Chapter 92: A ruined plan 2

Days earlier at Yul village

He led her down the hallway to a single wide door down a small hallway. Lu Yaozhu pushed the door opened and stepped aside for her to walk in. The decor of the room was similar to her own, the only thing that differentiated them was that this room unlike hers had a more masculine feel.

There wasn't a dressing table or tea table like hers, the room could be described as practical. Lu Yaozhu walked ahead of her and did a thorough rundown of the room. He opened the windows and looked out the window, everything looked alright. 

Commander Li worked very fast, there were already guards patrolling the downstairs when he looked down. Lu Yaozhu shut the door halfway, Su Liya stood where he left her. Her warry expression wasn't surprising, after what she had just been through. It was normal to feel a little uneasy, "You will be safe here, you can sleep here. I will keep watch if you do not mind that is".

"I don't" she replied in a low voice.

"Then get settled in, you can take the bed. I will sleep on the floor" Lu Yaozhu picked up a blanket but paused when she said

"Don't, you don't need to sleep on the ground. We can both sleep on the bed as we did on our wedding night. I trust you" 

He tilted his head to the side "I thought that you will feel more at ease if I stayed close to the window".

"Why so that we can check how quickly you could catch a cold, please get into the bed. We were already scared our would-be assassin away, I doubt he would come back this night. Give him a day or two to lick his wounds" Su Liya flexed her neck and sat at one side of the bed.

His lips twitched when he heard her sarcastic reply, she keeps surprising him with her witty replies. "Okay, then I will take the other side" he walled to the bowl of water by the side and washed his face before joining her in the bed.

The rest of the night was uneventful, the guards didn't get hold of the assassin. Apart from the dead body of one of the Inn staff, there was nothing fruitful from their search. After washing up and eating breakfast, Lu Yaozhu and his party continued their journey to Ningzhuo.

Thanks to the intel he got from Chief Wang, Lu Yaozhu changed their routes, they took the more common routes which meant that they passed through more villages. When spending the night at Inns, Lu Yaozhu ordered his soldiers to surround outside the inn and their rooms. To provide extra protection, they usually stayed in the same room but paid for random rooms and fixed had their servants serve them instead of the inn staff.

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Meanwhile back at Jiangxi Palace

The Empress had just finished lunch when the Emperor stormed into the room. There was a slight commotion at the door as the Palace servants scattered. The Emperor didn't care about maintaining his image, he bellowed loudly as he walked to the Empress "all of you, Get out!!!!"

Everyone rushed out as soon as they heard that, with their head bowed. No one wanted to be at the receiving end of one of the Emperor's temper tantrums. Emperor watch his wife of over 30 years ignore him like he was nothing and go about her usual activities.

He could never get a response out of her no matter what he did, it was like she didn't see him as someone worth her worries. He rushed up to her and holding her waist tightly pulled her to her feet. "Just what game do you think you are playing, how dare you try to undermine me!"

Empress Lu Pulled her hands away from his and chuckled, "undermine you, who me? How can I do that, please control your wild thought". She walked around him and put some distance between them.

Emperor Zhong glared at her calm smiling face for some time, "Are you pretending not to know why I am like this? You are quite good, you even know to act innocent. This must have been your plan when you invited my Elder sister to the capital".

"was it?" Empress Lu shook her head "you think too highly of me your Majesty. I never invited the Grand Princess, she came over herself. All I did was make a reasonable suggestion, the fact that she agreed is something great".

Emperor Zhong slapped the free chair by the side, "are you doing this to punish me for hurting your precious little nephew?"

Empress Lu stepped back "What! No. I am just doing as you instructed. Didn't you instruct me to arrange a new profitable match for commandery Princess Xia Ying? Well, that is what I did, what is wrong my darling husband, You don't like her new fiancee?"

She laughed softly, "you were mad that I was passing off such a great match to my Lu family is I decided to engage her to the crown Prince. That way keeping the power in the family, you should be thanking me for doing that and not storming in like I owe you money"

"You_" he pointed at her and sighed "You must think that you have won the game but we both know that you didn't. I will make you regret this".

" I will be waiting!!"

The Emperor glared at her for a short time before leaving, he ran into the other half of the Engaged couple on his way out of Jiangxi but pretended otherwise.

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The time they say goes faster when you are doing nothing, Xia Ying waited patiently to receive a piece of good news but every day there was no news from Chen Su's man. Until the day of the deadline, she was called to the main courtyard by her grandmother. Before she could seat down she was informed that her time had run out.

Grand Princess Ni'an poured her some tea and held It out to her, "have some tea, this was sent over by the crown prince".

Xia Ying brought the cup away from his mouth and asked "is it a good idea to accept these gifts from the crown prince when we are not going through with the marriage"

"What makes you think that we are not going through with the marriage?