Chapter 37

The filthy Princess was surrounded by two NPC soldiers and was throwing a sullen tantrum. “I’m not going back with you!”

Lucy took the chance to walk over to Chu Yunmiao and stand beside her. “The runaway little princess is being invited back to the palace.”

Chu Yunmiao gave a slight nod.

“The system told us to save the princess from the dragon, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s really going on.

“The dragon is actually the princess’s servant; without the servant’s protection, the princess has to return to the palace.”

The princess didn’t need saving; the players had broken her protective barrier.

“Her Highness is still just a child…” Lucy’s voice was very gentle. “Pulling this stunt caused everyone a lot of trouble.”

At that, Chu Yunmiao suddenly looked at her.

She couldn’t quite put her feelings into words, nor did she know how to judge Lucy’s comment.

In that brief moment of distraction, the princess on the other side somehow shoved away the soldier beside her, lifted her skirt, and sprinted down the mountain.

These NPC soldiers seemed to have no use beyond handing out rewards at the end. Even when faced with the princess’s escape, they were a beat slow to react. They symbolically sent out a few people to chase after her; one of them spotted Chu Yunmiao and Lucy and came straight over, issuing them a quest to catch the princess and bring her back.

Chu Yunmiao was already planning to leave the castle anyway, so she and Lucy naturally accepted the quest together.

The two women and the rabbit headed down the mountain and came to the forest. The sea of trees was lush and dense; a breeze skimmed the leaves with a faint rustle. Looking out, they couldn’t see a single sign of anyone. Finding a small princess who was deliberately hiding in a place like this would absolutely be a huge undertaking. Fortunately, Chu Yunmiao had no real intention of completing the quest; she had only gone along with it because she was already planning to leave the castle and didn’t intend to put any effort into searching.

With that mindset, she was completely relaxed. Lucy, however, looked at the unfathomable forest and had lines of worry creasing her brow.

“Without advanced equipment, searching bit by bit like this won’t be easy,” Lucy said.

Chu Yunmiao very much agreed and nodded along.

Lucy went on, “The system wouldn’t give us something this difficult. Maybe… like dealing with the dragon, we should think of another way to solve this problem.”

Hearing that, Chu Yunmiao realized Lucy genuinely wanted to finish the quest.

She was a little surprised and looked over at Lucy. “Do you have any ideas?”

Lucy smiled. “There aren’t many clues we can use, but…” She pointed toward the mountain. “I can think of two. Either go back to the castle and find an item that’s enough to lure the princess out, or set the forest on fire and force her out.”

It had to be said; from a practical standpoint, both of her suggestions were extremely useful.

Chu Yunmiao thought it over and replied, “You can give it a try.”

Lucy caught the implication in her words and asked, “You’re not coming with me?”

Chu Yunmiao shook her head. “We’re both getting ready to leave here. I don’t want to keep wasting time. And besides…” She pressed her lips together, then voiced her real intention. “We’ve basically been treated like tools by the game all along. The reason the princess ran away, where those soldiers came from, the truth behind the whole story… Before everything is clear, I don’t plan to keep letting the game lead us around.”

Lucy nodded. “I see…”

She moved a little closer to Chu Yunmiao and flashed a flattering smile. “Okay, I’ll listen to you.”

Chu Yunmiao froze for a moment, then looked at her seriously.

By this point, she couldn’t keep convincing herself those feelings were just an illusion. From start to finish, the Lucy siblings had been deliberately trying to please her; especially Lucy, who had shown her extraordinary trust and never relaxed even inside a game.

“You don’t need to do that,” Chu Yunmiao said. “Um, you can just follow your own wishes.”

Lucy looked down at the tips of her shoes. “My own wishes?”

She lifted her head again. “What I just said was all from my own wishes. Did I say something that offended you?”

The little rabbit in Chu Yunmiao’s arms shifted slightly. Chu Yunmiao lowered her head and met Instructor Yu’s moist, dark eyes. Being looked at like that, the restlessness in her heart faded; in its place came a sense of calm.

She looked at Lucy and, no longer hiding it, asked, “Did my mother say something to you and your brother?”

Lucy reacted at once. “The Emperor?”

Chu Yunmiao nodded. “My mother… has some misunderstandings about me.” She chose her words carefully. “If she privately said anything to you, please don’t take it to heart. This is our family matter; I’ll find time to explain it to her.”

Lucy suddenly laughed. “They all say the Imperial Crown Princess is smart and kind; looks like that wasn’t an exaggeration.”

Facing Chu Yunmiao’s candor, she also admitted it readily. “Yes, the Emperor did talk to us privately… But please don’t misunderstand; it was absolutely not a threat or coercion. It should be more like…” She thought for a moment, then found a fitting word. “An implication. A kind of implication.”

“An implication?” Chu Yunmiao repeated.

Lucy nodded.

She walked a few steps ahead and casually leaned against the base of a lush, towering tree, looking back at Chu Yunmiao. “The Emperor said she was very satisfied with me, and hinted that I… hmm… could try for the position of the Long Princess’s consort.”

Even though she had guessed as much already, now that it had been made explicit, and it concerned her lifelong future, Chu Yunmiao still blushed a little. “I see. In that case, you can ignore those implications. My mother is actually very reasonable. Even if you… she wouldn’t do anything to you, or to the Mingxing Empire.”

“I know,” Lucy said, her gaze carrying a trace of amusement. “But do you really think I want to pursue you because of what the Emperor said?” Under Chu Yunmiao’s puzzled gaze, she curved her lips. “That’s only a tiny part of it. Just your personal charm alone is enough to make me admire you.”

As the noble Imperial Crown Princess, Chu Yunmiao had long since grown used to the affection of others. Back when she and Yu Changning were still friends, most of those farewells had been intercepted by Yu Changning; later, after she and Yu Changning fell out, she was still able to handle things like this very well. So she didn’t panic. In fact, she quickly formed a polite refusal in her mind, but before she could speak, Lucy interrupted her.

With a rare, troubled sigh, Lucy said, “If you’re going to reject me, then don’t say it. I’ll be heartbroken.”

Chu Yunmiao gave her a courteous smile. “Sorry.”

Lucy waved it off.

Her open-minded attitude gave Chu Yunmiao a favorable impression, but the next thing she said almost made Chu Yunmiao drop the rabbit in her arms.

“Long Princess, do you already have someone you like?”

It took Chu Yunmiao several seconds to come back to herself. “W-why would you ask that?”

“A girl’s intuition.” Lucy tapped the side of her head. “I told my brother about it, but that wooden block of his didn’t believe me at all. He even said you spend all day studying and training, so you don’t have time to date.”

Chu Yunmiao answered stiffly, “I am indeed very busy.”

Lucy shot back, “If you really just thought this stage of your life was too busy for dating, why were you in such a hurry to make things clear and reject me?” She rested her chin on her hand. “You know, if you hadn’t brought it up today, I wouldn’t have said anything either. We could’ve just kept pretending not to know; then once you wanted to date, we’d talk about it then, wouldn’t we? But you took this chance to make it clear to me…”

She leaned closer to Chu Yunmiao, her narrowed eyes looking just like an astute young wife interrogating an unfaithful husband. “It must be that lucky fox spirit forcing you to come clean with me, right? That’s why you did this, isn’t it?”

Chu Yunmiao felt like her soul had already floated out of her body. She looked down at the little rabbit in her arms, who was perkily listening with her ears pricked, and silently retorted in her heart, It’s not some fox spirit; it’s a rabbit spirit.

After her inner complaint, she startled herself and quickly looked away, guiltily glancing around instead of at the Yu little rabbit in her arms.

“I just don’t want to hold you back; I don’t want you wasting your time and energy on me.” In her daze, she gave what was at least a passable reason.

Lucy was obviously unconvinced. The way she shrugged was perfunctory to the extreme. “Whatever you say.”

Chu Yunmiao took a deep breath. “Anyway… you don’t need to worry about my mother’s side. I’ll deal with it myself.

“Coming to Huaqi as an exchange student is a rare opportunity; I hope you and your brother can both have an enjoyable semester.”

“Of course, we will.” Lucy brushed off her pants and stood up.

She still hadn’t given up. Leaning closer to Chu Yunmiao, she said, “You might think we’re approaching you because of your identity or some other outside reason, but that’s not the case. Those things may be part of it, but only a very small part. If one day you break up with that fox spirit, could you consider me first? I think we get along quite well… ow—”

Before Lucy could finish, the little rabbit in Chu Yunmiao’s arms suddenly kicked out, startling her back several steps.

Chu Yunmiao quickly reached out to steady the rabbit and apologized to Lucy. “Sorry. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” She had just been caught off guard, so she stumbled back a couple of steps; after recovering, Lucy quickly steadied herself. Her tone carried some grievance. “Is this the rabbit you picked up in the game? I thought it was pretty amazing before, when it pretended to be good in the castle and secretly stole the princess’s ring. I didn’t expect it to be this aggressive too.”

Chu Yunmiao smiled awkwardly. “S-she usually isn’t like this.”

Lucy didn’t press the matter. “Mm, it’s fine. It’s not your fault; don’t take it to heart.”

She straightened her clothes. “Anyway, that’s everything I wanted to say. Just keep it in mind.” She glanced at the time again. “I’m going offline to meet up with my brother. We’ve been playing for so long; I really am a little hungry.”

Chu Yunmiao said, “Okay.”

She still used the same excuse. “I’ll look for Instructor Yu… once I find her, I’ll meet up with you two.”

Lucy nodded, gave Chu Yunmiao a final wave goodbye, and then logged out on the spot, disappearing at the edge of the forest.

After Lucy left, only Chu Yunmiao and the white rabbit in her arms remained. At some point, the wind had died down; the vast forest in her view cut sunlight into broken pieces, weaving a dappled, illusory fairyland. Perhaps because she had just made everything clear with Lucy, Chu Yunmiao felt wonderfully relaxed; she even wanted to find a place under the shade of a tree and nap for a while.

Thinking that, she carried the little rabbit deeper into the forest. Yu little rabbit was also very quiet, curled into a ball in her arms like a real pet rabbit.

“When are you going to turn back?” Chu Yunmiao muttered as she looked for a suitable place to rest, chatting idly with the rabbit. “Could there be some special setting with this water gun? Maybe you can’t turn back in the game anymore? Then can you log out? Let me see…” She looked at Yu little rabbit. “Mm… like this, if you can log out in rabbit form, you flick your ears; if you can’t, move your mouth.”

Yu little rabbit turned her head away, as though very disdainful of Chu Yunmiao’s solution; still, Chu Yunmiao caught the slight twitch of her ears.

“So that means you can,” Chu Yunmiao said, fully reassured. “Then let’s wait another 10 minutes. After that, we’ll say you ran into a pack of monsters in the forest; after the dragon disappeared, you got free. I found you in the forest, then left the game together with you.”

The rabbit didn’t move at all. Chu Yunmiao guessed she must have tacitly agreed.

While chatting like that, she also found a very suitable place to rest for the time being. Towering trees cast a thick patch of shade like giant umbrellas; beneath them, flowers and grass formed a thick, entirely natural carpet that was soothing just to look at. Seeing no animals around, Chu Yunmiao felt safe putting Yu little rabbit down. She herself walked to the trunk and sat back against it.

The Imperial Crown Princess and the princess in this game were very different. Chu Yunmiao wasn’t tall in Yu Changning’s eyes; she was about a head shorter than her, but her proportions were excellent, with long, straight legs. Right then she was sitting against the tree, one leg stretched out and the other bent; it almost made Yu little rabbit forget to look away.

After spacing out for a bit, Yu little rabbit started using her two hind legs to hop toward Chu Yunmiao, though not very skillfully.

Chu Yunmiao had no defenses at all and was resting with her eyes closed. Even when she felt Yu little rabbit jump onto her leg, then along her leg up to her waist and chest, and finally onto her shoulder, she still didn’t open her eyes, indulgingly letting the rabbit use her body like a springboard toy.

After jumping onto her shoulder, Yu little rabbit stopped moving. Chu Yunmiao deliberately turned her head and rubbed her cheek against the soft fur on the rabbit’s body, letting out a contented sigh. Yu little rabbit had been a little stiff at first, but under her gentle nuzzling, she slowly relaxed.

Where Chu Yunmiao couldn’t see, the rabbit eyes with their natural eyeliner had been staring fixedly at her lips, right in front of her. She thought of that kiss from not long ago that could hardly even be called flirtatious; as if bewitched, she slowly leaned toward that spot.

Since Chu Yunmiao had said she could be “touched and kissed,” then if she took the initiative to kiss her, that shouldn’t count as too outrageous, right?

Just as the little rabbit’s wicked little plan was about to succeed, a burst of commotion suddenly came from deep in the forest. Chu Yunmiao was highly alert and instantly opened her eyes.

The first thing she did was tuck the rabbit into her arms, then climb the big tree behind her in a few swift motions.

A few seconds later, a familiar figure arrived there. She seemed to be evading some kind of pursuit; in her haste, she also chose the same tree Chu Yunmiao and Yu little rabbit were in, scrambling up with obvious effort.

A few seconds after that, the two sides made eye contact, and the princess’s eyes went wide. “Y-you two…”

Chu Yunmiao covered her mouth. The three of them; one woman and one rabbit looked down, only to see several NPC soldiers already gathered beneath the tree.

The princess immediately went quiet, not daring to breathe too loudly. But that didn’t mean she was willing to peacefully coexist with Chu Yunmiao and Yu little rabbit. Her round eyes narrowed as she resentfully shot daggers back and forth between Chu Yunmiao and the rabbit.

Yu Changning was composed and unruffled, not taking this princess seriously at all. If she had still been in her original form, she probably would have kicked the princess off the tree while she was climbing. But Chu Yunmiao was different. The growing-up she had experienced since childhood made it impossible for her to kick someone when they were down. Of course, she also had no intention of helping; she simply carried Yu little rabbit and quietly moved to another branch, keeping a safe distance from the other party.

After a while, the NPC soldiers below couldn’t find their target and began searching in another direction, leaving this area. Chu Yunmiao jumped down from the tree, ready to distance herself from the troublesome princess. Unexpectedly, the princess also jumped down after her.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

Chu Yunmiao stopped and turned back, replying with polite distance, “There’s no need for Her Highness to worry.” She glanced toward the direction the soldiers had gone and kindly reminded her, “If they can’t find you ahead, they’ll probably come back the way they came. If you don’t want to be found, you’d better move quickly.”

The princess lifted her skirt and blocked Chu Yunmiao’s path.

She looked a little awkward, but still firmly stated her meaning. “I… the forest is very dangerous. There are wild beasts everywhere; I can’t go far on my own…”

Chu Yunmiao: “So?”

The princess coughed lightly. “I… I hereby allow you to safely escort me to my destination.”

Chu Yunmiao spread her hands. “Sorry, but I may have to disappoint your trust.”

She made herself clear in simple terms. “I have other things to do; I’m preparing to leave. Maybe you can find someone else to escort you.”

The princess froze, seemingly not expecting her to refuse.

But she was very clear-headed; if most of the players had already logged out, then in the forest there were only NPC soldiers and those irrational wild beasts. If she didn’t cling to Chu Yunmiao, there was no one else she could rely on. Realizing this, the princess pouted and sat on the ground in a fit, wrapping both arms around Chu Yunmiao’s leg. “No, you can’t leave me behind!”

Chu Yunmiao: “…”

She helplessly looked at the rabbit in her arms. Yu little rabbit very disdainfully kicked her legs, clearly not wanting any part in this troublesome mess.

The princess had already started complaining tearfully. “You—this is all because of you and your rabbit. Otherwise I wouldn’t have ended up like this. You got me into this state, and now you want to just walk away and not care anymore! You… you can’t do that!”

In the end, Chu Yunmiao couldn’t just stand by.

She asked, “Those soldiers are the problem, aren’t they? They want to hurt you?”

The princess nodded hard. “Mm! They want to take me away, lock me up, and then mistreat me!”

Chu Yunmiao frowned.

That earlier dragon affair had already been a scam created by this princess, so now she couldn’t be sure whether or not she should believe her.

The princess saw her hesitation and hurriedly said, “I don’t need you to do anything! Just take me out of here. It’s not far; we’ll be there in less than half an hour. Help me, just… just think of it as compensation for your rabbit stealing my ring before.”

Mentioning her little rabbit, Chu Yunmiao thought about it and nodded in agreement. “All right.”

She emphasized, “But if I discover even the slightest lie, I’ll leave immediately with the rabbit. Don’t try anything clever.”

The princess played up her harmlessness. “Without the bracelet that controlled the dragon, what kind of tricks could I possibly pull? Don’t worry, I won’t.”

Chu Yunmiao half-believed her at best. She soothingly stroked Yu little rabbit and said to the princess, “Lead the way.”

The princess held back her tears in one second flat and stood up in a change of expression, taking the lead. “This way.”

The two women and one rabbit began to head deeper into the forest.

The journey was fairly calm; they only encountered two beast attacks. The princess was extremely timid and would collapse into screams and trembling whenever she saw a fierce beast. Chu Yunmiao fought monsters on the side while wondering why such a coward would want to go deep into the forest in the first place. But her curiosity wasn’t strong, and she only considered herself a tool; she had no intention of digging further.

Thanks to her formidable strength, it took only a little over twenty minutes for them to reach the princess’s destination.

Chu Yunmiao looked around to confirm there was no immediate danger nearby, then glanced at the princess. “This is it, right? If there’s nothing else, I’ll—”

Before she could finish, the princess seemed to spot something and left her behind, sprinting toward the distance. The eagerness of it made her look even more nimble than when she had escaped the NPC soldiers’ encirclement earlier.

Chu Yunmiao and Yu little rabbit watched as she ran up a small hillside. Very soon, another figure appeared on the slope. The two of them embraced each other tightly as soon as they met, looking extremely happy. Chu Yunmiao quietly observed the newcomer’s clothes and felt only that they were completely out of place beside the princess’s ornate court dress, like a hunter living in the wild.

And this was the person the noble princess was holding so tightly in her arms.

Chu Yunmiao whispered to the rabbit, “This should be a runaway marriage plot, right?”

She laid out the game’s main story. “The princess fell in love with an ordinary commoner, so she staged her own kidnapping by the dragon. Under normal circumstances, with the dragon’s strength, she would definitely have gotten her wish. But then the players came out of nowhere and ruined her plan halfway through. She could only cross the forest alone to meet up with her lover.” She paused. “We destroyed the dragon, but ended up bringing her here; that can count as fulfilling the princess’s wish, too.”

On the hillside, the two NPCs who were hugging each other loosened their embrace a little and waved at Chu Yunmiao and Yu little rabbit to express their gratitude.

Touched by their happiness, Chu Yunmiao waved back at them, then watched them leave and set off on a new journey away from the castle.

Only after the two NPCs disappeared around the other side of the slope did Chu Yunmiao look away.

She held the rabbit up in front of her and asked, “About time; we should go too.”

The rabbit couldn’t answer, only shifting forward a little as though she had something to say.

Chu Yunmiao was patient and tried to read her meaning. “What’s wrong?”

Yu little rabbit moved to her front as she wished, using her two short forepaws to hold Chu Yunmiao’s cheeks from left and right. Under Chu Yunmiao’s puzzled gaze, the little rabbit lifted her face and gently pressed against her lips. Chu Yunmiao had no time to react to what was happening before a sudden weight fell onto her hand; her whole body felt a massive force she couldn’t resist, and she toppled backward, seeing stars.

When she finally came back to her senses, she saw Yu Changning, restored to human form, straddling her waist and looking at her with the same lingering shock.