Doomed to be Cannon Fodder

She saw Prince Li’s sharp gaze sweep over her after she finished speaking. She hurriedly turned away, fear thrilling through her, “I’m going to rest.”

She virtually ran into the adjoining room, whereupon she disrobed and quickly slipped into bed.

Long Heng also spoke no further. It was fine as long as she didn’t ask any more about that woman. He continued his preparations for an early departure the next day. He actually held great expectations for their trip to the Red Maple Mountain Villa, although he felt considerably depressed at the thought of seeing that woman again,

Bai Xiangxiu had already recovered greatly from her injuries, but her skin still appeared rather pale. She hid it with her fringe, but there was no hiding her hands. Luckily, the sleeves of women in ancient times were very long, and they could fully conceal her healing skin that way.

It was just that, why did she have to share a carriage with Long Heng? Him sitting there in casual green clothing was making it hard for her to even breathe. There was no way around it. He was the male lead, his aura so powerful that there was no space for her to hide away from it. Sadly, there was no one else in the carriage. How could Long Heng not take advantage of that? He beckoned, “Come sit over here.”

I’m not going over there! You’re not going to just sit there nicely if I do!

Bai Xiangxiu thought as much, but couldn’t find a way to wiggle out of it. After all, he was Long Heng, the provider of her food and clothing. What could she do if he grew angry and decided to slaughter her?

Therefore, she had no choice but to move over and sit down. Little did she know that he would immediately pull her little hand over just as her butt had just touched the soft cushion.

She had originally thought that she would be taken advantage of all the way to the Red Maple Mountain Villa, but he’d actually just softly stroked the wound on her hand. It looked quite pale and appeared extremely fragile.

“The burns must have hurt greatly, right?”

She was shocked. Was he concerned about her injuries? “It didn’t hurt. At that time, I was only thinking about pulling the girl out, so I didn’t feel how painful it was.” Those were her heartfelt words, and weren’t intentionally spoken to leave a good impression on the male lead. With her being so nervous at the moment, none of the words she was speaking was going through her brain’s filter first.

“Silly.” Long Heng squeezed her fingers softly with resignation, then looked outside. “Let that girl follow as well!”

He had heard that the girl was someone who greatly valued debts of gratitude. The maid had continuously kowtowed in thanks to her savior after been saved, and was now staying in Winter garden to serve her. However, he had not seen her when he had gone to visit. From the looks of it, she was someone who knew her place well.

“She’s called Xiaohuan and is quite obedient.” Bai Xiangxiu found some random words to speak when the conversation dried up, and turned her face to the side.

Long Heng found her quite interesting when she was like this, and became used to stroking her hand. He was someone who practiced martial arts all year round, so both his hands were covered with calluses. So after he stroked her hand for a while, the friction generated quite a lot of heat, which began to burn after a while.

Bai Xiangxiu could truly take it no longer as she furrowed her brows and said softly, “Your Highness.” Because she was acting against his wishes and feared his anger, she said this as softly as possible.

“What is it?” Long Heng felt that he was really fortunate to have learnt martial arts. Otherwise, it would be really impossible to hear her words clearly.

“It hurts.”

Long Heng was taken aback for a moment before he reduced the strength of his hands. Was this girl’s hand made of paper? Why was it fragile to such an extent? He would really have to watch his actions in the future.

After arriving at Red Maple Mountain Villa, they would have all the free time in the world after handling Miss Lin’s matter. Long Heng felt that he should indeed calm down first! However, if he didn’t do anything now, he would be unable to suffer through this time. Therefore, he had her sit on his thigh as he held her slender waist, quite satisfied with just that.

It was just that with the jostling of the carriage, he immediately grew uncomfortable. No, to be more accurate, it was that he’d become very comfortable, comfortable to the point that he wished to do a certain type of something. However, he could do nothing at all and thus felt exceptionally tortured. Finally, having no choice in the matter, he could only place her down on the seat beside him, holding onto her hand as he looked mutely to the side.

Bai Xiangxiu’s face had already turned beet red. It had really been a man who had been hugging her just now; a real, actual man. He’d had all the proper reactions too; there was no way she could’ve overlooked it.

She could already foresee her days as a maiden reaching an end during this trip to Red Maple Mountain Villa. However beautiful Red Maple Mountain Villa was, her thoughts were completely lost within the pain and resignation of losing her chastity soon. Of course, deep within, there was also a tiny bit of anticipation.

She was a woman in her heart of hearts after all. If she didn’t have those kind of thoughts with such a perfect specimen of a male by her side, then she was surely suffering from some kind of hormonal imbalance, or her male hormone production was so strong that she was already nearly a man herself.

Sadly, she was neither of those. Her body was truly healthy as could be, and it was the same for her soul, being that of a typical, standard woman. Therefore, thinking of such things should still be normal. She shouldn’t be considered lustful, right?

She was still thinking such random, irrelevant thoughts when the carriage entered the Red Maple Mountain Villa. She’d only regained her wits when she realized she was being led by the hand of the male lead, with a gaggle of servants following closely behind.

The hell, what kind of situation was this? Bai Xiangxiu’s hand trembled as she was struck by the impulse to stop this kind of intimate behavior, because in this world, it was unacceptable even for a husband and wife to hold hands and walk down the road. However, as a concubine, she was being led by the hand like this. Was showing their intimacy like this really alright? What if there was retribution?

But her hand was grasped ever more firmly before she could pull it free as Long Heng resignedly said, “Be careful, you almost collided with the door just now.”

Really, just how did she walk? She appeared both tired and dazed in the carriage, and ended nearly colliding with the door. There was no way about it but to hold her hand and personally lead her in.

Bai Xiangxiu’s brain had been overloaded so much that she was completely dazed. She hadn’t thought at all that the male lead would protect her so actively, even leading her in by the hand! Wasn’t that just wonderful? Those of their household as well as the servants of the Red Maple Mountain Villa had seen it all. It was really a matter that could not be denied.

The servants of Red Maple Mountain Villa had naturally prepared rooms in advance. They had naturally received news of their master’s arrival.

In this world, especially in olden times, concubines were vastly different from main wives. If a main wife arrived somewhere, she could be arranged within the same room as the head of the household. But for concubines, it was different.

They were forever just servants of the husband and relegated to a distant room, their treatment only somewhat better than ordinary servant girls. The room that Bai Xiangxiu had been allocated to was actually rather good, with the blankets and whatnot all being extremely new.

Bai Xiangxiu left the room after a brief touch up. It should be dinnertime by now. She was rather tired from having sat in the carriage all day.

However, Xiaohuan’s first words to her after she appeared seemed to break from that expectation, “Madame Xiu, the prince has gone to meet his friend, leaving orders that you should eat dinner first without waiting for him.”

“Friend?”

Could it be that particular male supporting character?

She remembered that the female lead had encountered another male supporting character here, someone who was extremely learned and talented. He started liking the female lead after she’d saved his poems. However, his true identity was a spy of an foreign country, his ultimate goal to assassinate the male lead.

The male lead seemed to be aware of this, yet wanted to obtain some information about that other country through the spy. Therefore, the prince had intentionally invited the spy to stay at Red Maple Mountain Villa under the guise of appreciating talent.