Chapter 340: Chapter 338 She Accompanies Him from Afar
Lu Ying moved faster than the collapsing debris, darting in to scoop up Shen Yinning and swiftly carrying her away from the ruins.
The girl was tightly wrapped in the wide and soft brocade robe. Her slender, graceful legs were pressed together, and the stark white of her skin was in sharp contrast to the dark silk fabric. Her slightly damp hair clung to her exquisitely pale cheeks, and her luminous phoenix-shaped eyes glistened with lingering fear as she stared at Lu Ying, like a mermaid violently plucked from the sea onto the shore.
Lu Ying carried her to the back of a house and was about to set her down on the stones when Shen Yinning suddenly clung to his neck.
She glanced disdainfully at the bricks. "I just finished cleaning myself up. This place is filthy."
Lu Ying was silent for a moment before pulling out a silk handkerchief and placing it on the stones.
Only then did Shen Yinning seem satisfied.
Her small feet stepped onto Lu Ying’s handkerchief as she turned her back to him with a slight huff, leisurely slipping on his clothes.
As she dressed, she grumbled in a muffled voice, "My embroidered shoes and silk stockings were all left in the ruins. I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble the Crown Prince to carry me back."
Her slender and graceful silhouette, framed by the crumbling ruins and the misty bamboo forest in the distance, exuded a strange and hazy allure.
Lu Ying lowered his eyes, gazing at her feet.
Miss Shen, pampered and raised in luxury, even had the soles of her feet meticulously cared for—tender, fair, and exquisitely soft, utterly free of calluses. The way she stood on his handkerchief was so natural, as if everything fine and beautiful in the world rightly belonged to her.
He couldn’t help but recall when a frivolous young noble, eager to win Shen Yinning’s favor, once invited her out to enjoy wild game. Upon learning of her disdain for the dirty, uneven mountain roads, he spared no expense in laying out expensive silk fabric for miles along the paths and stone steps, afraid her embroidered shoes might find a single speck of dirt.
This story once caused a sensation in the Capital, prompting Shen Zhi and Cheng Hui to worry that their daughter was becoming too conceited and indulgent. They gave her a stern lecture and forbade her from associating with such spendthrifts again.
Shen Zhaozhao of the Shen Family was raised as treasured as a pearl, as precious as jade.
Lu Ying raised a hand to rub his brow, feeling more and more that this vixen wasn’t a little canary sent to serve him but rather a gold-devouring beast with an insatiable appetite.
He didn’t indulge her. "Walk yourself."
Shen Yinning finished fastening her clothes and turned back with a displeased glance.
Seeing his indifferent expression, realizing he wouldn’t relent, she extended her hand toward him. "Lend me your sword."
"I haven’t even blamed you for conspiring with Yan Zheming and Lu Zhengliu, and now you’re mad just because I refuse to carry you? Are you planning to threaten me with suicide?"
Shen Yinning shot him a disdainful glare before drawing his sword and cutting off the excessively long hem of the robe.
She tore the fabric into strips and wrapped them around her feet.
Lu Ying fell silent.
So that was why she wanted the cloth strips—to bind her feet.
The two of them made their way back to the water’s edge, where Xue Ling stood on alert. "Someone’s coming..."
A girl on horseback approached.
The Glazed Wind Lamp in her hand swayed up and down with the uneven road, and her red cloak billowed dramatically in the night breeze.
As she drew closer, the group could finally see her face by the firelight.
Shen Yinning tightened her outer robe. "Gan Tangwei?"
Gan Tangwei dismounted in a rush, stumbling and falling to the ground. The Glazed Wind Lamp rolled away, shattering into pieces. Yet she ignored it entirely, staggering and lurching toward Yan Zheming.
"Crown Prince!"
She called out in the Yan Kingdom’s language, her voice resonating with poignant sorrow by the waterside in the long night.
Her current status outwardly was that of a beauty gifted to Lu Ying by Yan Kingdom. Thus, the sight of her embracing another man and crying was, in the eyes of others, nothing short of betrayal against Lu Ying.
"Damn it!" A hot-tempered guard could no longer hold back, drawing his blade as he shouted, "Your Highness, allow me to kill this woman!"
Lu Ying raised a hand to stop him.
He watched Gan Tangwei clutch Yan Zheming, sobbing with heart-wrenching despair, and spoke softly to Shen Yinning, "You knew all along, didn’t you?"
"Yes. It’s not easy for a young girl. She followed Yan Zheming for so many years, received no affection in return, and then was handed off by the man she loved to another. Anyone in her position would feel devastated, no?"
Lu Ying thought of the time he had personally sent Shen Zhaozhao onto Lu Shiyan’s ship.
Though Shen Zhaozhao had little genuine feeling for him, her mood at the time must not have been pleasant.
After a long silence, he said, "You did the right thing."
Though it violated the law and palace regulations, it was hard to find fault with her actions on moral grounds.
Lu Ying wasn’t born into high status. He too had experienced hardship and the sting of isolation. He believed that human decency and morality ought to outweigh cold laws.
Shen Yinning glanced at him in surprise, then arched her phoenix-shaped eyes with a teasing smile. "Oh my, what day is it today? I actually heard praise coming from the Crown Prince."
Lu Ying replied indifferently, "I’ve always followed a principle: criticize bad deeds, praise good ones. Maybe it’s just that Shen Zhaozhao committed too many outrageous acts in the past, so she’s rarely heard my praise."
Shen Yinning: "..."
This damn man really couldn’t take a compliment!
By the water, Gan Tangwei’s weeping showed no signs of stopping.
She tenderly caressed Yan Zheming’s face. Memories, like fleeting shadows, flashed through her mind, and she thought back to those years in the Yan Kingdom Capital.
Everyone said the Crown Prince of Yan was autocratic and feared his merciless rule, but in Gan Tangwei’s eyes, Yan Zheming was a very, very good heir to the throne.
He indulged in neither pleasure nor women, rising early every day to practice his swordsmanship and working late into the night for years, constantly striving to prepare for a campaign southward to conquer the Central Plains.
She, residing in the guest wing, would secretly watch the lamp in his room through her window each night, wondering how late he would work that night, worrying if he might go hungry, exhaust himself, or fall ill.
She accompanied him from afar.
Through countless springs, summers, autumns, and winters, she waited for his light to extinguish before allowing herself to sleep.
She witnessed his journey from an obscure prince to the renowned Crown Prince of Yan. Many ministers believed that with such an heir, Yan Kingdom would one day conquer Great Zhou and become the most powerful kingdom under heaven.
They admired him for his strength and ambition.
But in her heart, he wasn’t the Crown Prince who would lead Yan Kingdom to greatness; he was simply Yan Zheming.
Just the man she unconditionally loved.
"Crown Prince, there are so many extraordinary people in this world..." Gan Tangwei softly kissed Yan Zheming’s brow. "You see, we’ve been in the Central Plains less than a month, and already we’ve encountered many capable individuals. I can’t compare to Princess Zhaoning, and you, too, were defeated by the Crown Prince of Great Zhou. Your ambition to conquer the world has, in the end, remained unfulfilled..."
Her delicate fingers carefully smoothed the disorder in Yan Zheming’s hair.
Gan Tangwei raised her sleeve, gently wiping the blood from his face, bit by bit.
Her voice was soft, almost like a murmur. "You once told me the most beautiful phrase in the Central Plains was: ’One day the great roc shall ride the wind, soaring ninety thousand miles.’ You said you wanted to be that great roc, rising high into the heavens, to be the hero who dominates the Central Plains. But as for me, I’ve always preferred another line from their poetry: ’Plucking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence, serenely gazing at the South Mountain’..."
Tears slipped down uncontrollably.
She had fought and struggled her whole life.
In the end, it had cost him his life.
Gan Tangwei thought, she would never have the chance to visit the South Mountain to see chrysanthemums with the Crown Prince again.