Chapter 18 (1/2)

Imprisoned (1)

Like this, she was imprisoned in Lintian's Ministry of Justice!

“Zhuzi!” Right as she stepped into the cell, Ling'er hurriedly jumped to her, worriedly asking, “Where did you go, what did you do exactly last night? Why were there so many corpses in the tea garden? Did you get injured? Let me look!”

Man Yao gently patted her hands, smiling, “I'm alright.” Ling'er only let out a sigh of relief after hearing that.

The surrounding cells were filled with the other personnel of the tea garden, all of them frantically yelling out “Gongzi“, Man Yao gave a faint smile to rea.s.sure them, “Don't worry, everything will be alright.” Her face was calm and her clear eyes gave others a calming feeling, letting everyone quiet down. Man Yao's eyes landed on the person in the opposite cell who was the only one who didn't have any panic showing on her face, Chen Yu. After staring at her for a few seconds, she saw Chen Yu return her gaze, and when she gave a light laugh, Chen Yu was dazed and then started to laugh as well. Man Yao gazed at her surroundings and found that Xiao Yu wasn't present and asked Ling'er in a low voice, “Xiao Yu didn't come in?”

Ling'er nodded her head, replying back in a low voice as well, “When zhuzi didn't return back to the residence for the whole night, we thought that zhuzi rested in the garden, so I went a little earlier to the garden to give zhuzi breakfast. But just as I walked in, I was suddenly grabbed. Xiao Yu must have seen those guards and escaped. Aye! This Xiao Yu, why didn't he stay near the garden so that he could block zhuzi from going in?”

Man Yao furrowed her eyebrows. Regarding yesterday night's events, other than her, Zongzheng Wuyou, and Leng Yan, there were no other survivors. Why were the imperial guards already at the gates of garden so early in the morning waiting to enter and see the corpses? Who spread the news about the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on Prince Li? Could there have been someone else present other than them? She shook her head, “It's not Xiao Yu's fault! I rode a carriage over so even if he were near the garden and saw me, it would have been already too late to stop me. I hope…he sees the message I left him.”

Ling'er asked, “What message?”

Man Yao: “I told him to go find someone. As long as this person is willing to come, then at the very least we'll receive a light punishment.”

Ling'er: “If this person is unwilling?”

Man Yao's eyes flickered as she curved her lips into a smile, “He'll come!”

Seeing how her zhuzi was absolutely confident, Ling'er was rea.s.sured, “Zhuzi, what should we do now then?”

Man Yao lightly sighed, “As long as they're following the proper investigation procedures, I will not be worried. I'm just afraid that…they'll use tortures and beatings to force a confession so that we can be someone else's scapegoat for this a.s.sa.s.sination case.”

Ling'er was shocked, “How dare they! Even if I fight until my last breath, I will definitely not let anyone hurt zhuzi! Plus, with zhuzi‘s ident.i.ty…wu…”

Before she could finish, Man Yao hurriedly covered her mouth, whispering into her ear, “Remember this. No matter what happenes, my ident.i.ty cannot be revealed.”

Ling'er was confused, “Why not?”

With a heavy gaze, Man Yao lightly furrowed her eyebrows, “If my ident.i.ty is exposed at this time and is used unscrupulously by someone else, it may cause a war between the two countries.” Ling'er blinked indicating she didn't understand. Man Yao explained further, “Prince Li is a brilliant strategist whose intelligence has no peer. This time he was the one behind Beiyi's defeat. The rulers of other countries must be wracking their heads as their hearts tremble, afraid that he'll come to invade their country next. Those who are greedy and ambitious also have to consider once more. For the marriage alliance this time, Imperial Brother chose Prince Li. If anyone spreads rumors saying that we proposed this marriage alliance so that we could secretly eliminate Prince Li, then with the Emperor's paranoia as well as his extreme doting of Prince Li, even if we can come out safely from this case, our future days won't be easy anyways.”

“How complicated!” Ling'er was shocked as she gazed at Man Yao with admiration, “As expected, zhuzi considers everything! But who would want to ruin the marriage alliance between the two countries?”

Man Yao: “We'll have to see who is the most threatened if the marriage alliance succeeds.” Although Prince Li had already rejected the marriage, she had declared in the great hall that she will make Prince Li marry her of his own will. Furthermore, even if Prince Li still won't agree to marry her in the end, there's still the Ninth Prince on the list who is the closest to Prince Li. In the eyes of other people, the Ninth Prince who has neither a wife nor concubines had the greatest chance of being picked.