The Princess Cannot Escape: The Cunning Prince Is Not to Be Messed With

Chapter 29 has a sour taste.

"This one is so ugly! She looks just like Sister Feng!"

"This is too beautiful, it's unrealistic!" With that, Yin Quan slammed the register shut and tossed it back into the brocade box that Pang Ban had been holding all along. She clapped her hands and gave Xiahou Ying a smug smile: "You're welcome!"

"Escaping an arranged marriage is a serious crime, an insult to the imperial authority and the prestige of the nation." Brushing away the fingers she held out in front of his eyes, Xiahou Ying moved his lips, the gentleness gone from his refined and handsome face, replaced by his unwavering indifference and aloofness.

“Xiahou Ying…”

“But…” Just as Yin Quan was about to retort, he abruptly changed the subject, interrupting her.

"The Imperial Advisor's poor judgment allowed the fugitive traitor Lu Xun to launch a sudden attack, causing the wedding ceremony to be interrupted and the whereabouts of the betrothed princess to be unknown. Are you satisfied with this explanation?"

After speaking, Xiahou Ying raised his chin and looked at her. His dark eyes seemed to be filled with floating clouds, and with the help of a ray of bright, pale golden sunlight, they revealed a translucent rainbow, as captivating as the morning glow.

Looking into his bright and sparkling eyes, Yin Quan opened her lips, but her gaze remained fixed on his thin lips, which were still somewhat pale, and she couldn't look away no matter how hard she tried.

The more she stared at those thin lips, the more frustrated she became.

She experienced none of the feelings described in the novel, but the feeling in her heart was the most profound.

Damn it, I should have pounced on him when he was defenseless... Now... given Xiahou Ying's personality, he'll probably never give me another chance.

"Opportunity knocks but once," Yin Quan thought, feeling so frustrated he wanted to tear his hair out.

"Barely..." she said with a heavy voice, shrugging her shoulders.

As if sensing her fervent regret and lingering gaze, Xiahou Ying suddenly recalled the scene of their lips touching not long ago. A barely perceptible blush appeared on his handsome face, which was slightly pale due to excessive depletion of his inner strength, like the rosy dawn about to disappear into the sunlight, tinged with a faint pearly sheen, lustrous and alluring.

Seeing the subtle and ambiguous atmosphere that had suddenly become between the two, Wei Jun and Pang Ban quietly withdrew in silence, leaving only the two people at the front gate, one looking down with lowered eyes and the other looking up with raised eyebrows.

Suddenly, Xiahou Ying leaned forward, and his thin lips, which were faintly pink and like roses after the rain, were magnified in front of her. This made Yin Quan's eyes go blank and her mind go blank. Even her usually proud tongue became stiff.

She pursed her lips, swallowed hard, and cried out in her heart: Don't come any closer, don't come any closer, if you come any closer I won't be able to control myself...

Staring at her slender face, which was slowly turning rosy, Xiahou Ying suddenly stopped his forward movement, his thin lips parting into a narrow line: "If you do not marry, three months later, I will be ordered to marry one of the people on that register."

"No, you're cursed with loneliness, bringing misfortune to your wife, husband, and entire family. Don't harm them." Yin Quan's previously shrugged shoulders suddenly slumped, and she spoke dryly, her gaze towards Xiahou Ying returning to normal.

Upon hearing this, Xiahou Ying touched his chin with his slender fingertips, straightened up, and looked at her with a hint of barely perceptible amusement: "What's that smell?"

"Hmm? What's that smell? I can't smell anything." Looking around, Yin Quan frowned.

Looking away, Xiahou Ying put his hands behind his back, his clear voice like a breeze in late autumn, brushing past Yin Quan's ear: "Can't you smell it? I think there's a sour smell to it."

"Sour? How come... Xiahou Ying! Are you implying that I'm jealous?!" Yin Quan exploded.

"You admit you're jealous?" With a slight upturn of his lips, Xiahou Ying walked past her unhurriedly, stopping after descending the stone steps and saying calmly, "From now on, you are not allowed to sit here, obstructing passage."

After saying that, he turned and left, leaving Yin Quan, who was filled with resentment, behind.

She gave him the middle finger at his tall, straight back, then suddenly remembered his chilling warning. Reluctantly, she withdrew her hands and tucked them into her sleeves, pouting.

Gazing at his elegant figure, as graceful as a pine tree, from afar, she frowned, thinking: Just now he looked so frail and easily knocked over, how come he can jump around on the bed now... Could it be an act?

Should we come along?

I guess I'll just forget about it...

That guy had four guards with him; at worst, he'd only lose an arm or a leg, not his life.

As she was pondering this, the wrinkles between Yin Quan's brows suddenly deepened.

Damn it! Why does she even care about that germaphobe's life or death?!

She needs to get out of here right now! Now, immediately!

Five miles west of Zhaoyang City, in the hunting grounds, a huge, pure black canopy was held up, beneath which sat a man dressed in the same color finery.

The man's face was as white as a diamond, his skin glowed, and his phoenix eyes were slightly closed, as if he were resting.

He leaned back slightly against the nanmu chair, his long, jade-like, translucent right hand tapping lightly on the armrest, seemingly following a certain rhythm.

Sitting next to him was an elderly man with gray hair and beard, whose facial muscles twitched slightly from shock and anger.

The old man's figure was somewhat strange, as if he couldn't move. His body was facing forward in a strange, stiff state. His old face, full of wrinkles and faint marks, had a sorrowful expression, which contained a cold anger.

"Lord Ding, do you know the joy of hunting?" A lazy voice slowly sounded in my ear. The man in black robes spoke with his lips slightly parted, and his eyelids, which were originally slightly closed, also lifted up slightly.

"When a leopard hunts sheep, it strikes an adult sheep with a single blow to the throat; when it encounters a cub, it captures it alive. You, sir, often accompany His Majesty on autumn hunts outside the palace, you must know the significance of capturing them alive." Gu Lounan's voice was always so nonchalant, as if he were not focused, and languid.

As they were talking, three ragged, blood-stained figures suddenly burst out from the hunting grounds in front of them. The three figures stumbled and fell from the bushes into the quiet scene, like an extremely sharp dagger flashing with a blinding cold light, stabbing directly into everyone's anxious hearts and mercilessly severing the extremely taut strings of their hearts.

“Lord Liang, if I were you, I would keep a close eye on you. You might need this when you go hunting with His Majesty in the future.” A voice filled with laughter suddenly rang out after a brief silence. At the same time, the person furthest behind him suddenly moved his arm, which he had raised to block his view, upward and wiped the thin layer of sweat from his forehead.

As they spoke, the three figures drew ever closer to the group sitting at the edge of the hunting ground. Suddenly, one of them went berserk and charged toward Gu Lounan at incredible speed, screaming through his blood-filled mouth, "Gu Lounan! You have harmed the loyal and virtuous! You have formed cliques for personal gain! You have destroyed my Ding family! I will fight you to the death!"

Seeing the blood-stained figure rushing towards him like lightning, Gu Lounan remained expressionless, his pale fingers maintaining the same rhythm as before, without even trying to dodge. He sat there like a demon immersed in black poisonous fog, his phoenix eyes narrowed as he watched the figure approaching him. After a while, a smile appeared on his lips.

Gu Lounan's smile was as warm as a spring breeze, carrying a hint of appreciation.

"All of you, step back." He suddenly spoke when the boy was still ten feet away from him.

A gust of wind rustled through the leaves, and the ministers, who were filled with dread, seemed to have seen something yet also seemed to have seen nothing at all.

“Lord Ding has done a good job of educating his son, it’s just a pity…” Gu Lounan looked at Ding Haichang, and as he spoke, the boy ran forward several more feet.

Ding Haichang, the Vice Minister of War, had bulging eyes with bloodshot sockets, and his old face was twitching almost distorted, as if he were about to spasm.

The boy was getting closer and closer to Gu Lounan, and it seemed that the distance between the two was only a foot. Suddenly, with a muffled "plop", the boy's body stopped abruptly, his eyes widened in shock, and blood trickled down from the corners of his overly open eyes, like a tear of blood, burning into the hearts of all the officials sitting there with a scorching flame.

Just then, a loud "snap" rang out, and the boy's figure disappeared, replaced by a spray of blood and flesh that covered Ding Haichang's face and body, instantly turning him into a blood-soaked figure.

Behind him, the officials, who had not expected this, vomited in a heap. The usually vigorous old man could not even straighten his back.

Standing up expressionlessly, Gu Lounan waved his hand, and a guard appeared suddenly like a black mist.

"Dispose of it."

After saying that, he adjusted his wide, dark sleeves, looked up at the sky, and muttered to himself, "It's going to rain."

Yin Quan, now free, wandered aimlessly through the streets. At that moment, the sky was covered with thick clouds, a harbinger of impending change.

The stalls on both sides of the street had mostly been packed up, with only the shops still open. Even the tea stall where she used to tell stories had put away its tables and chairs.

Bored, she wandered around until she came to a pharmacy. Suddenly, she became interested and walked up the steps.

"What medicine does the young lady want?" The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man, wearing a dark blue coarse cloth jacket, who looked honest and simple.

"What kind of medicine do you have here?" As Yin Quan paced back and forth in front of the rows of drawers, she suddenly noticed that at the center of the cross-shaped seam of each drawer, there was a small animal, a bird, or a rabbit drawn.

"Do you have quicklime?" Subtly lifting her gaze from the drawer, Yin Quan looked at the man, a faint smile always on her face.

Upon hearing this, the man seemed clearly surprised that she would mention this. He paused for a moment, then quickly replied, "Yes, please wait a moment, young lady." As he spoke, the man bent down, took out a paper package from the innermost drawer, and handed it over. Just as Yin Quan reached out to take it, a slender, pale hand suddenly flashed before her eyes and took the paper package away.

"Quicklime? You think this stuff can do anything to Xiahou Ying?" Gu Lounan grinned and tossed the package in his hand, his charming phoenix eyes flashing like starlight.

"Who said I was going to use this to deal with him?" Yin Quan said, reaching out to grab it. Gu Lounan raised his hand high, his smile widening.

"Oh well, you can have this. I don't want it anymore. Boss, do you know who he is? He's the famous Grand Preceptor Gu Lounan of the Western Liang Kingdom. Ask him for the lime money, and while you're at it, ask him to write a calligraphy piece, paint a picture, take a photo with you, or something. I guarantee your business will be booming and your family will be thriving!" After saying that, Yin Quan lifted her foot to leave, but unexpectedly, someone behind her stepped on the hem of her skirt.