Transmigrated Into A Novel As A Scumbag Princess’ Consort - Chapter 28

28:

In no time, the raindrops joined into steady streams.

Yun Chi and Ye Xuejin returned to their resting spot, only to see the officers shouting loudly.

“Hurry back, everyone!”

“Is everyone here? Don’t get separated!”

Yu Lu raised his hand to shield his forehead, gazing worriedly at the sky. Though he had some knowledge of weather patterns, the unpredictable changes in the mountains were another matter entirely.

Fortunately, while the rain had intensified, it was lighter than the previous night, and nothing uncontrollable happened.

Still, with this delay, who knew when they’d manage to leave the mountains.

Not to mention the looming threat of County Magistrate Cai, possibly lurking in the shadows, watching their every move. This journey was proving to be quite difficult.

As if the heavens had heard his thoughts, the rain continued for another half hour before gradually stopping.

The group let out a collective sigh of relief—thankfully, the rain had ceased.

But as the night grew deeper, the temperature in the mountains dropped lower, and many couldn’t bear the cold.

Without needing orders from the officers, the prisoners instinctively huddled together for warmth.

Yun Chi and Ye Xuejin were no exception. In the darkness of the night, they held each other close.

“I’ll hold you tighter.”

Feeling the person in her arms shiver twice, Yun Chi spoke softly and tightened her embrace, their bodies pressed closely together.

Ye Xuejin didn’t respond. Her clothes were soaked from the rain, and the wound on her chest, irritated by the water, throbbed painfully, causing her to tremble involuntarily.

Now, held so closely that there was barely any space between them, they could keenly feel each other’s warmth.

Ye Xuejin felt the pain in her wound gradually subside, but a strange sensation arose.

It was as if her wound was being warmed by the other’s body heat, a tingling, itchy feeling that left her heart in disarray.

Unconsciously, she tightened her grip on Yun Chi’s waist, burrowing deeper into her embrace.

“Still cold?” Yun Chi asked again.

Ye Xuejin paused, unsure if she was cold or not.

It was a sudden, inexplicable sense of emptiness, as if something had been stolen from her body, leaving her with an urgent need to fill it—yet she didn’t know how, only instinctively pressing closer to Yun Chi.

She had never felt anything like this before.

“Consort.”

“Hm?” Yun Chi lowered her head at the soft call.

Ye Xuejin kept her eyes down, her voice softening further. “Consort… hold me tighter.”

Her low, husky voice carried a tender, almost melodic tone, landing in Yun Chi’s ears like a playful kitten stretching out its paw to scratch at her heart.

Yun Chi shivered involuntarily, causing Ye Xuejin to tremble in response.

Both froze, as if they’d touched some forbidden boundary, and for a long moment, neither spoke.

Yun Chi felt a bit awkward. One person trembling was one thing, but both of them trembling while holding each other so tightly? It felt a little uncomfortable.

After all, they’d only known each other for six days. Even counting from the day the original host caught the embroidered ball, it was barely a month.

Yet now, holding hands felt as natural as breathing, and their earlier embrace had happened so seamlessly.

Perhaps it was because they were in such a dire situation, forced to rely on and comfort each other.

Yun Chi thought uncertainly, her embarrassment easing slightly. Breaking the silence, she asked, “Feeling warm now?”

Ye Xuejin was still reeling from that fleeting moment of palpitations, unfamiliar and intense, disrupting her calmness.

Seeing her silence, Yun Chi smiled. “Never hugged someone this tightly before, huh? Feeling a bit uneasy?”

Ye Xuejin raised her eyes, pausing before responding slowly, “Does the Consort feel uneasy?”

Yun Chi blinked. “A little.”

Ye Xuejin pressed her lips together, her voice dropping even lower, almost like a lover’s whisper.

“We’ve already performed the marriage rites and will spend years together. There’s no need for the Consort to feel uneasy.”

As she spoke, she let out a soft breath, tinged with an irrepressible tremor.

Yun Chi froze. She had no intention of staying as the Consort. If Ye Xuejin managed to reclaim that position, she would be even less inclined to stay.

She had no desire to be trapped in the deep palace for a lifetime, vying for scraps of fleeting favor.

But Ye Xuejin’s words clearly showed no thought of divorce. That wouldn’t do.

“You promised me two requests, right?” she said. All she wanted was a clean divorce and some solid gold and silver.

Ye Xuejin’s emotions settled, her tone growing calm. “Yes, Consort. Name your requests, and as long as it’s within my power, I’ll fulfill them.”

She didn’t know why Yun Chi suddenly brought up the requests, but she knew she wouldn’t refuse.

“My first request is—”

“Someone has fainted!”

“Sir, someone fainted!”

“Master, Old Man Ma has fainted!”

Yun Chi’s words were cut off by several cries of alarm.

The person who had fainted was a Zhou family servant named Ma, the oldest among them, over seventy years old.

Interrupted like this, Yun Chi and Ye Xuejin couldn’t continue their conversation and quickly turned their attention to the commotion.

In the pitch-black night, the officers struggled to light a torch, blowing on their flint repeatedly to ignite it.

Yu Lu called for everyone to make way, letting Old Censor Zhou, the only one in the group with medical knowledge, examine the man.

As soon as Old Censor Zhou touched Old Man Ma’s wrist, his expression changed. He reached to check for breath, then fell silent.

The group vaguely understood, and the atmosphere grew heavy.

A few elderly servants, around Old Man Ma’s age, quietly wiped away tears.

Yu Lu opened his mouth, his voice gentler than usual. “What was the cause of death?”

“Perhaps he froze to death.”

“No, it must be starvation.”

“We haven’t eaten in over ten hours, not even a sip of water.”

“It wasn’t just last night, we didn’t eat enough then either. It’s been over twenty hours…”

The Zhou family servants chimed in, one after another. They wanted to endure, but they couldn’t anymore. They were too hungry, their vision blurring.

Old Censor Zhou’s voice trembled with guilt. “It was indeed hunger, and he couldn’t withstand the cold. This is my fault.”

It was clear that, as the oldest among them, Old Man Ma had been holding on, never burdening his master even in his final moments.

Yu Lu fell silent, then turned toward his horse.

The mountain paths were already treacherous, and the horse couldn’t be ridden while requiring extra care. It was time to make a choice.

This time, Xiao Gao didn’t try to dissuade him. The officers hadn’t eaten tonight either and were starving.

Everyone watched in silence as Yu Lu patted the horse’s face, drew the blade from his waist, and some turned away.

After a few pained whinnies, the air filled with the smell of bl00d.

“Xiao Gao, take some men to cut the meat. I’ll find dry wood to start a fire,” Yu Lu called out before walking off alone with the torch.

“Understood, Lord Yu.” Xiao Gao replied, rubbing the corner of his eye, his voice muffled.

Old Censor Zhou turned to his son. “Qishan, take some men with me to gather stones.”

At the very least, they needed to build a stone grave to honor the departed.

The cold wind blew intermittently, and in the latter half of the night, faint snores could be heard.

Thanks to the roasted horse meat, the night felt less unbearable, and everyone managed to rest, only briefly.

At dawn, Yu Lu rallied everyone to set out quickly, whispering something to Shiniang before taking two officers to scout ahead.

Shiniang then directed the young women to the middle of the group while she moved to the rear.

After days of traveling together, Mei, Lan, Zhu, Ju, and Song had grown to trust Shiniang deeply. They themselves had become more composed, no longer as panicked as when they first escaped.

Shiniang, too, had come to understand them better and was confident they could each contribute their strengths, ensuring they wouldn’t hold the group back on this journey.

Now, without the officers’ urging, the prisoners quickened their pace on their own.

If it rained again or they couldn’t exit the forest before dark, they wouldn’t have a second horse to spare. Another night exposed to the elements, cold and hungry, would be too much for their bodies to handle.

Who knew how many would follow the Old Man Ma’s footsteps?

After half a day of walking, Yu Lu returned.

He instructed the officers to gather more dry wood and approached Shiniang at the back.

“There’s a boundary marker not far ahead. Beyond it, we’ll be out of Zhenshan County’s jurisdiction.”

Shiniang’s heart tightened, and she quickly asked, “Is there any sign of habitation ahead?”

Leaving Zhenshan County meant that, if their suspicions were correct, County Magistrate Cai could strike at any moment.

Yu Lu nodded, but his expression remained grim. “I spotted a few small villages. The nearest one is still about thirty or forty li of mountain road away.”

Given the prisoners’ current pace, they could cover at most forty li a day on mountain paths, and half the day had already passed.

Shiniang frowned slightly. “You’re planning to travel through the night.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes,” Yu Lu lowered his voice. “Have you noticed anything?”

Though the rain had delayed them for a day, they’d still covered dozens of li. Without a guide, it wouldn’t be easy for Cai to catch up.

Now that the rain had stopped, if someone was following, Shiniang’s skills should have picked up some clues.

Shiniang shook her head. “No one’s tailing us nearby.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely certain.”

Shiniang was confident. Over the past half day, she’d climbed trees multiple times, waiting silently and observing the path behind them. She saw no one.

Yu Lu was puzzled. “Could we be worrying over nothing?” But County Magistrate Cai’s cryptic words and the suspiciously closed city gates suggested he wasn’t likely to let them go easily.

Shiniang couldn’t figure it out either. “No one coming is good news, but we can’t let our guard down.”

Yu Lu pondered for a moment. “Keep a close eye out going forward.”

With no one tailing them, even if enemies came, they wouldn’t catch up during the day. Traveling at night would require torches, but so would their pursuers.

As long as the enemy’s torches weren’t right behind them, he was confident he could respond in time.

“As long as it’s daytime, I can handle it,” Shiniang said, touching her nose, her eyes brimming with confidence.

Born into an escort agency, trained in martial arts from a young age, and later honed by the Prime Minister’s household after her fall, her reconnaissance skills rivaled those of military scouts.

Yu Lu felt a bit more at ease, grateful he’d encountered Shiniang’s ambush. Otherwise, in times like these, he’d have few people to rely on.

Unbeknownst to them, just seven or eight li behind, over twenty masked men were rapidly closing in.

They’d been chasing since the rain stopped at dawn, moving without pause, steadily narrowing the gap with the exile convoy.

At a fork in the road, they each pulled out a dark, square object from their pockets, crouching low and searching the ground.

“Boss, there’s something over here.”

One of them stood first, holding up the square object, now covered in tiny iron filings.

The lead masked figure approached, confirmed it, and waved his hand. “This way.”

Note: One li is about .5km or 500 meters in the English metric system.