The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 1409 - 1409 686 Her son (two more watches into the night)

Chapter 1409: 686 Her son (two more watches into the night) Chapter 1409: 686 Her son (two more watches into the night) Xiao Hen never imagined he would be the one to fall out of the crowd, how long had it been since such an incident had befallen him?

He was clearly attacked by bandits, yet the bandits could be crushed to death by a falling signboard, and when encountering thieves, they could be sent flying by a passing carriage…

Could it really be that donning men’s clothing again had brought bad luck?

Had he been trampled by those horse hooves, he would have died without knowing how.

Luckily, because everyone had swarmed forward to see the Princess, the passable area of the street became narrow, which forced the carriage to slow down somewhat.

He still had time to get up and leave.

Xiao Hen braced himself on the ground, enduring the pain in his knees as he stood up.

But just as he took a step, he stepped on something slippery and smack—down he went!

He face-planted grandly, and now he was truly——

“Ah! Not good!”

The coachman certainly didn’t expect this person, having just climbed up, to freaking fall again!

I can’t even slow down now…

And if I brake too abruptly and the Princess gets thrown from the carriage, whose fault would that be?

The guards, riding in formation on either side of the carriage, couldn’t pull their horses in time.

At the critical moment, a blue figure leaped forward from the front, soaring over the heads of the crowd.

Despite the great distance, he arrived in front of the carriage in the blink of an eye.

He didn’t stop, but with great speed, he reached out his long and strong hand, grabbed Xiao Hen off the ground, and whooshed away.

Because he had moved so quickly to save someone, he also couldn’t stop.

“Ah! He’s going to crash into the Princess’s carriage!”

“Oh no!”

The crowd simply couldn’t bear to look.

But the worrying incident did not occur; he suddenly soared up, gripping Xiao Hen, and flew over the top of the Princess’s carriage.

The two landed on the street behind the procession.

In the crowd, someone recognized the person’s identity and exclaimed, “It’s the Taoist priest, Qingfeng!”

“It really is Taoist Qingfeng! Taoist Qingfeng has descended from the mountains!”

“Hasn’t Taoist Qingfeng been in the mountains for five years? He’s still the same as before, hasn’t changed a bit.”

“Taoist Qingfeng is truly handsome and dashing!” said a girl on the attic, clutching her handkerchief and speaking with infatuation.

The girl next to her snorted with disdain, “Handsome and dashing? What’s so great about a snotty Taoist? He doesn’t even give a glance to women! I think the Young Master he saved is far more graceful and stunning!”

“Not at all! Taoist Qingfeng is the most handsome!”

“The Young Master is the most handsome!”

Xiao Hen steadied himself, and the other party released his hand.

Xiao Hen then turned to look at him.

Hearing someone calling him a Taoist priest, he thought it would be an older Taoist, but to his surprise, it was a young man in his twenties.

The man wore a blue Taoist robe, exuding an ethereal and transcendent essence, with a countenance like jade and a clear gaze. His entire being seemed to radiate an aura of detachment from the world; all the hustle and murmur around him instantly became tranquil in his presence.

It wasn’t that the environment had quieted, but rather, being near him made one feel more at peace.

Xiao Hen clasped his hands in thanks towards the man: “Thank you, Taoist priest, for your aid.”

The man, seemingly aloof and beyond reach, had no such airs about him; he returned the gesture and said to Xiao Hen, “You’re welcome.”

His voice was that of someone uncorrupted by the mortal world, untouched by the smoke and fires of the Human World.

After speaking, he turned and left.

As if he hadn’t done anything particularly remarkable.

He headed in the opposite direction of the Princess’s carriage, which made sense since that’s where he had come from, and it was normal for him to go back the other way now.

Xiao Hen watched his retreating figure, then turned to look at the western end of the long street, where the Princess’s carriage and guards had firmly departed, gradually disappearing into the thoroughfare.

Contrasting with the Taoist Qingfeng’s heroic act, the Princess’s indifference sparked a wave of public outrage.

“All these years have passed, and she is as imperious as ever!”

The speaker was the middle-aged man who had been queuing in front of the Dried Meat Shop earlier; he was older and knew more about those past events than the younger people present.

So, a young man asked him, “Was the Princess always so imperious?”

The middle-aged man clicked his tongue and said, “In the early days, it wasn’t rare for her carriage to kill people or to beat someone to death on the street. If it weren’t for her status as the Princess from birth, with the Queen and the Xuanyuan Family backing her, she would have been deposed by the sovereign countless times!”

“Yes, I’ve seen it with my own eyes! She beat a child to death on the street! The child was only five or six years old, only this tall, up to here on me!”

“Oh, what a sin!”

“Why do you think she’s come back?”

The murmurs of the crowd were unending, and Xiao Hen knew well the power of rumors but also found it hard to discern the truth in them.