Chapter 704 - Widespread Rumor
However, Long Tianyu just thought about it for a moment.
When he raised his head again, he had concealed all his real emotions.
He casually threw the secret report on the desk, glanced at his father, and said, “It’s nonsense.”
The Emperor’s attempt to force Lin Mengya to leave Long Tianyu seemed to have estranged Long Tianyu from him.
The Emperor looked up at his son.
He also knew that these rumors were unconvincing.
However, his increasingly strong sense of paranoia gave him an intuition that this matter might be a signal sent by someone, that intended to replace him!
“Anyway, you must get to the bottom of this. Put the Shen Family’s case aside for the time being and deal with this first,” the Emperor said.
Receiving his father’s order, Long Tianyu left without hesitation.
Watching his son turn to leave, the Emperor, who was sitting on the throne, suddenly felt uneasy.
Long Tianyu had been such a person, who seemed to be obedient to him but actually was very stubborn, since childhood.
Back then, he gave the order to deprive Lin Mengya of her position as Princess Yu, and now he was going to choose someone else as Princess Yu. However, Not only did Long Tianyu consent to his request, but Long Tianyu even proposed to choose his legal wife by himself.
It seemed that Long Tianyu had totally forgotten Lin Mengya. But every night, he received the news that Long Tianyu spent the night in the Lin’s Mansion.
Nevertheless, no matter what task he assigned Long Tianyu, Long Tianyu just accepted it without saying a word.
Seeing his son behave so obediently, he smelled something fishy.
“Keep an eye on him and don’t let him act recklessly,” the Emperor gave an order in a deep voice.
As soon as he finished speaking, a skinny figure slowly appeared in front of him and said, “Okay, but Your Majesty, you seem to be pushing the Third Prince too hard.”
None other than Yu Qiang in the Imperial Palace dared to say that.
The Emperor rolled his eyes slightly and looked a little hesitant. Then, with a sparkle in his eyes, he seemed to have thought of something and suddenly said with a decisive look, “I’ve done these for the future of Dajin and Yu’er. You don’t have to say anything else about this. Just do your job.”
Sighing in his heart, Yu Qiang left the imperial study with his mission.
“My country... must be prosperous and exist for thousands of years!” The Emperor clenched his fists and said.
Even Long Tianyu might not be as ambitious as the Emperor.
However, the Emperor was unaware that it was merely an illusion.
After strolling out of the Imperial Palace and arriving somewhere with no one else around, Long Tianyu finally changed his indifferent look a little.
He was not sure before that it was his wife’s trick.
However, from the moment his father asked him to investigate this matter, he immediately realized his wife was the wire-puller.
What other than the Shangguan Family, which had led the Valiant Tiger Army known as the fierce wolf, could the abnormal phenomena point at?
Moreover, he had just reported to his father that the Shen Family seemed to be exterminated by someone from the Shangguan Family. Given his father’s character, his father would naturally associate the case with the abnormal phenomena.
What was more, how could there be any noble other than her in the Capital City who happened to have a big cat and a big dog?
He was just wondering how she was going to make his father continue focusing on the Shangguan Family.
Long Tianyu lifted his head and showed an imperceptible smile.
Even the Shangguan Family was doomed since they dared to piss his wife off.
At first, the rumor of a dragon devoured by a tiger and a wolf was only spread among a small number of people in the underclass and did not attract much attention.
However, on the third day when the rumor became increasingly widespread, the children on the streets suddenly began to sing a song, which was short but popular.
Soon, even the adults became familiar with the song.
“With a fierce wolf and a mighty tiger around, the long snake is bound to be slaughtered. The overturned tiles on the roof of the golden house suggest the ruler is going to be overthrown sooner or later.”
Lin Mengya was shaking the rattle to amuse Moyan in her arms at the door when she vaguely heard children singing this nursery rhyme outside.
“First Miss, what does the song the children are singing outside mean?” A maid asked.
In the yard, several old maids and girls gathered around Lin Mengya, having a chat while working on their embroidery.
Since the First Miss returned home, the mansion had been filled with cheers and laughter.
“It’s probably made up by a certain idle scholar to amuse children,” Lin Mengya said and kissed Moyan.
The baby grew up very fast and became more and more agreeable.
He showed a tremendously bright smile on his delicate face every time he saw his family members.
Lin Mengya found his newly grown white teeth so cute every time she saw him.
She kept hugging and kissing him, thinking that she really liked him a lot.
historical
“But this song, which is about things like a wolf, a tiger and a golden house, is so strange. I’m wondering where the children learned it,” a maid said.
All of them had no idea, so after discussing for a while, they changed the subject to their embroidery.
There was a sparkle in Lin Mengya’s eyes as she listened to the song the children were singing outside.
Those with a keen sense of insight could figure out what the song meant as soon as they heard it. Presumably, it would reach some people soon.
It was said that the Shangguan Family had sent some people to prevent the rumor from being spread last time.
She just wondered how they was going to deal with this crisis.
The song became increasingly popular, and there were even different versions of it.
There were plenty of people secretly tracking the source of the song, but they all failed.
After all, it was spread from mouth to mouth. With no evidence, their attempt to find out the culprit amounted to looking for a needle in a haystack.
That night, Lin Mengya hummed a tune and watched over Moyan, who had fallen asleep.
Meanwhile, she was absorbed in a newly issued novel in her hands.
Suddenly, a large hand blocked her line of sight.
She lifted her head with a smile, threw the book aside, put her arms around his neck like a monkey and said, “You have been away for several days. Tell me, do you have a mistress?”
She was obviously doubting him, but she said in a coquettish tone.
Long Tianyu immediately embraced her slender figure, rested his head on her soft shoulder and said, “I miss you so much.”
Meanwhile, Long Tianyu greedily breathed in Lin Mengya’s unique faint scent mixed with the scent of herbs, feeling his fatigue over the past few days seemed to have dissipated in an instant.
“Me too,” nestling in his arms, Lin Mengya whispered in a soft voice, that could only be heard by the two of them, and held him in her arms.
It seemed that she didn’t know what loneliness felt like until they had mutual affinity.
“I heard that you’ve been busy preparing for the Spring Sacrificial Rite? You’d better be careful outside and take more guards with you,” as Long Tianyu said, he casually fiddled with a strand of her hair, which was as soft and tender as her.
He was reluctant to let her, who was such a slender girl but shared his heavy burden, go through hardships.
“I know. Don’t worry. You must have been awfully busy recently. It’s a tough job to deal with the Shangguan Family,” Lin Mengya smiled and teased him.
Speaking of this, most of the problems he had to settle were caused by her on purpose.
Moreover, if she hadn’t known her husband was the only son the Emperor trusted now, she wouldn’t have carried out this plan boldly.
“Mischievous girl, you always catch me off guard. Did you hide the baby tiger and Snow properly?” As Long Tianyu asked, he raised his eyebrows and looked down at the mischievous girl, who showed an innocent smile in his arms.
“Of course I did. I won’t leave any trace so that the Shangguan Family can turn the table. His Majesty probably have long suspected that they intend to rebel,” Lin Mengya said with a rare complacent look she only showed in front of Long Tianyu.
He fondled her cheek lovingly, pinched her pointed chin, and said, “It’s better to spend your time feeding yourself properly than plotting against them. This time, you may have hit the mark by a fluke. Those I deployed in the Shangguan’s Mansion came back to report that the massacre of the Shen Family seemed to be done by the Shangguan Family on purpose. Even the Empress and the Crown Prince are likely to be kept in the dark about it.”
The Shangguan Family turned out to be the culprit.
Lin Mengya lifted her head from Long Tianyu’s arms in puzzlement, thinking, “Hasn’t the Shangguan Family always been supportive of the Crown Prince? Why do they have such an extravagant hope at such a critical moment?”
“The Crown Prince’s popularity is sinking, and my father often shows a sign of dethroning him. It’s better to rely on themselves than to pin their hopes on a good-for-nothing. Although the Shangguan Family is suspected by my father, their strength should not be underestimated,” Long Tianyu said.
Lin Mengya understood this.
The throne was the ultimate target of every slave of power.
However, various forces engaged in internal strife at present. There was one thing that the Shangguan Family might be unaware of.
Once the Shangguan Family showed any intention of usurping the throne, the Crown Prince and the Empress or other members of the Long Family, who intended to fight for the throne, would regard them as a formidable enemy, that must be gotten rid of.
The competition for the throne was an internal affair of the Long Family. If the Shangguan Family intended to take the place as an outsider, the members of the Long Family would probably cooperate to deal with them.
“I’m just wondering if the desire for power can really blind people. Shangguan Lei used to be a decisive and cautious person. Why does his intelligence drop below the bottom line as soon as he gets involved in this?” Lin Mengya said.
Long Tianyu shook his head. After spending all this time getting along with his wife, he gradually understood the meaning of the new words she blurted out from time to time.