Chapter 240: The Battle For The Capital

The next morning, Xie Wei was nowhere to be found.

The space beside her pillow was empty.

When Jiang Xuening opened her eyes and sat up, she noticed that her hair, damp from the previous night, had been carefully dried by someone. After spending hours talking with Wei Liang outside the city, encountering Zhang Zhe at the city gate, and then tending to an “ancestor,” her mind had been in turmoil, and she couldn’t even recall how she had fallen asleep.

This was originally Xie Wei’s room.

But as expected, he must have left instructions, for Tang’er and Lian’er, the two maids, were already waiting outside to serve her, along with Jian Shu.

After breakfast, Zhou Qihuang came to check her pulse.

She found it odd and asked, “What’s this for?”

Jian Shu bowed and said, “Before leaving, the master instructed that since you were out in the wind yesterday, he was concerned you might catch a cold and asked doctor Zhou to examine you.”

Jiang Xuening then remembered to ask, “Where is your master?”

Jian Shu didn’t dare meet her eyes and replied softly, “An urgent report came from the front lines before dawn, and the master left for the army before first light.”

He left before dawn?

How “clean and efficient”!

Jiang Xuening was momentarily stunned. In both her lifetimes, this was the first time she felt like she’d been taken advantage of and left hanging. She nearly rolled her eyes in frustration. She had planned to calmly discuss their future, including matters of marriage, with Xie Wei that morning after some careful thought.

Who would’ve thought he’d run off at the crack of dawn?

She mulled it over for a while but couldn’t figure out whether she or Xie Wei had come out worse in this mess.

It was all a muddled account, impossible to sort out.

Jiang Xuening laughed in exasperation, pressing her slender fingers to her temples. As her gaze wandered, she inadvertently noticed Jian Shu’s lowered eyes and cautious demeanor, as if he knew something. Her thoughts stirred slightly.

Last night, Xie Wei had been acting strangely.

At the time, her mind had been blank, too overwhelmed to think much of it, but now, recalling it, she spotted the clues.

She suddenly asked, “Does he know I went to see Lord Zhang last night?”

Jian Shu hadn’t expected Jiang Xuening to ask so directly and nearly broke out in a cold sweat. His mouth opened, but he didn’t know how to respond.

But Jiang Xuening no longer needed his answer.

From Jian Shu’s evasive, flickering gaze and his reluctance to speak, she already understood.

To call Xie Ju’an a vat of vinegar would be an understatement.

This man was an entire sea of vinegar.

He could stir up waves without any wind, tormenting himself with his own thoughts.

But upon calming down and reflecting, she felt she almost understood him.

Xie Wei was different from her.

Though they shared similar experiences, she had never possessed anything from the moment of her birth. In her previous life, she had yearned to possess things, but once she had them, she realized they were nothing special. In this life, she no longer chased after things deliberately, and whatever she was fortunate enough to have, she cherished with gratitude. But Xie Wei had once had everything, only to lose it all in a calamity during his youth.

Thus, everything became a scar.

He lived in this world without the slightest sense of security, so he’d rather never possess anything again. But what if he did possess something?

A faint sourness welled up in Jiang Xuening’s heart. After Zhou Qihuang checked her pulse, she only said to Jian Shu, “When your master returns, let me know. I have something to say to him.”

Jian Shu’s scalp tingled at her words.

But he didn’t dare speculate on what “something to say” meant and could only lower his head and agree.

Normally, discussions or trips to the army took only half a day.

Jiang Xuening thought she’d see Xie Wei by the afternoon.

But unexpectedly, let alone the afternoon, she didn’t see him the next day or even the day after!

When she asked, she learned that in just these two or three days, Xie Wei, who would typically stop to rest for ten days or half a month after reaching a city, had acted entirely out of character. Together with Yan Lin, he swiftly reorganized the troops, unwilling to delay even a single day. On the dawn of the third day, they marched directly toward Baoding Prefecture, where the Tianjiao sect was currently based!

When Jiang Xuening first heard the news, she almost thought Xie Wei had lost his mind.

But upon calming down and thinking it over—

What would the Tianjiao sect do upon learning of the Xinzhou army’s movements? They could either stop and face the Xinzhou army head-on, but Wan Xiuzi, already terrified of Xie Wei like a startled bird, would likely avoid a suicidal clash that would only benefit the imperial court. Or, like a beast driven by a hunter, they would be forced to flee in exhaustion, rushing to attack the capital before Xie Wei and Yan Lin could.

Xie Wei wasn’t mad.

He was simply tired of waiting and was forcing Wan Xiuzi to attack the capital!

On one hand, Jiang Xuening had just pieced together this realization; on the other, Xie Wei, who hadn’t shown his face for three whole days, finally reappeared.

The carriage was already prepared.

Yan Lin was at the front lines.

Xie Wei entered the room and reached out to her. “Let’s go.”

Jiang Xuening was still looking down at a music score. Seeing him extend his hand, she instinctively placed hers in his before asking, “What for?”

Xie Wei gazed at her, pulling her to her feet.

His voice was calm, but the meaning behind it was earth-shattering. He said only, “To take you to kill.”

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