Sun Linhua stood up, adjusted her clothes, wiped her tears with a handkerchief, and looked up at Shen Qianshan.
He wore clean clothes and looked dashing, but his emotionless eyes seemed to freeze Sun Linhua.
This made her feel sad because it seemed to her as Shen Qianshan wasn’t so hardhearted to her before.
“Your Highness, please let me go with you. I will be the best helper if something happens.” Sun Linhua made the last try, hoping Shen Qianshan could give her a chance.
However, Shen Qianshan shook his head firmly. He was too kind to the people under him, especially Sun Linhua, who became more and more demanding. Why didn’t she consider who she was and what status she had? He was not a fool, and how could he not know why the woman followed him?
“Linhua, don’t daydream! Behave yourself and stay here, or I will certainly kick you out. Do you hear me?” Shen Qianshan moved close to Sun Linhua. Gu Qiang was standing at the end of the corridor with a steamed bread for breakfast. In fact, she was not very hungry, but she had to eat something for the long journey.
Gu Qiang was not far from Shen Qianshan, but she didn’t hear what he said to Sun Linhua. She only saw him bend over and become close to Sun Linhua. The tasteless steamed bread became more unpalatable.
Shen Qianshan rose, turned around, and met Gu Qiang’s eyes with a poker face. He waved at her and said, “Let’s go.”
Gu Qiang threw away the steamed bread, checked what she needed to take, and then followed Shen Qianshan obediently with her things. She couldn’t control her expression at all and gave him an angry stare. In the eyes of outsiders, the Ninth Duke seemed to be cold-blooded and indifferent to the intimacy between a man and a woman, and nothing was his business.
Perhaps it was beyond the expectation of all people in the capital that he even kept a mistress here. He probably had done everything that a man could do.
The Xiaoyao Mountain was far from the palace. If travelers set off in the morning, they couldn’t arrive until noon. However, thanks to Shen Qianshan’s strong guards and horses, he and Gu Qiang reached the edge of the capital soon.
The carriage went smoothly. Shen Qianshan was sitting opposite Gu Qiang and silently enjoying the view outside the window, with one hand propped against his head and the other holding a cup.
The ambiance in the carriage was embarrassing, but Gu Qiang felt comfortable in such an ambiance.
After the carriage covered a long distance in this way, the guard leading the way cried out suddenly.
Gu Qiang’s body slanted in the carriage. Then something shiny was stabbed at her with the sound of the wind.
At that critical moment, someone grabbed it with great strength. But after catching it, he loosened his grip, and a shiny knife fell on the carpet with no sound. Gu Qiang swallowed hard and then turned around to look at Shen Qianshan restlessly.
Shen Qianshan withdrew his hand, turned around to look at Gu Qiang, and asked faintly, “Are you OK?”
Gu Qiang nodded. Immediately, Shen Qianshan rushed out, stood before the carriage, and saw a group of guys.
These guys timed their attack at this moment because his carriage would enter the capital soon and then they would have no chance to attack them.
Gu Qiang got off the carriage too. Shen Qianshan turned around and ordered her with slight anger, “It’s dangerous. Go back.”
However, Gu Qiang didn’t move. She sat before the carriage curtain and looked at the woman heading the group. She recognized the woman at once. It proved that a woman was crazy to take revenge.
“Miss Sun, do you hate me so much?” Gu Qiang held a cup, which was left by Shen Qianshan on the table inside the carriage. It felt cold and was obviously superb.
She didn’t like to touch things that didn’t belong to her, but the cup was so delicate that each line looked pretty.
It seemed that the woman heading the group didn’t think Gu Qiang could recognize her so easily. Shen Qianshan, who had known her for a long time, stared at her carefully, withdrew his sword, and sighed heavily, “Linhua, what do you want to do?”
She attacked them just because he didn’t agree to take her to the palace, which was not accessible to anyone. If it was found in the palace that Shen Qianshan had his own power, the consequence would be serious.
The Emperor and the Empress Dowager knew Shen Zhongbai and Shen Qianshan had their own force, but in the absence of evidence, they couldn’t force them to admit and thus had to pretend not to know that.
Shen Qianshan was clear about the fact that Sun Linhua was hostile to Gu Qiang and the reason, so he couldn’t take Sun Linhua with him.
“Your Highness, now that you want to take Miss Gu with you all the time, I want to see if she is really so important to you.” Then Sun Linhua rushed towards Gu Qiang, who was sitting in the front of the carriage.
Gu Qiang was drinking tea leisurely and didn’t expect Sun Linhua would attack her. But she was not nervous at all. She took her eyes off Sun Linhua and stared at the cup in her hand silently and attentively.
Sun Linhua was irritated and rushed over to attack Gu Qiang. When she just touched Gu Qiang, a sword was stabbed at her waist. It came from Shen Qianshan and seemed to kill her.
Sun Linhua didn’t intend to avoid the sword because she didn’t think Shen Qianshan would kill her. However, she was wrong. Soon, she found if she didn’t dodge it, it would cut her into two parts.
Therefore, Sun Linhua had to dodge to the side of the carriage.
Shen Qianshan turned around, pointed his sword at Sun Linhua, and asked her in an extremely cold voice, “Do you know what you are doing?”
Sun Linhua lowered her head to look at the point of the sword before her neck. She was close to tears, but she managed to hold them back and looked up at him pitifully, hoping that he didn’t treat her in this way.
He didn’t know what he was doing harmed Sun Linhua. He thought he just stabbed the sword at her neck, but in fact, the sword had pierced her heart in an uncontrollable way.
She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and said with a wry smile, “Your Highness, I have followed you for so many years, but you treat me in this way for a woman you just met a few days before, don’t you?”
Shen Qianshan responded firmly, “Linhua, I’ve been kind to you because I hope that you can work more for me instead of making trouble for me. These guys you bring here today are all my men. It’s ridiculous to attack me with my men. You have only yourself to blame. Jin Ye, take her to the water dungeon.”
Jin Ye jumped down from a nearby tree and caught Sun Linhua. She struggled and realized Shen Qianshan was serious.
“Don’t take me to the water dungeon. Your Highness, you are too ruthless.” Sun Linhua didn’t know what and how she could say to save herself at this moment.
Her respect and love for Shen Qianshan disappeared instantly, and only limitless hate was left. It was acceptable that he didn’t love her, but he couldn’t hurt her or fight her back with her love.
Shen Qianshan put his sword away behind his back. Jin Ye said to Sun Linhua in a low voice, “Miss Sun, sorry to offend you.”
Sun Linhua turned around and glared at Jin Ye as if she wanted to kill him with eyes, but apparently, she was no match for Jin Ye.
“Are you on their side, too?” Sun Linhua asked.
Jin Ye paused. Sun Linhua has lived in the Xiaoyao Mountain for about six years. They always carried out tasks, ate and practiced martial arts together, and they looked after each other like siblings. But now he had to send her into the water dungeon. In fact, he felt sad.
The water dungeon was the most horrible place in the Xiaoyao Mountain and was generally used to lock up criminals. The water was not special and putting criminals inside it didn’t sound horrifying. However, what mattered most was time. After being put in the water for a too long time, the criminals would rot finally.
Now Shen Qianshan sent Sun Linhua into the water dungeon, but Jin Ye believed that he would release her because in Jin Ye’s opinion what she did was not unforgivable.
That was because Jin Ye didn’t know Gu Qiang’s position in Shen Qianshan’s heart.
Jin Ye told Sun Linhua embarrassedly, “Miss Sun, I’m sorry. We both work for His Highness, so we have to listen to him.”
Then he hit the back of Sun Linhua’s neck to make her pass out at once. He carried her on his shoulder, nodded to Shen Qianshan, and flew away.
Gu Qiang kept watching what was going on quietly. When Shen Qianshan turned around to look at her, she looked him into his eyes bravely. She didn’t think she was wrong. Instead, the trouble was caused by the stupid Miss Sun. She had seen many women like Miss Sun.
These women lost themselves because of men. There was such a woman beside Gu Qiang, and that was Gu Zhihua.
How could a woman lose her life for the man she loved? Foolish.