Chapter 552 Beware of the Trick

When these girls were woken up by Hongyu, they were still sleepy with their eyes half-closed.

“Where are we going, aunt?” a little older girl rubbed her eyes and asked timidly.

In this place, they had been used to obeying orders for a long time, so they were not panicky even when they were woken up at midnight.

The more than twenty young girls gathered together in the yard. Obviously, they didn’t expect their fate to change again this time because of others.

“Xiu, help Hongyu count their number and don’t let anyone left behind. Except for the items they’ve brought, don’t take other things away.”

The residence was already empty. It was believed that apart from them, the rest were all corpses that couldn’t talk.

Now she finally knew why the people in the mountain grove of the backyard of the Pavilion of Herbs had been able to disappear instantly.

The Candle Dragon Cult Zhu Yun had described definitely had the ability to do it.

These young girls were attached to Hongyu like fledglings to their mother, so, appeased by her, they all packed up their belongings in the shortest time.

There was no fear in their eyes but the innocence and curiosity of children.

Lin Mengya suddenly felt a little distressed. “These children are saved, but what about others?

“What about those decoction dreg young girls whose blood has been drained?

“These more than twenty girls were just luckily sent to me as a gift by Zhu Yun for showing his sincerity for our agreement.

“I’m afraid that more innocent children have become sacrifices due to the astonishing plot of the Candle Dragon Cult.

“Only by weeding out the Candle Dragon Cult can these children be completely saved from their misfortune.”

Being kind-hearted, Hongyu discussed with Lin Mengya, wanting to go to the other courtyards and check if there were still other girls left.

Lin Mengya nodded and followed Hongyu to the other small courtyards, where young girls were raised, in the backyard.

As expected, the whole residence was already deathly still at this time.

Although oil lamps were still weakly burning in some rooms, these rooms had been cleaned up, even without a piece of paper left inside.

“How did this happen? They have been taken away?” Hongyu mumbled, with a bit of regret in her tone.

“Let’s go.”

Lin Mengya couldn’t say anything, nor did she want to say anything.

In fact, she had strongly wanted to ask Zhu Yun to leave all the children to her, but Zhu Yun still had to continue to go undercover in the Candle Dragon Cult. If he had released all the children, she was afraid that he would have to die.

More importantly, only the young girls trained by Hongyu still had the unstained hearts of children among these children. As for those groups of young girls, they might have long become the puppets of the Candle Dragon Cult.

And she didn’t want Sumei’s case to happen again.

“Well, we’ve saved some, at least. Let’s go. Hurry!”

Hongyu was quite astute. Lin Mengya didn’t say anything, but she had seen through her heart somewhat.

These few people with these more than twenty young girls walked fast all the way to the back gate of the house.

But when they opened the door, they saw rows of torches outside. Instantly, they lighted up the alley.

“Who are you!”

Xiu shouted and took out a venomous insect subconsciously. It seemed that if something went wrong, she could instantly let these people fully taste the venomous insect’s gnawing of their flesh.

“We were sent here to welcome Princess Anle by Prince Shen. Please go back with us, princess.”

A man with a captain’s looks walked out of the crowd, saluted with joined palm and fist, and spoke to Lin Mengya and her group respectfully.

“Are you really the men sent by Prince Shen? Do you have any proof?”

Lin Mengya came over to Xiu, looking a little suspicious and hesitant.

“Uh—I have the written instruction of Prince Shen. You can take a look yourself, princess.”

That man took out a brown envelope from the inner pocket at his chest and presented it with his two hands to Lin Mengya, but the latter didn’t reach out to take it.

“Go back a bit, all of you. The torches are too blinding, and I can’t see it clearly.”

Lin Mengya suddenly spoke, sounding a little dissatisfied as if she was truly dissatisfied with the swaying flames.

The man looked around and had to ask his men to take a few steps back.

Then, he stood there respectfully, as if he was waiting for Lin Mengya to take the letter in his hands.

“Close the door!”

Unexpectedly, Lin Mengya took Xiu to jump back with one step at the speed of a hare.

The door, which was neither thick nor heavy, was instantly closed by those standing at the gate with great force.

This happened in the blink of an eye. Before everyone realized it, the inside of the house had been completely isolated from the outside of it.

Lin Mengya immediately latched the door. After making sure that it worked perfectly, she took one step back and explained to her companions in a low voice hurriedly.

“These people were never sent by my cousin. Previously, I sent them a message, asking them to halt the troops and wait. Then, how could they have come here so timely?”

“Besides, the leaving of Zhu Yun only happened just now. The house is usually so secret, and there have always been so many secret sentinels here.

“Not to mention Long Tianyu and Zuo Qiuyu, even Cousin Chen’s men could never be sure in a short time that there were only my companions and me in this place.

“The only explanation is that as Zhu Yun guessed, there are traitors around him.

“Otherwise, how could the news have traveled so fast?”

“Bang, bang, bang.” Outside, the knocking on the door suddenly sounded loud.

Lin Mengya made a gesture of keeping silent. After making all the people keep quiet, she then said loudly, “I’m very tired today. You ask Prince Shen to come and welcome me, or I won’t leave!”

She didn’t reveal anything in her words but showed an unruly and willful attitude.

The outsider still thought that they were not exposed and also began to act outside the door.

“Princess, please don’t make things difficult for me, OK? Now Prince Shen has something important to do, so he asked me to come and welcome you. If you are not satisfied with anything, you can ask Prince Shen to explain to you himself when you see him, OK?”

The outsider seemed to be quite easygoing. On the one hand, Lin Mengya asked Hongyu to take these young girls to a safe place to hide first; on the other hand, she continued the idle talk with the outsider.

“No! I’ve suffered so much in this terrible place, so you must ask him to come here to welcome me, and I want a sedan chair carried by eight people. Otherwise, I will go to my cousin, the emperor, to complain about him!”

Both of them were good actors while talking through the closed door.

Silently, Hongyu and those girls had all disappeared into the depths of the cloister.

Xiu was a little worried, but Lin Mengya pushed her, signaling to her to go with Hongyu.

Since Xiu could not persuade her, she had to do as she told her. While going away, she looked back again and again, but she finally caught up with Hongyu.

At this moment, only the dark-faced Zhu Yan was left to stay with Lin Mengya.

“Huh, if I called to them now, they would know that you are just acting.”

Leaning against a pillar of the cloister, Zhu Yan looked at Lin Mengya contemptuously.

He hated this woman very much. If it had not been for her, his master wouldn’t have left without him.

“Do you think I would be afraid? If you called, your master’s plan would be ruined completely. Do you know that your master will be in danger if these people take me away?”

It was not difficult to silence Zhu Yan. As long as she used Zhu Yun’s safety to threaten him, the child would learn to behave.

Zhu Yan glared at her fiercely first, and then he took out a snow-white sharp scimitar from his waist and held it horizontally before Mengya.

“My master will be safe after I kill you.”

The scimitar was as white as snow. At first sight, one knew this was no ordinary knife.

Lin Mengya extended her index finger and gently pushed away the scimitar pointed at her.

“You won’t. If you killed me, you would never return to your master. Only by keeping me safe and sound can you meet your master again.”

Lin Mengya spoke firmly, so anger appeared and vanished in Zhu Yan’s eyes.

He had to admit that she was right.

But Zhu Yan, who couldn’t suppress his anger, cut a wisp of hair from her head at the moment.

“I will take your life sooner or later!”

Lin Mengya had heard so many people say this.

As calm as ever, she walked over first while simply saying to him, “As you wish.”

Zhu Yan stared at the thin figure indignantly, but he had to catch up with her unwillingly.

In the backyard, the knocking had turned into the pounding on the door.

Since they dared to act so recklessly, presumably, they had accurately estimated that the secret sentinels in the surroundings had already gone.

The news here would travel to Long Tianyu’s ears soon, so these people could only resort to force when their luring trick had failed.

In this way, the door would be pounded open by them soon.

Lin Mengya could only make use of the place to hide from these people and buy time for the men of Long Tianyu and his kinds.

“Is there a secret place only you and Zhu Yun know in the house?”

According to the layout of Huichun House, there must be some secret passageways here.

The reason why she had asked Hongyu to take the others to hide was that she wanted to attract all the attention of these people.

And she was in the safest condition only when she was with Zhu Yan.

The reason was that he was the only one who was familiar with these secret places among the people in the residence, and Lin Mengya was only sure that he was not a traitor.

A man like Zhu Yun did things like this: if he believed someone, it meant he was fully confident.

Otherwise, how could he have the guts to do the trick of going undercover in front of the Dragon Head?

“I don’t know.”

But Zhu Yan had his temper at this time.

He raised his head and spoke proudly as if he didn’t care whether Lin Mengya would die or not.

“Now is not the right time for you to be willful. If Hongyu and those with her are caught, neither of us can run away,” Lin Mengya frowned slightly but said patiently.