Capital of Kai

(2 weeks ago)

"How is Ai Le Jun Zhu doing?"

"Still the same. Not eating much and isn't responding to anything."

"I wonder what happen to Ai Le Jun Zhu ..."

Zhu Zhu ended the short conversation with her fellow servant, holding onto a wooden tray in her arms while looking at the closed doors of Ai Le's room.

Ever since the day they returned from Yuan Ding Lou, Ai Le locked herself up in the room. Refusing to have a bath, no appetite to eat or drink, and everyday she just lay on the floor like a broken doll.

Despite her unwillingness to survive, Zhu Zhu would subtly force her to eat and drink so to not let her die out of starvation, using wet cloths to clean her body and occasionally wash her hair.

Day goes on with little improvement in her mental state. However, a few days ago, for the very first time, Ai Le used her husky voice and shouted for Zhu Zhu. With her name being called, Zhu Zhu immediately dropped everything on hand and ran towards Ai Le's room.

Push open the doors with a huge force, Zhu Zhu's eyes lit up with excitement of her master's recovery.

"Ai Le Jun Zhu! You are finally awake!"

Ai Le, who still remain on the floor and dress lightly in her inner wear, looked up to Zhu Zhu with a confused face.

"What do you mean by I am finally awake?"

Sensing that her master looked confused, Zhu Zhu approached her master carefully and held her up from the floor. As she had not been moving her body much, with such a sudden movement, Ai Le felt giddy and lost her energy. Luckily, Zhu Zhu was there to support her master.

"Ugh, my head ... Why does it hurt so much?"

Ai Le used her hand to press against her temple and rubbed in a circular motion while closing her eyes. Leaning her body weight on Zhu Zhu, Ai Le followed her lead to the nearby stool to take a seat.

"Ai Le Jun Zhu ... You don't remember what happened?"

Looking at Zhu Zhu's concern face, Ai Le was confused and frown her eyebrow.

"What happened? What could have happened?"

"I ... Uh ... "

"Oh right, where is Sister Jae-in? What has she been doing these few days? Also, what Qi Yuan has been up to? Why didn't they contact me? Hmph ... This is unforgivable. "

Looking at her master fuming with a childish anger, which shows that she wasn't really angry, Zhu Zhu looked confused. Did her master forgot what happened in Yuan Ding Lou? Actually, she herself was unsure what happened that night.

She was not sure if her master met the Fourth Prince or not.

"Ai Le Jun Zhu, actually Lady Jae-in had left Capital of Kai a few weeks ago, with the Fourth Prince ... She even dropped by the manor to bid her final farewell to you but you ... at that point of time, you weren't ready to meet her."

"WHAT??? SHE LEFT CAPITAL OF KAI? HOW CAN I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS? Wait ... What do you mean by I am not ready to meet her? I am always available if she wants to meet me! Zhu Zhu, you better explain yourself clearly."

As Ai Le's voice harden with each word being spat out, Zhu Zhu hurriedly kneeled on the floor to appease her Master anger while she was confused with what was going on.

"Master! It is true! You were not ready to face Lady Jae-in at that point of time! You couldn't respond to us and refused to leave your room! Ai Le Jun Zhu, did you forget?"

"I refused to leave my room? How ... "

As Ai Le tried to recall her memories, a sharp pain in her head stopped her from doing so. The overbearing headache forcefully stop her from remembering something that she should have known. The only images that she got was her lying on the floor in a lazy manner with dead eyes.

"I ... Ugh ... I can't remember ... A-anyways, where did they go?"

"Lady Jae-in told me that they are heading to the border of Kai. The Fourth Prince was assigned to follow them for this trip and apparently Lady Jae-in wants to head home, the border of Xuan. Oh right, she also instructed me to pass you this pin."

Carefully pulling out the Ruby red Jade hairpin to Ai Le, Zhu Zhu relayed the message from Jae-in word by word to her. After getting an idea of what was going on, Ai Le smiled with a plan in mind and her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Alright! It's time to go on an adventure!"

"HUH? Where to Ai Le Jun Zhu?!"

"Let's go find them! Hehehe ... How can they not include me on such an adventure!"

"But ..."

"No buts. This is final! Oh gosh, how fun can this be!"

With a plan, Ai Le became excited and was pumped up for this trip to secretly chase after Jae-in and Qi Yuan. Zhu Zhu stood by the side and looked at her Master who revived from the death, happily packing her stuff into the baggage and scanning through the clothes that she had.

The change in Ai Le was too drastic and unexpected for Zhu Zhu to adjust.

'How did Master lost her memories of that night and did not remember those days when she locked herself up from the world?'

Aside from the burning questions of what happened to Ai Le, Zhu Zhu still continue to fulfil her role as Ai Le's maid and made necessary arrangement to satisfy and protect her Master before meeting the Fourth Prince.

*** ***

Other than a few knights accompanying them, Ai Le brought Zhu Zhu along for this secret trip. Everything had been well-prepared, and they were heading towards the direction of Ding City.

Sitting comfortably in the carriage prepared by Zhu Zhu, Ai Le casually lean onto the back of the carriage with cushion supporting her bottom. Her knights are skilful martial arts practitioners, and so Ai Le has no worries for her safety.

Giving instructions to them to bring her to Ding City, other than that, she just well up in the carriage and admire the scenery of the nature while sipping on expensive tea prepared by Zhu Zhu.

"Ai Le Jun Zhu, do you think you should dress up as a guy as it will be more convenient?" Zhu Zhu asked.

"Hmm ... Good idea, maybe I shall dress up as a guy when we reach Ding City then! After all, now we are still travelling towards Ding City and I doubt there will be any danger on the way."

As though she has the power of a crow-mouth, the minute she finished her sentence, danger comes right by.

"AI LE JUN ZHU BE CAREFUL!"

Chaos happened. The situation was messy. Knights fighting off unknown men who was targeting the carriage. Arrows shot into the carriage, missing Ai Le's body by a few inches. Zhu Zhu screaming with fear while Ai Le remained frozen in her seat. Using her body to cover her Master, another arrow shot through Zhu Zhu's body and blood splatter onto Ai Le's smooth and paled face. The cold hardened dead body of Zhu Zhu still hugged Ai Le as a body of shield. Ai Le looked down to see Zhu Zhu's face. Using her last strength to caress the side of her cheeks, the entrance curtain of the carriage open up, an ugly looking burly man appeared in her vision. He pulled her arm roughly away from Zhu Zhu's body. He dragged her fragile body and now in his arms. Cheers of victory filled her ears. Everything happened too fast. With that ugly smirk on that burly man, Ai Le lost her conscious and sink into darkness.