Chapter 424: Chapter 424: She Said, I Will Protect You

After their meal, the couple strolled through the streets, hand in hand.

Song Lianhe was a little worried. After all, they were under "house arrest" and ought to act the part. It was a matter of attitude. The last thing they should do was provoke the Emperor at such a critical juncture.

The Shadow Guard smiled. "Don’t you worry, Princess Consort. Ni Cang and I have taken care of all the hidden lookouts. No one will come to disturb you."

"You... killed them?"

"What? Of course not. Ni Cang and I are good people. We just locked them up and will let them go later. They’d be held accountable by their superiors for deserting their posts, so the smart ones will keep their mouths shut."

Song Lianhe smiled. "Nicely done!"

Zhou Cangyan held her hand as they strolled slowly through the streets. Seeing she was in a good mood, he said, "Before I left, Grandmother told me she wants to hold her great-grandchild soon."

Song Lianhe tilted her head to look at him. "Is that all she said? What about my grandfather? Didn’t he give you anything?"

He pulled a padded box from his robes and handed it to her. "He gave me this."

"What is it...?" Song Lianhe opened it, took one look, and SLAMMED the box shut, hurriedly shoving it back into his arms. "How could you take out something so important on the street?!"

’This is the Mystic Armor Talisman!’

With the original owner’s memories, she had seen it as a child. Her memory of the object that could command eighty thousand Mystic Armor Masters was crystal clear!

She looked up at him again. "So you want to..."

In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to say the word: rebel.

It wasn’t that she didn’t dare. It was just that whenever she thought about how such an act would exhaust the people and drain the treasury—how it would displace commoners, even if unintentionally—she found it all to be a huge hassle.

Zhou Cangyan chuckled softly, squeezing her hand as they continued to walk.

"I’ve crawled out from a pile of corpses more than once. Back then, all I could think was, ’I will fight my way back to Ling’an and drag that man sitting high upon the Dragon Throne down from his perch!’"

Song Lianhe listened in silence. She had an inkling of the suffering he’d endured from the snippets she remembered from the original novel.

She couldn’t help but squeeze his hand tighter.

"All these years, I have trained my soldiers and stockpiled gold and grain, all to achieve that goal." He lowered his gaze. "And now..."

In his hands, he held the Da Cheng Secret Post Layout Map, the fifty-thousand-strong Sui Bei Army, and eighty thousand Mystic Armor Masters. Everything was ready, waiting only for his command.

Yet he hesitated.

’Was this path truly his own desire, or was it merely the will of the one who wrote the book?’

Ever since he learned his world was just a novel, his initial, driving obsessions seemed almost laughable.

Countless bloody battles might just have been a few strokes of another’s pen.

And yet, the brothers who had died at his side had all been so vividly, painfully real.

"Biwu."

Her sudden call pulled him from his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"If you don’t want to do it, then don’t. No one can force you." She lifted her chin, a faint smile on her lips. "I’m here. I’ll protect you."

He froze, gazing at her for a long moment. Then, he lowered his eyes, chuckled, and pulled her into an embrace right there on the street.

With perfect, unspoken accord, the Shadow Guard and Xuan Mei simultaneously turned their backs.

"Alright."

Zhou Cangyan said, his voice full of contentment.

In that moment of commitment, it felt as if nothing else in the world mattered. She was the only thing that was real, the only one he truly wanted.

A horse-drawn carriage passed by.

Inside the carriage, Zhou Junlin caught sight of the embracing couple through a gap in the window’s gauze curtain, then silently retracted his gaze.

"Your Highness..."

Gu Ha, sitting beside him, had clearly seen it too. He hesitated before speaking cautiously, "Our spies report that King Qing just visited the Xuan Chang Marquis Mansion. For them to meet at a time like this is clearly for the sake of..."

"The Mystic Armor Masters?"

Zhou Junlin leaned against the carriage wall and closed his piercing dark eyes. "If I were Marquis Xuan Chang, I too would find a reliable way to make proper arrangements for the eighty thousand Mystic Armor Masters."

"But if he entrusts them to Zhou Cangqing, isn’t that openly defying the Holy Emperor?" Gu Ha asked, confused. "Why risk the annihilation of his entire clan?"

"Because... he is the grandson-in-law that Marquis Xuan Chang has acknowledged."

Zhou Junlin’s eyes remained closed, a self-mocking smile playing on his lips. "That title alone is worth more than any other. Prince, marquis, general... how utterly dull they all are."

’None of them are nearly as interesting as the three words, "Song Lianhe’s husband."’

Gu Ha looked at his master. Was it his imagination, or did His Highness not seem to care at all that he had lost the position of Crown Prince? He had stopped searching for the Poetry Collection, no longer cared about the Commander’s Seal, and even remained completely unmoved by the news that the new Crown Prince would be presiding over the Great Sacrificial Rite!

The only time he showed any flicker of emotion was when matters concerned Princess Qing.

’Something isn’t right. Something is definitely not right!’

—

Since they were already out of the mansion, Song Lianhe decided to take Zhou Cangyan to the Medical Clinic.

"Princess Qing, you’re finally here!"

The commoners were all overjoyed to see her.

Princess Qing’s medical skills were superb. Many difficult and complicated illnesses that were untreatable elsewhere could only be cured at her Medical Clinic!

Furthermore, with the Princess Consort herself presiding over it, other doctors who might have been jealous didn’t dare to cause trouble. This allowed the common people to come seek treatment without fear.

"Oh, sorry for the wait, everyone. I was put under house arrest today, you see. It took a lot of work to drug the guards just so I could slip out for a bit."

PFFT—

The Shadow Guard, who was in the middle of drinking water, sprayed out a mouthful!

Fortunately, Xuan Mei was quick enough to grab a rag and slap it onto his face. "You’re disgusting!" she said with contempt.

The Shadow Guard pulled the rag from his face, incredulous. "The Princess Consort just said that out loud?!"

It was supposed to be an unspoken truth, but for her, there was no such thing as ’unspoken’!

Zhou Cangyan sat opposite them, leaning lazily against his chair. He picked up the cup of tea Bai Shu had poured for him, a smile in his eyes as he watched his wife. One could almost mistake his expression for one of smug pride.

Xuan Mei scoffed. "So what if she said it? The one in the Imperial City had better not push his luck, or someone else will be on the Dragon Throne tomorrow!"

The Shadow Guard stared at her in shock, his expression screaming, ’When did you lose your mind?!’

However, at this point, not even the Shadow Guard cared anymore.

’If worst comes to worst, we’ll just fight it out. Who’s to say we’d be the ones to die!’

Song Lianhe began attending to the townspeople while Zhou Cangyan sat beside her, keeping her company. Before long, Xuan Qi entered, carrying a stack of books that he placed neatly in front of the prince.

Zhou Cangyan passed the time by alternating between reading his book and looking at his wife, appearing quite content.

Since the townspeople all knew that King Qing and Princess Qing had been put under house arrest, they started by whispering among themselves before growing bold enough to ask the guards.

"Are you really under house arrest?"

"That’s right!" the Shadow Guard said with a helpless sigh, biting into a piece of fruit. "We had to move heaven and earth just to trick the guards at the gate and accompany the Princess Consort out to see her patients. It wasn’t easy, let me tell you!"

The townspeople were deeply moved. ’The Princess Consort can barely protect herself, and yet she’s still thinking of us!’

Just then, a sallow-faced Yan Huan arrived at the Medical Clinic with a group of men.

"Your Highness, Princess Consort, please accompany me back to the mansion."

He cupped his fist and spoke, then looked up to see a room full of people glaring at him, their faces alight with righteous indignation. Their eyes burned with enough hatred to skin him alive.

Yan Huan instinctively took a step back. "I... I’m just here to escort Their Highnesses back to the mansion..."

The hostility from the crowd did not fade. They even spontaneously formed a wall in front of Song Lianhe. An elderly woman spoke up, "The Princess Consort is kind-hearted and her medical skills are brilliant. It is a blessing for us common folk that she is here to treat us. Who is it that cannot bear to see us have something good in our lives?"

Yan Huan stammered, "Er, no, that’s not what I meant..."

Another person shot back, "What unforgivable crime has the Princess Consort committed? Why don’t you tell us all about it!"

"Er, sh-she hasn’t..."

Unable to argue his case, Yan Huan looked toward King Qing and Princess Qing for help.

Zhou Cangyan’s eyes never left his book. He simply turned a page and kept reading.

Song Lianhe, however, poked her head out and beckoned to him. "Vice Commander Yan, you don’t look well. Your circulation seems blocked. Here, come over, let me take a look at you."

Just like that, she beckoned to him from across the crowd. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Her smile was as beatific as a living Bodhisattva’s.