"Thank goodness that all the people seemed to be well. Why don't you take a rest, master?"
Lin Mengya was most exhausted. She had been toiling the entire night, even up until now, she had been working like a spinning top that had not stopped turning.
"It's alright, I used to stand for a day and a night when I was working in the laboratory."
These words just slipped out of her mouth without her realizing at first. She had in fact been talking about what happened in her previous life.
Fortunately, the four maidservants were dizzy and groggy from exhaustion and did not register what she was saying.
"Alright, go in the horse carriage to take a rest, so you don't have to be awoken later when we are setting out."
The five criminals, who were from the Peach Blossom Dock, had been secretly locked up by Zhu Aizhi.
The horse carriage had also been washed to be squeaky clean. Zhu Aizhi was, in fact, a talent and a very efficient worker.
The four maidservants could not wait to return to their spacious horse carriage. Once in there, they fell asleep almost immediately.
There were peace and quiet both inside and outside the courtyard at this moment.
As Lin Mengya cast her eyes on the soldiers in the courtyard, her heart was moved with compassion.
The Crown Prince and the ministers, being the subject of protection, were sleeping comfortably on soft warm beds, while these real heroes were resting on the cold and hard floor in the courtyard.
This was the inequality in society. It was not in her power alone to change this fact.
She loosened up her shoulders, then went back into her room.
Long Qinghan and Hu Tianbei were sleeping so soundly that it seemed that they would not awaken even if the world collapsed on them.
Long Tianhao was sitting on the heated brick bed. Lin Mengya had no idea why he was sleeping there while sitting upright.
Shaking her head, she shot a disapproving glance at the two men on the bed, supposing that they had taken up all the space, so Long Tianhao was left with no choice.
Lin Mengya opened the cabinets and took out a blanket which she had wanted to put on Long Tianhao.
Not knowing if she had bumped into him, but Long Tianhao suddenly started falling backward.
Her belt was caught by some accessories Long Tianhao was wearing, and having been caught unprepared, Lin Mengya ended up in Long Tianhao's arms.
Instinctively, Long Tianhao's large hand landed on her slim waist.
Her heart skipped a beat in that instant, but Long Tianhao's embrace felt firm and warm.
Exhaustion hit her suddenly. Without thinking too much, Lin Mengya fell in a deep sleep in Long Tianhao's arms.
Eh? Why was the bed moving?
As Lin Mengya stretched her aching body, she could feel a numb yet tinkling sensation in her shoulders and waist.
She adjusted her position until she felt more comfortable, then continued to sleep.
The bed felt so soft and warm. It would be even better if the bed did not move.
Lin Mengya gradually opened her eyes and what came into sight was a snow-white undershirt.
Err...
As she lifted up her head slowly, she saw a handsome face with well-defined contours. Wait! Why was she lying intimately with Long Tianhao who was only in his undershirt?
Lin Mengya's brain had to be shut down at this instant and rebooted.
Her line of vision returned to her own sleeve, and that was when she realized that she was also in her undershirt!
What happened?!
"Are you awake?"
Long Tianhao opened his eyes immediately when he felt the small movement of the girl in his arms.
Looking at the startled expression on the girl's face, Long Tianhao's gaze went to and from her and himself. Obviously, his mood had lifted.
"Your Highness, we... we..."
Did we do anything silly? Lin Mengya could not bring herself to say the words, after all, they were husband and wife by name.
Nevertheless, she was not prepared for this!
"I saw that you were really exhausted, I've asked Baiji to help you change into this, so you could sleep better. We're almost arriving in the capital city. Baiji will help you dress up in a while."
Long Tianhao tried to explain the entire situation to her as simply as possible. As he spoke, he thought what happened was rather funny.
When he woke up this morning, he realized that Lin Mengya had fallen asleep on him.
He had wanted to wake her, but when he remembered that she had labored the entire night, he could not bring himself to do that.
However, both he and his princess looked like beggars in the streets in those filthy clothes. He thought it was too inappropriate.
Therefore he ordered the servants to help change them into clean clothes.
While there was still some distance before they reach the capital city, Long Tianhao, together with Lin Mengya, caught up on their sleep in the horse carriage.
Lin Mengya breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Long Tianhao's words.
Firstly, she had kept her chastity.
Secondly, they were approaching the capital city.
Thirdly... what was with the sense of loss in her heart?
Long Tianhao had put on his clothes quickly, all the while unaware of Lin Mengya's behavior. She was pacing back and forth by the corner of the carriage and her thoughts were racing as she imagined different scenarios accompanied by a myriad of expressions.
It was not until he exited from the carriage that Lin Mengya called for her four maidservants to come into the carriage. Even at that time, she was still preoccupied with her wild imaginations.
"Master, I think you should still exercise some self-control even if the prince and you are so in love with each other."
Of the four maidservants, Baizhi was the boldest. She had no reservations whatsoever when she joked.
"Why are you spouting nonsense?"
Lin Mengya turned around only to realize that her four maidservants were blushing and smiling strangely at her.
Wait! Did they misunderstand that Long Tianhao and she were having 'car sex'?
Good heavens! What had become of her innocence? Her chastity? Had they been shattered?
"We were both too exhausted and fallen asleep. That's all."
"..."
"Hey, what does that look in your eyes mean?"
"..."
"I am telling the truth; don't you think otherwise!"
"..."
Unable to get the message through to them, Lin Mengya felt as if she was going to breakdown from the frustration.
It was just too bad that both Long Tianhao and she were both wearing just their undershirts in the horse carriage, which was why people would start to imagine things.
She suppressed her urge to tear those four maidservants into pieces and tried to ignore the teasing look in their eyes.
She simply pretended not to see it!
After a while, the four maidservants stopped trying to provoke their master. It was just that they found it interesting that their usually calm and composed master would become so irritable when it came to matters regarding the prince.
It was not a matter of one or two days when Lin Mengya had become so snappy and refused to admit the truth.
Lin Mengya began to dress up herself. She had not washed up for an entire day. Even the beauty had turned into a stinky one. However, Lin Mengya did not seem to mind.
Once she was done, she began inquiring about the conditions of the injured soldiers.
"Talking about that, the Crown Prince was really shameless!"
As Baizhi blurted out with indignation in her voice, Baishao quickly reached over to cover her mouth and said with a low voice, "Shush, my dear lady. We'll get into big trouble if this goes into the Crown Prince's ears!"
Baizhi pouted as she was forbidden to let out her frustration.
Eventually, it was Baiji who gave an account of what happened that morning.
Lin Mengya, who had toiled for a day and a night, had her energy sapped, which was why she fell asleep immediately in Long Tianhao's arms.
However, Long Tianhao had awoken early and continued to tend to the injured soldiers with Long Qinghan.
Hu Tianbei had also gone into the army to bring back with him the soldiers of the western vassal state.
All the injured soldiers had received adequate treatment after one night's work. At this moment, the Crown Prince finally remembered the injured soldiers and started to show his care for them by instructing men to cook some minced meat congee to be distributed to them.
However, Lin Mengya had also arranged for the maids of families who were in good terms with Prince Yu to prepare some buns and vegetable congee.
These two different menus were placed before the soldiers to choose as their breakfast.
The Crown Prince had thought that the soldiers would prefer his congee with meet and eggs.
Never did he expect that the injured soldier would rather line up for Lin Mengya's white rice congee than have the meat congee he prepared.
In his fury, the Crown Prince attempted to entice the soldiers outside.
Lin Mengya, however, had already made the necessary arrangements to send the soldiers outside ingredient for cooking, which they already started using to prepare some meals.
The air was filled with the aroma of food.
All the soldiers were commenting on how kind-hearted Lin Mengya was.
"Master, did you see how the Crown Prince's face had turned green?"
Baizhi whispered into Lin Mengya's ear. All her maidservants were wearing an expression which seemed to say the Crown Prince deserved it.
"Public sentiment is the most important thing."
The stability of the imperial court depended heavily upon the hearts of the people in the nation.
However, the hearts of the men were the most difficult to control, yet sometimes they were easy to buy.
Long Tianhao had given his utmost to protect the people when he was at the front-line. Lin Mengya, on the other hand, brought her maids to pick medicinal herbs in the hills in the night, so the soldiers' most pressing needs could be met the soonest.
It would seem that the Crown Prince would never be able to catch up with them no matter what he did now.
He had missed the opportunity. Even if he were to work hard later on, it would be very difficult for him to win the heart of the people.
Moreover, Lin Mengya had already planned to hit the Crown Prince when he was down.
The procession of horses and carriages finally entered the capital city and immediately, more imperial guards joined in to protect and escort them.
The army which was in charge of guarding the outskirts of the capital left to return to their camps.
Riding in the horse carriage, Lin Mengya finally arrived at Prince Yu's Mansion, which was familiar ground to her.
Who were riding with her were Yue Qi and Que Ting, the Yue sisters. They were not intending to go back to the Yue Mansion.
Fortunately, Lin Mengya had already had a word with Long Tianyu, that the Yue Sisters would go back to Prince Yu's Mansion with her.
"Welcome Prince Yu and Princess Yu back to the mansion!"
From afar, Lin Mengya could see that Steward Deng and Jinyue had organized two rows of people standing on the two sides of the road, to welcome their return.
"Please get up, everyone."
Lin Mengya alighted the horse carriage with the help of Baisu. With her vivacity, the entire mansion of people felt as if they had recovered their backbone.
Although Princess Yu had only been away from the mansion for a few days, the entire mansion had turned into a lonely and frigid ice cave.
Though Miss Cousin was tormenting them all day long, her torment was no longer making waves.
All because the master of this house was not around.
"You're back finally, my dear cousin. Qin'er was so worried about you."
It had only been a few days that they had not seen each other, but Jiang Ruqin seemed to have grown even bolder.
Lin Mengya looked at her with a cool eye. She purposed to pretend to forget her. After all, she had plenty of time and there was no need to rush.
However, little did she expect that a smiling Jiang Ruqin suddenly came up to her and put her arm around Lin Mengya's arm.
"Cousin-in-law, I heard that Princess Ming Yue of the western vassal state is coming to lodge with us. Aunt had already agreed to this arrangement."
Was Princess Ming Yue going to interfere too? It had taken so much to get rid of that irritating Lin Mengwu, and now another annoying person came.
Nevertheless, would life not be more interesting with all the drama?