After a while, Madam Lin began to get bored as though she had lost interest in a play: "I think we should be heading back now." She said.
"Yes, Madam." Ru An snapped out from the momentary bloodthirsty gaze and took a last look at the people fighting.
By now, the two sides had locked into a stalemate, there were many corpses of the guards and assassins scattered about the ground. Each side had countless losses, but the assassins still poured in like water leaking into a boat. To put it simply, they were helplessly outnumbered.
Ru An took up the reins and pulled it gently, and the carriage was going the same, slow and steady pace it was going.
The two looked like a pair of master and servant that had just been out to see some scenery, there was no sign that they had just watched a bloody battle that had just occurred.
"Should we have helped them?" Madam Lin asks.
"Does madam want to help them?" Ru An questions. Today, did Madam Lin feel pity for a passerby, to the point of wanting to save them? This was different from the woman she heard about growing up. Said to be so ruthless she watched the entire Ye clan get executed or exiled, and watched each and every one of them meet a horrible end, yet not even lifting so much as a single finger to help.
"If they survive, maybe." Madam Lin shrugged her shoulders as the carriage continued to move ever so slowly.
~
In the city, Ruan Wang was prepared to get on an unassuming carriage. He was dressed as a noble, in brocade robes, yet there was nothing in his possession that conveyed the lofty status he held as a prince and the uncle of the current ruler.
Xu Fei was standing by his side. It was he, who was prepared to get on the carriage to act the driver. He was dressed in common clothes, such that one could only see him as a lowly servant and not a decorated constable and solider.
"Master, please." Xu Fei bowed as he gestured toward the carriage.
"No need for any of this play." Ruan Wang muttered beneath his breath as he carelessly boarded the carriage. Once inside, he realized that the interior had been switched out, leaving a luxurious interior that was fit for the emperor.
"Is there a need for any of this?" Ruan Wang asked speechlessly as he eyed over the interior of the carriage.
[This seemed a bit much.]
"It is not too much, Ruan Qin Wang." Xu Fei said with a wide smile as he reminded Ruan Wang he was a member of the imperial family, and of highest rank too, considering that he was the current emperor's uncle, even the emperor had to call him imperial uncle, giving him the highest standing in the entire Kingdom of Qing Cheng.
Considering that the current empress dowager was his brother's wife, and had to call him brother, he was quite high in the imperial family.
Yet, with all the power he had.
All the power he once accumulated to fight with his brother.
He had already let it all go over two decades ago. His ambition had already been a bright candle put out by a strong storm. Everything he had or ever wanted had died on that mountain that day…
… With her…
He had grown to love simplicity when he left the imperial capital forty-nine days after that incident.
After that, her every word had been etched in his mind.
The way she played the qin, so beautiful that even the majestic birds who roamed the skies would envy that sound to perch on a branch and tweet in hopes of disrupting her concentration, but they never could, as she grew more joyful and played even more beautifully to accompany her newfound companions.
She had also been a great player of Go. Playing against herself for hours, she had the ability to predict her opponent's next move, it was as though she could see into the future. Sadly, he never had a chance to play against her, as he looked down upon her so condescendingly the first time he heard of her.
The daughter of a concubine, whose mother had died giving birth to her. A woman with plain looks who did not have the care of her father. Who spent the youngest years of her life in seclusion, hidden from the rest of the world, by her own family.
She had also been quite good at her skill in medicine, as she claimed that it was self-taught since the moment she learned to read.
She had always been a mystery, who acted as a young maiden, who had the joys and curiosities of a little child, yearning to be free and roam to every kingdom going on an adventure, yet, what tied her down was the duty that was to her own clan.