After the Alluring Beauty Was Forced into a Political Marriage - Chapter 3

The journey from Chang’an to the grasslands of the Great Xia Kingdom spanned thousands of miles. The wedding procession, carrying a dowry that stretched for ten miles, moved with grand momentum toward the vast frontier.

No matter how unfavored Shen Lianzhi was in the palace, he was still a prince and possessed a delicate constitution. Braving the relentless wind and snow on this journey, Lianzhi suffered greatly. He could not eat or sleep well, lost track of how many times he had vomited, and had grown significantly thinner.

About half a month later, the group reached Yanmen Pass. This stronghold sat at the border between the Great Zhou and the Xia Kingdom. It was a strategic mountain pass surrounded by towering, undulating peaks that looked magnificent and imposing. Now that winter had arrived, the falling snow painted everything white, adding a sense of desolation and gravity to the landscape.

Xiao Anzi jumped down from his horse and lifted the curtain of the wedding sedan. Shen Lianzhi, dressed in red, was asleep inside. He had secretly removed his bridal veil and was curled up in a corner. Even in deep sleep, his brows were tightly knit. His thin lips parted slightly as if he were talking in his sleep. Xiao Anzi leaned closer to listen and, after a long moment, finally made out what Shen Lianzhi was muttering.

“Cousin, Cousin.”

Master and servant shared a deep bond. Hearing this, Xiao Anzi felt a pang of sorrow. He rubbed his eyes and shook Lianzhi awake. “Your Highness, Your Highness.”

“Hmm?” Shen Lianzhi had been in the middle of a dream. Being suddenly woken up left him dazed. He half-opened his eyes to look at Xiao Anzi. “What is it?”

“We have reached Yanmen Pass.”

Once they crossed Yanmen Pass, it would not be long before they reached the grasslands. Shen Lianzhi poked his head out to look, took two glances, and then dejectedly retreated back inside.

The master and servant faced each other in silence. Both sighed, knowing that life in the Great Xia Kingdom would likely be even harder than in the imperial palace.

With a long face, Xiao Anzi said, “I wonder what kind of person that Xia Chanyu is. Your Highness, I heard people say that the barbarians on the grasslands are transformed from wild beasts: they have green faces and long fangs. They are terrifying.”

Lianzhi had never met a person from Xia. He had only seen the distant silhouette of an envoy during a palace banquet in his childhood. That envoy had a burly build and wore a wolf-skin cloak. The wolf’s head had been draped over his shoulder with its eyes still open. It had frightened Shen Lianzhi terribly.

Since then, Lianzhi had associated the people of Xia with demons and monsters. Xiao Anzi mentioning it now brought back the memory of that eerie wolf head, making him shudder. Was he to spend the rest of his life with such a person? Realizing there was no room for negotiation, a surge of despair rose in his heart.

He turned to Xiao Anzi with eyes full of unconcealed fear and reluctance. “Xiao Anzi.”

Having followed him since childhood, Xiao Anzi knew exactly what his prince was thinking. He understood the unspoken words Lianzhi was hiding, and his eyes widened in shock. “Your Highness, do you want to run away from the marriage?”

Shen Lianzhi was startled. “What are you doing? Keep your voice down!” He then asked uneasily, “What do you think?”

“Your Highness, really,” Xiao Anzi said. “You did not say anything earlier, yet you want to cause such a scene now that we are already within Xia territory.”

Lianzhi rubbed the white jade bracelet on his left wrist and said impatiently, “Stop talking nonsense.”

Xiao Anzi gave him a harsh reality check. “What if we run into the people coming to collect the bride while we are escaping?”

“The worst that can happen is death,” Shen Lianzhi said, giving up on hope. “Death would be more comfortable than staying here.”

Xiao Anzi was moved by his words and quietly got out of the sedan. Once night fell and the sentries were fast asleep, Xiao Anzi crept back into the sedan. “Your Highness.”

Shen Lianzhi had not slept at all. He discarded his bridal veil, forcefully tore his skirt for easier movement, and carefully stepped out of the sedan. The two of them sneaked away in the opposite direction, their legs moving as fast as possible without a single pause.

Lianzhi’s heart was in his throat. The grasslands were pitch black, and the snow felt freezing under his feet. His ears twitched, and he suddenly grabbed Xiao Anzi’s arm in terror. “Did you hear something?”

“Your Highness, stop it. Just run.” Xiao Anzi stopped mid-sentence. He froze and slowly turned to meet Lianzhi’s gaze. Both saw terror in each other’s eyes.

A bone-chilling wolf howl pierced the silence of the dark wilderness. Their hair stood on end. Lianzhi mustered the courage to turn around and saw countless pairs of glowing green eyes. It was a pack of wolves.

The wolves arched their backs and slowly spread out, a precursor to an attack. Shen Lianzhi’s teeth chattered and his body went cold. Xiao Anzi was even more useless, as his legs had already turned to jelly.

“Run.” Lianzhi swallowed hard and took a deep breath. He suddenly yanked Xiao Anzi’s sleeve. “Run!”

As soon as the prey moved, the pack gave chase. Lianzhi dragged Xiao Anzi along and ran with all his might. His shoes fell off, leaving his bare feet to step into the white snow. His delicate soles pressed against the coarse, frozen ground, causing sharp pain.

He used all his strength, but he was no match for a pack of prairie wolves. Lianzhi stepped on something sharp, feeling a piercing pain in his foot. He winced and was immediately knocked down by a violent force from behind.

A sudden pain flared in his left shoulder as the thick scent of blood began to spread. Smelling the blood, the wolves became even more ravenous. The wolf pinned on top of Shen Lianzhi opened its bloody maw, aiming for his neck.

“Ah!” Lianzhi instinctively raised his arm to block. However, the expected pain of fangs piercing his flesh did not come. Instead, there was a dull, clacking thud.

Lianzhi heard a crisp cracking sound and summoned the courage to look. That single glance left him devastated: it was the bracelet. The wolf had bitten down on the bracelet his cousin had given him. The white jade bracelet shattered into several pieces, falling into the wolf’s foul-smelling mouth, stripped of its former brilliance.

“Ah! Ah!” Lianzhi watched helplessly as the wolf swallowed the jade. It felt as though a piece of his heart had been carved out. He could no longer feel the physical pain in his body. At that moment, he seemed to lose his fear of death.

He did not run. He simply froze in place and closed his eyes, adopting an air of someone who had accepted a generous death.

But just then, a high-pitched, long eagle cry rang out above his head. His head jerked to the side as a sudden force pulled him around. The tilted phoenix crown on his head was torn off, sending his long black hair flying and fluttering in the wind.

The phoenix crown hit the ground with a clang. Shen Lianzhi looked up through his messy hair and met a pair of deep eyes for a fleeting second. It was only a moment, because in the next second, the mournful cry of a wolf sounded in his ear.

Lianzhi looked back and saw a massive golden eagle. The bird was entirely black except for its snowy white head. Its sharp, dagger-like claws seemed to have a few strands of black hair caught in them. With its beak, the eagle pecked downward, blinding the two eyes of the wolf that had been pinning Lianzhi down.

Before he could clearly see the bloody sockets on the wolf’s face, a cold flash of light passed before his eyes. A spray of warm, wet liquid hit his face. Lianzhi was covered in the beast’s foul blood, and his eyes were stuck shut. Just as he was about to scream, another person grabbed his arm and pulled him away.

“What were you doing lingering on the ground? Why did you not run? Do you want to die?” the man who grabbed his arm asked.

Everything had happened too fast for Lianzhi to see the man’s face. Hearing his voice now, he sounded like a youth, though he spoke with a strange accent that Lianzhi could not quite place. He had no time to think. Having just been pulled back from the brink of death, Lianzhi’s heart pounded so loudly he could hear nothing else.

He was pulled up by the arm again. His eyes were blurred by the blood, making everything appear red. He could only hear the sound of a blade slicing through the air and the snarling of wolves.

“There are too many wolves. Get on the horse!”

A single horse carrying both Xiao Anzi and Shen Lianzhi could not run fast, and the pack was in hot pursuit. Lianzhi wiped his face and could vaguely see the youth running alongside them while swinging his blade to kill the wolves.

Suddenly, a wolf ran to the left side of the horse, jumped, and bit firmly onto the horse’s hind leg. The horse let out a cry of agony from deep in its throat as its leg was bitten off. Just before the wolf could strike again, the youth forestalled it by raising his blade and slashing the wolf’s throat.

The wolf’s blood splattered, melting the snow on the ground. Lianzhi panted heavily. He did not know how long they had been chased. He grabbed a handful of clean snow to wipe his face and looked around blankly. He did not know where he was, but since the sky was nearly dawn, they must have run quite far.

“Xiao Anzi, Xiao Anzi.” Lianzhi had never experienced anything like this. His emotions remained unstable, so much so that his voice carried a hint of a sob. “I am so scared.”

Xiao Anzi was also terrified, but before he could speak, someone spoke up to ruin the mood.

“Since you are so afraid of death, do not come out and make a fool of yourself.”

It was that voice with the strange accent again. Lianzhi instinctively looked toward the speaker. At first glance, he did not see the person clearly, but instead saw the golden eagle standing proudly on the man’s shoulder.

Lianzhi shrunk his neck and touched the back of his head. When that feathered beast had flown over him earlier, it had caused him quite a bit of pain. He was still shaken.

Perhaps because he looked so cowardly, the youth let out a sneer. “Useless.”

Although the youth had saved his life, being pricked by such harsh words repeatedly made Lianzhi feel terrible. He secretly glared at the youth.

That glance was significant. The youth was tall with broad shoulders and long legs. He wore black nomadic clothing with a ceremonial collar. His dark hair was tied high behind his head with several small braids woven into his locks. As the wind blew, the braids and the grey wolf fur on his collar swayed together, giving him a wild and unrestrained look.

As for his face, Lianzhi had assumed that people from the grasslands would be coarse and wild due to the sun and rain. He did not expect the youth to have such fair skin and features that were exceptionally deep and handsome. One could not find a single flaw.

Being stared at by those eyes made Lianzhi feel uneasy for no reason. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he imperceptibly backed away.

“Who, who are you?” Lianzhi’s voice trembled. “Are you a person of Xia? Then, then how can you speak the Han language?”

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