Chapter 294 The Bloody Banquet

Long Tianyu nodded his approval. In fact, he found many weak points in the Imperial Palace and the resting palace of the Emperor.

It would not have drawn the attention of others, if it had been a weekday.

But the palace banquet for New Year’s Eve would be held here. The whole palace was supposed to be guarded securely. The only reason was that the Empress intended to trap Long Tianyu.

Lin Mengya caught her breath slightly. If Long Tianyu would not heed her warning to stop what he was doing, then the banquet would end in a disaster today.

Lin Mengya turned around and saw Night coming up at the side chamber. When she turned round the corner, Night had already disappeared. Lin Mengya checked the whole palace, but could not find any traces of fighting nor strange footprints.

“They must have left secretly.”

Lin Mengya felt a little relieved. But when she was about to return to Chongqing Palace, something came to her mind suddenly.

“It’s weird! Everything seems weird tonight!”

Lin Mengya paused where she was, and quickly recalled what happened today.

“If the Empress did not want to fight against Long Tianyu, then why would she give away secrets about Concubine De to me, and at the same time, withdraw the guards as if she was inviting someone?”

“Does she has other plans?”

Lin Mengya hurried back to Chongqing Palace, only to find everything was the same as it was before she left. Singing and dancing filled the palace area, where the Empress and the Crown Prince were talking cheerfully with their members.

The four maids were nervous, and did not feel at ease until they saw Lin Mengya.

“Where have you been, Master?”

Baiji lowered her voice and tried not to attract the attention of the others. She came and escorted Lin Mengya back to their seats.

“I’m fine. I just found it a little dull here, and went out for some fresh air. Oh, did something odd happen just now?” Mengya asked.

The four maids thought about it for a while, and then shook their heads.

It was very noisy tonight in Chongqing Palace. So it was reasonable that they failed to notice if anything was different.

In a while, Lin Mengya found that Long Tianyu was not back yet. “Weird. He should have come back after changing his clothes and letting his people leave.”

When she was pondering over it, there came the sound of a loud bang from outside.

“Bang!” The whole palace suddenly fell silent. Everyone looked out and found the sky lighting up dazzlingly, becoming almost as bright as daytime.

“Fireworks! Master, look!”

Baizhi yelled with excitement. Lin Mengya took a closer look at the sky, and it was indeed resplendent fireworks.

“I should not worry about him. The older people like fireworks as well. Besides, it’s New Year’s Eve. A fireworks show is quite appropriate.”

“They say that fireworks are used as an act of consecration by foreign countries. It’s different from what we often see in daily life.”

Some knowledgeable person among the royal family members started explaining about the fireworks to the people around him. The splendid fireworks drew everyone’s attention.

The four maids’ eyes were also shining when they saw the fireworks.

“So beautiful. How beautiful the fireworks are. It’s much better than what we see outside the palace.”

Baizhi fixed her eyes on the fireworks, as if she could not get enough of the beautiful sight. But Lin Mengya noticed a figure standing beside the Empress, disappearing suddenly and silently.

“She’s a maid the Empress trusts very much. Why are her actions so sneaky?”

Lin Mengya decided to be cautious, grabbed Baisu’s sleeves and winked at her.

As she expected, loud noises from outside could be heard in a minute. Then, a eunuch rushed over into Chongqing Palace.

“Your Highness, His Majesty’s resting palace has accidentally caught fire! Now, the Yulin Guards and the Imperial Guards are trying to put out the fire!”

“His Majesty’s resting palace caught fire? Why does everything happen so coincidentally? Did the fireworks cause the fire?” Lin Mengya was trying to figure out what was happening, quickly. But before she could find an answer and react, The door of Chongqing Palace was kicked open in the next second.

A great number of men, dressed in black, dashed into Chongqing Palace. Lin Mengya’s eyelids twitched. “What’s this?”

“How dare you! This is the Imperial Palace, you can’t just dash in here!”

The Imperial Guards standing next to the door immediately pulled out their swords, and started to fight against those men in black.

But those men in black were obviously more skilled at kung fu than the imperial guards. Within minutes, they killed all the guards around Chongqing Palace.

“Move back, protect Master!”

Baisu’s weapon had already been handed in. In a moment of desperation, she picked up the vase on the shelf close to her, and shielded the other four people behind her.

The men in black were fierce. There were a lot of the royal family members in the palace, therefore, their own guards stood together and formed a barrier around their masters temporarily.

But the worst thing was that the side door was blocked as well. Everyone was hiding in the innermost hall, with the Empress and the Crown Prince in the center.

“What’s going on? How did these assassins come in suddenly?”

The Crown Prince yelled himself hoarse. His own guards closely circled him and the Empress had placed them under their protection.

“They must have hidden themselves among the groups of people and entered the palace. Hold on a little longer. The other guards will come to our rescue soon!”

Long Qinghan snatched a long sword from of a man in black and started to fight against them. Most of the Imperial Guards were helping to put out the fire in the resting palace of the Emperor. The Imperial Palace had been attacked from the front and rear. It seemed that the people in Chongqing Palace were in a desperate situation.

“Guards! Guards! Come and save us!”

The Crown Prince, of course, was unwilling to risk of his own life, so he moved back to the rear.

Lin Mengya was pushed back to the back of the crowd. In comparison with the Crown Prince’s panicky manner , the Empress seemed to be very calm.

“Girls, come to me. Everybody, what’s happening now must have been planned by someone. He has a big ambition to overturn our country. As members of the royal family, your lives are all at stake now!”

The Empress was good at inciting the people’s courage. Her words encouraged everyone to start defending themselves.

Females, young or old members were all sheltered behind. Other members followed Long Qinghan’s example and fought against the men in black.

But there were too many of the men in black. Besides, these people were despicable and targeted the old and the women, who were defenseless

In a short while, there were lots of dead bodies lying about in Chongqing Palace.

No matter how formidable Long Qinghan and other members were, the men in black made them retreat, one after another. In the end, what they could do at most, was to protect those people behind them.

Everyone was desperate. “Will the Long family be completely annihilated tonight?”

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince, I’m sorry we came late to the rescue. Please forgive us, Your Highness!”

When everyone thought there was no more hope, the guards came from outside to their rescue.

Those soldiers in guards’ uniforms surrounded the whole Chongqing Palace, in a moment.

“Ah! Imperial Guards! They are here to save us! Thank God, we’re saved!”

Cheers rose from the crowds. But Lin Mengya was focusing her eyes on the person in black, in front of her.

Those assassins’ attires were similar to the one worn by the masked woman beside Long Tianyu. Lin Mengya looked around and failed to find Long Tianyu.

“The assassination is also part of Long Tianyu’s plan?”

“But they showed no mercy to the weak. Long Tianyu will never let his people do that!”

“Huh! New corpses! Come on, kill them all. The Empress, the Crown Prince, everyone will not live to see sunrise tomorrow!.”

This order given was given in a cool and gentle tone. Lin Mengya’s eyes narrowed. “She, she is clearly the woman beside Long Tianyu!”

She bit her lips tightly. “He is not giving up! He has even given orders to kill those innocent people!”

The men in black were powerful, but because more guards were now pouring in, those assassins were finally defeated.

Everyone knew that if they had not put up a desperate fight, it would have ended with their own deaths!

Lin Mengya’s heart was beating fast. People were fighting and the sound of weapons clashing, lingered in her ears. Chongqing Palace, which was peaceful before, became a hellish place at the moment.

Streams of red blood were now flooding the palace. People fell, one after another, including the men in black and all those innocent members.

Lin Mengya felt as if her heart was immersed in cold water.

She remembered that Long Tianyu had promised to stop his plan. But why did all this heartless events happen?

“What’s wrong with you, Master? Are you not feeling well?”

Baisyu asked, as she helped to support Lin Mengya, who was on the verge of collapse.

Lin Mengya shook her head. It was already too late to blame anyone.

A steady flow of guards poured in and the men in black were killed on the spot. The situation had changed. Now, the men in black tried to put up to a desperate struggle, but they were all killed in the end.

Suddenly, a black figure, rushed over to the crowd in a panic, before anyone could react. Nobody would have expected him to break into the crowd.

“Ah!”

After shoving aside those women in his way, he was blocked half way by some guards.

He himself fought against several guards. It was inevitable that he would lose an arm. But to everyone’s surprise, the assassin used his other arm to support himself and crawled into the crowd. No one knew what he was trying to do.

Before the guards could kill him, the Crown Prince shouted to them to stop.

“Hold on!”

Before the guards came to their senses, the assassin had already crawled to the foot of Lin Mengya, and reached out his hand to grab her hemline.

His hand left a bloody handprint on her hemline. But what was most surprising was that the assassin raised his head, and gave her a bitter smile.

“Your Highness, sorry. We failed to complete what Prince Yu told us to do!”

Then, a huge amount of blood sprayed from his body. His eyes dilated and all signs of life were gone.