The clamor in her ears receded like the tide, leaving Fang Yiwan's world with nothing but her pounding heartbeat and her rapid, ragged breathing.
After a long while, the sound of a palace servant jogging into the hall along the wall abruptly broke through, finally pulling Fang Yiwan out of her daze.
She raised her head, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the servant as they ran to Eunuch Changshun. Then she watched Eunuch Changshun, visibly shocked, hurry to the Crown Prince's side and bend down to whisper. And then-
"What?!"
The Crown Prince's voice, thick with tremors, crashed against everyone's ears.
It took Jiang Tinghuai only an instant to bring his expression under control, but the shock in his eyes remained unmistakable.
He tilted his head slightly and lowered his voice to a whisper. "You... say, say that again??"
His expression looked composed, but in truth...
His soul had already departed some time ago.
He nearly failed to get through that short sentence, and his voice rose sharply at the end, trembling plainly.
A faint air of death hung all around him.
Eunuch Changshun was no less anxious than the young Crown Prince and wanted nothing more than to rush out after them. At the question, he could not spare a thought for his wording. "The servants said the Little Highness took Her Highness Consort Wan and His Highness Jinshu and ran away!"
Liaochen, Zhong Chengwang, and the others were so skilled that even carrying their respective "burdens" did not slow their escape in the slightest. Apart from Xu Jiu and a few others who could barely keep up, everyone in the palace could only watch their retreating backs grow farther and farther away, unable even to catch their dust.
The trouble was that the goods in the little girl's