With the whistle, lights soon appeared outside the Cold Palace.
“What happened?”
“Someone climbed over the wall and escaped!”
“After them!”
Duoduo took off running, sprinting forward without a care for anything else.
The wind rushed past her cheeks.
She couldn’t help thinking of the first time she had followed Yingniang and been chased by her tutor during training.
It had been just like this.
Her heart racing, her breathing quickening.
Duoduo loved the feeling of running.
Because there was wind.
But being chased by someone was not nearly as pleasant.
As she ran, Duoduo kept glancing back.
Her pursuers were still far away. She could only make out the flickering glow of their lanterns.
There were countless hidden guards in the palace, though very few in this area around the Cold Palace.
But with such a commotion coming from the Cold Palace, the hidden guards would certainly notice soon.
Duoduo ran very carefully, doing her best to stay in the shadows.
Unfortunately, the moon was exceptionally bright tonight, as if it too had come to watch the excitement.
Suddenly, a hand reached out from the corner of a wall and pulled An’an away.
An’an covered her mouth, nearly crying out in surprise.
Anyone whose nerves were stretched taut would be startled half to death by a hand appearing out of nowhere.
“Shh! It’s me!”
Duoduo recognized the familiar voice.
It was Xiao Che.
The Eighth Prince.
Duoduo stopped moving.
At that moment, she heard the sound of clothes slicing through the air, and someone quickly ran past.
Duoduo was a little surprised.
That person was so fast!
Even faster than she was!
Curious, Duoduo couldn’t help wanting to poke her head out and take a look.
But just as she moved, someone grabbed her.
Xiao Che pulled An’an along and slipped into a narrow passage from around the corner. He led Duoduo through a maze of twists and turns before finally pushing open the door to a palace chamber.
Xiao Che shut the door and pressed himself against the crack, warily watching the outside.
An’an also leaned against the door, listening to the sounds beyond it.
After a long while, the commotion outside gradually faded away. Only then did the two of them let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.
Xiao Che seemed to stumble slightly. He walked over to a nearby chair and sat down, then lifted a teacup and took a sip.
Duoduo looked around the palace chamber curiously.
There were no candles lit inside. With only the moonlight shining in from outside, she could barely make out the furnishings.
Duoduo noticed how familiar Xiao Che seemed with the place and blinked.
“Is this where you live?”
After downing a cup of cold tea, Xiao Che finally calmed down.
He nodded and set the teacup down.
“Why weren’t you asleep in the middle of the night? What were you doing over there?”
“Those people just now… were they chasing you?”
“What earth-shattering thing did you do?”
Xiao Che studied Duoduo suspiciously.
Since Duoduo was standing with her back to the door, Xiao Che couldn’t see the expression on her face.
The only thing he could see was her large eyes, gleaming brightly in the darkness.
Duoduo blinked her big eyes and walked over to sit in another chair.
She had run for so long that she was a little tired too.
“What if I tell you I was sleepwalking? Would you believe me?” Duoduo casually came up with an excuse.
Xiao Che’s eyes widened. “Sleepwalking?”
“What is sleepwalking?”
Duoduo scratched her cheek.
Uh…
“Sleepwalking” was Aunt Xu and the others’ way of putting it.
“Mm, it’s wandering syndrome!” Duoduo explained off the top of her head.
Xiao Che straightened up. “You have wandering syndrome?”
Duoduo blinked. “I suppose so.”
“Anyway, I somehow ended up here without knowing how.”
Suspicion and sympathy appeared in Xiao Che’s eyes.
Duoduo lowered her gaze and pressed her lips together.
This Eighth Uncle was so easy to fool?
The room fell silent.
It was so quiet that the only sound was the chirping of insects in the corner.
Duoduo tilted her head and listened carefully.
The commotion outside seemed to have disappeared.
It was as if nothing had happened at all.
Duoduo noticed that the moon’s reflection on the floor had shifted.
She began to grow anxious.
“I have to go back!” Duoduo stood up.
Xiao Che remained seated. “You can’t go out right now!”
“Why?” Duoduo didn’t understand.
“With all that commotion just now, the palace will definitely increase its patrols.”
“If you go out, you’ll certainly be questioned.”
“What will you say then?”
“Who would believe that someone wandered all the way from Cining Palace to the Cold Palace?”
Duoduo raised her head and looked at Xiao Che.
She had thought the Eighth Uncle was easy to fool, but now she realized that he hadn’t believed her excuse at all.
“If I don’t go back, my maid will be worried!”
“What if Great-Grandmother finds out? She’ll be worried too!”
Duoduo couldn’t bear to imagine how frantic Qingliu would become if she discovered in the middle of the night that Duoduo had disappeared.
“Thinking about all that now won’t do any good!” Xiao Che said with merciless coldness.
“All you can do is pray that your maid isn’t stupid enough to make a scene in front of Grandmother!”
As soon as Xiao Che finished speaking, he saw Duoduo clasp her hands together, close her eyes, and begin to pray.
Xiao Che’s gaze deepened as he watched her.
Just now, in the darkness, he had seen a figure race past as swiftly as lightning.
If the moonlight had not happened to illuminate Duoduo’s face, he never would have guessed that the person was Changle.
In Xiao Che’s impression, Changle was merely an ordinary little girl.
A classmate who was always smiling, and who would find a way to retaliate whenever someone bullied her.
She was also a lively and adorable little niece, somewhat mischievous and fond of having fun.
Nothing about her resembled the person he had just seen.
Even if he had been given ten thousand chances, Xiao Che would still have found it difficult to connect that figure from moments ago with the little girl standing before him.
The girl in front of him had her eyes closed, her lashes lowered.
The pure moonlight happened to fall across her face through the window, making her seem as untouchable as a lotus flower.
Her face was full of devotion, and the childish innocence in her features made people instinctively want to grant her every wish.
Why would someone so kind and beautiful appear in the Cold Palace?
The moment that question occurred to him, all of Xiao Che’s earlier emotions vanished.
Having survived in the palace until today, he had naturally seen all kinds of people.
Naturally, he would not easily believe everything he saw.
Hearing was believing, seeing was believing.
Yet in the palace, sometimes even what one saw with one’s own eyes was not necessarily the truth.
It was precisely because Xiao Che possessed this sense of caution that he had managed to survive until now.
Duoduo was truly praying.
If Lüdou had been the one who followed her here today, she would not have been worried at all.
But Qingliu was different.
Duoduo lowered her hands and sat back down in the chair, lowering her head as she began to think.
How could she sneak back to Cining Palace without letting Great-Grandmother find out?
Duoduo felt that she had been too impulsive tonight.
She should have found a reason to go to the Cold Palace openly and honestly.
Just like when she had proposed looking at the register.
The moon’s shadow shifted farther and farther away, until at last it disappeared beyond the window.
The room immediately sank into darkness.
However, the sky outside was slowly beginning to brighten.
Xiao Che had been sitting with his eyes closed, resting, but suddenly he stood up and walked over to Duoduo.
