It was neither. There had never been a shortage of people who were willing to shed their blood for the country and the voices protesting for the Northern Expedition have never stopped. The problem lied with the people in power who refused to hear them out.
Mu Mingtang sighed deeply.
Being born in this era was both an opportunity and a tragedy for a general.
In the entire court, only Xie Xuanchen was in charge of the matters related to war, but no one responded to his plans. Others were still accusing Xie Xuanchen of disregarding the interests of the country for his own self-interest. Some even suspected that Xie Xuanchen wanted to take the opportunity to seize power, which made him angry. After that, the Prince simply claimed to be sick and no longer cared about the chaotic situation occurring outside.
Mu Mingtang suddenly woke up at night and found that Xie Xuanchen was not there. She was startled and her drowsiness dissipated immediately. She got up and saw that there was no sign of him in the room before she reached out her hand to touch his section of the bed, finding that it was already cold.
It looked like he had been away for a long time.
Mu Mingtang didn’t disturb the servants and quietly put on her clothes before walking around. Xie Xuanchen was very wary and didn’t like to have people around him at night, so they never had servants stationed inside the palace for night watch, which was why the space was empty. Mu Mingtang paced around the palace fervently, but it seemed like Xie Xuanchen was nowhere to be seen.
Strange, where did he go?
One servant girl who was on duty by the garden outside the palace grounds vaguely saw the lights inside lit up. Quietly, she stopped outside the door of the main entrance and knocked on it, “Your Highnesses, are you awake?”
Mu Mingtang didn’t want to make a ruckus at first, but when she saw that the people outside had already woken up, she didn’t try to hide it any more. She simply opened the door and said, “It’s me. Where’s the Prince?”
The two servants on duty that night were very surprised by the question and only then did they realise that Xie Xuanchen had disappeared. When Mu Mingtang saw their expressions, she knew that it was a given. If Xie Xuanchen really wanted to go out, even if someone was sleeping at the foot of their bed, he could leave quietly without anyone noticing. After all, she was right beside him and she didn’t realise his disappearance at all, didn’t she?
The servant girls followed Mu Mingtang to look for him and one of them became increasingly afraid, “Your Highness, this humble servant will wake the others to join the search.”
Mu Mingtang suddenly thought of something, so she raised her hand to stop her thoughtfully, “There is no need to mobilise a crowd, I think I know where he is.”
The servants didn’t know any better, so they quickly wrapped a cloak around Mu Mingtang and followed her Princess with a lamp. Mu Mingtang’s white cloak didn’t look thick, but it’s actually made of fox fur, which made it fine and warm, yet light when draped on.
Mu Mingtang then went straight to the martial arts arena towards the west. Sure enough, they had just approached it when they heard bursts of sharp thrusts breaking through the air.
The two servants looked at each other. Even if they hadn’t seen it yet, they knew that the person inside must be the Prince.
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