Chapter 251: Hidden Talent

A warm arm hugged Lin Mengya at the moment. She turned back only to see Long Tianyu look at her worriedly.

“Are you alright? Did Her Highness go hard with you?” asked Long Tianyu, and there was a deep concern in his voice. The words comforted Lin Mengya’s heart that was cold a moment ago.

She knew she had nothing to fear since whatever happened, this man would be on her side. He would protect her even if the heaven should fall.

Shaking her head, she gave him a comforting smile.

“Don’t worry. Her Highness just gave me a pair of bracelets, and that’s all. It was an eventful day, and with so many relatives present, she couldn’t do anything to me,” said she.

Long Tianyu took a long glance at Lin Mengya. However strong she might appear, he was still afraid that she would be caught at a disadvantage when facing a crafty woman like the empress.

He suddenly started to worry that Lin Mengya would suffer even harder treatment from the empress if she entered the palace.

Nevertheless, the matter was not to delay since his father was seriously ill now. He furrowed his eyebrows; he was stuck in a dilemma.

After so many unexpected events, the feast for the prayer for blessings was ended hastily.

Even though Patrich’s Courts would handle Fifth Prince, they had to obtain the emperor’s personal permission to convict him. Whatever, Lin Mengya knew the empress would not let the prince off.

Since the Crown Prince had been involved, the empress must be anxious to get him out of it.

The only practical way was to twist the testimony from Fifth Prince into a lie, and to achieve this, the empress had hundreds of methods. Lin Mengya felt deeply that the prince’s doom was sealed.

However, he deserved it and had no one but himself to blame.

One had to take a risk of being eaten to ask a tiger for its skin. It was especially so for a slow-witted man like Fifth Prince.

The carriage of Prince Yu’s Mansion ran slowly down the street outside the palace, and suddenly, it stopped at the entrance of a dark alley.

From inside the alley, a pretty figure rushed out quickly. Seeing no one around, the figure bowed the head and climbed into Lin Mengya’s carriage

“Master, I’ve informed His Highness. He is waiting for you ahead not far away. As you have ordered, I didn’t attract any attention.”

Lin Mengya nodded her praise. She trusted this girl very much.

She made the appointment with her elder brother with the intention to know whether it was him who set the fire in Zhaohe Palace.

If it was indeed him, she would feel rather surprised at his nerve.

After the feast, the royal relatives and officials would return to their residence in the capital, while those from other cities would have to spend their night either in the palace or in the temporary imperial residence outside.

For this reason, Lin Mengya took a remote path on purpose. Though it was dark and the path was narrow, she was not delayed.

Before the carriage ran long on the path, a handsome young man stopped them.

At a glance, Baizhi recognized Lin Nansheng and whispered to Ling Mengya, “It’s His Highness, master. He is outside the carriage.”

“Please come in.”

Since those in the carriage were her trusted maids, Ling Mengya did not worry this meeting would be leaked out.

Moreover, there was no one in sight, plus Baisu and her brother were martial experts, they would be able to find any eavesdropper if there was one.

Lin Nansheng, in a neat suit, showed a flattering smile as soon as he was in the carriage. He knew he might be able to deceive everyone, except his younger sister.

So, to earn himself some leniency, he decided to confess.

“Has Father known this?”

Lin Mengya glanced at her brother and asked in a light voice.

Shaking his head, Lin Nansheng answered immediately, “I dare not to tell him. He will beat me to death once he knew I set a fire in Zhaohe Palace.”

At the answer, Lin Mengya smiled. She looked at her brother in her front with interest.

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“Well, in fact, Father has known it. He even covered you when you guys went out. “Father is a loyal and honest man, yet he would not be blinded by his loyalty. Do you really think that Father knew nothing about how Fifth Prince tried to shoot me?”

Not until the moment could Lin Mengya connect the dots. She had been really confused about why the empress would choose King of Chongshan and King of Lishan.

Even though these two kings were the men of justice, but they always appeared to favor her.

Even though they had little communication with her father on the feast, a careless action from them answered Lin Mengya’s confusion.

She saw with her own eyes that, when others were absorbed in her performance, the looks of enjoyment of these three men were only assumed.

At that moment, they might think there were no eyes on them, so, they, whose ages added up to more than one hundred years old, exchanged a tacit smile.

The smile was not out of compliment nor politeness.

Lin Mengya did not realize that everything was under her father’s control until the moment.

She and her brother were just two chess pieces in this game, and their father facilitated all this in secret. No news had been let out that even the empress had no idea her real opponent was Lin Muzhi, not Lin Mengya.

“So, you mean Father knew everything we did and even helped us?”

Lin Nansheng felt the fact quite unbelievable. As a vice general, he had followed his father on the battlefield for years, thus, he had thought he knew his father well.

Setting a fire in a palace was a thrilling thing even to a young man as him, how could his father, an old fogey, not object it?

Disbelief filled him.

“Yes, otherwise, Fifth Prince would not have lost his quiver as you have expected. I knew you cooperated with Qin Mo trying to let the guards in the Imperial Ancestral Temple steal out the quiver, but, remember, those quivers were in the charge of someone designated. The fact is, Fifth Prince appeared to have totally forgotten about the quiver, let alone carrying it, judging from his looks in the hall. Of course, he is indeed such a man who would forget such a thing, but how strange that no one remembered to remind him of his quiver.”

Lin Mengya’s words enlightened Lin Nansheng at once.

In actual fact, he also had a feeling that everything went too smoothly, and he admitted without his father, his plan would not have worked out so successfully.

He was stunned that even after so many years, he still had not gained a full understanding of his father.

“Don’t be frustrated, brother, I could tell you’re as smart and resourceful as Father. You’re just too proud and reckless now like any other young man. I reckon Father could not compete with you when he was at your age, experiences of years built him into a prudent man. “I believe, in several years, you will grow into a shrewd man just like Father, so, cheer up.”

Lin Mengya knew very well of her brother’s feelings.

Actually, she did not make out the whole thing until later on.

As a girl that grew up under protection, she was not wise enough to know everything and still had much to learn from her father, such as how to struggle against one’s fate.

“You’re really smart, sister. It seems I need to learn from Father to become a shrewd man.”

It was obvious that the Lins shared their wisdom. Lin Mengya smiled and felt relieved at her brother’s enlightenment. If things were to go on as she expected, the empress would lay the blame on Long Yingchu for the accident, and the Chen Family would fall.

What confused her was that the Chen Family had been on friendly terms with the Shangguan Family and followed its lead, why the empress abandoned the Chen Family this time?

“By the way, did you see anyone from the Yue Family on the feast tonight? I visited their mansion yesterday, the doorman told me Lord Yue, together with his whole family, had returned to his hometown to visit his parents. I then enquired about Yue Ting, but I don’t why the doorman chased me away after hearing my question.”

Lin Mengya’s heart sank suddenly as she heard Yue Ting’s name.

She knew she could not conceal the secret anymore. She started pondering to her shoes how to speak out the secret while not shocking his brother.

“I have something to tell you, brother.”

She threw herself into his arms as she spoke, just as she usually did when she was a child, just that this time, she stretched out to hug him first. Head on his shoulder, tears rolled down her face before she even started to speak, and wetted the cloth under her chin.

“Several months ago, during King Ming’s visit to our country, he and the Crown Prince led some nobles and officials to Mount Lingju for hunting. Sister Yue Ting and I followed them.”

Even after these months, Lin Mengya still felt heartbroken when talking about that accident.

Strong as she was, she was drenched in tears as she spoke of it.

The four maids in the carriage all seemed to share her sorrow. After all, Miss Yue Ting was the first one who had treated their master with sincerity.

Without this Miss’s help, their master would have died long ago.

“I see. Did something happen to her? She fell off the horse? Or… she got injured?” Lin Nansheng pursued hurriedly.

Though not being a sensible man, he realized something unusual happened.

Lin Mengya hugged him tightly and replied, word by word, “The second prince of King Ming was abetted. He tried to rape me, but I escaped several times, and it irritated him. He… he then targeted Sister Yue Ting and raped her. Rumors spread, Sister Yue Ting was so hurt. She jumped off a cliff so that your fame will not be ruined.”

Lin Mengya could no longer hold back her tears and cried bitterly.