青春期撞上更年期第1部

“The Grand Witch said this trip wouldn’t be dangerous for me, so my mother let me out. Otherwise, how could my opponents send me away so easily? They want me to go far away and never return, but they must ask for my permission first!” Princess Yutao said with a fierce look. However, she felt slightly unconvinced when tilting her head to look at Chu Liuchen because he obviously didn’t believe the reason.

The Grand Witch, born in her mother’s tribe, had worked for the Xu State but returned to her mother’s tribe when getting too old. That was why Princess Yutao introduced the witch to Chu Liuchen as the Grand Witch of her mother’s tribe.

“Don’t you believe me?”

!!

“Do you have a few more convincing things to share?” Chu Liuchen asked out of boredom. It seemed that he just casually picked up something interesting to talk about when feeling bored on the way.

He felt like chatting idly at this time.

However, Princess Yutao was increasingly bitter about his careless attitude. In her state, the Grand Witch had a high status, and even her father had to consider the witch’s perspectives. Without the Grand Witch, her mother might have lost her position as the Queen. Merely from this point of view, Princess Yutao deeply respected and believed in the Grand Witch.

She couldn’t tolerate Chu Liuchen’s suspicion toward the Grand Witch.

“Your Highness, before my mother became the Queen, the Grand Witch predicted that she would become the Xu State’s Queen with crowning prominence and glory.”

“Yes, the Queen of your country is incredibly lucky,” Chu Liuchen said lazily, very offhand with her.

Princess Yutao glared at him with displeasure. How could she not know he took no notice of it? Realizing he didn’t believe it, she stamped her feet hard with determination and lowered his voice to a whisper. “There is now a destined lady with Phoenix Fate in the Kingdom of Dongcang, just like my mother in the past!”

“You mean the Empress?” Chu Liuchen raised his eyebrows.

“Of course not. All the people in the world know she is the Empress!” Princess Yutao said, feeling a little annoyed by what he said.

After thinking about it, she thought she might not express it right. After making some efforts to recall the Grand Witch’s ambiguous words, she interpreted them in her way of thinking. “Actually, one woman with Phoenix Fate is emerging in the Kingdom of Dongcang. The previous two women who have already become the empress don’t count. However, I don’t understand why there are a total of three women with Phoenix Fate coexisting.”

Princess Yutao stopped there, looking Chu Liuchen up and down. The Grand Witch had hinted that Prince Chen was honorable to the extreme, but even so, the witch warned Princess Yutao to stay away from him. According to the Grand Witch, Prince Chen was wrapped in scarlet among corpse mountains and blood seas, and nobody could see through this extremely dangerous prince.

Moreover, there were two roads behind Prince Chen: a bloody road and one with a chance to live. But the Grand Witch didn’t know which one was the way of Prince Chen.

The cold-blooded Prince Chen was firm and resolute in deciding people’s fate and life. Few people could come into his heart. In his eyes, beauties were no different from skeletons. This cruel and ferocious man was doomed to be alone. However, after hearing that Prince Chen was married, the Grand Witch sighed, saying that Princess Chen also had influential backing. The Grand Witch asked Princess Yutao to be on good terms with Princess Chen. Then, no matter what Princess Yutao said, he made no reply and fell asleep with his head down.

Thinking of this, Princess Yutao gave a deep sigh. The Grand Witch could tell she was interested in Prince Chen and warned her to keep a certain distance from him, so she became more convinced of the Grand Witch in her heart.

Since then, she hid her desire for Chu Liuchen deep in her heart.

“Three women with Phoenix Fate living in the same era?” Chu Liuchen remarked casually, squinting at her with a hint of sarcasm in his beautiful eyes. “Is the Grand Witch’s prediction accurate? The Empress got her Phoenix Fate, and there are two more women with Phoenix Fate. Does it mean that two empresses or two emperors will emerge?”

He spoke those treacherous words without worrying as if he were talking about the weather.

Princess Yutao’s heart thumped violently. Chu Liuchen dared to say it, but she wasn’t brave enough to do the same thing. So, she merely laughed and said, “Well, I don’t fully understand it either. Maybe there is a deeper meaning. The Grand Witch only mentioned that the surname of a woman with Phoenix Fate was…”

She couldn’t finish her words because the surname mentioned by the Grand Witch escaped her for the moment. She could only smile awkwardly at Chu Liuchen and said, “I forgot it, but it shouldn’t be at the front of the list of commonly used surnames.”

The Xu State had its own language, but its nobles would study the traditional Han culture of the Kingdom of Dongcang. Princess Yutao, the Xu State’s distinguished princess, had been studying Han characters and writing since she was a child.

However, Princess Yutao preferred practicing martial arts and couldn’t rouse herself to read and write, so she only learned some elementary knowledge. Even though she could speak, write, and read this foreign language, she couldn’t remember any complex content. As a result, she merely knew the surnames that were most commonly used, such as Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li, Zhou, Wu, Zheng, Wang, and the like.

“Did your Grand Witch say what you should pay attention to on this trip?” Chu Liuchen picked up a teacup elegantly, took a sip, and asked slowly.

It was obvious that he didn’t care about the answers. After all, he didn’t even inquire further about the surname of the woman with Phoenix Fate.

Princess Yutao blinked and suddenly whispered, “Don’t you have any great ambitions?”

“Do you have any?” Chu Liuchen asked in reply with a casual air.

“Of course, I have high aspirations. As the eldest legitimate daughter of my father, I was born with noble status. I believe I’m more qualified to succeed to the throne than the eldest son of the concubine. Moreover, the Grand Witch said that my hope lies in the east. With support from the east, I can ascend the throne. Isn’t the Kingdom of Dongcang in the east? This time, they wanted to kick me away by this trip, which would instead be a chance for me.”

Princess Yutao gave the table a thump which shook the cups. Then she looked at Chu Liuchen with burning eyes and said, “Your Highness, let’s cooperate!”

Every hegemonic overlord had to go through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Now that she needed a powerful helper, she had to pick up the most powerful one — Chu Liuchen.

Princess Yutao had given up her girlish affection towards him. The moment that she saw herself as the future overlord reigning over her country, she had cast the love between men and women far away. Besides, from Prince Chen’s eyes, she didn’t spot any interest in her. No matter how dazzlingly beautiful she was, she might be a dull skeleton for him. Unlike Yuyan, she wouldn’t bring contempt upon herself.

No woman could win over such a man. Princess Yutao wondered how devastatingly beautiful Princess Chen in the capital city would be that she could draw this prince of the devils to her.

As a woman, Princess Yutao had observed everything very carefully. The warning of the Grand Witch shattered all her illusions about Chu Liuchen’s love. When observing Chu Liuchen as a sober-minded onlooker, Princess Yutao felt she could see things more clearly.

When talking about business, Chu Liuchen was full of smiles, always appearing attractive and graceful on the surface, but he held no genuine feelings. Only at the mention of Princess Chen would his eyes reveal a trace of gentleness sometimes, but even a moment like that was rare.

Prince Chen was highly adept at controlling his facial emotions.

Princess Yutao’s intuition as a woman told her that Prince Chen treated Princess Chen differently. Maybe he had given all his little tenderness to Princess Chen so that he was cold-blooded and ruthless to others.

Chu Liuchen remained silent. Princess Yutao straightened her back again and said seriously, “My younger sister will stir up trouble in the Kingdom of Dongcang, for she is never a well-behaved woman. If Princess Chen confronts her someday, I’ll lend Princess Chen a hand.”

Women had their social places where men were not allowed to interfere.

“Okay!” Chu Liuchen finally relented and said, “I’d like to meet the Grand Witch!”

The Grand Witch sounded quite interesting. If he had heard the Grand Witch earlier, he would have invited the witch over. This kind of person wasn’t new to Chu Liuchen. The Huaguang Temple’s abbot was one of a kind. However, his words always sounded ambiguous, and he would never give Chu Liuchen a definite answer. The abbot wasn’t as frank as the Grand Witch, who aroused Prince Chen’s interest.

“There will be a chance!” Princess Yutao spoke with certainty.

That was what the Grand Witch had said, so Princess Yutao believed it right away.

The rest of their journey was peaceful. Chu Liuchen traveled and stopped at will; no one would be stupid enough to go against him. He could go on his way or take a rest whenever he wanted. In high spirits, he hurried on with this journey at midnight. Yet, he would rest at noon when he was in a foul mood.

Since Chu Qing was back from the Xu State, he had stayed quiet and far away from Princess Yuyan, as if he had nothing to do with her.

Princess Yuyan was delicate and graceful. Though she looked less attractive than Princess Yutao, she had a gentle disposition, which helped her win many people’s favor. Princess Yuyan took no notice of Chu Qing either. Instead, she frequently appeared around Chu Liuchen. Her odd move raised a storm of conjecture.

Of course, people only gossiped about Princess Yuyan, and none had the guts to involve Chu Liuchen in this.

Qin Huaiyong was the busiest. Matters on the trip had little to do with him, but he maintained the order of this group, which made him more preoccupied than anyone else.

They had a busy but peaceful journey. In contrast, Prince Chen’s Mansion in the capital city, a target of many people now, couldn’t restore its peace.

Fresh vegetables and meat were delivered to the kitchen early in the morning.

All the food must be picked fresh and sent to Prince Chen’s Mansion on the same day. The person delivering the food ingredients had been doing this very cautiously over the years.

But in the past two days, someone had replaced him. It turned out that the previous delivery man was sick and asked his nephew to take charge of these things.

The food was brought in from the back door by baskets. When all cooking ingredients were brought to the kitchen, a young man in his twenties wearing a short jacket and pants waved the paper in his hand and asked, “Where is the kitchen supervisor? Ask the supervisor to check the goods and sign here.”

A lot of people were bustling around in the kitchen. The breakfast was almost ready. At this time, many pots were open, giving off hot steam. They moved around, busy going about their different duties in good order.

The young man saw no one pay attention to him, so he shook the paper in his hand again and shouted, “Hey, the supervisor of your kitchen? Hurry up and check the goods. I still have something else to do.”

“Here I am. I’m coming!” An old maid in her fifties came over and said, “What’s the hurry? No need to hurry!”