Chapter 1822 - 1808

Feng Luo irritably pressed the pillow over her own head, and the noise in her ears immediately dulled a lot.

But the quiet was only temporary; before long, footsteps sounded again.

Only this time, the footsteps were closer and lighter!

Feng Luo’s heart gave a jolt. The footsteps were inside her room. She slowly opened her eyes and stuck her head out from under the covers. Before she could see clearly what was going on, her vision suddenly went black, and she fainted on the spot.

Ru Xue’s cold eyes rested on Feng Luo. Her slender fingers slowly slid lightly across Feng Luo’s cheek. "What a delicate little face. If it weren’t for the fact that you’re still underage, I’d be tempted to carve two lines across it."

The corner of her lips hooked up in a dangerously amused smile as she hefted Feng Luo off the bed without the slightest effort.

Her movements were quick, leaving no trace behind.

On her way back, Ye Liang was standing guard, alertly watching the surroundings. From afar she saw Ru Xue sprinting toward them, a person slung over her shoulder.

Ru Xue came up to her and said, "Got her. Let’s move."

"Alright!" Ye Liang brought up the rear, and just like that, they took Feng Luo away.

The next day, as usual, Chu Ge woke up and went to the beach to practice. Those who still didn’t know he’d been released saw that he dared to "break out of prison" and immediately rushed up to surround him.

"What are you all doing?"

Chu Ge frowned and asked.

"Doing what? You’re a serious offender for trespassing into the Forbidden Land! You should be in a cell right now, not lounging around here exercising!"

"Anyone can see you broke out of prison! You’re really something—breaking out and not running someplace quiet, but coming to the most crowded spot instead! Let’s see where you think you can run now!"

Chu Ge instantly understood. He shook his head in amusement. "You can go ask your Prince whether I’m still a serious offender for trespassing into the Forbidden Land."

"What do you mean?"

Everyone looked at him in puzzlement, as if waiting for him to explain.

"You don’t know what happened last night? Around midnight your Prince let us out. I’m a free man now. I can go wherever I like."

They looked at one another. Last night had indeed been eventful, but they hadn’t heard anything about Chu Ge being released.

"Don’t listen to his nonsense, he’s just trying to muddle things!"

One of them suddenly shouted.

Chu Ge cast him an approving look and nodded lightly. "Not bad, you’re pretty alert. But it’s a pity I’m telling the truth. If you don’t believe me, go ask the Prince, or ask whoever was on duty last night."

No one moved. They just kept exchanging glances, but nobody went to ask.

"What? With so many of you watching me, you still think I’ll run?" Chu Ge smiled. "I’m just a doctor, can’t even truss up a chicken, no way I can beat all of you. So you don’t need to be afraid—just go find someone and ask."

Chu Ge shrugged and stood there without the slightest intention of running. That calm, self-possessed expression on his face made people waver.

"He doesn’t really look like he’s lying, does he?"

Someone muttered under his breath.

"Yeah... maybe we should just believe him?"

At this hour, who dared disturb the Prince? That was just asking to die.

Chu Ge saw right through their thoughts and guessed accurately that they didn’t dare go to the Prince. He shook his head slightly and said with a smile, "Alright, I won’t waste words with you. Anyway, you’ve got so many eyes on me, I can’t run. Since you don’t dare see the Prince, why not start training first and ask him when he wakes up?"

Everyone nodded in agreement. "Right, right, we’ll wait till the Prince is up to ask."

"He can’t get away anyway, so there’s no rush!"

In fact, the Prince was already up. Like everyone else, he liked to train early, though he did so elsewhere. And in the mornings his temper was foul; none of them dared to disturb him. Only the Deputy Generals would go near him, and there just happened to be no Deputy General here.

The Old Gang Leader had also woken up early—or rather, he hadn’t slept a wink all night. Rubbing his eyes and looking exhausted, he walked out of his tent and from a distance saw Chu Ge surrounded by everyone, the scene lively as could be.

He came over with a grin and asked, "What’s the gossip this early in the morning?"

Chu Ge turned and glanced at the Old Gang Leader, noticed how unwell he looked, and asked in concern, "Old Gang Leader, are you alright? You don’t look so good."

"I’m fine. It’s just this eyelid twitching nonstop. I’ve got a bad feeling."

The Old Gang Leader lifted his gaze to the distant sea, frowning slightly. "The calmer the Wind and waves get, the more uneasy I feel."

To be honest, Chu Ge felt the same. He sighed lightly, frowned at the Old Gang Leader, and said, "To tell the truth, I also feel like something’s about to happen. It’s too quiet here, like the calm right before a storm."

"We all need to be more careful with what we do, or we’ll end up in a pit someone dug for us and get our asses grabbed."

Chu Ge nodded. "Where’s Feng Luo? She’s not up yet?"

"How could she be up at this hour? She went to bed so late last night. She’s probably still sleeping. It’s fine—nothing much is going on in camp right now anyway. Let her sleep a bit more."

The two of them chatted by the sea for a while, then the Prince sent someone to summon them.

It wasn’t for anything else, just to discuss what to do next.

"I thought it over all night and decided to trust you—for now. But for what comes next, I need you to give me a flawless plan."

Chu Ge gave a small shake of his head. "There’s no such thing as a flawless plan, and right now we don’t have any clear leads."

The Old Gang Leader immediately coughed and shot Chu Ge a warning look, reminding him to mind his words. Chu Ge understood.

He cleared his throat lightly and added, "In fact, there’s no need for an especially perfect plan. We scouted the island yesterday. As long as, when the Time-Space Gate is opened, no outsiders come to cause trouble, we’ll be fine."

The "outsiders" he mentioned were Ru Xue and Ye Liang. Chu Ge knew it; the Prince knew it too.

The Prince nodded slightly and, after a brief moment of thought, said, "Understood. Don’t worry, I’ll assign more men to guard and have them captured."

The Prince seemed to recall something. He looked up at Chu Ge and asked, "Chu Ge, when did you first notice the Princess Consort was off?"

She had been at his side all this time, and yet he hadn’t sensed a thing. Thinking about it now, if she’d set her sights on him... the consequences were unimaginable.

Sure enough, the word ’lust’ is a blade hanging over your neck; one careless moment and someone’s already got a knife to your throat.

"A long time ago." Chu Ge couldn’t quite remember when. He only recalled that he’d followed Ye Liang to the Prince Manor, and then seen Ye Liang and Ru Xue talking in a room for a very long time.