Dai Youheng, Ling Ya, and Nana immediately returned to Star Luo City.
They had to get back before Shrek made its move, or many of their plans could not be carried out.
Naturally, Dai Youheng did not enter the city with the other two. They had parted ways in the dense woods outside the city, silently blending into streams of people heading in different directions like drops of water flowing into a river.
He first returned to the Princess's Mansion, only to be respectfully informed by the guards at its gates that Her Highness Princess Jiujiu was currently in the Imperial Palace, discussing urgent affairs of state with His Majesty.
Dai Youheng's gaze shifted slightly. Without hesitation, he turned and headed toward the Imperial Palace.
Security in the imperial compound was tight, but no one stopped the White Tiger Duke's son, whom His Majesty had personally granted permission to "seek an audience at any time." Announcements of his arrival passed deeper into the palace, and soon an attendant pushed open the heavy hall doors.
Inside the magnificent side hall used for deliberations, bright candlelight illuminated memorials piled as high as mountains.
Xu Jiawei was reviewing them with brush in hand, his brows drawn in the contemplation befitting an emperor. Below him, Xu Jiujiu held a document and quietly presented its contents, her delicate brows slightly furrowed, her manner focused and earnest.
Yet when that familiar, slender figure appeared in the doorway, Xu Jiujiu's voice abruptly stopped. The document slipped soundlessly from her hand and fluttered onto the polished floor.
All her dignity, all her composure, crumbled in that instant. Two years of accumulated longing surged like a flood bursting through a dam, sweeping away every trace of the princess's reserve.
She even forgot that her imperial brother was beside her,