Arrival at the Prefectural City

The mighty caravan rumbled over the official road, pressing onward.

It was early spring. The fields on either side of the road had shed winter's desolation, and tender green shoots covered the ground. In the distance, rolling hills were steeped in layered forests, streaked with red and yellow. More than twenty carriages stretched nose to tail; from afar, they resembled a long giant serpent moving across the open land.

The guards drove the carriages onward at an unhurried pace.

Lin Fan did not sit in one of the comfortable enclosed carriages. Instead, he rode a magnificent black horse near the rear of the convoy, alongside the carriage carrying Su Qingwei and the others.

His expression remained calm, as though he were merely an ordinary martial officer escorting his family on a journey.

From within the carriage came the occasional babbling sound of children. Su Qingwei sat in the main carriage, whose walls were thick and lined with heavy woolen cloth that greatly softened the jolts of the road. The cradle stood in the center. The twin infants sometimes slept soundly, and sometimes opened their dark, gleaming eyes and reached for the cloth dolls hanging beside the cradle. Two maidservants attended them carefully, changing their swaddling clothes and offering them warm water.

In the neighboring carriage, Lin Ruoruo lifted a corner of the curtain and looked outside curiously. Having grown up, she had rarely traveled far. Their previous flight did not count. After escaping Capital City, she had had no heart to admire the scenery, and they had traveled mostly at night then.

As Lin Ruoruo watched the ever-changing mountains, rivers, and fields along the way, her eyes brimmed with wonder. Yet when she suddenly thought of her homeland far away in Capital City, she quietly pressed her lips together, and