The Beauty Within the Gates
Chapter 56
Once the city gate was shut, all the guards and townspeople were trapped inside the city. Only a small squad of riders remained outside, chasing after the few who had fled.
In the chaos, three people had managed to escape.
One was the man who had stirred up the crowd and seized the chance to open the gate. The other two were the “old man” who had been kneeling in supplication and his “dying” young son lying on the wooden cart.
Now all three were as lively as dragons and tigers.
Behind them, the sound of approaching horses grew closer. None of them dared look back, running forward with all their might.
No matter how fast a pair of legs could run, they could not outrun galloping horses. The foremost guard quickly caught up to the short, small figure lagging behind. Leaning down from his saddle, he seized the back of the person’s collar, lifted the entire figure up, and hauled them onto his horse. At the same time, the other two were also grabbed by riders in the squad, their arms seized, and their bodies tossed onto the horses behind them. Yet instead of turning back, the riders continued galloping forward.
Hooves thundered, and dust flew as the sounds of pursuit along the official road gradually faded into the distance.
The horses raced along the road for nearly two hours. Only when light rain began to fall against their faces did the leader finally turn his horse off the main road and into a mountain path. The riders behind followed closely. The group entered a dense forest and slowly came to a stop.
Everyone dismounted and removed the helmets from their heads. Only then did it become clear that the guard who had seized the first fugitive was none other than Xie Shao.
Looking up, he saw that the fugitive he had captured was now limp across the horse’s back. He wrapped an arm around the person’s waist and lifted them down. The fugitive slumped weakly in the crook of his arm, her small face pale, her legs so soft that she could barely stand.
Xie Shao helped her sit down on the grass nearby. Taking the water flask from his waist, he held it to her lips. “Drink some water and steady yourself.”
The first fugitive to be caught was Wen Shuse.
In the past, Wen Shuse would get dizzy even riding in a carriage. This time, having fled on horseback, she was disoriented and lightheaded, as if floating midair. Her head rested against her husband’s chest, too weak to muster any strength, obediently opening her mouth to swallow two mouthfuls of water.
The chilled water, with bits of ice in it, flowed from her throat down into her lungs, and her mind finally cleared a little. Yet she suddenly grew dejected. “It’s all because I’m useless. I can’t even ride a horse. Husband, you should go on without me. This time I won’t stop you anymore, and I won’t blame you either…”
During the three hours they had spent at the inn, Xie Shao had never truly expected her to learn to ride well enough to charge out of the city gates on her own. The practice in the stables had only been meant to help her get used to it.
Now that he looked at her, the results were fairly effective, at least, it hadn’t affected her ability to talk.
After removing their armor, Jing Wang and Pei Qing also walked over. Looking at Wen Shuse, Jing Wang asked with concern, “Miss Wen, are you all right?”
Afraid of holding everyone back, Wen Shuse quickly rose from Xie Shao’s arms, smiled, and inclined her head. “Thank you for Your Highness’s concern. I’m fine.”
Jing Wang smiled and praised her generously. “I never expected Miss Wen to possess such courage.” At first, after hearing Xie Shao’s plan, he had been somewhat uneasy, worried that Miss Wen might grow timid at the last moment and fail to react in time.
But Xie Shao had assured him, “My wife is not quite like ordinary young ladies. Rather than riding a horse, it would be better to choose something she’s good at.”
Sure enough, compared with riding a horse, Young Lady Wen proved far more nimble when it came to running away.
The pursuing troops were unlikely to react so quickly. Rain had already begun to fall, and if they continued along the official road, the horses’ hoofprints would certainly be left behind. It would be better to enter the forest first to shelter from the rain for a while, then cross the mountain overnight to the town on the other side, change their clothes, and head for the next city, Nancheng.
From Weicheng to Nancheng was still two days away by fast horse.
But once they passed Nancheng, the Eastern Capital would be close. There was no need to hurry this moment. Turning back to the group, he instructed, “Rest here for two quarters of an hour.”
They had only been seated a short while when the raindrops above their heads became increasingly dense, threatening to pierce through the thick forest. The trees likely wouldn’t be enough to shield them. The group set off again, heading ahead to find a place to take cover from the rain.
Wen Shuse’s complexion had only just recovered. Seeing everyone rise, she wasted no time. She retied her bundle over her shoulder and prepared to mount her horse.
The mountain path was narrow and uneven. If she were to ride again, there was an eighty percent chance she would be jolted dizzy.
Watching the young lady struggling to climb onto the horse, Xie Shao handed the reins in his hand to Minzhang. Turning back, he pulled her down, then crouched with his back to her.
“Get on.”
Wen Shuse froze for a moment. Staring at the broad back of her husband before her, she quickly understood what he meant and shook her head repeatedly. “I’m fine. Husband, there’s no need to worry…”
Seeing the rain grow heavier, the young master grew a little impatient. “If you truly didn’t want me to worry, you shouldn’t have followed me in the first place. We’re already halfway here, do you think I would just abandon you?”
She knew she couldn’t ride a horse and would only trouble everyone, so she had been trying her best the whole time. In truth, her chest felt tight and uncomfortable at the moment, but she didn’t dare say anything for fear of being disliked.
Being scolded like that by her husband for no reason made her heart suddenly sting, and she grew even more dejected. She didn’t dare utter another word and obediently climbed onto his back.
The mountain road wound on as the horses moved slowly. Carrying Wen Shuse on his back, Xie Shao walked at the rear with Minzhang and Pei Qing. The entire way was quiet, and no one spoke.
Without the young lady’s chatter in his ears, it felt somewhat unfamiliar. Only afterward did he realize that perhaps what he had said earlier had been a little too harsh.
Thinking about it carefully, she had not caused anyone trouble along the way, and he himself had never disliked her.
Who knew why he had said such a thing? It was too late to take the words back now. Xie Shao could only tilt his head and shoot a glance at Pei Qing, who was holding a torch atop his horse.
Pei Qing had been standing nearby when he said those words and had long known he was stirring up trouble for himself. Rarely so perceptive, he cleared his throat and spoke to Wen Shuse, “Sister-in-law reacted very quickly tonight.”
Wen Shuse was still sunk in regret and self-blame, too dispirited to care. Suddenly hearing Pei Qing address her, she regained a little energy. “Really?”
Pei Qing nodded. “I thought Minzhang would be the first to rush out, but it turned out to be Sister-in-law.”
That was indeed the truth.
After Pei Qing opened the city gate, the guards were blocked by the wooden bar he had thrown over, giving them no time to catch up. Wen Shuse suddenly slipped out through a gap behind the crowd and dashed out of the gate.
Only afterward did Minzhang follow.
Minzhang also caught on quickly and cooperated at once. “This servant is slow-witted, far less clever than Third Young Madam.”
The two of them played off each other, offering praise and affirmation one after another. It gave her a little hope. She secretly glanced at the back of her husband’s head in front of her, waiting nervously yet expectantly for his response.
After a moment, she heard him say, “Mm. My wife is clever and quick-witted. A heroine who yields nothing to men, no less capable than any of them.”
At last receiving her husband’s approval, joy surged through her. The corners of her lips lifted, though the smile carried a trace of grievance. She pressed her lips together and still said nothing, but the arms wrapped around his neck tightened noticeably compared to before.
Xie Shao also let out a breath of relief. Second Master Wen had not been wrong; this young lady was indeed easy to coax. He couldn’t help but pull her more securely onto his back.
When he moved, the young lady’s chin brushed against his hair. A faint, refreshing fragrance drifted into his nose. For a moment, he forgot to dodge aside, and her forehead accidentally knocked against his silver hair crown.
Before she could even apologize, her husband turned his head first and asked her in a soft, low voice, “Did that hurt?”
The deep voice was filled with unmistakable concern. Her heart suddenly trembled, and a strange feeling washed over her, warm and sweet. The young lady’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she shook her head. “It doesn’t hurt.”
The young master continued forward with her on his back.
After walking for a while, he noticed that the raindrops above his head seemed to have lessened considerably. When he looked up, he realized that at some point the young lady’s hands had been placed over his head, shielding him from the rain.
A sudden warmth surged through his chest, and the person on his back seemed to grow lighter in an instant.
Just as he was about to tell her to mind herself instead, the young lady gently rested her head on his shoulder and said softly, “If you get tired, just tell me. I can walk.”
He wasn’t tired at all, he had plenty of strength. “Cover your own head instead.”
—
Summer rainstorms never lasted long; they came suddenly and left just as quickly. Before the group could even find a place to shelter, the rain above them had already stopped.
After the rain, the forest ground was wet and slippery, and the night made visibility even worse. Continuing onward would not be safe. When they found a cliffside ahead, Jing Wang ordered everyone to stop and rest there for an hour.
The rain had not been heavy, and the young lady was hardly wet. He had Minzhang take a cloth from the bundle and wipe the droplets from her hair.
Turning back, he saw that everyone had leaned against the rock wall to recover their strength. He also chose a dry spot and let the young lady lean against his shoulder. “Sleep for a while. Tomorrow will be tiring.”
The night before, everyone had been in a hurry to leave the city and had no time to sleep, so they were all somewhat exhausted.
The closer they got to the Eastern Capital, the harder the road ahead would become. Knowing she was the weakest in the group, Wen Shuse did not dare waste the opportunity to rest. Leaning against her husband’s shoulder, she quickly closed her eyes.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when her husband shook her awake. Opening her eyes, she saw that dawn had already broken. The tightness in her chest was gone, and she felt much more refreshed.
The group did not linger. They all mounted their horses. Wen Shuse once again rode the same horse with Xie Shao. As the sky grew brighter, the horses galloped faster and faster. Having already endured one round of jolting earlier, she found it much easier to adapt this time.
Around mid-morning, the group crossed the mountain range and arrived at a small town on the other side.
The group split up again, disguising themselves as two merchant caravans going into the countryside to purchase goods, entering the town one after the other. This time, Jing Wang and the men of his residence stayed behind as the rear guard, while Xie Shao, Wen Shuse, and Pei Qing went ahead first.
Xie Shao led the horse while Wen Shuse walked beside him. It was merely a small town, the goods sold along the street held nothing new or interesting, and few people paid them any attention. The passersby they encountered were all focused on hurrying along their way.
From the entrance of the town to the end, everything appeared perfectly normal.
Looking up, they could already see the town’s gate plaque. News from Weicheng had likely not arrived yet, and no checkpoints had been set up in the town.
Their steps unconsciously quickened. Just two steps from the exit, several urgent hoofbeats suddenly rang out behind them.
“By order of the Dongzhou Prefecture, everyone, stop leaving the town immediately!”
After Weicheng had been sealed off behind them, not many travelers had passed through this town. Their group stood out too much. Xie Shao’s heart sank. He quickly helped Wen Shuse onto the horse’s back and then swung himself up behind her.
Jing Wang was still behind them, while Pei Qing stayed back to cover the rear.
Minzhang followed Xie Shao, clamping his legs against the horse’s belly as they charged straight out of the town without looking back. The horse had barely gone far when the sounds of fighting erupted behind them.
Wen Shuse shrank into Xie Shao’s arms, not daring to move at all.
The horse galloped wildly forward, not stopping for even a moment.
After fleeing for nearly half an hour, they suddenly heard the sound of hoofbeats catching up behind them. Wen Shuse’s face changed. Summoning her courage, she poked her head out from Xie Shao’s arms and looked back. When she saw that it was Pei Qing, Jing Wang, and the men from the Prince Mansion, the breath she had unconsciously been holding finally released.
Jing Wang caught up with them. “Abandon the horses ahead and enter the forest.” With that, he leapt from his horse first, rolling down the dirt slope beside the road while the horse beneath him continued running forward.
Pei Qing followed right after.
Wen Shuse had never experienced such a heart-stopping moment before. She stared in shock, wondering whether she would even survive such a jump.
Most likely, she would end up half-dead.
When it truly came down to a matter of life and death, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t afraid. Her mind was in complete panic when she suddenly heard Xie Shao say, “Don’t panic. Slowly turn around.”
The horse was still running, jolting violently beneath them. Wen Shuse held her breath and carefully shifted her position. After a long moment, her legs finally managed to turn.
Before he could say anything more, she immediately threw herself into his arms, tightly wrapping her arms around her husband’s waist.
Before reaching the bend, Xie Shao released the reins in time, wrapped his arms around her, and tumbled off the horse with her, crashing together into the grass by the roadside.
At the moment they hit the ground, Wen Shuse felt no pain. After rolling several times, however, she found herself nearly unable to breathe from the weight of the person pressing down on her.
She had heard a muffled groan from her husband beneath her just now and knew that he must have hit the ground first. Startled, she hurriedly climbed up and reached out to pull him. “Husband…”
Xie Shao gritted his teeth. “I’m fine. Get into the forest first.”
Minzhang had also jumped off his horse and quickly came over to help him up. The three of them hurried into the woods and disappeared among the trees.
—
There was only one road leading to the Eastern Capital. Once they entered Zhongzhou, they would be like turtles in a jar before the Crown Prince, such encounters were unavoidable.
In their first clash, three men from the Prince Mansion were lost. One had stayed behind in the town to hold the rear, while the other two had not jumped from their horses, instead leading the pursuers away.
With the horses gone and their whereabouts exposed, they had no choice but to travel by water.
Zhongzhou had once been a territory personally conquered by Jing Wang, and he was extremely familiar with the terrain here. After reorganizing the group, they took advantage of the daylight and moved through the forest until they reached a small village.
To the south of the village ran a narrow river that could lead to a nearby ferry crossing.
But the place was remote, and outsiders rarely came through. Seeing unfamiliar faces all of a sudden, the villagers were wary and did not dare speak with them.
That was until Jing Wang smiled and asked, “Is the crooked ginkgo tree by the millstone still there?”
No one knew who had dropped the seed back then. It had landed beneath the stone millstone, and once the ginkgo sapling sprouted, the millstone pressed down on it, leaving it crooked as it grew. Only those who had visited the village before would know about such a thing.
A middle-aged man looked at him in surprise and asked, “Honored guest, have you been here before?”
Jing Wang nodded. “I have.” Then he lifted his hand and pointed toward a farmhouse. “That used to be a temple. I stayed there for two months.”
Only then did the villagers lower their guard.
“So, you’re practically one of our own,” the middle-aged man said with a welcoming smile. He invited everyone inside, and after some conversation, they learned that he was the village chief.
When he heard that they wished to cross the river, the village chief agreed without hesitation.
After exchanging some food supplies, the group set out again. Since there were many of them, they hired two boats.
Jing Wang and his guards boarded one, escorted personally by the village chief.
Xie Shao, Wen Shuse, Minzhang, and Pei Qing took the boat behind them. The one rowing their boat was a young man who seemed rather shy. He kept his head lowered and did not speak the entire way.
The village chief, however, was quite talkative. He asked Jing Wang where they had come from. Upon hearing that they were merchants who had come to purchase cotton, he thoughtfully recommended several places.
Jing Wang politely responded with a few words but showed little interest in continuing the conversation. Instead, it was Xie Shao on the boat behind who spoke up to him.
“Have no outsiders to the village before?”
“Our place is remote, so very few people come here. Since the start of the year, you honored guests are the first batch…”
Xie Shao did not ask any further questions.
After jumping down from the horse earlier, Xie Shao’s forehead had been cut open, whether by a tree branch or a stone, no one knew. Wen Shuse had asked the villagers for some salt water, dampened a handkerchief with it, and told him to press it against the wound.
After holding it there for a while, he suddenly grew impatient, pulled it away, and tossed it back to Wen Shuse beside him. “It’s such a small wound. What’s the point of holding this on it?”
Wen Suse, who had been sitting quietly nearby, immediately widened her eyes at his outburst.
“What? Not happy about it? If it weren’t for you, would I have been injured? Next time, you’d better see clearly who your real master is.”
He spoke loudly enough that Jing Wang on the boat ahead heard it as well. His gaze flickered slightly, though his expression remained calm.
Pei Qing tried to smooth things over. “She’s only a servant. If you’re dissatisfied, just sell her once we leave this place. Why lose your temper…”
Such behavior from him was far too unusual. Wen Shuse quickly understood what was going on. She rose and knelt before him, lowering her gaze as she accepted the scolding.
“Please calm your anger, master.”
Xie Shao: …
Pei Qing took a deep breath, knowing someone was about to be in trouble again. Using the moment as cover, he tilted his head toward the water, secretly watching the reflections on its surface.
Once the quarrel broke out, the village chief merely forced out a couple of awkward laughs and said nothing more, focusing on steering the boat.
After about the time it took for two sticks of incense to burn, the river gradually widened. From afar, they could faintly hear the bustle of the ferry crossing outside.
This stretch of river, however, did not fully connect with the ferry. At the point where they met was a waterfall, impassable, so they had to disembark in advance.
The village chief braced the pole in his hands against a section of the wooden bridge ahead where they were to disembark. Turning back, he smiled and said, “Honored guests, we’ve arrived.”
“Many thanks to the village chief for seeing us here,” Jing Wang said as he stood up first.
The village chief politely stepped aside to make way for him. But just as Jing Wang passed by, the man suddenly pulled a dagger from his sleeve and lunged at him.
Jing Wang had already been on guard. A cold light flashed in his eyes as he seized the man’s wrist with a backhanded grip and twisted it sharply upward. Having fought on battlefields for decades, the strength in his hands was not to be underestimated.
With a sharp crack, the village chief’s wrist snapped on the spot, and he screamed in pain.
At the same moment, the young man on the boat behind them made his move as well. He threw the pole in his hands toward the opposite bank and planted his foot to push off the boat, intending to shove the entire vessel and everyone on it over the drop beneath the waterfall.
But before he could leap away, Xie Shao grabbed his ankle from the side and yanked hard, dragging him back onto the boat.
Minzhang immediately seized the pole to steady the vessel, while Pei Qing and Xie Shao worked together to subdue the man. The boat was small to begin with, and their sudden struggle made it rock violently. Waves splashed up, soaking Wen Shuse’s clothes and face.
She clutched the edge of the boat with both hands, gripping it tightly without daring to loosen her hold, not uttering a single sound.