Escape Through the Secret Passage
"Your Majesty, we have to run! Alexander Hayes looks like he's about to commit regicide!" The Empress was the first to react, sobbing as she pulled at Emperor Jin Xuan's sleeve. "Your Majesty, look at his new weapon—it's so huge, it might even blast down the city walls! We have to leave now! As long as the green hills remain, there's hope for firewood. If you join forces with the other lords, you can come back and defeat the traitors!"
With the Empress saying that, Emperor Jin Xuan immediately dropped all pretense—his life was more important than his dignity. He quickly ordered those around him to protect him and hurriedly fled with the Empress.
After leaving the city wall, the imperial couple ran right into the people sent to capture Princess Lily Hayes.
At this moment, Emperor Jin Xuan didn't have time to hang Princess Lily Hayes from the city gate. Right now, she was his only bargaining chip against Alexander Hayes. He immediately ordered his men to bring Princess Lily Hayes along and escape with the Empress to the imperial bedchamber, planning to use a secret passage to flee the palace.
Along the way, Princess Lily Hayes, with her pregnant belly, held it gently in her hands. Her steps were surprisingly light and nimble. She ran for quite a while with the others, her face calm and her heartbeat steady.
But everyone else was too busy escaping to notice anything strange about Princess Lily Hayes. The Empress kept tugging at her sleeve as they ran—this lucky charm couldn't be lost!
As the saying goes, a crafty rabbit has three burrows.
But in this imperial palace, there are three hundred secret passages.
Rulers always make sure to leave themselves plenty of escape routes, just in case of situations like today—perfect for a quick getaway.
Today, Emperor Jin Xuan and the Empress chose the secret passage hidden in the emperor’s bedchamber.
Only Emperor Jin Xuan knew about this secret passage—even the Empress was kept in the dark.
The group dashed into the bedchamber as Emperor Jin Xuan fumbled around, searching for the hidden mechanism.
The Empress was gasping for breath from running, while Lily Evans's face remained calm, her breathing steady and composed as she watched the Empress.
Panting, the Empress snapped, "What are you looking at?! Listen here, if Alexander Hayes doesn’t surrender, today will be your last day alive!"
Lily glanced at the Empress and let out a cold snort, utterly unimpressed.
Emperor Jin Xuan quickly uncovered the secret passage and, guarded by the soldiers, prepared to escape. Just as he was about to duck inside, the Empress suddenly cried out, "Your Majesty, wait! Prince Ling might have returned to the palace by now. He doesn’t know about the secret passage—he’ll never get out! Your Majesty, maybe we should wait for Prince Ling!"
At that moment, Emperor Jin Xuan was burning with impatience. He snapped viciously, "Is my life more important, or Prince Ling’s?"
The Empress hurriedly added, "Your Majesty, what if we leave a few people behind in the palace to meet Prince Ling? If he arrives, they could bring him to this secret passage so he can escape too!"
"Absolutely not!" Emperor Jin Xuan’s eyes were bloodshot as he glared at everyone around him. "Everyone here must enter the secret passage! If anyone stays behind and gets caught by Alexander Hayes’s men, under torture, they might reveal the passage’s location—and then my life would be forfeit! Empress, if you don’t want to go, fine. I’ll kill you right now and you can wait for Prince Ling in the palace!"
As Emperor Jin Xuan spoke, he drew the weapon from his belt and pressed it against the Empress’s throat, as if he’d chop off her head if she uttered a single wrong word.
Terrified, the Empress waved her hands frantically and obediently followed Emperor Jin Xuan into the passage, with Lily being shoved in after her.
The door to the secret passage slammed shut, and silence instantly enveloped them.
Lily quietly observed her surroundings, thinking to herself how ingeniously the passage was designed—the walls were thick, the air was cool, and not a sound from outside could be heard.
It was as if, for a brief moment, they had stepped into another world—one where power struggles and danger were sealed away behind a stone door.