Su Xi instinctively wanted to follow her little one to watch him hunt, but when she glanced at the small map in the upper right corner, she saw that a cluster of small dots was already sneaking toward the Second Prince’s marker—
The assassination was starting already? So fast?!
Su Xi didn’t know when the assassins would make their move. Worried that her side quest might fail and cause the later plot to collapse, she couldn’t bother with going to find her little one first. She quickly switched the screen to the Second Prince’s side.
At this moment, the Second Prince was leading a dozen attendants, fully focused as he drew his bow and aimed at a rabbit. The rabbit was highly alert—hearing the commotion of people, it bounced away with quick hops. The Second Prince immediately led his guards and attendants in pursuit, chasing all the way from the foot of the mountain to the forested slopes halfway up.
Su Xi looked again at the ambushing assassins—they were slowly closing in on the Second Prince’s direction from both sides of the valley.
However, Mount Qiuyan wasn’t occupied by the Second Prince alone. There were many other princes, noble heirs, and their attendants around as well. Though Mount Qiuyan stretched endlessly, there was still a chance someone else might stumble upon them.
So, the assassins moved with extreme caution, their actions painstakingly slow…
From being tense and on edge at first, Su Xi ended up slumping weakly into her bus seat, half-dead with waiting.
Were they going to assassinate him or not? Hurry up already!
She still needed to save the prince and then go back to watch her little one hunt!
When the bus arrived at her stop, she slung on her backpack, held her phone in one hand, earphones still in, and hobbled toward her apartment complex on her crutch.
Every now and then, she lifted her phone for a glance—still waiting for those assassins to appear.
It took those assassins more than two hours before they finally had the Second Prince fully within their sights, having found a suitable spot for the strike.
Deep in the mountain forest, everything was silent except for the rustle of leaves stirred by the wind.
The Second Prince and his attendants, chasing their prey, arrived at this place.
By then, Su Xi was already sitting at her desk—reviewing her notes with her workbook open—while her phone sat on the left, screen on, waiting for the assassins to show up.
Suddenly, a burst of whoosh whoosh whoosh filled the air, followed by a cry of “Assassins—!”
She immediately tossed her pen aside, grabbed her phone, and fixed her gaze on the Second Prince’s screen.
The scene was pure chaos.
Masked assassins dressed in black leapt out.
Three of the Second Prince’s dozen guards had already fallen under the previous volley of arrows. The rest surrounded the Second Prince to protect him.
The assassins were clearly professionals, skilled fighters who clashed violently with the guards.
Many of the guards were already injured from the earlier ambush; they were no match, retreating as they fought.
Just then, another group of black-clad men appeared from a higher slope, standing up and loosing yet another rain of arrows.
The assassins were well-prepared, while the Second Prince’s side was severely outnumbered. In the blink of an eye, several more guards were turned into human sieves, and the remaining few, bleeding and battered, barely managed to shield the Second Prince as they retreated.
One arrow flew with deadly precision, straight toward the Second Prince’s back as he stumbled away in panic.
Su Xi quickly extended a finger and grabbed a bird perched nearby on a branch, using it to block the arrow.
The bird let out a miserable cry and fell to the ground.
The Second Prince narrowly escaped death.
Su Xi exhaled in relief.
The remaining guards pushed the Second Prince and shouted, “Your Highness, return to the camp at once! We’ll hold them off!”
They intercepted the assassins while the Second Prince rolled down the slope, mounted a horse tied to the roadside, and galloped away.
Seeing that the Second Prince had gotten away safely, the assassins, furious at being thwarted, turned their blades on his remaining guards.
But Su Xi was puzzled—
The Second Prince had escaped unharmed, so why hadn’t the “Side Quest Completed” notification popped up yet?
Don’t tell her… there was going to be another wave of assassins?
She quickly followed after him—only to see that once the Second Prince had ridden out of the assassins’ range, instead of returning to camp, he stopped by a stream some distance away.
What was he stopping for?
The Second Prince was a small figure dressed in black. Because of his low profile, he wore only a simple jade pendant at his waist; Su Xi hadn’t paid much attention to him earlier when he set out from the foot of the mountain.
She only knew that among the princes, the crown prince was the soft-tempered pushover, the third prince was the most flamboyant—frivolous and debauched—and the fifth prince was the most calculating and sharp.
As for this Second Prince, compared to the others, he truly never stood out at all, as if he carried some kind of “low-key” buff—never noticeable in any major occasion.
But just then, she saw him dismount. In his hand was an arrow he’d snatched earlier from the assassins. Lowering his head, he examined it, seemingly checking whether it was poisoned. After confirming it was not—he suddenly, without the slightest hesitation, plunged it hard into his own chest!
Blood splattered three feet high!
The wound was terribly deep.
The Second Prince collapsed to the ground.
Outside the screen, Su Xi was completely stunned.
The system’s warning popped up:
> “Side-quest failure alert. Please complete your side quest properly.”
> “If the Second Prince is severely injured, he will be bedridden for three to six months. Without needing a new study companion, the main character’s plotline of entering the Imperial Academy will be cut off—unless you find another workaround.”
> “However, finding another workaround will require detours and trigger multiple side quests. Difficulty: high.”
Su Xi: “…”
So that’s why, even though she’d just helped him block that arrow, the game never signaled quest completion—this was what it had been waiting for!
This Second Prince might look reserved, but he was clearly a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”!
Could it be that he had already anticipated the assassination attempt and had deliberately gone hunting in the forest with his guards to set the stage? But when the assassins failed to kill him, he went ahead and stabbed himself instead!
If only a few guards had died, the assassination at Mount Qiuyan might have been brushed off quietly to preserve the royal family’s dignity.
But if he, a prince, was injured—
First, the emperor would have to investigate thoroughly.
Second—and more crucially—the recent frost disaster had stirred public resentment. The emperor was selecting someone to be sent to the far northern territories for disaster relief.
If the Second Prince was gravely injured, he certainly wouldn’t be chosen.
And if he didn’t go, sending any of the other princes away would reshuffle the power balance in the capital.
Su Xi almost suspected the second wave of assassins had been orchestrated by the Second Prince himself.
But since the script never mentioned it, she couldn’t be sure if her guess was right.
The plot had gone far beyond her expectations, leaving her completely thrown off.
Still, the immediate problem was how to fix it.
The Second Prince was already injured, and since the game had no “rewind” function, her only option was to find a way to make him recover within half a month—ideally within a few days—so that the main quest wouldn’t be delayed.
Thinking so, Su Xi opened the in-game shop and bought a vial of knockout powder.
She wrapped the powder in a leaf and sprinkled it down from the air.
The Second Prince, having lost too much blood, was staggering toward the camp. His mind was still clear; in less than half a stick of incense’s time, he would reach the crown prince’s camp and be safe.
By then, it would look exactly like what he wanted—his guards all slain, and himself, gravely wounded, having barely escaped alive.
But who could have expected that someone would secretly sprinkle knockout powder over him and he instantly fainted.
“……”
The Second Prince, right before losing consciousness: …?
Once he had passed out, Su Xi checked the map. Confirming that no one was nearby, she quickly opened the “Healing Items” section in the in-game shop.
The top-tier wound medicine displayed an effect note: A normal arrow wound will fully heal within three days; recovery rate: 100%.
But since the Second Prince had stabbed himself so ruthlessly, the wound was alarmingly deep. Su Xi worried it might take ten days or even half a month to heal, delaying her little one’s main storyline. So, she bought three bottles of the medicine in one go and poured all of them onto his chest wound, spreading them evenly.
That should guarantee success beyond doubt.
Then Su Xi dragged the Second Prince toward the camp. Of course, she couldn’t just drop him from the sky right into the camp at the foot of the mountain, so she placed him instead on the snowy ground about two hundred meters away.
But that still wasn’t enough. Su Xi deliberately made some noise nearby, pretending to be a wild beast scurrying past, hoping to draw the attention of the guards feasting and drinking back at camp.
Who knew, after she rammed the trees several times, those drunken guards didn’t hear a thing.
Unable to stand it any longer, Su Xi smacked the screen hard!
The trees around the Second Prince shook violently, leaves raining down. Finally, the guards heard something. Startled, they jumped to their feet, drew their swords, and headed over.
However, by then the night was completely dark. The tiny guard figures reached the area, searched around, and found nothing unusual. Laughing, they turned back—one of them even walked right past where the Second Prince was lying face-down on the ground!
Su Xi: “……”
The Second Prince really was unremarkable—wearing black clothes and all—but how could they not notice a full-sized person lying there? Was it that dark, or were those guard NPCs just blind?!
Su Xi had no choice but to smack the tree again, then casually dropped a lantern beside the Second Prince.
For once, she was even being meticulous—afraid that, like before when she gave her little one gifts, she might trigger suspicion. So this time she bought from the shop the most ordinary kind of lantern, a straw-woven hunter’s lantern.
Since Mount Qiuyan was always garrisoned by royal guards and its game raised by local hunters, it would be completely reasonable for someone to find an injured Second Prince and carry him back.
After all, the mountain was vast and boundless, with no clear borders—if a commoner accidentally wandered in, it wouldn’t be surprising.
Sure enough, once the guards returned to camp, they noticed a faint light flickering in the distance. They hurried back to investigate, and only then did they discover the Second Prince lying there. Their faces drained of color as they rushed to lift him up.
“Your Highness, wake up, wake up!”
“Your Highness the Crown Prince! The Second Prince has been ambushed and wounded!” someone cried out in panic, running off to report.
Only then did Su Xi finally exhale in relief. At last, the interface popped up with the long-awaited notification:
Since the quest completion had triggered, it meant the Second Prince’s wounds—thanks to her healing medicine—were no longer serious, at least not enough to derail the later plot.
