Chapter 473 - The Beginning of Civil Strife
Chapter 473 The Beginning of Civil Strife
Jealousy was likened to a venomous snake that occupied the heart of Zuo Yuanyi. It continued to gnaw at his heart so much so that he became increasingly frustrated.
Lin Mengya looked at him expectantly as Zuo Yuanyi’s hatred escalated. Even he was not aware of how hideous he looked.
Long Tianyu gazed at Zuo Yuanyi with a puzzled look and wondered how this useless scum turned so determined.
He suddenly remembered that for a split second just now, he felt as if he had been demon-possessed and gone mad in Lin Mengya’s coaxing tone.
He instinctively glanced at Lin Mengya, perplexed. What kind of knack was that?
Provoked by Lin Mengya, Zuo Yuanyi immediately wrote the statement of proof without further ado.
He even broke the skin on his finger and printed his fingerprint on it.
“This should do. From now on, you are one of us.”
Lin Mengya kept the statement of proof, smiling. Although this piece of paper would in no way guarantee Zuo Yuanyi’s total trust in her, at least she could easily hand this to his father if Zuo Yuanyi turned against them.
Any regular person would not be capable of making both sides suffer.
“Many thanks, princess. What do we do about that bastard?”
Zuo Yuanyi could not help worrying that the second son of Prince Qing would take away all the credit.
In response, Lin Mengya smiled and said, “There’s no rush. Apart from you and your brother, is there any other young talent in the mansion whom your father also highly values? You need to eradicate all obstacles first if you want to succeed your father. After getting rid of all potential successors, wouldn’t you surely become Prince Qing?”
Perhaps, Lin Mengya had initially wanted to take revenge on Prince Qing because his second son had injured Baishao.
However, after regaining her composure, Lin Mengya felt that it was necessary to get rid of Prince Qing completely.
Although she had yet to figure out the reason why Prince Qing would want to capture her, she understood that he was a very ambitious man. If not for the reason of scheming to usurp the throne, why would he need to go to a lot of trouble doing all these things?
She believed that news must have already spread to Wangtian City.
If she were to stir up great chaos in Yulong Prefecture first, she and Cousin Chen could work together while she took care of the matter within the prefecture, and Cousin Chen took care of what was outside. Together, they could seize Yulong Prefecture.
For this reason, she thought of making use of Zuo Yuanyi to create trouble for Prince Qing so that he would not live in peace.
“This— may not a good idea. Although they are my father’s trusted aides, they are not our kins. I suppose it’s not quite possible for them to succeed my father.”
Zuo Yuanyi’s eyes went round and round. Although he appeared to be in a trance a moment ago, he had now obediently gotten down to writing the statement of proof.
After the impulse subsided, Zuo Yuanyi calmed and began to regret it.
“Sir, you have to be ruthless to be a real man. While you treat them as your kin, no one has reciprocated that. Think about it, even a person who had no blood relation with your father could fight for the position of Prince Qing with you, why can’t those others do that?”
Lin Mengya continued, while not really expecting Zuo Yuanyi to respond positively to her coaxing.
If she did not resort to using Shen Nung System to hypnotize Zuo Yuanyi so that he lost his mind temporarily, he might not even have written the statement of proof.
She did not really expect Zuo Yuanyi to harm those other people. She merely wanted to plant suspicion so it might lead to dissension and distrust.
It appeared that soon, Cousin Chen would be able to seize Yulong Prefecture.
“What should I do then? We are after all kin. We can’t fight and kill each other when we meet.”
The lure of the position of Prince Qing to Zuo Yuanyi was not merely the life of luxury it promised.
He had grown up watching his father being so honorable. More importantly, he felt that once he succeeded his father in being Prince Qing, he would have control over the entire Yulong Prefecture.
He would also be able to marry any beautiful woman. Any man in Yulong Prefecture would have to offer up his woman as long as he desired.
By then, no one would be able to reproach him, not even his father!
Zuo Yuanyi could feel a warmth rising in within him and a covetous look filled his eyes.
As Lin Mengya watched Zuo Yuanyi, she could tell that his desire must have been stirred by some ridiculous ideas.
He was not aware that these evil thoughts and desires were the true reasons that led him down this road of self-destruction.
“This is going to be easy. As long as you go according to my plan, these people naturally would not harbor any ambitious thoughts.”
Lin Mengya suggested several schemes before she saw him off to Prince Qing’s mansion in a hurry so that he could firstly overtake the second son of Prince Qing, to report about Lin Mengya and her company’s whereabouts to his father.
Secondly, she wanted Zuo Yuanyi to remain in Prince Qing’s Mansion to collect evidence of those secret evil deeds of his father’s trusted aides and spread the rumor among the masses. Once Prince Qing got into a rage, he would appear and hand over the evidence in his hands over to Prince Qing.
Thirdly, Zuo Yuanyi was to make arrangements for Lin Mengya and her company to leave Yulong Prefecture as soon as possible. The best scenario would be for Prince Qing’s men to arrive just after they leave.
In this way, Prince Qing would not suspect Zuo Yuanyi. As for how the news had arrived late, Zuo Yuanyi could blame it on the second son.
After hearing Lin Mengya’s instructions, Zuo Yuanyi seemed more assured and confident in what he was about to do.
At the thought that he would be able to be noticed by his father, Zuo Yuanyi was so elated that he felt as if he had floated into the air.
He immediately handed the remaining blank invitation cards to Lin Mengya.
It was said that only the trusted aides in the prince’s mansion would be able to lay hold of such invitations.
With this, anyone would traverse all the cities within Yulong Prefecture.
Lin Mengya looked on as Zuo Yuanyi turned his back, and her eyes turned cold.
Long Tianyu gazed at her with confusion. He seemed to want to say something but stopped himself.
“Do you think that I’m too sinister?”
Turning around, Lin Mengya saw what was in Long Tianyu’s eyes and understood what he was thinking.
“Whether it’s sinister or ruthless, I would do anything to protect the people I want to protect. Is there anything I can’t do? I’m not as gentlemanly as you. Being sinister and scheming is what a vicious woman is like.”
When Lin Mengya was done speaking, she walked out of the reception room.
The light from the candles seemed to dim from a distance.
Lin Mengya’s slender silhouette seemed to become blurrier.
In that instant, Long Tianyu felt that he was growing further apart from her.
Lin Mengya seemed somehow different from before.
Back in the room in the backyard, Lin Mengya was applying the medication to Baishao’s wound.
Due to the effect of the fake-death medicine, the decrease in Baishao’s temperature was alarming.
If not for the fact that Lin Mengya was a skillful physician, she would not be able to detect Baishao’s extremely weak pulse.
It was difficult to tell whether she would make it out alive.
The scene when Baishao was injured remained clear and distinct in Lin Mengya’s mind.
At the same time, it had brought to her mind the scene when Yue Ting passed away.
Perhaps as a doctor, she ought to have been used to seeing people die.
These should not be the experiences that caused as much pain and torment as these incidents did.
Lin Mengya was starting to feel the pain in her chest, and her face was suddenly drained of its color. Large drops of sweat began dripping from her forehead.
Every time her emotion experienced a great upheaval, the deep-hidden poison which was like a parasite living in her bone, would start to attack violently.
Lin Mengya had never mentioned this condition to anyone because, in order to suppress such pain, she needed to calm her temperament.
However, how could it be easy to annihilate the pain in her heart and soul?
Therefore, what she had done was an extremely risky thing, even in modern times with advanced medical technology.
She had replaced part of her thinking model with thought mechanisms in the Shen Nung System.
Doing so was very risky. If she was not careful, internally, she would become a robot whose thinking model was under the Shen Nung system’s control, while externally, she would still look like a normal human being.
However, it was only through this means that her painful emotions and memories could be lessened.
Perhaps on the surface, she would appear to be calmer and more composed.
However, only she knew that the mechanical thinking model which was devoid of all emotions would eventually turn her into a monster!
She was at her wit’s end. She could only pin her hope on the music score for the green stringed instrument to purge the poison in her body as soon as possible.
Moreover, given her condition now, the poison in her body had surely mutated in some way.
Otherwise, why would both her radar and the Shen Nung System quietly allow or neglect the presence of the poison in her body?
At this thought, Lin Mengya smiled bitterly. She did not expect herself to get into such a series of troubles.
At this moment, their men were outside Zuo Yuanyi’s house, getting their horse carriages serviced and checked.
Given Baishao’s condition, she should not be moved, therefore, Lin Mengya, after some consideration, asked that Long Tianyu and Zuo Qiuyu’s servants remained behind to take care of Baishao.
Lin Mengya had stayed up the night before to prepare all the medicine and herbs needed within the next half a month.
The air around the entire mansion was filled with the aroma of the medicinal herbs. People who had no idea what happened would have thought that the eldest son of Prince Qing was preparing to cultivate himself to be an immortal according to the religious doctrine.
Lin Mengya had also written down the instruction of the use of all the medicinal herbs and carefully instructed the two servants who were remaining behind to take care of Baishao.
Once they got out of the city, these two servants would rent a place from some regular folks and secretly settle Baishao there.
On the surface, Lin Mengya would make it seem like she had brought Baishao along with her, just in case if Zuo Yuanyi regretted, he would not be able to find Baishao.
As long as they managed to flee the city, Lin Mengya believed that Prince Qing would relax the lockdown of Yulong Prefecture. This way, they would be able to secretly escape with Baishao.
As the sky got brighter, everything was in place for them to set out on the journey.
As Lin Mengya was sitting in the horse carriage, her bloodshot eyes were like those of the rabbits.
She was anticipating a dramatic, great escape, which was full of fierce fights and struggles.
“Go!”
The horse carriage started moving off slowly. As they went through the streets of the City of Yu, Lin Mengya saw a man with tattered clothes, who was both blind and crippled, being incessantly attacked by some children.
Dark red blood from the opened wounds on his face made him a hideous sight.
However, his mouth without a tongue could only make some “oo” sounds from the pain he was suffering.
It was the arrogant second son of Prince Qing. By this time, he was in a state worse than death.
Lin Mengya let down the curtain of her carriage and closed her eyes to take a rest as she swayed to the rocking rhythm of the horse carriage.