SEHE Chapter 43.1

Pursuit and Escape (part 1)

Pei Yanci’s entire body stiffened, his breathing stopped, and he slowly turned his head.

A bewitchingly beautiful face was right before his eyes.

Tang Xizhui’s eyebrows curved in a smile, grinning without showing his eyes. Just as he raised his hand to wave hello, a fist landed squarely on his nose.

“……”

The Chief Overseer successfully shut his mouth.

The air inside the wardrobe froze for a moment.

“Oh, so it’s the Nine-Thousand-Years Daren. My sincere apologies, it’s dim in here and I didn’t see clearly,” Pei Yanci said in a lowered voice without much sincerity.

“Xiao Pei, it’s been a few days since we met, and your courage has grown considerably,” he said, rubbing his nose. His crimson tongue tip emerged, licking the fresh blood that had flowed to his lips.

Even in the dim dusty light, through the faint rays filtering in from the holes outside, one could still see that inhuman pallid white color, and that captivating red tainted with the scent of blood.

Around his right eye were painted several brown withered mandala flowers, scattered with extremely fine gold powder. A ray of dim light shooting through the hole happened to fall on those flower patterns, and in his ink-black pupils, dark decay and rot bloomed into lingering madness.

“What are you doing here?” Pei Yanci asked casually, but his body couldn’t help leaning forward, pressing against the cabinet door, growing wary under his gaze.

Heaven knows he was nearly scared to death just now.

Previously he didn’t believe in ghosts and spirits, but ever since borrowing a corpse to return to life and being reborn, he had to believe that there were many things in this world he didn’t know about.

There was an extra person in the wardrobe. How could this woman be so bold as to not even be startled?

He turned his head to look – this person had already fainted.

Who had done it was obvious at a glance.

“Taking a stroll?” Tang Xizhui blinked, his long, curled black lashes fluttering innocently.

“Strolling into a wardrobe?”

This current scenario was completely beyond what he had expected.

Everyone around was acting according to their own personality, experience, making appropriate words, deeds, and reactions, living their lives step by step. Only Tang Xizhui broke free from what his identity should say and do, even more out of place than he, an outsider.

“You’re also in the wardrobe.”

“You didn’t follow me here, did you?” Otherwise, why would he come to such a place?

“Xiao Pei, there are some things I cannot tell you.”

“Fine, don’t tell me then.”

Pei Yanci turned his head back to face forward.

Tang Xizhui pushed aside the moldy, old clothes piled in front of him, pressed his body against Pei Yanci’s back, rested his chin on his shoulder, and looked out through the hole in front of him.

Pei Yanci shrugged his shoulders upward.

“Don’t be so petty.”

“Are we that familiar?”

A fingertip tapped his left upper arm. “You’re wearing this lord’s things.”

He had nothing to say to that.

When you take someone’s things, you’re beholden to them.

This sleeve crossbow was both exquisite and beautiful, capable of firing ten short arrows in succession. He was extremely fond of it.

“Move back a bit,” he said. The space was cramped, and with a body pressed against his back, Pei Yanci felt somewhat hot.

Sniffing carefully, Tang Xizhui hadn’t used incense today either.

“This lord isn’t pressing against you.”

“I know.”

But his lips at the nape kept blowing air into the gaps of his collar, carrying traces of lingering blood scent.

And his own cold, sharp body fragrance.

Pei Yanci gripped the edges of the wardrobe’s hinges with his fingers, leaning forward a bit more, not wanting to be too close to him while trying not to make noise and push the door open.

Seeming to sense his indifference, a hand wandered around his lower back, pinching the thin flesh on his stomach.

Pei Yanci’s whole body trembled. He steadied his ragged breathing and grabbed the hand. “…Take your hand away!”

“Don’t lean forward too much, you’re going to push the cabinet door open.” He pulled the person back a little.

“It’s too cramped, you move back.”

“Can’t you be less domineering?”

“……”

In his previous life, people like you–this emperor had killed if not a hundred then dozens. Now that was domineering.

The assassin outside had martial arts training and naturally had keen hearing. He heard the subtle movement from inside the wardrobe. The exploratory look on his face had already changed to wariness, raising the sword in his hand in front of him.

Somehow, watching that person approach, though Pei Yanci’s hand still rested on his sleeve crossbow, he couldn’t bring himself to feel nervous anymore.

That person seemed to sense the dangerous aura. When he was still two steps away from the wardrobe, he no longer approached.

The sounds of fighting outside rose and fell, quite loud. Pei Yanci calculated the time in his mind – it shouldn’t be long before the street patrol yamen runners and the Wuhou Office responsible for city security arrived.

(TL: 武侯鋪 (Wǔhóu pù) was a type of government office in ancient China responsible for local security, patrols, and night watch.)

Fine beads of cold sweat appeared on that person’s forehead. He suddenly sheathed his sword, randomly searched other places for a bit, then left the room.

It had grown completely dark outside.

The mansion had no lights lit. Jiang Yi, Cui Nan, and Gu Xing were still fighting with the villains, the metallic sounds of clashing swords rising and falling.

Tang Xizhui pushed open the wardrobe door, and the dusty air instantly dispelled the moldy smell. The unconscious woman’s body lost its support and collapsed to the ground, her head hitting the floor, which jolted her awake.

She covered her head and propped herself up from the ground, looking in bewilderment at the two people who had just climbed out of the cabinet.

“Who might this be?” Despite her shock, the woman remained relatively composed, not screaming or shouting. Her charming voice was full of confusion.

“A friend of mine, here to rescue us,” Pei Yanci said, reaching out to help her up, his eyes signaling to Tang Xizhui that he knew martial arts and could get the two of them out.

“I followed Xiao Pei here,” Tang Xizhui said. Perhaps knowing his identity had too many enemies, he began referring to himself as “I.”

That attendant regarded him with suspicion and wariness.

Seeing he had no intention of helping, Pei Yanci crouched by the door, poked through the paper pasted on it, and asked the woman in a low voice, “What are the backgrounds of these people? Why do they want to capture you?”

She shook her head lightly, then suddenly remembered, “Oh right, I once heard those people mention the words ‘Elu Bureau.’ Could they possibly be the rumored Elu Bureau?”

Pei Yanci unconsciously glanced at Tang Xizhui not far away.

He was dressed in a tea-brown robe that now appeared somewhat gray and dusty, squatting not far away with both hands tucked into his wide sleeves, looking like an aged wooden carving, motionless.

“How many days have you been captured here?”

“We’ve been imprisoned continuously, not seeing daylight. Judging by the number of meals, it should be six or seven days.”

“Those aren’t people from the Elu Bureau,” Pei Yanci looked at her. “What exactly is your purpose for secretly returning to the capital?”

That attendant stared at him in shock.

This wasn’t hard to guess. If the Elu Bureau was following the emperor’s orders and had captured them from western Sichuan, it would be impossible to still be hiding and concealing themselves after reaching Anjing. They would have been thrown into prison and secretly executed long ago. Since no Elu Bureau people had come to arrest them, they must have come to the capital secretly on their own initiative without imperial summons. Such behavior from the royal family was tantamount to treason.

What exactly would make the Second Princess risk the crime of treason to enter the capital?

“Who are you?” the attendant asked warily.

“Someone who can save you.”

“Just you few people?” The attendant hesitated, looking him up and down. “You don’t even know martial arts, looking like a weak, pretty boy.”

Tang Xizhui burst out laughing with a “pfft,” feeling the murderous glare from ahead, and obediently covered his mouth.

“And you brought a girl along.”

Tang Xizhui’s face instantly darkened, grinding his teeth in a shallow smile. “Who are you calling a girl?”

Couldn’t she see the gorgeous men’s robes he was wearing? Couldn’t she see he was a head taller than Pei Yanci?

Pei Yanci felt balanced inside and said, “You don’t need to worry about that. Just tell us why you came to Anjing.”

“Must I say?” She anxiously twisted her sleeve corners, her eyes filled with distrust toward these two strangers.

“If you want to keep your life,” Pei Yanci said, “even the princess has been killed. Do you think they’ll spare you?”

“I don’t know much about this either,” the attendant said sadly. “I remember Her Highness decided to come to the capital after receiving a letter from the Zheng family. On the road, when I asked, I heard that Her Highness’s maternal grandfather had died, and she was very sad, wanting to secretly come pay respects and see him one last time before returning.”

The Second Princess and the former Crown Prince were born of the same mother, both children of the current empress. His maternal grandfather was also the father of Minister Zheng, the old man who had been secretly assassinated by Tang Xizhui in his outer residence some time ago. The Taoist had been performing rituals for half a month, and the funeral was finally about to take place.

“Who are those people?” Tang Xizhui asked in a hoarse, low voice, his words floating in the dim, dilapidated mansion.

The attendant hesitated before saying, “Very likely assassins raised by Minister Zheng.”

“They’re all family – why would he want to kill the princess?”

The attendant struggled for a long while before finally saying, “Minister Zheng was afraid that His Majesty would discover Her Highness’s return to the capital, thereby implicating the Zheng family and the Crown Prince. He wanted to drive us away. He never expected such a thing to happen.”

“If you keep being evasive like this, we have no reason to save you,” Pei Yanci said coldly. “Do as you see fit.”

As he made to leave, the attendant quickly grabbed his sleeve. “You’ve witnessed them killing Her Highness – they can’t possibly spare you either. We’re all in the same boat now.”

“So what?”

Seeing his determination, the attendant gritted her teeth and finally said, “Actually, Her Highness the Princess had evidence unfavorable to the Crown Prince.”

Pei Yanci’s expression grew slightly focused.

“What evidence?”

“I don’t know. Her Highness didn’t tell me,” the attendant said weakly, continuously picking at the calluses on her hands. “She insisted on coming to Anjing personally – firstly to mourn her maternal grandfather, wanting to use this evidence to threaten Minister Zheng into pleading with His Majesty on her behalf so she could return to the capital; secondly, she also wanted to meet with people in Anjing. The physical evidence is in that person’s hands.”

“Who is that person?”

Naturally, she couldn’t reveal this so easily. “If you escort me out of the city, I’ll tell you. I’ll also be rid of this trouble and return safely to western Sichuan.”

“You take me to find that person first. After I get the evidence, I’ll escort you out of the city.”

The attendant fell into hesitant silence again.

“You have no choice,” Tang Xizhui spoke up. “Either die now, or trust us.”

At this moment, a commotion came from the courtyard outside, and the flickering light of torches flashed across the paper windows of the wooden door.

“How dare you cause trouble here!” A righteous, resonant voice rang out as a group of officials in government uniforms burst into the courtyard.

“Arrest them all!”

Pei Yanci’s eyes lit up.