Besides, they had no time to pay her much attention. Assassins kept coming at them in wave after wave, leaving them struggling just to protect themselves, and their numbers suffered heavy losses.
After days of traveling, even with Cheng Yao’s ginger soup to replenish their energy, everyone was utterly exhausted.
The group of exiles had come to a standstill in the mountains and forests, the oppressive atmosphere resembling the stillness before a storm.
The guards sat astride their horses, impatiently urging everyone forward. Their whips cracked through the air from time to time.
“If you don’t want to be whipped, move!”
The exiles were driven and shoved onward, stumbling over the uneven ground.
“Rumble!”
The heavy rain that had been brewing for so long finally arrived.
Cold rain slanted down like a dense woven net, wrapping the entire procession tightly.
The wind drove the rain into their collars. Everyone’s clothes had long since been soaked through and clung to their bodies, the cold biting straight to the bone.
In the distance, the mountains were hidden in a vast curtain of mist, as though the endless rain had washed away their boundaries.
The muddy road had been soaked until it was soft and slippery as paste, making it terribly difficult to walk. Shao Yutong gradually fell behind the others.
Rainwater blurred her eyes, making them sting painfully.
She hurried after the group in a pair of tattered cloth shoes, but her foot suddenly slipped. Her entire body pitched forward uncontrollably.
With a splash, half her body slammed into the muddy water. The icy muck instantly covered her cheeks, mouth, and nose, making her cough violently.
A guard pointed his whip at her and shouted, his voice crashing down through the rain. “If you can’t keep up, get lost!”
Shao Yutong braced herself on her trembling arms and tried to rise, only to slip again. Her palm scraped against a stone, the pain piercing straight through her—but even that pain could not compare with the regret churning in her heart.
She simply collapsed into the mud. Water streamed down her face, and she could no longer tell whether it was rain or tears as it dripped from her chin into the sludge beneath her.
Her mother had been cast out. She could have stayed at home.
But her days there would not have been easy, and her stepmother would have held her marriage over her head. It was better to follow her mother into exile. Once this journey was over, she would be free.
Besides, the heir had asked her to approach her eldest male cousin and help him regain his spirit. He would then secretly provide assistance, and in the future, the entire Zhan family could be used to further his cause.
She had thought the plan feasible, so she agreed.
She had her own private motives as well. Even if the heir failed to keep his promise to marry her as his principal wife, she would already have her eldest male cousin to rely on. When the time came, who would she be unable to marry?
But she had never imagined that this road would be so difficult, or that her eldest male cousin’s family would harbor such deep hostility toward her!
Nor had the heir’s people appeared at all!
She regretted it. She regretted abandoning the comfortable life at home to insist on following them into exile, only to end up in such a miserable state!
The more Shao Yutong thought about it, the more she hated herself.
Her hands, once untouched by any household chore, now clawed fiercely into the filthy mud.
No matter how calculating she might be, she was still only a fourteen-year-old girl who had never weathered any real hardship.
At that moment, she gazed at the procession ahead, blurred by the curtain of rain. Not a single person had turned back to look at her.
Unable to hold herself back any longer, she covered her face and burst into helpless sobs.
Her cries were drowned out by the rain, leaving only her shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Along this road of mud and misery, where was there any future? She had been the one to shatter her good life with her own hands, taking one step after another into an abyss with no end.
Zhan Haochen had actually been walking just ahead of her, but he had paid her no attention.
Yet as he listened to her despairing sobs, he remembered how she had sincerely accompanied him that day to search for his younger sister and mother. His hatred for her slowly began to fade.
His heart was torn between opposing thoughts, but in the end, he could not bring himself to remain heartless. He turned and walked back.
“Get up! If you keep crying, I’ll leave you here to feed the wolves!”
He picked up a stone and threw it beside Shao Yutong. Mud splattered onto her face.
She shuddered in fright, and her sobs stopped abruptly.
When she saw that it was him, surprise flashed across her face, quickly followed by delight.
She seemed to have discovered Zhan Haochen’s weakness—he was softhearted and placed great importance on loyalty and affection!
Biting her lower lip, she once again pushed herself up on arms that had long since lost their strength. The mud beneath her feet suddenly gave way, and her body fell heavily backward.
The pain she expected never came. Instead, she crashed into a warm embrace.
She looked up in shock and met Zhan Haochen’s troubled eyes. A blush slowly spread across her pretty face.
“Ninth Cousin, I…”
Zhan Haochen said nothing. He carefully avoided the injury on her wrist, supporting her arm with one warm hand while his other hand firmly steadied her waist and pulled her upright.
“Watch your step. The road is slippery.” Zhan Haochen kept his face cold, but his brows drew tightly together when he touched her hand. “How did you get so cold?”
As he spoke, he actually took off his outer robe, leaving himself in nothing but a thin inner shirt.
Ignoring her stunned expression, he wrapped the robe around her.
“Though it’s wet, it can still give you a little warmth.”
He supported her arm and deliberately slowed his pace, testing the ground ahead for her with every step. In a low voice, he said, “Stay with me. Walk slowly. Don’t be afraid.”
“Ninth Cousin…”
Shao Yutong’s eyes suddenly grew hot.
Before this, she had only wanted to use him. But now, feeling the warmth of his palm and seeing the concern in his eyes, her throat tightened.
Her resentment and regret were thrown into confusion by this unexpected tenderness.
Zhan Haochen felt uncomfortable beneath her heated gaze. “You don’t need to thank me. I’m merely doing what any man ought to do.”
Shao Yutong smiled through her tears, her clear eyes shining brightly.
Not far away, Cheng Yao watched coldly. Then she suddenly cried out, “Husband, why are you so cold?”
Zhan Haochen immediately grew anxious. He snatched the robe from Shao Yutong’s shoulders, leaving only a hurried “I’m sorry,” before striding over to dress Zhan Haoting in it.
Shao Yutong: “…”
The robe she had only just warmed was suddenly taken away. Though its warmth had not yet faded, the emptiness spread straight into her heart, tearing open the wound that had only just begun to heal.
To gain something and then lose it was far more painful than never having had it at all!
In the past, she had never taken Cheng Yao seriously. But from this moment on, she would carve Cheng Yao’s name into her heart and make her the first person she would deal with!
…
The rain grew heavier and heavier. Just as everyone felt that the cold and exhaustion were about to swallow their consciousness, the guards sent ahead to scout finally found an abandoned village and returned to urge the procession inside.
The curtain of rain wove across the sky, shrouding the entire village in a damp, icy gray haze.
At the entrance stood an old locust tree, its branches bare and twisted as they pointed crookedly toward the sky. A few rotten leaves clung to the branches, swaying in the wind.
The muddy path had long since lost any discernible shape. Only a few deeply sunken flagstones showed through, their surfaces slick with moss.
Now and then, a few crows roosting on the crumbling walls were startled into flight by the approaching footsteps. Their wings flapped noisily as they took to the air, leaving behind several hoarse cries before vanishing into the endless rain and mist. The village seemed even more desolate and silent.
Most of the houses had earthen walls that had already collapsed halfway. The remaining thatched roofs were riddled with holes, allowing rainwater to pour directly inside. Puddles covered the floors.
Amid the broken walls and ruined buildings, only one old residence with two courtyards still stood, barely holding together. Its black-painted gate was mottled and peeling, exposing the rotten wood beneath. On the lintel, the two characters “Feng Residence” had been gnawed away by wind and rain until only half of the blurred wooden plaque remained, like a toothless mouth silently gaping open.
Everyone trudged through the rain, relying solely on the last shred of strength they had left.
The moment they stopped, the strength went out of them. They staggered and swayed, while sobs and coughs pierced the curtain of rain.
The bailiff wiped the water from his face and cursed roughly, then pointed his whip toward the residence.
“It’s here! We’ll spend the night here and leave in the morning. Don’t go wandering around, damn it!”
With one kick, the bailiff sent the main gate flying open. Its creak cut through the silence, sending the snakes, insects, rats, and mice inside scurrying in every direction.
