“Enough! If you two continue being so childish, go back to your homes! Get out!”
The burning anger in Lin Mengya’s eyes seemed to have pierced through the two men as she glared at the two childish men.
Seeing that Lin Mengya had indeed lost her cool, the two men finally backed away.
Even though they continued shooting glares at each other occasionally, they had refrained from arguing and fighting.
“Tell me, what’s wrong with you? You are dead meat if you fail to give me a reasonable explanation!”
Lin Mengya spoke through gritted teeth and immediately, Long Tianyu and Qiu Yu understood what Lin Mengya meant by ‘dead meat’.
Both men shrank back simultaneously as Lin Mengya lashed out with wicked ideas.
Qiu Yu, who had been pin-pointed, immediately tried to look like a lackey.
With a pathetic tone, he replied saying, “I didn’t do anything. He’s the mad man who starting bashing me up when he returned! I think he is out of his mind!”
Qiu Yu felt wronged but could not find an outlet to pour out his heart.
Now that he finally saw Lin Mengya and naturally, he poured out his woes to her.
“Now it’s your turn. Why did you attack Qiu Yu?”
After shooting a glance at Qiu Yu, she turned her eyes to Long Tianyu.
Long Tianyu was still wearing a murderous look on his face as he glared at Qiu Yu. He seemed all ready to lunge forward at Qiu Yu in the next second and tear him into pieces.
“I’m asking you a question, Long Tianyu!”
Lin Mengya was seething and the expression of rage on her face sent chills up Long Tianyu.
Seeing Lin Mengya’s glare, he eventually gave his account.
“That person was sent by him! He is harboring evil intention towards you! Sooner or later, I’ll have to get rid of this scourge!”
“How could you slander me venomously? I would never harm Mengya! It must be that you are so useless that you failed to catch that thief that you have taken it out on me!”
Qiu Yu retaliated, refusing to be outdone.
“Who did you say was useless? Come on, try me! Let’s see if my fist is stronger or your tongue sharper!”
Long Tianyu looked coldly at Qiu Yu with the murderous look in his eyes.
“Alright, who’s afraid of you?”
The one thing which Qiu Yu could not stand was to be wronged.
To him, Long Tianyu humiliating him was worse than killing him!
In that instant, he clenched his fists, all ready to lunge forward and fight Long Tianyu.
“Enough! Try getting into a fight again, you two!”
With a ‘crash’, the teacup on the table was swept onto the floor by Lin Mengya.
She shot each of the childish men a severe look and thereby preventing them from getting into another fight.
“I believe Qiu Yu will never try to harm me.”
Qiu Yu might have his own secrets which he hid from her, but they had been through much together.
Lin Mengya was totally able to tell whether he was sincere or not.
However, Lin Mengya did not expect Long Tianyu to feel uneasy over her words.
He had been putting in his best efforts in taking care of and protecting Lin Mengya along the way, so much so that he did not expect her to trust an outsider and not him.
He felt a stab in his heart in that instant.
“So you believe him and not me?”
After Long Tianyu articulated his thoughts, his eyes seemed to lose their shine.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but at the very least, I believe that Qiu Yu is a righteous man. I rather believe that this is all but a misunderstanding.”
As Lin Mengya tried explaining her deduction in a matter-of-factly way, Qiu Yu’s expression showed that he was relieved to have justice redressed.
He almost wanted to hug Lin Mengya’s thighs and shout ‘Justice Bao’.
On the other hand, Long Tianyu simply turned around silently and left the room without looking back.
Since Lin Mengya did not believe him, he had to find the proof. He had to convince Lin Mengya that Qiu Yu was up to no good.
“Come back, Long Tianyu!”
Lin Mengya did not expect that guy to be so stubborn that he just walked off quietly.
Goodness, did he really not understand her?
“Is the prince… Is he really alright?”
Baishao sounded worried. She remembered that all the people in the prince’s mansion were frightened of the prince because back in the mansion, he was often temperamental.
Although the princess was an exception, who was not fearful of him, the prince was obviously upset now.
“Go on, go on. It’s great that he goes away! He usually only listens to half of what I say anyways!”
Lin Mengya became angry too. To start off, she already had many pressing questions.
Now she had not even managed to find out any answers and these two men had gotten themselves into a heated conflict.
In fact, she had wanted to vindicate Qiu Yu first, so that they could proceed to find out the questionable points once the two men calmed down.
In this way, they would be able to find out the enemy’s ploy. Unfortunately, Long Tianyu did not seem to understand this point. All he cared about was that Lin Mengya did not believe him.
He was such a fool! If she did not believe him, why would she make the effort to make peace? Would it not be better for her to leave them alone so that they both suffered?
Lin Mengya sighed softly to herself.
Where had that usually calm, wise and far-sighted Long Tianyu gone?
Long Tianyu stormed off in anger, descended the stairs and came to the door.
All the people who had witnessed how brutal he was when he was fighting, did not dare go near him lest the misfortune should befall them.
They were so afraid that where he looked, those people would be smiling at him, trembling.
One more step and he would have stepped out of the inn, but there was still nothing coming from upstairs.
Acting impetuously from his anger, Long Tianyu left the inn. He looked to the left, then to the right and realized that he did not know where he was headed.
He glanced at the second of the inn where Lin Mengya’s room as, but there was completely no movement. Seething, Long Tianyu sat down at the dumpling store just outside the inn.
“Dear guest, what would you like to eat?”
The owner of the store was a man over fifty years old.
Although this customer looked rather intimidating, he was after all in business so there was no reason for him to not serve Long Tianyu. He braced himself to walk up to Long Tianyu and take his order.
“Wine.”
The owner of the stall quickly went to get the wine. Although this customer looked intimidating, he definitely looked like a rich master.
He took a bottle of hot wine and laid it before his precious customer.
As the hot wine went down his throat, Long Tianyu felt a burning sensation rising from his elixir field.
Although the popular hot wine of the commoners could not be compared to vintage wines in the palace in terms of taste, its pungent taste reflected his current mood aptly.
After drinking a few cups of the wine, he was beginning to feel somewhat drunk.
Ever since he entered adulthood, he had never indulged himself in wine. Another reason was that he rarely experienced such immense fluctuation of emotions in his state of mind.
The pounding at his heart was increasingly violent.
The feeling of dissatisfaction, the feeling of being wronged and the pain of not being trusted had resulted in him having mixed emotions for the first time in his life.
Even his father, the emperor had once said that he had a heart of stone.
Why? He had never cared about losing in terms of these meaningless matters. Why did he feel such deep and intense pain when he heard Lin Mengya said that she believed Qiu Yu, instead of believing in him?
He was driven to distraction so much so that as he downed another cup of strong liquor, he did not realize that someone had sat down in front of him.
“Big Brother Yuan, are you still mad? Alas, listen, you and Brother Qiu Yu are cousins after all. There is no need to damage your relationship over some trivial matters, right?”
When Long Tianyu looked up, he saw Zhao Fei’s rough but smiley face.
That cursed imperial physician was by no means his cousin! Long Tianyu was about to refute him, but upon remembering Lin Mengya’s instruction to him, he swallowed his words.
If he had known this would happen, he would have come along with Lin Mengya in the first place.
All of this would not have happened if Qiu Yu was not around.
Apparently, Zhao Fei had misunderstood Long Tianyu. To Zhao Fei, this pair of cousins had very different characters, but among the group of men, they would both be the most outstanding youths.
However, what he found puzzling was that Yuan Lin was the youngest of the three cousins, and he was more like a child than a man.
Zhao Fei did not understand why Yuan Lin was the first to get married among the cousins.
As a man, he was no doubt envious of Yuan Lin. Not every man would have the good fortune of marrying such a beautiful and gentle wife.
Perhaps… As he glanced at Yuan Mei who was trying to drown his sorrows with wine, Zhao Fei remembered hearing Yuan Lin say that Yuan Mei used to fancy his wife.
Could it be because he was provoked when he saw his young cousin and his wife behaving intimately?
Zhao Fei took up a wine cup from the table and drank it. The burning feeling as the alcohol went down his throat made him squint.
“We are men of character. Having no wife is not a big deal, right? Big Brother Yuan, listen to me. She is already your younger brother’s wife. A man of character must learn to take things easy. If you’re still feeling upset, I’ll bring you around to have some fun. Try to put the other thoughts behind you.”
How could Zhao Fei ever understand that Long Tianyu could not tell him the truth?
In Lin Mengya’s heart, had she ever realized that she was already his wife?
There was no way Long Tianyu could reveal this to him. All he could do was drown his sorrows with wine. Soon, without realizing it, the table was filled with empty wine bottles.
“Burp… Boss, this is the money for the wine. Come, Big Brother Yuan, let’s go around seeing what’s happening in the town.”
Zhao Fei had a considerable capacity for liquor, but the wine was really quite strong.
Seeing that the sun was setting, a feeling of excitement rose in him and he pulled Long Tianyu along to see the town.
“Let’s go, go to see what is happening…”
Long Tianyu, who had never been drunk, had lost his rational mind to the alcohol. He and Zhao Fei put their arms over each other’s shoulders and headed towards the town center.
Little did the two men expect that Lin Mengya had seen all that they had done.
What had gotten into Long Tianyu that he spent the entire evening drinking with Zhao Fei?
Long Tianyu had never an alcoholic. Moreover, he had always been a man of discipline.
Whatever had gotten into him today? Not only did he get into a fight with Qiu Yu, he even drank like an alcoholic.
While she was still mad with him, Lin Mengya was still concerned if excessive alcohol would bring harm to his health.
“Master, how about you go downstairs and invite the prince up here. Even I could see that the prince was acting up out of jealousy.”
Baishao tried to comfort Lin Mengya gently while chuckling to herself.
She could clearly see that her master was concerned about the prince.
