Kang Baobao frowned deeply. "That's a problem. Taking anything from Ning Chen is about as easy as climbing to heaven.

I shouldn't have aimed that shot at his head back then. I should have crippled him so he couldn't cross over.

He's our born nemesis. In our last lives he cost us hundreds of millions, and in this one he's got us on the run like this.

If you'd stayed put and been a good Second Prince, where would Ning Chen's glory be now?"

Ye Xingjue was completely speechless.

"You think life in the palace is easy? You have no idea what it's like when every step is a danger and a calculation, and there's treachery all around you... If I hadn't walked on thin ice and watched every move, I'd have died ten thousand times over.

Back then, if I hadn't been extra careful and given that jar of wine to the eunuch beside me, I'd be the dead one.

The imperial family is a place that eats people and doesn't spit out the bones. It's worse than any hell full of ghosts.

As for glory, I wouldn't dare dream of it... I'm not Chinese. How could I match Ning Chen at poetry? The two or three poems I know, I learned from kids in a border village... and it was precisely those two or three lousy poems that nearly got me killed.

The Xuan Emperor thought a little better of me for it, and I instantly became the thorn in every royal's side, the target everyone was gunning for... If I hadn't run, I'd have grass six feet high on my grave by now."

Kang Baobao fell silent.

She was Nanyue royalty too. She was only a princess of the second rank, but she knew all too well how frightening a royal house could be.

"All right, enough of that. In a minute I'll keep Tantai Qingyue busy. You find a chance to slip away, and we'll meet at the next safe house."

Ye Xingjue nodded.

The screams in the courtyard had stopped.

Twelve assassins in all, every…