At some other place...
The esteemed guest received a report from his spies. He raised one of his eyebrows and asked once again, "What did you just say?!" He stood up and went closer to one of his spies while threatening him, "If you give me the wrong information, I will kill you!"
The spy was trembling in fear and quickly kowtowed, "This servant doesn"t dare to lie to you, Master!"
"Tell me in detail once again..." The esteemed guest furrowed his eyebrows seriously.
The spy nodded his head confidently. "All of us found a trace of power that was similar to what Aunt Yue has back at the Han Empress Dowager"s birthday banquet..." The spy quickly repeated his report once again. If only one of them felt it, it could be a mistake but everyone was able to feel it at that time, so they believed that they couldn"t be wrong.
He was slightly faltered when the master threatened him, but after remembering that, he hardened his heart and told what they had found once again.
The esteemed guest pondered over for a little while. A similar power? If Aunt Yue was still alive... would she really dare to show up inside the palace? But for what? She didn"t seem to have any attachment to the palace.
There was a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes. What if... someone had misled him?! He had a guess about something but he wasn"t really sure about it. It was only a mere guess and to be sure, he needed more proof.
"How is the situation at that time?" He asked in a low voice. If his guess was right, that person must have been there as well. If he connected the dots slowly, it should be her...
The spies were among the people that were invited by the Han Emperor and they were able to describe everything perfectly well. The esteemed guest furrowed his eyebrows and thought of several keywords, the wicked concubine, strangled by the weird power, the Han Emperor --- it seemed like an act of revenge?
But who would hate that woman so much and that person must have a certain connection with Aunt Yue...?
"What do you think the weirdest thing that happened there? Something that was amiss back then..." The esteemed guest asked. They might have missed something.
"The qujin player and the Ce Fei"s ghost..." They answered in unison.
"Oh... Why? Don"t you all believe in ghosts as well?" The esteemed guest asked, feeling interested after listening to their answer. No matter how good the performance was, there must be some kind of loopholes --- especially to those who weren"t involved in the matter, they would be able to see more clearly.
The spies shook their heads altogether. "No, we believe in ghosts as well, after all, it has been drilled inside our minds from our ancestors. But we indeed felt that something wasn"t right back then," they honestly answered.
"So...? Give me a reason!" He asked once more.
"She was there all along on the stage, but we couldn"t find out what kind of method that she had used to make it look so real..." One of the spies answered. After all, they couldn"t deny that it looked so real. "However, one thing for real..."
"We can feel her breathing, so we believe that she"s still alive. The same thing happens to the one who pretended to be the Ce Fei... They are both still alive..." Another spy gave an explanation as well. They looked at them from a hidden place, thus, they were able to pay full attention to their every move and they could see that there were men that guarded each of them.
"Hmmm..." The esteemed guest thought to himself --- there was no way that his people would make a mistake regarding this matter. He had a gut feeling that one of those two women might be Aunt Yue or maybe... her successor.
"That performance... who prepared it?" The esteemed guest asked curiously.
"If we are not mistaken, it was prepared by the Prime Minister, Feng Yong Rui..."
"He has become the current Regent..."
"Master, does it have something to do with him?"
"Otherwise, how could he become a Regent so easily like that?"
"But... It will be hard to spy on the Prime Minister..."
The spies talked one after another, telling their master their thoughts.
The esteemed guest stroked his chin leisurely. "Interesting... Really interesting..." He thought to himself. He touched the Bei Yue"s precious jade that he had gotten back at Crescent Lake and looked at it intently. There seemed to be a lot of hidden things that those Bei Yue people had --- it made him feel interested even more. They weren"t simple folks ah~!
He clutched the precious jade tighter with a dangerous glint inside his eyes.
The esteemed guest seemed to feel that there was something important about this jade, but he hadn"t found out about it yet... Sooner or later, he would crack the secret of this precious jade... he promised to himself. He wanted to know the Bei Yue"s secret and possess it!
"Investigate what happened inside the Prime Minister manor right before the banquet, there must be a lead somewhere around that time... He could become a regent around this time and it proves that he is indeed powerful. I believe that he knows something about the abnormality... Pay more attention to him!" The esteemed guest gave an order to his spies.
"Yes, Master," all of them answered at the same time. They didn"t think that this was really important before and the master was as smart as usual ah~!
When they were going to leave and preparing themselves for the new a.s.signment, the esteemed guest remember something and called them back once again, "Wait a minute!"
"Yes, Master?" They asked at the same time once more.
"What about the things that I asked you all to investigate?"
One of them asked, "Master, is it about the woman?"
The esteemed guest nodded his head. "Yes..."
"We can only find out that she"s married to a man who has lost his memory, Yao Ying. That woman"s name is Yao Ling and she"s the one who saved Yao Ying. Because of luck, they become a merchant"s stepson and step daughter-in-law but they are being acknowledged as the Di son and Di daughter-in-law," he explained.
The spy thought that those people were really lucky. After all, they were able to quickly become the main son and daughter-in-law right after they left their village and started their journey. Look at him! He went out of his village and could only become a shadow guard!
"Why are they going to the Han Kingdom"s capital? It"s quite far from the Shu Kingdom." The esteemed guest asked. It was rare for merchants to go that far by themselves --- they usually sent their most trusted subordinates to go.
"It"s because they are going to a honeymoon --- they said," one of the spies said. Fortunately, they didn"t know Yao Ling and Yao Ying"s relations.h.i.+p with the Mi Hui. w.a.n.g Luo Hai and General Lin covered up their tracks really well. They spies indeed thought of them as a mere pa.s.serby and what they did back at Lin Zhou didn"t attract their attention because they didn"t appear by themselves.
"Hmmm... What a coincidence..." The esteemed guest was quite smart and he didn"t believe in that reason, but for the time being, he could only agree with the investigation"s result. Maybe that was true... maybe that wasn"t...
"Where are they now? Still in the Han Kingdom?" He asked softly.
"No, Young Master. They are on their way back to the Shu Kingdom..." The spy explained and after that he opened and closed his mouth once again, feeling hesitant to tell his master about something else. It seemed to be a small matter but... maybe, it was important for his master.
"But... there"s also other news about that woman..." The spy didn"t know whether he should tell the master about this matter or not...