The Story of Dusk 171 ATTACK ON THE ROAD

As for the gift, initially Xiao Jun wanted to buy a thousand years ginseng as a gift to wish the Empress healthy, but Qianru had another idea.

She thought that kind of gift was less sensible and the Empress of Rockstone Kingdom has always been a self- important person.

A gift that didn't need an effort to get, as long as one has the money, wouldn't attract her attention and satisfied her need to be the significant person.

Thus, Qianru suggested to give a handmade jadeite to the Empress.

Azura country was well known with their jade, the best quality jade that was traded within the imperial family and highborn society right now was came from Azura.

Fortunately, as the prince from Azura, Xiao Jun has many rarest jade under his possession. They just needed to ask someone to get it for them.

And for that, Qianru thought to make their own gifts to give it to the Empress. And since Qianru knew the Empress was a religious woman, she wanted to make the rare jade to be a jadeite Budha.  

Xiao Jun didn't reject the idea, actually he liked her suggestion better, with that, it would show their sincerity and effort.

Qianru was a smart woman and he knew that, but to his regret, he had never come to her for input or advice before this. Xiao Jun had always put her in the dark, even so, his woman still shining beautifully.

Xiao Jun smiled handsomely as he caressed Qianru's flat stomach gently. The woman wriggled and chuckled.

"What are you doing?" Her voice was so sweet like a honey as her face shone brightly, it was a happiness.

"Feeling the little one is growing inside you." Xiao Jun said, mesmerized by the fact of it.

In the near future there would be someone who resembled him, except his brother, Xiao Tianyao, and Qianru.

Xiao Jun didn't care much whether this baby would be a prince or a princess. It would be alright for him as he would give the best for her or him.

"The baby is still a month old." Qianru put her hand atop of his, kept it still because it was ticklish when Xiao Jun move it on her belly.

"Hmm." Xiao Jun hummed, bemused.

A month old.

And that woman would be three month by now.

Suddenly a memory of certain woman flashed before his eyes. Luna.

Right now, with Qianru's pregnancy, he felt overprotective toward her because she was carrying his flesh and blood. Probably, this was what his brother felt as well.

Despite Luna had been manipulated him and even caused relationship between them, brother, became a mess. Regardless of the reason, she was still pregnant with their child.

Of course Xiao Tianyao would feel responsible for that, after all he would be a father. Now Xiao Jun knew how it feels.

He let out a sigh, he hoped everything was going well in his brother end and hoped he could tell him about this news. He wanted to share his happiness with the only brother that he had.

The road to the gift shop was still long and Qianru started to feel sleepy.

Cuddling into Xiao Jun's embraced gave her a satisfaction and turned her drowsy. Before Qianru could realize, she had closed her eyes and fell asleep.

This pregnancy made her became more and more lazy as she felt sleepy every time. If it wasn't because Xiao Jun who woke her up, she would sleep through the morning and only woke up when the sun had sat in the highest spot.

Some time Xiao Jun would let her to oversleep, but for some morning he would wake her and take her to stroll in the courtyard. Fresh air was important also, so Qianru wouldn't just stay at their chamber.

Seeing Qianru who had doze off, Xiao Jun pulled a blanket and covered her body. They were only halfway to their destination, it would be alright to let Qianru slept a couple of minutes.

However, two minutes later when Qianru had just slipped into deep slumber and Xiao Jun was about to continue read a book, their carriage suddenly stopped.

The abrupt stop turned Xiao Jun in alert especially when he heard a man callous voice shouted at them.

"Get down from the carriage!" Someone shouted at Xiao Jun's carriage.

Xiao Jun narrowed his eyes, didn't like with this sudden interruption. Aside from a man voice, he could hear a couple of horses from their opposite side.

Xiao Jun didn't look nervous as he listened carefully to the conversation outside the carriage, at the very best it would be hooligan.

"What is happening?" Qianru stirred awake upon hearing the commotion, she rubbed her eyes to get rid of her sleepiness.

"Stay inside." Xiao Jun gave her a reassuring smile as he listened when Liu Wei stepped forward to talk to their intruder.

However their conversation didn't last long when they became more aggressive even after they knew this was the carriage of Prince Xiao Jun from Azura, the guest of honor for the Emperor of Rockstone.

And when Xiao Jun heard the metal scrapped each other when someone unsheathed their sword. His eyes turned gloomy as he grabbed his sword and proceeded to go out of the carriage.

"Stay here." His voice was so soft, but it held urgency. He didn't want Qianru being hurt or witnessed something that she shouldn't see if the situation was getting out of hands.

The moment Xiao Jun was out of the carriage, they were holding their sword high and pointed the tip of it to each other.

"What do you want!?" Xiao Jun's voice thundered and startled both parties, he walked neither fast nor slow, but every steps that he took, there was a warning with him. "You want money!?"

Xiao Jun didn't mind to give them money as long as they didn't find trouble for them. This was not mean he couldn't win if he chose to fight in the end, but he wanted to get rid any possible danger as much as possible, because Qianru was here now and should something happen on her or their unborn baby, he would not be able to bear it.

"Money!?" One of the hooligans scoffed, he showed his ugly, dirty teeth when he smiled wickedly. "We want your life!!!"

With that being said, it was akin to signal to start the attack.

There were around twenty hooligans while Xiao Jun only brought five guards with him and Liu Wei. But, they shouldn't look down on Xiao Jun's five guards and Liu Wei.

Albeit they were outnumbered, they were still trained guards who had been through the worst training under Xiao Jun while the other party was merely random hooligans.

The fight couldn't be avoided as the sharp blades swung relentlessly against each other.

Inside the carriage, Qianru was fiddling with the hem of her sleeves nervously when she heard the uproar outside. She was nervous if something happened to Xiao Jun. They didn't bring many guards when they were going out of the palace and from the sound of it, Qianru could guest that their opponent were outnumbered them.

Qianru moved to the window and opened the curtain to take a look of the situation outside.

She bit down her lips when she realized that her guest was right, however from the looked of it, seemingly Xiao Jun and his guards could handle the situation just fine and even had the upper hand of this. Their skills were indeed remarkable.

However it didn't cease down Qianru's anxiousness, she kept her eyebrows taut together during the battle as she bit down her bottom lips.

The fight was last for more than five minutes before the last person was stabbed to his death by Liu Wei.

"Find a survivor and interrogate him until he confessed!" Xiao Jun said as he sheathed his sword and turned around to walk back toward the carriage.

But, he caught the sight of Qianru, who stuck out her head out of the window, and walked to the window's side instead.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"I told you to stay inside didn't I?" Xiao Jun said while he rubbed her head tenderly and Qianru leaned to his touch.

"I am worry." She replied, there was a trace of her anxiousness in her eyes.

"There is no need for you to feel that way." Xiao Jun kissed her forehead. "Stay inside, alright?"

Qianru nodded her head and closed the curtain, only then Xiao Jun walked back to the messed up place where they had fought before.

Liu Wei was holding a man who was barely alive, his chest rise and fall rapidly as he tried to breath with difficulty.

"Who sent you?!" Liu Wei asked harshly and a blow landed on his face. "Who sent you?!" The man suffered another blow for every unanswered question, until his teeth fell one by one.

"Stop… I will… talk…" The man stuttered under Liu Wei's fist, he couldn't raise his hands to block the punches, so he used the remaining strength that he had to blurt out, if he kept quiet, he would die miserably.

Liu Wei stopped and shoved him to the ground as he cough severely.

"Who sent you?" Xiao Jun stepped forward and knelt so he could be in the same eye level with the man. "Talk and I will let you live." He said with voice that devoid from any emotion.

"It was a man…" The man said with difficulty. "There was a man who had come to our leader… and offer a lot of money…"

Xiao Jun eyebrows scrunched as he tried to figure out who was that person.

"That man said to kill Prince Xiao Jun…" He recalled that their leader was trying to refuse the offer as their gang wasn't that prominent to kill someone so important from imperial blood.

However, he threatened them to kill the whole gang if they didn't accept the job, moreover the money was a lot, it was so tempting too.

"Who is the man?" Liu Wei asked from behind Xiao Jun.

"It was the crown prince Mo Qin Yi's personal guard…" The man said truthfully, that was another reason why their leader accepted the offer.

"How do you know it was Prince Mo Qin Yi's personal guard?" Xiao Jun was squinted his eyes suspiciously.

 "He said it…" The man recalled that he let them knew his identity.

"He said it?" It was so hard to believe that someone under the command of the prince would reveal their identity easily.

"Yes, yes… your highness." The man answered hastily, afraid he would suffer more under Xiao Jun's wrath. They should have known that they would end up like this.

"Take him with us." Xiao Jun stood up and gave Liu Wei order.

Liu Wei nodded his head politely and grabbed the man by his collar ruthlessly. He tried to struggle and spoke with weak voice.

"Prince Xiao Jun… you said you will let me go…" He struggled. "You said you will let me go…" He kept whimpering in fear until Liu Wei stuffed a cloth onto his mouth that instantly shut him up.

Yes, Xiao Jun had said that he would let him go if he said the truth, but he didn't say that he would keep his promise.

Toward people like them, he didn't mind to go back on his words dozen times, they didn't deserve his respect and he wouldn't bother to listen to their complain.

Xiao Jun walked back to the carriage and sat down beside Qianru, he pulled her closer as the woman snuggled to his embrace contently after she was sure that he was safe and sound and didn't suffer any wound.

Without them knowing, not far from them, there was a man in black clothes and mask, standing on the high branch. The lush leaves covered his figure perfectly.

He had been watching all the things that happened from the beginning.

It was perfect. Prince Xiao Jun would think all of this was the crown prince Mo Qin Yi evil doing, because this misunderstanding would be good news for crown princess Zhao Tianqi.

She would pay him handsomely if she knew that her plan went according to her arrangement.

Chapter end