When Shui Xinyuan woke up, he found a coat draped over him... He seemed to have fallen asleep sitting on a chair without knowing it.
Yun Shang also fell asleep on the chair next to her, her head slowly rocking back and forth.
"..."
Shui Xinyuan looked out through the gap in the rain-shielded window. The candles that illuminated the street last night had been extinguished. The sky was slightly bright. Even without lighting candles, he could barely see what was going on outside.
It's almost dawn.
Yun Shang took advantage of last night to hang three bells painted red by the door of the store. Only Lu Fusu should be able to understand this mark, and Zhuge Qing might also be able to guess it.
In short, apart from them, few people should be able to discover it.
All we can do now is wait.
Although it caused trouble for Yun Shang, I was too helpless at the moment.
Not just at this moment...
I have always been helpless.
How many times do you have to go through similar things before you can become strong?
Nowadays, you can only wait for someone else's rescue every time, and you will always be the protected party...
…I can’t do anything…
She covered her face with her hands and her top slowly slid off her shoulders.
After hearing the noise, Yun Shang's head shook suddenly.
"Ah... you're awake?"
"Um……"
Yun Shang rubbed her eyes, straightened her upper body, stretched and stood up.
"Hmm... my waist hurts when I sleep on the chair."
"Sorry, I asked you to stay with me here..."
"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. My bed is very hard anyway, and I will still get backache from sleeping on it."
"Thank you for your clothes."
"are not you cold?"
"not cold."
Yun Shang opened the rain window a crack, looked at the window, and muttered: "It's already morning."
"While everyone is still awake, let's go downstairs. I hope there are other rooms available besides the warehouse..."
"Just the warehouse, don't worry about me..."
Yun Shang patted Shui Xinyuan on the shoulder, as if to say, don't worry.
"Would you like to eat something first? Oh, be careful of the stairs."
After they went downstairs along the narrow and steep stairs like a ladder, the first floor was still quiet.
"In the morning, we all eat porridge and..."
Shui Xinyuan also followed Yun Shang into the kitchen.
At this moment, someone knocked hard on the door.
"..."
Shui Xinyuan and Yun Shang turned their heads and looked at each other.
"The person who came to pick you up? Or..."
"have no idea……"
As long as you see the other person's face, you can tell whether it is an assassin or not.
"You stay here first. If the visitor is unkind, walk along the corridor to the end and escape through the back door."
"Yunshang..."
"I will try to trap him, remember! When you escape, you have to go north. After you exit the back door, run to the right, not to the left. There will be a lot of bad guys to the south."
After Yun Shang quickly explained, she was about to open the door, but Shui Xinyuan immediately grabbed her arm.
In addition to knocking on the door, there was also a cry of "Open the door quickly!" coming from outside.
That was not Lu Fusu's voice, nor was it Zhuge Qing's or Li Yuezhen's, nor was it the voice of anyone he knew.
"Don't trap him, it will bring you trouble."
"don’t worry."
"If it is the person who is chasing me, he has a knife in his hand."
"I've seen many people like this on Chunhua Street."
Seeing Shui Xinyuan still shaking his head, Yun Shang laughed.
"...Actually, I wanted to give up dancing before."
"What?"
"When you dance without anyone watching, you feel empty... But after seeing your dance, I changed my mind."
"..."
"I will continue to work hard...so you must also return to your husband."
"Yunshang..."
"Wait a minute, open the door right away!"
Yun Shang interrupted Shui Xinyuan and shouted towards the door.
The knocking on the door stopped.
"If someone is chasing you, you have to run away quickly. Remember... I'm going to open the door now."
After Yun Shang warned again, she shook off Shui Xinyuan's hand.
Even if it's not Lu Fusu, even if it's not Zhuge Qing and Li Yuezhen, at least I hope it's some supervisory censor.
I really hope it's them.
…please…
"Why don't you open the door yet!"
"I'm lighting a candle, wait a minute...who are you?"
Yun Shang neatly lit the candle in the candlestick in the corridor, put her hand on the door bolt, and asked through the door.
"I am the censor and I am looking for a woman. Please open the door first!"
"..."
If you are a supervisory censor, you will wear a jade that represents your identity.
Yun Shang unlocked the door bolt and slowly opened the door.
A dark shadow appeared.
Shui Xinyuan was nervous all over and looked carefully.
The shadow pushed open the door forcefully and walked into the candlelight.
Evil eyes...
"……Well!"
Yun Shang saw Shui Xinyuan taking a breath, and immediately threw herself at the man's waist. At the same time, the man saw Shui Xinyuan deep in the store and put his hand into his arms.
"...Run away!"
Upon hearing Yun Shang's shout, Shui Xinyuan immediately turned around.
Shui Xinyuan rushed to the back door, and behind him came the roar of a man and the sound of a chair falling to the ground.
...Yunshang, I'm sorry...
The assassin is looking for him and hopes that Yun Shang is safe and sound.
She ran and wiped her tears.
I am so worthless.
When I was in my hometown, I did everything I could by myself.
After becoming a palace concubine, most things were handled by myself.
However, after becoming a queen, she relied on others for help all day long. Not only was she unable to return to the palace on her own, she even sacrificed others in order to escape.
He abandoned Chunxiang and ignored Yunshang...
"...!"
She felt weak all over and her vision was shaking.
...here it comes again, the same feeling as before, consciousness gradually blurring...
"no!"
Shui Xinyuan's body shook, but he still stepped on the ground hard and raised his head.
The sky gradually turned from the dark night to deep purple.
Her shoulders rose and fell, she gasped hard, gritted her teeth, and looked around, realizing that the building in front of her was not a restaurant, but looked like a stone staircase.
"..."
She walked towards the short stone steps step by step, looked up at the front of the steps, and found that it was a small temple.
The plaque reads...Rose Fairy Temple.
……ah……
This is where a geisha became a queen...
Shui Xinyuan walked into the temple.
...It's almost there... just be patient a little longer and take one more breath...
She murmured, as if she was expressing confidence in others, not herself.
The temple was not big and she couldn't hide, but she still lay on the ground and tried her best to avoid letting people outside see her.
Must go home...
Since I can only escape with the help of others, I must at least return home safely and repay this kindness.
Yun Shang helped him escape and told him to return to Lu Fusu, so he must not be caught by the assassin.
Shui Xinyuan felt that there was a scale in his heart.
When you feel frustrated because you are not good at dancing; when you work hard and suddenly feel lonely; when you feel uneasy because your position has changed drastically; when someone says something unpleasant to you but you don’t know how to refute it,
When I can only swallow my tears into my stomach.
When I was swaying between thinking about why I was here and whether I could stay, I had a firm idea in my heart that would not be influenced by anything.
…That’s why I can persevere until today…
There is only one thought on the other side of the scale.
...I want to stay with you.
Although I am very incompetent, causing you trouble all day long, unable to even protect myself, clumsy and worthless, but...
"emperor……"
Libra always leans heavily towards this idea.
…
Lu Fusu had never walked on the streets of Beijing.
I didn't expect that this wish would come true under such circumstances.
Chunhua Street was silent before dawn.
The light at the entrance of the restaurant was particularly deserted, and people walking on the street all bowed their heads and hunched their backs, and passed by quickly.
Among them were commoners, officials and wealthy people walking together. Everyone was silent and left here silently, completely unaware that the king of a country also appeared on this street.
Li Yuezhen walked out of a store and shook her head at Lu Fusu.
"...Which one should I go to next?"
“Let’s go to the store opposite again!”
Just when they were about to cross the road, Zhuge Qing ran against the crowd.
"...The stores I checked didn't have it."
"Where's Xuan Dao?"
"We haven't found it yet. How is the situation here?"
"Nothing was gained. I only know that Xuandao also went to several of these stores."
"I'm with you. I've asked the people from Zhongshu Province to go back first. They searched all night without rest."
"Right……"
They had been running around all night. Although they wanted to invest more manpower, they did not want to cause unnecessary commotion by attracting attention.
Zhuge Qing took out a small map from his arms and looked at it carefully under the light of the nearby store door.
"How many...are there left in the southwest area?"
"I've been to these six houses, and there are still four houses on the opposite side."
Li Yuezhen didn't look at the map and pointed to the other side of the road.
"Then... let's go!"
"Every store has to knock for a long time before someone comes out and opens the door."
"It's just the time for the guests to get dressed and go home. If there are no guests staying overnight, those geishas should still be sleeping."
After Li Yuezhen finished speaking, he led Lu Fusu and Zhuge Qing across the road.
The sky is getting brighter.
"Which one to start with?"
"Starting from the first one..."
When Zhuge Qing and Li Yuezhen stopped talking, Lu Fusu stopped.
He pricked up his ears.
The breeze blows.
"..."
There was a knocking on the door in the distance.
But Lu Fusu didn't stop because of the knock on the door.
But between the knocks, there was a moment...really just a moment, when he heard a voice.
"……Where?"
"What?"
Zhuge Qing and Li Yuezhen looked back at Lu Fusu and looked around. When Lu Fusu heard a rough knock on the door again, he had already taken steps.
"His Majesty?"
Lu Fusu walked into the alley next to the store they originally planned to go to, and Zhuge Qing and Li Yuezhen also chased after him.
When Lu Fusu walked out of the alley, the knocking on the door had stopped, and the sound he heard just now was clearer.
ring.
Among the entire row of small restaurants, only one opened its door, and its dim light spilled onto the street.
When Lu Fusu saw that the thing shaking at the door of the store was a bell, he heard a woman's scream and the sound of something falling to the ground.
"……Well!"
Zhuge Qing and Li Yuezhen rushed over together with Lu Fusu.
The woman's voice shouted: "Run away!"
"Shui Xinyuan!"
As they rushed into the store, they heard a man yelling in the narrow hallway: "Let me go."
A woman hugged the man's thigh hard.
The man holds a short knife in his right hand.
Without thinking, Lu Fusu grabbed the man's right wrist and twisted it behind him. Li Yuezhen pulled out her long sword and struck the man's throat.
The man screamed and leaned back, and Zhuge Qing pulled the woman away.
"Li Yuezhen!"
"...He is Xuan Dao."
Lu Fusu saw a scar on the corner of the subdued man's mouth, and Li Yuezhen reported to him succinctly.
"Are you okay? Are you injured?"
"No, you are..."
The woman stood up with Zhuge Qing's help, panting heavily, and looked at the three of them in turn.
"We are the supervisory censor, looking for a lady who disappeared yesterday."
The woman opened her mouth wide and looked at Lu Fusu.
"Are you Shui Ling'er's husband?"
"Shui Ling'er..."
That's sister Shui Xinyuan's name.
Lu Fusu immediately guessed that Shui Xinyuan might have borrowed his sister's name in order to conceal his true identity.
"Yes, she is...?"
"She ran away just now. Just now, you hurry up and chase her..."
After Li Yuezhen neatly tied up the man, he nodded to Lu Fusu.
"We'll go right away too."
"please."
"……Wait a moment!"
When Lu Fusu stood up, the woman pointed to the end of the corridor and said, "Go straight along the corridor, go right after going out the back door, I just told her to flee north."
"Okay, thank you."
From the corner of his eye, Lu Fusu caught the woman's expression of relief and ran out of the back door.
No one could be seen within his field of vision.
"...Shui Xinyuan!"
Lu Fusu's voice echoed through the silent back alley of Chunhua Street.
"Shui Xinyuan, where are you?"
Lu Fusu ran north, shouting loudly along the way, completely forgetting that Zhuge Qing had warned him before going out, asking him not to shout the queen's name loudly when searching.
...answer me, answer me quickly...
Lu Fusu ran in the back alley, stopping and shouting every time he came to an intersection.