Madam Yan's Matchmaking Pavilion for Men

73 A Guilty Expression, To the Hideout

Author's Note: With this one, it's just ten more chapters until we'll reach the end!

---------------------

There was already a big commotion when Yu Huang Rong left the forest with Zhang Shi Lan in his arms. Some people had rushed back to the camp right after them or had come over to the place where the ambush had happened since they had heard the sounds of the fight.

The news of what had happened traveled fast just as they had originally planned. But Yu Huang Rong couldn't care less. Right now, while he still didn't know if this was just following the plan or if the bad feeling he had was truly right and there was more to this than he had thought, he just wanted to bring Zhang Shi Lan to somebody who could help him as soon as possible. There were physicians in the campgrounds but just when he wanted to leap out of the saddle and bring him over, Luan Xin stepped out of his tent, directly looking at him.

Yu Huang Rong tensed, his hold on Zhang Shi Lan tightening. He stared at Luan Xin, trying to glean from his expression whether or not this had been his intention.

Luan Xin stared back at him, taken aback. There was blood dying Zhang Shi Lan's robe and clinging to Yu Huang Rong's body as well. In fact, the two of them had left a trail on the ground behind. Is this was truly a grievous wound ... His face paled.

Seeing this expression that seemed laden with guilt, Yu Huang Rong didn't dare to stay. He jerked at the reins of his horse and then rushed away, not informing anybody where he was going.

Luan Xin stared after him, his hands trembling slightly before he woodenly turned around and went back into his tent, heavily falling onto a chair. She Ning raised his head, looking at him questioningly. Luan Xin closed his eyes and wiped his face, not sure what to think.

Meanwhile, the people that had returned to the campgrounds couldn't help but whisper to each other, their gazes unwittingly drawn to the emperor's tent every now and then. Nobody wanted to say it out loud but there was only one explanation why Yu Huang Rong would take away a person that was this heavily injured instead of having him treated in the camp.

They didn't want to believe it though. The fact that Yu Huang Rong and His Majesty had had a good relationship wasn't exactly secret in the capital. If the emperor was able to go so far as to have this person ambushed, then what about their own small lives? They didn't even have that kind of relationship with him so wouldn't they be dead for sure if they incurred his wrath somehow?

As for Zhang Shi Lan, they only had one thing to say: Too unlucky! Obviously, this little scholar that hadn't yet taken up his position at the Academy wasn't worth it to have the emperor make a move against him. It could only be that he had gotten into the fight between these two behemoths and thus gotten injured. It truly was his bad luck.

Among the people that finally rushed back to the camp were also Yu Huang Rong's and Zhang Shi Lan's fathers. Mister Zhang anxiously went to inquire about his son's situation but people were only giving him pitying looks as if it was a given that his son wouldn't make it.

Well, there had been way too much blood. A frail scholar might not be able to make it. If the same injury had happened to General Yu, then things might be different. But as for the scholar ... They really couldn't imagine.

Mister Zhang went back to his tent in a daze and fell into his chair, staring into the air without knowing what to do. If he could at least go and see his son, then things wouldn't be so bad. But now, his son had been taken away. Neither did he know where the General had brought him nor did he know who he could inquire this information from.

If he thought of how they had celebrated just a few days ago because his son would be able to finally follow the path he had always wanted to take, it made him feel that fate truly was too cruel. If his son died ... What should he do? That was the only child he had. To think that this kind of thing would come from befriending that young general ...