Chapter 154

Chapter 154

Perhaps because he had not expected to see her here, Wei Yi’s voice was filled with utter bewilderment.

Chi Wan lifted her head and immediately spotted the person standing at the door of the side room.

“Your Maj… What are you doing here?” she asked, feigning surprise.

Wei Yi looked at her, his gaze darkening slightly. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

Chi Wan paused, then smiled, though there was a hint of gritted teeth in her voice. “I’ve already finished copying the scriptures fifty times. I came to the Temple of Ten Thousand Blessings specifically to have them enshrined and pray for the Buddha’s protection.”

Wei Yi raised an eyebrow. Though he was somewhat skeptical of her explanation, it sounded plausible enough.

He did not want to waste time arguing with her here. An inexplicable unease lingered in his heart, and he could not understand where it came from. He simply felt that he would not be at ease until he saw Sheng Zhaoning with his own eyes.

When Chi Wan saw him turn toward the room, panic seized her. She hurriedly signaled to the people around her.

Several burly men took the hint and swarmed toward the side room where Sheng Zhaoning was staying.

“Move aside! Search the rooms one by one!”

“Who is inside this room?”

“Go in and take a look!”

Wei Yi’s brows drew together. He turned back to see a crowd pressing toward the doorway, and a sharp, murderous glint flashed across his eyes. “How dare you!”

At his command, the Imperial Guards drew their blades once more and lined up at the entrance. Their sword edges gleamed with a cold, sinister light. “Who dares cause trouble here?”

Seeing the blades, the burly men did not dare charge forward. They stopped where they were, craning their necks as the leader shouted, “We just want to go in and take a look. If you have nothing to hide, why are you stopping us?”

The people behind him immediately chimed in.

“That shameless slut must be hiding in there!”

“Come on! Charge in and drag that adulterous pair out!”

The group began forcing its way inside. Anger surged in Wei Yi’s eyes, and he ordered the Imperial Guards, “Stop them!”

The two sides instantly became embroiled in a brawl.

The commotion was considerable. Before long, a crowd had gathered to watch, and the monks from the temple rushed over to break up the fight.

Seeing the chaos, Chi Wan’s eyes flashed with triumph.

Sheng Zhaoning, I’ve left you such a perfect opportunity. You’d better run. And don’t ever come back for the rest of your life.

She hunched over and pushed through the packed crowd, then threw herself unerringly into Wei Yi’s arms, pretending to be frightened. “Your Majesty, I’m scared.”

In reality, both her arms were locked tightly around Wei Yi’s waist, holding him back and preventing him from entering the room.

The people at the doorway were in complete disarray.

Chi Wan clung to Wei Yi as though attached to his body, leaving him unable to move. His frustration grew unbearable.

This was, after all, a Buddhist holy site, and they were surrounded by onlookers. The Imperial Guards naturally did not dare kill anyone. They could only use their fists to hold the men back.

Wei Yi wanted to enter and take Sheng Zhaoning away. He was worried that the men would rush inside and hurt her.

But Chi Wan refused to let go no matter what he did. Wei Yi could only remain locked in place, unable even to turn around.

No one knew how long the farce continued. The courtyard was still filled with shouting, and the sounds of fighting went on without pause.

Behind him, however, there was an eerie silence.

Why hadn’t Sheng Zhaoning come out yet?

Wei Yi glanced at the sun. A considerable amount of time seemed to have passed.

Chi Wan’s arms were still wrapped around his waist. Before him, the disorderly figures overlapped one another, their shouting incessant, making the silence inside the room seem even more profound.

His brows lowered for a moment as an idea suddenly rose from the depths of his heart and gradually became clear.

With bloodshot eyes, Wei Yi whipped his head around and stared fixedly at the doorway. A blood-red intensity seemed to gather in his eyes.

“Open the door!”

At his words, Chi Wan’s shoulders jolted. Before she could react, he shoved her mercilessly to the ground.

“Ah!” Chi Wan cried out in pain.

Wei Yi did not even turn his head. He strode heavily to the door and kicked it open with all his strength-

The wooden door flew open, sending dust swirling through the air.

Beyond it was utterly empty.

……

A carriage traveled north from the foot of the mountain.

Outside the Capital City, they had to pass through a checkpoint after leaving the city gates.

The coachman handed the travel permit to the guards at the gate. “Officer, here is our pass.”

The guard took it and inspected the seal, then lifted the carriage curtain and glanced inside.

“What are you people leaving the city for?” he asked as part of the routine inspection.

Inside the carriage, Zhou Lingsheng shifted Sheng Zhaoning behind him and said with a smile, “To answer your question, Officer, my mother is gravely ill. My younger sister and I are returning to our hometown to visit her. We hope you can make things convenient for us.”

With that, Zhou Lingsheng gave the coachman a meaningful look. The coachman immediately slipped a silver ingot into the guard’s hand. “Thank you for your trouble, Officer.”

Feeling the weight of the silver in his palm, the guard gave it an approving heft. His expression changed at once, and he smiled with satisfaction. “Let them pass!”

The coachman thanked him repeatedly, leaped back onto the carriage, and drove out of the city.

The carriage continued on its way.

It was not until the checkpoint was out of sight and they had turned onto a forest road that Zhou Lingsheng finally let out a long breath of relief.

When he lowered the curtain and turned around, he saw that the person behind him was already weeping silently, her face streaked with tears.

“Where is he?” Sheng Zhaoning asked in a trembling voice, her eyes red and her words nearly broken by sobs.

Zhou Lingsheng froze.

He pulled out a handkerchief and, not daring to hide the truth from her, hurriedly answered, “Suizhou.”

It was an unremarkable little city in the north.

With reddened eyes, Sheng Zhaoning asked him, “What exactly happened?”

After Wei Heng died, she had searched the entire Imperial City, but never found his remains.

Wei Yi had lied to her, saying that he had been buried in the Imperial Mausoleum. But how could such a lie possibly deceive her?

Carrying a longing that cut to the bone, Sheng Zhaoning had never given up searching for him. Yet she had never imagined that he would be taken to such a strange, unfamiliar place.

Zhou Lingsheng sighed and looked into Sheng Zhaoning’s eyes. “After the Palace Coup, by the time I reached the Capital City, the situation there had more or less stabilized. You had been locked up by Wei Yi, while he…… had been hung from the city wall and thrown down.”

Zhou Lingsheng still remembered the first time he saw Wei Heng. By then, Wei Heng’s body had already been mutilated beyond recognition. He was covered in blood, and the sight of him was horrific.

The common people refused to believe that he had committed treason, but the declarations handed down from the palace forced them to accept the accusation. No one could save him anymore.

Zhou Lingsheng continued, “After the change in imperial power, people were dying in the Capital City every day. The soldiers threw his remains into the mass graveyard. I followed them there and, when no one was around, secretly dug him out, placed him in a coffin, and transported him out of the Capital City.”

“I originally planned to send him to Xuzhou. Unfortunately, I received a letter from my master ordering me to return to Mobei and guard his post for a year, so when I passed through Suizhou, I could only bury him there.”

Zhou Lingsheng understood that the person who could make Sheng Zhaoning resolve to abandon everything and stay with him must have been as important to her as life itself.

She had loved that man so deeply that she was willing to defy the Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion, even at the cost of her life, to remain with him.

How could Zhou Lingsheng, knowing of such a reckless and devoted love, allow Wei Heng’s remains to truly rot in an unvisited wilderness, where wild beasts would tear them apart?

Sheng Zhaoning’s hand tightened around the carriage rail until her knuckles went white. Her back bent completely as she hunched over, barely able to breathe.

Suizhou……

“Thank you. Thank you……” She covered her heart and repeated the words over and over.

At last, she had found him.