Chapter 178 Chilling

“Water? There’s some water outside; go to find it. As long as you’re able to crawl to the body of water.”

The look in Lin Mengya’s eyes was devoid of all emotions.

Lin Mengya could not even bother to look at Ming Yue, who was paralyzed on the floor.

“Ah! It’s so itchy! It’ll be better if you kill me, kill me!”

Ming Yue shouted in delirium as she rolled on the floor, but it did not help with relieving the itch at all.

“Master, are you not worried that someone would come to her rescue?”

They exited from the side chamber and it was pitch dark outside.

“No one will come. They had wanted us dead, so they would have made sure that all the guards and servants had been deployed from here. Look, there isn’t a single soul here. Who would find her?”

It was only now that Lin Mengya realized that this part of the Chun’en Hall’s side chamber was unusually secluded and quiet.

If not for the Crown Prince’s instructions, why would the guard allow this corner to be unguarded?

How naive of the Crown Prince to think that he could so easily take her life.

“That’s right, she deserved to die.”

Baisu, having followed Lin Mengya for a while by now, had been influenced by Lin Mengya’s character of needing to take revenge on people who dared offend her.

Princess Ming Yue’s piercing shrieks were spine-chilling.

“Death? At this moment, death to her would be the sweetest and most marvelous thing in the whole world.”

A smile formed at the corner of Lin Mengya’s mouth.

She turned around to have a last look at the entrance of the side with a sinister look in her eyes.

“Let’s get back to the banquet. I want to see the reaction of those people when they see me again.”

Lin Mengya straightened her dress and then turned to walk back to Chun’en Hall with Baisu.

A big drinking party was on-going back in the main hall.

No one seemed to have noticed that Princess Yu had gone off, or Princess Ming Yue was missing.

However, the Crown Prince and vice Princess Dugu seemed to be giving each other anxious looks.

If Miss w.a.n.g had failed to a.s.sa.s.sinate Lin Mengya, there was still Princess Ming Yue to fill in for her.

Lin Mengya was definitely dead by now, but why did it take so long to hear any news from Ming Yue?

“Your Highness, do you want to send someone to check it out?”

Vice Princess Dugu quietly whispered her suggestion when the Crown Prince downed another cup of wine.

The Crown Prince had refrained from checking out the situation personally because it was inevitable that his movement would attract people’s attention.

If someone were to find out about their collaboration, while it was easy to silence his partners in crime, it would be a great loss to him if his plan had been upset.

“There’s no need for that. Our plan was a well-thought one. Although the maidservant accompanying her is skillful in martial arts, she was not carrying any weapons. Ming Yue could easily get rid of her.”

There was no doubt that the Crown Prince was a little anxious, but he was more a.s.sured than worried.

Moreover, the Queen was quietly agreeable to this plan of his.

Otherwise, why had n.o.body found anything amiss?

Although the Crown Princess did have a say in things happening in the palace, he did not have the kind of authority to control them like the Queen.

King Ming of the western va.s.sal state was sitting on his seat and looking around, but his daughter was nowhere to be found.

A frown appeared on his face as an unsettling feeling started nagging at him.

“Bei, have you seen Yue’er anywhere?”

Hu Tianbei looked around. Ming Yue had told him that she was not feeling well and wanted to take a walk outside.

Strangely, she was nowhere to be seen up until now.

“I didn’t notice. Would you like me to go around searching for her, Father?”

King Ming stole a worried glance at the Crown Prince.

Lately, Ming Yue had been rather intimate with the Crown Prince.

Not only was Ming Yue an intelligent girl, King Ming had also engaged a master to teach her martial art skills.

However, that child was way too arrogant.

It was a tricky matter even to King Ming as a father, especially with regards to the matter of Ming Yue’s unswerving desire to have Prince Yu to her.

“There’s no need to go look for her. Given her skills in martial arts, I suppose she wouldn’t be in danger. She must be delayed for a reason.”

Believing that there was nothing much he could do, King Ming tried to comfort himself with such thoughts.

In a few days, they would set out to return to the western va.s.sal state.

A few days ago, the Queen had sent men to express her desire to propose to Ming Yue to become a concubine to the Crown Prince.

However, King Ming had politely turned down the proposal.

King Ming had a clear foresight that the current foolish Crown Prince would eventually not be the ruler of Dajin.

Despite the Queen being exceptionally intelligent and capable, there were somethings that were simply out of her control.

King Ming had nurtured Ming Yue to be his prized chess piece, which he would use only at a critical moment.

If the Crown Prince subsequently become the emperor, it would not be too late to betroth Ming Yue to him.

He sighed silently, wis.h.i.+ng in his heart that Ming Yue would not create any trouble for him.

At this juncture, the figure of a slim woman appeared at the main entrance.

The eyes of the Crown Prince and vice Princess Dugu were immediately attracted to her.

They were expecting to see the victorious return of Princess Ming Yue.

However, as the figure came closer, the delicate and beautiful face of the lady became clear to everyone.

A perfect-looking Lin Mengya stood in front of all the people.

The faces of the Crown Prince and the vice Princess Dugu instantly drained of their colors.

That was impossible! Why was she still standing here in one piece?

Before the eyes of a horror-stricken Crown Prince, Lin Mengya slowly walked back to her seat.

Long Tianhao immediately got up from his seat and walked up to her.

Although Lin Mengya appeared calm and composed, Long Tianhao sensed that she had just been through something drastic.

“Are you alright just now?”

Lin Mengya shook her head and said, “I’m alright, everything’s fine.”

Baisu’s breathing was still irregular from all the exertion and shock, so Lin Mengya instructed her to hide in the dark until Princess Ming Yue’s body had been discovered, and then Baisu should come back for debrief.

Long Tianhao furrowed his brows, having a feeling that Lin Mengya was still hiding something from him.

“Your Highness, I’ve something to tell you when we get back to the mansion later on.”

Long Tianhao’s eyes were sharp and piercing, but he was looking at Ling Mengya with tenderness.

However, she still felt that Long Tianhao had seen through her.

She had no other choice but to tell the truth to Prince Yu only when they returned to their mansion.

Long Tianhao nodded and returned to his seat after they spoke for a little more.

The mouth of the ladies seated around them hung opened as they cast an amused look at Long Tianhao.

Oh goodness! They had never seen Princess Yu take initiative to speak to a girl.

It appeared that the rumors about how Prince Yu doted on his wife were true after all!

Lin Mengya was totally unaware that she had sparked up the other ladies’ envy.

Nevertheless, since Lin Mengya’s return, Long Tianhao’s eyes had not wandered from her, and this was making her feel uneasy.

Soon, Baisu was seen returning in a haste.

She exchanged looks with Lin Mengya as an indication that Ming Yue’s body in the side chamber had been discovered.

“Oh no! Oh no! Someone’s dead!”

All of a sudden, a distressing cry echoed from outside.

The Crown Prince and vice Princess Dugu exchanged looks, then they stood up to go outside.

“What had happened that made the Crown Prince leave in such haste?”

Immediately someone voiced out his concern.

However, the majority of the guests were still drinking wine and making merry. They were not aware of what had happened outside.

“Who was making all that noise! How outrageous!”

The maidservants standing by the Queen had come out to maintain order.

A young eunuch stumbled in at this moment.

“What is it?”

Pulling a straight face, the Queen questioned the eunuch who, with gla.s.sy eyes, tried to reply but kept stuttering.

A lady official indicated for the eunuch’s superior to come forward to interrogate the young eunuch. The superior gave the young eunuch two slaps on his cheek and immediately, he was able to calm down a little.

“A skinned corpse had been found in the pond in the Imperial Garden! It was horrifying… so horrifying!”

Skinned corpse? At the mention of the skinned corpse, the young eunuch took in a deep breath.

Was death not a common thing that happened in the palace year after year?

Cases of death by drowning were not uncommon in the palace.

What was the state of the corpse that caused the young eunuch to so delirious?

“You go out to check it out, while the others remain here.”

Once the Queen gave her orders, n.o.body said otherwise.

The maidservants who was standing by her side obeyed the orders and went out immediately.

The Queen’s eyes came to rest on Lin Mengya, who looked as if nothing had happened.

“How is it going?” Lin Mengya asked Baisu secretly the moment the Queen looked away from her.

Baisu smiled a cruel smile and answered, “She was feeling so itchy that she bit herself and tore at her skin. Finally, she resorted to slicing herself with the sword.”

“She had torn open her throat when she died. It was pathetic sight,” Baisu continued.

Lin Mengya was indeed very cruel when it came to dealing with her enemies.

If she were to die, her friends and relatives who were waiting for her would be in deep trouble.

“Alright, I get it. Let’s keep watching.”

She wanted Ming Yue’s death to be a deterrent to those who were plotting harm to her and her friends.

If even blood was not sufficient to deter them, she would turn into a nightmare to them!

“Where’s the body?”

The Crown Prince and vice Princess Dugu had hurried over the side of the pond in the Imperial Garden by now.

A team of guards had already dredged out the corpse from the water.

However, the guards’ faces were totally drained of their colors from the sight of the body.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince, the corpse is right here, but it would be better for you not to see it, lest the sight of it should offend you.”

The head of the guards tried hard to maintain his composure as he advised the Crown Prince.

The other guards had gone outside to throw up after seeing the state of the corpse.

“Why? Do you think I’ll be scared of the body?”

In fact, the Crown Prince’s heart was pounding madly at this juncture.

Lin Mengya had returned to the banquet while Ming Yue was nowhere to be seen.

Could this dead person be Ming Yue?

“Your Highness the Crown Prince, this corpse which had been pulled out of the pond is in a horrifyingly gory state. We traced the trail of blood and found another woman’s dead body in the side chamber. However, this other corpse was in a much better state.”

The head of the guards felt a chill went up to his spine at the thought.

There was not an inch of skin on the body found in the pond.

Apparently, she had crawled all the way from the side chamber to the pond.

The cobblestones along the way had been stained dark red with blood.

One could imagine the excruciating pain when she crawled over.

Even he, being a man, could not withstand and s.h.i.+vered at the thought of such an ordeal.

“Let’s go into the side chamber to have a look at the other corpse.”

Seeing how the guards were petrified, the Crown Prince stop insisting to look at the corpse by the pond.

He turned around and followed the guards into the side chamber.