EWRN - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Married You by Mistake (II)

The scroll rolled onto the floor, slowly unfurling. The person in the painting sat with dignity, her features cool and detached, yet her entire face was exceptionally beautiful. She was truly a peerless beauty; one could only wonder what she would be like in person.

Huo Jinyu bent down, picked up the scroll, and studied it for a moment before rolling it back up. She held the scroll, lost in thought.

Perhaps it was because of her rebirth, or perhaps because she had made different choices from the very beginning, but many things in this life were different from the last. She had originally dispatched the Second Prince with troops to welcome the princess for the political marriage. She had also secretly sent additional men, planning to have the Second Prince executed on the spot during the ensuing chaos. The Second Prince was already on his way, and the extra men were in pursuit. Huo Jinyu had thought everything would proceed as she had arranged, allowing her to eliminate a major future threat. But the moment she saw the painting, a sliver of regret unexpectedly arose. A complex emotion stirred in her heart, one she couldn't grasp or understand. She just thought that for such a coolly detached and peerless woman to be sacrificed in a political clash between two nations would be too much of a pity. She could have lived. Though she might lose her freedom, though she might suffer grievances, at least she would be alive. Perhaps she would marry a decent man, or perhaps she would marry the Second Prince, Huo Jinye. Even in a political marriage, she might have lived well.

And now, this devastatingly beautiful woman had lost her imperial father, lost her freedom in the civil strife, and was even being used as a bargaining chip in the political situation between two nations. Her own country wanted to kill her to create conflict, while she herself had intended to let the assassination happen and pin the blame on the Second Prince, even using the opportunity to kill him as well.

This sudden pang in her heart—was it her long-abandoned conscience?

Huo Jinyu didn't understand what kind of emotion this was. She only knew that if she didn't do something, this peerless woman would vanish from the world forever.

"Eunuch Wang! Have the guards prepare a horse for Us! Also, assemble a hundred light cavalry to depart with Us immediately!" Time was of the essence. Huo Jinyu immediately returned to her bedchamber, changed into a black robe with gold-stitched trim, and galloped out of the palace. Outside the imperial city, a hundred light cavalry waited in formation. Once outside the city, Huo Jinyu led the cavalry forward at a rapid pace. The princess's procession would naturally take the official road, as would the Second Prince's welcoming party, and the extra men she sent were also following the official road. Without a second thought, Huo Jinyu sped along the same route. The official road had been quite busy these past two days. She didn't need to worry about matters in the palace; with Eunuch Wang watching over things for her, she could be somewhat at ease.

After two days of hard riding, Huo Jinyu calculated that they should be close.

Chaos erupted on an official road within the borders of the Great Yuan Kingdom. Hundreds of masked men had appeared from nowhere, wielding sharp weapons and slaughtering the escort party. The convoy escorting the princess for the political marriage was forced to a halt. The guards formed a circle, protecting the princess's carriage. The escort party only numbered eighty to a hundred men, and their movements were restricted by the need to protect the princess. Soon, many had fallen. Princess Yan had long anticipated this would happen—that she would be assassinated within the Great Yuan Kingdom's borders. It must be the men sent by the Wu Clan, who had seized the throne. Her escorts were all remnants of a defeated army, weak soldiers, which made the assassination much easier. Seeing her guards fall one after another in the blink of an eye, Princess Yan had no choice but to lift the carriage curtain, draw her sword, and join the fray herself.

As the cries of battle rose and fell on one side, the Second Prince's convoy arrived on the other. Seeing the allied princess's convoy under attack, the captain of the guards left a portion of his men to protect the Second Prince and led the rest into the battle. The pressure on Princess Yan's side suddenly lessened, but the Second Prince's convoy also came under attack from unknown assailants.

The guards surrounded the carriage to protect the Second Prince. When the captain saw his own prince being ambushed, he weighed his options and abandoned the allied princess, turning back with his men to protect the Second Prince.

The two battles, not far from each other, raged fiercely. Princess Yan was already covered in numerous cuts. The Second Prince's carriage was kicked over in the chaos, and he crawled out on his own. The men Huo Jinyu had sent were highly skilled martial artists, forcing the ordinary guards into a steady retreat.

When Huo Jinyu arrived, this was the chaotic scene that greeted her.

Seeing that the princess's group in the distance was about to collapse, Huo Jinyu led her light cavalry straight through the Second Prince's battlefield. A few masked, black-clad men saw them charging and moved to attack, but then they caught sight of the golden medallion hanging from Huo Jinyu's waist. They forcefully retracted their blades, the effort causing them internal injuries. Ignoring the beleaguered Second Prince and letting the black-clad men continue their slaughter of his guards, the group charged into the fray surrounding Princess Yan.

The princess was now covered in wounds, at the end of her strength. During a brief lapse in consciousness, an assassin slashed her across the back. The pain jolted her awake, and she raised her sword to block. At that moment, her sword felt as heavy as a thousand catties. A gust of wind rushed toward her. Princess Yan instinctively tilted her head, and another blade struck her shoulder.

Just as she was about to collapse, Huo Jinyu and her men charged in.

The woman was truly as beautiful as rumored! The painting did not compare to the real person. A cool aura emanated from the fighting woman, mixing with the splattering blood of the battlefield to become a biting, cold wind. Her features were picturesque. Even in the midst of a deadly fight, her beauty was not marred. A beautiful person is beautiful no matter what they do!

Seeing the beauty about to fall, Huo Jinyu spurred her horse on, rushing to the side of the woman whose body had gone limp. With a powerful sweep of her left arm, she scooped her onto the horse.

Princess Yan felt a sharp pain in her arm, and her sword, which she could no longer hold, clattered to the ground. Her vision began to blur. Just as her heart filled with despair and she was about to close her eyes and give up, she felt the world spin, and she landed in a warm embrace. Excessive blood loss had blurred her sight; she could only make out a splash of black and the rough outline of a person. "Who are you?" she asked groggily.

Who are you?

Hearing the weak question from the woman in her arms, Huo Jinyu looked at the frail and helpless figure, and her heart skipped a beat. An answer slipped out without thinking: "I am your future husband."

The moment the words left her mouth, Huo Jinyu realized what she had said. A blush crept across her face, but no one noticed. The woman had already fainted, so it was uncertain if she had heard. But that was no longer important. The urgent task was to get medical attention for the heavily injured person who had passed out in her arms.

With the addition of the hundred light cavalry, the battle ended quickly. Not a single masked man was left alive. On the Second Prince's side, after receiving a signal from Huo Jinyu, the black-clad men all retreated, melting into the darkness. The Second Prince's guards were either dead or wounded. The ground was littered with corpses, severed limbs, and hands. The Second Prince was covered in crimson, whether his own blood or his guards', it was impossible to tell. Now that the battle was over, he stared at the field of bodies, propped himself up on the ground, and vomited.

Huo Jinyu gave a few simple instructions, paid no mind to the Second Prince who was terrified by the corpses, and spurred her horse toward the nearest town.

A warm body was curled up in Huo Jinyu's embrace. Huo Jinyu held the reins with one hand and carefully supported the person in her arms with the other. With Princess Yan resting against her, Huo Jinyu finally understood the meaning of 'delicate and boneless'. Whether from the jostling of the horse or from holding a beauty in her arms, Huo Jinyu's heart pounded. In her past and present lives, spanning over thirty years, she had never been so intimate with anyone due to her identity. This feeling... wasn't bad at all.

She urged her horse on to the nearest town, Guang'an City, and went straight to the Emerald Fragrance House. It was unknown to the outside world, but the Emerald Fragrance House had always been an imperial enterprise, with branches in every major city of the Great Yuan Kingdom. On the surface, it was a thriving brothel, but in reality, it served the emperor of every dynasty, providing spies, information, and a large source of revenue. Initially, seeing a suspicious person in black clothes carrying a blood-soaked woman, the madam was wary and unwilling to let them in, even preparing to have a servant call the authorities. But when Huo Jinyu took the gold medallion from her waist and presented it, the madam's expression changed instantly. She respectfully invited Huo Jinyu inside and led her to the highest-level Heaven-character room of the Emerald Fragrance House.

Huo Jinyu carefully placed the woman from her arms onto the soft, large bed and turned to instruct the madam: "Find several physicians for Us. Be quick!"

The madam acknowledged the order and quickly left. A short while later, several physicians entered the room and began to examine Princess Yan's injuries.

An hour later, a maid from the Emerald Fragrance House had finished bandaging Princess Yan's wounds. The prescription the physicians had prepared was taken to be brewed, and tranquility returned to the Heaven-character room.

Princess Yan must have been utterly exhausted, as she slept straight through until dawn. Huo Jinyu moved a chair to the bedside and sat there, carefully studying Princess Yan's face, watching her until daybreak.

Get instant access to all the chapters now.

Previous Table of Contents Next