By the time Hu Xiaotian finished saying goodbye to Shi Xuedong, Murong Feiyan had already gone quite a distance. She had always hated evil with a vengeance, and nothing would have pleased her more than killing a shameless, despicable official's son like Shi Xuedong. Seeing Hu Xiaotian getting so friendly with someone like that, even calling him brother, struck her as wolves conspiring together, snakes and rats sharing a nest. She immediately rode away. Out of sight, out of mind.
From the moment they met that morning, Murong Feiyan had maintained an icy demeanor. She had yet to say a single word to Hu Xiaotian. He pondered this privately, guessing that she really was angry with him. After all, she had at least held an Eighth Rank post before, but now she had to follow a sesame-seed-sized official of the Principal Ninth Rank like him to Azure Cloud County, more than three thousand li away, and take orders from a ninth-rank County Deputy. Anyone would have felt disappointed and dejected. Then again, if she truly did not want to go, she could simply have refused. She was suspended anyway; at worst, she could quit. Since she had agreed to go, that proved she had accepted the arrangement in her heart.
This time, Hu Xiaotian did not chase after her, merely following at a distance. Clouds blazing like fire cradled the golden morning sun as it slowly rose above a distant mountain ridge, scattering curved rays across the pale green sky. Wisps of morning mist still drifted over the green fields, swiftly dissolving in the golden sunlight and seeping into the soil and onto the grass, where crystalline dewdrops rolled along the blades. The morning breeze stirred the poplars on either side of the road with a rustling sound. Their tender