Chapter 151

After finishing a bowl of wild vegetable porridge bestowed by the Emperor and experiencing a taste of the common people's hardships, the Crown Prince was once again lying lazily on his soft couch.

"Where is Lady Yu?" the Crown Prince suddenly asked. He hadn't seen Yu Qianqian since they finished dinner.

A palace maid standing nearby immediately replied, "Replying to Your Highness, Lady Yu was feeling unwell, so she returned to her tent to rest."

"Unwell? Has a royal physician been summoned?"

"Replying to Your Highness, a physician has already examined her. The physician said the lady's condition is nothing serious and she will recover after resting for a little while."

"Hmm," the Crown Prince grunted, nodding, and said no more.

Meanwhile, deep within the dark forest, a woman lay with her eyes wide open, covered in blood, having been dead for quite some time.

Yu Qianqian was clutching the corpse of a palace maid, frantically absorbing her vital life force.

Just as she began to experience a thrill of pleasure, a sudden "poot" sound echoed through the air, and an indescribable, pungent odor instantly rushed straight to her brain.

Feeling that the life force she had absorbed had been tainted with impurity, Yu Qianqian threw the corpse aside in a fit of rage.

"Who dares to pull such a filthy stunt?"

One second, two seconds, three seconds passed, but the culprit did not appear.

"Abominable!" Yu Qianqian unleashed her signature technique, sending a flurry of fox-tail needles flying wildly in all directions.

"Ouch!" A cry rang out as a large raccoon cat tumbled down from a tree, with a red needle stuck firmly in its backside.

"How audacious of you, mere feline, to dare attack me!" Yu Qianqian growled, marching toward the big raccoon cat.

"I say, you shameless vixen, sneaking out in the middle of the night to feed on humans, you've got quite some nerve yourself," the raccoon cat retorted, arching a paw to pull the large needle out of its rear end. *Hiss—that stings!*

"Hmph, a petty little sprite actually daring to meddle in my business? Since you've seen it, prepare to meet your doom!" Intent on murder surged within Yu Qianqian; anyone who interrupted her cultivation could not be allowed to live.

"Ha! A stinky fox trying to kill me? In a dream!" With that, the two figures lunged at each other.

Yu Qianqian's true form was a red six-tailed fox. She had been on the verge of cultivating a seventh tail, but because that final breakthrough remained stubbornly out of reach, her anxiety had driven her to resort to crooked paths.

The two oversized beasts locked claws, fighting tooth and nail. Before long, the large raccoon cat was bound so tightly by the red fox's six tails that only its head remained visible.

"Stinky fox, let me down this instant!" the raccoon cat spirit wailed, dangling in mid-air.

"Hah, looking at your shallow cultivation, devouring you won't do much for me. But killing you is still better than letting a tiger back into the mountains, so..."

"So you can take me as your personal servant—the intimate kind," the raccoon cat chimed in with its usual shameless grin.

Yu Qianqian: "..." A perverted cat?

"Hah! I don't need a personal servant; I need to eat you!" Yu Qianqian bared a mouth full of sharp teeth and roared furiously at the raccoon cat.

Smeared with a face full of spittle, the upside-down raccoon cat was just about to be dropped into the foul-mouthed fox's jaws when a *whoosh* rang out, and a large roasted chestnut smashed squarely onto the red fox's face. While it didn't hurt, the act was a direct challenge to her authority.

The raccoon cat was dropped back to the ground. Furious, the big fox glared around, failing to spot a single living creature.

"Abom—" Before she could finish, another large chestnut was hurled straight down the red fox's throat.

Choking on the chestnut, the red fox opened her mouth, intending to cough it out or, failing that, swallow it. But the moment she opened her mouth wide, an even larger chestnut was tossed right in.

Finally, the red fox rolled her eyes, her head lolled to one side, and she collapsed to the ground, dead.

The raccoon cat: "???"

What on earth just happened? It hadn't even shown its true prowess yet; how could this stinky fox be so utterly disgraceful?

Later, when the Crown Prince found that Yu Qianqian was missing, he sent people out to search. They discovered the bodies of two palace maids along with bloodstains at the scene. In the end, the case of Lady Yu's disappearance was officially closed, attributed to her being carried off by wild beasts.

Meanwhile, the big raccoon cat hoisted the fox's carcass onto its back, accompanied by two ants riding on a butterfly's back, and headed back to the capital to report the good news to their master.

Back at the camp, the Crown Prince remained melancholy for two days before recovering and returning to the capital with the main army.

Inside the carriage, Fubao was half-asleep when a jolt caused her to bump heads with the Chen family young lady sitting in the exact same posture beside her.

"Ouch!" Fubao clutched her head, instantly wide awake.

The commotion inside the carriage startled the three men riding horses outside, and Bai Zhuo rode over to the carriage window, asking, "What happened?"

"Cousin, it's nothing, just bumped my head," Fubao replied, lifting the curtain.

"Be careful."

"Cousin, when are we going to get home? I'm dying of sleepiness," Fubao said with a wide yawn.

"Not far now. We'll be there immediately, just hold on a little longer."

"Alright..."

Upon returning home, Bai Zhuo discovered that his grandmother and mother had somehow started arranging matchmaking sessions for him. The old ladies had taken matters into their own hands; while he was away from the estate over the past few days, they had been attending opera performances and chatting with various official madams, conveniently scheduling a series of marriage prospects for him.

Ever since Bai Zhuo returned from the hunting trip, his daily routine had consisted of blind dates.

Bai Zhuo: "..." He was going to go mad!

Bai Jie and Fubao, along with the Chen family young lady, were the candidates Bai Zhuo had handpicked to sabotage these matchmaking attempts.

With these three lightbulbs around, Bai Zhuo finally felt life was becoming bearable again.

However, plans never kept pace with sudden changes. On this day, as Bai Zhuo was returning home from the Eastern Palace in a carriage, a shout of "Robbery!" echoed from outside, and he was promptly hoisted away inside a burlap sack.

Wait, what about his coachman? Why hadn't he heard any cries for help?

A moment later—

"Brother Xie, what are you doing?" Bai Zhuo asked calmly from inside the sack.

The person carrying Bai Zhuo froze for a second, coughed twice, and forced a gruff voice.

"Ahem, what Brother Xie? You must be mistaken, I don't know you," Xie Lingyun babbled with a straight face.

"Ahem, Brother Xie, you really need to take a bath," Bai Zhuo said with a slight cough. Who else could possibly reek this heavily of sweat?

Xie Lingyun: "..." How humiliating! He hadn't paid attention to his image in front of his future brother-in-law.

"Can you put me down now?" Bai Zhuo asked again.

"No, you've got the wrong person!" The moment the words fell, Bai Zhuo felt the person carrying him accelerate, practically flying through the air.

Bai Zhuo was speechless.

"Aha, you petty thief! Daring to kidnap people in broad daylight right on the street? Let's see how I finish you off!" Xie Ling菡 had originally been heading home to rest and change her clothes, having been busy preparing for the upcoming imperial examinations.

Instead, she caught someone committing a crime right under her nose, without stopping to think why a man in black would dare carry someone away in broad daylight right in front of her.

Xie Linghan: Was this person provoking her?

Indeed, Xie Lingyun had done it on purpose, hoping to engineer a scenario where his younger sister could play the hero saving the damsel in distress, thereby compelling Bai Zhuo to repay the favor with his hand in marriage.

Bai Zhuo: "..." What on earth is this mess?