Quick Transmigration: Why did you provoke him? He's love-struck!

Chapter 500 Relying on Favor (45)

Xie Ying stared intently at Yan Zhen.

The woman before him had the same face and the same person, yet she was so unfamiliar that it startled him.

Why did she become like this?

"Do you still remember your identity? You are a princess, and your mission is to marry her for the sake of the entire Great Liang..."

"Is a marriage alliance my mission?" Yan Zhen interrupted him. "Is it just my mission alone?"

"You're still complaining that I sent you to marry a foreign ruler instead of Jinyu?" Xie Ying's eyelids twitched. "She's your sister, and she's in poor health. Going to the Northern Jurchens would mean certain death..."

"She's not in good health, so what about my brothers?" Yan Zhen looked at him sarcastically. "The Northern Jurchens have a strong preference for men. They only said they wanted someone of royal blood, but they didn't specifically name me or Tan Jinyu. Why have you never considered sending a prince to marry into the royal family?"

Xie Ying: "..."

His face grew increasingly pale.

“Actually, you all know better than anyone else that the marriage alliance is just an excuse for the Northern Jurchens. What they need is a hostage, regardless of gender. Because I am a woman, I am not as valuable as a man, so I deserve to be pushed out as a hostage.”

Yan Zhen said coldly, "Moreover, if a marriage alliance is really that important, why haven't you sent the princess over there for the past three years since I disappeared?"

"..." Xie Ying was speechless.

Seeing that his momentum had weakened, Yan Zhen put away his aggressive attitude and said, "Now that things have come to this, there is no point in bringing up these old grievances. May I ask, Lord Xie, what do you intend to do with me, this traitorous princess?"

Xie Ying remained silent for a moment, then asked instead of answering, "What do you want?"

"Of course I want to go back to Zhao Yuan's side."

"That's impossible!" Xie Ying said. "Come back to the palace with me."

"Then you might as well kill me right here."

Xie Ying frowned: "Are you really that inseparable from Zhao Yuan?"

"It's not that I can't leave him. With my current status, going back to Daliang would only lead to my death. I'm too lazy to travel thousands of miles back to Daliang, endure a humiliation, and then be forced to commit suicide with a bad reputation."

"No!" Xie Ying said, his expression softening. "If you're willing to come back with me, I'll pretend that the events of the past three years never happened."

"Oh? Then how does Lord Xie plan to explain to the officials and the people where I have been for the past three years?"

Xie Ying pondered for a moment, then said, "Just say that you had an accident on the way, lost your memory, and were taken in by a farming family until now..."

Before he could finish speaking, Yan Zhen burst out laughing.

"Do you believe that as soon as this news reaches the palace, within half a day, the rumors that I pretended to have amnesia to avoid a political marriage and married a peasant boy as a princess will be all over the place?"

Xie Ying seemed a little annoyed: "His Majesty and I will protect you and will not let such a thing happen! Why do you think so badly of the civil and military officials and the people of Daliang? They are your subjects. They are too busy supporting and cherishing you, the princess they have finally found. Why would they want to slander you? What good would that do them?"

"It's not good for them, but whether it's good for others is another matter."

Xie Ying asked in confusion, "What do you mean by that?"

"Before asking these questions, Lord Xie, you should first investigate where the token that I have been given, which can command the Xie family's elite soldiers, came from," Yan Zhen said. "Let me make this clear: I will not go back with you. Even if I die, I will die in the territory under the command of the Tingzhou Army."

Xie Ying: "..."

His gaze was fixed on Yan Zhen, his eyes filled with coldness.

After a while, Xie Ying summoned a maid: "Please, Princess, go and rest."

"Yes."

Yan Zhen was taken to a side room in the backyard.

As Yan Zhen walked through the halls and courtyards, he observed his surroundings discreetly, trying to deduce his current location based on the slightest clues.

Based on the time it took her to be abducted and arrive at this house, and considering the house's distinctly Yunzhou-style decor, Yan Zhen deduced that she was still within Yunzhou.

However, they may have already reached the border between Yunzhou and Qingzhou.

Yunzhou's territory is shaped like a large triangle, bordering Tingzhou, Qingzhou, and Jingzhou on three sides. Qingzhou is now part of the Great Liang Dynasty's territory. If Xie Ying takes her to Qingzhou, it won't be so easy for her to return to Yunzhou.

Zhao Yuan is currently in Jingzhou. Even if he travels day and night at the fastest speed, it will still take him three or four days from receiving the news of her abduction to rushing back to rescue her.

With little hope of him coming to save her, Yan Zhen pondered that she had to find a way to save herself.

But before she could figure out a plan, she fell ill—on the way to be captured, she had been jostled on horseback for several hours and exposed to the cold wind for several hours, and soon after nightfall she developed a high fever.

The maid Xie Ying sent to look after her discovered this and reported it to Xie Ying.

Xie Ying immediately sent someone to fetch a doctor, while he himself rushed to Yan Zhen's room.

On the couch in the side room, Yan Zhen was covered with two thick quilts, but he was still so cold that his face was pale and he was shivering all over.

This scene caught Xie Ying's eye, and his expression turned serious.

"Bring in a few more basins of charcoal," Xie Ying instructed the maid, then quickly walked to the bedside, sat down, and took Yan Zhen's hand. "Jun Zhuo? Jun Zhuo?"

Yan Zhen was so feverish that he was delirious, feeling as if he were in a frozen wasteland.

The hand held by Xie Ying became the only source of warmth in the cold.

She unconsciously rubbed against the heat source, pressing her cheek against the back of his hand.

Xie Ying: "..."

His heart softened, and most of his resentment towards Tan Junzhuo for joining the rebels to survive vanished, leaving only heartache and pity.

Ultimately, this was a woman he had watched grow up, and the two had once been engaged.

Before the Northern Jurchens proposed the marriage alliance, he had imagined that the two of them would live like most ordinary couples in the world, respecting each other, loving and harmonious, and growing old together.

He liked Tan Junzhuo.

So much so that even after she shot him through the shoulder with an arrow, learned that she had betrayed the country and joined a rebel king, and now intended to assassinate the king and seize the throne, he still couldn't bring himself to hate her.

Now that things have come to this, all he wants is to take her back to the palace.

As for the past three years, he will act as if nothing happened.

As Xie Ying was lost in thought, the person holding his hand murmured something softly.

Xie Ying didn't hear clearly, so she leaned down and asked softly, "Jun Zhuo, what did you say?"

“…Zhao Yuan, I’m cold,” Yan Zhen mumbled. “Hold me.”

Xie Ying: "..."

When the doctor arrived at the room, Xie Ying was standing to the side with his hands at his sides, staring at the woman on the bed with a somewhat indifferent expression.

Seeing that he looked unwell, the doctor and maid did not dare to say anything. One took his pulse and the other brought cold water, wrung out a wet cloth and applied it to Yan Zhen's forehead.

After taking Yan Zhen's pulse, the doctor administered acupuncture and prescribed medicine before sending him to the outer room to await further instructions.

The maidservant bustled about, changing the handkerchief on Yan Zhen's forehead every fifteen minutes.

Xie Ying had been standing idly by, but seeing that the maid was too busy to manage both preparing medicine and taking care of Yan Zhen, he realized that she was struggling to keep up.

He didn't know what he was thinking, but after a long while he sighed softly and took the handkerchief from the maid: "I'll do it, you go and brew the medicine."