Chapter 51 - 51 Someone Wants to Take My Life
51 Someone Wants to Take My Life
When she woke up the next morning, Su Ying sat cross-legged and circulated her Qi through her whole body once before opening her eyes. She was going to look for water to wash up before following the officials into the city.
However, as soon as she got up, she almost bumped into Lin Zhuyu, who was lurking behind her in a furtive manner.
“What are you doing?”
Lin Zhuyu jumped with fright. She looked at Su Ying in panic. “Not… nothing.”
Su Ying raised her eyebrows. Looking at Lin Zhuyu’s behavior, she would be a fool if she believed Lin Zhuyu.
Su Ying grabbed Lin Zhuyu by the collar and pulled her aside. Her almond-shaped eyes stared at Lin Zhuyu icily. “Lin Zhuyu, I’m giving you a chance to save your skin. Tell me. What do you want?”
Lin Zhuyu held her head in terror and said, “Mistress, please spare my life. Your humble servant would never dare to have any ill intentions towards Mistress and Master. It’s just that some… someone wants to kill me.”
Su Ying looked at Lin Zhuyu’s frightened expression. She didn’t seem to be lying. “Who? When?”
Lin Zhuyu shook her head. “I… I don’t know who it was. It happened just… just last night. After I fell asleep, I suddenly felt that someone was searching for something on me. I was woken up at that point. I wanted to scream, but the person covered my mouth and then knocked me out.”
Su Ying crossed her arms and glared at her icily. “Then why didn’t you tell me after you woke up?”
“When I woke up the next day, I thought I was dreaming. But just now, someone suddenly bumped into me,” Lin Zhuyu said. She was overwhelmed by the similar sensation of impending death again, and that was how she realized that she had really been attacked last night.
“Mistress, you… you must save me.”
Compared to Lin Zhuyu’s panic-stricken and terrified demeanor, Su Ying was remarkably calm and unruffled. She said, “Who do you think you are? Why would someone remember you and come all the way out here just to kill you?”
Lin Zhuyu’s face stiffened. She stammered a little, “I… I don’t know either.”
Su Ying raised her eyebrows indifferently. “If you don’t tell me the truth, then just wait for your death.” With that, she turned around to leave.
Lin Zhuyu pounced on her and hugged her leg. “Boo hoo hoo! Mistress, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything.”
Su Ying pulled her leg away from her arms in disgust. “You only have one chance. If you don’t tell me the truth, then get lost.”
“Yes, yes, yes. I’ll definitely tell the truth.”
Lin Zhuyu released her grip and removed her embroidered shoes, which had already turned black. Then, she reached inside and dug with all her might. Finally, she took out a key and presented it to Su Ying as if she was presenting a treasure.
The veins on Su Ying’s forehead throbbed, and she almost couldn’t resist the urge to kick her.
“What is this?”
“This is the key to my cabinet in the storage pavilion.”
There was a storage pavilion in the Imperial City which housed tens of thousands of cabinets. Each cabinet was equipped with a special lock and key, and only one key was provided.
It was precisely because of this that many people in the Imperial City kept their belongings in the storage pavilion. As people who entered the storage pavilion were not allowed to reveal their identities, even the caretakers of the storage pavilion did not know what was in those drawers.
This level of confidentiality and security attracted many people to spend a lot of money to put things in the storage pavilion.
“What did you keep inside?”
“All the evidence documenting the First Prince’s correspondence with my father,” Lin Zhuyu said in a low voice.
“The kind that can lead to a conviction?”
Lin Zhuyu nodded. “Yes.” She had wanted to retain this key as her last bargaining chip to save her own life, but she realized that her father might have already found out that she had stolen the item. The people who had come last night were probably her father’s men.
As such, rather than bringing danger to herself by keeping the key with her, it was better to hand it over to Su Ying. Ever since she began following Su Ying, her life had been much better than before. At least, she didn’t have to worry about dying on the road.
Su Ying plucked a blade of grass from the ground and made Lin Zhuyu string it through the key.
“That’s your father and your family you are talking about. Aren’t you afraid that they’ll die in appalling, tragic circumstances if you give this to me and Xiao Jin?”
Lin Zhuyu gave a scornful laugh. “If they had treated me like family, I wouldn’t be where I am today. In their eyes, I’m just a concubine’s daughter whom they can make use of as much as possible. If they couldn’t make use of me, it didn’t matter to them if I were dead or alive.”
Su Ying saw the iciness in her eyes and said, “Did your father send you to Prince Qi’s Palace to keep an eye on Xiao Jin?”
Lin Zhuyu watched Su Ying carefully. When she saw that Su Ying asked this in a calm manner, she gritted her teeth and said, “Yes. I have no choice. If I refuse to go, they will deal with my concubine mother.” However, in the end, she realized that even though she had followed their orders obediently, they still took her mother’s life.
Thus, she found an opportunity to sneak into her father’s study and steal that very important item. She then hid it in the storage pavilion in case of emergency.
Su Ying nodded. “I understand now. Pay attention to the people around you these few days. If you see that person again, let me know.”
“Sure, sure, sure.”
Su Ying brought the key to the carriage and took out a bottle of disinfectant from her baggage to wash it thoroughly. After making sure it was clean, she brought the key to Xiao Jin.
“It’s the key to Lin Zhuyu’s cabinet in the storage pavilion in the Imperial City. She said that there’s evidence in it that can convict her father and Xiao Jue.”
Xiao Jin looked at the key in her hand in surprise. “Why is she handing over her final bargaining chip now?”
“She said that someone searched her body last night. She was afraid she would be killed, so she gave it to me.”
Su Ying wrapped the key in a rag. “Do you want to hold on to it?”
Xiao Jin took the key. “I’ll keep it.”
Su Ying murmured in acknowledgment and got up to follow Li Da into the city.
When Li Da saw Su Ying walking over, he seemed to be used to it. He turned around and asked his colleague to bring her an official’s robe.
“You’re getting more and more sensible.”
When Su Ying took the robes and went to change, Li Da grinned and gave himself a slap as he scolded himself, “What a useless bum you are. She’s just a criminal. Why are you smiling so happily for?”
“What did you just say?” Su Ying walked back and gave Li Da an odd look.
Li Da’s face tensed up, and he grinned even more widely. “Not… nothing.”
Su Ying shot him a glance. “Let’s go.”
“Sure. Alright.”
As per their usual arrangement, after Su Ying and Li Da entered the city, they went their separate ways.
Su Ying immediately went to the bank to exchange the gold for silver. Since she didn’t exchange much, she didn’t attract any attention from the people nearby.
When she was at the stores, she would pay in gold when she made big purchases.
When she walked past the livestock market, Su Ying stopped in her tracks.
She had bought some livestock and put them in her interspatial store before, but it would not be easy to take them out when she arrived at the northern wilderness. After thinking for a while, she went into the market nevertheless. When she came out again, she was leading two oxen, two goats, and a basket of chickens and ducks. Finally, when she passed by the carriage shop, she bought another horse carriage.
Unlike the previous horse carriage, this time she bought a big carriage that was pulled by a strong horse. With this additional horse, her group now had three horses. In her opinion, no matter where they went, it must be convenient to travel, or else it would be troublesome to get anything done.
When Su Ying led the oxen, goats, and horse carriage to the city gate, she realized that there were only one or two officials waiting there with a handcart, but Li Da was nowhere to be seen.
The two officials were also very respectful when they saw Su Ying.
“Princess Consort, you bought so many livestock?”
“Where’s that fellow Li Da?”