“I didn’t expect you to be such a romantic, willing to suffer injury yourself to save Chen Yuanyuan.” Though Huang Shang’s tone sounded appreciative, his hands didn’t stop…he pressed the attack.
“No!” Seeing her mother struck and spitting blood, Ah Ke felt a chill from the top of her head to her toes. Finally snapping out of her daze, she was overcome with fury. Mustering courage she didn’t know she had, she spread her arms and stepped in front of Huang Shang. “Don’t you dare hurt my mother!”
“Your Highness!”
As Huang Shang’s attack was about to land on Ah Ke, the guards nearby cried out in alarm.
Huang Shang frowned. This woman was the emperor’s beloved consort…if he injured her… Hesitation slowed his hand by a fraction.
Song Qingshu seized the opportunity, clutching Chen Yuanyuan as he crashed through the window and vanished from sight.
“After them!” The guards drew their blades and charged out. Huang Shang, however, remained still. He’d clashed with Song Qingshu several times and knew that with the man’s movement skill, now that he’d gained the advantage, pursuit was futile. On open ground, with Song Qingshu injured, he might have tried…but in the complex terrain of the palace, his quarry had a hundred ways to lose him.
Shaking his head, Huang Shang turned and walked toward the shadows in the corner. Just as he was about to fade into the darkness, Ah Ke ran up and blocked him. Trembling with fear, she still stared defiantly at him: “Why did you try to kill my mother?”
Huang Shang replied coldly, “I wasn’t trying to kill your mother…I was trying to stop that man.”
“But what if he hadn’t saved her?” Though Ah Ke was no martial expert, she could still see that Huang Shang’s punch had shown no mercy. If Song Qingshu hadn’t absorbed most of the force, mother and daughter would now be parted forever.
“Then that would have rid Great Song of a calamitous beauty.” Huang Shang’s voice held no emotion, as if he had none.
“Calamitous beauty?” Ah Ke murmured, not understanding at first.
“Six armies wept in white mourning, one man’s fury was stirred by a beauty. One Chen Yuanyuan caused the Central Plains to fall under barbarian hooves back then… Such an ill-omened woman remaining in the palace bodes ill for Great Song.” With those words, the light around Huang Shang’s form warped, and he vanished without a trace.
Ah Ke stood rooted to the spot, trembling with rage: “You men are the ones without ability, yet you push all the blame onto a woman…” As Chen Yuanyuan’s daughter, she’d heard such talk all her life. Though she privately disagreed, tongues could melt bones, and public opinion was impossible to overturn.
Thinking of how she’d been uprooted and brought to this distant Southern Song, forced to marry someone she didn’t love for her father’s cause…with her mother as her only comfort…and now that last anchor might be taken from her… The more Ah Ke thought about it, the sadder she became, and she broke down in sobs.
“Don’t be too upset…your mother should be fine,” Li Yuanzhi said softly, coming over to comfort her. She hadn’t liked Ah Ke or Chen Yuanyuan either, but seeing Huang Shang wound her beloved had made her feel a common cause. And at that critical moment, Ah Ke’s intervention had given her lover a chance to escape. Seeing her so distraught, she couldn’t help but offer comfort.
“How do you know my mother will be fine?” Ah Ke grabbed at the lifeline like a drowning woman, looking up with tear-filled eyes full of hope.
“Um…” Li Yuanzhi couldn’t exactly say, *I know Big Brother Song is too soft on beauties to let anything happen to Chen Yuanyuan.* Instead she said, “That man chose to get hurt just to save the esteemed lady, and he took her with him when he left. He was probably worried that leaving her here would let that ghost finish her off.”
Li Yuanzhi didn’t know who Huang Shang was, so she used a nickname. The man was always hidden in his cloak…he did look like a ghost.
“He really won’t hurt mother?” Ah Ke murmured to herself, remembering how that mysterious man had done such things to her and her mother that night, yet today he’d saved her. She didn’t know whether to hate him or be grateful.
Meanwhile, Song Qingshu carried Chen Yuanyuan through the palace, dodging and weaving until the pursuers were gone. The Cold Palace was relatively secluded, so he made his way back to Li Yuanzhi’s quarters.
“Ugh…” No sooner had he laid Chen Yuanyuan on the bed than Song Qingshu coughed up blood. Huang Shang’s Great Demon Subduing Fist had wounded him, and rushing through the palace had worsened the injury. With no time to regulate his breath, his qi and blood were in turmoil. Now that he’d stopped, the pooled blood came up.
Huang Shang’s full-force strike was no small matter. Fortunately, Song Qingshu had protective inner energy and had prepared himself when receiving the blow…otherwise the damage could have been irreversible. Still, he needed to regulate his breath immediately.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he cycled his inner energy through several circuits and finally caught his breath. Half a year ago, such an injury might have taken ten days to half a month to heal…but at his current cultivation level, a few cycles were enough.
Suddenly sensing something, Song Qingshu opened his eyes. Chen Yuanyuan had pulled a golden hairpin from her head, crawled over, and was pressing its sharp point against his neck, her face deathly pale.
Song Qingshu frowned: “What are you doing?”
Chen Yuanyuan bit her lip: “You defiled my honor. Before I die, I’ll take you with me.”
Song Qingshu laughed in disbelief: “Defiled your honor? I never touched you at all!”
“Nonsense!” A faint, unusual flush rose on Chen Yuanyuan’s pale face. “If you didn’t touch me, then what was that filthy thing in my mouth… my mouth…”
“What filthy thing?” Song Qingshu played dumb.
“You!” Chen Yuanyuan’s phoenix eyes widened, unable to contain her rage. She drove the hairpin down toward his neck with all her strength.
*Ding!*
Chen Yuanyuan felt her palm go numb, losing grip on the hairpin as it flew into a nearby pillar and stuck there, its tail still quivering…a testament to the power of the finger that had flicked it away.
With the hairpin gone, Chen Yuanyuan lost her balance and crumpled limply toward the floor. But instead of hitting the hard ground, she fell into a warm embrace.
“Be careful, madam. If that face that topples cities were bruised, who knows how many men in this world would sigh in regret.” Song Qingshu smiled faintly.
“Shameless lecher!” Chen Yuanyuan’s opinion of him plummeted to rock bottom. Flustered and furious, she tried to push him away. “Don’t touch me!”
“Really don’t want me to?” There was a strange note in Song Qingshu’s smile.
“Of course!” Already weakened by her injury, being teased like this made her breath quicken.
“As you wish.” Song Qingshu instantly withdrew his hands.
With her severe injuries, Chen Yuanyuan had been relying on him for support. The sudden change made her lose her balance again, falling into his lap…and by an awkward coincidence, since she was face-down, her cheek landed squarely between his legs.