It was a weak excuse but everyone believed her. Everything was still in chaos and not many people really cared if the emperor was there or not. What could he do anyway? He's better off dealing with the sorry a.s.ses of his ministers than stay here where he could just be in the way. The empress was here and she was, after all, a good representative of his majesty's will and good judgment.

An Ning though started to worry when two hours went by and yet still no sign of Gu Sheng. When Yi Hai arrived, she pulled him into the study and told him all she knew. She and the emperor had argued. Well, it wasn't really an argument but more of a disagreement. But he and she had agreed on the issue and actually shared a light meal while waiting for developments after which he went to the study to do some work.

She knew he was worried about the growing number of fatalities in the hunt which was why they were still up even though it was past midnight. She didn't stop him because it was a way for him to keep sane while waiting. Who would have thought...? Where was he? Where was the emperor?

"Didn't you see him go out at all? Maybe he's still outside checking some things out," Yi Hai said, repressing the urge to shake her memory clear.

"I told you, the last time I saw him was when he went inside this same study. I didn't see him outside. It was too much of a chaos out there for me to remember to ask where he was. I thought....Yi Hai, what are we going to do?"

It was the first time she had turned to him and asked him for guidance. She never did so even when they were in the heat of fighting the rebels of Laniang. But he couldn't tell her that he, too, was frightened and uneasy. The emperor was his responsibility and yet he allowed someone to take him like he was taking candy from a baby. It was his fault not hers. He should have been more vigilant and attentive. And now they've lost him. With the emperor gone...what the h.e.l.l were they going to do?

But he allowed the hunt to distract him. All those kids dead...the whole thing had been too much even for him. The torn and mangled bodies of kids fighting a vicious beast with nothing more than their swords, their arrows, and their magic. Who the h.e.l.l set these young people up for an inglorious death like this? It was nothing more than an offering to the G.o.ds of ma.s.sacre, it was as ugly as that and more.

"Does Ling Wan and Xiang Yu know?"

"I've already dispatched someone to let them know. They're probably on their way here," An Ning said.

"Your grace..."

"No, don't. Don't say anything. I don't want to hear it," An Ning said, her jawline tight and gritted.

"We have to. We have to take the possibility that he's been kidnapped," Yi Hai spat the word out like it was a plague he was trying to ward off.

"Who?" she asked.

"Laniang..."

"We've killed everyone and Xiang Yu..."

"There might be some faction in his group that don't agree with what we did and wanted revenge."

The empress was silent. Then she gathered some things and prepared to go out.

"Highness, where are you going?" Yi Hai asked, surprised.

"I'm going out. I can't just stay here while he...,"

"What's that?" Yi Hai suddenly asked.

"What?"

"Your ring is glowing," Yi Hai said, pointing at the copycat ring on her finger. "It looks like it's on fire!"

An Ning gaped at the ring somewhat confusedly. Then she hurriedly reached out and pulled out the s.h.i.+ny, glowing thing. It was a cellphone, the same cellphone she threw inside the ring when she realized she had been pulled in the past and was stuck here for G.o.d knows how long.

The messaging app was emitting a series of words! Messages that she could actually understand.

She read it and gasped.

"What is it? Is it about his highness?" Yi Hai asked, staring at the phone.

"It's...it's from home," An Ning stuttered unbelievingly, still staring at the long line of words, completely stunned. "It..it's from my mother. She said they're here but they took a wrong turn and wants me to guide them to the right door."

"Yi Hai," she said, looking up at him with dawning excitement on her face. "I have to go back. Back to Laniang. That's the entrance to this world. I have to show them the way here. Otherwise, they'll never get here and all of us will be stuck forever on a loop trying to find each other."

"But what about his highness?" Yi Hai was panicked. "Your grace, you can't leave now. Ling Wan and Xiang Yu are coming. What do I tell them? I don't even know where to start looking."

"But my mother is here and maybe my dad and the kids. Yi Hai..."

"You can't leave just yet," Yi Hai was nearly shouting. "I won't let you."

An Ning stared at him, conflicted. It was her chance to go back. She goes out the door and to Laniang and the great probability that her life will return to normal will be there as well. She'll see Cas and Lux again and her parents and grandparents. It was a future, the real future that awaited her. No fighting, no battles. Nothing but her world and her time from hereon.

But Gu Sheng...

Gu Sheng had no one one but her. No one who cared about him really except her, the stepmother. Gu Sheng must be out of his mind with worry about her right now. Not about himself but for her because she was more likely to blow things up when she loses her patience. He was the calm one. The one who can be bargained with, be reasoned with because he was more level-headed and yes, even-tempered than her.

And he was gone, and she didn't know where he was or who took him. Was he even expecting her to come for him?

"An Ning..." Yi Hai was almost pleading.

"You're right," An Ning sighed, the bubble of excitement dying inside her. "Gu Sheng needs me. There's still time. We have to wait until they arrive then we can plan what next to do."

Ling Wan and Xiang Yu arrived not soon after, going straight to the study where Yi Hai and the empress awaited them. They were curious, wondering why the empress sent for them. An Ning had been very careful about her instructions to the servants. Just go to the lodge because the empress had a need for them. The two men entered the study mildly curious and came out of it in complete panic and anxious.

Luckily, the formal closing of the Battle of Talents will end that night. The winners announced and the prizes given out. There was still a small window of time to find and rescue his majesty. If he was not immediately found....they'll worry about that when the time comes. The most important thing was to start the search immediately. Investigate everyone, even the games partic.i.p.ants for any signs of a conspiracy.

It was nearing noon when An Ning reached the palace. It seemed lonely somehow without Gu Sheng there to welcome her. She ate a light lunch and then decided to take a walk outside in the garden. It was a beautiful day with the sun s.h.i.+ning and a little breeze blowing the trees and leaves but the silence was oppressive. It made her uncomfortable so she decided to walk the short distance between the palace and the love nest and stay there until she gets word about Gu Sheng.

She met some people along the way, ordinary civilians who gaped at her when they saw her walking alone. Some were too shy to bother her, others greeted her warmly and walked beside her until they neared the gates of the school and they said goodbye to her. She continued on alone until the gates to the love nest came into view.

For An Ning, it should have been a day like any other. And it actually was. Good weather, a brisk walk with people you were comfortable with but she was actually so unnerved inside, so mentally torn apart that she clutched at the cellphone in her pocket as if it was a lifeline. She kept turning it on and looking at the words, reading them until her eyes became wet with tears.

It was from Ceres, her mother. Ceres who told her to hold on because they were coming for her. She could actually hear the words in her mind. Ceres and her father, and the kids whom she hadn't seen for a year now. If she left now and drove to Laniang, she would be there in four hours. Four hours. That's how close they were to each other, she and her family. Not even a day but four hours.

But there was Gu Sheng whom she had grown to love and consider as family. Gu Sheng who needed her and would actually follow her wherever she goes if she lets him. Gu Sheng who was lost somewhere, maybe in pain, maybe tortured, hoping that she would come and find him. Gu Sheng who was not needy of her, who understood that she actually had a life she wanted to go back to, and was satisfied with the sc.r.a.ps of attention she gave him as long as they were together. Gu Sheng who reminded her of her son, Castor.

When An Ning entered the house, she was not surprised to see the whirlpool of water that dripped from the ceiling. It was the same time tunnel that pulled her into this world and allowed her to meet Gu Sheng.

She looked at it silently, without saying a word. Who else could have opened this portal except Richard, her ex-husband. Did he have Gu Sheng, too? Did he kidnapped him as another vicious revenge against her?

An Ning's first instinct was to run to the portal and find Gu Sheng, hoping to see him on the other side alive and well. But she understood better than anyone that panic will not serve her well this time. She had to make a plan. Richard was expecting her to behave like any normal mother or sister. Gave way to fear and make a mistake so he could pounce and prolong the agony a bit longer.

So, An Ning sat and waited. Waited as the hours stretched and the day turned into night. Waited as Yi Hai rushed into the room and stopped, stupefied, staring at the open portal like it was a snake about to give him a bite.

"It took you this long," An Ning said, looking at him calmly. "Did you find him?"

"No," Yi Hai said then looked keenly at her. "But I guess you were already expecting that. An Ning, what is that thing?"

"A time tunnel," she said, smiling little. "It was here when I got home. I think it's got Gu Sheng."

"Your ex-husband...," Yi Hai said.

"Is waiting on the other side," she finished. "I don't want to see him just yet so I've been kind of lingering here on my own side."

"If he's got his majesty..." Yi Hai again didn't finish his sentence.

"He won't hurt him. But I've been thinking, sitting here while waiting for you. Tell me what to do, Yi Hai. Enter the tunnel or go and meet my family in Laniang? I know Richard will not hurt Gu Sheng. He's not that crazy or as vicious. There is still time for me to go to Laniang. Tell my family where I am and...What should I do?"

Yi Hai didn't answer but he looked at her as if he, too, could feel the pain and uncertainty she was feeling.

"He's actually forcing me to make a choice between my children and Gu Sheng," An Ning said, her smile pained. "If I chose Cas and Lux, then I will be betraying Gu Sheng. If I chose Gu Sheng, then what will happen to my children? My parents will not abandon them or anything but their mother has and that's actually what the crux of the whole matter is. I am abandoning both sides, whoever it is I chose in the end."

"Your Grace..." Yi Hai again stopped mid-sentence.

"But I guess I never had any choice, have I?" An Ning stood up. "Take care of Yuqui while his majesty and I are both gone. Here, the emperor's seal of approval. This gives you power equivalent to his majesty's in case you need one. I've made you regent, Yi Hai. Take good care of this good land of ours. Guard it well with your life until I return his majesty to the throne."

"Your grace...An Ning!" Yi Hai said with something like a sob.

"Along with his other position in the ministry of public works, Ling Wan is to be made an imperial advisor, together with Mu Xing and Xiang Yu. They are good people whom I know will help you keep the throne safe. What else?"

"An Ning, your grace. Take me with you," begged Yi Hai.

"And leave Yuqui to the mercy of its enemies? No, you're needed here," An Ning said. "I left the weapons and everything you might need in the building storage. Anything else I might have forgotten?"

"An Ning, listen to me," Yi Hai begged. "Maybe this is a trap. Somebody else is doing this so you would leave the capital. Let's wait for Ling Wan and Xiang Yu. Maybe they already found out where his majesty is," Yi Hai urged. "Please, don't go yet. Please."

"If we don't return..."

"I will not hear of such talk!" Yi Hai was so angry his usually gentle eyes sparked flames. "You and his majesty will be back. You will find him and both of you will be back."

An Ning laughed gently.

"Yes, we will. I will see you soon, Yi Hai. Take care of yourself."

Yi Hai watched with something like heartbreak as the young girl walked under the portal. She looked at him and waved quite jauntily. The portal emitted a strange light and her body s.h.i.+mmered then disappeared.

The portal closed and the room went back to its normal state. Yi Hai didn't move. He stood there blankly staring at the place where An Ning had disappeared to. He stood there for a long time until Ling Wan and Xiang Yu found him, staring at nothing, his eyes looking lost and wounded with tears streaming down his face.

All was quiet. Yuqui was at peace. But for how long?