The Duke's Pampered Darling is So Scheming

Chapter 353: Chapter 353: A Letter from Afar

Princess Qingyang stayed until evening, only leaving after dinner.

’If her brother were in the Capital City, she’d never dare to stay this long.’

Having eaten and drunk her fill, Princess Qingyang headed home, thoroughly satisfied. She even made off with two jugs of Ye Chutang’s Snow Drink.

Ye Chutang saw her out. Once the princess was gone, she returned to her room.

As she pushed open the door, her steps faltered.

But the hesitation was almost imperceptible, and a moment later, she walked into the room, her expression unchanged.

Circling around the screen, she saw Xiao Wu lying on the bed, already fast asleep from the late hour.

Ye Chutang walked over to tuck in her blanket, and her eyes landed on the round table to the side.

A letter lay silently on its surface.

She walked over and picked up the letter. There was no writing on it, but the seal was emblazoned with a black hawk, its wings spread wide for flight.

Its eyes flashed like lightning, its talons sharp as hooks.

Just looking at the image, one could feel a piercing battle intent that seemed to leap right off the paper.

Ye Chutang broke the seal and opened the letter.

It contained only a single line: ”Ye Heng in peril.”

Ye Chutang stared at the three words, an eyebrow arching slightly.

’So they finally couldn’t hold back?’

She folded the letter and held it to a nearby candle flame. The fire silently devoured it, leaving only a wisp of smoke.

As if sensing something, Xiao Wu groggily opened her eyes and sat up in bed.

The letter in Ye Chutang’s hand had already burned to nothing.

She turned, walked over, and gently pinched Xiao Wu’s chubby cheek.

”Did I wake you?”

Xiao Wu shook her head and leaned against her.

Ye Chutang’s heart softened. She smiled and stroked the girl’s hair.

”Go back to sleep.”

...

「Outside Tongbei City, the landscape was desolate.」

A group of men trudged slowly through the night. Every one of them was rail-thin and dressed in tattered rags, their hands and feet bound in iron chains.

These were serious offenders sentenced to exile.

After nearly two months of travel, they were so tormented they barely looked human anymore.

In the crowd, Ye Heng was unshaven and haggard, his expression numb.

His prison uniform was covered in bloodstains, some fresh, some old. His boots were long gone, and he was barely managing in a pair of tattered straw sandals. He looked utterly miserable and pathetic.

Who could imagine that just a short while ago, he had been the celebrated Junior Minister of the Ministry of Justice?

At first, he’d clung to hope. But not even three days into the journey, he was already covered in bruises and cuts.

The cleverer convicts had bribed the guards before setting out, which bought them less hardship on the road. But he had been rushed, dragged straight from his cell without even a chance to see his family, let alone make other arrangements.

As a result, his journey had been exceptionally difficult.

Ye Heng felt like everything he had experienced over the past six months was some kind of terribly absurd dream.

Although he wasn’t born into great wealth or nobility, his older brother had sheltered him since childhood, so he never had to worry about life’s trivialities. After passing the imperial examinations, he rode his brother’s coattails to a meteoric rise through the ranks.

He had suffered more in the last six months than in the rest of his life combined.

The farther north they walked, the more desolate it became. They would often go for days and nights without finding so much as a roof to shelter them from the elements.

Now, only a single thought kept Ye Heng gritting his teeth and holding on—he was almost at Tongbei!

’Once I reach Tongbei, I’ll be saved. His Highness has people there; they’re sure to look after me.’

’I’ll get into the city, be assigned some light labor, and then just bide my time until I have a chance to rise again!’

Suddenly, Ye Heng felt something cold on his forehead.

He stiffly tilted his head back and saw fine white specks drifting down from the black night sky.

”It’s snowing!”

The government officers escorting the convicts were the first to react. They exchanged glances, their expressions turning sour.

October in Tongbei was already cold, and the wind cut like a knife.

And now it was snowing!

One wrong move, and someone could freeze to death out here.

”Pick up the pace!”

An officer raised his whip and viciously lashed the man at the end of the line.

There was a post station up ahead. If they moved faster, they could still make it there for a night’s rest. Otherwise, they would have to sleep under the open sky with the snow as their blanket.

Of course, in a desolate borderland like this, the post stations were typically dilapidated. They’d be lucky if there was enough room for the officers. The rest of them would still have to sleep outside.

But that was hardly the officers’ concern.

The man who was struck had probably been starving for too long and had no thick clothes to protect him from the cold; his body was already frozen stiff.

After that lash, his body swayed a few times, and then he could no longer hold himself up and collapsed.

”Useless trash! Get up now! Delay the journey, and you’ll be sorry!”

With a vicious look on his face, the officer went over and struck him twice more with the whip.

But the man on the ground gave no reaction.

Everyone stopped walking.

Another officer walked over, gave the body a kick, then crouched down and checked for a breath.

”He’s dead,”

he announced, his face devoid of expression.

The officer with the whip spat toward the man’s still-warm corpse. ”Pah! Damned bad luck!”

All eyes were on this scene, but everyone remained silent.

It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. The journey from the Capital City to Tongbei spanned a thousand miles; death along the way was perfectly normal.

A dead silence, nearly suffocating, spread through the crowd.

”Move!”

The officers paid the dead man no more mind and began herding the others onward again.

Ye Heng trudged forward numbly. After a while, the cold became unbearable. He pulled his tattered clothes tighter and wrapped his arms around himself, trying to get a little warmer.

It was a futile effort.

Ye Heng felt like he’d lost all feeling in his limbs. He was like a puppet, taking one step after another, wondering when he would collapse, just like the man moments ago, and the many others before him.

Finally, he couldn’t resist glancing back.

The snow was falling thicker now, and a thin layer already covered the man’s body. From a distance, in the darkness, it was nothing more than a tiny, inconspicuous bump on the landscape.

Before long, that bump would flatten, and all trace of him would be gone, vanished as if he’d never been.

An unprecedented terror suddenly seized Ye Heng’s heart. ’If I don’t make it to Tongbei, is this how I’ll end up, too?’

Ye Heng instinctively quickened his pace, as if trying to flee.

In his haste, he bumped into another man’s shoulder.

The man turned his head, his gaze menacing.

Ye Heng recognized him. The man had been in the group of convicts since they left the Capital City. He looked to be in his thirties, thin and wiry, and was rumored to be a murderer. He rarely spoke, so Ye Heng wasn’t very familiar with him.

”S-Sorry.”

Two months had been enough to wear away Ye Heng’s former disposition.

’This man looked like trouble. It was best to avoid making more for himself.’

After speaking, Ye Heng started to walk on, but he froze in the next instant, the hair on his body standing on end.

Something cold and sharp was pressed against his lower back—a blade, poised to slice through his thin clothing and into his flesh at any moment!