Chapter 348 Seek Out A Clue from A Confused Situation

“This is…”

Lin Mengya took the small cloth bag. It felt stiff. She opened layer upon layer of silk handkerchiefs and saw a golden breastplate inside.

“It was left by an ever-victorious general. It’s said that the breastplate was made from a meteorite. I know that the young general always encounters danger when he fights in the battlefield. So I think that it might help to keep him safe, even if it is for once.”

Shangguan Hui seemed very bashful, but an expression of determination could be seen in her eyes.

Lin Mengya saw it clearly. Miss Shangguan, the pretty lady, really liked her big brother.

But a feeling of being sorry and a sense of guilt came to her mind.

Without her, Yue Ting and her big brother would have been a happy couple united by Heaven.

“If brother also likes Shangguan Hui, I won’t stop them. But if not, I won’t force brother to marry her.”

Shangguan Hui blushed already.

The reason why Lin Mengya changed her mind in order help Shangguan Hui was because her love was as deep as Yue Ting’s.

After comforting Shangguan Hui for a while, Lin Mengya called a servant to send her off, privately.

Lin Mengya played with the smooth breastplate and as she turned it over, she saw a name “Qingyuan” engraved at the back.

She was shocked. If her guess was right, then its former owner was Zhang Qingyuan, God of War, from the previous dynasty!

Zhang Qingyuan had already inspired awe throughout the country, and was known as an ever-victorious general, fifty years ago.

But twenty years ago, he resigned because of an old illness. If he was still alive and healthy, he should be a seventy-year-old man today.

If the breastplate was the one General Zhang used before, did it prove that the legendary general was served well by the Shangguan family?

Lin Mengya closed her eyes lightly. Some slices of life and clues immediately gathered together and formed an enormous and complex network of connections.

She reviewed the details she missed before.

A second thought incurred profound fear and she found that when all that information was collected together, it would be—

Her eyes opened instantly.

A flicker of cold light flashed across her dark eyes in a moment.

It would have startled anyone who saw her eyes at the moment.

Beads of fine sweat oozed from her forehead.

Lin Mengya had never imagined that the Empress would take that as her purpose.

If it was true, then everyone including Long Tianyu, her father or the Emperor still lying on the sickbed, would be in jeopardy.

Luckily, she constantly made trouble for the Empress. She believed that it would buy time for them.

Then, when the Empress had time to focus on them, Lin Mengya would be the first she wanted to remove.

Since it was so, she could not wait her doom.

It was impossible for her to rush into the palace to fight against the Empress. But she could find some ways to cause trouble for the Empress and to keep her away.

Lin Mengya subconsciously rested her smooth chin on her slender fingers. In the following days, she would teach the Empress how it felt to be busy.

Shangguan Hui did not only inform her of the news that the Empress planned to make peace by her marriage.

In fact, in order to get rid of her family, Shangguan Hui made sufficient preparations.

Shangguan Qing, Shangguan Hui’s step-mother, and Shangguan Dongzhu’s, the Empress, father, was the main branch of Shangguan family, at present.

The Empress was the eldest daughter and had a younger sister and four brothers.

The Master of the Shangguan family was Shangguan Nanxiong, Marquis of Fuyuan of first rank inherited from his father. He was very old and still ruled over the whole family.

Lin Mengya heard from her father that Shangguan Nanxiong was also an unusual talent, whose writings would be known throughout history and whose military talent could be used to help keep the country peaceful.

But unfortunately, Shangguan Nanxiong was overconfident of his own ability and looked down on others. Then, everyone in the Shangguan family inherited the bad habit of behaving over-confidently from him.

Shangguan Nanxiong’s wife came from a military family.

She was really a strong-willed, unyielding heroine just like Liang Hongyu. The Empress and Shangguan Qing were her daughters. They had four half-brothers.

All of them were brought up by Mrs. Ye. Lin Mengya had met Mrs. Ye and all the other uncles from the Shangguan family.

As a matter of fact, the four brothers looked really like her natural sons. All of them inherited their genes from Shangguan Nanxiong and each had his own advantages. With the help of the Empress, they became major officials and wielded great powers in the court.

So Lin Mengya had to eradicate the Shangguan family one by one, before she defeated the Empress.

Only in this way could Lin Mengya cut off her route of retreat. Then, she could nibble away at everything the Empress had.

It seemed to be as difficult as going to heaven from the current situation. However, Lin Mengya did not think it was absolutely impossible.

For example, Shangguan Hui’s marriage would be a good breakthrough.

“What are you thinking about? You seem lost in thought.”

Suddenly, Lin Mengya heard Long Tianyu’s voice from behind. She turned around and gave him a mysterious smile.

Long Tianyu was stunned by her smile and stood still for a second. Then, his facial expression relaxed.

He came to her and had a taste of her tea. It smelt fragrant and had a slightly bitter taste. When he tasted the tea, it left an unexplainable sweet aftertaste in his mouth.

On the contrary, Lin Mengya was glaring at him. “You’re a prince. Shouldn’t you be more reserved?”

“I’m actually considering how to make trouble for the Empress, so that she has no time to focus on us.”

It was just a cup of tea. Lin Mengya did not have to get angry with him about it.

She picked up a honey orange and peeled its skin very deftly.

When Long Tianyu heard what she said, a smile hovered at the corners of his mouth.

In fact, Lin Mengya had different ideas from his subordinates.

The ideas those men had were all open and aboveboard. Even if there were some private schemes, they were different from Lin Mengya’s plans, which were made and implemented cautiously and would always lead to subsequent action.

Using an inappropriate analogy, they tended to cut the Gordian knot, or the cruelest example, they would like to cut off the head very quickly.

On the contrary, Lin Mengya tended to send termites to eat the tree hollow.

Little by little, and then one day the tree would be completely destroyed.

So whoever Lin Mengya took as her target just had to accept their bad luck.

“If you want to make trouble for the Empress, you can only start with the Crown Prince or the Shangguan family. But recently, the Crown Prince seems to have quietened down. He stays inside his house every day, and never goes out, unless there’s an emergency. So you have no choice, but to start with the Shangguan family, if you want to do something to the Empress.”

Lin Mengya nodded. There was actually an instinctive understanding between Long Tianyu and herself.

But neither of them noticed that.

“You’re right. Today, I received a precious guest and much good news. One of them is that the third lord of the Shangguan family, or the third brother of the Empress, or my nominal third uncle, participated in selling illegal salt.”

Lin Mengya was very intelligent. The three sentences revealed who the third lord of Shangguan family was, and how to deal with him.

“Is that reliable? The third lord of the Shangguan family, Shangguan Li is the military commissioner of Quanzhou. He’s committing a very serious crime if he really got himself involved in selling illegal salt. And, the Shangguan family does not seem to be a family lacking in money.”

What Long Tianyu asked sounded reasonable. Throughout history, salt sale was monopolized by the government.

There existed people who sold illegal salt for excessive profits. But Shangguan Li should know which carried more weight, between profits and the reputation of the Shangguan family.

But Lin Mengya smiled mysteriously and looked very confident.

“Don’t worry. It’s very reliable. And I guarantee that Shangguan Li is supposedly involved in other illegal businesses. That’s because the Shangguan family are short of money, lots of money now.”

Lin Mengya knew this very clearly. If the Shangguan family wanted to control the government, a tremendous amount of money would be needed.

If it were her, Lin Mengya would employ an agent and enjoy the fruits of his work from behind the scene, just like how she managed Sanjue Hall.

It was a safe but very slow way to get money. And during the early days, she had to put lots of money into it. So if they wanted to get money very quickly, it would be better to do some informal business.

Shangguan Li was the military commissioner in Quanzhou, the top governor. Whichever project he joined in, the records showed that the project would yield profits.

That’s why Lin Mengya did not believe that Shangguan Li would not just join in only one business, since he was already involved in it.

As long as she caught Shangguan Li and cut off the source of his profiteering, Lin Mengya believed that the Shangguan family would be hard up, and thrown into total confusion.

Besides, Shangguan Li was the only one to have such a business plan among the Shangguan family.

Without money, the Empress had to make more efforts if she wanted to continue. Anyway, she could not move the country’s money into her parents’ home, right?

After all, those senior officials were watching the Empress very carefully.

“It’s a good idea. But, Mengya, I need to talk to you about something.”

Long Tianyu had not planned to talk about it with her.

But given the present situation, it seemed that they were going to have to fight against the Empress forever .

The Empress was calculative about the people around him. Long Tianyu was aware that she could not control her desire to influence all those grown-up, powerful princes.

He would fight back. But before that, he must warn Lin Mengya of something.

“Okay, I’m listening.”

Lin Mengya felt a little at ease after she found some clues. There was a little confusion in her shimmering eyes. Lin Mengya turned to look at Long Tianyu, who became serious suddenly.