Chapter 44: There is more to her than meets the eye 3

Two days later, the main courtyard of Duke of Wu's manor.

The servants cleared the table after Zhu Fengyin and Lu Yingjie finished their dinner and retreated apart from Su Liya, Tian Tian and a few servants that stood guard in the hallway. After days of thinking, Su Liya's words now made sense.

She had been searching for the right time to bring it up to Lu Yingjie. She knew that the Emperor had been working everyone to the ground ever since the banquet. The rumours making the rounds were that the Emperor put the fifth Prince on house arrest.

Another rumour going around was that the sixth prince side was trying to make use of the fifth Prince's lapse in judgement to remove him from his official position. However, the Emperor was determined to only suspend the fifth Prince for a few weeks as punishment.

It wasn't in her place to talk about court affairs however with the speed at which the Emperor bead trying to put an end to the fifth Prince affairs, they could lose their opportunity to investigate the Shi family's involvement in opium importation.

Zhu Fengyin waited for some time until she felt that the servants were no longer within hearing distance. "I am sorry to say this but as it's a little time-sensitive, please bear with me" she watched Lu Yingjie's expression before continuing

"It is about the fifth Prince, Liya brought to my attention a conversation she overheard between two palace servants. I don't usually pay any mind to gossip, however, there was a little sense to what is heard"

Lu Yingjie watched his wife for a few seconds, in the few months of their marriage Zhu Fengyin never talked about court affairs with him. Which was strange, he had put a few shadow warriors on her and they didn't find anything harmful to the Lu family.

He had interrupted a few secret correspondences between his wife and her father, Zhu Fengyin had never written anything harmful to the family yet. He was already aware of the so-called conversation she had with her maid Su Liya concerning the fifth Prince's behaviour at the banquet.

The shadow guard he had assigned to her, reported everything to him. He had begun conducting his secret investigation on the Shi family's involvement with the underground drug markets.

Lu Yaozhu had suggested he used this to test his wives true loyalties. These past few days Lu Yingjie waited patiently to receive a secret correspondence between his wife and her father but had received none.

He was starting to suspect that he had missed a correspondence between them until now. It would seem that his wife had finally made her choice. He smiled and replied, "we are husband and wife, you can be comfortable with me".

Zhu Fengyin was a little nervous, she didn't know how Lu Yingjie would react to this news. She swallowed silently and said "Yaya overheard a few of the servants discussing how a certain imperial physician visited the fifth Prince regularly.

"The Fifth Prince is known to be in good health but there are rumours that he frequents a few gambling dens that are known to dabble with selling opium. Although the sale of Opium is illegal in the capital, it is still available as a medicine prescribed for special cases."

"You suspect that the imperial physician visiting the fifth Prince regularly supplies opium to him?" Lu Yingjie asked.

Zhu Fengyin nodded "Yes".

"That is not exactly far fetched, I also found the fifth Prince actions during the banquet strange. This could be true but I will have to look into this. You did well, keep it up" Lu Yingjie said smiling. Zhu Fengyin's cheeks brightened up immediately.

******

The next day, just outside the capital.

It was around 6 pm but it was still bright outside. The tire of a wooden carriage headed into the capital derailed which spooked the horses. 'Nyeee Nyeee' the horses exclaimed and took off deep into the forest on one side of the road. 

The driver tried to rein in the horses but the horses were already spooked. The horses shook their head quickly, which threw the driver away from his seat. The driver fell off the carriage and hit his head and shoulder on a tree, while the horses continued forward.

Inside the carriage, the previously calm and collected Xia Ying fell forward from her seat in the carriage. Her ladies maid Yuqi held her steady and prevented her from hitting her head on the carriage wall. 

Yuqi raised the curtain covering the window, "we are going too fast, your highness. We might hit something", Yuqi. Had only said that when she saw a stone up ahead. Their carriage was headed straight to it.

"Your highness, we have to get out of here. We are headed for a boulder" Yuqi said panicking. Xia Ying abandoned all pretence of proprietary and raised the curtains. She said a huge boulder up ahead, Xia Ying kicked the door open immediately.

"We have to jump out of here, Yuqi" she stretched out her hands expectantly. Yuqi held her mistress hand tightly and they jumped out, As they jumped, Xia Saw a tree up ahead of them. Fearing that they might hit the tree head-on, she shook Yuqi's hands away and pushed her aside.

Xia Ying shut her eyes as she fell, she was expecting to hit the tree. When an a wrapped around her waist and pulled her out of harm's way. She shut her eyes tightly and clenched her teeth until she felt her feet touch the ground.

Xia Ying opened her eyes quickly, she blushed as she looked straight into two slanted mismatched double eyelid eyes. One of the eyes was brown while the other was hazel with specks of green. She looked at her saviour slowly. 

He was good-looking with a straight high boned nose, thin lips and slanted double eyelids. The scar under his left eye didn't depreciate his beauty instead it made him more dashing. He was spotting a tan that spoke of his working in the sun.