Xue Qinghe

As the saying went, when misfortune struck, even drinking cold water could get stuck between your teeth.

Ning Weiyang was exactly like that.

She had been walking down the street perfectly well. She had merely lowered her head for a moment when she ran straight into several soldiers clad in armor.

They were hard as iron, and the collision reddened her forehead.

Ning Weiyang clutched her forehead and sucked in a breath from the pain.

This was an escort unit of more than a dozen men from the Heaven Dou Royal Palace.

Four soldiers walked at the front, with a luxurious carriage in the middle. Six men guarded the rear, while two stood on each side, protecting the carriage thoroughly.

The ones who had reprimanded Ning Weiyang with clear displeasure were the two soldiers at the front of the unit.

"Move, move, move! Don't block the road!"

One of them shoved Ning Weiyang straight to the ground. "Thud—"

Before her forehead had even recovered, her backside suffered next.

Ning Weiyang felt terribly wronged. She climbed to her feet through the pain and protested to the unit, "I was walking properly on the pedestrian path. You ran into me, yet you say I blocked your way. Do you people even have any law?"

She shouted loudly, venting the resentment in her heart.

"The law? We are the law!"

A soldier at the rear slammed the heavy spear in his hand against the ground, glaring at Ning Weiyang.

Killing intent seeped from him. Ning Weiyang froze in fright, instinctive fear rising in her mind. She retreated several steps in terror, feeling even more wronged.

"What's going on?"

Just as that soldier was about to make a move against her, a warm, jade-like male voice suddenly reached Ning Weiyang's ears.

Upon hearing the voice, the marching soldiers all dropped to one knee and respectfully reported to the person inside the carriage, "Reporting to Your Highness, a lowborn commoner was blocking the road."

Lowborn commoner??

Ning Weiyang frowned.

She was not a lowborn commoner!

However, before the thought could settle in her mind, a soldier struck her leg with a staff, forcing her to kneel!

"Ah!"

Ning Weiyang cried out in pain.

She was only six years old, and her body had never been very strong. Even though the other party had not used much force, that blow still injured her badly.

"You still won't kneel when you see His Highness? Lowborn commoners truly have no manners!"

"..."

The pain in her body left Ning Weiyang in no mood to refute the soldier's words. Her eyes brimmed with tears, which poured down like pearls from a broken string.

She felt so wronged.

How could someone be this unlucky?

The carriage curtain was lifted from within. Seated inside was the Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire—Xue Qinghe.

Xue Qinghe lifted the curtain and immediately spotted Ning Weiyang crying amid the crowd—

Her black hair fell to her waist, and she wore a goose-yellow dress. She was lovely and petite, her slender brows gently curved, her eyes large and bright, and her lashes trembling like butterfly wings. She looked just like a pitiful little kitten.

"Was it her?"

Xue Qinghe shifted his gaze from Ning Weiyang to the soldier kneeling nearby.

His tone was calm, yet carried a trace of pressure.

The soldier broke out in a cold sweat, but he could only answer truthfully, "Reporting to Your Highness, it was her."

At that moment, Ning Weiyang slowly raised her head and looked at Xue Qinghe.

Their gazes met.

The pitiful look in Ning Weiyang's eyes stirred Xue Qinghe's compassion.

"Let her go. Don't make things difficult for her."

After leaving those words behind, Xue Qinghe lowered the curtain.

"Yes, Your Highness."

The soldier breathed a sigh of relief and answered.

He rose to his feet, preparing to pull Ning Weiyang up.

But—

"Your Highness!"