However, even this makeshift room of hers was just a tiny fraction of the entire Yulin Pavilion. It was probably used as a resting place for the servants. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how large the entire place was.
As she cleaned her room, she sighed about how nice it must be to be rich. After finishing the area, she stood up and knew that she couldn’t dawdle any longer. It was time to see the comatose Prince of Qiyang.
Without the weight and hindrance of her phoenix crown and wedding robes, she felt much more comfortable while walking.
Generally, the bedchambers were located in the west wing. She made her way from the receiving hall to one of the inner chambers, carefully drew aside the curtains covering the doorway, and poked her head in.
“Lord Qiyang?”
Her voice was nervous and her body was tense, ready to start running if she noticed even the slightest of movements. Silence greeted her, and after a few minutes, she took two steps in. There was a silhouette on the bed, but she couldn’t see his face clearly. The silence was slowly paralyzing her with fear, but she forced herself to keep going.
When she finally got close enough to see the man’s face, she felt as though her body was struck by lightning, that her soul was pulled out and then returned to her again.
Mu Mingtang’s eyes widened. No longer afraid, she quickly ran to the bedside, fell to her knees, and lifted the sheer bed curtain with her shaky hands.
At this distance, it was impossible to mistake his face.
“It’s you. It’s you!”
Tears suddenly began to stream down her face, and she couldn’t help but cover her mouth and give in to the wave of sadness that washed over her.
When she was young, her parents had held her like a pearl in the palms of their hands. She was once a spoiled girl who didn’t have to worry about having food and clothing, but when she was twelve, her life shattered.
The barbarians invaded, burned, slaughtered, and plundered Xiangyang. The Mu family, as a merchant’s family, was naturally a prime target for those hungry wolves. When her parents learned that the city had been invaded, they decided to abandon the place they had built their lives in and escaped carrying only what they could wear on their bodies. However, the wolves were not satisfied with the wealth they left behind in their home and gave chase.
Many people knew that the Mu family had a young, beautiful daughter. Therefore, when she was only twelve years old, there were already families that wanted her to become their daughter-in-law. Out of consideration for her age, her parents had rejected all of those proposals.
However, after the barbarians invaded, her face almost brought about her downfall.
When he realized that the barbarians were catching up, Father Mu pushed the valuables in his arms to Mother Mu and told her to run. It was with the sound of a sword stabbing into her husband’s body behind her that the devastated Mother Mu took Mu Mingtang and ran.
They ran for their lives, but they could not escape the barbarians. There wasn’t even enough time to give Mu Mingtang the money before Mother Mu pushed her away and ran in another direction to distract the barbarians and lead them away.
Mu Mingtang ran with all her might as sobs racked her small body, but she didn’t know why she was still running. She didn’t know why she should stay alive. Her parents were dead. What was she doing alive? Mu Mingtang wanted to go back to her mother, but when she left the alleyway, she was found by a group of barbarians.
When they saw her face, they began to shout excitedly at each one. She tried to hit them, to defend herself, but her hands were easily slapped away. The leader of that group of barbarians was approaching her with a lecherous smile on his face when suddenly, a feathered arrow whistled through the air and pierced his neck.
Then, she heard a “Kill!”
Mu Mingtang remained curled into a ball on the ground as the barbarians’ blood splattered on her body. When she finally looked up, the leg of a white horse, dyed with red, was in front of her.
The youth on the horse had just finished killing the last barbarian. As soon as he looked down and noticed her, he arched an eyebrow and asked, “Can you walk?”
Mu Mingtang was completely stunned, but she struggled to her feet and nodded dumbly. Seeing this, the youth turned his horse in another direction and slowly rode away, but just before he left, he threw her two sentences over his shoulder: “As long as you can walk, you should keep moving forward. Staying alive is hard, but dying is all too easy.”
As he said this, his gaze was cold and fierce, and the tear-shaped mole near his eyes made him appear invincible, heroic, and merciless.
When she met Xie Xuanchen all those years ago, she never thought that fate would bring them together again.