Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

113. Leaving Without A Goodbye

Translator: Flying Lines

The next morning, Xiao Shengnian finished his sword training and was planning to have breakfast when he saw an attendant rush towards him hurriedly.

“Your Highness, imperial bodyguard Yu has returned.”

“Yu Che returned?” Xiao Shengnian asked mildly as he washed his hands. “What happened?”

“Bodyguard Yu said…” When the attendant was halfway through his sentence, Yu Che already rushed inside in a hurry. He knelt a distance away towards Xiao Shengnian, and said loudly, “Your Highness, Young Master Wen and Elder Zhou disappeared.”

“What?” The moment he heard that this was something to do with Su Jie, Xiao Shengnian walked to stand in front of Yu Che quickly.

Yu Che retrieved a letter from his pockets, ashamed and uneasy. His hands reached above his head as he lowered his head. He said, “Your Highness, this is a letter that Young Master Wen left behind. Yu Jiang and I were unconscious yesterday, and when we woke this morning, I discovered that we were in an inn. I went back to the mansion to take a look and found that the mansion’s front doors were already locked.”

Xiao Shengnian took the letter. On the letter were four elegant words, ‘For Prince Rui only’.

It was only when he opened the envelope did he find out that the letter was left behind for him from Su Jie. The contents of the letter were simple: Xiao Shengnian, we will not meet again after my departure today. Take care. – From Su Jie.

Xiao Shengnian read the words over and over again. He couldn’t help it as a thread of hurry and confusion formed inside his heart. His little slave ran away?

“Go! I’m going to the mansion to have a look!” Xiao Shengnian nearly crumpled the letter in his hands. Yet, because he was aware that this was the only thing Su Jie left him, he folded up the letter neatly and hurriedly stuffed it inside his pockets as he rode at the fastest speed to the mansion.

When he saw the front doors of the mansion tightly shut, Prine Rui, who was always wise and calm, panicked. Yet, he held onto a weak fantasy as he used his other set of keys to open the doors. He hastily went around the mansion before realizing that there weren’t even traces of the mansion being lived in.

“Damn it!” Xiao Shengnian cursed in a low voice. He frowned, thinking about why Su Jie could want to leave. Perhaps the problem lied with Elder Zhou?

“Zhui Xing, send some people to investigate. They must be found even if you have to dig three feet deep into the ground! Focus on investigating the cities around the capital.” Xiao Shengnian ordered as his expressions flickered between pleasantness and gloominess.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Wait!” Countless thoughts flashed through Xiao Shengnian’s mind. He immediately locked in onto a message. A smile tugged at his lips and he said, “Have people focus on investigating the cities that lie on the road to State Xi.”

Originally, Xiao Shengnian thought that Elder Zhou would take Su Jie back to Mount Mengqi, but from Su Jie’s letter, Su Jie was very likely going to somewhere far away. Otherwise, he wouldn’t say that they wouldn’t meet again. Thus, it was very likely that he was leaving State Yanhui…

Where did he want to go after leaving State Yanhui?

Naturally, the conversation he had that day with his ninth brother floated to the top of Xiao Shengnian’s mind, having once guessed that Zhou Zaiyue was related to State Yanling.

Then, Elder Zhou and Su Jie were very likely to have left for State Yanling?

“Teacher… Da Hua and the parrot are still at my residence. Why did you take my little slave away?” Xiao Shengnian’s lips lightly pulled into a smile. He talked to himself in a small voice, having already decided to start searching in State Yanling.

Even though it had been a day since his little slave and Elder Zhou left, the two of them probably wouldn’t have gone that far. If he sent people to investigate after them, they would eventually be found, right?

Xiao Shengnian hadn’t put two and two together and realized that Su Jie was connected to the change in State Yanling’s royal courts more than a decade earlier. He still thought that Zhou Zaiyue could have brought Su Jie back to find his origin. But what made Xiao Shengnian angry was the fact that Zhou Zaiyue and his little slave left without a goodbye.

Especially, they chose yesterday to leave. He already asked for a royal edict from the Emperor to marry Su Jie as his princess. But now, his princess had run away!

Did they want to make him the laughing stock of the city?

Even though Xiao Shengnian didn’t care about his reputation amongst other people, Su Jie’s departure was already a kind of defiance towards the royal family. Also, this marriage was one that the Emperor blessed. If his father knew that Su Jie ran away, he would be furious. By that time, the whole country would be looking for his little slave, and when his little slave was caught… his whole family would be killed.

The most important thing at this moment was to bring his little slave back before the scheduled marriage date.

Xiao Shengnian decided that he might as well use some of the men he nurtured secretly for this. So, by the afternoon, Xiao Shengnian’s subordinates had caught a lot of people.

“Your Highness, there have been many groups of a young man with an old man in the city. The old men wore plain robes whilst the young men wore red robes. We couldn’t tell who was Young Master Wen, so we brought them all back.”

Xiao Shengnian frowned as he looked at the people dressed up like Zhou Zaiyue and Su Jie. For a moment, he had a headache. He should have remembered that his teacher was always flawless. He was afraid that, for a short while, he wouldn’t be able to find Zhou Zaiyue and Su Jie’s traces.

“Continue searching.” This was the first time Xiao Shengnian felt so helpless. He retrieved the letter Su Jie left for him and read the words on the paper again. He glared at the five words ‘we will not meet again’.

After a while, Xiao Shengnian laughed. He said lightly, “Little slave, I will find you.”