Lin Mengya bent over to pick up the fallen chess pieces one by one.

As Long Tianyu set his eyes on her, he could already tell what her thoughts were.

“You provoked him on purpose, didn’t you?”

Long Tianyu took the chess pieces from her hands with a perplexed look in his eyes.

“That’s right. I just wanted to understand why he kept targeting you.”

Although Lin Mengya was not happy that Long Tianyu had been attacked, she gradually realized that Liu Xuan was not exactly just targeting Long Tianyu.

He seemed to harbor a great hatred for the royal family of Dajin.

She merely wanted to drive Liu Xuan to a corner today and see if she could find out any clues.

As a result, however, Liu Xuan merely provided her with some ambiguous responses.

Nevertheless, there was one thing that Lin Mengya was certain. If she were to make a guess based on Liu Xuan’s words a moment, he could have been tricked by the Long Family in terms of money and sex.

After picking up all the chess pieces, Lin Mengya was suddenly overcome by curiosity and turned on the testing mode.

Looking at Lin Mengya staring at him with her dark eyes, Long Tianyu get gooseflesh.

What on earth was the lass thinking?

“Prince Yu, is there any princess in the royal family between the age of 18 and 25 who does not adhere to the protocol of the palace and goes out and about as she pleases for a long period of time?”

Looking at Lin Mengya’s bright and sparkling eyes, Long Tianyu thought hard and finally shook his head.

“That would be strange. If he had not been deceived into sex by a female member of the Long Family, why would he say such words? I’m surely going to get something out of Cousin Yu when I have time in the future.”

Being curious and gossipy was definitely a strong driving force for any human being.

Lin Mengya, who was determined to unravel the reason for Liu Xuan’s heartbreak, would be giving Liu Xuan an earnest look whenever opportunities arose.

Whenever Liu Xuan turned around and smiled at her embarrassingly, she would give him a hair-standing smile.

Even Long Tianyu, who got jealous easily, was glad that he was no longer the one being watched closely.

Now, he would be like a bystander like Zuo Qiuyu.

It was a sunny day. Lin Mengya looked out of the window, supporting her head with her hands.

She looked so pretty, but…

“Lord Liu, are you tired? Thirsty? Would you like to come in to have a cup of tea?”

Not only was Lin Mengya’s smile sweet, her voice was also crispy.

However, Liu Xuan felt a chill run down from his neck to his spine.

He quickly shook his head. This woman had been casting such looks on him ever since they left the small town.

“Are you having some kind of misunderstanding towards me? Rest assured that I have no ill intentions. I just felt that there’s some misunderstanding earlier, so I would like to have a heart-to-heart talk with you. What do you think?”

Despite Lin Mengya’s incessant coaxing, Liu Xuan kept his distance.

It was just too bad that the two comrades by his side kept pushing the matter of interacting with Lin Mengya to him.

At the sight of Lin Mengya’s cheeky look as if she could not wait to play more tricks on him, Liu Xuan wished he had more legs to carry him far away from her immediately.

“Alas, this isn’t getting anywhere. I thought he would be bolder than this, but look at how he’s panicking now!”

The speed at which they were traveling was rather fast. Cousin Yu said they would arrive at the peripherals of the former capital by sunset.

The old capital consisted of the peripheral part and an internal part. There were altogether eight city gates distributed on the city’s peripheral like a radiating pattern.

However, the location of the palace and the Pavilion of Herbs was in the inner part of the city, where it was an area where the city could defend itself as well as get its soldiers ready to fight if it had been attacked by enemies.

However, given that Cousin Chen had already relocated the nation’s capital, there were only some stewards guarding the palace. As for the other subjects in the royal family, they had all gone to serve in the Pavilion of Herbs.

Lin Mengya was a little taken aback at Zuo Qiuyu’s words.

She did not know whether to conclude that the highest authority in the Pavilion of Herbs was either too audacious or that he was overcome by his own selfish ambition.

Even if these royal subjects had been forsaken by the emperor, they should not be freely given to others as subjects.

Perhaps it was like what Cousin Chen had anticipated. Having lived in the clover for many years, those in the Pavilion of Herbs had begun to conceive undesirable thoughts.

It was noon, and the weather had become hotter.

Lin Mengya alighted from the horse carriage, found a small tea stall, and sat down to rest and cool off.

Naturally, Liu Xuan used the excuse of wanting to check out what was ahead of them to keep his distance from her.

Lin Mengya found the way Lord Liu tried to shun her rather funny.

Where had that Liu Xuan, who was so imposing just a few days ago, gone now?

“My dear cousin, whomever you set your eyes on would be such an unlucky guy. Alas, thanks to my kind brother-in-law, who willingly took you in. Otherwise, who else would be able to tame a devil like you?”

Zuo Qiuyu said with a sigh and shook his head.

As expected, the pair of husband and wife rolled their eyes at him, although there was a difference in the degree of disdain between those two.

Long Tianyu had submitted to Lin Mengya since long ago. Now the two for them sang the same tune.

“Drink some water.”

A plain cup of warm water was placed before Lin Mengya.

Long Tianyu was aware that Lin Mengya had never like tea that tasted too bitter. However, Baishao had been injured and she was usually the one who was in charge of the good tea.

Now he could only offer Lin Mengya a glass of plain water to quench her thirst.

“Do you feel that something is amiss given that we have arrived at the former capital so smoothly?” said Lin Mengya with a low voice after she took the cup of water from Long Tianyu’s hand and took a sip from it.

By now, they were closer and closer to the formal capital city. As Lin Mengya went down the line of thoughts, she realized that although they indeed met with some trouble in Tianlong Prefecture, there were no other hiccups along the way.

Of course, this was in reference to the difficulties they encountered as signs of dangers that eventually turned around.

“We still have to be cautious, even though I find it strange too. We had obviously realized some tails along the way but they had merely followed from afar and did not come close to us.”

Long Tianyu was very sensitive and observant. Although he had been protecting Lin Mengya like a personal bodyguard, nothing escaped his eyes in their surroundings.

Groaning, Lin Mengya, too, found it strange and she could not help feeling more worried.

What she did not know was that these different powers had refrained themselves from coming closer because they were also not sure if they were enemies or friends among themselves.

It was under such a bizarre state of balance that Lin Mengya and her company of people managed to arrive at the former capital safely.

If not for such suspicion among their enemies, they would have met with many more dangerous situations.

As the saying went, “When you’re covered with lice, you don’t itch, and when you’re up to your ears in debt, you stop worrying.” This must be how it felt.

When they were well-rested, they set out on their journey again.

As expected, not long after they set out, the towering city wall came into sight.

The faint aroma of herbs filled the air. Not to mention Lin Mengya, who had a keen sense of smell like a dog, even the common people could tell that there was something special here.

All the people could not help taking a deep breath.

The air was filled with the aroma from a wealth of different medicinal herbs, so much so that whoever lived here for a long period of time would have all ailments, big and small, cured.

This was also the reason why the nation’s capital had never been plagued by any pandemic since the time the capital of the Nation of Lintian was built.

Lin Mengya also understood why those who refused to move the capital were aged kins of the royal family.

This was a natural choice of place for retirement. Not only would one’s illnesses be healed, the environment even boosted general health and fitness.

Nevertheless, it would have taken a few centuries for the capital to achieve this state.

They could even build an old folks home here. However, Cousin Chen had the intention to move the Pavilion of Herbs to the new capital city.

Psst… What troublesome project.

Although there were eight city gates, only two of them were opened during normal times.

The other six gates would only be temporarily opened on special festivals and occasions.

Given the large number of visitors to the city at this moment, there was already a long line formed by the time they arrived at the gates.

Since the place was so crowded, there was no need for Lin Mengya to alight from the horse carriage.

However, it was vociferous given the crowd.

Moreover, Lin Mengya and her company were a prominent group and soon someone in the crowd recognized Prince Shen and senior provincial official Liu Xuan.

There was no getting away with the pleasantries. Nevertheless, Lin Mengya alternated between forcing a smile and bending down to speak to the people, which was very unlike her usual self.

“Since Prince Shen had come, it must be Princess Anle in the horse carriage. I heard that Princess Anle is extremely beautiful. Why don’t Prince Shen invite her to come out here so we can see her?”

Immediately, a cold look was shot at the man who was behaving like a social butterfly.

The man, however, was rather slow at catching the hint. He had failed to realize that there was a handsome man whose face had fallen.

“That would be difficult. My cousin isn’t comfortable in such a buzz. Moreover, she is still young and does not know how to speak appropriately, as a result, she may say something offensive.”

While Zuo Qiuyu appeared to be polite on the surface, in reality, he was growing very tired inside.

He threw a quick glance at Long Tianyu and realized that he was already fuming, therefore Zuo Qiuyu immediately tried to change the topic.

“Master Zhu, did I hear that your father has come on this trip too?”

The man who was Master Zhu truly lived up to his name.

He was squinting his beady eyes as he spoke.

“Naturally, someone from the Zhu Family might emerge as someone great this time. If that happens, I would be obliged if Elder Brother Zuo could take good care of him.”

Zuo Qiuyu flew into a rage at Mr. Zhu’s words.

He was merely the son of the vice-president of one of the Six Boards. How dare he harbored the wishful thinking of a meteoric rise through the Pavilion of Herbs? How dare he even address Zuo Qiuyu as a brother?

While Zuo Qiuyu was outraged, he knew not to show his anger.

Nothing escaped Lin Mengya’s ears.

The expression on her face turned cold. These people were shameless!

Her eyeballs rolled around in her eyes as she thought of a good idea.

After straightening her clothes, she reached out her delicate hands to gently push open the door of the horse carriage.

“Alas, it’s getting really boring in the horse carriage. When will we arrive at our destination, Cousin?”