Chapter 459 Meaningless Provocation

Suddenly, an excitement rose in her heart at the thought that she would take revenge on these people. Since they did not treat like how they should treat a human being, she wondered how outraged they would be when she backbit them in future.

They moved swiftly through the streets of the village, taking care not to alarm anyone. By the time those men discovered that the last man guarding the courtyard was missing, the two of them had gone out of the village and met up with Zuo Qiuyu.

“How did things go? Did you get discovered?”

It looked like Zuo Qiuyu had also just returned and he quickly came up to them to inquire.

“No, let’s go. It’s not a good idea to remain here for long.”

Based on Hongyu’s description, those men had likely gone out just to send the investigator on his way.

Maybe they would be back at the farmhouse in no time. Given that Hongyu was very witty, Lin Mengya supposed that she would be able to substantiate her statement.

After all, Hongyu was a useful chess piece for those men. If used well, she could spell trouble for Lin Mengya.

Little did Lin Mengya expect that Hongyu would give her an unmerited advantage. Even if Hongyu subsequently turned around at the last minute, at least the knowledge of the plan was more advantageous than being kept in the dark.

Just as when they first came to the village, Long Tianyu had put his arms around her as protection. In the dark of the night, no one was able to predict what would happen tomorrow.

However, there was one thing that was certain. From the moment Lin Mengya stepped into the Nation of Lintian, her fate had been tightly entangled with these ploys and schemes.

From outside the city, they galloped all the way back to Wangtian City without stopping. Just when they entered Prince Shen’s Mansion, Zuo Qiuchen’s personal guards were already waiting by the gates.

Sumei was mistaken that Zuo Qiuchen had become suspicious of Lin Mengya.

However, she was not sure who exactly Zuo Qiuchen’s trusted company was. Therefore, when there was a need to pass information around, his personal guards who were supposedly his trusted men did a fantastic job by not turning a hair.

On seeing the guards at the gates, Lin Mengya knew that her Cousin Chen was here to talk to her.

She quietly nodded at the guards and they trailed behind Long Tianyu and Lin Mengya into the prince’s mansion.

Just when they passed through the front yard, they spotted Sumei who seemed to be guarding the entrance to the middle courtyard.

At this moment, she had been moved into the backyard by Zuo Qiuyu, who quoted the reason that she needed to be protected from arousing suspicion.

However, when she heard about the fun trip Lin Mengya and Long Tianyu took this afternoon, she could not help feeling grumpy.

Most importantly, in her heart, Prince Yu no longer belonged solely to Lin Mengya now.

If she succeeded in having the Nation of Lintian to be her backing, Long Tianyu would at least make her his vice Princess.

Obviously, Sumei had thought of herself to be half a master of Prince Yu’s Mansion.

At the sight of the intimate gestures between Lin Mengya and Long Tianyu’s, a sour feeling overwhelmed her.

“My greetings of peace to the prince and princess.”

She walked up to them gracefully, bow slightly as a form of paying respect to the two of them.

However, she had never received any proper training. The way to pay respects she learned from scripts of plays made her a laughing stock to the people around.

Moreover, it seemed that there would always be something entertaining wherever she was. At this moment, the sound of laugher started echoing from all around.

Sumei took note of this deep in her heart. She was determined to find an opportunity to get back at these people one day.

“You may rise. What is it?”

Lin Mengya sounded cold and even a little disgusted.

Towards Sumei, Lin Mengya had lost all patience.

Hongyu might not have helped Lin Mengya out of the sincerity of her heart, but she had already revealed to Lin Mengya that those men had been incited by Sumei.

If Hongyu could still tell right from wrong, she would have utterly hated Sumei.

Therefore, even if she did not act now, this ignorant girl would not be able to struggle for long.

Moreover, Lin Mengya had to deal with many matters at hand, why would she bother herself with Sumei, whose days were limited?

“Your Highness, you’re too unappreciative. After all, we’re one family. I’m just trying to show concern for the prince and you.”

Sumei was no longer the pitiful-looking girl. There was even a hint of arrogance in her voice as if she was the master of this mansion.

Lin Mengya found this to be very funny. It had only been a few days and she had transformed into something else.

Perhaps this was Sumei’s true colors.

“The prince is doing very well. There’s no need for you to be concerned. If there’s nothing else, you may excuse yourself for now. After all the fun we have, it’s time we take a rest. Both the prince and I are exhausted.”

Sumei was provoked to anger just by that statement.

Lin Mengya stuck out her chin as if she was the victor in cockfighting.

Leading Long Tianyu by his hand, Lin Mengya and Long Tianyu strode into the courtyard.

“Your Highness, the prince…”

Discontented, Sumei called out loudly but Long Tianyu did not even look at her at all.

“Humph! I’ll wait to see how long you can hold this arrogance up!”

Sumei muttered under her breath as she glared at the entrance to the courtyard at the center of the mansion.

As soon as they get to the old capital, Lin Mengya would reap the fruit of her obnoxiousness!

Let’s wait and see!

The proud gamecock transformed into a paralyzed fish without a backbone the moment she entered her room.

Her body had just recovered and a half day’s dashing here and there was enough to drain her life out of her.

She threw herself onto Baishao, who had come up to receive her. Fortunately, she was slim and light enough for Baishao to support her weight and helped her get into the room and onto her soft mattress as if she were a little child.

“Tired? The food is almost ready. Please have some water first, and we’ll serve you the food right after.”

It was a rare occasion to see her master’s charming naivety as she acted coyly. It reminded Baishao that the youngest of them in the mansion was Baizhi.

Even so, she had gathered from Baizhi that their master was merely half a year older than Baizhi.

Come to think of it, their master was even younger than her younger sisters. However, it was hard to tell that she was barely a grown woman from the way she carried herself on normal days.

Baishao left to get the food ready while Lin Mengya lay lazily on the mattress in an attempt to restore her stamina and strength.

While she half-closed her eyes, organizing her thoughts on the events of the day, she was totally unaware of the adoring eyes of Long Tianyu on her as he sat across from her.

“Who do you think that investigator is?”

After spending a day going through all the details of the information she gathered, she had picked out the most crucial factor.

It was regarding the investigator. In fact, be it in Jin State or the Nation of Lintian, there would be characters such as this investigator who was would be patrolling the entire country.

For example, what Long Tianyu did earlier on was something similar, which was to go around the country to check out on the situation of spring plowing like an investigating ambassador.

Could this event that happened be a top-secret of some nation?

Could it be the work of some power that was trying to go against Zuo Qiuchen? No matter who it was, the one who had used the name of a court official to mobilize his subordinates seemed to treat the royal family with disdain.

“It doesn’t appear to be that way. The imperial censor’s job is usually confined to the boundaries of his own country. Moreover, if there were opposition powers within the Nation of Lintian, it would be within Zuo Qiuchen’s ability to discover it. That location was merely ten miles from Wangtian City and the elite soldiers would be stationed all around this area. I am guessing that they are not an opposing party to the imperial court, which was why they had not been discovered.”

Compared to Lin Mengya, Long Tianyu, who had spent the last few days discussing important matters with Zuo Qiuchen, could see through this kindly-faced new emperor of Lintian more clearly than her.

Zuo Qiuchen was a ruthless master. Not only did he cunningly alternate between exerting his power and showing mercy, but he was also very skillful in the art of playing dumb to take advantage of others and the situation.

If not for Lin Mengya’s relationship with him, Long Tianyu and Zuo Qiuchen would very likely become enemies.

Long Tianyu was certainly not intimidated by him, but he could use a friend rather than make one more enemy.

He supposed Zuo Qiuchen thought likewise.

“Some powerful secret society? That’s impossible. If it were some secret society getting involved in the power struggle for the throne, any miscarried move would have rendered their total destruction.”

Lin Mengya commented with much doubt. Obviously, her naivety and lack of experience had led to her ignorance of the evil in society.

Long Tianyu had no desire for her to know about it anyway, so he had selectively revealed only the information which he thought was harmless for her.

After pondering for a moment, Long Tianyu lowered his voice and said, “Have you forgotten about Qinghu’s background?”

Qinghu’s background? The scene when Lin Mengya first met Qinghu immediately appeared in her mind.

Back then, it seemed like the people serving the governor of the Capital City were all under Qinghu’s command.

Strictly speaking, Qinghu could be counted as someone in the wild frontier.

Lin Mengya shuddered at the thought. Could these people in the secret societies in the wild frontier have infiltrated into the imperial court?

Why would they do that? Were they thinking of taking control of the world by having various officials from different levels under their control first?

Such wild ambition was frightening!

Long Tianyu could tell from how Lin Mengya’s expression changed to that of severity in that instant that she must have thought that the matter was exceptionally serious.

Pain and helplessness welled up in him.

Sometimes, her wit drove him crazy. Other times, the way she extrapolated a matter beyond what normal people would think, made Long Tianyu think that she had the wildest imagination.

Instinctively, he reached out his large hand and caressed her head affectionately.

“What are you thinking about? Things are not as serious as you thought. Do you think there’ll be an emperor who doesn’t have a trump card? Take for example your cousin, if someone commits treason, he is definitely able to find out who the spy in the imperial court. Moreover, no matter how resourceful the people in the social scene are, they are only outsiders. At the most critical moment, those disunited royal families will not allow an outsider to take over their power over the state.”

Long Tianyu patted Lin Mengya affectionately on her head. It must have been hard on her.

She had been a dimwit for a long time and had only been enlightened barely a year ago.

There were too many insider stories within the imperial court and the royal family. He might have grown up in the palace over the last twenty years, but even he could not make out everything that happened.

Over the years, the emperors of the various dynasties which managed to secure their throne might not have done so just because of kinship or status.

Zuo Qiuchen was very clear regarding this point.

Long Tianyu’s large palm brought a little warmth to Lin Mengya.

The entangled and twisted thoughts in her mind were gradually calmed by the comfort from Long Tianyu for the time being.

However, as Lin Mengya looked at Long Tianyu’s heartwarming smile on his handsome face, she still could not bring herself to completely pour out the anxiety in her heart.