The sound of hoofbeats drew nearer.
A brand-new carriage was brought over and came to a steady stop in front of Cui Xijun.
When Cui Xijun saw it, her delicate brows drew together slightly.
There was no other reason: it was the very carriage Liu Zhao had sent.
"What about the other carriages?"
Steward Cheng looked helpless. "Miss, the carriages the residence keeps in the Capital City were either lent out yesterday or have broken down. This is the only carriage available right now."
Cui Xijun narrowed her eyes slightly. She neither lost her temper nor said much.
There was no way something like this could be such a coincidence.
Liu Zhao must have secretly meddled with things at the Cui Family residence.
She merely steadied her emotions, stepped onto the mounting block, and climbed into the carriage with brisk efficiency.
Once seated, Cui Xijun leaned out of the carriage and said to Steward Cheng, "Find out who borrowed and used the other carriages, and why they broke down. If you discover any connection to the Liu Family, dismiss them from the residence at once."
Steward Cheng bowed and acknowledged the order.
Seeing her climb into the carriage, Hong Ling quickly directed the servants to pass up all the things they might need on the road and at the temple.
Then she had the guards check and pack the incense, candles, flowers, lanterns, tea, food, valuables, jewelry, money, and other items into the carriage.
Only after everything was ready did she climb aboard and sit beside Cui Xijun.
"Third Miss, Steward Cheng and I have checked everything."
Cui Xijun nodded lightly, but her brows remained furrowed. "Since everything's ready, let's set off early."
At the servants' command, the coachmen flicked their whips.
After a shout, the horses neighed, the wheels began to turn, and the procession rolled away from Cui Mansion.
Inside the carriage, Hong Ling looked around and tapped the carriage wall. "It looks ordinary from the outside, but it's spacious and sturdy inside. That Liu Family young master really put some thought into it. But why is there only a square window at the front, with none on the sides? How strange."
Cui Xijun sat on the soft cushions, feeling unusually relaxed.
Hearing Hong Ling's words, she looked around carefully and also felt that the carriage was rather unusual.
Hong Ling turned to Cui Xijun and couldn't help asking, "Third Miss, why do you dislike that Eldest Young Master of the Liu Family?"
Cui Xijun replied evenly, "I wouldn't say I dislike him, but I certainly don't care for him."
"Why?" Hong Ling was her personal maid, and they had grown up together, so they spoke freely with each other. "I saw him from a distance that day. He looked decent enough, and his manner and speech weren't out of line."
"What he wants to marry isn't me. It's only because my surname is Cui."
Cui Xijun cut her off. "If it were another daughter of the Cui Family, the Third Miss or the Fourth Miss, he would have asked for her hand all the same. If I agreed to marry a man like that, how would I be any different from merchandise sold in the marketplace?"
Hong Ling hesitated. "But all the young ladies from the aristocratic clans in the Capital City are like that. Even our Eldest Miss was betrothed to the young master of the Wang Family last year. No matter how much you dislike it, Third Miss, you'll have to marry out like that someday."
Leaning against the cushions, Cui Xijun's voice grew softer. "A person's life is so long. Who can say what will happen in the future? At the very least, right now, if I like someone, I like him. If I don't, then I don't."
Hong Ling opened her mouth, then swallowed the words she'd been about to say.
She had served Cui Xijun for years and knew that once those words were spoken, asking any further would only invite trouble. So she fell silent.
The procession slowly left the Capital City.
At the same time, at the Liu Family residence.
Liu Zhao had also risen early that day and was changing into a brand-new, lavish brocade robe with the servants' help.
Just then, a steward hurried in.
"Young Master, we've just received word that Third Miss Cui has already set out early."
Liu Zhao's hand stopped in midair, leaving the brocade sash that a servant had half-tied hanging loose.
He waved the servants out of the room, then tied the sash himself, neither quickly nor slowly.
"Will this interfere with our plans?"
"According to the original plan, Young Master was to travel with her. Then something would happen on the road, leaving you together in the carriage while we waited to rescue you. Now it seems that part of the plan may have fallen through," the middle-aged steward said quietly.
Liu Zhao pulled the last end of the sash tight.
"It's fine. It won't matter if we can't go together. I'll take the private soldiers with me. She won't be able to escape the debt of gratitude for saving her life."
"An early departure is fine too. It saves me from pressing a warm face against her cold backside."
After dressing, Liu Zhao glanced at himself in the mirror a few times, then ordered, "We'll set out early too. We can't be too late and miss what matters."
At the other end of the mountain road, deep in the woods.
Chen Ye crouched beside an old tree and pressed the last crossbow bolt into its groove.
He had coated the bolts with poison too, a Jianghu toxin deadly at the slightest touch of blood.
It wasn't enough to deal with a Dragon Elephant Realm Martial Master, but it would do for ordinary people.
Once he was done, he heard movement near the mountain road, amid the woods.
It wasn't birdsong or wind, but the faint sound of footsteps, mixed with the clink of scabbards as people walked.
At least a dozen people were spread out on both sides of the road, moving toward the same place.
He listened intently. Though they were far away, he could still make out their general positions.
The desperate bandits plunged into the woods and began cutting down trees, setting up barricades along the narrow mountain pass beyond the bend.
The dull thud of falling trees came one after another.
Chen Ye and the other two hurriedly lowered themselves and hid in the underbrush, concealing their presence.
To prevent word from getting out, only the three of them were involved in the operation.
Su Guang and Zuo Dongxi had seen blood and killed people before.
But this was the first time they had done anything like this.
Both gripped their sword hilts unconsciously. Then, noticing the sweat on their palms, they forced themselves to loosen their hands.
Chen Ye didn't look at them. His gaze remained fixed on the shadows outside the woods. He made a gesture for silence, held his breath, and crouched motionlessly where he was, like a clay statue.
For some reason, the three of them felt that time was passing especially slowly.
No one knew how long it had been.
The birdsong in the woods gradually faded.
The morning sun began to rise slowly between the mountains, bathing the wild forest in gold.
At last, Chen Ye and the others heard the distant sound of wheels rolling over gravel.
They were here!
The three of them tensed.
Chen Ye silently raised his hand, signaling the other two not to move yet.
He held his crossbow ready, with his long saber tucked at his waist. His expression turned grave.
After three rounds of Mortal Shedding, his senses had undergone a qualitative change. But the distance was too great for him to make out anything beyond the procession's approximate size and distance.
Su Guang and Zuo Dongxi were in the same position.
At the same time.
In the woods around the bend in the mountain road, the shadows silently lowered themselves.
The sound of blades sliding from their scabbards was swallowed by the morning breeze.
The wind stopped.
In an instant, the entire mountain road fell silent once more.
Only the hoofbeats and the fading rumble of wheels carried from the distant end of the road.
Inside the carriage.
Cui Xijun held a small teapot and used her inner energy to bring the tea to a boil.
Hong Ling was quick to react, holding out two small cups to catch the tea.
Cui Xijun had been in a foul mood when she left the residence, but she was still a young woman at heart. She had been cooped up in the residence for so long, and a chance to go out was rare.
After the carriage left the city, she cut open three sides of the Soft Smoke Gauze at the front and occasionally peered through the square window at the scenery outside. Her mood gradually improved.
Just then, the carriage abruptly stopped.
Hong Ling cried out, and all the tea in her hands splashed out, soaking her clothes.
Cui Xijun tightened her wrist and gathered the tea back into the cup without spilling a drop.
When Hong Ling saw tea stains on her favorite skirt, her face flushed with anger. She shouted out of the carriage, "How are you driving? Third Miss was enjoying tea! You've soaked her skirt—how will you answer for this?"
The coachman hurriedly apologized and replied with a hint of grievance, "Third Miss, a tree has fallen across the road up ahead, blocking the way. The carriages can't get through. Guard Yin has already taken some men over to deal with it."
A fallen tree?
Cui Xijun's brows furrowed.
This wasn't her first time traveling along this road. There were no stands of tall trees on either side of the narrow mountain pass. How could a tree have fallen across the road?
She set down her teacup, alarm bells ringing in her heart.
She was about to call out and warn Guard Yin and the others when a piercing whistle suddenly sounded outside the carriage window—the shriek of an arrow cutting through the air.
From the woods behind the procession, more than a dozen crossbow bolts shot out at once, striking the carriage walls and the guards' shields with dull thuds.
The horses neighed in fright, and the entire procession fell into chaos.
"Enemy attack! Protect Third Miss!"
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