You attacked my delivery worker and still want to leave? This prince will stage a street-side shakedown!

The sound of orderly footsteps and the clanging of metal could be heard from outside the courtyard.

Thirty guards, armed with fine iron clubs and fully armored, stood guard.

As the sedan chair was carried out of the mansion gate, Lady Wang's voice drifted out from behind the curtain.

"Take the main street in the west of the city. That place called Ice City."

Zhao Wuxu was helped up by the nanny, changed into a clean robe, and wiped the bloodstains from his face with a handkerchief.

He didn't go with them.

No rush.

He'll wait until his godmother breaks the ice before he comes out to close the net.

At that time, all the money, goods, and staff of that shop will belong to him.

That Yun Shuyue...

Zhao Wuxu licked the broken tooth with his tongue, the salty, fishy taste filling his mouth.

It's his too.

The main street in the west of the city.

The sun was shining brightly, and the streets were bustling with people.

As usual, there was a long queue outside Mixue Ice City.

Yun Shuyue, wearing a snowman hat and clutching five cups of iced fruit tea tightly in her arms, gently pushed off the ground with her toes on the bluestone slabs, her knees slightly bent, preparing to use the momentum to leap onto the roof.

This is the eighth trip today.

She had just gathered her strength to jump.

At the street corner ahead, four sedan chair bearers carried a vermilion sedan chair around.

On either side of the sedan chair, thirty guards in short armor, carrying long iron clubs, followed in two rows, their footsteps in perfect unison, creating a dull rhythm as they rolled over the bluestone slabs.

Pedestrians quickly made way for them.

Yun Shuyue paused, then landed back on the ground.

The sedan curtain was lifted slightly.

Yun Shuyue recognized the woman inside.

She was in her early thirties, well-maintained, with phoenix eyes, thin lips, and a cinnabar mole between her eyebrows.

Lady Wang.

The Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's Office remarried.

Her father's current wife.

Yun Shuyue felt a chill run down her back.

Instinctively, he lowered his head and pulled down the brim of his snowman hat, trying to blend into the crowd.

But that yellow vest was too eye-catching.

"Stop."

Lady Wang's voice came from inside the sedan chair.

The head nurse held his sword three feet in front of Yun Shuyue.

Lady Wang lifted the sedan curtain, leaned out, and stared at Yun Shuyue's face, which was smeared with soot.

Soot from the pot can't hide one's bone structure.

Those eyes, that nose, they were exactly like her damned mother's.

" The Yun Clan's unfilial daughter." Lady Wang's voice carried three parts disgust and seven parts smugness. "After running wild outside for three years, now she's working as someone's errand girl?"

Yun Shuyue clutched the fruit tea in her arms tightly.

Five cups, with ice, haven't arrived yet.

She took a half step back, her gaze sweeping over her surroundings.

On the left are two stalls selling sugar figurines, and on the right is the door of a cloth shop.

Behind... behind is a dead end.

They can escape.

But if he were surrounded by a group of soldiers while running, he would spill the five cups of fruit tea he was carrying.

"Madam has mistaken me for someone else." Yun Shuyue lowered her voice, mimicking a man's tone, "I am a courier from Mixue Ice City."

Lady Wang gave a cold laugh.

"The day you left home three years ago, you were also dressed as a man. You lied to your father, saying you were going to burn incense, but you escaped by climbing over the temple wall." Lady Wang leaned back in the sedan chair, her tone becoming languid. "Although your father didn't say anything, he always worried about you. As your stepmother, how could I not share his burdens?"

Yun Shuyue clenched her molars.

"Take it back." Lady Wang raised her chin.

Two guards approached from the left and right sides.

Yun Shuyue pushed off the ground with her heels, her body flashed backward, and she slid half a zhang away, close to the door of the cloth shop.

Fast, but not fast enough.

Because she was also holding five cups of fruit tea.

The third guard swept his long staff across, aiming at the waist.

Yun Shuyue was unable to block with both hands.

She could only forcefully twist her waist and take the blow with her back.

"Bang."

A muffled thud.

She clenched her teeth, let out a muffled groan, and staggered forward two steps.

But she didn't let go.

Five cups of fruit tea, not a drop spilled.

Lady Wang, watching her desperate attempt to protect those few cups of tea from inside the sedan chair, scoffed.

"The provincial inspector's eldest daughter was beaten over a few cups of sugar water. What kind of talk is this?"

Yun Shuyue did not respond.

More guards gathered around.

Across the street.

The door of the clothing store was pushed open from the inside.

Gu Moran walked out of the shop.

She was wearing a dark blue brocade robe that she had just tried on.

Shen Ling'er followed on the right, carrying a folded moon-white undergarment, while Su Yao walked on the left, carrying two bolts of Shu brocade.

Two people flanked him, one on each side, and forced him to change his clothes three times in the shop.

Gu Moran looked up at the street.

Then he froze.

More than thirty guards wielding sticks formed a circle around the courtyard.

In the center of the circle, a thin figure wearing a yellow vest and a snowman hat was bent over.

Yun Shuyue.

His deliveryman.

A vermilion sedan chair was parked nearby, its curtain half-lifted, revealing a middle-aged woman adorned with gold and silver.

Gu Moran's brow twitched slightly.

Turn your head to the side.

As soon as Lin Qingdai reached the side door of the shop, her eyes were already fixed on the group of guards across the street.

Murong Xue emerged from behind the shop, clutching the beef jerky she had just bought, with half a piece still in her mouth.

Gu Moran didn't hesitate for long.

He raised his chin and shouted.

"Someone is trying to assassinate me!"

His shout was full of confidence, and everyone on the street turned to look at him.

Lin Qingdai did not hesitate at all.

His figure sprang out of the shadows, his toes pushing off the ground, and he took three steps to cross the six-zhang-wide main street.

With his right hand pressing down on the hilt, the leather scabbard traced an arc in the sunlight.

The knife was not drawn.

The tip of the sheath is located on the outer side of the right knee of the outermost guard.

The guard bent his knees inward and knelt down before the person could even cry out.

The second, the third, the fourth, the fifth.

Three breaths.

The five guards knelt on the ground in an eerily neat formation, arranged in an arc, as if they were kowtowing to someone.

Lin Qingdai stopped her stance, returned the scabbard to its place, and didn't even break a sweat.

The street fell silent for a moment.

Immediately afterwards.

"Whoa!"

Murong Xue rushed to the center of the street in two strides, the soft whip at her waist already in her hand.

Her goal was clear: that vermilion sedan chair.

The tip of the whip pierced the air.

He precisely gripped the crossbeam on the roof of the sedan chair, flicked his wrist, and pulled it back.

The entire roof of the sedan chair, along with the silk cloth, wooden frame, and tassels, was completely ripped off by a single whip.

Wood chips and scraps of cloth scattered in the air, like confetti thrown out during Chinese New Year.

"Ah--!"

Lady Wang screamed, covering her head with both hands and shrinking back into the sedan chair.

Her hair was blown askew by the airflow, and a gold hairpin fell onto the sedan chair and jingled.

The remaining guards looked at each other in bewilderment.

They looked at their five colleagues kneeling on the ground, then at the woman opposite them holding the whip, and the woman holding the scabbard.

No one dared to move.

Gu Moran leisurely across the street.

His walking posture was extremely lazy, as if he had been interrupted while going out for a stroll.

He walked up to Yun Shuyue and stopped.

Yun Shuyue was still hunched over, clutching the five cups of fruit tea tightly in her arms.

The snowman hat was askew, stray hairs clung to his forehead, and the stick mark on his back had seeped into a dark patch.

She looked up and saw Gu Moran, opened her mouth, and her first words were, "The tea wasn't spilled."

Gu Moran: "..."

He reached out and straightened her hat, then turned to face the roofless sedan chair.

Lady Wang's face turned deathly pale.

Holding onto the sedan chair frame, she sat up straight and noticed the material of Gu Moran's dark blue brocade robe, as well as the several women following behind him.

Each of them possessed an extraordinary demeanor.

"This..." Lady Wang steadied her voice, "May I ask who this esteemed guest is...?"

Gu Moran smiled.

"This king is just passing by."

He raised his finger and pointed to the five kneeling guards on the ground, then pointed to Yun Shuyue's back.

"Just now, your men attacked the shop assistants with sticks, and the force of the blows reached within three feet of my feet."

Gu Moran unfolded the undergarment in his hand, revealing a faint gray stain on it. "It rubbed against my clothes."

The gray stain was from when he was trying on clothes in the shop.

But who knows?

Lady Wang stared at the undergarment, her throat bobbing.

"I'd like to ask," Gu Moran said calmly, "Whether your people are here to vandalize the shop or to assassinate me?"

Lady Wang finally realized what the words "this king" meant.

Yi Prefecture. This King.

Only one person can call himself "King" in Yi Prefecture City.

Prince Yi. Gu Moran.

The Third Prince

The emperor's own son.

Lady Wang's fingers gripped the edge of the sedan chair frame tightly, her knuckles tingling.

It took him three breaths to make his voice sound steady.

"Your Highness, please forgive me." Lady Wang bowed and forced a smile. "I am a member of the Imperial Inspector's household. I am not here today for Your Highness, but for my... family matters."

Her finger extended from behind the sedan chair, pointing towards Yun Shuyue.

"That girl is the legitimate daughter of the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner. She ran away from home three years ago, and I happened to see her today. I wish to take her back with me."

Lady Wang paused, emphasizing the words "legitimate daughter," adding, "She's family, not an outsider."

Upon hearing this,

Su Yao, standing behind Gu Moran, brightened up.

Shen Ling'er almost lost her balance.

Lin Qingdai and Xie Wanqing both turned to look at Yun Shuyue.

The legitimate daughter of the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner.

Yun Zhengze's daughter.

That deliveryman who wears a snowman hat every day, runs around rooftops delivering food, and is willing to risk his life for a paycheck.

Is she the legitimate daughter of the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner?

Their eyes met for a fleeting moment.