Chapter 54: Could It Be Her?

Li Shouji looked at the donkey cart in the distance and fell into deep thought. That child really resembled the General. Thinking of this, he retorted, “No way.” Li Shouji slapped his thigh and felt that his thoughts were ridiculous. It might just be a coincidence.

Li Shouji did not take this matter to heart. He looked around and did not find the potato flour noodles he was looking for. He returned to the fishing village in disappointment.

Jiang Danhe looked at Li Shouji, who was standing in the room looking a little depressed. He found it funny. “You didn’t find the stall?”

“Yeah…”

Yesterday, Li Shouji brought back two servings of potato noodles from town. The taste was good and the ingredients were novel. This morning, he went to town again, intending to buy more. But he couldn’t find the stall where it used to be, nor could he find it at surrounding markets. He didn’t know that Qin Xiaoguo only set up her stall when it was fair day. So he had no choice but to come back.

Jiang Danhe smacked his lips. He was actually a little disappointed. The potato noodles were really delicious. He wondered if he would be able to eat them again in the future. After all, he was about to leave this place.

“Pack up. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

Li Shouji became serious. “Yes!”

Jiang Danhe took out the letter from Prince Zhan and clutched it in his hands. His eyes were filled with intense longing. He thought to himself, “Soon, soon. I can go home soon…”

He took out a match and placed the letter on it. There was a quick burst of flames and all that was left was a pile of dust.

Before dawn the next day, while the whole village was still asleep—Jiang Danhe and Li Shouji, both dressed in their armor—walked out of the door and mounted their horses.

“Have you left the money there?” Jiang Danhe turned around and asked.

“Don’t worry, General. It’s there!”

“Let’s go.”

Jiang Danhe got on the brown horse. With a click of his heel, he galloped off on the horse without looking back. Li Shouji followed closely behind.

Half a month ago, during a mission, Jiang Danhe was chased off the cliff and fell to his death. In order to save him, Li Shouji jumped down the cliff where he had fallen. He had known that the cliff was not deep and there was water flowing below. Even if they fell, it wouldn’t cost them their lives. All of this was part of their premeditated plan.

They were both washed to the shore of a small fishing village, and were saved by Old Master Yu, who was fishing. Old Master Yu happened to be the village doctor. Li Shouji was not seriously injured, but Jiang Danhe’s wounds were caused by real swords. If not for Old Master Yu, who had brought him home, his life would have been in danger.

Before leaving, Jiang Danhe asked Li Shouji to leave behind ten taels of silver as a thank-you gift and also as a form of repayment for his care during this period of time.

While the sky was still dark, they made it to Prince Zhan’s residence. When they entered the study, Prince Zhan was already waiting inside. When he saw Jiang Danhe, he immediately stood up to welcome him. He asked with concern, “Are you feeling well?”

Jiang Danhe cupped his fists. “Thank you for your concern, Prince Zhan. I’ve recovered.”

Prince Zhan heaved a sigh of relief. Jiang Danhe was like his right-hand man. He also regarded him like a brother. This mission was very risky. It was extremely fortunate that he was still alive.

Li Shouji remained in the study while Prince Zhan led Jiang Danhe to another room at the back. He walked to a vase by the bookshelf and turned it. A secret door on the floor opened up. Prince Zhan walked in front with a candlestick and Jiang Danhe followed closely behind.

A long staircase stretched into the darkness. The sound of their footsteps and breathing echoed with the enclosed space. With the candlelight, one could one see the layout of the space. When they reached the end of the staircase and had their feet on flat ground, Prince Zhan put down the candlestick. Then, Jiang Danhe skillfully lit up the surrounding candlesticks. In an instant, the room was fully illuminated.

The space was thirty square meters big. In the middle was a sand map about five meters long. A blue flag on the map represented a certain place. In the middle was the palace. At this spot, there was a conspicuous red flag.

Prince Zhan stared at the red flag with a burning gaze. This was the moment he had been waiting for. He could finally leave this place!

Jiang Danhe understood why he was so excited.

Prince Zhan’s original name was Shao Zhan. He was supposed to be Emperor Zhan of the Shao Kingdom in the year 42 BC. However, the kingdom was invaded by the army of its neighboring country. Not only did they seize the throne of the palace, they also killed the emperor at that time, who was Prince Zhan’s father. In the entire palace, other than Prince Zhan, everyone was killed. They took the lives of the emperor and empress, and all who were living and working within the palace. Not a single person was spared.

In order to show his benevolence, the new emperor spared the life of the five-year-old Crown Prince, Shao Zhan. He was then given the title of Prince and was stationed in a small county, Yonghai County.

Without the emperor’s personal approval, no one could enter the capital even if they were dead. Anyone who dared to go against the decree would be killed without mercy!

The five-year-old Shao Zhan is now 30 years old. He had not left the county for 25 years. The emperor even sent many people to take care of him—claiming that this was done to take care of the young Prince Zhan. In actual fact, this was just a form of surveillance. Even the princess consort was personally selected by the emperor for the Prince.

Shao Zhan had been enduring all this while. Under the new emperor’s oppression and violence, the people were filled with discontent. However, when he got to know Jiang Danhe, he knew that the chance had come!

First, he instigated the princess consort’s family to become his own people. Then, he secretly nurtured an army that was loyal to him. Jiang Danhe was the leader of his army. In the past three years, under Jiang Danhe’s leadership, his army had expanded to 300,000 troops. In addition to the army that he had instigated to defect, there were a total of 500,000 troops!

The small Yonghai County had long been unable to contain Shao Zhan. Just a while ago, Jiang Danhe killed a large central force of soldiers belonging to the emperor. This was like adding wings to a tiger. Even if Shao Zhan swaggered out of the county city now, the emperor would not know.

Even the officials in the emperor’s court were mostly planted by him. The emperor was still in the dark. With Shao Zhan’s men covering for him, the emperor did not know his movements at all. This made things easier for him. He could take them down in one fell swoop! It was only a matter of time before he returned to the palace!

A towering tree that had been hollowed out would collapse with a gentle shove, no matter how tall it was.

After walking out of the secret chamber, Jiang Danhe was about to bid farewell. He and Li Shouji still had to bring the army to the capital quietly. In order not to alert the enemy, they could only set off in small groups. As time was tight, they had to make preparations now.

Prince Zhan sent the two of them off with a smile on his face. This time, it was a sure bet!

When they left the prince’s mansion, they had changed out of their armor and put on civilian clothes. There were more people on the streets now. The two of them were dressed very plainly. As it was market day, there were many people out to buy goods with their horse carts, so even though the two of them were holding on their horses, they still managed to look inconspicuous. The street was too packed for them to ride on their horses, so they had to walk and lead their horses to the county gate.

On the other side, Xiaoguo was walking towards the county with Zhuang Zhuang in her arms. Zhuang Zhuang was yawning sleepily in her arms.

Seeing the words “Yonghai County” in the distance, Xiaoguo patted Zhuang Zhuang gently to wake him up. “Zhuang Zhuang, we’re almost there. Wake up.”

They were about to reach the county gate and Zhuang Zhuang was still in a daze.

“Huh?” Zhuang Zhuang rubbed his eyes and looked around. He slowly sat up and yawned on Xiaoguo’s shoulder.

Xiaoguo patted Zhuang Zhuang on the back and saw someone riding a horse in front of them. She then guided the donkey cart to the side so as to make way for them.

The person riding the horse was Jiang Danhe. When he saw that there were fewer people at the entrance of the county, he got on his horse. When he passed the donkey cart, Jiang Danhe took a glance from the corner of his eyes and saw a familiar blurry profile. His heart skipped a beat. She was…

Then, he quickly turned around and only saw her back view. However, he saw a small head resting on her shoulder. The kid was yawning with his mouth wide open. His heart skipped a beat. The horse was galloping very fast. In the blink of an eye, the distance between them had widened by a lot. Jiang Danhe could only see a blurry shadow. He gave up trying when they got too far for him to see anything.

He retracted his gaze and looked into the distance. Could she be his wife? Then he denied it and suppressed his racing heartbeat. No, no. How could she be in the county? It could be a coincidence… But what if it was her? Could the child beside her be his…