The Story Of Dusk

All Mo Qin Yi needed now was more fund and influence, and unfortunately for him, Zhao Family has both of it, especially when he has to repress the rumor that was spread by his father loyal official about the oddity that occurred at the time of Mo Qian Yuan death, resistance still occurred regarding him ascended the throne.

Not to mention the upcoming war between Rockstone Kingdom and Zodasian Kingdom against the powerful Azura Kingdom, it was so chaotic at the moment.

In the end Mo Qin Yi couldn"t resist Zhao Family"s demand for huge part of land and more authority in the military area as Zhao Tianqi"s cousin was in the military in the north Rokstone land, they wanted a promotion for him as a general.

Lastly, and Mo Qin Yi knew it wouldn"t be the last of their demand, they wanted Mo Qin Yi secured the Empress"s place for Zhao Tianqi.

With gritted teeth and balled his fist, Mo Qin Yi agreed with those conditions. He was really in need for their support at this time.

Becoming an Emperor wasn"t an easy task to do, it was not like what he had thought before.

*** 

In the next day, Qianru felt a little bit have some strength and was about to walk around the room to relax her stiffened muscle and her cramps legs.

Yesterday all she had done was only lying on the bed, felt giddy and couldn"t even open her eyelids. The effect of the medicine was too strong for her to resist.

However it helped her to take more rest.

When Xiao Jun walked inside the room after his long discussion with Mo Xuan Fei, he found Qianru was walking around the bed slowly.

Frowning, hurriedly he approached her and held her arms lightly. "What are you doing?"

Qianru a little bit startled as Xiao Jun was always walking without any sound. "I am exercise a bit." She said timidly.

"Didn"t the doctor say you can"t do that? You need to rest more so you can be fine for our long journey." Xiao Jun reprimanded her lightly as he sat her down on the bed.

"Alright." Qianru said sullenly. She knew about that, but her legs really numbed because of lack of movement and her back started to ache because she was lying for long time.

But, if this for their baby, then she didn"t have to complain. She was grateful enough for the baby to be able to survive.

During the painful night, she thought she would lost the baby… the feeling of losing her child was enough to make her shudder in fear.

When Qianru had been tucked inside the warm blanket a soft knocking sound was sounded from behind the door.

"This must be your lunch." Xiao Jun mumbled while walking back toward the door. After his meeting with Mo Xuan Fei, he had ordered Jinse to bring lunch to their room for Qianru.  

However, when he opened the door, it wasn"t Jinse, who brought Qianru"s lunch, but instead it was Mo Xuan Fei with stern look on his expression.

"What is it?" Xiao Jun subconsciously mimick his facial expression as he felt the seriousness of the situation, or the news that Mo Xuan Fei would tell him about.

"They will execute your personal guard tomorrow." Mo Xuan Fei informed Xiao Jun without beating around the bush.

He had just heard about this and knew what Mo Qin Yi was planning, he was about to force Xiao Jun to go out from their hiding place.

There were a few soldiers from the palace who was coming to look for them but miraculously they could escape the inspection.

It was only about time when they come again and found them, it would be too late then if they wanted to escape.

And now with this news, it was pretty obvious that Mo Qin Yi was getting impatient to get his hand on both of them.

Meanwhile, upon hearing that news, Mo Xuan Fei"s eyes darkened. He glared at Mo Xuan Fei as if he was the true culprit here, at the same time, from the corner of his eyes, he caught Jinse"s figure who was bringing Qianru"s lunch.

"Go inside and accompany Princess Xiao, make sure she finishes all the food." Xiao Jun ordered the young maidservant coldly as he strode away from her with Mo Xuan Fei tailed behind him.

Jinse looked at her Master with bewilderment before she stepped inside the room and found Qianru was still lying on the bed with sullen expression.

"Good afternoon Princess Xiao." Jinse smiled brightly, she already could figure out what happened to her Mistress, Xiao Jun must have been telling her to stay on the bed while Qianru was not someone who would appreciate laziness.

"Jinse, where is Jun?" Qianru sat up and took a peek at the door, hoping Xiao Jun would appear, she thought Xiao Jun opened the door for Jinse.

"Prince Xiao Jun was talking with Prince Mo Xuan Fei before he went out of the room hastily." Jinse said the truth about it.

"Hastily?" Qianru frowned. "There is something happening again?" She became nervous.

Jinse hurriedly shook her head. "This servant didn"t know, but I believe Prince Xiao Jun will find the way out of this problem. Princess Xiao doesn"t need to worry too much and must take care of your health." She said sincerely.

When she heard Qianru was in pain and there was possibility to lost the baby, she felt sad for her as she knew very sure how much both of her Master and Mistress were waiting for the little one to come out to this world.

"Yes, he always finds the way out of every situation." A faint smile appeared on Qianru"s pale face as she scooped her soup. "He always likes that…"

In the other part of the inn, Xiao Jun and Mo Xuan Fei was talking at the terrace while looking at the hustling and bustling people bellow them.

"We can"t wait for more reinforcement to save Liu Wei." Xiao Jun said agitatedly.

Their real plan was to wait for the people from greenhill mountain to reach them and so they could have more men for this mission to be success, but giving the news that they had just gotten, seemingly Mo Qin Yi didn"t give thaem that luxury time.

"Yes." Mo Xuan Fei nodded in agreement. "If we want to save your personal guard, we could only rely on ourselves and the men that we had now."

"No." Xiao Jun directly rejected Mo Xuan Fei"s idea. "It will be only the two of us."

"The two of us?" Mo Xuan Fei raised his eyebrows questioningly. "I am sorry, but don"t you think it will be another suicide mission that you are planning now?"

More or less, Mo Xuan Fei knew a few secret of this man before his eyes, in the end he has his own way to figure things out on his own.

He also knew about the story behind the three token that Mo Qian Yuan found on the body of his people, because of that he trust Xiao Jun to lead the preparation for the upcoming war.

This man was really cunning, all of his plans have high risk and could cost someone life, however aside from that, Xiao Jun also a very calculative person, though it was a dangerous mission, it has a high possibility to success.

"Suicide mission?" Xiao Jun raised his eyebrows incredulously as he stared down at Mo Xuan Fei. Xiao Jun could do that because he was slightly taller than Mo Xuan Fei by one fist. "I recall, I have never given a suicide mission for anyone."

"You killed Mo Jingchen and made a quite uproar back in the palace at that time." Mo Xuan Fei said in matter of fact tone.

"Yes. But, it was him who got killed, no one from my men died at that time." Xiao Jun didn"t want to back down from the argument.

"You got the point." Mo Xuan Fei shrugged his shoulder and relented. There was no point to argue a trivial matter like that.

"The time is not right." Xiao Jun resumed his solemn expression as he rubbed his chin and talked with deep thought. "Mo Qin Yi makes me can"t wait for the reinforcement, people from Greenhill Mountain, to come. Whether you are in or not, I will still go back to the capital city and get my personal guard back." Xiao Jun said determinedly.

In the other hand, Mo Xuan Fei could only sigh helplessly as he shook his head and said. "Of course I am in, you have saved my life and Lin Xinyang, it is only right for me if I help you in return."

Mo Xuan Fei felt extremely grateful for what Xiao Jun had done to him, not to mention the circ.u.mstances was not in his favor at that time.

"Good you know your place." Xiao Jun patted Mo Xuan Fei"s shoulder and added. "At least I was not saving an ungrateful wretch."

The corner of Mo Xuan Fei"s lips twitched, he didn"t believe with what he had heard. What an arrogant word that he uttered.

After saying that, Xiao Jun walked away and waved his hand while saying. "I will send all to the Greenhill Mountain, be ready after that because I will go directly to the capital city."

"Got it." Mo Xuan Fei nodded and went to the direction of Lin Xinyang and his room. He needed to inform his woman as well.

*** 

The moment Xiao Jun returned to their room, Qianru had done her lunch and Jinse was cleaning the empty bowl. He signaled to Jinse to leave the room.

The young maidservant bowed her head and left, leaving the two of them all alone.

"What happen?" Qianru was very familiar with this kind of expression that Xiao Jun was showing right now. "Something bad happened?"

Xiao Jun tucked a strand of Qianru"s hair behind her ear as he caressed her pale soft cheek.

"Mo Qin Yi will be executed Liu Wei the day after tomorrow along with the late Emperor Mo Qian Yuan"s burial." Xiao Jun looked at Qianru"s expression that gradually turned worry.

"And you will go to the capital city?" Qianru asked anxiously, despite she already knew the answer.

Xiao Jun nodded to confirm Qianru rethorical question. "I will leave after I send you to the safe place along with all the guards, so you can continue to take the route to Greenhill Mountain before I go to the capital city."

Qianru gritted her teeth as her eyes looked down cast at her hands, she wanted to hide her disappointment, but it was too clear to see.

Xiao Jun cupped her tiny face between his palms and show tears started to form in her beautiful eyes. "You don"t need to worry so much about this. I will return immediately once I get Liu Wei."

"But, you will send all the men with me to Greenhill Mountain." When Qianru mentioned this, just then she realized that Xiao Jun would not take another people with him.

With Liu Wei was being caught and Feng Jin had gone ahead toward the Greenhill Mountain, asking for a.s.sistance, that was only mean Xiao Jun would free Liu Wei by himself, but how he could do that?

Qianru hugged Xiao Jun tightly as she shook her head vigorously.

"You will go alone?" This wasn"t a question, this was more likely a confirmation as Qianru was very aware of Xiao Jun"s way of thought.

"I will not go alone, Mo Xuan Fei has agreed to go with me." Xiao Jun stroke Qianru"s back, the doctor had said that she couldn"t have too many things that couldn"t weight her mind.

However, at time like this, it was far much easier to say that to actually do.

Aside Xiao Jun couldn"t lie to her and he didn"t want to, there wasn"t a better explanation for his absence along the journey.

"Qianru, you don"t have to worry about this too much, I have everything under control and I have a plan to save Liu Wei. All you have to do now is thinking about your health and our child, another matter let me handle it." Xiao Jun coaxed her with a soft voice that could melt every woman heart who heard it.

 However, it didn"t cease down the worriness that weight Qianru"s heart down as she shook her head. She wanted to say that she didn"t want Xiao Jun to go, capital city was the last safe place for them. He could be killed!

But, she couldn"t bring herself to ask Xiao Jun to abandon his loyal subordinate who had been following him for years. It sounded so cruel and wrong even in Qianru"s ears.

"But, prince Mo Xuan Fei…" Qianru let her words hung in the air.

Right now, Mo Xuan Fei and Xiao Jun were holding the same status, they were the two people that most wanted in the entire Rockstone Kingdom.

With the two of them appeared together it wouldn"t help with anything except giving Mo Qin Yi a big smug smiled on his disgusting lips the moment Xiao Jun and Mo Xuan Fei were caught.

"He has been living in capital city for years." Xiao Jun knew what Qianru was thinking as he has the same thought, but he had thought about the solution of it. "He will know the place better than I am. Both of us will figure out what we could do at that time and adjust our plan." He said lightly to appease the woman in his arms.

"I want you to be safe…" Qianru whimpered. "I want you to come back to me…" She said pitifully.

"I will." Xiao Jun nodded as he whispered to her ear. "I will always come back to you." And that was a promise.

***  

Xiao Jun accompanied Qianru and the entourage until the next village before he turned around and was heading to the capital city.

Both women who were left behind looked at their men retreating figure in silence. There was no guarantee that they could see them in the near future.

However, waiting for them to return would be the best that they could hope, instead of hearing bad news from them.

Qianru rubbed her stomach in circle while looking at the distance where Xiao Jun had no longer could be seen.

Your father will come back, so we have to wait… She talked inwardly to her child. She would wait patiently with their baby.

"My Lady, you need to go back to the carriage." Jinse approached Qianru from behind and drapped a cloak over her shoulder. "Prince Xiao Jun had remained this servant many times to take a good care of you."

It was true and every time Xiao Jun remained Jinse about how to take care of his wife, he would say those words with all of the seriousness and gave off an eerie vibe.

Qianru smiled brightly when she heard Jinse"s words as turned around and got on the carriage before their entourage moved toward the east, the route where people from Greenhill Mountain would be able to pick them up and a.s.sisted them.

It took a week from Rockstone Kingdom to arrive at Greenhill Mountain as this place was located near the border of Azura.

However, because of both parties moved together in the same route, they met with each other at the fourth day.

Until now, still there was no news from Xiao Jun and Mo Xuan Fei, and this made Qianru a little bit anxious, even though she didn"t show it on the surface.

But, these past four days, she had been having a hard time to fall asleep and became more lethargic than before.

The landscape of the route was not much of help either, their environment was the tough one.

On the fourth day when they met with people from Greenhill Mountain, Qianru was having fever, she barely conscious and only felt slightly better when the night fell.

It was Ye Xiu and Qi Xunyi who led one hundred and fifty trained men to a.s.sist them through the border of Rockstone Kingdom to their Greenhill Mountain.

Once they arrived, it would be the safest place that anyone could ask.

However, at night, when everyone were resting to continue on their journey early this morning, Qianru was feeling the same cramps on her stomach.

This was the third times she felt like this, however this time no one was inside the carriage as Lin Xinyang was outside to talk to Ye Xiu and the other, she was quite getting along with the other.

Thus, Qianru was struggling alone while trying to ask for help, however her voice couldn"t come out as loud as she intended to.

Tears and cold sweat mixed on her forehead.

She couldn"t feel her burning body because of the fever as her heart freezed the moment she felt something dripped from her lower body.

Qianru used all of her strength to move her head and looked down on the b.l.o.o.d.y quilt beneath her, in an instant, she felt like she had lost half of her life.

This scene wasn"t a good sign.

She knew very well what this meant.

As they couldn"t stay any longer in the village and booked an inn for two hundreds plus people, so they resolved by making a campfire inside the forest.

And because Lin Xinyang and Jinse thought Qianru was having her rest, so no one come closer to the carriage and checked on her.

They even deliberately gathered a bit further from her carriage in order to not disturb her.

However, right at this moment, Qianru was gradually losing her consciousness, she was completely alone in her predicament.