Having come to this place, death would be the best way out.

Lin Mengya patted Hongyu on her hand. She had never had a good impression of Sumei.

Han Ling might have blocked Hongyu’s way, he had not tried to stop Lin Mengya.

Lin Mengya walked slowly up to Sumei. By then, she was covered with wounds and was unable to move at all.

She resembled a dead fish, with her mouth wide opened and blood flowing out of it without her knowing.

“Save… save me.”

Sumei looked at Lin Mengya with wide-opened eyes.

Her bloodstained hands grasped the hem of Lin Mengya’s clothes. At this moment, she had long forgotten that the woman before her eyes was once the enemy she wanted to destroy.

“I can’t and I won’t.”

At the sight of Sumei in this state, Lin Mengya did not feel a tinge of the delight of vindication.

To Lin Mengya, Sumei was merely a contemptible scoundrel. She had ended up this way because of her discontentment and greed.

From her waist, she drew out the sharp dagger which Long Tianyu had given her as a gift for self-defense.

Inside the house, Hongyu was seen to turn away but there was a look of exoneration in her eyes.

“It’s time to set out on the journey. I hope you won’t reincarnate into a human again.”

A flash of light came from the movement of the dagger. Blood, in the form of the open petals of a flower, appeared on the neck of Sumei, who was struggling a moment ago.

She opened her eyes wide as her will to live gradually slipped away.

The hand which was holding on tightly to the hem of Lin Mengya’s clothes became limp.

“Drag her out. If anyone were to ask about this, just say that I was the one who killed her.”

Lin Mengya kept her dagger in the hilt calmly. Surprisingly, the dagger’s blade was not stained with blood at all.

Unintentionally, Lin Mengya’s vision swept past the gates and she glimpsed a figure which was hiding in the dark disappear suddenly.

.

Whoever dragged Sumei here had wanted to witness how she would settle her.

Perhaps in Zhu Yun’s eyes, she was now also a ruthless person on top of other traits.

It did not bother her though. Anyway, she knew that Zhu Yun had his men dragged a half-dead Sumei here just to test her.

If this were not the case, they would have dealt with Sumei anyhow without Lin Mengya knowing at all.

What did Zhu Yun want from this?

“Princess Yu is just as decisive as what people said. This life was gone so neatly.”

Suddenly, a gentle and elegant voice sounded from behind Lin Mengya.

By the time Lin Mengya turned around, Sumei’s body had been dragged out.

The blood formed a meandering trace on the floor extending from below Lin Mengya’s feet, but she was clueless as to where Sumei’s final resting place was.

“It’s better to be dead than alive. It’s meaningless to live an ignoble existence. I will be held accountable for her life, so Mr. Zhu need not worry.”

In reality, Lin Mengya was not as calm as how she appeared on the surface.

While she had saved the lives of countless people, she was uneasy about killing, which was taking away someone’s life.

Nevertheless, she would never allow her hand to tremble, be it when she was saving people’s life or killing someone.

“It was just one life. Actually, you’ve done the right thing. Even if she didn’t die today, there would be a hundred and one ways to let her live miserably. She had only herself to blame. She was the one who had violated the rules. How dare she tried laying a finger on you when you are my most honored guest. She deserved to die.”

Gazing at Lin Mengya, Zhu Yun looked like he was smiling, yet not really. He seemed to imply that Lin Mengya was fully responsible for Sumei’s death from the words he said.

Lin Mengya could not be bothered to argue with Zhu Yun. Lin Mengya kept the dagger at the waist and without further ado, she went back into the house.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. I’ve already sent someone to relay the message to the prince. You may spend the coming three days here and I will send you back to Prince Yu after that.”

Once again, Zhu Yun tried to emphasize the time limit of three days.

Lin Mengya closed the door of the house and her holding together her thoughts, she realized that Sumei’s end was a warning to her from Zhu Yun.

If she was disobedient, would she end up living miserably when she would rather be dead than alive? Apparently, being ruthless was the way of these people.

“Why did you dirty your hands if that girl should die sooner or later, Elder Sister?”

Xiu was somewhat perplexed. She had witnessed the sisterly relationship between Hongyu and Sumei.

What if Hongyu failed to tell right from wrong and decided to take revenge on the princess?

“Many thanks to you, Princess, for sparing my little sister much suffering.”

At this moment, Hongyu went on her knees before Lin Mengya and Kowtowed to her.

However, there was not a single drop of tears coming out from her bloodshot eyes. It seemed that she was sincerely grateful towards Lin Mengya.

“You can see that her inner organs were damaged, can’t you? If not for the special medicine the people gave her to keep her up, she would have died long ago.”

Lin Mengya said without much emotion. Hongyu simply looked at Lin Mengya and eventually nodded lightly.

When she went near Sumei, she smelled a subtle herbal fragrance from her body.

Although the scent of the herbs was mixed with the stench of blood, Lin Mengya was able to tell them apart. Before Sumei was being dragged in here, she had ingested a top-quality Ginseng pill.

She had only a breath left in her. Lin Mengya had taken a glance at her and she immediately knew that all the bones in Sumei’s body had been broken.

Moreover, the blood oozing out of her was mixed with tiny fragments of her internal organs.

Once the effect of the drugs wore off, Sumei would surely die.

“Erm, back then, I’ve seen the madams in the courtesan house berating the girls who were rebellious. I’ve never had any complaints against you, Your Highness. Now, I have no more worry and care. If you don’t mind, I will stay by you and serve you for the rest of my life.”

Hongyu sounded determined. She had to keep the pain that was tearing her apart at the bottom of her heart.

She had been through so much as well as seen a lot, therefore she knew who was the real enemy.

“Why don’t we talk about this after we leave this place? I have a feeling that the shopkeeper is not going to let us off so easily.”

Sitting on the chair, Lin Mengya furrowed her brows as she spoke.

Zhu Yun had once said that he had let her off because of an old acquaintance.

Although this time he had given her a time limit of three days, who knew what would happen during this period of three days?

Long Tianyu and Zuo Qiuyu would surely realize that she had been taken captive.

What she was worried about at the moment was not how Zhu Yu would harm her. Rather, she was worried that Zhu Yun would use her as a price of negotiation to threaten Long Tianyu and the rest.

In fact, she would rather Long Tianyu not agree to any of their conditions. Otherwise, Cousin Chen’s hard work would go to waste.

“Xiu, can you disseminate a message for me?”

Lin Mengya grabbed Xiu’s hand and wrote something on her delicate palm.

Xiu nodded and then took out a large purple scorpion from her waist.

This scorpion was the size of Xiu’s palm. What was outstanding about it was that it had been strapped with a tiny paper package.

“This scorpion can help with delivering the message.”

Xiu pointed at the tiny packet on the back of the scorpion, then wrote something on Lin Mengya’s palm.

Lin Mengya was pleasantly surprised to find that Xiu had an intelligent plan.

Hongyu seemed to understand what the two were doing and started to weep. In this way, while they are in the enclosed room, they managed to cover up the little movements which were easily detected by people.

Lin Mengya looked at Hongyu approvingly. She was truly one who had seen much of the world. No one could match up to her in terms of her observant and sensitive character.

She tore off a small piece of cloth from the already torn and tattered clothing.

Lin Mengya pondered for a while, then use the dagger to make a small cut on her left pointer finger.

As bright red blood began oozing from the tip of her finger, Lin Mengya quickly used it to write a few words on the piece of cloth.

Thereafter, she carefully rolled up the piece of clothes and put it into the tiny package on the back of the scorpion.

Xiu and Lin Mengya exchanged looks, then carefully fed a drop of her blood to the huge scorpion. Thereafter, this little creature seemed to become intelligent as it crawled out of the window which was half-opened.

“Alright, alright, why are still weeping when you know that your little sister deserved what she got? The Princess and I are getting tired and sick of your weeping! I’m going to cut off your tongue if you won’t stop weeping so that you won’t be able to talk at all.”

Xiu pretended to scold Hongyu and Hongyu’s voice of weeping gradually subsided.

For an outsider who heard their conversation, he would think that they were having some disagreement over the death of Sumei.

They would not know that this time, they were a team working together perfectly.

Lin Mengya glanced at Xiu as well as Hongyu, who had stopped weeping.

She was thankful that she was not alone and helpless, but had the two of them by her side.

She thought Zhu Yun might do something more extreme but he did not appear before them all the way until night time.

All he did was to send men to bring them clean clothes and something to eat.

Fortunately, Lin Mengya had the ability to detect poison. While she could tell that there was no problem with the clothes they wore, nor the pieces of jewelry they wore, but she also could tell that someone had added poisonous drugs into the two dishes.

With Lin Mengya hinting to them, the three girls avoided ingesting the food that had poison in them.

They simply avoided that food and Lin Mengya did not make noise about it.

Lin Mengya would have believed that Zhu Yun did not do think intentionally if not for the maidservants’ look of surprise on their faces when they came in to take away the utensils and bowls when they were done.

.

Did he really intend to kill them having used such a potent poison as the arsenic trioxide? However, why had the maidservants cleaned up silently without doing anything else?

What on earth was his intention?

They were given food when they were hungry and hot water when they needed a bath.

If not for the two dishes containing arsenic trioxide, Lin Mengya would really believe that Zhu Yun was only keeping them there to show them hospitality.

Han Ling, who stayed by the gates the entire afternoon, had disappeared completely once the sky became dark.

Lin Mengya purposely brought along Xiu and Hongyu to go round the courtyard once. Apart from the crescent-shaped door, there were a few servants guarding the outside. However, she did not spot any spies and informers lying low.