Chapter 243: Reward

“We can only wait and try our luck,” Su Wan said, her oil-paper umbrella nearly battered to pieces by the torrential rain. Her clothes were soaked through, and she frowned uncomfortably. “You should get inside the carriage to take shelter from the rain. Hopefully, another carriage will pass by and give us a ride.”

Qi Sixteenth pulled a bitter face. “It’s all my fault for not checking the carriage before we left. Otherwise, I would’ve spotted the problem.”

Su Wan chuckled lightly. “Even if you had checked it then, you wouldn’t have noticed the issue.”

Qi Sixteenth, feeling dejected, urged her, “Young Lady, the weather is cold, and your clothes are soaked. You’ll catch a chill. Please get into the carriage to take shelter from the rain. I’ll wait outside.”

“Together,” Su Wan said firmly, leaving no room for argument.

Qi Sixteenth, imagining the awkwardness of two people squeezed into the narrow carriage, felt uneasy. He glanced around, trying to find an excuse to avoid it, when he suddenly noticed a carriage speeding toward them.

“It’s here! A carriage is coming!”

Qi Sixteenth stood excitedly by the roadside, waving his hand toward the approaching carriage.

The carriage sped past them, splashing muddy water all over them.

Splat!

Qi Sixteenth nearly lost his temper and almost cursed the other party’s ancestors.

The carriage suddenly reversed and stopped right beside them. The driver, dressed in a straw raincoat, called out, “Are you two heading to the capital?”

Qi Sixteenth’s anger dissipated instantly, and he forced a smile. “Yes, we’re heading to the capital. Could we trouble you to give us a ride? Our carriage is broken.”

“Get in,” the driver said after a moment of hesitation.

“Much obliged,” Su Wan replied. Knowing that it was the master of the carriage who had permitted it, she returned to her own carriage to retrieve her important belongings before boarding theirs.

Qi Sixteenth joined the driver at the reins, not daring to slack off in the slightest. From the man’s aura, he could tell that the driver was a skilled martial artist. Moreover, the presence emanating from the person inside the carriage seemed even more intense.

Uneasy, he glanced back toward the carriage. However, a wooden door blocked his view.

Su Wan, on the other hand, was in a completely different state of mind. She crouched at the edge of the carriage, staring at the man seated inside with a commanding air, exuding an imposing presence.

The man appeared to be in his forties, with messy hair tied into a ponytail. His dark face was covered with a thick beard, and a particularly striking scar ran across the bridge of his nose, making him look unapproachable.

He had a robust and powerful physique, exuding an overwhelming sense of dominance. Su Wan caught a faint whiff of a bloody aura, similar to that of Qi Guang. This man seemed to be a military general.

As expected, Su Wan noticed that his arm was injured, crudely wrapped in a piece of white cloth, now stained red with blood.

Her gaze must have been too direct, as the man opened his eyes and looked over, his eyes sweeping across Su Wan’s face. A faint sense of familiarity flickered in his mind, and upon closer thought, he realized she resembled the Empress.

“Who are you? What is your relationship with the royal family?”

The man’s voice was rough and gravelly, like sand scraping against stone.

Su Wan pressed her lips together, uncertain of the man’s identity and not daring to speak rashly.

In hindsight, she realized that boarding this carriage so hastily had been far too reckless.

“If this prince harbored ill intentions, your vigilance now would already be too late,” the man said gruffly. He reached into his robe and pulled out a token, tossing it toward her.

Su Wan let out a dry laugh. She had already boarded the “pirate ship”; it was indeed too late.

Feigning composure, she picked up the token and saw a few boldly engraved characters: Prince Changxing.

Su Wan’s eyebrows twitched slightly. What a coincidence.

Earlier at Baima Temple, she had encountered his wife, and now, coming down the mountain, she had met the man himself.

“I’m a doctor,” Su Wan said, pointing to the wooden box she had brought with her. “As payment, how about I bandage your wound?”

“Do as you like,” Prince Changxing replied casually, stretching out his arm without hesitation.

Su Wan handed the token back to him, and it was then she noticed that his eyes bore a slight resemblance to Gu Huaizhi’s.