Chapter 99: A Nightmare, and a Letter Left Behind

Where is this?

In a haze of milky white mist, Meng Yuanheng did not know where he was. He only kept walking aimlessly ahead.

Walking? He lowered his head and looked at his own legs, only to find that he could move them with complete ease.

Could it be that the cold poison in his body had been cured? Joy surged through him.

Where was Moer? He hoped the first person to share this happiness with would be her. But where had Moer gone? Why was she not by his side?

Meng Yuanheng looked left and right, yet the world before him was still nothing but white mist; he could not see the figure of Shen Qianmo at all.

Panic seized him. He felt as though he had never known such terror and fear.

"Ah Heng... Ah Heng..." Through the haze, he seemed to hear someone calling to him.

It was Moer's voice!

He gathered his inner power, soared up into the air, and followed the sound in search of her.

The scenery around him gradually became clear. Rocks rose on all sides, the vegetation sparse, fallen yellow leaves carpeting the ground. This was a cliff.

He slowly adjusted to the light, and when he finally saw the scene before him, his mind seemed to shatter, and his whole body trembled.

In the fierce winter wind, the woman standing at the edge of the cliff face, looking as though a single gust might blow her away, could it be anyone other than Moer?

"Moer, come here. It's dangerous there," Meng Yuanheng shouted.

"Ah Heng, you have finally come. Do you know that I have been waiting for you all this time?" Shen Qianmo said to him gently, her lovely face wearing a tender, faint smile.

"I know. Moer, look, my legs are cured. I have come to take you home." Meng Yuanheng also smiled slightly, stepping forward one pace at a time, and held out his hand toward Shen Qianmo.

"All right." Shen Qianmo answered obediently and moved her feet as if to walk toward him.

But in that instant, with a thunderous crash, the rocks beneath Shen Qianmo suddenly collapsed and caved in.

"Ah Heng!" Shen Qianmo's face drained of color. After a cry of alarm, her petite body fell like a broken kite toward the abyss at the bottom of the cliff.

Everything happened too fast for Meng Yuanheng to react. Instinctively, he shot forward, trying to catch Shen Qianmo's falling body. But he was still a step too late. By the time he reached the cliff edge, he could only see Shen Qianmo's drifting form plunging downward, like a light wild goose descending at incredible speed, and then vanishing before his eyes.

"Moer!" A heart-rending cry echoed through the silent cliffside, soaring to the heavens and resounding in lingering reverberations.

"Moer, Moer, don't go... don't leave me..."

Before the medicine-delivering Si Tu Gong had even pushed the door open, he heard Meng Yuanheng's anxious, low cry. Shocked, he hurriedly set down the tray in his hands and stepped forward to look.

There lay his prince upon the bed, his sword-like brows drawn tight, cold sweat beading on his forehead, his mouth calling over and over for the princess consort. It was obvious he was trapped in a nightmare.

Si Tu Gong let out a deep sigh.

Alas, he truly did not know how he would face the prince's anger once he awoke.

Seeing him troubled by the nightmare, Si Tu Gong was hesitating over whether to wake him when Meng Yuanheng suddenly shouted "Moer" and woke with a jolt.

He opened his eyes, turned his head, and saw Si Tu Gong standing beside the bed. For a moment, he seemed confused. Supporting himself with both hands, he sat up, pinched the bridge of his nose to ease the lingering dizziness, and slowly remembered how things had begun.

Damn it! Moer had actually drugged him!

His gaze sharpened like fire as he glared at Si Tu Gong and rebuked him harshly, "Si Tu Gong, you have quite the nerve! Where is the princess consort? Where is she now?"

With a thud, Si Tu Gong dropped to his knees and said tremulously, "This subordinate deserves death. Please forgive me, Your Highness! The princess consort... the princess consort she... departed with the army yesterday for Jingyang Pass."

She had already left yesterday! So he had been asleep for an entire day!

In an instant, anger, worry, urgency, and self-reproach all surged through him.

Just how dangerous was Jingyang Pass? Even he could not predict it. Meng Tianluo's schemes, He Liancheng's strength—none of it was under his control. And yet Moer had gone there alone. How could he not be anxious?

He stared at Si Tu Gong with a face dark as iron, his eyes like blades, and said each word in a voice of winter frost: "Si Tu Gong, you joined with the princess consort to drug and scheme against me, causing her to go into danger alone. You... what punishment do you deserve?"

Si Tu Gong's heart tightened. The prince was truly furious this time.

He had served as the estate physician at the Azure Radiance Prince's residence for more than twenty years, in a sense watching Meng Yuanheng grow up. Precisely for that reason, Meng Yuanheng had always treated him with a certain respect in ordinary times and had never spoken to him in such a tone, calling him by both given and family name.

In all the years Si Tu Gong had known him, whenever his own prince spoke in an even, measured voice, enunciating each word carefully, it meant he was in a fury beyond measure.

Hastily lowering his head, he took a letter from his sleeve pouch and handed it to Meng Yuanheng, forcing himself to remain calm as he said, "Please calm your anger, Your Highness. This is a letter the princess consort left for you before she departed. Please take a look."

To Si Tu Gong, this was no ordinary letter, but a talisman for his life.

The princess consort had said that if the prince woke and flew into a rage at him, he should take out this letter and give it to him. Alas, whether it would work or not, he had no idea.

Moer had even left him a letter? Though Meng Yuanheng's anger had not yet fully subsided, upon hearing that it was a letter Shen Qianmo had left for him, he immediately snatched it from Si Tu Gong's hand and unfolded it to read.

The white paper still carried the fragrance of ink, and the delicate small-character script was the handwriting he knew so well. The fire in Meng Yuanheng's eyes dimmed a little.

From beginning to end, he read the letter without missing a single word, only to feel as though his heart had been gently stroked by Shen Qianmo's slender hand, leaving him aching and deeply moved.

She said she had already come to regard the Azure Radiance Prince's residence as her own home, and everyone in it as family.

She said she would wait for him at Jingyang Pass, wait until his legs were healed, until he could mount his horse, whip it onward, and ride to take her home.

She said that once he had brought her home, they would marry, and from then on join hands side by side, roaming the world together.

His long fingers lightly brushed over the graceful characters on the page, and the tenderness in his eyes deepened and deepened.

His Moer was so considerate, always thinking of others. She must have feared that he would blame and punish the servants of the Azure Radiance Prince's residence, and feared too that once he awoke, he would ignore everything and chase after her. That was why she had left this letter.

At the thought of this, Meng Yuanheng's expression gradually softened. He asked Si Tu Gong in a low voice, "The medicine?"

At his words, the great stone hanging in Si Tu Gong's heart finally fell to the ground. It seemed this letter from the princess consort had truly worked; the prince seemed much less angry.

He rose at once and handed over the medicinal broth.

Meng Yuanheng took the bowl, tilted back his head and drained it in one gulp, then asked, "How much longer until the treatment is finished?"

Si Tu Gong bowed and replied, "Fifteen days remain."

Meng Yuanheng frowned and issued a decisive order: "At most five days. I will depart for Jingyang Pass. Prepare everything."

That dream from earlier had been so vivid that even now his heart was still trembling faintly. No matter what, he could not rest easy leaving her alone at Jingyang Pass for so many days. If he could, he would truly set out at once and chase after her.

But he could not betray Moer's painstaking devotion. The more he thought of what awaited him, the more eager he became to cure his leg, to spend the rest of his life with Moer, hand in hand.

Moer, just endure five days at Jingyang Pass. In five days, I will come to meet you.

Si Tu Gong wore a deeply troubled expression. The prince's meaning was clear: he intended to abandon the final course of treatment.

Although this would not affect his ability to gather strength and walk, it would more or less influence the effectiveness of the cure. As for exactly how much, even he could not know.

He had wanted to persuade him further, but after stealing a glance at Meng Yuanheng's face, he truly did not dare defy his prince's decision any longer and could only leave with a helpless acceptance of the order.

It seemed he would have to think of a way to make the treatment as complete as possible during these last five days.

While Si Tu Gong racked his brains in thought and Meng Yuanheng lived each day as though it were a year, Shen Qianmo was already traveling with the army at full speed, riding day and night without pause toward Jingyang Pass.