"I'm going to the palace to report this to the emperor," Yuan Yuhan said, acting like a typical user who discards others after use without any concealment.
"I take my leave," the King of the Grassland said dejectedly and left.
That afternoon, Jing Xinche and Yuan Yuhan welcomed the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom. They were so "kind - hearted" as to separate the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom from the King of the Grassland. Moreover, the inns they stayed in were rivals, but both were close to the palace. This arrangement was really well - thought - out.
"If the Empress had come earlier, she could have caught our Mid - Autumn Festival here," implying, You came too late. We've already entertained other guests by the time you arrived.
The Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom understood the implication but just smiled and didn't take it to heart.
She just politely said, "Thank you both for your trouble."
Seeing that the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom showed no sign of taking the bait, Yuan Yuhan had to give up the idea of finding fault. After all, a good man doesn't fight with a woman.
"The Empress should rest early. Your humble marquis and the prince will take our leave," Jing Xinche said. He didn't want to waste time on irrelevant people at all.
"I take my leave," Yuan Yuhan said and proposed to leave. Without waiting for the Empress to say anything, he followed Jing Xinche and left. If there was anything, let the Empress talk to the eunuchs and maids guarding them. Let the emperor figure out how to deal with it.
"Master, what should we do?" a guard asked, looking at the gloomy face of the King of the Grassland.
What should he do? How could he know? He didn't expect that they would arrange the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom elsewhere. Logically, since he was staying here, this place should have become a temporary post - house.
But Yuan Yuhan and the others seemed to have forgotten about it and arranged the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom in another place. Hmph! Did they think this could stop him? He had legs and could go wherever he wanted.
"Do you think the King of the Grassland is already mad with anger by us?" Yuan Yuhan said to Jing Xinche cheerfully. This method was really mean. Although it couldn't achieve much, it could at least buy some time.
It would take half a day for a carriage to get from the King of the Grassland's place to the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom's place because they would pass through the busiest market in the capital city, where people were coming and going and crowded together. No one knew how long it would take to get there.
Sure enough, as expected, the King of the Grassland sat in the carriage with a dark face, looking at the bustling street outside. His fingertips turned white. Using light - footed skills during the day would make him too conspicuous and easy to be exposed, so he had to wait until night.
At night, the King of the Grassland came again in his carriage. Looking at the familiar street, he gritted his teeth and said, "Don't they ever sleep?" Isn't there a curfew at night? Why are there still so many people at this time?
There was indeed a curfew in the capital of the Qin Dynasty, but it only applied to those who wanted to leave the city gate. If people didn't leave the city gate, who could control them?
The King of the Grassland had no choice but to abandon the carriage. Using the cover of the night, he hid himself well in the darkness and soon arrived at the inn where the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom was staying.
Just as he was about to push the door open, he heard the conversation inside.
"Empress, I'm Prime Minister Feng of the Qin Dynasty. I'm specifically in charge of receiving the Empress," Prime Minister Feng said. It was just a coincidence that Prime Minister Feng came at this time. Originally, Jing Xinche and the others had planned to eavesdrop on what the King of the Grassland and the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom would say that night.
But unexpectedly, Prime Minister Feng showed up out of nowhere and blocked the King of the Grassland outside.
Yuan Yuhan watched the King of the Grassland's extremely dark face and laughed so hard that his shoulders shook. Oh my god, the King of the Grassland was so unlucky.
Prime Minister Feng told the Empress of the Snow Feather Kingdom a lot of rules in the Qin Dynasty. In short, he wanted the Empress to be obedient and not cause any trouble. Since he was in charge of receiving her, if she did something wrong, it would implicate him.
The King of the Grassland had run out of patience. Looking at Prime Minister Feng still chattering inside the room, he flicked his sleeves and left.
Jing Xinche and Yuan Yuhan glanced at each other and also left. But they didn't go back. Instead, they followed the King of the Grassland to the inn and watched from the roof as he kept writing on a piece of paper.
"Do you think what he's writing?" This didn't look like the writing of the grassland.
"I don't know." But Jing Xinche always felt that this kind of writing was somewhat familiar, yet he couldn't remember where he had seen it. It seemed that he needed to investigate it carefully.
The King of the Grassland tied the written paper to a carrier pigeon and sent it out. But before the pigeon could fly out of the capital of the Qin Dynasty, Jing Xinche caught it.
He took the letter and then let the pigeon go, sending someone to follow it to see where it would finally go.
"Ache, why are you coming back so late? Is there something wrong?" Mu Fengqie looked at the sky outside. It was already the second half of the night.
"Nothing serious. I just followed the King of the Grassland and got delayed for a while," Jing Xinche said. He didn't expect that Mu Fengqie was still awake and waiting for him in the room.
But now Jing Xinche didn't care about anything else. He put the note on the table and started to look through the books. He must have seen this kind of writing somewhere, but he just couldn't remember.
Mu Fengqie watched Jing Xinche looking for books. She put on her coat, got out of bed, and asked, "What are you looking for, Ache?" Mu Fengqie glanced at the note on the table and didn't pay much attention.
"I seem to have seen the words on the note on the table, but I can't remember. I need to look for it," Jing Xinche said without raising his head.
Only then did Mu Fengqie take a serious look at the note on the table and asked, "Is this the Chinese characters from the grassland?"
"No, the grassland's writing is not like this."
Mu Fengqie looked at the content on the note and read it out, "Station 100,000 troops outside the eastern border of the Qin Dynasty."
"Qier, do you recognize this kind of writing?" Hearing what Mu Fengqie read out, Jing Xinche immediately put down the book and looked at Mu Fengqie with bright eyes.
"Yes, I do." This kind of writing was a minority language in modern times, but she had learned some, so she still recognized it.
"Can you be sure that your translation is correct?" If it was true, then the King of the Grassland would attack the Qin Dynasty before long.
"I'm sure." She had a deep impression of this writing. She had to thank the teacher who taught this language. The teacher was a bald - headed old man with a very bad temper.
He used to scold all day long, and his mouth was full of swear words. It was precisely because of this that in order to suffer less, they studied this minority language hard and tried to graduate early.
"If that's the case, then the King of the Grassland may have other forces. He's going to start a war," Jing Xinche said, looking at the note on the table.