"Jingle~~"
Just as Peony was fretting like an ant on a hot pan, a clear bell suddenly rang outside. Peony's expression changed at once. "Oh no, the gathering's starting. It's dangerous here. You can't stay any longer—come with me!"
Hao Shuai knew the plot, of course, and was well aware that this was the time for the daily lessons at Myriad Flower Fairyland. But he didn't say so. Instead, he smiled and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you, Miss Peony!"
"Shh~ Keep your voice down." Peony raised a finger to her lips, took Hao Shuai's hand, and whispered cautiously, "Don't speak. We'll go this way!"
The two of them passed through a hidden corridor and emerged onto a vast plaza. Before Hao Shuai stretched a breathtaking fairyland: blue skies and white clouds, mountain ranges layered in the distance and shrouded in mist, while nearby stood tall, overlapping pavilions with red walls, green tiles, and elegant eaves and brackets. It was all exceptionally beautiful.
At that moment, many women were gathering in the plaza for their morning assembly, just like students heading to class each day.
Hao Shuai had been about to take a closer look at all the beauties in the plaza, but Peony nervously pulled him into a side corridor and hurried down the passage behind the side hall.
Peony led Hao Shuai this way and that until they finally stopped in a corridor hidden from view of the plaza. Pointing to its far end, she said anxiously, "Go through the corridor and keep heading west. There's a small village there. Wait for me there."
Hao Shuai wanted to tell her there was no need to go to all this trouble—he wasn't afraid of her aunt—but seeing Peony, so nervous that sweat had appeared on the tip of