Chapter 453: Farewell
Half-believing and half-doubting, Qiao Mu was pulled back to the chair. After combing through her head of long hair, Murong Xun stretched out her hands to hug her. “Alright, Master has to leave now. You have to take care of yourself well and hurry home, okay?”
Qiao Mu creased her small brow and nodded hesitatingly.
“That’s right, only obedient children are good children! Alright, Master is going now, so be good when you’re by yourself.” Murong Xun nodded in satisfaction and firmly yanked her gaze from her body, turning around to leave without another look.
Soon, the Holy Water Sect’s party departed. Qiao Mu ran out and stood in a daze at the door, yet she kept feeling that something was not quite right in her heart.
She saw the three peak masters leading everyone out, and Yang Xirong and Lu Yun even turned around to wave at her. Everyone’s faces were full of smiles, bidding farewell to her with a wave.
Qiao Mu was very moody and stood there at the door, staring blankly into space for a long time.
She only regained her senses when Mo Lian called her softly, and she turned her head in his direction.
“What is it? Did something happen?” Mo Lian held her small hand and squeezed it lightly.
Qiao Mu contemplated a bit, but shook her head in the end. “Are you leaving now?”
He had left the capital for so long. It was time for him to return.
“How about, I send you back to Xijiu City?” Mo Lian said with a smile.
Huifeng appeared by the crown prince’s side like a phantom and said in a cold and mechanical fashion, “Your Highness, the king has ordered you to return within three days.”
“Three days, can We fly? We can’t fly to the capital even if that were possible?” Mo Lian irritably berated.
At this time in the southern study, the king was presently throwing a stack of lousy memorials to the ground with a headache. “Did you dispatch a rider over at the fastest speed? Did the crown prince give a message, saying when he’ll come back?”
Gong Chang’an miserably knelt to the ground and said while shaking his head repeatedly, “This old servant has already dispatched two more riders!”
“This unfilial son!” The king was so infuriated that he wanted to smash his teacup. However, he then realized that he had already smashed it earlier and that the eunuchs had only just finished cleaning up the fragments.
“Why did he leave so many matters for Us to deal with?”
Gong Chang’an shed tears silently: My King, these matters are what you piled up over these past few days. You really can’t blame His Highness the Crown Prince for this!
“I saw that this unfilial son was quite swift in handling these matters in the past. He would finish looking through three days’ worth of memorials in half a day! Why are there so many today? Come over here to look! Why is this He Qizheng of the Ministry of Works bewailing his poverty again? He has to entreat Us for food every month! We myself almost have to resort to eating rice husks!”
Gong Chang’an: … He really didn’t want to attend to the raging king! Could he just be excused! When the crown prince handled state affairs in the past, the king had never created such an enormous commotion, smashing cups now and then smashing the brush-cleaning cup later. Gong Chang’an lamented how his line of work really wasn’t easy!
“Go and inquire whether that unfilial son has sent back a letter! Did he say when he would return?” The king used his brush to draw a cross mark on He Qizheng’s memorial. Asking for food my ass, there’s none!
My King, you already asked five times today! Someone save me…
Huifeng looked at his master queerly. He didn’t say anything and just gazed at him silently.
Master, if you were to take a detour to Xijiu City, then three days are definitely not enough to return to the capital!
“You should return to the capital with Little Snow.” Qiao Mu reached out to rub the snow leopard’s big head, which had squeezed in between the two people. “Little Snow is fast at running. Three days is probably not possible, but you should be able to get back in four days.”
“I’m not in a hurry.” Mo Lian said gently.