the current emperor's uncle and the once - famous God of War, Prince Rui."
"Prince Rui... Is he the God of War who once charged alone into the Hu people's encirclement and rescued Emperor Jingzhao from among thousands of people?"
Emperor Jingzhao was the late father of the current emperor and the grandfather of the Crown Prince.
Fifty years ago, when Emperor Jingzhao was still a prince and led an army to resist the Hu people, he was trapped in a scheme and surrounded by the Hu people. It was his younger brother, Prince Rui, who fought his way out and saved him.
Song Wanchu's father had always admired Prince Rui the most. She had heard many of his heroic stories when she was a child.
Every time her father finished telling a story, he would always sigh, "It's a pity that the late emperor was jealous of his great achievements. Before the current emperor ascended the throne, he wrote a secret edict saying that Prince Rui had killed too many people and had too much blood on his hands. So he deprived Prince Rui of his title and demoted him to a commoner. A generation of God of War disappeared from the world ever since!"
Liang Yuzhou nodded. "It's him. In the world today, only he has mastered the unique light - body skill of 'Disappearing Without a Trace' and could rescue you secretly under more than a hundred pairs of eyes.
As soon as the Crown Prince came to Yunzhou, he inquired everywhere and learned that there was a hermit living in the Songhe Taoist Temple. And Prince Rui was fond of Taoism. The Crown Prince isn't stupid. He immediately guessed that this hermit Taoist Priest Qiu was actually his third - uncle, Prince Rui."
Song Wanchu felt that the story she had heard might not be the truth.
If Prince Rui had been demoted to a commoner, his act of rescuing her shouldn't be related to words like "exposed" and "sacrificed".
"Why is Taoist Priest Qiu afraid that the Crown Prince will find out his identity?"
"Good question." Liang Yuzhou praised her inexplicably, which left Song Wanchu confused.
"My lady always asks the right questions. It's effortless to talk to you about anything."
Song Wanchu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Can you just talk normally?"
Liang Yuzhou put away his smile, but the amusement still lingered in his eyes.
"Taoist Priest Qiu wasn't actually demoted. Twenty - five years ago, when Emperor Jingzhao was on his deathbed, he issued two secret edicts. The first one was for the current emperor to inherit the throne, and the second one was to appoint Prince Rui as the regent to assist the new emperor."
"Then why was there another edict of demotion?"
"That was written by the chief scribe under Prince Rui's coercion. He burned Emperor Jingzhao's secret edict and stole the imperial seal to stamp it, thus deceiving the current emperor.
After he disappeared from the capital, the chief scribe was afraid that the truth would be revealed and his whole family would be implicated. So he voluntarily admitted that he had written the edict of demotion.
The emperor was very angry. He felt that he had been fooled by his own uncle and swore that he would find him and get an explanation. Prince Rui is still the number one fugitive in the eyes of the imperial secret agents!"
Song Wanchu was completely stunned.
Burning the imperial edict, forcing the chief scribe to write a false edict, and stealing the imperial seal to stamp it were all serious crimes of deceiving the emperor!
The Crown Prince had already guessed Taoist Priest Qiu's identity, and he had always been on the same side as the emperor.
"Will the Crown Prince make things difficult for Taoist Priest Qiu?"