When Bai Ze led his troops to chase towards the black market, the person had already vanished without a trace.
He ordered the black market to be burned and rushed back to the palace.
Military Affairs Department.
Li Qiongyu strode in, and upon hearing Bai Ze’s words, he threw off his robe and reclined on the soft couch, smiling lazily.
“This Blood Corpse is quite fast. There’s already news, where have they gone?”
Bai Ze respectfully replied, “The person is no longer in the black market. The Blood Corpses sent by His Highness are still investigating.”
“Tsk, this batch of shadows that Xiao Chizhan spent a fortune raising is getting more and more capable, faster than before.”
Li Qiongyu spoke obnoxiously, glanced at the silent Liu Rongruo, and deliberately teased.
“It’s fine if the Saintess of Southern Xinjiang ran away. Why chase her with so much effort? Southern Xinjiang won’t recover in a short time anyway, and they can’t fight a war.”
Liu Rongruo sat on the chair, his face ashen and chillingly cold.
He didn’t speak, playing with a bracelet in his hand.
Bai Ze, seeing his silence, was slightly startled.
He had received the news from the Blood Corpses and immediately went to pursue, but he was still a step too late; the person was already gone.
“Sir, they will definitely leave the city tomorrow. Your subordinate has already sent people to pursue and capture them from all directions.”
Li Qiongyu, with his foul mouth, said, “What’s the point of chasing? Just open fire on Southern Xinjiang. What’s the use of chasing her…”
Before he could finish speaking, Liu Rongruo looked at him, his eyes as cold as ice. Li Qiongyu was not afraid at all and let out a light sneer.
“You said that during the alliance of the two countries, you should have married her yourself. You didn’t marry her and instead sent her to the palace. If she was sent to the palace, fine, but now she’s run away, and you’re still so angry and chasing her.”
He said, tsk-tsking.
“We don’t know if your anger is because you can’t bear to part with the young lady.”
Liu Rongruo’s face grew colder at his words. He turned the bracelet in his hand, his voice plain.
“If I haven’t had enough fun, how can I let her go?”
Li Qiongyu reclined, picked up a cup of tea from the low table, glanced at him, and said deliberately.
“Oh, you were just playing around? Then that’s a pity, you won’t get to play anymore. That fake eunuch who took her away might have taken a liking to her. It’s possible they’ve developed feelings for each other through shared hardships.”
Bai Ze listened to his annoying words, his heart tightening. He cautiously glanced at his master, not daring to speak.
They had only found out after checking the records that Xia Yun had actually snuck in, bribing the blacksmith, and was never castrated.
“Tsk, the weather is nice today. The scenery in the black market was also beautiful. A perfect match, a beautiful picture.”
A killing intent flashed in Liu Rongruo’s eyes. He looked at Li Qiongyu, who was still babbling, and in his anger, grabbed an inkstone and hurled it at him.
Li Qiongyu immediately dodged, leaned against the red pillar with his arms crossed, and smiled charmingly.
“Oh, you’re angry? You were just playing, why bother so much about her.”
He knew that on the surface, this guy showed no change, but inwardly, he was probably fuming.
As soon as Xiao Chizhan entered, he saw the two of them in a tense standoff.
Li Qiongyu saw him and exclaimed.
“Not accompanying your Xiao Luanluan, you have the leisure to come and see us.”
Xiao Chizhan kicked him, and the latter immediately dodged, grunting.
“Too lazy to fight with you.”
“Have you found out?”
Liu Rongruo raised his eyes, his deep, abyss-like eyes filled with a chilling, indifferent coldness that made one’s spine shiver.
“In the underground river, there is a path leading out of the city.”
Liu Rongruo’s face was grim and cold. He looked at Bai Ze.
“Dispatch troops to search.”
“Yes.”
Xiao Chizhan sat on the soft couch, looked at the aloof Liu Rongruo, his seductive red eyes flashing with amusement.
Li Qiongyu was still fanning the flames beside him, but Liu Rongruo didn’t even spare him a glance, lowering his eyes, thinking about something unknown, his aura so gloomy that it was difficult to approach.
He snorted, too lazy to provoke him anymore.
“No fun. If it were Tantai Ye, he would have been so angry he’d be spitting blood.”
Liu Rongruo ignored him and looked at Xiao Chizhan, who was drinking tea, and said.
“Do not send troops to Southern Xinjiang for now.”
Xiao Chizhan raised an eyebrow and hummed. He said, “If you really want to catch her, send people to intercept her at Yue Guan. If she wants to return to Southern Xinjiang, Yue Guan is the only way.”
Liu Rongruo said coldly, “She won’t be able to leave Da Liang.”
Xiao Chizhan couldn’t be bothered with so much. Southern Xinjiang was no longer a threat. If Liu Rongruo hadn’t insisted on the Saintess of Southern Xinjiang for a marriage alliance back then, he wouldn’t have considered keeping Southern Xinjiang.
He remembered that Ye Luan was still waiting for him in the palace. After sitting with them for a while, he got up to leave.
Li Qiongyu said sarcastically, “Ever since you got married, you’ve been accompanying Ye Luan every day, treating us as air. Now that she’s pregnant, she’s treated as precious. Someone can’t wait to stick to her all day, not even finding it annoying.”
“You don’t understand.”
Xiao Chizhan turned back and kicked him.
Li Qiongyu hissed, dodged, and threw the wine jar in his hand at him.
Xiao Chizhan caught it and flicked it back onto the table.
“Right, did you get that Qionglong I asked you to get earlier?”
As soon as Li Qiongyu mentioned this, he wanted to complain. He started pouring out his grievances.
“Why couldn’t she like anything else but this? Even with a swift horse, it would take over a month to deliver. That’s the Western Regions, and it would be rotten by the time it arrived.”
Qionglong is a sweet melon that is abundant in the Western Regions. After Ye Luan became pregnant, she ate it once and has been craving it ever since.
However, the journey was too long, and by the time it was delivered, the melon had lost its fragrant sweetness.
Li Qiongyu then sent people to the Western Regions to bring them back, cultivating them in his secret chamber, using the soil from the Western Regions. By the time they were sent to the capital, they were perfectly ripe and fresh to eat.
Xiao Chizhan sneered, “She wants the moon in the sky, and she’ll get it plucked.”
Li Qiongyu retorted unceremoniously, “Ye Luan isn’t as perverted as you, eating the moon.”
“Stop talking nonsense, is it almost here?”
“Almost.”
If it weren’t for that girl Qingge also insisting on eating it, he wouldn’t have bothered to get it.
Xiao Chizhan turned to leave.
Li Qiongyu immediately said, “How many more months until she gives birth? I want to be a godfather.”
“Alright, first, fork out ten million taels of silver to build her a golden house as a见面礼 (meeting gift).”
“Damn it, Xiao Chizhan, are you extorting me?”
The person had already walked away.
Li Qiongyu snorted and looked at the silent Liu Rongruo.
“Alright, barring any accidents, they’ll be caught soon. Tsk, looking at your expression, you wouldn’t have fallen for that Southern Xinjiang vixen, would you?”
Liu Rongruo held the bracelet in his hand and sneered, “Fallen for her? It tastes pretty good.”
Li Qiongyu: “……”
“They all say a prime minister’s belly can hold a boat, but yours is filled with black boats!”
Liu Rongruo’s expression remained calm even when cursed at. His dark pupils looked at the bracelet he was playing with, without the slightest change in expression.
Li Qiongyu loved to tease him the most. He took a sip of wine and started tsk-tsking again.
“I heard that the underground river is extremely narrow and short, only allowing a few people to pass. It must be people pressed against people, flesh squeezed against flesh–”
Before he could finish, Liu Rongruo’s calm voice interrupted him.
“I heard Qingge met a young master from the Shangyang family at the racetrack, and the two of them practice swords together every day.”
Li Qiongyu’s expression immediately turned grim and cold. He put down the wine jar and jumped off the couch.
He grabbed his cloak and walked to the door, then turned back with a smile, his peach blossom eyes full of teasing.
“That’s my fiancée, a done deal. Your fiancée is the young lady from the Qin family, so don’t go chasing other women.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Qiongyu strode out.
Inside the room, silence fell.
The cold wind howled in from outside the palace doors, and the candlelight flickered.
Liu Rongruo leaned back against the chair, his expressionless. His fingers tightly gripped the silver snake-shaped bracelet, his knuckles bone-white and cold.
With no one else around, his dark eyes could no longer hide his killing intent.