Chapter 7

Hearing Bai Qi’s words, Ying Yue didn’t think deeply about the meaning behind them. She just smiled brightly, her beautiful phoenix-shaped eyes sparkling, and said, “Then let’s go to Yongzhou”.

Zhao Kuo, who had just rushed in front of the girl, popped his head out again and, in a complaining tone, said, “Sister, why did you only ask Bai Qi and not me?” Even if I can’t beat him, I’m not that weak! I can protect you too!”

“Because,” Ying Yue blinked and said innocently, “I feel like you, Zhao Kuo, will definitely protect me.”

Though she was a bit frail and lacked power, she wasn’t clueless. From the moment she met him, Ying Yue could tell Zhao Kuo was always kind to her and cared about her feelings. That didn’t mean Bai Qi wasn’t kind; after all, Bai Qi had saved her and taken her out of danger. The difference was that Bai Qi was more practical and thoughtful, while Zhao Kuo acted based on emotion.

Although Ying Yue couldn’t explain exactly what the difference was, she knew both of them could be trusted and wouldn’t hurt her.

Zhao Kuo went quiet for a moment after hearing Ying Yue’s words. What scary intuition his master has! he thought. Earlier, the girl had said she was useless, but how could someone with such sharp instincts be useless?

Bai Qi was also surprised. Based on Zhao Kuo’s reactions, Bai Qi guessed that in Ying Yue’s card book, Zhao Kuo’s card had a gold border, showing his loyalty. And it seemed Ying Yue wasn’t aware of this system. Zhao Kuo’s personality was just easy to figure out.

So, fundamentally, Bai Qi and Zhao Kuo were different. But it was remarkable that Ying Yue could sense this, relying only on intuition before understanding everything about the system. This kind of intuition, even if it appeared occasionally, could be life-saving.

Even with this, Bai Qi still didn’t change his mind. Ying Yue was too weak. His ideal ruler needed to be stronger, fierce, and ambitious. A leader should desire the world and be determined to take it.

He recalled the painful memory of being sentenced to death by his own king, who ordered him to commit suicide with a sword. As he immersed himself in these thoughts, Zhao Kuo’s voice suddenly broke through, pulling Bai Qi back to reality.

“But there’s a problem,” Zhao Kuo said while pinching his chin, holding some grass in his other hand. When Ying Yue turned to him and asked, “What?” he continued, “Which direction is Yongzhou?”

After hearing this, Bai Qi, who had just been brought back from his thoughts, looked at Zhao Kuo as if he were looking at a fool. Zhao Kuo, feeling Bai Qi’s condescending gaze, naturally became indignant. Just as Zhao Kuo was about to argue with Bai Qi, he suddenly seemed to remember something and realized why Bai Qi was looking at him like that.

The next second, as expected—

The pretty girl lowered her head, barely whispering, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

She wasn’t good at reading normal books, and her basic knowledge of geography was even worse. When she was younger, her teacher often spanked her for not doing well. If she had studied properly, maybe she would have remembered the positions of the nine states in the books.

But now, all she knew was that there were nine states in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and she could only remember their names. At most, she could recall some special county names under the nine states, or names she had heard from her elders.

As for distinguishing the positional relationships between the nine states, Ying Yue had absolutely no idea.

Moreover, apart from this, she had a terrible sense of direction in real life and couldn’t even tell east from west or north from south.

Thinking of this, Ying Yue became even more depressed. She couldn’t help but doubt herself—what was so special about her that the system even paid attention to her?

Seeing that the beautiful girl was about to cry, with tears seemingly about to fall, Zhao Kuo, who had already been flustered by her tears earlier, looked at Bai Qi in a panic.

“Help! Last time it was her own tears, but this time she’s crying because of me!” he seemed to plead silently.

Bai Qi glanced coldly at Zhao Kuo, then comforted the little girl, “It’s okay, Miss Ying. Don’t blame yourself.”

His voice was calm but steady, bringing a sense of peace.

For Bai Qi, whether Ying Yue could guide them or not didn’t matter. 

From the moment he decided to go to Yongzhou, he had already planned to travel in a random direction and ask for directions when they reached a village or small county. The girl’s issue wasn’t a big deal to him.

However, Bai Qi couldn’t help but be speechless at Zhao Kuo’s clumsiness.

Since he didn’t know what else to say, Bai Qi simply turned to Ying Yue and said, “Get in the carriage, we need to hurry.”

The authorities in the capital hadn’t started tracking them yet, meaning no one had discovered that nobody was left alive in the palace where a “happy event” was supposed to take place. But this wouldn’t be hidden for long.

Once the bloody smell in the mansion became noticeable, the person who found it would report it immediately. This was a large-scale death case involving powerful people.

As soon as the government found out, they would start tracking the carriage that left the palace today. They had to get as far as possible before the soldiers caught up with them.

“When we find a supply point, we’ll change this carriage. It’s too conspicuous, and someone could follow the traces.”

“We should also get some clothes for Miss Ying so she can change out of this wedding dress.” Otherwise, Ying Yue would continue wearing the torn-up wedding dress, and her pretty face would surely attract attention, making her look like someone who had run away from a wealthy family.

…Even though, in a way, she really had “escaped” from a wealthy family.

“Yes.” The beautiful girl nodded and said to Bai Qi, “I’ll do as you say.”

So the matter was settled, and Bai Qi, who was now near Ying Yue, helped her onto the carriage.

As he helped her, Bai Qi seemed to remember something and told her, “You don’t need to apologize.”

“Eh?” The girl blinked in confusion, not understanding why. Then, she heard Bai Qi say, “As a lord, you can reflect on your mistakes, but you never need to feel guilty or apologize to your subjects.”

“When the lord is distressed, the minister is humiliated; when the lord is humiliated, the minister dies.” ^[1]phrase used to express the responsibility of subordinates to share in the master’s hardships.

Hearing these words, Ying Yue was momentarily stunned, then responded softly, “Yeah.”

Zhao Kuo, also intrigued by these words, looked over at Bai Qi.

Bai Qi suddenly reminded Ying Yue of these principles, making Zhao Kuo unsure of what Bai Qi truly thought of her. The young man, who had lived a short life, only thought that Bai Qi was a man of many years—so shrewd and cunning that he was hard to read.

But Zhao Kuo wasn’t one to dwell on these things. If he couldn’t figure something out, he’d just stop thinking about it. He dropped the nameless grass he had been fiddling with for a long time and walked toward the carriage.

Before getting in, he said to Bai Qi, “I’ll take turns driving the carriage with you.”

After Ying Yue and Zhao Kuo were seated inside, the young man took the reins, cracked the whip, and drove off in a random direction.

_

The horse pulling the carriage was a rare breed, faster than ordinary horses. With Bai Qi hurrying the journey along, they covered nearly a hundred miles by dusk.

Along the way, they passed a small but prosperous town.

Bai Qi sent Zhao Kuo, who was dressed in fine robes, to take some valuables from the carriage and buy clothes for the three of them, as well as enough dry food for the journey.

Then, he was to visit a carriage shop to buy a new carriage and some horse feed.

“Oh, and at the shop, ask how to get to Qingzhou.” ^[2]refer to one of the nine states in Great Zhou.

“Oh, I got it—wait.” Zhao Kuo, now reduced to just following Bai Qi’s orders, had almost nothing left to say other than agreeing. He saw himself as nothing more than a “shopping robot”—after all, he was the only one among them dressed like a rich young man who could enter town without raising suspicion.

The robot only regained some emotion after realizing that Bai Qi had mentioned Qingzhou and asked, “Why Qingzhou? Aren’t we going to Yongzhou?”

“To conceal one’s tracks…” Bai Qi had just finished speaking when the young man quickly waved his hand, saying, “I understand. You don’t have to explain.”

The reason was simple. It was just a precaution. If the government in the capital started investigating the massacre of the royal family later and someone really good at investigating managed to trace their carriage to this location, they could make a feint to throw off the trail.

But his brain, which had almost stopped working because Bai Qi had just controlled him, didn’t react immediately.

It’s all Bai Qi’s fault.

The young man blamed the Qin general in his mind. Then Zhao Kuo turned to Ying Yue, who was quietly listening to their conversation from inside the carriage. He asked her, “Sister, do you need anything else? I’ll get it for you.”

“No.” The pretty girl shook her head and said, “I don’t need anything. Just come back soon, Zhao Kuo, and stay safe.”

“Don’t worry, sister!”

_

When Zhao Kuo returned from the town with the carriage half-filled with supplies, he also brought back some news.

—They wanted to go to Yongzhou, but they didn’t know the way.