I gave her a final look before following Que’er off the carriage, standing on a small forest path outside Yan Feng city. The driver turned his horse around, the copper bells softly ringing as he gradually disappeared into the misty night.
“Madam, they’re over there,” Que’er led me forward towards two soft, pale yellow light sources.
As we approached, two vermilion-doored carriages became visible, with several tall figures on horseback. Que’er strode forward, and one of the horsemen dismounted, greeted Que’er, and walked towards me.
“Madam, we must set off without delay,” he said.
This person was Tang Wei, whom I had met several times before.
It turned out the Tang family was An Jin’s final chess piece in Qi country. The Qi Emperor would never have imagined that the Tang faction he had carefully cultivated was a long-prepared backup plan by the Secret Department. Nothing could provide better cover than the Tang faction, who were in the jianghu yet trusted by the Qi Emperor.
Thus, An Jin arranged the Tang faction to take the final and most crucial step – escorting me and my family out of Qi country. Ultimately, strategy would always find a way. I suddenly understood why the founding emperor had entrusted the Secret Department to the An family. This meticulous and rigorous strategic approach was probably a divine gift to the An family. My parents, elder brother, Miao Yin, younger sister, Yuan Xiao, and even the previously escaped Xiao Huang – not a single one was left behind. We disguised ourselves, followed the Tang faction’s arrangements, traveled day and night, and after more than ten days, finally arrived at the border town between Da Qi and Nan Rui. Returning to their homeland, my parents were somewhat emotional, never expecting their rare return would be for escape. They now knew roughly about the An family’s identity, only sighing at the unpredictability of life and how it had troubled us two children.
But Miaoyin’s situation was far from good. She was only two months pregnant and had gone through such turbulence, making her body noticeably weaker. Although she had prepared medicinal soup for stabilizing the pregnancy, she was still vomiting severely, unable to eat anything, with extremely strong reactions.
