I've got to go! 1

"Qing'er, what happened to your eyes?!"

Ouyang Xueqing scratched her head and smiled awkwardly. How could she tell her Imperial Father that she had cried in her sleep for a weird dream and thus, she had woken up with puffy and swollen eyes? Not to mention that it was a very vivid and strange dream, but she had also cried as if she was possessed! It was so embarrassing!

"Nothing." She grinned and sat in front of the dining table lavished with delicacies. Ouyang Xueqing threw the dream onto the back of her mind in the face of delicious food. "Qing'er just had a bad dream."

Wang Ze scrutinized her from head to toe. After making sure that she didn't pertain any difference except her puffy eyes, he nodded lightly. "Tell This Lord if you're not well okay?"

"En. Don't worry, Imperial Father. The swell will go away if Qing'er compress it with cold towel."

Wang Ze grunted in agreement. They had their breakfast in peace and merry as usual before parting ways. He had gone to fulfill his duty of listening to the ministers' morning report while she went back to her courtyard to deal with her extremely eye catching swollen and red eyelids.

Ouyang Xueqing met An Zhengnan on her way.

The man had disappeared when she woke up and she didn't know when exactly he had left. Ouyang Xueqing didn't have many memories of last night because she was kind of delirious after the dream. But the weird thing was, the bad feeling that had been plaguing her since yesterday vanished as if it wasn't there from the beginning.

Did something change yesterday? She didn't notice anything though.

An Zhengnan was dressed sloppily as usual and his hair was let loose, hanging on his shoulder and increasing his languid and lazy image. He blinked as he stared at her face.

Ouyang Xueqing raised her hand before he could talk. "I know, it's swollen."

He pursed his thin lips and asked. "Do you have a really bad dream last night?"

He knew that she wouldn't have realized he was there last night, and he wanted it to remain so. Hence, he asked even though he knew that she had been groaning and whimpering all night as she cried and murmured one sentence over and over again. He left after it was past midnight after checking that she was soundly asleep.

"Yeah." Ouyang Xueqing pondered deeply. "It was a really weird dream. Did you leave slightly after I fell asleep?"

An Zhengnan glanced at her. "I did."

Ouyang Xueqing sighed in relief. That's good. That meant he didn't saw her embarrassing state. She would really dig a hole on the ground and hide if she had been seen in that crying mess.

He snickered lightly. "You really look like a puff fish with a face like that. It was odd."

She glared at him and decided to ignore his everyday teasing. Humph! I am a magnanimous person so I won't argue with you over a simple thing! "Don't you have any work to do except bothering me?" She shooed him away.

He raised one of his brows. "Do you ever see me on time before?"

Ouyang Xueqing had a moment of clarity and nodded. "So you realize that you skip work very often?"

An Zhengnan shrugged. "What is the use of knights and the armies when our mainland has been in peace for the last thousand years? The war is over and the time when we had to be vigilant and on guard all the time has passed."

He hadn't been born when the Great War broke out so he didn't have any idea how terrifying and disastrous the war was, the only story he heard was from his master, Ouyang Feiyang, The General of Beast Mainland and Ouyang Xueqing's grandfather.

Ouyang Xueqing felt like she was scammed. How could he perfectly justify his reason to skip work and it was completely reasonable at that?! She wanted to argue, but what An Zhengnan said was right ah!

So she chose to ignore him.

"So." An Zhengnan probed carefully. "What are you dreaming about?"

Ouyang Xueqing was stunned for a moment. "I don't really remember. It's just…many corpse, and I was running. And then, there was a man." Remembering the man's soaked state, there was a dull ache growing faint on her chest. Ouyang Xueqning frowned.

That little movement didn't escape An Zhengnan's eyes. "What's wrong? Are you unwell again?" His brows wrinkled worriedly.

Ouyang Xueqing huffed and patted her chest. "No." She shook her head and said with a blank gaze. "It's just…everytime I remember the man in my dream, my chest hurts."

"A man?" He blinked.

Her gaze lowered gloomily. "He died, and I was crying while begging him not to leave me. In the end…" Ouyang Xueqing's words got stuck in her throat as she recalled how she chose to die together with him and the last thing in her mind.

In our next life, I want to be born as a man and you a woman, so I can protect you so that you will never leave my side again.

"In the end?"

Ouyang Xueqing tried to say something, but she suddenly felt suffocated like there was a lump on her chest struggling to get out. Why? Why did her heart ache so much? She couldn't even see the man's face clearly. It was as if her sight was blocked by something. But then, she knew that she had loved the man dearly to the point that she couldn't bear to live one more second in the world without him in it.

Before she could reorganize the turbulent emotion suppressed inside her, a guard came running and saluted. "Your Highness, Captain An, there is a guest seeking for you. She is Ling Xiaochen who has come a few times here."

She blinked confusedly. "Xiaochen? What does she come here for?"

"She said it was urgent, Your Highness. She told me to relay her message, 'the thing you wanted has come, but there's a problem you need to see'."

Thing she wanted? Ouyang Xueqing inhaled deeply. It must be the report about Mo Yujian! But she said there's a problem? What could be so urgent that Ling Xiaochen came to fetch her?

"Come!" Ouyang Xueqing dismissed the idea of relaxing with cold towel on her face. "Let's go!"

An Zhengnan was baffled. "Wait, what is going on? What is the thing you're talking about?"

"Aiyah!" Ouyang Xueqing pouted grumpily and berated him. "It's my and Xiaochen's secret! Come on, I need to go to Xiaochen's place! Prepare the carriage right now!"

An Zhengnan was so curious as to why she was in such a hurry. But he didn't dare to delay her any longer and went to prepare the carriage for her and Ling Xiaochen.

"Xiaochen!" Ouyang Xueqing dashed to the guest hall and found Ling Xiaochen sipping tea calmly there. "What's wrong?" She asked anxiously.

She raised one of her brows. "Your eyes--"

Ouyang Xueqing raised her hand to cut her off. "I know it's swollen. Tell me, what's wrong?" She asked impatiently.

"I don't know either." Ling Xiaochen shrugged. "It's daddy that told me to get you."

"Then, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"

She grabbed Ling Xiaochen's hand and together, they got into the carriage. Ouyang Xueqing was fidgeting in her seat as if there were needles on her bottom. She fiddled her fingers nervously. She didn't know why, but her instinct told her that it wasn't a good news.

Did something happened to Mo Yujian? But he was so strong ah! What could have happened to him?

Her mind was filled with countless possibilities and the carriage swiftly arrived at the Ling's manor. Without any word, Ouyang Xueqing strutted inside and sauntered through the manor that had been kind of familiar to her.

She even forgot about Ling Xiaochen whom she left behind with An Zhengnan.

Good thing she still had some manners instilled to her core as she refrained herself from breaking through the study room.

She knocked lightly. "Uncle Ling, it's me."