Chapter 307 - Plotting Chivalry

Bao Zhun could not sleep and so was pacing about his guest room in the manor situated the middle of nowhere - he assumed it must be one of Prince Houyi's secret residences, most likely one of his maternal grandfather's secret residences that Prince Houyi was "borrowing".

At this point, Bao Zhun was finally coming to the true realization that his affection was unwanted. He had heard from the guards talking about how Prince Houyi has been "doting" on Chun Hua, they even addressed her as "her highness".

After all, to the men, it looked as if Prince Houyi had gone through all this trouble of hunting down the "fugitives" just to find her so he could protect her. Because instead of taking her back to his father as he was supposed to, he was holed up here with her here in the middle of nowhere, spending night and day at her side. 

They honestly did not expect that it was possible for their Prince to ever be so lovestruck that he would set aside his ambition for a woman, yet here they were watching him do so. 

Bao Zhun had known from the beginning that Chun Hua had affection for prince Houyi but he had always believed that Prince Houyi did not reciprocate her feelings. After all, what man would send a woman he had affection for on an assassination mission? What's worse, he did not even bother to send a single guard to assist her? 

Apparently, Prince Houyi was that type of man. 

They had come to see him that afternoon, well Chun Hua had come to see him, Prince Houyi was just there to play a condescending escort. Apparently, he did not think she needed an escort to an enemy nation on a fool's assassination mission, but he thought she needed protection when going to see Prince Houyi's "guest" in Prince Houyi's manor that was already surrounded by Prince Houyi's men.

What an opportunistic bastard, playing the hero when only when it was convenient...Bao Zhun really did not like Prince Houyi at all and honestly could not understand what Chun Hua saw in him.

Prince Houyi remained outside the open doors while Chun Hua came inside to talk to Bao Zhun. Bao Zhun immediately asked after Chun Hai and Chun Hua informed that he had left earlier to see to some things but would be back soon.

She then thanked him for all his help and apologized for getting him in trouble to which Bao Zhun kindly waved off saying it was no trouble at all.

Chun Hua smiled and then informed him that Prince Houyi has arranged for his father to come to pick him up and that his father would be arriving the next day so he would be able to go home. She also said that Prince Houyi will intercede on his behalf so his father will not scold him too much.

Bao Zhun frowned and looked from Prince Houyi to Chun Hua and then asked her if she was happy, she hesitated, slightly knit her brows but then smiled and nodded. 

Then Prince Houyi called for her, apparently tired of waiting. So Chun Hua thanked him again and said she will not be able to see him off tomorrow so she bid him farewell, thanked him again, and then she left with her irritating escort and his men in tow.

Since that time, Bao Zhun had been replaying that conversation in his head. She had gotten what she wanted but he did not think she looked happy at all. She honestly seemed happier when she was going about planning out the Long Emperor's assassination.

Another suspicious thing was Chun Hai's absence. Bao Zhun had gotten to know him quite well over the last few months. While the Chun siblings and Prince Houyi were childhood friends, he knew that Chun Hai was very unhappy with Prince Houyi at the moment.

Chun Hai had even been very apprehensive about going to see Prince Houyi back at the port, if they were not surrounded he doubted Chun Hai would have gone. So Bao Zhun naturally found it very suspicious that Chun Hai would have left his sister in Prince Houyi's care again so soon. 

Whatever the situation was, Bao Zhun was not comfortable leaving Chun Hua here alone. if Chun Hai was here then he would not be so bothered but as things stood, he could not leave feeling at ease. So Bao Zhun was pacing about his room, thinking about how he could persuade his father to let him stay here. 

{...Maybe I should pretend to be sick - No, that's stupid, he would probably just tie me to a horse and go...}

Bao Zhun let out a breath in irritation and then decided to go take a walk to clear his mind. He opened the door and stormed out, sending back a glare at the two guards who promptly fell into step behind him. 

This place was really suffocating and infuriating.

Bao Zhun walked around randomly for a long while before stopping in some random corner in the residence that had the least eyes watching him. He stood there staring up at the moon for a long while deep in thought.

He could tell the guards behind him were unhappy with his midnight walk, thanks to the irritated grunts and noisy shifts they were making. But Bao Zhun did not care at all. After all, he was not the one who asked them to stalk him and he was too busy thinking about how to go about handling his father to bother about insignificant minions.

Back when he left with Chun Hua, he knew his father would not have approved of him going to Long country for anything given the war situation. So he ran off and later sent a message back when he had reached the border when it was too late for anyone to stop him. Of course, his letter did not mention any particular details, it just said that he would be gone for a while sightseeing in Long country. 

He could imagine his father had been livid when he read the note. But all that was fine and good, he would have gotten over it by now. But now this trouble happened, so naturally, Bao Zhun expected his father to be hopping mad again. There was also that irritating Prince Houyi in the mix, given the situation his father would undoubtedly not want to get on Prince Houyi's bad side so he would not ask to take Chun Hua, a stranger with them.

What's more, Bao Zhun actually did not trust his father not to hand over Chun Hua to the Zou king. After all, she was a wanted fugitive.

Bao Zhun heavily sighed, although he hated to admit it, Chun Hua was probably safer here with Prince Houyi than with him. It seemed he truly had no choice but to leave her here without any protection. 

But he was still worried, just then he heard some sounds coming from behind him and swiftly turned to see the two guards falling to the ground.

Bao Zhun's face immediately lit up when he saw Chun Hai, he was so excited that he completely missed Monk Du's presence and hopped over the two motionless bodies and hugged Chun Hai as he went, "Where have you been?"

Chun Hai immediately frowned, stunned by the sudden show of affection, he awkwardly grabbed Bao Zhun's shoulders and moved him back. 

Bao Zhun also awkwardly blinked back at the stunned Chun Hai as he realized what he had just done, he quickly released Chun Hai and cleared his throat, "Ah, you see, it's just been a bit cold here...is all..." He said as he put his hands behind his back and then glanced at Monk Du and asked, "Who's this?" 

"A friend here to help, we're getting out of here..." Chun Hai swiftly responded. 

Bao Zhun blinked at him and then glanced at the motionless guards on the ground and then smiled, "This is more like it, I was about to suffocated to death by that your Prince. I don't understand how you could have lived with him for years.." He said with an exaggerated sigh of relief.

Chun Hai snorted, "Pick them up, let's move..." He said as he reached down and grabbed one of the guards while Bao Zhun grabbed the other and they went into one of the nearby storage rooms. Then Chun Hai spread the map Monk Du had made on the ground and explained things to Bao Zhun. 

It was good they had run into Bao Zhun just as they arrived here as it made things much simpler now since they no longer had to worry about how to go about "rescuing" him. Not to mention, they were gambling on where he was since Monk Du had no idea what Bao Zhun actually looked like.

Of course, Chun Hai's original plan of tricking Prince Houyi with the Monk Du teaching scheme could no longer work. With Prince Houyi's suspicious nature he would be too apprehensive of how they located his whereabouts to buy into the idea. 

After all, if Chun Hai were truly to behave as one looking to make friendly relations, he would have contacted Prince Houyi's men and gotten advance approval instead of simply showing up at the door.

So the new plan was a simple divert, grab and dash. The residence was basically one big wooden structure, as complex and large as it was, it was all mostly connected together even if some of it was just by obscure walkways. Therefore a fire would be a great cause for concern. 

So if they set fire on this end of the residence, it would quickly become the priority and all available on hands be sent to handle the fire to avoid the whole mansion setting ablaze. 

And while everyone in the residence is going haywire, the trio would teleport in, grab Chun Hua and be gone, free and out of Prince Houyi's reach before any alarm could be raised. 

Bao Zhun nodded, it sounded like a good plan but then frowned and said, "Ah...I should tell you, ah...Huayan and Prince H-"

"I know..." Chun Hai cut in with a frown and then sighed. His sister was really being too hare-brained and naive with how she dealt with Prince Houyi. Although perhaps, Prince Houyi might not have even given her a choice on the matter. 

When Monk Du had told him about the two sleeping together in the same room, Chun Hai had been enraged. Monk Du then went on to assure him that they had their clothes on as if that was the actual problem with the picture.

The actual problem was that Chun Hai did not believe Prince Houyi actually cared for his sister that way. At most he was humoring her, using her. Whatever it was, there was no way Prince Houyi would choose to go against his grandfather and marry her as his crown princess as she wanted, she knew it and he knew it. 

At most, she would end up as one of his concubines, not even a side consort. Even if she wanted to marry someone to be their concubine, it should not be to someone as cold as Prince Houyi. She would end up regretting it and they had so much to regret in their lives already so Chun Hai refused to allow anymore for either of them. 

With Chun Hai with him as a hostage, they could not be too careful. It seemed Prince Houyi was already expecting an attack because his courtyard was packed with guards both in and outside the building. 

It was clear that he had virtually "trapped" Chun Hua in prison with himself for extra measure. It seemed Prince Houyi was expecting him to come here, even after he had gone through the trouble of switching locations.