Chapter 43

Lin Yu was taken aback, finding it hard to believe. "What?"

Fu Ming also found the matter strange, so he asked, "Is there any proof?"

Zhang Wu said, "At the break of dawn today, Minister Jin went to see Prince Dai regarding the border war arrangements. But the moment he entered, he saw Prince Dai lying naked on the soft couch in the study, his head shaved clean—and beside the prince stood no one but the princess consort, razor in hand."

"Minister Jin nearly fainted on the spot. He's still muttering nonsense even now..."

Prince Dai was Fu Ming's only brother, and Zhang Wu's description sounded so bizarre that a thorough investigation would surely be needed to get to the bottom of it. But given Prince Dai's status, for him to die in his own manor under such circumstances was undoubtedly a grave matter.

This touched upon the dignity of the royal family. Fu Ming thought for a moment, then said to Zhang Wu, "Return to the palace immediately."

Zhang Wu: "Yes."

Lin Yu sensed the shift in Fu Ming's mood and the seriousness of the matter, so she followed behind him as they headed out. "I'll come with you."

Fu Ming said nothing. He had only taken a few steps when Lin Yu suddenly seemed to remember something. She turned and pointed at a small, pitiful figure. "Bring him along too."

The crowd around them was startled, for Lin Yu was pointing directly at Xie Wu, who was locked in the cell.

Xie Wu's eyes went wide in disbelief, and he pointed at himself. "Why take me?"

Lin Yu was no pushover; following her would surely bring Xie Wu nothing but trouble. Xie Wu didn't want to go with Lin Yu—he wanted to wander off...

But the Xie family matter wasn't over yet. Lin Yu had just gotten a lead, learning that the Xie patriarch was several hundred years old. The whole affair sounded extremely complicated, bound to involve many people, and might very well drag up something big. Lin Yu naturally wouldn't let Xie Wu slip away.

Since Xie Wu was still useful, out of courtesy Lin Yu answered his question: "It's convenient."

Xie Wu: "..."

Fu Ming didn't give Xie Wu a chance to resist. He glanced at the jailer, and his voice entered Xie Wu's ears like a nightmare: "Take him away."

With that, several jailers opened the iron bars of the cell, shackled Xie Wu with handcuffs and ankle chains, and quickly loaded him onto the convoy leaving Jiangnan.

...

After several twists and turns, it was another two days before Lin Yu returned to the Heaven's Mandate Tower.

The matter of Zhou Yuan killing her husband hadn't been investigated yet, and Prince Dai's death was suspicious. So the moment Fu Ming entered the Imperial City, he rushed off to the Court of Judicial Review. Xie Wu was also sent to the Imperial Prison to await interrogation, leaving only Lin Yu and Yu Jia to return to the Heaven's Mandate Tower together.

The carriage stopped before the Divine Mountain, and Yu Jia bid Lin Yu farewell before leaving. Lin Yu said nothing and headed straight toward the disciples' quarters.

The moment she returned to her residence, Chen Lu came trotting up eagerly. "You're finally back! I thought I wouldn't see you before the new year."

Lin Yu was in a good mood seeing Chen Lu. "What? Missed me after just a few days?"

Chen Lu pouted and retorted, "Not at all!"

Lin Yu let out a small laugh, then took off her outer robe and draped it over the coat rack. She lit an incense stick, and soon a wisp of smoke rose in the room. When she finished tidying up and turned back to look at Chen Lu, she found the girl sitting obediently to the side, staring at her with an expectant look.

Lin Yu could see that Chen Lu had something on her mind. She asked, "What do you want to do now?"

Chen Lu patted her stomach and looked at Lin Yu with sparkling eyes. "You haven't eaten yet, have you?"

It was already dusk, and indeed it was time for a meal. Lin Yu thought for a moment and reached out her hand to Chen Lu. Chen Lu joyfully hopped off the chair, grabbed Lin Yu's hand, and pulled her outside.

Chen Lu was unusually enthusiastic when it came to food. She gripped Lin Yu's pinky tightly and strode forward with big steps. "Hurry, or we'll miss dinner."

Lin Yu smiled, watching Chen Lu's back as the girl dragged her toward the dining hall.

The area around the residence was usually quiet, but the dining hall was packed with disciples. Lin Yu was new and didn't recognize them, but that didn't stop them from recognizing her.

Lin Yu followed Chen Lu through the crowd. One after another, the Heaven's Mandate Tower disciples in plain white robes respectfully bowed to Lin Yu, and she was forced to nod in return.

Chen Lu slowed her steps, her tone bitter. "Tch. When you first arrived, you looked like you were about to die, and no one cared about you. Now that you've woken up and become the Divine Maiden, these people stick to you like plaster."

Lin Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Of course she understood what these people were thinking, but she still had to keep up appearances and act like everything was harmonious. So she coaxed Chen Lu in a soothing tone: "Mm, they're bad people."

"Our little Chen Lu is the best—always there for me, never leaving my side."

Chen Lu's eyes lit up instantly at those words, but she pretended to stay calm. "Of course."

When they reached the kitchen matron, Chen Lu stood on her tiptoes and slapped the counter. "Fill my plate up!"

The matron glanced at her and casually gave her a portion that was on the smaller side. Seeing the situation was going wrong, Chen Lu frantically slapped Lin Yu's thigh. Lin Yu let out a cough, and the matron looked up, noticing Lin Yu. She froze, then silently added a heaping scoop of meat to Chen Lu's plate.

Chen Lu smiled in satisfaction. "That's more like it."

Lin Yu: "..."

After getting their food, Lin Yu asked Chen Lu, "Does the matron always size people up like that?"

Chen Lu wolfed down her meal. "They only give proper respect to the official disciples. For us cleaning acolytes, they don't even care about us. We never get enough to eat or wear."

"But it's fine..." Chen Lu chewed as she spoke, her words a bit garbled. "That's how the whole tower is. They kick those down and fawn on those up."

Lin Yu looked at Chen Lu's little face and let out a soft sigh. Those who could enter the Heaven's Mandate Tower as official disciples were either scions of power and wealth or naturally blessed with immortal bones. They were born as the center of attention, and after being coddled for so long, they could no longer see the people at the bottom.

Lin Yu rested her chin on her hand, not feeling hungry. She absentmindedly watched Chen Lu devour her food. Her gaze drifted past Chen Lu to the people around them, and in a daze, the clamor of voices seemed to fade away. Lin Yu felt as if she were drowning at the bottom of the water, about to suffocate, her mind growing hazy.

There were too many people here—all kinds of gods and ghosts. She felt an inexplicable oppression.

"Hey, did you hear? About that Prince Dai?"

A clueless bystander asked, "What? What happened to the prince?"

"He's dead! Killed by the princess consort!"

The surroundings immediately erupted in murmurs of shock. "Really? I saw him just a few days ago. How could this happen?"

"If the princess consort killed him, that's not surprising."

Lin Yu turned to look at the disciple who spoke. Others, smelling gossip, crowded around him, blocking him in so tightly that Lin Yu could only make out that he was a youth of fifteen or sixteen.

"Haven't you heard? The princess consort was forced into marriage by the prince. She always had someone she loved—a sword cultivator. The two were a perfect match. But the prince kept meddling and pestering her relentlessly."

"And then?"

"Yeah, what happened then?"

"Then? The late emperor once left the prince a blank imperial edict—it was a marriage decree."

The crowd let out a chorus of exclamations, and the rest of the story went without saying. Prince Dai had used that edict to demand Zhou Yuan's hand in marriage. Imperial orders couldn't be defied, so Zhou Yuan had no choice but to marry him.

"Wait, but the rumors say the prince was gentle and refined, a man of virtue and talent, with a good temper. How could he force a woman into marriage? And wasn't he said to dote on his wife, with the prince and princess living in harmony?"

"Tch, that's just to fool you. The prince is the emperor's only brother. Just look at His Majesty..." At this point, the disciple suddenly fell silent.

The words were left unfinished; no one dared to say more. The young master realized he had spoken too much, and he glanced around warily. The others tacitly avoided continuing the topic, and the dining hall fell quiet.

The implication of his words was clear: Fu Ming was a volatile, bloodthirsty tyrant, so how much better could his younger brother be?

After a long silence, a voice shattered the stillness—Chen Lu's, timid and small. "The prince is a good man. He wouldn't put on a show to fool anyone..."

Hearing a child's voice, the disciples couldn't be bothered to turn around and see who was speaking. They didn't need to think twice to know it was some lowly cleaning acolyte. So they snapped, "Hey, what does a kid like you know? Since when do you get to chime in on our conversation?"

The crowd burst into laughter, and the dining hall grew lively again.

Chen Lu puffed up her cheeks, angry, but she was also afraid of those people and didn't dare clash with them. She slammed down her chopsticks, grumbling, "It's true..."

Lin Yu raised an eyebrow. "You know the prince?"

Chen Lu looked up and met Lin Yu's eyes. "He helped me before. I can tell he's a good person. He wouldn't do anything bad."

Lin Yu nodded. "He helped you?"

Chen Lu rubbed her head, staring at the night pearls on the dining hall ceiling for a long time before she found the words. "The prince saved my life. Two years ago, a bad person threw me into the river, and I almost drowned. The prince happened to pass by and pulled me out. He even gave me a piece of gold. I don't know what he said to those people, but after that, no one bullied me anymore."

Chen Lu's expression suddenly turned serious. "If he hadn't saved me, I would have died back then. And if I had died, when you were brought back to the tower, no one would have been willing to take care of you."

Lin Yu smiled suddenly as she listened, playing along. "All right, then he's my lifesaver too."

...

When they finished eating, the crowd in the dining hall had yet to disperse. Lin Yu didn't feel like listening to whatever baseless rumors were floating around, so she didn't linger and took Chen Lu away.

Chen Lu was in inexplicably good spirits today, swinging Lin Yu's hand as she walked, hopping along and humming a tune.

Mid-song, Chen Lu suddenly stopped. "Oh, I heard a few days ago that you brought back a little girl, and an elder who teaches beast taming took her in."

Chen Lu was talking about Nunu. Lin Yu asked, "What about it?"

Chen Lu hesitated for a moment before finally speaking. "I... I want to learn some skills too. While you were gone, I went to see Elder Talisman..."

Elder Talisman was the elder in the Heaven's Mandate Tower who taught talismanic arts and trained talisman cultivators. Unlike other cultivators who needed physical strength, cultivation, and perseverance, talisman cultivators only required intelligence to learn the basics—perfect for Chen Lu.

Lin Yu asked, "What did the elder say?"

Chen Lu was a bit nervous. "I passed the elder's test. I can't become an official disciple, but the elder agreed to teach me how to draw talismans. So..."

Lin Yu patted Chen Lu's head. "If you want to go, then go. Being able to learn something is always a good thing. And if you can't learn it, that's fine too—you can still come back and be my little acolyte."

Chen Lu: "I definitely won't fail to learn!"

Lin Yu was amused by her reaction. "All right, our Chen Lu is the smartest. One day, you'll become a formidable talisman cultivator."

Chen Lu was pleased by the praise, but then she turned serious. "But if I go, who'll take care of you... You won't find another acolyte in this tower as clever, adorable, charming, and hardworking as me..."

Lin Yu: "So that's why you were hesitating about whether to learn talismans?"

Lin Yu took Chen Lu's little hand and continued walking. Her voice was slow and earnest. "If you want to, you can go and carve out a new future for yourself. You can't stay a nameless menial acolyte forever, so don't tie yourself to me. You need to plan for your own future."

Chen Lu didn't grasp the deeper meaning behind Lin Yu's words. She said, "But I just want to stay by your side."

Lin Yu smiled and shook her head. The two headed back toward the residence. They hadn't walked far when Lin Yu ran into a priestess she recognized.

He looked somewhat anxious, but his expression eased when he saw Lin Yu. "Divine Maiden, the Xianzun has emerged from seclusion and is waiting for you in the Bushou Hall. He has important matters to discuss with you."