Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

48. The Man

Translator: Antonia

Shan Zhongli wanted to say more but was pulled gently by someone by the sleeve. Obviously, Shan Zhongli was more respectful towards this person and immediately stopped talking, leaving along with his guards.

The person took a meaningful glance at the tent. Seeing he was still there, Dongxiang took a step to stand right before the door and block his sight, leaving no room to look through into the tent. The grey-bearded strange old man sneered at Dongxiang’s behavior and soon left to catch up with Shan Zhongli.

Only after these people left did Du Chuxuan relax. Now he was sure that the person with powerful martial cultivation was one of Shan Zhongli’s followers.

He could feel that the person was right at the door of their tent just now. He indifferently glanced at the incense burner over there and believed it wasn’t his mean prejudice. This person must have his special thing so that he could wander blatantly in the barracks, but there appeared to be no internal strength in him.

On the Turkic side, Ashina Yi squinted at the row of hidden guards kneeling below. These were guards carefully selected by him, all outstanding men both in terms of martial cultivation or abilities.

However, after so many days, none of them was able to figure out where Du Chuxuan had gone. Even if this neighborhood was large, it was less than a hundred miles around. Du Chuxuan was already badly injured that day. How far could he run?

None of them could find a wounded person. What to keep them for?

The guards of course sensed Ashina Yi’s anger, but they had no choice. They had left no stone unturned, but the two people just couldn’t be found as if they had vanished from the world.

“Your Highness, in the process of searching, we met with villagers in the east. They said there are caves nearby. Probably, they are hiding in one of those caves. The villagers also said that these caves are so covert that even they aren’t completely clear about the caves after living here for a long time.”

The words meant almost nothing. Ashina Yi narrowed his eyes in ponderation, when battle news came, “Your Highness, Shenglan is obviously losing, and their commander ran back for support.”

The reporter wasn’t sure whether the Shenglan commander really ran back for support, but it was true that in the middle of the heated confrontation, the commander left halfway and left the battle to a general.

Although Ashina Yi didn’t participate in the battle personally, in their eyes, the son of Duke Ningyuan was nothing compared with Yuxing Tianrui, the Crown Prince of Shenglan.

Ashina Yi snorted. Beside himself, there was only one person in the world who was able to solve this formation. But now the person was nowhere to be found. What was the point of running back for support?

He didn’t take the matter seriously, motioned to drive all the people out of his office. He turned to enter the inner room. On his table lay a hand-woven grasshopper.

The close servants all knew that their second prince liked this grasshopper very much. Not to mention touching it, even one more glance at it would irritate the prince.

Ashina Yi put the little grasshopper in his palm and gazed at it for a long moment, “They couldn’t find you, so it means you’re not dead, because your life is as strong as cockroach. I didn’t die because of you; how could you die first?”

The more he talked to himself, the more he was convinced, as if the living person was standing right in front of him. The maidservants besides didn’t find it strange, clearly quite used to it. In a while, Ashina Yi wrapped the little grasshopper in deerskin and put carefully on the table, “Tell them to keep searching and don’t go back until they find him!”

If to dig the ground three feet in depth, Du Chuxuan would long have been discovered by Ashina Yi. Therefore, sometimes the interesting part of a story was the invisible manipulation of people’s fates. People meant to be together would find each other even when their eyes were closed.

“It is my honor to bow before you, Your Highness.” Shan Zhongli greeted Du Chuxuan in the manner of a scholar. However, this etiquette meant the same to a dog as it was to Du Chuxuan.

Not long after Du Chuxuan was born, he was sent to stay with his shifu. By the time when he returned to the capital city, before he fully enjoyed his life, he was then sent to the Crown Prince.

He himself knew only roughly about these complicated etiquettes. Before he went to the palace, the tutor nanny already hit the ceiling and gave up teaching him. She could do nothing with it and at last forced him to read all relative guidebooks as a way of learning.

Hence, Du Chuxuan even didn’t master the etiquettes of a princess. How could he know much about other things?

Du Chuxuan stood there, believing Shan Zhongli just greeted him in a normal way, and coughed to clear his throat, “I didn’t expect you to have such a mood.”

He only wished he could yell. Coincidence? The two tents were meters away. If Shan Zhongli brought a person and did something at night, he would be the first one to know! Obviously, Shan Zhongli was waiting for him to come back.

Dongxiang supported Du Chuxuan while walking and felt Du Chuxuan’s hand gripping him harder and harder. Dongxiang couldn’t help but take a glance at the son of Duke Ningyuan. It was rare that someone could irritate the Crown Princess to this extent.

“I always wanted to visit Your Highness but just lacked the time.” Shan Zhongli presented a smile which he believed was handsome, but he didn’t know that the recipient of the smile was no better than a ‘dog’.

Du Chuxuan suddenly spotted Yuxing Tianrui walking over. It was the first time he saw his Prince in a guard’s uniform and paced so solemnly. At a time, he couldn’t move his eyes away from him.

Shan Zhongli naturally realized that he was ignored. He tried to shift Du Chuxuan’s eyes back, but when he turned, he surprisingly saw Yuxing Tianrui.

He was about to greet him, when Yuxing Tianrui stopped him, “You’ll give me away. Although there aren’t many people, it’ll be bad if anyone happened to notice it.”

Shan Zhongli’s lips twitched. So now he had to cooperate in the play all the time? In view that it was impossible to talk with Du Chuxuan, he left first.

Going back to his own tent, he saw the man standing before the sand table who asked gently, “Don’t you think that your Crown Princess looks truly like a man?”