Fortune and time were the most ruthless of blades. In the past before the three cousins had married, there had been jealousy, but it had not reached such a level. She and Hua Yi Liu should have been sisters who supported each other, but now they had become two awkward people with barriers between them.
Hua Xi Wan's eyes were closed as she rested against the wall of the carriage. The carriage suddenly stopped. She frowned. This was the city suburbs. Why did the guards of the wang fu suddenly stop without any cause?
The captain of the guard who was in charge of protecting Hua Xi Wan looked at the old couple who was lying in the middle of the road and showed wariness. He waved his hand for his subordinates to guard the carriage and inspected the surroundings. There was a lot of shrubbery and trees on the two sides of the road. It would be hard to discover if people were hiding within them.
"Go and see." The guard captain had a guard who was usually the most reliable scout, but his hand was already on his sword.
When the "old couple" lying on the road saw the wang fu's people did not fall for this, they suddenly jumped up and attacked the guard walking towards them. Who knew that the guard was prepared. An arrow flew out of his sleeve and killed one of the two where they were.
"Assemble!" The guard captain heard the sounds coming from the woods around and felt that it was not good. After the shield soldiers came forward, he saw dozens of arrows heading his way. He turned back to look at the carriage that was motionless and jumped onto the front of the carriage. He blocked the door and would not let any villains go near the door of the carriage.
"Leader, the guards of Xian Wang Fu are too brave. Our attacks are not effective!"
"Attack with fire. I don't believe that a woman will not panic with so much going on. If she panics, the guards of Xian Wang Fu are useless no matter how strong they are."
A qinwang fei's carriage had the walls and roof made from steel. Normal arrows could not penetrate the carriage. But if they attacked with fire, they could force the people out of the carriage. It would not be late to act then.
Just as the guards of the wang fu thought that the attackers would retreat, some more people came out of the flora and were about to pour something onto the carriage even at the cost of their lives. Some of the guards were completely soaked and immediately detected something was wrong. This was oil?!
"Everyone careful—these people want to set fire!"
Bai Xia and Hong Ying who had come out with Hua Xi Wan changed expression and bent down to unsheathe the daggers they had hidden on their legs. They had serious expressions. At this time, Bai Xia noticed that a wang fu guard was retreating from the fight and coming closer to the carriage. Her brow creased slightly, and then she unhesitatingly kicked the guard aside. Caught off-guard, the guard fell down, and two matches dropped down.
The guard captain who was standing at the shaft of the carriage changed expression. Before he could move, Bai Xia cut that guard's throat, and the movement was so clean that the guard captain couldn't say a thing.
"Be careful. If they are not the closest and most trusted people, they cannot go near Wang Fei." Bai Xia glanced at the guard captain. She took out a handkerchief to wipe the blood off her dagger and then returned to her original spot.
My mother, what servant girls does Wang Fei have? They are too vicious! While the guard captain did not change expression, he was thoughtful inside.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a door being pulled down and turned back to look. He saw a foot wearing a pearl-encrusted and embroidered slipper come out. He stilled and then hurried to say, "Wang Fei, please…."
"The assassins want to use fire to force me out. How can I not do as they please?" Hua Xi Wan gripped the sword in her hand that could cut hair and briskly jumped off the carriage. Then she said, "The guards who have oil on your clothing—take those clothes off. Do not fight if you encounter fire; it is best to avoid them."
The guards present immediately reddened. They were low-status people, and they were too embarrassed to take off their outer robes in front of the wang fei and the servant girls.
"The situation is an emergency. In the face of the enemy, everyone, do not care about convention." Hua Xi Wan unsheathed her sword and threw the sheath to the side. She sneered. There were many rumors about her in Jing, and it was hard to know what was truth or lie. But it was a pity that the only thing these people did not know was that she had learned the Lu Family sword arts from her maternal grandfather's side. While she was not invincible, it was still enough to defend against the enemy.
"Wang Fei." Bai Xia and Hong Ying retreated to Hua Xi Wan's side. Bai Xia's face was cold as she said, "These people clearly planned ahead. I suspect that this has to do with the Tang Miss."
Hua Xi Wan sighed and looked at the guards in the surroundings. These were the guards whom she had especially taken with her today. All of them had been carefully picked just to prevent such a thing from happening.
Right now, all the factions in Jing were restless in the fight for the throne. How could she leave her home without any preparations, much less to see Hua Yi Liu who she had been at odds with previously? Even if she was returning to her paternal home, she would take enough guards.
Now those people who hid in the shadows finally couldn't resist acting. She thought of the "Be careful on the road" that Hua Yi Liu had said when she left the monastery, and that face she could not see the expression of. She sighed.
No one had thought that Xian Wang Fei who had been rumored to be devastatingly beautiful and delicate was able to use a sword. When the first assassin fell under Xian Wang Fei's sword, the assassins were not the only ones surprised—the wang fu guards were also very shocked.
From the shocked expressions of the assassins, these people did not know that Hua Xi Wan could use the sword. If Hua Yi Liu really hated her, why didn't she tell the mastermind behind this that Hua Xi Wan knew martial arts?
Hua Xi Wan seemed to think of something and sighed. She turned to look in the direction of the monastery and then gripped her sword. "Since they dare to come, then naturally we shall not let them return."
##
In the monastery, Hua Yi Liu sat in the dark. She looked at the sunlight by the window and touched her bangs. Then she said to the servant girl behind her, "What time is it?"
The servant girl looked worriedly at her and said in a small voice, "It is almost noon."
"She must have already returned to the wang fu." Hua Yi Liu stood to sit by the mirror. After carefully putting on her makeup, she drew a beautiful bold plum flower on her forehead. After examining it closely, she asked the servant girl, "Is it beautiful?"
The servant girl nodded dazedly.
Hua Yi Liu smiled bitterly and inserted a golden butterfly buyao into her hair. She looked at herself in the mirror and said, "I have never made a decision for myself in this lifetime. Finally, I managed to make one decision to do something, but everyone thinks that I am wrong. By the end, even I feel uncertain. In the past, I thought that I was more virtuous and gentle than Third Sister. She grew up being spoiled by Eldest Uncle. Other than that face, she was not as good as me in anything. Now I know that she is much stronger than me. A woman is not a winner because her needlework is good and she is gentle. She is stronger than me mentally."
When she had first been sent to the monastery, she really wanted Hua Xi Wan to die immediately. But when someone found her and wanted to ally with her to scheme against Hua Xi Wan, she found that she actually didn't want Hua Xi Wan to die.
Hua Xi Wan could do what she, Hua Yi Liu, wanted to but could not do. Hua Xi Wan could obtain what she wanted but didn't even dare to think about. Hua Xi Wan could live the life that she didn't even dare to dream about. She was jealous of Hua Xi Wan, crazily jealous, but she could not forget how moved she had been that day when she heard that Hua Xi Wan was blocking the gates of her husband's home.
Even if she hated, she could not forget the warmth of Hua Xi Wan's hand that reached out to her then. So at the last moment, she had lied to that person. She had said that Hua Xi Wan had been spoiled by her family and wasn't special at all.
She wasn't able to be bad to the end, but her personality was not generous. From her birth, her life was like a joke.
"Creak."
The door was suddenly pushed open. The blinding light squeezed into the room. Hua Yi Liu had to squint to see who was standing by the door.
The man had a white face and a jade coronet. He was dressed in purple brocade. There were some broad guards standing behind him. Who was it but Yan Jin Qiu?
Hua Yi Liu stilled. Moments later, she suddenly laughed and said, "I didn't think that I would be able to see you again."
Yan Jin Qiu saw Hua Li Liu's makeup that seemed to mimic Xi Wan's and stood expressionlessly at the door. He did not go in. He waved his hand at the guards behind him.
Two guards silently walked into the room, each with a tray in his hands. However, what was on the trays was startling to see.
Hua Yi Liu looked at the two trays that were presented to her. One had poisoned wine and a dagger, the other had three meters of white cloth and poison pills. She looked fearlessly at Yan Jin Qiu. "This servant is just a normal female and actually troubled the honored wang ye to personally make a trip. This is a great honor for this servant."
"You are a cousin of Hua Xi Wan; benwang is willing to give you this honor." Yan Jin Qiu expressionlessly put his hand behind his back and turned his face, unwilling to look at Hua Yi Liu. "I had originally wanted to keep you alive for Xi Wan. But you thought what you should not, so I cannot leave you alive."
"Thoughts that I should not have?!" Hua Yi Liu smiled bitterly. "Are your actions just to show my good sister, or out of sincerity?"
Yan Jin Qiu said coolly, "I do not need to tell you what I think."
"I will accept that you want me to die today." Hua Yi Liu picked up the jug of poisonous wine. She then stared with wide eyes at Yan Jin Qiu. "If you do anything to let down my sister, you will spend all your lifetimes as an animal and never have a good death."
She did not believe in the sweet words of a man and did not believe that a male of the Imperial House would have a true heart. If Yan Jin Qiu truly obtained that highest position, would he still manage to be wholehearted to one single person?
"You overstep!" Mu Tong had not thought that Hua Yi Liu would dare to curse Wang Ye and lectured angrily, "A woman like you does not qualify to say such a thing."
He really didn't understand women. This Hua Yi Liu clearly hated and was jealous of Wang Fei, but her last words were in concern for Wang Fei. One really could not guess those thoughts.
The saying was that a woman's thoughts were impossible to grasp, like a needle at the bottom of the ocean. This seemed to have some truth.
Hua Yi Liu snorted a laugh. It seemed that her so-called tender feeling for Yan Jin Qiu were just because she had been fooled by his appearance. She didn't even have a basic understanding of him, so how could it be love?
Her thoughts had just been stirred by his reputation. Now that she saw clearly, she found that she was also common. No wonder she had ended up like this.
She snorted and took off the cover of the wine jug. She was about to down it all, but before the bottle reached her lips, the sound of hurried footsteps came from outside.
"Wait!"
No one had thought that Hua Xi Wan would appear here. Yan Jin Qiu showed a thread of frustration and then reached out to support the lightly panting Hua Xi Wan. "How come you returned?" He saw that Hua Xi Wan's hair was disordered and she had clearly hurried here.
"I was attacked today, and on the way, the guards from the wang fu killed all the assassins. But when I returned in fright to the wang fu, Wang Ye, you were not there. I could only come out to find you." Hua Xi Wan seemed to not see what was going on in the room. Her beautiful eyes looked at Yan Jin Qiu. "I have come to take you home—are you going to return with me?"
Yan Jin Qiu covered his forehead and smiled helplessly. "That is my fault. I will return with you."
The servants present stared at each other. Seeing their masters turn and leave, they looked at Hua Yi Liu in the room and didn't know what to do.
"Chief Steward Mu Tong, should this miss still take the wine?" a taijian asked carefully. Wang Fei had come, and although she didn't say a thing, he felt that if they really had the woman in the room drink the poisoned wine, they would get in great trouble.
"Drink what wine?" Mu Tong raised an eyebrow. "Have them take good care of this tang miss. In the end, she is the tang miss of our wang fei." After saying this, he did not look at the expressions of other people and left with a swish of his sleeve.
Wang Fei had personally made the trip. While she had not begged for mercy for this Hua Yi Liu on the surface, she had said what she needed to say. Since Wang Ye had not said more about taking this woman's life, that meant that she could stay alive.
It could be seen that everything in the world had a bane. While Wang Ye was cold-blooded and scheming, there was the bane that was Wang Fei.
The other servants heard this and quickly put away the things they had just taken in. They then quickly disappeared from the monastery as though they had never come.
Hua Yi Liu stood in the deathly silent room. She laughed bitterly and dazedly sat on a chair.
"Miss!" The servant girl, pale from fright, charged into the room. She sighed in relief seeing that Hua Yi Liu was fine, and collapsed on the ground. "It is fortunate that Third Miss has come, fortunate…"
She suddenly stopped. Third Miss had come—then didn't Third Miss know what Miss had done? When she thought of this, she hurriedly looked at Hua Yi Liu but only saw Hua Yi Liu's dazed face.
Third Miss… was not pursuing this?
Mu Tong and the others came out of the monastery and saw that Wang Ye and Wang Fei had already entered the carriage. He walked next to the guard captain who had been protecting Hua Xi Wan today and asked in a small voice, "I heard the leader of the guard reinforcements say that when they arrived, all of the assassins had been killed. What happened?"
When the guard captain heard this, his rough face immediately changed color and was very pretty to look at.
Mu Tong frowned in puzzlement. What could make this guard captain who had followed Wang Ye for so many years show an expression like this—did he see a ghost?