Chapter 180 - Feeling no Pity for the Demise

“Your Highness?”

It was none other than Long Tianhao.

Lin Mengya immediately made space for Long Tianhao.

“Let’s go home.”

Long Tianhao, sitting across from Lin Mengya, said flatly.

Baisu conscientiously exited from the horse carriage and sat alongside the coachman.

Therefore, Long Tianhao and Lin Mengya were left alone in the horse carriage.

The horse carriage rocked as it traveled down the long street until they were out of the boundaries of the palace.

As the effect of the painkiller subsided, Lin Mengya started to feel the shooting pain from both her hands and her breathing quickened.

The numbing effect of her caused by Baisu sealing up her acupuncture point was beginning to subside.

Lin Mengya could sense that the wound on her hands was oozing blood.

Long Tianhao, through his sharp sense of smell, could smell blood mingled with medicinal herbs.

Fixing his gaze on Lin Mengya, he realized that her forehead was gradually covered with drops of perspiration.

“Are you injured? Where are you hurt?”

For some unknown reason, Long Tianhao’s eyes were filled with anxiety.

As he reached out and grabbed Lin Mengya’s hand to pull her closer to him, she let out a soft cry.

“Ah... let go of my hand!”

Long Tianhao immediately pulled up the sleeve of Lin Mengya’s dress.

Just as he had suspected, a blood-stained hand came into sight.

Biting his lips, he gently undid the bandage around her hand.

“I’ve some medicine here.”

Lin Mengya was almost going to collapse because of the excruciating pain.

Nevertheless, with trembling hands, she took out the medicine for stopping the bleeding.

Long Tianhao looked at Lin Mengya with mixed feelings, took the bottle of medicine from her hand and helped her changed her wound dressing as gently as he could.

Lin Mengya bit her lips, but not once did she cry out in pain.

Nevertheless, large drops of cold sweat were dripping continuously from her forehead.

“You may cry out if it’s painful.”

Long Tianhao stole a glance at her. Long Tianhao was surprised to find such a strong woman in Lin Mengya.

The way she bit down on her lips so hard but refused to let out a cry of agony brought pain to Long Tianhao’s heart.

“We’ve not arrived back home. If someone hears my cry, we’ll be in trouble.”

Long Tianhao felt a stabbing in his heart; he was so heartbroken.

However, Lin Mengya continued to endure while her face drained of all its colors.

Similarly, Long Tianhao had to bear with the agony of looking at Lin Mengya’s gruesome wound, which was deep to the bones.

How did she manage to endure the pain?n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Stop biting your lips, the skin is going to break.”

Somehow, Long Tianhao lifted his hand to put his fingers on her lips.

Her soft, smooth lips made him giddy.

By now, her lips were imprinted with deep teeth marks.

She was beginning to look glass-eyed.

In the next second, Long Tianhao had kissed the totally unprepared Lin Mengya on her lips.

Their lips connected with the lightest touch. Lin Mengya was dazed.

It felt like there was magic the moments their lips touched. Lin Mengya could feel her body tensed up at that very moment.

His kiss was so tender.

His tenderness was a total contrast to his usual cold and arrogant mannerism.

In that instant, Lin Mengya felt her mind go blank.

A deep but quiet laugh bubbled from within Long Tianhao as he sensed Lin Mengya’s instinctive response.

He deepened his kiss, hoping that this distraction would lessen her pain. Also, he could not bear to see Lin Mengya’s lips being ravaged by her biting hard on them.

In an unexpected moment, the horse carriage went over a bumpy part of the road and as a result, pain shot up from Lin Mengya’s wounded hand.

At the moment of pain, she instinctively clenched her jaws.

“Oo—”

Long Tianhao made a muffled noise, but allowed Lin Mengya to bite on his lips.

With a shock look in her eyes, Lin Mengya let go of Long Tianhao in that instant.

She blushed deeply and curled up in a corner in the horse carriage, being too embarrassed to look Long Tianhao in the eye.

“I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to...”

Lin Mengya whispered an apology and wished she could dig a hole in the ground and get in there.

“It’s alright. How did you hurt your hand?”

Long Tianhao furrowed his brows. It was a refreshing experience to see this usually strong-headed woman turn into a feminine one.

Long Tianhao changed the topic, gently brought her hand to rest on his thigh, lest she hurt herself by accidentally bumping into it again.

“Miss Wang attempted to stab me to death with her dagger, and to stop her, I grabbed the blade and hurt my hand.”

A confused look flashed across Long Tianhao’s eyes.

Why did she act so impulsively?

It was hard to imagine that a girl without any martial skills would grab on to the blade of the enemy’s dagger in an attack.

Even if he were to so when left with no other choice, he probably would not be so calm about it.

“And the skinned corpse is—”

“It’s Princess Ming Yue. She, together with Miss Wang, attempted to kill me.”

They would never have expected to eventually fall into the hands of Lin Mengya and to die at her hands.

“Since they conceived the idea to harm someone, they should realize that they may also enter into harm. She deserved to die, but how did you do it?”

After thinking through the possibilities, Long Tianhao did not think Lin Mengya had personally killed Princess Ming Yue.

She was after all the weaker sex, and moreover, her hand had been injured.

Baisu might be skilled in martial arts, but she was not a vicious and merciless person.

For this reason, Long Tianhao could not help but be curious.

Lin Mengya paused for a second, and then took something out of her palm.

It was a small, round, ceramic container which looked like the container for some makeup powder.

It was probably because this container was small that Lin Mengya was able to smuggle it into the palace.

“This is a powder for renewal of skin and flesh. It was created by Teacher Baili. Once this powder falls on someone’s skin, it would create an extreme itch on the skin. The itch goes deep into the person’s organ so that he would rather die than to endure the itch. The powder fell on Princess Ming Yue and she had died from scratching on her skin and trying to deskin herself.”

In a calm manner, Lin Mengya explained to Long Tianhao the effect of this poisonous powder. She definitely did not appear to be boasting about it from the look in her eyes.

She was acting as if it was just any ordinary medicinal powder.

Nevertheless, Long Tianhao could feel himself getting tensed up. What kind of substance could cause such an unbearable itch that a person would scratch himself to the point of pulling his skin off?

“Is it easy to neutralize this poison?”

Long Tianhao took over the little container with care, and opened it slightly to have a close look at its contents.

Lin Mengya nodded and said, “In fact, it gets washed off by water. Although powerful, it dissolves in water and becomes totally ineffective.”

This was precisely the reason she carried this with her wherever she went. It was necessary for self-protection.

If she accidentally used it on someone unintentional, it would be washed off easily with water as long as they were not in the desert.

However, not everyone knew about this trick.

“No wonder Ming Yue finally crawled to the pond of water. However, even if she didn’t die of pain, she would be drowned in the water.”

Long Tianhao pondered for a while, and then returned the container to Lin Mengya.

However, Lin Mengya pushed the container back to him.

“Although I’m fully aware that you’re a valiant man, you never know when someone would ambush you. This powder can’t be considered a powerful poison. I would like you to keep it with you for protection.”

Finally, Lin Mengya managed to persuade Long Tianhao into keeping the container of powder.

Long Tianhao kept it. There had not been much peace in the capital city recently. Keeping this with him for protection was not a bad idea after all.

“Your Highness, I’m afraid once King Ming finds out about this, our partnership with him will come to an end.”

Ming Yue was after all King Ming’s flesh and blood, otherwise he would not have esteemed her so highly.

Lin Mengya was fully aware that the women in the western vassal state were merely men’s possession.

Despite King Ming’s Queen been a noble and formidable lady, she subjected herself to King Ming faithfully.

In the western vassal state, the queen taking over the king to handle the governing of the state was something unheard of.

Nevertheless, Ming Yue, as a princess, had followed her father to Dajin as an ambassador. She was obviously highly regarded in the western vassal state.

“That won’t happen. King Ming is an ambitious and ruthless despot. His daughter might have died, but he would only be grieved for a period of time.”

There was no comradeship whatsoever among the members of the royal family. Everything would be given in to personal interests.

“Father, the dead girl is indeed Ming Yue.”

Back in the palace, the expression on King Ming’s face was dead serious as he glared at Hu Tianbei, who had just returned from checking out the corpse outside.

A trip to Dajin actually cost him a pair of his children.

The exquisite set of green ceramic teapot had been dashed into pieces on the floor.

There was even his handprint on the redwood chair.

One could imagine the rage King Ming was in.

Hu Tianbei’s face was as severe. Ming Yue might be a willful girl, but she was after all the little sister whom he doted on since she was young.

Never would he expect Ming Yue to die so tragically.

He shot a chilling look at the Crown Prince. To Hu Tianbei, Ming Yue would not have met with such a tragic end if she had not collaborated with them.

“How are the Queen and the Crown Prince going to account to me on this matter?”

The Queen lifted her gaze to King Ming, but there was no panic in her eyes.

“Given that this terrible thing happened to Princess Ming Yue, I would definitely give King Ming an account. However, King Ming, you still owe me an explanation to this.”

The Queen stood up suddenly, her crown sitting on top of a cold-looking, yet beautiful face.

Then the Queen cast a folding notebook onto the ground near King Ming’s feet.

The Queen, though a woman, was even able to repress King Ming with her air of confidence.

“What’s this?”

King Ming’s face fell as he picked up the folding notebook from beside his feet.

After scanning through its content, the fierce look on his face eased.

“The western vassal state being Dajin’s vassal state, has a 50,000 strong army but not more. There is also a limitation to the number of your war horses and weapons, but look at what is written on this folding notebook! 150,000 soldiers! Are you planning to revolt?”

King Ming was struck dumb by the Queen’s interrogation.

Moreover, the contents in the folding notebook were clear as day, and there were even other secrets of the western vassal state recorded in it.

There was no getting away for King Ming. However, the Queen had thrown out these things for a purpose. Obviously, she was going to talk terms with King Ming.

“Let’s be open about this. What conditions do you, the Queen, wish to set out, please just say it.”

Not only were there no outsiders in the inner hall, but also King Ming was not interested in beating around the bush.

Since King Ming was the one who initiated and raised the issue, the Queen calmed down and said, “Princess Ming Yue had died a tragic death and I understand the pain and agony King Ming is going through now. I’m not going to push the blame but will definitely carry out a thorough investigation. However, I don’t want this matter to be spread to the outside and become a scandal. The palace and the royal family are after all not any regular family. We need to be discreet about this matter. What do you think, King Ming?”

...

King Ming clenched his fists as a malicious look flashed across his eyes.

Hu Tianbei pursed his lips and glared coldly at the elegant Queen in front of him.