Clouds Drunk, Moon Slightly Sleeping

Chapter 67

I glanced around and immediately followed Wangyue Zongning out. How strange! It seems like the father or son is the one who's domineering. And why did I come here for no reason? It seems like I just wanted Wangyue King to see me and confirm my identity. I'm so confused!

Mochizuki Zongning went straight to the small hut I had been in before. The guards outside the door bowed respectfully. He kicked the door open, turned around, grabbed my hand, pulled me into the room, and threw me hard onto the bed. I quickly sat up and looked down at my wrist. Good heavens, this bastard actually hit me! My hand is all swollen.

"I've heard that the sixth prince of Tianqing has always neglected state affairs, and this time he was only sent to lead the army because of Princess Xiyue. I've also heard that Yun Xiangsu of Longyao Kingdom..."

"You're on good terms with General Mu. Just how capable are you, a woman? I really want to see for myself tomorrow!" He stood in front of the bed, looking at me with half-closed eyes, his eyebrows furrowed tightly, his arrogant and domineering aura even stronger. His voice, however, was unusually arrogant, but the seemingly calm tone made me tremble. Before I could speak, he turned and strode out of the room.

I sat on the bed, trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. Listening to what Wang Yue Zong Ning had just said, if I had to go to the battlefield tomorrow, I was afraid I would be in big trouble. Even if I was alright, I was afraid Xi Lan and Qing Lin would be in a very difficult position.

I opened the door and looked at the guards outside, who stood like stone statues. I casually pulled over a stool and threw it out the door. The guards ignored me and didn't move. I reached for the stool, and a gleaming knife immediately appeared before my eyes, landing less than ten centimeters from my neck. I turned around and went back into the room, slamming the door shut with a loud bang.

I looked around the room and found that besides the door, there wasn't even a window. Desperate, I touched the walls and rearranged the furniture, then slumped onto the bed. It seemed impossible to sneak out. I touched my chest, then my wrist, frowned, and thought for a while, but still couldn't come up with a good solution.

The image of Wang Anchu momentarily losing his composure upon seeing me flashed through my mind. A man as mature as him, judging from his physique and years of experience in the palace, should not have such a strange reaction. Even if I were a celestial maiden descended to earth, he probably wouldn't have given me a second glance, let alone shown any surprise in his eyes.

I opened the door again and threw the teacups out one by one. Finally, I threw the teapot out as well, cursing as I did so: "This huge palace doesn't even have a decent cup of tea. Are they trying to let people die of thirst?"

The guards outside the door remained motionless. I continued to curse and throw things out of the room, throwing everything I could carry out the door. I was hesitating about whether to throw the blankets out too, since only the blankets on the bed were still movable. Finally, one of the guards outside the door moved. Then I saw Wang Anwei walking hurriedly towards me with his back slightly bent and head down.

"Young lady, what happened here?" Wang An looked at the messy scene, turned around and went inside, speaking softly to me.

"You've come at the right time. Mochizuki Muneshige asked you to watch over me, not to mistreat me. Is the tea you prepared even drinkable?" I said to him coldly, my voice rising slightly at the last sentence.

He looked up at me when he heard me, then immediately lowered his head again, saying in a respectful tone, "It was my fault for not preparing properly, Miss. Please don't be angry. I will go down and brew you a fresh pot of tea."

I coldly watched Wang An turn and leave, then looked at the two maids who came to clean up the mess on the floor and in the room. It seemed that Wangyue Zongning really only told me to keep an eye on me, and didn't say that I was a serious criminal or a mortal enemy of Wangyue Kingdom.

Wang Anxin brought over a pot of tea, dismissed the two maids, placed the teapot and teacups on the table, and bowed, saying, "I wonder if this tea suits your taste, Miss?"

I picked up the teapot, spout facing the teacup, and with a slight tilt of my hand, I watched as the fresh green buds and clean white tea leaves, along with the clear, pale green tea, fell into the cup, swirling and dancing in the air. My hand trembled slightly, but thankfully the tea didn't spill. I set the teapot down, gently lifted the teacup, and took a small sip. The aroma was pure and the taste mellow—truly the Cui Feng Yun Xia tea I often drank at the Yun Mansion!

I looked up at Wang An with slight surprise, my eyes unconsciously narrowing. Zhang De had said that this Emerald Peak Cloud Tea came from the perpetually misty summit of White Cloud Mountain, with an annual yield of less than a hundred taels—a truly exceptional tea that money couldn't buy. I hadn't believed it at the time, and had even searched the fox's lair and Longyao's treasury, but hadn't found it there. Later, I saw it in the Tianqing Imperial Palace as well. Now, Wang An had actually brought a small pot of Emerald Peak Cloud Tea—was it a coincidence, or...?

"This tea is quite good, but is there any special story behind it?" I put down my teacup and said casually, but my eyes were fixed on the person in front of me who had his head down and whose expression I couldn't see.

"This servant doesn't know the origin of this tea. I only heard the person who gave it to me say that this tea can calm the mind and soothe the nerves, unlike ordinary tea which refreshes and clears the mind. Instead, it can help people calm their restlessness and fall asleep." He kept his head down and replied slowly and calmly, his voice neither loud nor soft, revealing no hidden meaning. After saying this, he paused before continuing, "It's getting late, so this servant won't disturb your rest any longer, Miss. If you have any further instructions, please have someone pass on the message to this servant."

After speaking, he bowed slightly, cupped his hands in front of him, placed his right hand in front of his left, and shook his index finger from side to side in my direction before turning and leaving. He did this while facing me, with his back to the servant outside the door. The room had no windows, only a door, so no one else could see him.

I watched him close the door, thinking about what he had just said, trying to calm my mind and fall asleep peacefully. I also thought about the person who served me tea, and his final finger-wagging gesture. Was he trying to tell me not to worry and to get a good night's sleep?

I lay in bed thinking. Sigh, if only I had unparalleled martial arts skills like Xi Lan, would I be in this situation? Why didn't I transmigrate into a martial arts master? Or maybe I could have followed her example and transmigrated to this time and space to research and create some close-range self-defense weapons with great destructive power and deterrence? It's just that I'm living this kind of mundane life in the 21st century.

No one came to rescue me all night. It was one thing that Xi Lan didn't come, but Ye Feng was nowhere to be seen either. I looked towards the door countless times, only to look away sadly again, until I finally couldn't stay awake any longer and curled up in bed to sleep in the early hours of the morning.

In a daze, I felt someone pull me up. I struggled to open my eyes and saw Mochizuki Sōne's face. I felt a headache coming on and my nose seemed stuffy. Oh no, could it be that the cold I was exposed to in the secret room is now belatedly taking effect?

He frowned and glanced at me, then pulled me outside. I followed, staggering slightly, my forehead beaded with sweat. Once outside the palace, Mochizuki Zongning mounted his horse and pulled me to sit in front of him. Guards were already waiting around. Mochizuki Zongning spurred his horse, and the group galloped towards the city gate.

Upon reaching the city gate, I was pulled off my horse again by Mochizuki Sōne. Lack of sleep and skipped breakfast made me increasingly dizzy. In this situation, there was no way I could escape on my own. As for Wang An, I wondered what was going on; had I misunderstood him?

"I thought His Highness would be a heroic figure. I didn't expect I was wrong." I was pulled by Mochizuki Zongning and followed her up to the city wall tower. I felt like I was starting to break out in a cold sweat, but I looked at the person next to me with a mocking smile.

He pulled me close to him, so close we were almost touching. I could almost feel his breath as he leaned in. His eyes were fixed on me, a barely suppressed anger flashing within them, and he seemed to be gritting his teeth as he spoke in a softer voice than usual: "What did you say?"

A smile involuntarily crept onto my lips as I suddenly found it incredibly amusing. I stared at him fearlessly, mimicking his tone as I softly said, "I remember Your Highness saying that women are ultimately incapable of achieving great things. So why is Your Highness bringing me to the city walls? Are you trying to force the army to cease hostilities, or to make them surrender? Does Your Highness intend to sacrifice a woman to protect what was originally your kingdom? Your Highness is far too naive. Even if I am truly Prime Minister Yun and Princess Xiyue, how could a man's war, a man's kingdom, a man's realm, be altered by a woman?"

"You think this is what I intend?" He suddenly stepped back, his arrogant and domineering aura intensifying, a mocking smile playing on his lips, yet his eyes brimming with untamed spirit. He then pulled me toward the tower, where, not far from the city gate, three camps—azure, rust-red, and dark blue—held out their 600,000-strong army, already in full battle array. Just as I was about to examine the white figure more closely, he forcefully pulled me back. The area beneath the city walls was now densely packed with soldiers, their golden-moon armor exceptionally neat and dazzling. At a glance, it resembled a vast, golden ocean, numbering at least 100,000.

"Your Highness's elite troops?" I looked at the man beside me. He didn't answer, but the expression on his face was one of pride and the air of a king.

"Your Highness intends to defend Wangzhou with these elite troops?" I looked at the Wangyue soldiers in front of me. Indeed, judging from their aura and formation, they seemed stronger than the Wangyue soldiers wearing silver moon armor before. However, I was even more convinced that the soldiers led by Qinglin and Xilan were no worse than them, and in terms of numbers, our advantage was too obvious.

"Does Wangyue only have an army of 400,000?" He suddenly turned to look at me, each word spoken softer than the last, until it seemed as if he were muttering to himself.

My heart skipped a beat. How could Wangyue, which had so easily and decisively conquered Wangzhou, be so vulnerable? If this was intentional, what was their purpose? Were they trying to "put themselves in a desperate situation to survive"? Or were they trying to lure the enemy in? Or perhaps, initially, the three armies surrounded the Wangyue army, and now the entire Wangyue army was surrounding the three armies! Attacking was difficult, retreat was cut off, and they had even tried to burn the army's supplies—were they trying to trap the army outside Wangzhou?

So what was Wangyue Zongning's purpose in pulling me onto the city wall? It couldn't be to make the army retreat, much less to naively try to make them surrender. Could it be that his real purpose was Tian Xilan and Mu Qinglin, given the previous rumors about Yunfeng and Princess Xiyue?

"Let me go, you bastard, Mochizuki Zongning!" I struggled desperately, but he dragged me down the city wall from the tower. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't break free. I bit his arm hard, but he seemed completely oblivious. The dagger I carried had been missing when I woke up in the secret room yesterday. What should I do now?

Clouds Drunk, Moon Slightly Sleeping (Revised Edition) Volume Three: If Life Were Only As We First Met, the Shocking Change in Wangzhou (Part Three)

Chapter word count: 3587 Update time: 08-12-23 14:37

The Shocking Change in Wangzhou (Part 3)

"Your Highness, you think too highly of me." I glanced at Mochizuki Zongning, trying to remain calm, and spoke as steadily as possible.

Wangyue Zongning actually tied me to the city wall, but that wasn't all. Behind me, there were also several seemingly skilled men lying in ambush, and archers were everywhere. And that damned Wangyue Zongning had somehow attached something to my lower back. Did he really intend to use me to lure Qinglin and Xilan into a trap? But in this life-or-death battle, why was he so concerned about the lives of those two? Were they more important than the entire army?

It wasn't the two of them, it was Xi Lan, it was always Xi Lan!

Wangyue Zongning was on good terms with the Fourth Prince Tian Xinrong before, and now he has conspired with the fake man Han Qianhui to frame me. The blood relationship between Han Qianhui and Tian Xinrong made my heart clench. There was a conspiracy from the very beginning, which is why Wangyue Zongning dared to boast so arrogantly on the first day he was captured, saying that the three-army alliance could not break Wangyue at all.

I don't know how capable Han Qianhui is, but from the beginning, I've been wary of Tianqing's 200,000-strong army. I worried that some of them might be loyal to the Fourth Prince, or even bribed by Wangyue Zongning. My easy capture suggests that Xilan, like her foresight of the arson attack on the supplies, had anticipated this all along. If so, why would Xilan rather let me be taken away by Wangyue Zongning than let me remain in the Tianqing camp? Does this mean something big is about to happen within the Tianqing army? If Wangyue Zongning intends to use me to eliminate Xilan, could it be that she has some kind of deal with Tian Xinrong? What would she gain in exchange for Xilan's life? The answer is obvious. And in Tianqing, is it already an open secret that the Tianqing King intends to pass the throne to Xilan?

But now, how can I tell Xilan not to come and save me? It seems like shouting at the top of my lungs wouldn't get any response.

"Really? Look." He stood five meters away from me, hands behind his back, his eyes fixed on the outside of the city wall, a confident expression on his face.

I followed his gaze towards the direction of the three armies, and there was a white figure slowly emerging from the Azure Sky camp. Who else could it be but Xi Lan! I was about to shout, telling him to go back and leave me alone, but Wang Yue Zong Ning gave a signal to the people behind me before I could, and someone immediately pressed my pressure points. The words I was about to say remained unspoken.

The army hadn't moved, but Xi Lan was getting closer and closer. Of the entire army, only Xi Lan kept walking towards the city wall. I looked at him, and he looked up at my location. I shook my head at him desperately, hoping that he wouldn't be fooled and wouldn't get injured or lose his life just to save me. But he seemed not to see me shaking my head. Suddenly, he leaped and flew towards my location.

My heart leaped into my throat. All I could do was shake my head frantically at Xi Lan. He was getting closer and closer, and my heart clenched tighter and tighter. The closer he got, the harder it would be to dodge those arrows. And what about those people behind me? No matter how good Xi Lan's martial arts were, would he be able to handle them?