Just now, although she hadn't been fully conscious, she had truly felt their killing intent. If she didn’t escape now– when Han Mingze was outside– those people would definitely come down and kill her once he left.

Since there was no hope of asking for help, she began to survey her surroundings, trying to see if there were any mechanisms that could help her leave. But after scouring around, she couldn't find anything that stood out.

Dizziness struck her again, and she felt as if she was once again going to be swallowed into unconsciousness. Stumbling, she fell to the side and the hairpin in her hand stabbed a small sunken spot on the wall.

“Boom—”

One side of the stone wall unexpectedly retracted to the side slowly, revealing a tunnel. Seeing this, Du Xiaoli’s face displayed her joy and she hurriedly braced herself against the wall to exit the chamber. Just as she stepped out of the chamber, the wall behind her once again closed.

She glanced back, and then turned around to walk forward along the tunnel. There was no lighting, so she could only grope her way forward. After walking for a while, the tunnel began to tilt upwards– it seemed she was almost out.

In the Empress Dowager's palace, Han Mingze was somewhat agitated. The imperial guards came out of the inner palace rooms, one by one, and said, "Your Majesty, no assassins were found."

"See, this Empress Dowager just told you, no assassins came here. Now the Emperor can feel at ease, right?" The Empress Dowager smiled and said.

"Since there are no assassins, this Emperor can return at ease. It's getting late– Empress Mother should rest earlier." Han Mingze rose as he spoke.

“Your Majesty should also rest earlier, just leave the matter of catching the assassins to them. You still need to take measures for your safety. If the assassin were to make another attempt on your journey back, that would be dangerous,” the Empress Dowager said with concern.

"Thank you for your concern, Empress Mother."

After saying this, Han Mingze turned around and left, the imperial guards following suit. The Empress Dowager didn't move, only watching them leave the hall until a palace maid entered, confirming that Han Mingze had truly left. Only then did the Empress Dowager rise from her seat, saying, "Bring her up here for this Empress Dowager."

"Yes." A nanny lifted the board covering the Empress Dowager's chair, and jumped in with one long stride.

It turned out, this secret room was underneath the Empress Dowager's seat! No wonder, no matter how much the imperial guards searched, they had been unable to find Du Xiaoli's figure.

Very soon, the person who went down came back up, saying, "Mistress, the person is gone."

"What?!" The Empress Dowager looked at the person in shock, "How long has it been, an unconscious person just disappeared?!"

"She might have regained consciousness, discovered the secret passage, and escaped. This servant found bloodstains on the ground."

"Since she left through the tunnel, why haven’t you sent someone to chase after her!" The Empress Dowager roared in anger.

"Yes." A group of people jumped down into the entrance, found the hole that Du Xiaoli had accidentally poked, and pressed it with something sharp. The secret passage opened and the people rushed to give chase, one after another.

Du Xiaoli used all her strength to open the cover on the exit, and found herself in an abandoned garden. She didn’t know where this was, and head swirling with dizziness, for a moment she couldn't distinguish between north, west, south, and east. When she spotted an exit in the garden, she meanderingly stumbled through it.

Leaving the deserted courtyard behind, she had no sense of how long she had walked– with no visual recollection of where she was walking. Her consciousness began to fade, but only when she finally saw a glimmer of light, did she collapse to the ground.

Not long after, a passing figure discovered the person who had fallen in the snow. Approaching and realizing it was her, they hurriedly picked her up and flew away from there.

The people chasing Du Xiaoli's footprints saw that her steps had disappeared at this spot, and knew that Du Xiaoli must have been rescued by someone. But there were no footprints of this other person, and it was impossible to determine who had rescued her.

The old nanny gritted her teeth, ''We actually let her escape! Hurry and clean up all the footprints here!"

After saying this, she hurried back to report this terrible news to the Empress Dowager.

Time passed little by little. Han Mingxiang, Xia Yuan, and Ying Ge grew increasingly worried– the entire palace had been searched yet she was still nowhere to be found.

At the end of the Chou time

, the old nannies and palace maids who were dressing Han Mingxiang all arrived. First, was a fragrant bath, followed by being dressed in three inner layers and three outer layers of wedding garments. Then came the styling of her hair and applying her makeup.

Han Mingze sent people to search all night, but even when Han Mingyi entered the palace at the beginning of the Mao time

, everyone still had no news of Du Xiaoli.

Han Mingyi was originally in a good mood because after he showed Blacksmith Wang the design drawings Du Xiaoli had given him, Blacksmith Wang said they would be fine. But this good mood dissipated when he heard that Du Xiaoli was missing.

"What are you talking about?" Han Mingyi exuded an icy aura, even icier than the weather outside.

"Mingyi, don't be anxious for now, this Emperor has already sent out extra men......"

"But you didn't find her even after a night of searching!" Han Mingyi said coldly.

"Fifth Brother, it's all my fault. If it wasn't for me, Xiaoli– she wouldn't have......" Han Mingxiang apologized, this was her first time seeing Han Mingyi so angry.

"If you can find Xiaoli, it'll still be okay. If you can't, don't blame me for tearing this palace apart!" Han Mingyi didn't look at Han Mingxiang for a second, only gazing at Han Mingze with cold eyes.

"Mingyi, don't be agitated ......"

Han Mingyi refused to waste any more words with them and turned to leave the main hall. Just as he walked outside, he was stopped by a figure.

"Your Highness Prince Ding."

"Auntie Hong Xiu."

The others heard Han Mingyi greeting Hong Xiu and followed him out.

"Auntie Hong Xiu, why are you here?" Han Mingxiang asked when she saw Hong Xiu.

Hong Xiu covered her head with the hood of her cloak. Seeing that everyone was there, she said, "This servant was ordered by Mistress to take you to the inner palace to see the Princess."

"Xiaoli is in the inner palace?" Everyone looked at Hong Xiu with surprise.

"Yes." Hong Xiu answered.

"How is she right now? Why did she go to the inner palace?" Han Mingxiang asked.

"Everyone can go with me to take a look first. You two, Mistress said you both can come along." Hong Xiu glanced at Xia Yuan and Ying Ge. After saying that, she turned and walked away.

Everyone hurriedly followed. No one spoke until they reached the inner palace.

References

MoonWhisperer, skyrise's Thoughts

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