1321 Sunrise, the Ninth Prince's Affairs
"Master, our young lady invites you."
If it were normal times, upon hearing such an invitation, Wang Jinling would definitely reject it gently, not hurting either party's face, and giving the other party a way out. But at this moment...
Wang Jinling was just looking down on Madam Zhan's behavior. When he heard the servant's words, Wang Jinling didn't show any respect at all and asked directly, "Who is your young lady?"
This was already a refusal, but the servant didn't understand. She thought the Master didn't recognize her, so she turned around and said softly, "Master, I am Miss Zhan Yan's maid."
After saying that, she did not forget to secretly glance at Wang Jinling with admiration. Wang Jinling's eyes flashed with a cold light, and he said with a smile: "The maid beside Miss Zhan? You are so bold that you dare to falsely convey your Miss's orders. Your Miss is a lady from a noble family, and she is well-educated and well-mannered. How could she invite a man from another family to meet her in the middle of the night during her father's funeral? Did you accept someone's favor and want to ruin your Miss's reputation?"
"No, no, slave..."
The servant was anxious to explain, but Wang Jinling interrupted him: "Okay, since you are a member of the Zhan family, I won't bother with you this time. If there is a next time, I will definitely send you to Mrs. Zhan. I want to see how the servants of the Zhan family behave."
Even to servants, Wang Jinling was always humble and polite, and seldom said such harsh words. The servant's face turned red, and he felt that he had lost face in front of the eldest master. He knelt on the ground with a thud and kept apologizing.
Wang Jinling didn't want to pay attention and walked around him. The servant knelt on the ground for a long time, his eyes were swollen from crying. He wiped away his tears angrily and returned to Zhan Yan's yard.
The servant felt that he was angry because Zhan Yan had lost face in front of Wang Jinling, so he repeated Wang Jinling's words verbatim. After hearing this, Zhan Yan fell on the bed and cried half to death.
She really had no other intention in looking for Wang Jinling. She also knew what happened in Madam Zhan's courtyard during the day, but she couldn't get the details. Now she didn't have her father's protection and was worried about something. She asked Wang Jinling to meet her just to ask about this, but she didn't want Wang Jinling to misunderstand her.
Wang Jinling didn't want to care how sad Zhan Yan was. He himself felt uncomfortable and walked around the yard a few times in the moonlight. He felt more and more bored, so he thought about looking for Feng Qingchen. However, when he looked at the sky and remembered what he had said when he scolded the servant, he had to go back to his room.
Wang Jinling tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep with his eyes open, while the Ninth Prince also did not sleep all night, and he was busy in his study until dawn.
When the Ninth Prince finally arranged everything and wanted to have breakfast with Feng Qingchen and apologize, the secret guard came to report: "Your Highness, the day before entering Dongling, Princess Mingwei met with Mr. Wenyuan and handed him a letter. The content of the letter is unknown, and the letter can't be found."
"Well. Where is the maidservant beside Princess Mingwei?" The Ninth Prince knew that he could forget about breakfast, so he sat on the chair, rubbed his sore brows, and continued to ask.
"Princess Mingwei has a maid named Mo Shen. After several attempts, I discovered that this maid has martial arts skills, but she usually hides them. She looks no different from an ordinary person."
"Has she done anything recently?" Although Wang Jinling disliked him, the Ninth Prince understood that Wang Jinling would not bring up this matter without reason.
"She has been very well behaved during this period. However, while you, Your Majesty, were looking for Miss Feng, this maid named Mo Shen went out and bought some odds and ends on the street."
Why would the princess' maid need to go shopping herself? This move seemed fishy at first glance, but they didn't think much about it at the time because she was not the only maid who went out.
"Keep an eye on her."
Uncle doesn't want to alert the enemy for the time being, and he doesn't take such a small character seriously.
"Yes." The secret guard nodded and said another thing: "Your Majesty, we found traces of personal guards a hundred miles away from the border."
"Personal soldiers? Can you find out who they belong to?" Recently, people from all parties have gathered outside the border. There are all kinds of people, but no personal guards. They are so blatant, I guess they are not here for Mr. Wenyuan.
"It seems to be His Royal Highness Prince Luo. If my subordinates are not mistaken, they seem to be here to pick up Princess Mingwei. It seems to be the Queen's intention." The secret guard said in a low voice.
"Prince Luo? It seems that this Princess Mingwei is quite remarkable. She actually got in touch with the Queen." The Ninth Prince tapped the table lightly with an ambiguous smile on his face. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Go and tell the Zhan family a piece of news. The one who cooperated with the deputy palace master of Jixia Academy, dug out the secrets of the Zhan family, and forced Mr. Wenyuan to death was Nanling Jinfan. Nanling Jinfan is paralyzed and is hiding in Yecheng at the moment. By the way, hand over the few remaining survivors to Wang Jinling."
In this matter, the Ninth Prince did not forge anything. It was indeed Nanling Jinfan who dug out the secret of the Zhan family. The Ninth Prince did not want to waste time dealing with Nanling Jinfan, but now...
He just used Yan Zhan's family's hand. For the sake of reputation and status, the Zhan family would kill Nanling Jinfan, the insider, no matter what the cost.
"I understand," the secret guard replied, and after making sure that the Ninth Prince had no other instructions, he retreated.
The Ninth Prince returned to the desk and picked up a pen to write the names of the Queen and Princess Mingwei on the paper. The two names were far apart, so the Ninth Prince connected them with a line.
What connects these two people?
The Ninth Prince thought about it and finally decided that the possibility was Nanling Jinfan.
Nanling Jinfan is a useless person now, but he has been operating in Nanling for many years, so it is impossible that he does not have some hidden power. He must have given Princess Mingwei something, and these things made the Queen and Prince Luo excited, so...
The Queen sent someone to pick up Princess Mingwei, so that even if Princess Mingwei was exposed, he could not do anything to her.
“Princess Mingwei is indeed a smart person.” The Ninth Prince circled Princess Mingwei’s name and drew a cross on it.
Then, the Ninth Prince wrote down the names of Nanling Jinfan, Ye Ye and others one by one. The Ninth Prince was so busy that he forgot what day it was and stayed in the study without moving a step.
Feng Qingchen had been thinking about the Ninth Prince's abnormal behavior at that time. Whenever she closed her eyes, she would see the scene of the Ninth Prince throwing her away. This made Feng Qingchen sleep uneasily, and she got up at daybreak.
Looking at the gray sky, Feng Qingchen was very excited and asked someone to bring a ladder. She wanted to watch the sunrise on the roof. It happened that Wang Jinling met Wang Jinling who also got up early.
Wang Jinling was not interested in watching the sunrise on the roof, but when he heard Feng Qingchen's invitation, he readily agreed.
The two of them sat on the roof, with the guards right below, so it was safe.
"How did you think of coming to the roof to watch the sunrise?" Wang Jinling didn't care whether the tiles were dirty or not. He sat down next to Feng Qingchen, one person away from him.
"There are some things I can't figure out, so I came to see the sunrise to see if I can come up with any good ideas." Feng Qingchen thought for a long time, but couldn't figure out what the Ninth Uncle's fleeting disgust was.
She also wanted to tell herself that the Ninth Prince made the mistake because he was distracted, but a voice in her heart told her that things would never be that simple. You have to know that the Ninth Prince was not born to hate women.
Something must have happened to the Ninth Prince...