Time passed quietly.

Lin Zi Xuan almost felt that he was going crazy. He had found out the route that Feng Ning took, but there was no one who reported seeing someone like the Empress on the road. It was not like everyone knew how she looked like, but it was her attire.

It was a dead end.

As long as Feng Ning changed into a normal attire that would allow her to easily blend in, no one would be able to find her easily.

And finding one person amongst so many people in the Capital City proved to be another difficult task. They did have some record of people there, but there were also a lot of travelers who passed by.

Checking them one by one was hard.

Lin Zi Xuan gave the order for the men to keep watching and interrogate any suspicious young women they could find.

But even after days, there was no news.

She seemed to have disappeared into the center of the earth.

No news.

Not even one.

Lin Zi Xuan tried to focus on the matter of the nation, but he felt that he couldn't do so. Even when the ministers were helping him to make sure that he finished his work, there were things that he kept on forgetting.

"Your Majesty, you can focus on looking for Her Majesty." Prime Minister Yan was worried when he saw how distraught Lin Zi Xuan was. Probably, not a single one of them would be as distraught as he is when they spoke about their wife.

"I'm fine."

Lin Zi Xuan rubbed his forehead. No matter how much he tried to search for her, he knew that he also couldn't forget his duty as the Emperor. Looking at the pile of reports on his desk, he began to feel a bit more irritated.

Why did he even want this position in the first place?

Without having Feng Ning accompanying him, this task felt even more tedious for him.

Weeks passed without any news.

At this point, many of the ministers were also feeling desperate and helpless. They didn't know what they were supposed to do anymore. Even though some of them were dissatisfied with Lin Zi Xuan, they had to admit that he was also a good leader.

It was just...

Without Feng Ning's presence, they didn't have that much thought. Some of them even began to feel that Lin Zi Xuan didn't deserve to be on the throne. Without the true lineage of someone from the Lin Family, it just didn't seem right.

But none of them mentioned it on the surface.

While Lin Zi Xuan still noticed their subtle gazes. And when one of them asked him whether he would look for another wife, Lin Zi Xuan demoted that person directly. He didn't want to find anyone other than Feng Ning.

"Your Majesty, it's been a few months. It's now winter. Please wear more clothes." The manservant looked at Lin Zi Xuan and felt a bit helpless.

Lin Zi Xuan nodded and then looked at the window. There were still people whom he sent to find Feng Ning. But there was no news at all for the past few months. He didn't know where she had gone or where she could possibly be.

All he could do was to wait and prayed that she'll be fine.

That was the only thing he could do.

"Any clues?"

"Your Majesty, Imperial Doctor Wu seems to go outside the Capital City a few more times than normal."

Imperial Doctor Wu.

Lin Zi Xuan furrowed his eyebrows before recalling that Feng Ning did learn under Imperial Doctor Wu for a long period of time. She was someone who lived within her residence for most of her time, so there was no way she would have been able to go and disappear quietly by herself.

There had to be someone who helped.

And that person might be Imperial Doctor Wu.

"Where is he now?"

"He's heading out of the Capital City."

He's heading out?

"I'm going."

Lin Zi Xuan in the past would never thought that he will be the one trying so hard to find a woman. After all, he thought that as long as he become the Emperor, there would be more than enough women who would throw themselves at him.

But now, he realized that he didn't want any of them.

Compared to Feng Ning, they seemed to be lackluster and didn't seem to be attractive to his eyes at all.

He thought that he would not like someone who created a lot of troubles for him.

But now he felt that even if she were to destroy a city, he would not mind at all. What he wanted was for her to stay by his side.

Riding on a horse rather than a carriage, Lin Zi Xuan paced the horse out of the Capital City along with few of his trusted guards. They were all trying their best to match the Emperor's pace.

It was their first time seeing the Emperor behaving so recklessly aside from the time when Empress Xing disappeared.

Soon, they reached a small village.

"What village is this?" Lin Zi Xuan frowned. There were several small villages outside the Capital City, so he was not totally sure which one this is.

"Replying to Your Majesty, this is Village Min."

"Village Min?"

Lin Zi Xuan thought for a moment then nodded.

He could see from the distance that Imperial Doctor Wu walked towards the embroidery house. It was the place for young girls to study embroidery that Feng Ning built last year to make sure that the girls could also have another method to live.

And if they had already finished their study or their skills were good enough, they could directly work there.

Imperial Doctor Wu smiled when he saw a young lady walked out.

"Ning, you don't have to work so hard. I thought that your small clinic is doing well in business."

"I only come... here once... a week." Feng Ning looked at Imperial Doctor Wu and felt a bit speechless. Her speech only improved a bit, but her voice was still low and cracked.

Imperial Doctor Wu had tried to give her some soothing medicine, but it didn't seem to work that well. He could only look helplessly at the strange voice Feng Ning made whenever she spoke.

Thankfully, she rarely spoke.

And the villagers also didn't force her when they saw that she's such a quiet person.

"I brought some of the new prescription."

Feng Ning glanced at the books and nodded.

Imperial Doctor Wu came here once or twice a month to deliver books or just to inform about the recent improvement in the Capital City.

Even though Feng Ning had gone, the ministers were still busy to do their work. With Lin Zi Xuan watching them, there was no way that they would dare to slack off.

And Feng Ning herself felt that living here was pretty good.

She had to work all day, but it was fun. Cooking, cleaning, and then worked for barely half an hour to make some embroidery before busying herself to concoct some medicines. She came to this embroidery house to buy some cloth rather than to sell it.

After all, she would rather decorate her own dress rather than letting other people do it. It was more fun this way.

Her money that she packed up was more than enough for her to live in this small village for a decade.

"Let's go to your house."

As the two of them walked, they didn't realize that there was a group of people who were looking at them. The guards didn't recognize Feng Ning as she had changed from her luxurious dress to an ordinary village girl.

But Lin Zi Xuan knew.

It's her.

She's here.

"You're dismissed."

The guards were stunned while Lin Zi Xuan strode forward. He followed the two of them to Feng Ning's small house before he called out, "Ning'er."

The two of them stopped in their steps.