Even women who travel through time can become prime ministers and nobles.

Chapter 364 Rescue

"Help, help me..."

Ning Hua suddenly gripped her wrist tightly, the jeweled nail polish leaving red marks on her skin.

"I heard someone shouting... that they saw remnants of the traitorous party..."

Her voice suddenly rose in pitch.

"I chased that person into the silk shop, and then..."

Before he could finish speaking, a sickening sound of wood snapping came from above.

Cui Zhihao had somehow moved in some rough timber to support the leaning roof beams, and blood from his forehead dripped down his chin onto the scorched earth.

He crouched down to examine the injury, and the moment his fingers touched Ninghua's calf, the princess cried out in pain, "Don't move! The bone is broken!"

He frowned, drew a dagger from his sleeve, and slashed open the hem of her skirt: "Miss Shi, bring me some hemostatic powder."

Shi Wanxia's hand suddenly stopped.

By the light filtering in, she saw suspicious brown stains on the inside of Ninghua's skirt—not like mud from the fire, but more like... She suddenly ripped open the princess's sleeve, revealing several purplish-blue pinch marks.

"How is this going?"

Cui Zhihao also noticed the anomaly. Ning Hua suddenly struggled violently, pulling at her broken leg and turning pale with pain: "Let go! How dare you do this to me..."

The voice was drowned out by a sudden loud noise, and the entire building groaned under the strain, with the supporting wooden beams beginning to tilt.

"Quickly retreat!"

Cui Zhihao picked up Ning Hua in his arms, but his pupils shrank as he turned around—the path they had come from was completely blocked by the collapsed beams and pillars.

Shi Wanxia grabbed an iron hook from the corner of the wall and slammed it down on the west wall, which hadn't completely collapsed yet: "From here!"

The flying bricks and stones cut her cheeks, and blood mixed with charcoal ash flowed into the corner of her mouth, salty and pungent.

Shen Yanzhou's furious roar suddenly pierced through the thick smoke: "Cui Zhihao! Shi Wanxia!"

The moment the palace guards smashed open the outer wall with their battering rams, Shi Wanxia saw that the hem of the Crown Prince's python robe was covered in mud, and the jade pendant at his waist had been broken at some point.

Before losing consciousness, Ninghua gripped her wrist tightly, with half a bloodstained piece of cloth embedded in her fingernails—the cloud pattern embroidered on the edge of the cloth was exactly the same as the pattern on the palace dress that Princess Ningde had worn yesterday.

Thick smoke, carrying the smell of scorched earth, rushed towards him. Shen Yanzhou gripped the jade pendant at his waist tightly, the icy touch making his throat tighten.

This jade pendant, engraved with the character "Ning," was a gift from him on Princess Ningde's birthday, but now it resembles a red-hot branding iron.

"Your Highness! A discovery has been made in the northwest corner!"

The captain of the guard's voice was ripped apart by the sound of the explosion.

Shen Yanzhou suddenly looked up, and amidst the ruins, the towering flames dyed the twilight crimson.

He recalled Ningde's defiant expression three days prior: "My elder brother always says women shouldn't take risks, but I'll prove him right someday..."

Cui Zhihao's blood-stained silver armor flickered in the firelight, and behind him, twenty black-armored guards were moving the collapsed beams and pillars one by one.

Shi Wanxia broke free from Shen Yanzhou's arm. The jade hairpin in her hair had broken off sometime during the night, and stray hairs clung to her sweaty cheeks. "I understand medicine, let me in!"

"Nonsense!"

Shen Yanzhou gripped her wrist tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.

In my memory, during the palace coup seven years ago, my mother was hit by a falling beam while she was putting out a fire.

He looked down and saw the black ash stains on Shi Wanxia's skirt. He suddenly remembered that the girl had also been so unconcerned about her appearance when she saved someone.

A faint cry came from deep within the ruins, and Shen Yanzhou's pupils contracted sharply.

He shook off the guards' attempts to stop him, and used his bare hands to pry open the scorching hot bricks and tiles, blood seeping from under his fingernails.

When the blood-stained embroidered shoes came into view, he felt as if an invisible hand was gripping his heart—they were Ningde's favorite embroidered shoes with the double lotus pattern.

"Your Highness, be careful!"

Cui Zhihao suddenly tackled Shen Yanzhou to the ground.

With a deafening roar, half of the carved eaves fell, grazing the tip of his nose.

Shen Yanzhou struggled to get up and saw that Shi Wanxia was kneeling in the pile of rubble, using a dagger to cut open the brocade binding the child.

The firelight illuminated her pale face, and for a moment, it seemed to overlap with the image of her mother bending down to save people in her memory.

"The princess has been found!"

Cheers shattered the deathly silence. Shen Yanzhou staggered forward.

But then they saw Ningde huddled under the bluestone slab, tightly protecting a frail little girl whose skin had been blackened by smoke.

When she raised her face, her once bright eyes were now brimming with tears: "Brother, someone deliberately set fire to this place. This little girl..."

The embers were still crackling as Shen Yanzhou took off his cloak and wrapped it around his trembling sister.

The sound of the water clock came from afar, and he suddenly remembered how, when he was a child, he would hold his sick son Ningde and stay up all night counting the night's chimes.

And now, who knows how many secrets are still buried beneath this scorched earth.

Cui Zhihao approached, holding a bloodstained secret letter. The sealing wax stamp was the emblem of the long-extinct Jingwang Mansion.

Shen Yanzhou unfolded the letter and suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck—the handwriting in the letter was exactly the same as the handwriting on the unfinished imperial edict on his desk.

The crisp sound of charred wood breaking mingled with the wails of pain, and Shi Wanxia's fingers, gripping the thick hemp rope, were already bleeding.

She stared at the charred corpse lying not far away, the acid churning in her stomach almost bursting her throat.

Shuyun draped the last piece of tattered mat over the wooden frame, her voice trembling as she said, "Miss, these logs won't withstand the downpour..."

Before the words were finished, a thunderclap suddenly exploded in the sky.

When Shi Wanxia looked up, she saw that the sun had been shining brightly just moments before, but now dark clouds were gathering over the city. She hurriedly pulled off her outer garment to cover the crying child beside her.

The once bustling street is now nothing but ruins, howling in the wind. Ashes floating in the air landed on her eyelashes, burning her eyes.

"Make way!"

Cui Zhihao's silver armor gleamed coldly in the firelight, and the sword at his waist was already dulled. He was now moving the charred roof beams with his bare hands.

Lin Yiyu, leading the Lin family's private soldiers, followed closely behind. The young man's brocade robes were stained with mud and blood, yet he still gritted his teeth and roared, "Faster! There are still survivors down there!"

The cries for help from underground grew fainter and fainter, and Cui Zhihao pressed his ear against the cracked blue bricks.

The decaying beams crumbled and crumbled in his palm. Suddenly, his pupils contracted—he heard a faint rustling sound of fabric below! "It's a woman!"

He pulled out a dagger and stuck it into the crack in the brickwork. "Go get a crowbar!"

As the torrential rain poured down, Shi Wanxia watched anxiously as the makeshift wooden house was overturned by the wind.

She suddenly noticed that half of the collapsed wall of the tavern on the street corner was still intact, and immediately pulled Shuyun and ran in that direction.

The mud sloshed under their cloth shoes. Just as they were moving the disaster victims over, they heard a loud bang behind them—the wooden frame had been struck by lightning and instantly turned into sparks.

"Brother Cui! The pillars are about to collapse!"

Lin Yiyu's exclamation froze everyone in place.

The ground beneath Choi Ji-ho suddenly sank, and he desperately held onto the tilting beam, only to see the girl below struggling in the mud with her blood-stained skirt.

In the nick of time, he shoved the boy in his arms toward safety, but his own right leg was pinned down by the broken wooden beam.

"Brother Cui!"

"Brother Cui!"

The Lin family soldiers dug frantically, and Shi Wanxia rushed over, ripped open her skirt, and wrapped strips of cloth around Cui Zhihao's bleeding wound.

Rainwater washed over his pale face, and Shi Wanxia was so anxious that she almost cried out.

When the girl, covered in blood, was rescued, the sky finally cleared.

Choi Ji-ho leaned against the broken wall and smiled, his bloodied fingertips tapping the wooden box in the girl's arms: "No wonder... she fought so desperately..."

Only then did everyone realize that the box was full of unburned medical books.

The sound of horses' hooves came from afar, and Li Pinghai led the Crown Princess's rescue team at breakneck speed.