Shi Mo couldn't understand the circumstance and looked at the two of them with stupefied expression. It seemed that he was wishing they would be able to give him some explanation for this bizarre situation.

Wei Liuying stood up cupped her hand. "Wei Hong Zheng, second son of Prime Minister Wei, greets Commander Shi."

"Hey, how do you know I'm a command…" Shi Mo couldn't say the sentence out loud because he noticed that Wei Liuying was looking at his attire. It was then he recalled that he did look a bit different because of the armor's color. But how in the world did she manage to see it in the middle of the night like this?

Yang Xian sighed. He looked at Wei Liuying. "Just like his cousin, he didn't think before thinking. However, you can trust in his martial arts' ability."

Wei Liuying blinked her eyes. "I see."

"Don't belittle me! I'm…"

"Feel free to ignore him if he's too noisy."

"I understand, Strategist Yang."

"Strategist, when am I noisy? I'm your…."

Before Shi Mo could finish his words, Yang Xian cut him off once more, "Stay here and guard him. When its dawn, we're going to the main road and find the group who had already departed there."

"The main road?" Shi Mo was confused.

Wei Liuying's eyelids fluttered as she looked at the ground. "His Highness the Fourth Prince and His Majesty the Emperor have many of their soldiers gathered there. Those who escaped would seek refuge from them because it was the nearest camp."

"Oh…"

Shi Mo looked at Wei Liuying in admiration while Wei Liuying thoroughly ignored him. He had heard from his cousin that there was an extremely intelligent young lady in the capital city. Shi Yan only coincidentally met with Wei Liuying, but the two of them often met in the bookstore.

Wei Liuying thought for a moment then turned her head. "When will Shi Yan return to the Capital City?"

"Ah? He should arrive in the capital city today in the afternoon. There's some business that's waiting for him here," Shi Mo replied.

"What kind of business?"

"I don't know. I'm not interested."

"I see."

Wei Liuying noticed that many of the soldiers' way of talking was blunter and upfront. Rather than officials who loved to twist their words and talked in roundabout way, many soldiers were unable to do so because of their commoners' background. They would rather just talk as concise as possible.

'To be able to talk freely… it's a bit enviable.'

However, Wei Liuying didn't express it out loud and stayed silent while waiting. She recalled that she had some meat on her small bag and took it out. The smell of the meat quickly spread in the small place.

Beside her, Shi Mo was staring at the large chunk of meat on Wei Liuying's hand.

"Young Mi.. I mean Second Young Master Wei, that's…?"

"This is from my hunting yesterday," Wei Liuying replied. She broke part of the meat and looked at Shi Mo. "Do you want some?"

"Yes! Yes… Eh, I mean, how can I take your food?"

Wei Liuying was amused when she saw how upfront he was. After meeting with so many people who would never wear their real feeling on the outside, seeing someone like Shi Mo could be refreshing.

The two cousins were truly similar to each other.

Unfortunately, people like these would surely die if they were to be placed in the capital city. Their upfront personality and way of speech would only send them to their doom even earlier. The skill that was needed to live in the upper society would be the skill to mask their real feelings and personality.

It was a skill that almost everyone needed if they wished to be able to survive in that kind of harsh environment. It was at this point of time that Wei Liuying would feel envious to commoners. Life might be harder for them, but they could live freely and didn't need to face poisonous people who would scheme for their death at every corner.

If only she could pick…

Wei Liuying would rather became a commoner and lived at the edge of a village. She might not have much skill, but washing and hunting should be doable. A peaceful life would be very nice.

"Young Master Wei?" Shi Mo asked when he saw Wei Liuying didn't answer even after a few breaths of time.

Pulling herself together, Wei Liuying flashed a smile. She was entertaining the thoughts of living in a small and remote village with no one to bother her. But in this world, living alone as a woman would not be easy too.

There were a lot of people who would want to take advantage of her.

Not to mention, getting out of the capital city wouldn't be easy. Even though she had managed to find a path to get out after this year's New Year's celebration, she still didn't dare to use it yet. After all, if people found out about it, there was high chance that she might not be able to get out of the capital city.

'After this… I'll try once more…'

If she still failed to convince her father for the last time, Wei Liuying had made up her mind that she would choose to escape and leave this hellish place forever. Living a harsh life as an ordinary villager would be much better than living in the hellish place called Wei Family Residence.

However, she had to do it slowly because she didn't want Xiao Qing and Xiao Yu to get hurt. Their martial arts were not as good as her and if she left without them, they would surely die in Feng Chun's hands.

"Sorry, I was daydreaming a bit. There's no need to stand on ceremony."

Wei Liuying handed him a chunk of the meat before she began to eat. The meat was dried, so it would last longer. She guessed that Huo might have thought that she wanted to bring the meat back before she even requested it. He was quite a smart young man.

Unfortunately, Huo was also very loyal to Wei Hong Zheng and her mother. If not for that, Wei Liuying would have try to use Huo. She did entertain this thought in the past but changed her mind when she saw how Huo would not even be moved when other concubines try to use him.

All she could do was to maintain an amicable relationship with him and keep her distance from him.

Shi Mo looked at the meat and began to eat. Seeing this, the other soldiers quickly crowd over.

"Commander Shi, please share some."

"Yes! We're also hungry. You wouldn't want to make your comrade starved, right?"

"Commander Shi…"

"Get off!"

Shi Mo was trying hard to protect the meat and eat as fast as possible. But how could his other friends let him off? They didn't dare to disturb Wei Liuying because they were unfamiliar with him. Added with the fact that his father was the prime minister, who would dare to step up?

But Shi Mo is different. They could freely bother their friend.

Yang Xian returned. What greeted him was the sight of his soldiers trying to mooch off Shi Mo with Wei Liuying eating calmly on the side. He shook his head. it seemed that if Wei Liuying came, she would also make use of his soldiers for her amusement.

Though, the happy light in her eyes looked much better than the gloomy one that she had most of the time. Wei Liuying was looking at his soldiers with a completely different expression compared to the one she used when she was looking at him. It looked far more refreshing and relaxed.

In front of the normal soldiers who were only having fun, Wei Liuying was showing her real feelings. She was enjoying their reaction.

'I like this look of her more than her animosity towards me.'

Yang Xian shook his head a bit. She was categorizing him as a very dangerous person. Because of that, he knew that she couldn't possibly lower her guard when she was with him.

He waited a bit more before he stepped up. By this time, the meat was already eaten up by the soldiers with Shi Mo only managed to eat a bit.

"We need to depart. Shi Mo, you're going on different way and escort those two along with Commander Zou."

"Yes, Strategist Yang!"

Shi Mo straightened his body and rushed over to do his work. When it was time for him to do his duty, he would not dare to slack off in the slightest bit. His leaders wouldn't hesitate to beat him up.

Yang Xian averted his eyes and looked at Wei Liuying. "Do you have fun?"

"I'm only eating, Strategist Yang." Wei Liuying chose to play dumb and refused to answer Yang Xian's inquiry.

"We're going back now. Clean up your face."