“Return? Anything happened?”
Lin Mengya’s heart sank, and she prayed subconsciously, “Never be anything bad about Qinghu, please!”
“This is the convocation from the Dragon Head. It is said that the members of the branches in different areas have hurried back these days. Qinghu and I had other tasks to do, so we could put it off for a few days. But if we don’t go back anymore, the Dragon Head will get suspicious.”
She nodded. “It seems that the appearance of Sumei was not accidental.”
From Xiu’s mentioning of Sumei’s appearance to her unintentional finding of the hospital that sold aphrodisiacs, they seemed to have no connection, but when she thought about them carefully, she realized that they had some connections, in fact.
And Zhu Yun’s mind and means showed that even if she hadn’t found it, he would have thought of other ways to lead her there.
Because of Qinghu’s guarantee for her and the limited time, she had long been part of Zhu Yun’s plan.
But she had been racking her brains to guess Zhu Yun’s intent.
It turned out that she had been deep in someone’s trap for a long time without realizing it.
As the Chinese saying goes: “However smart you are, there is always someone who is smarter.” In comparison, her stratagem was inferior to Zhu Yun’s.
“You began plotting against me a long time ago, right? But why did you use me to kill Sumei? What does the Bone of Beauty that she mentioned again and again mean?”
Lin Mengya had no time to feel angry. After learning the secret of the Candle Dragon Cult, she deeply knew that she had fallen into a bloody battle that she would never be able to get herself out of.
Her initial idea was that she would have good luck after getting the music score for green stringed instrument, but she was surprised to find that this was a hot potato. If she dared to be a little careless, she would truly drag everyone to the abyss.
“Qinghu has probably told you that the reason why he and I have become this is that we have been forced to take many drugs since we were young. These years, the Candle Dragon Cult has become even more secretive and stranger in doing things. Many kinds of unknown drugs have been developed. Compared with the children now, Qinghu and I are lucky. Therefore, when we meet in the future, never believe me before I take out this!”
Zhu Yun took a red string with two unnoticeable jade beads from his wrist.
He divided the jade beads and put one bead in front of Lin Mengya.
“Do you mean that someone in the Candle Dragon Cult will disguise as you?”
Lin Mengya looked at the jade bead, confused. One should be prudent, and she would never easily believe others.
“The Candle Dragon Cult has been expanding so secretively. Do you know what is its method? It is no other than controlling people with drugs. The Immortal Powder and the Bone of Beauty are not advanced ones. The more advanced one can just make all the people in the city lose their minds overnight, but some people are best at disguising. Over the years, so many people have been assassinated, but how many people with great power or high statuses you’ve heard have had a sudden fatal disease? If the royal clans didn’t have the methods of identifying their offspring, I’m afraid that the Nation of Lintian would have disappeared a long time ago. Do you think that your cousin, the new emperor of the Nation of Lintian, went to settle accounts with all the officials of the nation only for replacing the old force with the new?”
Lin Mengya had never expected this.
The information Zhu Yun had told her shocked her, making her feel that she had been viewing the world through a small window.
She thought about it hurriedly. To put it simply, the strategy of the Candle Dragon Cult was: it would cater to the needs of their targets, and the best result was drawing them closer to its side; if this failed, it would use drugs to control them; finally, it would use its members to replace them gradually.
She felt that this strategy was quite familiar. In an instant, she remembered something.
Previously she had heard Long Tianyu speak of the empress. She, who was self-willed and narrow-minded, had been almost invincible because of the strong power of her parents’ family. Fortunately, she hadn’t done anything that truly hurt the emperor or his sons.
But in recent years, she had exercised her power in the imperial harem and even extended her power to the imperial court.
Apart from forming cliques for selfish purposes, now she even yearned to control the imperial government, and her methods had become fiercer and fiercer.
No matter how she viewed the matter of Concubine De, Lin Mengya felt that it was familiar. “Is it that the Candle Dragon Cult has joined in it?”
“Time is almost up. All the people in the house will leave tonight. After that, you can leave with your companions. Princess Yu, please help me take care of Zhu Yan. Qinghu and I are sure to do something helpful, and we will wait for your good news,” Zhu Yun bowed low and said quite earnestly.
“OK, I’ll do my best to keep him safe. Take good care of yourself.”
Although she still had numerous questions for Zhu Yun to answer, Lin Mengya stopped herself from asking him, for this was not the right time to get her questions answered.
Zhu Yun went lightly like a leaf to the distance. Gradually, he disappeared on the other side of the bamboo grove.
The tea on the table was already cold, but Lin Mengya still poured one cup and tasted the tea carefully.
The good smell of sin was still reverberating in her mouth, but her mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts.
She didn’t want to have such a powerful enemy like the Candle Dragon Cult, but all those she was concerned about had connections with this intricate evil organization.
To protect herself and help all the people get rid of the control of this “evil dragon”, now she had no choice but to fight to win or die.
Something white whizzed in the air and fell right in front of Lin Mengya.
It turned out to be a small note.
After unfolding it, she only saw two sentences of vigorous handwriting.
“Sumei is the subordinate of the Dragon Head. Beware of anyone.”
Lin Mengya put the slip of paper into the teapot naturally.
With the slip of paper soaked in water, no other people would know what was written on it.
No wonder Zhu Yun had insisted that she should end Sumei’s life in person.
The reason was that Sumei was among the direct subordinates of that mysterious Dragon Head.
But Hongyu claimed that Sumei had just begun contacting him these months. Then, how could she have been able to get the chance to contact the Dragon Head?
“Sister Princess, oh? Why are you here alone? Where is that Zhu Yun?”
Xiu’s voice came from behind.
Slightly stunned, Lin Mengya looked at Xiu with a bit of scrutiny unconsciously.
“What? Is there anything strange about me?”
Xiu looked at herself in doubt. “I’m fine. Nothing is wrong.”
“Sorry, nothing.”
After hearing Zhu Yu’s words, Lin Mengya had become a little too sensitive.
In this world, the one that others could not cheat with their disguising skills might be her only.
Since she had the Shen Nung system and the music score for green stringed instrument, anyone’s disguise, no matter how good it was, was just a joke in front of her.
“That Zhu Yan seemed to have changed into another person just now. No matter how I criticized him, he didn’t answer back. He seemed to have become another one. Is he going to play any tricks again, Sister Princess?”
Xiu spoke mysteriously. The two young people were about the same age, but they seemed to be enemies.
This was not surprising. Since one was pure and frank and the other had used to be unruly, it was unavoidable that they had small frictions.
“Nothing strange. By the way, Zhu Yuan will be with us in the future. Can you promise me one thing? Don’t be so serious with him, OK?” Lin Mengya picked up Xiu’s hand and said softly.
But this girl widened her eyes, looking at her in disbelief.
“My Sister Princess, you are not joking with me, are you? That imp will stay with us. Why!”
Naturally, Xiu was completely unwilling, but Lin Mengya smiled lightly and whispered something gently in her ear.
Immediately, Xiu’s gloomy face turned sunny.
“It turns out to be like this. I know that no one will like such a bad-tempered imp. Sister Princess, rest assured. I won’t be serious with him anymore in the future.”
Seeing this simple reaction of Xiu, Lin Mengya admired her simplicity a bit.
She let out a gentle sigh of relief. She hoped that she could finally make the Candle Dragon Cult a story of the past as Zhu Yun had said.
Now she finally understood why Qinghu had made great efforts to help her open the Sanjue Hall.
Anyway, neither the soldiers of the Lin family nor the power of Long Tianyu was her personal power.
Only the Sanjue Hall was her secret weapon for protecting herself and her family.
It seemed that when she went back this time, she shouldn’t only treat the “new fire” with the attitude of playing anymore.
Since the Candle Dragon Cult had dominated the martial arts world for hundreds of years, the boss’s seat should be passed to someone else.
When she had come out of the bamboo grove, the moon was already quite high in the sky.
The yard was still quiet. They saw no night cat, let alone people.
Lin Mengya and her companions went back from where they had come from, but they had the dark-faced Zhu Yan at their heels this time.
Zhu Yun had told her that all the people would leave here tonight.
And his words seemed to be true. At least, now she thought that they were probably the only people in this courtyard.
“Hongyu, let’s go see those children.”
Lin Mengya said lightly. Hongyu didn’t know her plan, so she didn’t dare to ask.
She only nodded and then led Lin Mengya back to the courtyard where those girls were imprisoned.
This place was not as quiet as other places. Here, they could still hear a few children talking in their dreams.
Lin Mengya had foreseen that these children would not be taken away because they were the gift to her for securing their cooperation from Zhu Yun.
“They are still here. Do we need to take them away secretly, princess?”
Hongyu had some longings in her eyes. Now, she, who had lost her only family member, regarded these children as the continuation of her hope.
“Yes, go wake all of them up. Now, they can go home.”
Lin Mengya was not worried that Zhu Yun would use snares. Either Zhu Yan or these children were already enough to prove his sincerity.