Xie Yue trembled from head to toe. “How dare you bully us this way!?” He took a trembling, protective stance in front of Qin Yining.

Huzi led the Elite Tigers forward and plucked Xie Yue away to the side, to be trussed up like a chicken. He then stuffed Qin Yining and Lian Xiaozhou back in the carriage they'd just come in.

The Qin fourth miss remembered to put on a show of struggling before going back in. Granted, the girls' resistance was quite futile given how strong and ferocious the Elite Tigers were.

Everyone in front of the guest inns could only watch as the Faithful Prince of the First Rank rode off with the Qin fourth miss.

The Great Zhou officials didn't understand the relations.h.i.+p between Pang Xiao and Qin Yining. They were too far away the country, and their positions were far from high enough to view secret reports.

But the Great Yan citizens did.

This prince had once pursued the miss in an extremely high profile manner—sticking up for her in public, gifting her manors, and doing everything he could to make her happy. But now that their country had follow, his att.i.tude had changed completely to that of a bandit's.

Fear and horror exploded in their hearts, threatening to drown them completely. If someone with such a strong backer like Miss Qin was being treated this way in their new home, what laid in store for the rest of them?

……

Qin Yining had her arm around a terrified Lian Xiaozhou and was patting her head comfortingly. “Don't be afraid, the big brother just now isn't a bad guy. Big sister did all this on purpose.”

Though the little girl couldn't speak very well, she was sharp as a whip. She looked at the older girl with bafflement. “Big sister, knows, uncle?”

Uncle?

It hadn't crossed her mind for a while, but come to think of it, Pang Xiao's nominal age was 24 now, wasn't it?

Lian Xiaozhou was nine, but she'd grown up in the mountains and so was very different from a typical nine year old outside. Her mental age was probably still six or seven, which was why she called the prince 'uncle'.

I wonder what Pang Xiao will think of this, heh!

Laughter snuck out of Qin Yining when she considered her beloved's possible reactions.

Possibly infected by the easy mood, Lian Xiaozhou also relaxed. Though she didn't know why big sister was laughing, it didn't preclude her from chuckling along.

The Elite Tiger outside escorting the carriage found the situation incredibly bizarre. Had this Miss Qin been scared out of her wits? How could she still laugh when she'd been carted off like this?

He hadn't gone to Great Yan with Pang Xiao, so naturally had no idea what had happened there. All he speculated was that the prince liked the beauty, or had taken his enemy's daughter in order to seek revenge for his father.

He wasn't the only one to think so; perhaps everyone who didn't full understand the situation thought so.

This was also precisely the effect that Pang Xiao and Qin Yining wanted.