Chapter Ninety-Seven: Taking You as a Secondary Consort

"System, I finally understand what makes Big Black different!"

Chu Bing rubbed at her aching waist as she leaped down from Big Black’s back. Since setting out this morning, Big Black had not rested even once.

Just for that ironclad endurance, Chu Bing felt no ordinary horse could compare with it.

The system’s mechanical voice sounded. "Host, it is already night. Traveling after dark is unsafe. Find a place to rest."

They had covered a great deal of ground today, and Chu Bing was exhausted as well; how could she possibly refuse?

She gathered some dry branches and lit a campfire, then took out some dry rations and leaned beneath a tree, eating idly.

"System, I keep feeling like someone has been following me the whole way."

At the very least, she was a martial artist. After eating that cleansing fruit, her senses had improved dramatically, so she could easily hear the faintest sounds around her.

The system was just about to answer when Chu Bing suddenly sprang up from the ground. The earth gave a faint tremor beneath her feet. Her expression turned grave. "A lot of people are riding this way."

A large mounted force... either bandits or soldiers.

Neither was friendly toward Chu Bing.

She quickly stuffed the dry rations back into her bundle and, lifting her skirt, prepared to climb a tree.

Behind her, Big Black let out a plaintive neigh.

Chu Bing turned back helplessly. "Big Black, I can’t carry you up a tree too!"

Big Black turned around, presented her with its hindquarters, and let out a loud fart.

"You insufferable prick!" Chu Bing snorted. Helplessly, she led Big Black toward a patch of brambles, just about to hide it there, when hoofbeats were already right upon them.

"Hongxiu!" a familiar male voice rang out.

Chu Bing’s body stiffened.

"Hongxiu, I have searched for you for so long. How could you be here?" Ren Changfeng jumped down from his horse, looking at Chu Bing with evident excitement.

Chu Bing wanted nothing more than to throw her head back and ask the heavens why fate treated her this way.

Of all the people she could run into, why did it have to be Ren Changfeng?

Ren Changfeng had already reached her. Seeing the face he had dreamed of day and night, he nearly went red-eyed. Trembling with emotion, he seized Chu Bing by the shoulders and said in a hoarse voice, "The day I saw you fall off the cliff, I immediately led men to look for you, but we... we never expected to see you alive again. I... Hongxiu, this time, I will definitely take you home!"

He pulled Chu Bing into his arms, his voice breaking. "You don’t know, when I saw you leap from the cliff, I thought you were dead. I almost... Thankfully, you’re still alive."

Chu Bing twitched her mouth and tried to wriggle free from Ren Changfeng’s embrace. All she could smell was the thick scent of blood on him, and she truly could not accept it.

"Look, Brother, calm down first."

Chu Bing pushed hard at Ren Changfeng, but it was as though he had devoted all his strength to holding her. Her face flushed crimson, yet it made no difference.

Seeing Chu Bing’s reddened face, Ren Changfeng only thought she was shy. His heart softened, and after taking a deep breath, he said slowly, "Yes, I must calm myself. Now that you are back, nothing could be better."

Though he said that, his arms around Chu Bing only tightened.

Chu Bing ground her teeth in fury.

She wanted so badly to punch him.

At that moment, a chill wind passed by, and Ren Changfeng shivered.

No one noticed that not far away, atop a large tree, a figure was silently watching them, black eyes seething with anger.

After a long while, Ren Changfeng finally let Chu Bing go. He stepped back two paces and studied her carefully, his gaze clinging to her face as though he could not bear to look away.

Chu Bing felt deeply uncomfortable. She turned sideways and pretended to study the ground. "Lord Ren, it is late, and I still have to be on my way, so I will take my leave—"

"Sir, I have a few words. I wonder if I may ask Miss Hongxiu something."

One of Ren Changfeng’s subordinates stepped forward and studied Chu Bing with a strange expression, neatly cutting off her words.

Chu Bing froze, only then noticing that Ren Changfeng had brought quite a few soldiers with him, and they were all standing behind her now, staring.

A chill ran down her spine.

With so many people watching her... how was she supposed to get away?

Ren Changfeng glanced at his subordinate, annoyance in his eyes. "What is it?"

The subordinate cupped his hands and looked at Chu Bing, his gaze suspicious. "Miss Hongxiu, we searched the cliff where you and Li Yuxi fell. We found no path leading back up. How did you get out? And where is Li Yuxi now?"

Ren Changfeng’s expression darkened as well. His mission was to kill Li Yuxi, the traitor who endangered the court.

Earlier, Li Yuxi and Chu Bing had fallen off the cliff together. Though their fate had been uncertain, the chances of survival had been slim. But now that Chu Bing had returned, what about Li Yuxi? Could he still be alive?

Ren Changfeng looked at Chu Bing and asked gently, "Hongxiu, tell me, is Li Yuxi dead or not?"

Chu Bing glanced at the soldiers surrounding her and decisively put on an innocent expression. "I don’t know. After I fell off the cliff, I found a small path that led back up, but I never saw Li Yuxi."

Her voice in the night was especially soft, like that of a girl untouched by the world. Many of the soldiers had blood on their hands, yet even they could not help but lower their guard around her.

But the subordinate standing before Chu Bing still watched her with suspicion. "Does Miss Hongxiu truly know nothing?"

How would she know where Li Yuxi was now? And besides, she certainly could not tell these people that she had saved Li Yuxi herself, or they would not merely skin her alive.

Before Chu Bing could think of how to explain, Ren Changfeng had already stepped in front of her with a dark face, glaring at his subordinate in rage. "What do you mean? You suspect Hongxiu?"

The subordinate was taken aback and lowered his head helplessly. "Sir, it is simply that everything is too much of a coincidence. And now we have encountered this woman here as well. Do you not find that strange?"

Not only him—Chu Bing herself wanted to complain about this ridiculous coincidence.

She had no desire whatsoever to run into Ren Changfeng and the others!

Yet Ren Changfeng looked at Chu Bing with deep affection. "This is fate between Hongxiu and me."

He took her hand, his voice tender as water. "Hongxiu, rest assured. This time, I will protect you well. I will not let anyone harm you. Once we return home, I will marry you and make you my secondary consort!"

The moment those words fell, the way everyone looked at Chu Bing changed.

A secondary consort—if she bore a child in the future, that child might even become the heir!

Moreover, Lord Ren was loyal to the nation and fought on the battlefield; he was the hero in the hearts of countless women. In the capital, so many young ladies were willing to become concubines just to marry him. Yet now, some obscure woman could become a secondary consort?

If this were ever known in the capital, the daughters of those high-ranking families would go mad!

Chu Bing noticed that several female soldiers were looking at her with a trace of jealousy and resentment.

She curled her lip and flatly rejected Ren Changfeng. "Lord Ren, you have misunderstood. We merely happened to meet by chance today. I was just about to return to the Li estate, and I have not the slightest interest in becoming your secondary consort."