The prince loves me like his life, but I force him to rebel

Shu Huaiyuan took the initiative and attacked the masked man in front of him directly. In a flash, the prince also rushed towards this man, while Sima Yao aimed his spear at the other masked man who wanted to support him. In a moment, the originally tight iron barrel formation seemed to be torn open.

"You two get on the horses first." Gu Nianzhi and Sima Yao rode together, but it would not be as fast as riding alone, so he and Shu Huaiyuan delayed for a while to buy time for Gu Nianzhi and Sima Yao.

Sima Yao pulled up Gu Nianzhi with one hand and waved his spear with the other, and was the first to break out of the encirclement. Gu Nianzhi quickly mounted his horse. Sima Yao pushed back the masked man behind him, jumped on the horse, and kicked hard with both feet. The blood horse rushed out like an arrow.

Shu Huaiyuan and the prince took advantage of the chaos to mount their horses and head towards the other fork in the road.

The masked men quickly ran into the dense forest, where all their horses stopped.

"Separate and chase?"

"Chase the Ferghana horse. The one who rides the Ferghana horse could be the prince!"

The Arabian horse galloped along the road, and soon the sky gradually darkened.

The two did not dare to stop in any small towns along the way. When it was about to get dark, they turned into the dense forest from an inconspicuous mountain path.

From time to time, the cries of various small animals could be heard in the forest, which made Gu Nianzhi feel a little creepy.

She couldn't help but hold Sima Yao's wrist tightly, not daring to let go.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here. We'll be fine." Sima Yao held the horse with his other hand, and the horse, like a human, walked forward in the dense forest where there was no path, taking one deep step and one shallow step.

"Where are we going? How long will it take?"

"It would be better if we could find a house or cave. It would be safer than being in the wild. If we can't find it after walking for an incense stick of time, we will have to rely on a big tree to spend the night."

A faint light appeared in front of us, appearing and disappearing little by little.

Gu Nianzhi thought that she was hallucinating because she was too tired.

"Look, fireflies!" Sima Yao loosened the reins, stretched out his hand to grab them, and actually there was a bright green light coming out from between his fingers.

Gu Nianzhi gently pried open Sima Yao's fingers, and a firefly flew out from the palm of her hand, quickly flying farther and farther away.

"There should be a pool or river not far ahead. We can let the horses drink some water."

The two continued walking forward, and soon they saw a mountain stream flowing down, forming a shallow pool in a depression. There was dense vegetation around the pool, and groups of fireflies were flying around the pool, like a galaxy falling into the human world.

"It's so beautiful! I've never seen so many fireflies!"

Gu Nianzhi had participated in a firefly music festival organized by some commercial organizations before. The organizer used fireflies as a gimmick and released them at the festival site, but most of the fireflies trapped in the bottles died, and many of the released ones stopped glowing for some reason. During the entire concert, there were actually many more people than fireflies...

Now there is a group of fireflies surrounding the two of them, as if they are standing in the bright galaxy, enjoying the beauty brought by the fireflies alone.

Before this, Gu Nianzhi had never dared to imagine that she could have such a close contact with fireflies.

She tried to reach out and grab the firefly like Sima Yao, but she failed to catch it. She tried several times but still came up empty-handed.

Sima Yao couldn't help but smile when he saw this. He stretched out his hand seemingly casually and grabbed something. Then he opened his hand and another firefly flew out.

"Wow...you are so awesome..." Gu Nianzhi was extremely envious.

Sima Yao smiled and grabbed again. Then he used his other hand to take Gu Nianzhi's hand to chest height, spread her hand in his palm, adjusted her hand to a half-clenched state, and then gently covered her palm with the other hand containing the firefly, and said, "Hold it."

Gu Nianzhi followed Sima Yao's request and gently clenched her hands into loose fists. Through the tiny gaps between her fingers, the light of fireflies indeed appeared.

"open to take a look."

Gu Nianzhi gently spread out her palms, and two fireflies flew out from her palms, accompanying each other and slowly flying away.

This feeling is so amazing.

Gu Nianzhi couldn't help but smile, looked up at Sima Yao, and asked, "Can you teach me how to catch it?"

The moonlight is bright and the fireflies are twinkling.

Looking at Gu Nianzhi's smiling face in front of him, Sima Yao was distracted for a moment.

There was a strange feeling in his heart, and even he himself couldn't explain what it was.

He just felt that Gu Nianzhi was different from everyone else, but he couldn't tell exactly how.

He felt a little flustered, and this kind of atmosphere made him prone to wild thoughts.

"Hey, you're a grown man, but you can't even catch a firefly..."

Sima Yao turned his head away, took two steps, and sat down against a tree beside the pond.

Gu Nianzhi did not follow. She was still waving her hands excitedly, trying to master the skill of catching fireflies with just a stretch of her hands.

Sima Yao looked at the tireless Gu Nianzhi quietly. She looked like a child who was passionate about everything.

"I got it, I got it!"

Gu Nianzhi excitedly rushed to Sima Yao, bent down, put his fist in front of Sima Yao, and then proudly opened his hands. A firefly slowly flew up under the gaze of the two. Gu Nianzhi's gaze slowly rose with the firefly, but Sima Yao's gaze remained on Gu Nianzhi's face.

“Am I awesome?” Gu Nianzhi turned his gaze back to Sima Yao. At the moment when their eyes were about to meet, Sima Yao seemed to hear a strange sound.

He alertly pulled Gu Nianzhi over, covered her mouth, and whispered in her ear, "Don't make a sound, there seems to be someone."

The sound of the mountain stream became extremely clear at this moment, and it seemed that there was only the sound of flowing water in the entire forest.

Just when Sima Yao thought he had heard wrongly, a wolf howl was heard not far away.

Wolves do not live in such a dense jungle, and these wolf howls seemed too regular, obviously made intentionally by humans.

Sure enough, the horse, hearing the wolf's howl, began to become restless and pawed the ground anxiously with its front paws.

The wolf howled louder and louder, and the horse became more and more anxious, and finally let out a panicked neigh...

"Oh no!" Sima Yao knew that their position had been exposed.

He immediately stood up, pulled Gu Nianzhi up, abandoned his horse and fled.

Before they ran far, eight or nine masked men in black suddenly showed up. Judging from their attire, they should be the people who had set up the plan by the river in the afternoon.

Outnumbered and having to protect Gu Nianzhi, Sima Yao soon fell into a disadvantage.

He pulled Gu Nianzhi along and could only fight back while running away.

The forest was dense and the grass was deep. When they reached the hill, they saw a large patch of reeds about one meter tall in front of them. Sima Yao pulled Gu Nianzhi straight into the reeds.

The man in black followed the direction of the swaying grass but lost the two in the darkness.

"No need to chase him. He is in the dark and we are in the light, which is disadvantageous to us."

"But we can't just let them get away like this, right?"

"They can't run away. This patch of reeds is only this big. We can each guard one side and they can't get out. Besides, both of them are injured. We'll know where they are tomorrow morning when we see the bloodstains."