The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 1016 - 1016 483 Success (first update)_2

Chapter 1016: 483 Success (first update)_2 Chapter 1016: 483 Success (first update)_2 “`

Gu Jiao didn’t utter a word, didn’t even lift her eyelids, as if such an act wasn’t out of the ordinary or of any concern.

This silently relieved Gu Chengfeng.

After that, he unconsciously did a few similar things, and she always accepted them indifferently, and if he didn’t do them, she wouldn’t ask why not.

Gu Chengfeng felt that this girl wasn’t too difficult to get along with.

Or to put it more precisely, she was very easy to get along with.

Even Gu Jinyu of the Gu Family wasn’t this easy to get along with, Jinyu was too fragile, needing constant care, or else she would be sad, she would cry.

Gu Jiao wasn’t like that, she only made others cry.

After dinner, Gu Chengfeng said to Gu Jiao, “I’m going to Ye City tomorrow to save my grandfather, what are your plans?”

The remnants of the fallen dynasty were stationed in the midst of Ye City, and his grandfather and Princess Ning An had been captured and taken there too.

Ye City, being the most heavily guarded among the three cities, wasn’t just occupied by remnants of the former dynasty but also by the vast army of the Chen state, making it easy to defend but hard to attack. He wanted to rescue his grandfather by himself, yet the prospects of success were incredibly slim.

But he had no choice, as it was his grandfather, and even if Ye City were a mountain of blades or a sea of flames, he had to make the attempt.

Suddenly, Gu Chengfeng remembered the purpose of Gu Jiao’s journey to the borderlands and asked her, “You said your brother was also captured; he’s not in Ye City, is he?”

“Not there,” Gu Jiao replied.

Gu Chengfeng visibly relaxed, “It’s good he’s not in Ye City. The situation there is the most complex. Don’t act recklessly on your own, wait for me to rescue my grandfather from Ye City, then I’ll go with you to save your brother.”

Gu Jiao drank a mouthful of sandy water and said leisurely, “Alright.”

Princess Ning An and the old marquis had long been secretly relocated and were no longer inside Ye City at that time; Ye City was nothing but an empty trap awaiting Gu Chengfeng’s doomed effort.

After Gu Chengfeng returned to his room, Gu Jiao also lay down to rest.

In the middle of the night, she heard a very slight noise coming from the roof, her ears twitched, and she coldly opened her eyes.

In that dream, Gu Chengfeng was staying at an inn, and on the first night, he was drugged, resulting in the loss of his power during the rescue mission in Ye City the next day, and he fell into the enemy’s trap.

It seemed the defenses of the Governor’s Mansion were ineffective, and the expected visitors had still arrived.

Three of them in total.

Gu Jiao looked towards the roof, lifted the blanket, and sat up, she heard them go next door, and she waited for them to come to her side to meet their end after coming out, but they just directly left!

Wait a minute.

She and Gu Chengfeng had come together; weren’t they going to drug her as well?

Or was it that they had only ever been after Gu Chengfeng from the start?

That wasn’t right.

Gu Chengfeng and the old marquis were decapitated, Gu Changqing’s legs were severed, and the Gu Family’s troops were annihilated… This wasn’t targeting Gu Chengfeng, it was targeting the Gu Family members and their troops.

She’d hidden her identity, not revealing the fact that she was a young lady of the Gu Family, so the enemy had excluded her from their plans.

Gu Jiao’s eyes grew colder, she pushed open her room door and walked out to Gu Chengfeng’s room, kicked open the door, entered, and snuffed out the incense on the windowsill.

Gu Chengfeng woke with a start from the loud noise, sitting up with a dagger in hand: “Who is it!”

He looked towards Gu Jiao, his forehead furrowed, “You?”

“Gone,” Gu Jiao said flatly.

“Doing what?” Gu Chengfeng asked.

Gu Jiao tossed the extinguished incense from the windowsill out the window, “Weren’t we going to save someone?”

Gu Chengfeng followed her movements and looked, “What did you just throw away?”

Gu Jiao took out a handkerchief and wiped her hands, “Incense.”

Gu Chengfeng frowned, “You drugged me with incense?”

Gu Jiao stated coolly, “Yeah, I was thinking of killing you.”

Gu Chengfeng’s face darkened.

Of course, he didn’t believe Gu Jiao would kill him, so the incense wasn’t brought by her. He glanced at Gu Jiao, then at the door she’d kicked open, and his expression grew stern, “Someone was here just now?”

“`

“Not too dull after all,” Gu Jiao said, folding her handkerchief away.

A serious expression flickered across Gu Chengfeng’s face. As Fei Shuang, he knew all too well how vigilant he was, but Gu Jiao said they had been watched since they entered the city, which he had assumed was just because the other party was too distant for him to detect in time.

Yet, tonight the enemy had crept under his very eyes without him noticing a thing…

Gu Jiao moved to step outside, “If we don’t go now, we won’t catch up.”

At this point, telling Gu Jiao she didn’t have to risk herself by following him felt pretentiously sentimental.

Gu Chengfeng composed his grave expression and threw off the covers to get out of bed.

Accustomed to sleeping rough on their journey, they had slept in their clothes.

After getting out of bed, he grabbed his sword, and together with Gu Jiao, they left the Governor’s Mansion soundlessly.

To avoid alerting the three men, they kept to some distance behind them.

Now the two hid atop a roof, watching the three men relieving themselves. Gu Chengfeng raised a hand to cover Gu Jiao’s eyes.

Gu Jiao: “…”

Thanks, but I wasn’t interested to begin with.

In a quiet voice, Gu Chengfeng asked, “Do you think they are remnants of the former dynasty or Chen Kingdom’s experts?”

“Remnants of the former dynasty,” Gu Jiao replied without a second thought.

“So sure?” Gu Chengfeng said with a look of surprise.

Gu Jiao nodded.

She had been thinking it over carefully; the remnants of the former dynasty and the Chen Kingdom’s army appeared to be acting in unison, but in fact, they each had their own motives.

For instance, ensuring that the tens of thousands of Gu Family’s forces vanished without a trace seemed like an idea from the Chen Kingdom’s army, while targeting the Gu Family’s progeny seemed more like a scheme from the remnants of the former dynasty.

She didn’t know how the Gu Family had offended the remnants of the former dynasty to warrant such rampant retaliation.

In fact, Gu Chengfeng also felt that the remnants of the former dynasty were the more likely possibility, considering his grandfather had fallen into their hands.

Gu Chengfeng continued, “Princess Ning An’s consort is also one of the former dynasty’s remnants, and according to the information I gathered from Qianji Pavilion, he is even a royal of the former dynasty.”

Gu Jiao, however, was unaware of this.

After the three men finished their business, Gu Chengfeng removed his hand from Gu Jiao’s eyes and continued the pursuit with her.

As they followed, he sensed something amiss.

“Hey, that direction doesn’t seem to lead to Ye City,” he said, having thoroughly studied the maps before bed. From this Official Road, heading east would lead to Ye City, while west would take them to Lingguan City.

“They’re heading to Lingguan City!” Gu Chengfeng inhaled a breath of cool air with doubt, “What are they doing in Lingguan City? Shouldn’t they be heading to Ye City? Or could it be… they’ve secretly shifted their base?”

Gu Chengfeng was by no means foolish, and he quickly grasped the key point as he pondered.

If that was indeed the case, then his grandfather must no longer be in Ye City either. After all his arduous travel, he would end up missing the mark.

Missing the mark was secondary; those people had drugged him and shifted bases, which likely meant they had already set a trap in Ye City.

Gu Chengfeng looked shocked, “So it turns out I’ve been delivering my head to them from a thousand li away…”

Gu Jiao looked at him sidelong and silently applauded in her heart.

Congratulations, you’ve got it right.

The two continued the pursuit through the night, and as dawn approached, the three men finally stopped and, with a token, entered a residence.

“It’s the Governor’s Mansion of Lingguan City,” Gu Chengfeng whispered from a rooftop to Gu Jiao behind him.

Lingguan City had fallen; the Governor’s Mansion had long since become the possession of the remnants of the former dynasty and the Chen Kingdom’s army.

Heavy troops guarded the exterior of the Governor’s Mansion, identifiable by their armor as both soldiers of the Chen Kingdom and the former dynasty’s army.

“Could grandfather be imprisoned here?” Gu Chengfeng murmured.

Gu Jiao thought he was asking her and answered, “I’m not sure.”

She hadn’t dreamt that detail, only knowing that Gu Chengfeng and the old marquis had their heads cut off in Lingguan City, and that both their heads were hung on the city walls of Lingguan City.