Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

21. The Masked Man

Translator: Antonia

“Is Shenglan going to break the contract?” The man’s voice was so frivolous that even men had goose bumps and sore teeth instantly on hearing it and couldn’t help looking over.

Since the commander of the enemy talked, Yuxing Tianrui naturally couldn’t hide back. He urged the horse and stood out, followed by Du Chuxuan who was forced to tie up with him.

“Shenglan has always been a country of etiquette. You, as a tributary, should display a due attitude. We agreed on the contract, not to let you build up strength to bite us in return.”

Yuxing Tianrui made a righteous speech in a voice shimmering with sacred light. Du Chuxuan could feel that while he made the speech, the soldiers behind them became more determined.

This might be the so-called innate charisma, something that he didn’t have at all. He sighed slightly and lovingly stroked the soft hair on the horse’s neck, at a time enjoying the touch very much.

When he returned to reality, a sharp arrow was shot by next to his face, “Damn it. Since when the fight started?”

No wonder he was flustered. He had just been daydreaming for a while, but neither Yuxing Tianrui or the enemy’s commander was slow-actor. Seeing the soldiers of both sides were poised to start fighting at any second, they directly left the battlefield to them and spurred their horse back.

The arrow was actually aimed at Yuxing Tianrui, who, however, reacted quick to hide behind Du Chuxuan, so it almost came at him.

“Seriously?” When Du Chuxuan realized it, he suddenly twisted his body to draw out his long sword but accidently hit Yuxing Tianrui.

Yuxing Tianrui gave his princess a fierce glare. What time was it now to be blank? She wouldn’t know when she died. What an ungraceful woman to curse after hitting him!

Du Chuxuan gave an apologizing and pleasing smile to Yuxing Tianrui. From his long face, he knew this man must be cursing and scolding him inwardly.

Arrows constantly came towards them. Du Chuxuan was upset. What were the soldiers doing? Why did he think the arrows all came at him?

Just as he pulled Yuxing Tianrui to retreat, all of a sudden, somewhere behind them, rocketed up a red smoke bomb, especially conspicuous against the sky.

“Tut. As I believed.” Yuxing Tianrui grunted behind Du Chuxuan. In the next second, he flipped over onto Du Chuxuan’s horse, which was somewhat frightened by his movement and didn’t calm down after a neigh.

“What are you doing?!” Du Chuxuan was given no time to ask before the reins in his hand were taken over by Yuxing Tianrui.

“Woman, you’d better be quiet, or we’ll all die here. Your effort to become the Crown Princess will be in vain.” Yuxing Tianrui snorted, pulled the reins, turning around and heading back.

If Du Chuxuan didn’t know the horse was his, he would doubt whether the horse was telepathic with Yuxing Tianrui. Why was it so quiet ridden by Yuxing Tianrui but so bad-tempered by him?

The red smoke bomb seemed to be a signal. All the solders began to retreat orderly. It had taken them two hours to get there but merely a quarter to desperately run back.

Since he didn’t need to control the horse, Du Chuxuan carefully observed the route they went back and noticed that Yuxing Tianrui made a detour. Moreover, he seemed very familiar with the latter route.

This so-called sneak attach was more of a trap than a test-out. As to who set up the trap and who fell into it, Du Chuxuan had no idea. Yuxing Tianrui galloped all the way back. When they reached the barracks, a general kneeled to him and reported joyfully, “Your Highness. Mission completed.”

“So, you mean it wasn’t to attack the Turks?” Getting changed, Du Chuxuan walked out of the tent and listened to what Dongxiang had learned from others.

Dongxiang nodded, “Yes. His Highness is so wise and resourceful. He didn’t reveal the betrayal of the Dragon General just to buy time for the Emperor to handle this incident properly.

More surprisingly, he set up this trap today, in order to test whether there are other spies of the enemies. All the generals who proposed to launch a battle before followed him to the enemy’s barracks, and only they knew the news of the sudden sneak attack, so as to see whether there would be people attacking our barracks.

I was surprised that in less than a quarter after you left, there came attackers. The commander was a man in mask. Very mysterious. I was far away from him, so I didn’t see with my own eyes, but it’s said he’s a badass. Finally, he managed to escape.”

A masked man? Du Chuxuan immediately thought of the person he had seen at the enemy’s barracks. If this was the case, then the person he had seen wasn’t the real commander, but a fake one.

The real one had showed up here to sneak attack the barracks on the false intelligence.

“I’m surprised he has some brain.” Du Chuxuan murmured in a low voice so that Dongxiang didn’t hear it. And he didn’t dare to ask because of his identity as the Crown Princess, even though he was nice to him.

When Du Chuxuan met Yuxing Tianrui again at night, he found he was in a good mood, the satisfaction of a cat whose hair was smoothed comfortably. That made Du Chuxuan very annoyed.

“Why didn’t you tell me in advance since it was a trap you set up?” He was annoyed only because he could have stayed comfortably lying in bed instead of running outside in vain.

Yuxing Tianrui was happy but the question somehow reminded him of General Leng, and his face sank, “Even if you’re my princess, you should follow me as my intimate guard on an expedition.

What’s more, I learned that you have been in close contact with General Leng recently. How could I know that you’re not a spy?”

Yuxing Tianrui admitted that the last sentence was said deliberately to irritate Du Chuxuan, because he was really dissatisfied with her recent behavior.

But inexplicably, at the sight of Du Chuxuan’s suddenly darkened face on hearing it, he regretted.