After being thoroughly violated, he ran away with the enemy emperor's child.

"Where's Aci?" he asked Wu Xu.

"..."

Wu Xu remained silent, then bent his knees and touched his head to the ground. "The Queen has left."

"...Where did you go?"

He still refused to believe that everything before he fell into a coma was real, even though the excruciating pain in his chest told him: it was all true, and he should stop deceiving himself.

"I don't know," Wu Xu replied.

"...Okay, fine, you say you don't know."

At this moment, Mo Yan understood everything. He had clearly laid a trap at the foot of the mountain, and without an inside help, Aci would never have been able to leave.

"Wu Xu, you have betrayed me once again."

"..."

Wu Xu remained silent, his head still pressed firmly against the ground.

Mo Yan didn't have time to argue with him. He threw off the covers and got out of bed.

Every movement aggravated the wound, and the overflowing blood soaked the gauze again. He stood there, his face covered in cold sweat.

"Someone come here!"

"His Majesty."

"Prepare the horses, I'm going down the mountain."

"His Majesty……"

The young eunuch stared at his pale face and didn't move for a moment.

"What? Is no one listening to me anymore?"

"This servant dares not."

The young eunuch hurriedly relayed the order, and soon someone appeared leading Taxue.

Mo Yan clutched his chest, forcing himself to approach Taxue, and stroked its face: "Do you still remember his scent? Lead me to him."

He mounted his horse, blood soaking his chest, but he seemed not to hear it.

Cold sweat poured down his face, and drops of blood mixed with his sweat dripped onto Ta Xue's body. Mo Yan spurred his horse's flanks: "Giddy up!"

"..."

Ta Xue didn't move.

It neither ran nor struggled, but simply let Mo Yan sit on its back, its four hooves standing still on the ground, like a statue.

"Ta Xue, even you don't listen to me anymore."

He sneered as he dismounted, but the movement aggravated his wounds again. Mo Yan staggered, his vision blurring. In his last moments before losing consciousness, he saw the guards and imperial physicians rushing towards him.

He woke up again in the dark of night, lying in bed without uttering a word.

The imperial physician stood cautiously to the side and gently advised, "Your Majesty, your injuries are too severe; you really shouldn't be exerting yourself."

"In my humble opinion, Your Majesty's most urgent task should be to heal your wounds, not..."

He paused for a long time, then Mo Yan glanced at him sideways: "And what?"

"Instead of indulging in beauty and abandoning oneself and the Zhao Kingdom."

After saying this, he knelt on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, I have spoken recklessly and hope that you will forgive me."

"You did not speak falsely."

He closed his eyes briefly, unwilling to continue, and said, "Go down."

"…yes."

After the imperial physician left, Mo Yan stared blankly at the ceiling. Every time he thought he had been able to prove that Aci liked him, it all turned out to be a laughable case of wishful thinking.

It turns out that Aci is so vivid when she truly falls in love with someone, a vividness he has never seen before.

Who is that man? Is it Chu Ling?

Or some other random man he didn't know?

Mo Yan didn't know that; all he knew was that he was now very jealous of that man he had never met.

He was so jealous... he was going crazy.

His mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts. One moment he wanted to rush down the mountain and bring Aci back, and the next he thought he might as well just let him go and never see Aci again.

Mountains are high and rivers are far, we'll never meet again...

From then on, it was no longer his concern who Aci married or had children with. If they met again someday, they would be complete strangers.

As the image of Aci's unfamiliar and indifferent eyes flashed through his mind, Mo Yan suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, which splattered on the bedside table. He stared at the bloodstains, his eyes turning red: "...The mountains are high and the rivers are far, we will never see each other again."

To hell with mountains and rivers, never to see you again!

Aci can only belong to him, in this life, the next life, and the life after that, in every life, she can only belong to him, Mo Yan.

Just as he said before, even as a ghost, he would not let him go.

Lying back on the bed, he calmed his breathing and, after regaining his composure, spoke: "Someone come here."

The guard immediately knelt on the ground: "Your Majesty."

"Send a message by carrier pigeon to the border of Yongzhao, firstly to inquire whether anyone has crossed the border in the past few days. If so, draw their portraits; if not, from this day forward, no one is allowed to cross the border."

"Ten people per group, patrolling every half hour, no place is to be missed, whether by water or land."

"Secondly, if any suspicious persons are discovered, do not harm them; I will go there personally."

After giving a few instructions, Mo Yan waved his hand and said, "Go on, and hurry up."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The guards left with the orders, and Mo Yan was exhausted. He had just drunk a large bowl of medicine and lost too much blood, so he soon fell into a deep sleep again.

He slept for a whole day, and when he woke up again it was already dark.

Two days have passed since Aci left. Based on the distance from the palace to the border, it would take them three days to arrive even if they worked without rest. Therefore, Mo Yan speculated that Aci was still within the territory of Zhao Kingdom at this moment.

This is his last chance.

Once Aci enters the territory of Yong Kingdom, it won't be so easy for him to capture him again.

"Your Majesty, it's time to take your medicine."

The young apprentice appeared with the medicine. Mo Yan stood up, silently drank a large bowl of medicine, and then sprinkled a thick layer of medicinal powder on the wound.

White gauze bandaged the wound. Mo Yan's face was cold; his time was running out.

He needed to let the wound scab over as soon as possible, or at least make sure it wouldn't bother him anymore. He didn't care about the bleeding or the excruciating pain; as long as the wound didn't cause him to lose consciousness, nothing else mattered.

With this mindset, he rested for another day. Once he was certain that the wound would not cause him to faint, he once again asked someone to fetch Ta Xue.

Ta Xue was still in his usual bad temper. Mo Yan stared at him and asked, "Don't you want him to come back?"

"You are fast and have a keen sense of smell. You will surely be able to help me find him. Ta Xue, I don't want to give this order a third time."

"..."

This time, Ta Xue did not refuse.

After Mo Yan mounted the horse, it carried him towards the foot of the mountain. Its speed in the snow was several times that of an ordinary horse. The border that Chu Junci and the others would take three days to reach could be reached by it in a day and a half at most.

Unfortunately, there was only one Snowwalker, so Mo Yan traveled alone this time.

As he headed towards the border, Chu Junci and his group also arrived not far from the border.

Standing atop the mountain, they could see, from afar, the Zhao soldiers stationed at the border, tent after tent, flag after flag, representing their origin from the Zhao Kingdom.

"Your Majesty, all the roads have been blocked by them. What should we do now?" Lin Chen asked.

"No rush, let's observe for a while longer."

Chu Junci scanned the road conditions, secretly memorizing them, before leading them to another location.

After observing for most of the day, Chu Junci finally spotted a loophole: "Look over there."

He pointed to a mountain peak: "There seems to be miasma there, and the soldiers of Zhao Kingdom have not ventured there lightly."

Upon hearing this, Xie Yunzhou and Lin Chen also looked over and nodded: "The Zhao Kingdom soldiers indeed did not step in."

After all, who would easily set foot in a place filled with miasma?