Xi Qingyue and Lu Qianning were chatting and laughing as if they were about to kill the Fourth Prince and hang him at the palace gate, leaving Luo Ling beside them utterly stunned. Did they think the imperial palace was some small place you could just waltz in and out of?
Afterward, Lu Qianning looked at Xi Qingyue with curiosity. "When did you figure out my identity?"
She felt she hadn't left a single clue. From any angle, she didn't look like a princess.
Xi Qingyue thought for a moment before answering, "Quite a while ago, I think. At first, I only suspected you were a young lady from a noble family, but later I became certain."
Lu Qianning nodded, but then she added, "I didn't lie to you. My name really is Lu Qianning. Wenqing is just my title."
She still felt the need to explain herself to Xi Qingyue. She didn't want to be mistaken for a liar.
The moment she said that, Xi Qingyue and Xi Weilan exchanged a glance. Both of them had given fake names, hadn't they?
Their unconscious eye contact made Lu Qianning suspicious. Were these two using fake names with her? Had she been tricked by a couple of kids?
Luo Ling's lips twitched as well. All the adults had given their real names, yet these two children had given fake ones. After all these years in the palace, she'd apparently been wasting her time.
Lu Qianning paused for a moment but didn't plan to ask for their real names. Xi Qingyue didn't volunteer them either. Instead, it was Xi Weilan who spoke up.
"Sister Lu, my older sister's name is Qingyue. She wasn't wrong to tell you Yueqing. Our surname is Xi. I'm Xi Weilan, and everyone usually calls me Little Lan'er. The names you call us don't have to change at all."
Lu Qianning thought about it carefully. Yue? Little Lan'er? Indeed, those hadn't changed. These two really were sneaky little rascals.
She ruffled Xi Weilan's hair with a smile. "Little Lan'er is right. It's all the same."
Xi Qingyue then smiled at Lu Qianning. "Since we've cleared that up, I do have something I'd like to ask you, Sister Lu. You don't mind, do you?"
"Of course not. Ask whatever you want, but let's find somewhere else first." Lu Qianning glanced around, signaling that there were too many people here.
Xi Qingyue swept an icy gaze over the crowd, and every pair of eyes that had been watching quickly looked away.
She had her abilities, so she wasn't afraid of eavesdroppers, but she still nodded. "Fine, let's move somewhere else. There are too many corpses here."
With that, they left the relay station.
Xi Qingyue and Xi Weilan sat at the front of the mule cart, with over a dozen horses following alongside, while Lu Qianning and Luo Ling rode their horses beside them.
After traveling for about a quarter of an hour, they steered the cart and horses onto an empty patch of grass beside the main road.
"Alright, ask whatever you want to know." Lu Qianning had the demeanor of someone ready to answer anything. She didn't think there was anything worth hiding anymore. She'd already publicly exposed the royal family's infighting and collusion with foreign enemies. What was there left to keep secret?
Xi Qingyue's eyes lit up, and she cut straight to the chase. "Sister Lu, are you heading back to the capital to take revenge? How do you plan to do it?"
At the mention of her enemies, Lu Qianning's eyes turned cold. She said calmly, "Yes, some grudges must be settled. Traitors deserve death—the Fourth Prince, killed. The Tenth Prince, crippled. And the Eldest Prince—a batch of assassins seemed to have been sent by him. Once I confirm his connection to Northern Yue, he'll be killed too."
Xi Weilan stared at her with wide, curious eyes. "Sister Lu, they're your elder brothers. If you kill them, will the Emperor have you executed?"
She was young, but she knew princes were the Emperor's sons. Losing three at once seemed like a big deal.
Lu Qianning scooped her up into her arms with a bright smile. "Don't worry. Killing someone doesn't mean you have to announce it to the world. You just use whatever means to get the job done. They betrayed their country, so it's only natural they'd be killed by some righteous swordsman who happened to take offense. That has nothing to do with me."
Xi Weilan clapped her hands in praise. "I get it! Just like me and my sister—we wiped out those bandits to uphold justice."
Lu Qianning laughed at her words. "Right, Little Lan'er is so smart, already upholding justice at your age."
Xi Qingyue smiled too, listening to the two of them talk. It seemed Lu Qianning was also someone who repaid grudges—she could even go after her own brothers. Good, that was the right attitude.
But she still asked one more question. "You had people plaster evidence of the Fourth Prince colluding with Northern Yue all over the city. What if the Emperor decides to punish you for it? That's practically stomping the entire Great Jing royal family's face into the dirt."
Lu Qianning curled her lips in a mocking smile. "I just revealed the truth ahead of schedule. I didn't make anything up. The Emperor's too busy dosing himself with elixirs to care about the lives of his children."
She spoke of the Emperor with particular disdain, as if he weren't her father at all.
Xi Qingyue dropped the royal family topic and turned to Northern Yue instead.
"If you hadn't been framed in Northern Yue, would you have actually settled down and lived out your days with the Northern Yue Emperor?"
That was something Xi Qingyue was genuinely curious about. Lu Qianning didn't seem like that kind of person.
Hearing this, Lu Qianning let out a sigh. "Alas, I'm a princess of Great Jing. Since I've enjoyed the privileges of being a princess, I have to fulfill a princess's duty. Besides, at the time, I thought my 'good' little brother was being poisoned and tricking me. I couldn't just watch him die, so I had to agree at first. But who knew—the poisoning was something they'd planned together. To them, I was just a tool."
How could she have known her own brother would conspire with outsiders to set her up? He was worse than an animal.
And her dear father—spending his days chasing immortality and pills was bad enough, but why wouldn't he just abdicate? He did nothing, yet refused to step down. Great Jing was rotten from the top down.
Thankfully, she'd had her own plans and preparations for the trip to Northern Yue. Otherwise, she'd have died there.
Xi Qingyue gave her a look of deep sympathy. Ah, poor thing. What rotten luck.
That look made Lu Qianning speechless. "Alright, now ask what you really want to ask."
"Fine. Sister Lu, I just wanted to know—when Little Lan'er and I go to the capital, will we run into arrogant bullies everywhere picking fights? And is the palace food really better than what you get outside?"
Lu Qianning wore an expression of "I knew it." She knew the kids only cared about food and fun. Those earlier questions were just to satisfy their personal curiosity.
She thought it over carefully before replying seriously, "Bullies aren't everywhere. Even when they do cause trouble, they're usually harassing young men and women. Two little kids like you generally won't be bothered, so don't worry."
"As for the imperial kitchen, there are some decent delicacies in there. If you like, I can bring some out for you when we're at the palace."
Xi Qingyue decisively shook her head. "No need. I was just asking. We're not short on food—right, Lan'er?"
Xi Weilan hurriedly nodded in agreement. "That's right. Me and my sister have plenty to eat. We can buy things with silver too."
Lu Qianning stared at the two of them suspiciously for a moment. Two food fanatics turning down free palace snacks? Had they changed their ways?
Xi Qingyue, meanwhile, was thinking to herself: "Since there are no bullies looking for trouble, I can go take a walk, sit Little Lan'er on the dragon throne, and sample every delicacy in the imperial kitchen. That would be wonderful."
