47 Anxiety and Humiliation

"What kind of medicine or herb are you looking for?" Suyin asked, looking around the cold, damp ground. Wansun was looking around the trees and dirt as well, moving his head left and right to make sure that he didn't miss anything.

"It's a flower called the Niaoshao flower." Wansun took out his journal with some sketches of the flower. "I heard that it stays up in the high mountains where the fog lies. Its color is bright pink in the morning, but as night comes in, the flower turns purple, hiding its beauty." He pointed at the flower in the drawing, "I haven't seen it before, but the others had talked about the features of this flower. It is hard to miss since it stands out so much in the fog."

Suyin nodded her head, looking at the flower that Wansun had sketched. If it was something that stood out, then it wasn't going to be that hard. She continued to follow right behind him before the two heard a shriek, causing her to turn around to see nothing but dense fog.

"Wha. That scared me." Suyin patted her chest, assuring herself before she turned around to follow Wansun again. There was nothing but fog in front of her.

"Wansun?" She called out. There was no answer called out from the fog. Suyin turned her head around and looked to see if she could see anyone or anything. The more steps she took in, the more she panicked.

"Wansun!" She yelled aloud.

"I'm over here!" Wansun called out again. Suyin turned her head to the East which was where the voice was called out. "Come over here Suyin! Follow my voice!"

Suyin hurried to the voice of Wansun, reaching a rocky, cave.

"A-Are you in here?" She said a bit freaked out about where it was leading to. She wasn't sure if something was leading her there but Wansun was quiet again. Cautious, she slowly crept inside the cave to see Wansun inside with a girl laying down unconscious. Little candles were the light in the cave, so Suyin hurried to help Wansun at his side.

"There's no pulse," Wansun said, shaking his head. Although the girl was dead, her body was still warm, an indication that she had barely died. Suyin looked at Wansun and then looked at the girl. She had looked familiar as if she had seen her before.

It was one of the ladies that Suyin had helped at the Xinyi Host Inn. Suyin then looked at the girl, recognizing that it the girl that begged to be saved! How did she end up here, though? Suyin couldn't tell Wansun what had happened, since she didn't want to drag him into this mess. All of a sudden, Suyin and Wansun heard some voices outside, one that sounded like someone she had known before.

"Did you finish the job?" someone spoke outside. Wansun looked at Suyin and pointed with his index finger to hush her. Suyin nodded her head, doing her best to breathe slowly.

"The job has finished. She said that she did not find the person who had freed her and the rest of the girls." Another voice replied.

"Damn!"

If it was the girl who she had encountered at the host inn, the only person who would be behind this would be Hwang Liwei, the person who had captured the girls to be put into prison.

"My lord, shouldn't you be getting ready for the wedding with Princess Yanyu." A different person spoke, with low confidence in his voice.

"Stupid! That useless Princess didn't even want to marry me! Having to be declined in front of the King and my father..." Liwei angrily spoke, "She'll see what happens when she becomes my wife."

"My lord! We have found something suspicious over here!"

After that, Suyin and Wansun could hear footsteps getting further and further away from them until silence filled the air.

Wansun took a deep long breath and sighed with relief. "Thank goodness they didn't come in." He said, looking at Suyin.

Suyin was frozen, thinking about what could happen to her dear friend. How in the world did the Princess become engaged with Liwei? Had this always been a thing and she didn't mention it to her? Suyin looked up at Wansun, her eyes unwavering.

"Wansun. I have to go back home." Suyin couldn't think about what could happen to her friend if Liwei ends up marrying her. Whatever his status was to allow him to marry her in another country, Suyin knew that this wouldn't be good if he had control of her.

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Suyin had bid Wansun farewell immediately after the event. Although Wansun had offered to take her back home again, Suyin declined, telling him that she needed to do this herself and thanked him for being such a kind guest. Suyin wanted to go back to Areum to let her know but she didn't want to get stuck with Qin Fuhua again. With no doubt, she did ask Wansun if she could borrow a horse for a quick way to get back to the gates of Yuwei to head back to her home.

It was at Yuwei where Suyin had first encountered Qin Fuhua and realized he was the Prince. It was months ago that had happened but it felt like it was just yesterday that she was still back at home with her parents. Speaking about her parents, Suyin felt troubled coming back home because she would have to encounter the perverted old man who wanted to marry her again. Suyin felt the goosebumps thinking about it as she reached the gates of Yuewei.

"What do you want here?!" The guard demanded, staring down at Suyin who descended from the horse. "How did you get on that horse? Did you steal it?" He questioned Suyin as if she was some sort of criminal.

"Geez, no. I learned.... it." Suyin had to make up an excuse. She had forgotten about the amount of power women didn't have compared to men. She probably had attracted a lot of attention riding a horse out of nowhere from where Wansun had lived (which was very far). "I want to leave." Suyin rolled her eyes as the guard glared at Suyin.

"Who dares to leave without a token of approval to leave the Palace!" The soldier laughed at Suyin, humiliating her. Suyin frowned at him, turned around with the horse following her. That was right. It was pure luck that Areum and Suyin were able to enter the country. How could she ever get out of here to save her friend?

The soldier began to tell the other soldiers, telling them that a woman riding a horse wanted to leave the country as if she had power. They all began ridiculing her, causing Suyin to glare at them all. It was just plain stupid that a woman couldn't do anything they wanted without being judged.

"Was it for Miss Suyin?" Weizhe had walked around the corner, holding the scabbard of his sword, wearing all black as his hair was down. He looked at the guards and then to Suyin, who blinked a couple of times to stare at him. What was he doing here?

The guards quickly began to shut up, knowing his identity as they all stood straight in a line. "What did they say? Needing a token, Miss Suyin?" He asked again. Flustered at the guard's behaviors, she glared at all of them, making faces at them.

Weizhe laughed, lightly scratching his nose as he pointed towards the left of him. Suyin looked in the direction where he pointed to see Qin Fuhua sitting down at the table, drinking a cup of tea outside at a restaurant near the checkpoint.

His eyes ever so cold and fierce as ever, gulping tea. "Tienzheng would like to chat with you" He whispered to Suyin and then fixed his voice. "Ahem. I see that you have been slacking off with your job. Would you all like to be punished by guarding the animal's fertilizer instead?" The guards shook their heads, panicking.

"We are sorry!" They all said, bowing down to Weizhe.

Suyin snickered at the soldiers walking to the table with Qin Fuhua (whose identity is Tienzheng) with a big grin on her face. He poured a cup of tea and handed it to Suyin, calmly looking at the smile at her face. "Are you entertained yet?" He questioned.

Suyin turned around to see the soldiers kneel and turned back at him, only nodding her head with pleasure. "Why are you leaving out of the city?" He questioned Suyin who stopped smiling.

She bit her upper lip, avoiding eye contact with Qin Fuhua. "If you want to go back, you should have told me that you were tired of taking care of my sister." Qin Fuhua was looking at her the whole time, noticing that she had been avoiding eye contact with her. Trying to make her guilty because he knew she didn't talk to him he took another try. "You should have at least told Areum." He then crossed his arms, leaning back at the table as he watched her.

Suyin couldn't hide the truth from him, but she didn't know if he could help her. After all, the two kingdoms were at war with each other. Although, at this moment, both of the kingdoms were on the verge of starting a battle against each other. Somehow whenever she needed help, Qin Fuhua had always been there to help her. Through her lies, she couldn't bear to tell one to the Prince of Qin since Areum was in their hands.

"I... need to go back to save my friend from marrying a monster." Suyin finally spoke, her eyes looking up at Qin Fuhua now. Qin Fuhua was not faltering an inch, observing her as he quietly listened. "It's.... it's not because I wanted to leave, but I need to go back to my hometown to warn her... at least."

"How do you think that will go? After working so hard to run out of that place and here, do you think it's that easy to come and go as you please?"

Qin Fuhua was correct. Everything that he had said was true. If she left this country, it meant that she couldn't come back, and going back to her hometown meant that her parents would eventually find out, causing her to give them a face of disgrace. Suyin slowly lowered her head, lowering her head to Qin Fuhua.

"P-Please help me get me to and from the Long territory please." She softly said. Suyin never asked for help but she felt so helpless even being ridiculed by the soldiers, Suyin knew that she can't do this mission alone. Qin Fuhua only looked at her, then mocked a laugh at her.

A laugh? The Prince of Qin doing that was really out of his character, but was he going to think that he would actually help her? Suyin tried at least, so that's all it mattered. A flying bird mocking a duck works sometimes.

*(Meaning it didn't hurt to try).

"If you know that you were wrong, then that's correct. Going to the territory and coming back is suicidal." he looked at Weizhe who had punished the soldiers for humiliating Suyin and then glanced at her. "If you really want to do this, then let's get married."