"Hmph, do you think I'm afraid?"
Su Qiao wasn't afraid of him coming. She was afraid he would curl up in his shell like a shrunken turtle and refuse to move, pretending to be harmless.
"Your Majesty, Your Concubine..."
"Get... get away!"
When Su Qiao arrived, Xi Hanzhou was leaning against a large tree, utterly weak. His entire face was flushed, and the veins on his forehead and neck bulged visibly.
His eyes alternated between dazed and clear as he struggled desperately against the woman climbing all over him like a beautiful snake.
Unfortunately, the hand he raised had barely any strength. That only made him more irritable and furious.
One look at Consort Shu told Su Qiao that she had been drugged with something like a hallucinogen and had mistaken Xi Hanzhou for the Emperor.
Before the horse had even stopped, Su Qiao leaped off. She strode forward, struck Consort Shu unconscious with a knife-hand blow, and kicked her aside.
Then she delivered another forceful knife-hand strike to Xi Hanzhou, whose face was flushed and whose veins were almost popping out all over his body. She pulled a small medicine bottle from her robes, bit off the stopper, and held it beneath his nose.
A large group was approaching from the southeast. There were palace maids and guards among them, so they were probably looking for Consort Shu. They had to leave quickly. If they waited any longer, it would likely be too late.
Su Qiao quickly stuffed the medicine bottle back into her robes, bent down, and hoisted Xi Hanzhou onto her shoulder. She tossed him onto the horse's back, then leaped up, slapped the horse, and sped northwest.
After riding about a hundred meters, she put her fingers to her lips and blew a whistle consisting of