Chapter 10

Lin Yu's hands kept working at the ropes as she listened, but ever since she'd seen that mother and child in the wilderness, a suspicion had begun to form.

When Lin Yu had revealed her identity, Zhang Dian's reaction had struck her as odd. She had no real connection to him, so why the fierce objection to her going to the peace marriage? What was his angle?

Zhang Dian had made no secret of his retreat to Liangcheng—everyone in the streets and alleys knew of it. But Liangcheng sat on the frontier, and Zhang Ni, newly ascended to the throne, had an unstable grip on power. He wouldn't waste his energy hunting Zhang Dian.

Besides, Zhang Dian had been crown prince for over a decade. Though he'd fallen and fled, his web of connections in the imperial court was intricate—whether from his days in the previous reign or through his mother's clan, he had people standing surety for him. For years to come, he wouldn't need to worry much about his situation.

Unless... Lin Yu was standing in his way.

She was a powerless, discarded pawn thrown out by Yu Kingdom and Jiang Kingdom. What could she possibly do to affect him? The only thing Lin Yu had that could be coveted was her imminent position in the Li Kingdom's imperial harem. So she deduced—what Zhang Dian wanted was her identity.

If that was the case, then before dawn broke, Zhang Dian would certainly make a move to obstruct her.

When they'd encountered that mother and child, they'd been riddled with a foul disease. The woman couldn't even stand to walk—she could only crawl along the ground. In the wilderness, she'd dragged herself several li, precisely to where Lin Yu and Fu Ming were, and begged for help.

That was far too unusual to be coincidence, so Lin Yu had guessed: Zhang Dian.

Everything that had happened since only confirmed her suspicions.

The wooden crate was thick, muffling the voices outside. Lin Yu pressed her ear against the side and kept listening.

"According to our informant in Lincheng, in just one day, Lincheng is nearly at its breaking point. They've never seen this disease before—they treat it as some kind of plague, with no cure at all. No one will ever suspect we seeded the pestilence."

Lin Yu's hands stilled on the ropes. Her eyes widened slightly, disbelief flickering across her face.

Pestilence?

Her thoughts snapped back to that mother and child—their bodies covered in squirming worms. The creatures were hard to describe, like maggots, burrowing through flesh and bone, gnawing out dense, riddled holes.

The people in the room chattered on in overlapping voices. Lin Yu could only distinguish who was speaking by the timbre of their voices.

"Lincheng is in chaos now. Anyone infected with this plague is doomed. Some are spending fortunes on physicians, clinging to life with rare herbs; others, unwilling to accept their fate, have given up and turned to robbery and violence. A few have even mixed their own blood into the well water, hoping to drag others down with them into death."

Zhang Dian burst out laughing at that—his laugh jarringly loud compared to the informants reporting to him. "What a bunch of fools. Already tearing each other apart."

The informant continued: "We first threw that woman from the Mountain God's temple into Lincheng's military camp. Over half the soldiers there have caught the plague by now."

"Lincheng's people are killing each other with no officials to restrain them. Lincheng borders Liangcheng—once Lincheng falls, Liangcheng is next. At this rate, before tomorrow, Liangcheng's soldiers will be sent to reinforce Lincheng."

Zhang Dian: "And when that happens, we ally with Jiang Kingdom, strike Liangcheng in the dead of night, catch them completely off guard. I'd like to see what face that Fu Qing shows then—daring to defy my commands. I'll have him on his knees begging for mercy!"

A rustling sound—Lin Yu finally worked the ropes loose from her hands. The rope slipped away, and she let out a long, quiet breath. Inside the sealed crate, sweat beaded at her temples. With her hands free, loosening the rest of the bonds was far easier.

"Oh, right—did we secure that peace marriage princess?"

Lin Yu's breath caught. She stopped mid-motion, quickly rewinding the loosened rope around her wrists, then lay back down in the crate, perfectly still.

"Of course. Once she's dead, we'll have Zhang Han take her place in the marriage—one step closer to our grand plan." The people in the room cackled together.

So that was why Zhang Dian had reacted so violently back then. He'd already had a replacement ready to take her place in the peace marriage. When she'd suddenly shown up and thrown herself into the middle of it, of course he'd been furious.

The voices in the room continued—talk of titles and riches after their success, getting carried away with their own grand ambitions, all but forgetting there was still a person in that wooden crate. No one seemed inclined to open it.

The noise grew louder inside the hall. Lin Yu breathed a little easier and went back to untying herself, her movements bolder now, her fingers working faster as the laughter and chatter drowned out any sound she made. Soon enough, she slipped free of her bonds and tossed the ropes aside.

She waited. After a while, the room fell abruptly silent. Lin Yu gathered that someone had said something to anger Zhang Dian, and no one dared speak for a long stretch.

"What about that princess? She's a liability waiting to happen. Why not throw her in the river?" Someone finally brought her up, likely to steer the conversation away from the awkward silence. His words broke the stillness.

Several others chimed in agreement, and the atmosphere lightened again. Lin Yu had become their convenient outlet for smoothing over tensions.

Before long, she heard the rhythmic thud of footsteps again. They stopped in front of the crate—guards, by the sound of it. The crate was hoisted up, swaying, and Lin Yu's back knocked against the wall of the box. She frowned, her eyes fixed on the gap at the lid where a sliver of light leaked through.

The familiar jolt of being carried resumed. Lin Yu slid the short blade from the side of her boot and gripped it tight.

Before long, the men carrying the crate stopped. Lin Yu guessed they were still within the estate grounds.

"Splash!"

The crate was hurled into the water, sending up a great spray. Icy river water seeped in through the cracks.

Lin Yu gauged that the people on the bank would be leaving soon. She aimed the knife at the lock mechanism and struck. The cramped confines of the crate hampered her swings, so she had to hammer at the lock again and again, each blow weaker than she'd have liked.

Water poured in faster and faster. Half her body was soaked through already. The precarious bobbing sensation stopped—the crate had sunk to the riverbed!

The metallic clinking grew fainter as the water muffled the sound, nearly inaudible now. The lock's edge had been chipped away by a third, widening the crack at the lid. In an instant, the entire crate filled with water, not a dry spot left.

Holding her breath, Lin Yu slammed the knife into the lock with renewed force, her lungs burning, nearly empty.

"Bang!" With one final blow, the lock finally gave way!

Lin Yu shoved the crate open and slipped into the water, swimming toward the faint light filtering down from the surface, heading for the shore.

She broke the surface, gasping in air, coughing hard. The sky at the horizon was just beginning to pale. She didn't know the exact hour, but she had to get back to the Dudu Mansion before mao time.

No need to guess—whoever was replacing her in the peace marriage would already be waiting outside the mansion.

Lin Yu leaned against a large boulder at the water's edge, breathing for a few seconds, trying to figure out where she could climb ashore. A woman came running toward her, frantic and disheveled.

Only when the woman drew closer did Lin Yu recognize her—Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan let out a breath of relief at the sight of Lin Yu, then crouched at the bank and pulled her up.

Once on solid ground, both of them were spent, collapsing behind the railing by the shore to catch their breath. Even if someone passed by, they wouldn't be seen from below.

The two exchanged a knowing look. Lin Yu's lashes lowered as she asked, "Where is this?"

"An estate on the outskirts of the city—temporary lair for that prince. Though it's on the outskirts, it's not far from the Dudu Mansion. Go to my room and change into some dry clothes, and I'll have someone escort you back."

Lin Yu nodded, then recounted everything she'd overheard in Zhang Dian's study, word for word, to Zhou Yuan. "What's broken out in Lincheng is a plague. Zhang Dian wants Lincheng in chaos."

"The military camp in Lincheng has already fallen. He plans to use it to pull Liangcheng's soldiers into Lincheng as reinforcements, then, while Liangcheng is unguarded, join forces with Jiang Kingdom to attack the city."

Zhou Yuan drew in a sharp breath. She understood well enough—she might still bear the title of crown princess, but her mother's clan had been purged when Zhang Dian was driven from Jincheng.

Zhang Dian wouldn't keep a crown princess who offered him no advantage. If his plan succeeded, killing her to raise the army's banners would happen within the next few days.

Zhou Yuan had spent most of her life confined to the inner quarters. She didn't grasp the broader political situation or what she should do. She had never even experienced plague before—she'd only heard it was terrifying, with no real concept of what it meant.

She hesitated, then said, "Should I send someone to Lincheng to calm the people and warn them?"

Lin Yu shook her head. "The source of the disease is unknown, and the infected are covered in worms that slowly drag them to death."

Zhou Yuan's heart lurched. She'd never heard of a plague that covered the body in maggots. She looked at Lin Yu with deep worry.

"I suspect this plague is connected to the Mountain God. The source should be the Mountain God's temple. If that's true, we're in real trouble." Lin Yu paused, then gave Zhou Yuan her task. "Sound out Zhang Dian—whether by trickery or whatever means—you need to learn the source of the plague so we can treat it properly."

Lin Yu wasn't certain herself, truth be told. She recalled what the people in the study had said—that the plague had started with a woman from the Mountain God's temple. If this plague was conjured by magic, then the countless common folk in the city truly had no hope of cure.

"Yesterday, the Yu Kingdom's Xianzun unfortunately perished. I'll do as we agreed—I'll go and request the Li Kingdom's Xianzun." Lin Yu's gaze was steady on Zhou Yuan, whose tightly knit brows finally relaxed, a hint of light returning to her eyes.

Lin Yu knew this was their only way out.

"Also, I heard you have a dowry maid. Have her investigate someone for me." Lin Yu left it at that, not specifying which maid.

But she'd heard from Fu Ming that Zhou Yuan had a maid arranged by her mother's clan in its heyday—someone with considerable background. For Lin Yu and Zhou Yuan alike, she'd be a formidable asset.

Zhou Yuan understood. "Who?"

"The master of the Shaman God Pavilion. I need to know every connection she has."

...

Zhou Yuan smuggled Lin Yu out of the estate. She watched the carriage grow smaller and smaller until it vanished into the sunrise, swallowed by the crimson light, melting into the long horizon. Yet unease settled deeper into her chest.

Perhaps it was being trapped in this illusion for days with no way to break it, or the plague spreading across the land, or Liangcheng on the brink of war, or Lin Yu who might never return.

Zhou Yuan stood there in the direction Lin Yu had gone, rooted to the spot for a long, long time before she finally turned and went back.

"Miss, we're here!" The carriage driver pulled back the curtain and said to Lin Yu.

Lin Yu stepped down from the carriage. The gates of the Dudu Mansion stood empty. It was nearly mao time. She knocked for a long while before a maid came rushing to open the door.

The maid spotted Lin Yu, hurriedly pulled her inside, then cracked the door open a sliver, poked her head out to check the street, and only after confirming no one was there did she carefully close it.

Lin Yu saw how cautious she was and guessed something had gone wrong. She asked, "What's happened?"

"The Commander brought back a child last night, late, bleeding from all seven orifices. He summoned physicians to treat the child, but then..."

"Last night, I went to check on the child. When I opened the door, I found all three physicians dead in the mansion's side chamber, their bodies crawling with worms. And the child—the moment he saw someone push the door open, he went berserk, charging around the room like a mad thing. I was scared out of my wits, and then he knocked past me, bolted out of the mansion, and vanished without a trace."

"If it gets fully light and the streets fill with people, the way he looks will cause a huge commotion. The mansion guards have been out looking all night and still haven't found him. As of a stick of incense ago, they hadn't come back—even the Commander went out to search himself..."