Chapter 762 - A Crisis Caused by Peonies
Chapter 762 A Crisis Caused by Peonies
It turned out that he took a different side. In this case, why did he talk in such a high-sounding way?
He seemed to be an interesting person, and she might have plenty of chances to meet him in the future.
After the incident, Lin Mengya stopped wandering around and followed Xiaoyu to the inner capital city in a hurry.
The outer capital city, where the buildings were of a primitive style, and the inner capital city were divided by pitch-black stone walls.
The city walls built of black boulders were rough and heavy, giving a strong sense of pressure at a glance.
Ever since Xiaoyu approached the inner capital city, he had put on a solemn look.
Not to mention Xiaoyu, even Lin Mengya became tense.
For Xiaoyu’s sake, she could not make any mistakes.
Compared with the outer capital city, the inner capital city was more heavily guarded.
There were several groups of guards at the city gate carefully checking on and questioning those who intended to get in and out of the inner capital city before letting them pass.
In addition, there seemed to be more people getting in than people getting out, which was a little strange.
Obviously, Lin Zhongyu had noticed this. After instructing his men to protect Lin Mengya, he went up alone to inquire the guards in charge of examination.
After a while, Xiaoyu quickly walked up to her, but he frowned tightly with a sullener look, as if he had come across a difficult problem.
Lin Mengya did not ask about it at once. Judging from Xiaoyu’s expression, it should be something terrible.
Moreover, with plenty of people around, it was not a good place to talk.
After exchanging tacit glances, Lin Mengya and Xiaoyu silently walked forward behind the team entering the inner capital city.
However, when the guards checked on them, Lin Mengya noticed there seemed to be a few wanted posters posted on the bulletin board beside her.
The wanted posters showed several men’s conspicuous portraits.
Nevertheless, few people around went forward to take a look. Most people just stole glances at the wanted posters with strange looks, seeming to be afraid of something.
Lin Mengya looked away composedly and kept this in mind.
The heavy security of the inner capital city probably had something to do with those men on the bulletin board.
With Xiaoyu around, they went smoothly into the inner capital city.
Knowing Xiaoyu had come across a serious problem, Lin Mengya followed him to the imperial palace in the inner city without taking a rest.
The imperial palace in the inner city was in the most central and conspicuous location and of a sedate and dark style which seemed to make it lifeless.
At the sight of the dark buildings, she involuntarily doubted the aesthetic vision of Xiaoyu’s ancestors.
“I’m Wanyan Lie. I’m here to visit Madame Jingrou. Get out of the way,” Wanyan Lie said.
The entrance to the imperial palace was heavily guarded. Ordinary people who tried to approach the imperial palace would immediately be driven away, not to mention get in.
Lin Mengya lowered her head and followed Xiaoyu obediently, trying hard to avoid attracting attention.
However, the guards at the palace gate did not let down their guard completely because of Xiaoyu’s identity.
After looking her up and down several times, they apologized and opened the palace gate.
It seemed that the people in the imperial palace were also tense, otherwise, they would not have instructed the guards to check on the visitors carefully at the risk of offending the visitors.
“My mother lives in the Fengyu Court. I will take you there before going to meet my father. Just now at the gate of the inner capital city, I heard a very strange thing that even my father will probably think a hard nut to crack.” Xiaoyu seized the time to give Lin Mengya some instructions, still looking worried.
Lin Mengya, who was certainly aware of the current situation, nodded with her mind occupied with the thing Xiaoyu mentioned.
The men on the wanted posters on the bulletin board must be criminals, but there were only three of them. She was a little confused about what waves they could make so that even the imperial palace became tremblingly watchful, as if confronted with a formidable enemy.
Thinking over the problem along the way, Lin Mengya was not in the mood to enjoy the rarely seen beautiful scenery in the imperial palace.
After she followed Lin Zhongyu a long way, they finally stopped in front of a palace.
Lin Mengya looked up and saw the three vigorous words “Fengyu Court” engraved above the gate of the palace.
The architectural style of the Fengyu Court was somewhat different from that of the entire imperial palace. Although they were both built with large stones, the Fengyu Court built with a different kind of large stones gave out feminine softness.
Nevertheless, the Fengyu Court was greyish white, somewhat similar to Xiaoyu’s hair color.
Lin Mengya had considered this color dull, but now she found it dignified and sedate.
It seemed that the Emperor of the Lieyun Empire really regarded Madame Jingrou as the apple in his eye so that even her residence was different from the other places in the imperial palace.
Xiaoyu was very familiar with the route here. After he knocked on the palace gate, the palace gate was immediately pushed open, and a panic-stricken palace maid poked her head out.
At the sight of Xiaoyu at the gate, she looked relieved.
Then she knelt down in front of Xiaoyu and said anxiously, “Your Highness, you’re finally back. Please turn to His Majesty immediately. Madame, Madame is being punished by the Empress!”
Hearing her mention the Empress, Xiaoyu became so sullen as if intending to tear the Empress into pieces.
The vicious and ruthless look on his face indicated his strong urge to kill the Empress immediately.
Lin Mengya grabbed Xiaoyu’s hand and gently shook her head at him.
If the Empress just meant to make things difficult for Madame Jingrou, she’d at least send someone here to guard the gate.
But now, since the humble palace maid was able to open the gate, it meant that this was probably a deliberate trap set by the Empress whose target was either Xiaoyu or the Emperor deeply in love with Madame Jingrou.
“Stop crying now. Tell us what happened and why Her Grace punished Madame,” Lin Mengya said.
The palace maid stared blankly at the young woman in purple in front of her and immediately told them what had happened today.
Although the palace maid wept with a delicate look, she was coherent enough to make the whole thing clear to Lin Mengya with only a few words.
The crisis was caused by a vase of rare peonies.
Madame Jingrou had never been interested in these delicate and precious flowers. Thus, when the greenhouse got some novel flower seedlings, they were usually delivered to the other imperial concubines’ palaces according to the tradition.
The imperial concubines usually did not care about this kind of trifle. After all, none of them had the time to pay attention to the new flowers in their yards.
However, the vase of peonies somehow were delivered to the Fengyu Court yesterday.
This was supposed to be nothing serious, but the vase of peonies were given to the Empress as a tribute.
Thus, this could be minor or significant. If the Empress was a virtuous woman, she would only blame the hasty palace maids for delivering the vase of peonies to the wrong place.
However, the person in charge of the greenhouse in the imperial palace worked for Madame Jingrou.
In view of this, the Empress and the other mesdames took this opportunity to pursue this matter and blame Madame Jingrou for overstepping her bounds and disrespecting the Empress.
By now, punished by the Empress, Madame Jingrou had been kneeling for four hours, while instructed to hold a copy of palace rules with both hands and read it aloud. The Empress was obviously trying to make things difficult for her and embarrass her.
The maids of the Fengyu Court attempted to absolve their master from blame, but the Empress said that if any of them dared to plead for mercy, she would instruct Madame Jingrou to kneel for another hour.
As such, no one of the Fengyu Court dared to say a word.
Moreover, Madame Jingrou had secretly instructed them not to disturb the Emperor these days in any case, so Madame Jingrou had been kneeling by now.
After learning the whole thing, Lin Mengya certainly should solve the problem.
After pondering for a while, she decided to send Xiaoyu away. Otherwise, he would fall into the trap set by the Empress.
“Go and pay respects to your father now, and don’t mention anything else. Leave everything here to me. Lass, what’s your name?” Lin Mengya said.
The palace maid had thought that the prince could save her master. Unexpectedly, the lady in purple proposed a solution before she asked the prince for help.
“Your Highness, Madame…” When she was about to say a few more words, she saw the prince, who had always cared about his mother a lot, turn around and leave.
“Sister, now I leave my mother’s business to you. Ningqiu, from today on, treat this lady’s words as my commands.” After saying this, Lin Zhongyu went to find his father without stopping.
Lin Mengya was the only person he could trust.
The palace maid named Ningqiu was dumbfounded and watched the savior leave, showing a look of disbelief.
Lin Mengya smiled, knowing that Ningqiu did not think her, a stranger, trustworthy, but now was not a good time to explain.
“You’re Ningqiu, right? If you want to help your master, you should do as I say. Now, please find a palace maid uniform for me and another vase of peonies,” Lin Mengya said.
She had come up with a plan. She was familiar with the conspiracies in the imperial palace. Besides, she had heard from Xiaoyu that the imperial concubines were not quite scheming.
Moreover, the Emperor regarded Madame Jingrou as the apple of his eye. If the Empress of the Lieyun Empire were as scheming as the Empress of the Jin State, the Empress of the Lieyun Empire would have ruthlessly ruined their relationship at the very beginning.
The relationship between Madame Jingrou and the Emperor, who had gone through the ups and downs of life together over the years, had been solid for long.
Perhaps they took pleasure in Madame Jingrou’s crisis at the moment, but the Emperor might not spare them when he was available.
They were the daughters of powerful families, which explained why they resorted to such inferior means. They were simply not smart enough to play intrigues.
Ningqiu, who acted quickly, immediately dressed Lin Mengya up as a palace maid according to Lin Mengya’s instruction.
Although Lin Mengya was slender, she was really ravishing. Even in an ordinary palace maid uniform, she was still indescribably beautiful.
Compared with her, the mesdames and beauties in the imperial palace seemed to be homely.
However, now was not the time to comment on the lady’s appearance.
Ningqiu saw the pretty lady cut her finger and gently drip a drop of her blood into the peonies she brought over.
After a while, Ningqiu rubbed her eyes in surprise.