It is said that Qin Shihuang was controlled by a daughter

Chapter 528 A Trembling Breeze (Happy Weekend)
The next day.

When Xu Zhi woke up, the curtain hanging above her was not the crimson gauze of Zhilan Palace, but a bamboo-green curtain with milky-white gauze floating in the air. The lingering fragrance had faded, but there was still a trace of sandalwood in the air.

This is an unfamiliar place.

She instinctively reached for something, only to find her dagger placed beside her pillow.

Before coming to Fufeng, she had ordered Lu Heng to take action. She only needed to feign a failed plea, and Zhang Han's men would immediately appear on charges of disrespect. Then, Chen Ping would conveniently step in and persuade Zhang Liang.

However, she did not expect that she would faint! At such a critical moment, how could she faint unconscious!

She moved slightly, feeling a stinging pain in her neck, as if ants were biting her... She remembered Zhang Liang's last words, "Hehua".

Xu Zhi suddenly became much more sober, but then she felt it was impossible. In such an extremely chaotic situation, a secret conjecture began to brew in her mind...

Just then, soft footsteps sounded outside the door.

"Oh dear, what's going on? Why are you all standing guard here like this?" It was a young girl's voice.

The person at the door didn't say much, but left quickly.

The woman ignored Xu Zhi's wariness. Her voice was clear and melodious, with a Sichuan accent, and she stepped directly behind the screen.

What a beautiful and charming young girl, only about fourteen years old, wearing a light red dress, but with a small bag slung across her body, her attire was somewhat incongruous.

Xu Zhi had lived in fear throughout the palace for so many years, so no matter how innocent she appeared, she warily gripped the dagger in front of her, asking, "Who are you? How dare you enter my inner chambers without permission?"

She turned her head, stopped, looked at Xu Zhi, and muttered to herself, "Why did you come to this, sister? I came to help you."

Unable to dispel her doubts, Xu Zhi finally had time to observe the layout of the room. It was elegant and tasteful, yet very new, with no signs of having been lived in.

She checked the amount of incense ash on the table; it had probably been burning for over a day. She guessed she had been carried into the house, and that her people, perhaps thinking the plan had changed, hadn't come looking for her.

Xu Zhi raised her eyes and looked at her. "What do I need that you would come here so abruptly to offer your help?"

The girl in the light red dress walked around the table without speaking directly. Instead, she noticed the injury on the girl's neck and, after confirming that it had been treated, looked away with relief.

She put the medicine bottle back in her hand and said with a smile, "It seems someone has already taken care of your new injury. The situation is urgent, so I won't bother with anything else."

"You don't know how I got my injuries? Aren't you a maid in this house?" Xu Zhi asked. She lowered her head again and realized that her inner garments had been changed... She paused, some images flashed through her mind, and complicated emotions welled up in her heart.

That girl was actually Ayu—Taoyao's daughter.

Her trip to Xianyang was to relieve the Qin palace's urgent crisis.

Ying Hehua should have arrived in Xianyang before she went to Hanzhong to find Li Xian.

On her way there, she encountered a messenger from Zheng Guo, who said that his daughter Zheng Chou was having a difficult childbirth. So she wrote down the method of the antidote to Li Xian... She didn't know that Li Xian's eye injury had not yet healed, and the prescription was stolen by Zhao Gao's men. The twists and turns of this story are another one.

Ayu stayed in Shu for two days, waiting for Zheng Chou and her child to be safe, and named them Pijiang. Soon after, she rushed to Xianyang.

Unexpectedly, her cousin acted with astonishing speed, finding another way to return to Xianyang from Hanzhong within a single day. She was truly decisive, willing to injure herself to obtain Zhang Liang's serum.

Ayu smiled and said, "Sister can think that way too." She thought for a moment, "However, it was indeed Mr. Zhang Liang who asked me to come and change your dressing. He said that he has already given your strategist what you wanted. If you wake up, you can leave once the snow stops."

Xu Zhi suddenly paused. "Does Zhang Liang know what I want?"

Ayu nodded, "Sister, please ask Her Majesty for the antidote."

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhi could no longer wait; she needed to immediately confirm whether Chen Ping had obtained the items and returned to the palace safely.

This concerns whether her mother can wake up, whether Zhang Han can be released from prison... and also whether she can have the confidence to fight Zhao Gao on her own.

The snow outside kept falling. When I opened the door, although it wasn't deep winter yet and the ground wasn't covered in a blanket of snow, a thin layer of snow had already formed.

If Zhang Liang was indeed triggered by some scene to remember the past... he would only hate this unfamiliar and vicious Qin princess even more than he does now.

If that's the case, then we simply cannot stay here any longer.

She said to the girl in the light red dress, "Please tell the owner of this house that I will agree to whatever he asks. I will leave immediately and never come back."

As she finished speaking, her eyes met someone's, and just by looking at him, he almost blended into the snowy background.

She didn't want to see him.

She absolutely did not want to. Uncertainty, confusion, and jumbled thoughts were more chaotic than the snowflakes swirling in the sky.

Ayu sat inside, completely unaware that it was a situation where they had unexpectedly met. She continued, "...I saw a man outside the door who called himself Chen Ping, covered in snow. The master should have given him the things, so sister doesn't need to worry."

Zhang Liang had already stepped onto the steps, but as he opened his umbrella, he withdrew his foot. "Now that the princess has gotten her wish, I will have someone escort Princess Yong'an away."

His voice was calm, and his demeanor was composed.

She seems to have always been the one who is domineering, arrogant, and shameless.

Since she had already taken advantage of him and made demands of him at will, any memory she had of him was nothing but a delusion.

Feeling deeply ashamed, she decided to avoid Zhang Liang completely, refusing to answer a single word and leaving his side.

"Ayu," he suddenly called to the girl.

The name did indeed make Xu Zhi pause.

She frowned and stopped abruptly. Fluffy snowflakes fell onto her hair. She turned around. "Are you A-Yu? A-Yu, the skilled healer from Shu?"

At this moment, Ayu glanced at Zhang Liang.

Zhang Liang was a key minister of Han An, and that fact cannot be changed in any way.

Tao Yao was absolutely unwilling to let her daughter be bound by the shackles of the Han royal family.

"Don't look at him. How did you end up in Xianyang?"

“Cousin,” A-Yu called her, “I’m here to help you. When I left, my mother told me not to stay in Xianyang for long. I don’t want to get involved in any conflicts either, but cousin, your identity is too conspicuous… I’m worried that you’ll be in a dilemma, which is why I didn’t want to reveal my identity to you earlier. There are many things that Master no longer cares about, so this is none of Master’s business.”

Ayu felt that Zhang Liang was a very strange person. He even remembered what her mother had asked him to do ten years ago, but he claimed that he did not know her cousin.

She was still young and didn't quite understand what was going on between them.

She tilted her head. "Sir, cousin, you two are acting strangely. It's as if you don't know each other. Everyone knows about how my cousin escaped from the clutches of the King of Han when she was trapped in the palace. I've heard about it in Shu as well."

Xu Zhi looked at her and said, "I was just a child back then. If it weren't for General Ying Teng, I would probably have lost my life at the hands of Han Chen."

These words made Zhang Liang suddenly tense, as if she had brought it up on purpose.

“Mr. Zhang Liang, you mentioned this matter before…” Her next words were suddenly interrupted by a voice.

"Your Highness, I have something to report."

Inside the house, at the end of the road, Chen Ping, dressed in official robes, appeared with exaggerated hand gestures, looking quite dignified.

If it weren't for his good looks, his lack of attention to manners would be truly outrageous.

In Zhang Liang's view, this was mostly due to the influence of Ying Hehua's eccentric behavior. Over the years, Ying Hehua had become more restrained, while Chen Ping had picked up all her bad habits.

No one has lost their memory.

Everyone remembers the past, except for A-Yu; no one dares to mention it.

“I remember that you suffered from a chronic illness in Handan. My cousin Wang Yan wrote that my cousin’s health has been quite poor in recent years. So please don’t just stand there in the snow.”

He developed a lifelong cough because of her.

She fell ill because of him.

Isn't this also a kind of cause and effect retribution?

Xu Zhi couldn't find any clues in Zhang Liang's expression. She couldn't tell if she felt regret or joy...

The vows we made still echo in my ears.

When snowflakes fell on his hair, it seemed as if his hair had turned white by now.

Chen Ping simply bowed slightly to her side, reminding her that it was time for her to return to Xianyang Palace.

Thank you for waiting.

Zhang Piqiang was a minister of the Western Han Dynasty and the second son of Zhang Liang, the Marquis of Liu. At the age of fifteen, he was appointed a court attendant. After the death of Emperor Hui of Han, he wept silently before Empress Lü, and advised Chancellor Chen Ping to appease her and appoint Lü Tai, Lü Chan, and Lü Lu to command the northern and southern armies to avoid being killed. Afterwards, Zhang Piqiang's fate remains unknown.