Blooming Flowers, Silent Sorrow

Translator: Silvery Butterfly

“Haha, Huai En, where did you get such a wild horse? It’s been quite a chase,” Zong Zheng Lihan sat astride his horse, looking at the white-robed Huai En with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Huai En glanced indifferently at Zong Zheng Lihan’s retainers, then considered his own men. Despite his usual arrogance, he couldn’t help but feel a bit uncertain.

“Oh, I understand now.” Zong Zheng Lihan clapped his hands as if he’d just had an epiphany. Despite being in his thirties, the gesture had a childlike quality. “It must be that wealthy young master Jin, the one you’re in love with, who gave it to you. Only someone as rich as him could afford such a fine horse. How envious, how envious~~”

Huai En tore off the thin veil covering his face, revealing his celestial features under the moonlight, his eyes filled with coldness.

Zong Zheng Lihan squinted as he appraised Huai En’s looks. “Tsk tsk, you really do look exactly like your mother.”

Huai En raised an eyebrow, a hint of displeasure on his face. Coldly, he said, “Uncle, you flatter me. Though you are still hale and hearty, chasing your nephew so fervently in the dead of night might be a bit much. What if you suffer a stroke? How could I bear the responsibility?”

“Hmph, Huai En, you seem well-educated, thanks to your father’s upbringing. Since you’re so concerned about your uncle’s old bones, why not return what you took from my Prince Shen Manor? In the name of our family ties, I might overlook your mischief.”

“Nephew doesn’t know what uncle is talking about,” Huai En replied with a faint smile.

Even someone as composed as Zong Zheng Lihan couldn’t hide his frustration. The loss of such an important ledger—if used against them—could jeopardize control over the Zong Zheng family’s economic power. That would be disastrous.

With a cold snort, Zong Zheng Lihan dropped the pretense. “Huai En, hand over the ledger. For the sake of your mother, I will spare your life.”

Huai En snorted in return. “Prince Shen, I did take the ledger. You know very well why my father needs it. This realm shouldn’t belong to you. My father just wants to reclaim what’s rightfully his. Do you really think you can stop us?”

“Insolence!! Your father is willing to risk the state for his selfish desires. How could such a man be fit to rule!!”

“Whether he can be emperor or not is none of my concern. I’m just doing what I should.” If he took the throne, I could have my own realm.

“Foolishness!! Huai En, do you truly believe your father wants the empire or the throne? He only seeks revenge against the Emperor.”

“I told you, it’s none of my business. Whatever he asks me to do, I will do. Right or wrong doesn’t matter to me. The empire? The people? What do they have to do with me?”

“You… you’re clearly not a foolish person. Why do you follow your father’s orders so blindly?”

A shadow flickered in Huai En’s eyes. “I’m not interested in telling you. If you want to take it, come and try. Don’t waste time.”

Zong Zheng Lihan sighed heavily, his tense body relaxing slightly as he leaned back. He gave Huai En a deep look, then his face darkened, and he issued a firm, cold command, “Kill!”

For the entire night, the wealthy young master Jin had been cursing Mo Lu, who claimed to be the world’s best tracker, to the point of exhaustion. By the end, Xiao Bao was hoarse. Though he had been eloquent and persuasive since childhood, attacking someone with words so relentlessly was a first for him—this wasn’t his area of expertise! Usually, if he didn’t like someone, he’d just call Zhao Cai and Jin Bao to deal with them directly. But to find his fiancée, he had no choice but to rely on this useless so-called expert who had only managed to track a dozen miles in several hours.

“I’m warning you, if you can’t find her, then be ready to pack up your stuff and get out of my house, and take those two lazy, good-for-nothing apprentices of yours with you. I feed you for nothing, and you’re useless when it counts.”

The pitiful, skinny old man wiped the sweat from his brow, smiling apologetically while silently cursing his luck. My ancestors! The bit of tracking skill he had was learned over thirty years ago when he was a constable. Later, he turned to theft and was on the run, eventually becoming a thief out of desperation. When he hit rock bottom, he gave himself a grand title and came to the wealthy Jin family in Jiangnan to live off them. The Jianghu knew the Jin family could never tell the good from the bad. As long as you had a grand enough name, they’d take you in, which was why the Jin family’s mixed group of retainers and the ragtag Jin Qian Sect had few real talents. The Jin family didn’t care about money, and the freeloaders lived comfortably. Who would have thought they’d actually need him one day?

Poor him, dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to examine hoofprints and smell horse dung, all while enduring a barrage of insults! Ah well, life’s tough for everyone. At least he didn’t have a runaway wife, unlike some people. Compared to not having a wife at all, which is harder? Better just endure it!

“Ah! Ah!!” The old man suddenly became alert. “There are significantly more hoofprints here. A group of riders came from another direction and then… they were pursued. Let’s move forward.”

Xiao Bao glared at him. Damn it, anyone with eyes could see the increased hoofprints. What use was he? Though he thought this, he didn’t say it out loud, afraid the old man would be so rattled he’d miss the tracks entirely. So, he spurred his horse and followed.

“Young Master! Young Master!! This is terrible, there are many dead ahead,” the old man wailed, his voice filled with chill and fear.

Xiao Bao’s heart clenched. He spurred his horse forward and was shocked by the scene before him.

Once again, in the cold, murderous moonlight, corpses of men in black were scattered on the rough ground, but the one who had captured his heart was nowhere to be seen.

Xiao Bao dismounted and rushed towards the pile of bodies, not even Zhao Cai and Jin Bao could stop him.

Under normal circumstances, he would have screamed and run away or hidden behind Zhao Cai and Jin Bao. But now he didn’t care about the blood-soaked soil or the nauseating stench of blood in the air. He just wanted to make sure that his beloved Huai En was not among the dead.

Frantically searching through the corpses, ignoring all attempts by Zhao Cai and Jin Bao to pull him back, he didn’t stop until he had checked every body with even a hint of white clothing. Only after confirming that Huai En was not among them did his taut nerves slowly relax. The overwhelming fear that had crept up from his feet, consuming his entire body, finally began to recede. This unsettling feeling was something he had never experienced before and couldn’t bear any longer. He had to find Huai En safe and sound immediately.

“Young Master, Young Master, Hongyun’s hoofprints lead that way.” The old man, who had been studying the ground for a long time, finally identified the distinct shape of Hongyun’s horseshoe nails among the many chaotic prints in the dim moonlight.

Xiao Bao wiped the blood from his hands onto his moon-white silk robe, mounted his horse, gripped his sword tightly, and shouted, “Lead the way!”

The hoofprints turned into the mountains, where the undergrowth was dense. It was the time just before dawn, and the humidity was heavy. After several hours, the prints disappeared entirely. The old man, lying on the ground, could find nothing more.

Xiao Bao, furious and helpless, resorted to a torrent of curses.

He ordered the old man to immediately return to the mansion and summon people to search the mountains, while he and Zhao Cai and Jin Bao split up into three groups to continue the search.

Zhao Cai and Jin Bao vehemently opposed the idea. “Young Master, absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.”

“Dangerous? The one in danger is my wife!!”

“Young Master, these deep mountains and forests—who knows if there are any bandits? And what if a tiger or a wolf appears? How would you handle that? If anything happens to you, how could we face the Master?”

“Don’t underestimate me. I’ve practiced martial arts for years, and I have some poison and antidotes on me. Dealing with wild animals or mountain bandits is no problem.”

“Young Master,” Zhao Cai said with a worried face, “at least let one of us go with you. There are many dangers that you can’t handle alone.” This reckless young master, with his half-baked martial skills, wasn’t even intimidating enough.

“If we split into three groups, we’ll find my wife faster. Stop arguing and get going.”

Zhao Cai and Jin Bao stubbornly refused to leave his side. Xiao Bao, seeing that dawn was approaching and that dragging it out wasn’t a solution, gritted his teeth. “Jin Bao, you come with me. Zhao Cai, you go search on your own.”

Zhao Cai, seeing that the young master had finally compromised, pushed the taciturn Jin Bao. “The young master is in your hands now.”

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