Prince Rui and Prince Yi silently made their way out of the palace after confirming the performance details with Eunuch Li.

Prince Yi's mood had been increasingly getting worse as Molin kept glancing his way with a smug expression. When they finally reached the palace gates, Prince Yi smiled at Prince Rui, "I know a place with the best wine in the city, how about a welcome toast?"

Prince Rui smiled back, "That sounds good." Prince Yi then went on to lead the way to a high-end restaurant.?When they arrived, Prince Yi maintained his image of a good host and poured wine into two cups, then frowned when he saw Molin still standing in the room glaring at him.

Prince Rui then said, "Molin, wait outside."

"But he can't be trusted!"

Prince Rui smirked, "What can he do? We are Imperial guests now and he is my companion. We will be spending a lot of time together so get used to his presence. You can stand right outside the door, if you must."

Molin frowned at Prince Yi, "Any noise and I'll be back!" Then he stormed out.

"I apologize for his rude behavior... recent events seem to have put him on edge." Prince Rui offhandedly commented while picking up his cup of wine and scrutinizing its contents, then added, "Understandably." He took a sip of the wine and frowned.

"What is the meaning of this? We had a deal." Prince Yi finally asked.

Prince Yi snorted and then burst into laughter and downed the rest of the wine, "Deal? Is blackmail considered to be the norm in dealings in this country?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Prince Rui refilled his cup, downed the contents and then continued, "I honestly don't understand you Long people, playing games with people's lives like they mean nothing." Then he scoffed, "It must be a family trait... I wonder what your Emperor is thinking now, throwing us two together like this, is it to prove a point? What do you think?"

Prince Yi narrowed his eyes and did not respond.

Prince Rui scoffed again and got up, "I am sure you now understand the situation. If you want an explanation, then go ask your brother, your Emperor. I owe you nothing." He finished and strolled out of the room.

Leaving Prince Yi there deep in thought, his face contorting into a scowl, he clenched his fists and then slammed the table.

{...I am going to kill him...How dare he treat me like a fool for his entertainment!...}

**

Prince Rui left the restaurant with Molin and made his way to his residence on his own. As soon as they were alone in the study, Molin explained that he had no idea how he escaped Prince Yi's manor. He suddenly felt very drowsy and fell asleep and when he woke up he found himself in a shed forest outside the city. He then heard sounds of people in the area and so followed it and came across Prince Rui's group.

Prince Rui frowned and then sighed.

{...No wonder that stupid brat slowed down all of a sudden and made all the guards join him in a stupid song saying "it was to raise the mood"...*Sigh* At least they sorted out this problem...}

"Your highness, how come we ended up in an alliance? I thought we were supposed to be continuing the war?"

Prince Rui closed his eyes and massaged his head and simply responded, "The plan changed."

After Prince Rui left the capital, he managed to sneak his way into his country through the dense forest barrier to avoid detection. After swimming across the river, finally arriving in his country's territory, he took a short break. Next thing, he suddenly felt lightheaded and lost consciousness. When he finally came to, he found himself bound to a chair in a finely decorated room to see An Hao sitting across from him in the middle of drinking.

An Hao looked at him wide-eyed and then quickly dropped the cup, "Ah, you're finally awake! You slept for so long, I thought you were dead. Hehe~ it seems I forgot to tell them to treat you gently. Sorry about that~" An Hao explained rubbing his head and laughing.

Prince Rui frowned, he knew An hao from his time in captivity.

"Since when have you been following me?" Prince Rui asked.

An Hao snorted, "I don't have the energy to stalk you, so I've just been waiting for you."

Prince Rui's frown deepened.

"It seems we think alike, you did exactly what I would have done. Although, I wouldn't have gotten caught...but you did well enough, it was entertaining." An Hao snickered.

Prince Rui narrowed his eyes at An Hao, as memories started to flood in and he came to a realization that he had fallen into an elaborate setup.

After the Emperor left to return to the capital, An Hao would often come by Prince Rui and Molin's cell to talk to them, asking random questions about if and how they planned to escape, what they would do, asking if they wanted his help. The two, of course, never responded to him, but An Hao nevertheless continued to ramble on by himself in detail about how he would escape from here and what he would do to avoid capture, at one point it became his daily routine to do this.

They were eventually able to escape when there was a fire outbreak and the guards in a panic left them unguarded. Luckily, a guard had just arrived to retrieve Prince Rui before the panic and as he ran off, the keys fell. They quickly unlocked their cell and raced into the nearby forest to circle around the army and head back into Zou kingdom.

Shortly after, they realized they troops were already right on their tail and so they had no choice but to head deeper into Long country. At that time, they had thought it was a miracle that the troops did not catch up to them, but now he could see it was a calculated move.

"Relax, you're not in any trouble. How about some wine?" An Hao poured Prince Rui a cup and topped up his, "Do you know that the palace has a history of making its own wine, a centuries-old tradition too? So they have the best wine in the country there. The Emperor was soo generous to send you a couple of jugs. Just between us, I drank a few but I'm sure you don't mind hehe~" An Hao whispered the last sentence and winked at Prince Rui as he pushed a cup in front of him.

Prince Rui frowned down at the cup and then at An Hao, who laughed, "Oh your hands. Ah, well then you can drink it later. You'll want to." He then took a sip from his cup and sighed, "It seems to get better and better."

"What do you want?" Prince Rui asked unamused.

An Hao snorted "I don't want anything..." He finished the wine in his cup and then sighed, "But you see all that has been on our Emperor's mind for the longest time is war and conquering. He's exceptional at it too..."

An Hao refilled his cup, took a sip then continued, "BUT luckily for you, our emperor is now looking to expand his horizons, to take on new challenges, if you will. As you can see with the outcome of Yang country, he is one with a heart for the people...and so our magnanimous Emperor would like to offer for your Zou kingdom the same opportunity. Isn't it great?"

Prince Rui simply narrowed his eyes and ignored him. An Hao then rolled his eyes and scratched his head, "Well, this one will be a bit different. Our Emperor has decided to offer you the opportunity of an alliance, of course with certain conditions, the details will be settled on later. So what do you think?"

Prince Rui scoffed, "It seems you have forgotten that thanks to your Emperor I am not exactly in a place to have bearing on my country's political matters."

"I'm sure you have your ways." An Hao yawned then continued, "Well, it's your choice and there's nothing we can do...Oh, but we still have to thank you for all the very useful intel we acquired from you."

Prince Rui deeply frowned ready to face the torture.

"Oh, don't panic. A few rumors here and there is enough...Ah, by the way, how fond are you of your fingers? How about the toes? No, that won't work, needs to be visible...How about an ear? No, that's too much, won't want to ruin that face of yours, you need all the help you can get." He finished snickering.

An Hao then sighed, "...If you insist on being foolish, then there's not much I can do about that...Be hailed as the people's hero who risked his life to confront the Emperor to broker a way out to save them OR become the traitor who sold his country as we go on to crush you all! Dying a traitor's death...So what's your choice? Hurry up, I'm not very patient and I need to report back to the Emperor as soon as possible." An Hao finished and then continued to happily pour and drink his wine, occasionally smiling up at the scowling Prince Rui.

Prince Rui massaged his temples in annoyance as he remembered how An Hao had played with him.