Chapter 92 - Missing?

The royal banquet kept going; Nanshu Empire's high officials' sons and daughters including the princes and the princess from the neighbor countries that attended the royal banquet began to show their skills or abilities one by one while all the spectators will give some comments or critics at the end of their performance.

Nanshu's Empire west neighbor country, Xiancheng District's princess displayed her sword dance. It was less graceful and elegant than the swan dance before but more overbearing and could be used in fighting earned quite an amazement from the spectators.

Nanshu Empire's right-wing general's son demonstrated one of the spear arts that he was proud of. His long spear danced through the air like a dragon, firm like a mountain but domineering like a tiger made the spectators applauded him in admiration.

However, all of it still cannot draw Dongfang Ruyi attention as he still keeps observed Mu Xuan Yin's funny expression right now and ignored all the performance on the stage.

Mu Xuan Yin was kept thinking about what she should perform on the stage later. Sometimes her expression would brighten up when she got some nice ideas and she would smiling and grinning by herself, sometimes her expression would darken when she realized that her idea was invalid and she would become gloomy and frowned deeper.

Time did not wait for Mu Xuan Yin and it kept ticking, the young royal banquet guests keep showing their skills and abilities one by one on the stage while the old ones commented on it.

"Yin'er, if you do not have another way then just demonstrate some of your martial arts. This King will support you and if any of these silk pants dare to mock you, this King promises to make them all regret it!" Dongfang Ruyi declared to Mu Xuan Yin nonchalantly as his eyes glinted coldly but his tone was really firm.

However, Mu Xuan Yin was still deep in her thought right now and Dongfang Ruyi's comforting words did not enter her mind at all.

Not long after, Bai Shao Qing also got on the stage and played music with her pipa. All the audience fell silent the moment she played her pipa. Her music sounded elegant yet energetic, all the people that heard it felt as if they were in the middle of the plum forest, so relaxing and all of their burdens were lightened up.

All the audience closed their eyes enjoying Bai Shao Qing's music included Yuan Qian, the Empress, and all the princes, anyone could tell that all of them was really enjoying it. Even after Shao Qing's music ended most of them felt unsatisfied and her music was too short.

When Bai Shao Qing brought her pipa and walked back to her seat, she still managed to throw a mocking smile to Mu Xuan Yin before sat down on her own seat.

Mu Xuan Yin stunned by Shao Qing mocking smile and she steeled her mind then stood up.

"Do you want to go up the stage? You already decided on what do you want to perform on the stage?" Dongfang Ruyi asked Mu Xuan Yin curiously.

"No… I only want to go to the toilet." Mu Xuan Yin answered him casually and turned around ignored Dongfang Ruyi that dropped his jaw and stunned silly by her words.

Dongfang Ruyi was laughing and shook his head while watching on Mu Xuan Yin back that already walked away. He was always a genius with a calculative mind that could predict anything that will happen and planned everything perfectly ahead of time, he could even predict people's mind and habit but he really cannot understand what was on her mind at all. Since the first time they met until now only this pure innocent girl that blank like a white sheet that he cannot predict what she would do at all.

After Bai Shao Qing's performance, the other guests get on the stage and showed their skills; one of the official's daughters exhibited their drawing skill with their eyes closed but her painting result was still marvelous and the prince from neighbor country also performed his calligraphy like holding a sword, his aura was graceful yet dangerous but his calligraphy result was fabulous.

After all of the young guests already displayed their abilities, it was the time for the three of Nanshu Empire's princes to show their ability.

Qing Tian was the first time to perform on the stage with his green jade flute. Different from Shao Qing's energetic yet relaxing music, Qing Tian's music contained some longing and hopefulness. The audience could felt that their heart grew warm when they listened to his melody, all of them felt as if meeting with their beloved one in the middle of the bamboo forest, full of anticipation and expectation.

However, Dongfang Ruyi did not heed Qing Tian's music since he already started to worry about Mu Xuan Yin that still had not returned yet.

'Did she run away?' Dongfang Ruyi thought but he shook his head since he knew that even though Mu Xuan Yin was timid but she was quite fearless and never tried to escape when she faced any problem. In any case, Dongfang Ruyi was also really curious and looking forward on what Mu Xuan Yin planned to do on the stage later.

The time kept running, Qing Tian's music also came to an end and Fei Ye already got on the stage then began to play his luxurious looking guqin. Fei Ye was really lived up to his name as a literature prince, so far his performance was the best amongst all the participants. His performance even eclipsed Shao Qing and Qing Tian.

Fei Ye's music could only be described with one word, 'love'. All the audience could tell that this prince was actually fell in love right now but they still did not have any idea who was the person he infatuated with.

Fei Ye's beautiful melody slowly flowed out from his red luxurious guqin and seeped in all of the audience's heart. All of them began to reminiscing their first love and imagined meeting them under the cherry blossom trees in the spring, so romantic and pleasant.

Dongfang Ruyi clicked his tongue in displeasing, he really wanted to kill all of these flies that keep buzzing at her woman so badly if not because he was afraid that it would make his relationship with Mu Xuan Yin deteriorating, he would already kill all of these flies with a single slap.

It was Qing Shui's turn after Fei Ye and he chooses to show his sword techniques. His movement did not really fast but not too slow either, all the audience could see that he was really skillful with his sword. Qing Shui's techniques were lack of graceful and elegance but there was no doubt that his sword techniques were very deadly.

After Duan Qing Shui's turn, it should be Mu Xuan Yin's turn to perform on the stage as the closing event in this royal banquet that signified that the royal banquet for her coronation was ended.

However, after waited for a few minutes, many people noticed that the heroine in this event was actually missing.

"Humph… To think that she run away just because she does not have any ability that can be shown. Disgraceful! Qian'er, is this the person that you picked as your adopted daughter? It looks like your eyesight already deteriorating along with your ages. As an imperial princess, she has not only lack in ability but also in her character!" Empress Dowager began to nag Yuan Qian for his judgment.

"This… Um… Old man Ruyi, do you know where Yin'er went to?" Yuan Qian wanted to deny Empress Dowager opinion since he never thought that Mu Xuan Yin was that kind of person but he decided to ask about Mu Xuan Yin to her grandfather.

"She said she only go to the toilet for a while… Let's just wait for a moment maybe she have a stomachache or something…"Dongfang Ruyi answered Yuan Qian with casual tone without sparing any respect. He was also really worried for her at first but since he could felt Mu Xuan Yin's presence that was actually still at the near the royal hall, he sighed in relief.

After waiting for ten minutes, Mu Xuan Yin still did not appear back at the royal banquet and Shao Qing slowly stood up then said to Yuan Qian: "Your Majesty, please forgive for this subject impudence. But in this subject opinion, since imperial princess is missing, it would be better to end this royal banquet early. So we could inquire the imperial princess condition what if something bad happened to the imperial princess and we would be too late to save her."

Of course, Shao Qing did not worried about Mu Xuan Yin at all. She wanted this royal banquet to end faster so Mu Xuan Yin's reputation will be destroyed to pieces.

Yuan Qian also grew more worry and he decided to follow Shao Qing opinion in the end since Mu Xuan Yin was still at odds with the prime minister, he was afraid that Bai Liang Su did something to harm her right now. If he ended the royal banquet like this, there was no doubt that it would destroy Mu Xuan Yin's reputation so badly but it was still better than if she lost her life because of this.

"Good Evening everyone, I as Nanshu Empire's Emperor wants to say thank you very much for attending this royal banquet but it's a pity that this emperor adopted daughter has another business to attend to so she was forced to leave this banquet first. So this is the end of today's royal banquet and this emperor wishes you all a safe journey. Now, I hereby declared that this royal banquet is ov…" Yuan Qian wanted to end this royal banquet with his speech while gave some excuses for Mu Xuan Yin so her reputation will not be damaged too badly but before he could finish it…

"WAIT!"