Chapter 212 Entering the Camps in the Middle of the Night
As they galloped forward, soon, the lights of the army camp came into sight.
They had finally arrived! Lin Mengya felt a half a weight lifted off her shoulders.
Although it was night time, the army camp was still tightly guarded and there was an air of severity in the atmosphere. As they approached, the patrolling guards blew their whistle.
“Who is that, who dares to trespa.s.s the army camp?!” someone bellowed when Long Tianhao and Lin Mengya’s horse finally came to a stop.
“I am Prince Yu. I wish to see General Lin!”
Long Tianhao took out a token from his belt which was the proof of his ident.i.ty and tossed it to the patrolling guard.
“Please remain here while you wait. I’ll inform the young general.”
Although Long Tianhao had flashed out the token bearing his ident.i.ty, the guard who blew the whistle did not allow them to enter straight away.
Long Tianhao looked to the left, then to the right. The news Long Qinghan received was that someone had tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate Lin Nansheng.
However, the entire army camp did not seem like it had been affected in any way.
Lin Mengya popped out her head from the cloak and spied the brightly lit army camp. The apprehension in her had died down.
“Rest a.s.sured, I don’t think the army camp would be this unperturbed if your elder brother was in trouble.”
Long Tianhao’s rea.s.suring voice was heard overhead.
Lin Mengya lifted her head to steal a glance at Long Tianhao, then nodded and curled up back into his cloak.
“Prince Yu, please excuse us for the lack of manners just now. Our young general had invited you in!”
The soldier who blew the whistle had jogged back to the gates to bring them into the tent.
The soldiers under the Lins’ charge appeared dignified. Even a guard in charge of blowing the whistle did not grovel when faced with a prince.
“Don’t worry about it.”
This was the first time Lin Mengya had been to an army camp.
Her elder brother had been forced to go to the army camp by her father since he was still a youth.
Her father used to sigh when he looked at her. He had wished that she was a boy like her elder brother.
The temperature had fallen a great deal when the snow started falling. The drop in temperature would usually make people chatter from the cold.
In the army camp, however, every soldier still stood straight and tall.
They ought to be on their toes since their young general had been attacked.
They did not let down their guards just because they were nearing the capital city. They looked as if they were completely prepared for an attack from the enemies anytime.
“This way please, Prince Yu. The young general is waiting for you.”
Lin Nansheng’s personal guard came forward to welcome them the moment they stepped into the camp.
Lin Mengya instantly wriggled her head out of Long Tianhao’s cloak.
“This…”
The young guard got a fright that a head had suddenly appeared from within Prince Yu’s cloak.
“I’m Lin Mengya. Lin Nansheng is my elder brother. Has he never mentioned it to you before?”
Lin Mengya? The name did sound a little familiar.
The guards stared at Lin Mengya’s flushed cheeks. Her brows were well-defined and her skin, snow white.
There was indeed some resemblance in their features.
“You are, you’re Miss Lin! The young general had been talking about you these few days, and now you’ve come!”
Although the soldier had not met Lin Mengya before, she had become familiar to him through all the things Lin Nansheng, the big brother who doted on his little sister, said to the soldiers.
Everyone who had worked alongside Lin Nansheng would know his love for his younger sister.
This young general had no other hobbies other than practicing martial arts, reading about war strategies and reminiscing about his younger sister.
“How is my elder brother? Is he alright?”
Lin Mengya immediately inquired about his brother’s condition when she met his personal guard.
“The young general is fine. He was slightly injured; please do not worry too much.”
Lin Mengya breathed a sigh of relief. It was rea.s.suring to learn that her elder brother was alright.
Soon, Long Tianhao and Lin Mengya were taken to the entrance of the main tent where the general was.
Lin Mengya quickly dismounted from the horse, disregarding the cold. She took a few steps forward and entered the tent.
Once she entered the tent, all the eyes were on this girl who barged into the tent.
The girl who was cladded in a white cotton dress had the most delicate and perfect features, but at the moment, she was wearing an anxious expression on her face.
Her flowy long hair had been woven into two loose braids. She had a casual look about her.
The soldiers, who had never seen a woman coming into their camp, opened their eyes wide. They had no idea who this girl, who had simply appeared, was.
“Ya’er? You’re Ya’er?”
Lin Nansheng, who was seated at the main seat, so shocked that he was almost lost for words.
He opened his eyes wide and stared at the little la.s.s standing before him.
“Elder Brother, what happened to you? Are you alright?”
Although the guards tried to rea.s.sure her time and again that the young general was fine, she could hardly contain her anxiety.
Regardless of what he heard from her elder brother’s guards, she saw that there was a blood-stained bandage around her elder brother’s bared chest.
With her eyes welling up in tears, she went forward and threw herself into her elder brother’s arms.
“Stop crying, Ya’er. I’m alright. It’s just a superficial wound. It really isn’t as bad as it looks.”
Lin Nansheng may be able to command an army of a thousand soldiers confidently, but he was at a loss of what to do when he faced with his younger sister’s tears.
He wanted to comfort his younger sister by trying to wipe away her tears in a flurry, but the tears just kept coming.
Although he had been informed that his sister’s understanding had been enlightened, he was surprised to find that his sister was still that cry baby.
“Oh yes, let me have a look at where you got hurt.”
She was so absorbed in her crying that she had forgotten what was even more important.
Since she started learning about poison from Baili Rui, she was actually accomplished by now.
She had no problem treating minor injuries and common illnesses.
“I’m alright. There’s only a cut on my chest.”
He continued rea.s.suring her as he did not know that his younger sister was learned in medical knowledge.
Fortunately, Lin Mengya could sense through her radar that her older brother had sustained only minor surface injuries.
She undressed Lin Nansheng’s wound only to see a long, hideous slash across his chest. Although anointment had been applied to it, it was still bleeding.
“Why has the bleeding not been stopped? Who’s the quack that dressed the wound?”
As Lin Mengya took out some anti-inflammation powder to apply on her brother’s wound, she realized that everyone in the tent was looking at her.
“h.e.l.lo, how do you do? I’m Lin Mengya, your general’s younger sister.”
The atmosphere became a little awkward. Lin Mengya gave them a gentle smile and they smiled back.
“Can someone please bring me a basin of warm, clean water, as well as clean cloth? Thank you very much.”
Then she turned back to her brother and continued attending to his wound in a practiced manner.
“I heard you came with Prince Yu.”
Lin Nansheng looked at his busy sister and furrowed his brows as he suddenly remembered his outstanding brother-in-law.
“Yes, Prince Yu escorted me here.”
Lin Mengya looked down, feeling somehow embarra.s.sed as she responded to her brother softly.
Looking at his little sister’s coy mannerism, a faint feeling of jealousy rose in Lin Nansheng’s heart.
However, it was simply a pa.s.sing emotion.
He touched his little sister’s head and a smile broke out on his face as he relaxed.
“Does he treat you well?”
Did he treat her well? Lin Mengya pondered for a moment, and then nodded her head. Long Tianhao had been extremely nice to her indeed.
Nevertheless, she had a feeling that the relationship between them was not exactly what it appeared to be in other people’s eyes.
“Good to know he treats you well. If not, I will make life difficult for him even if he’s a prince.”
Lin Nansheng had a rough idea just by looking at his younger sister.
While he and his father were training and fighting outside, he knew that Lin Mengya was his father’s constant care back home.
He would not have allowed his step mother to marry Lin Mengya so haphazardly if not because both his father and he were far away at the borders.
“Where’s he?”
Only when his brother started inquiring about Long Tianhao that Lin Mengya realized that she had forgotten about him because she was overly worried about her brother’s well-being.
“I’ll go look for him now.”
Goodness, she was so muddle headed. Would Long Tianhao be frozen given that it was so frigidly cold outside?
Lin Mengya lifted the curtain of the tent and spotted Long Tianhao warming himself at the fire together with the soldiers.
She quietly walked over to him and observed that he put on no airs when he chatted with the soldiers.
This was also the first time Lin Mengya had observed that Long Tianhao could be modest and una.s.suming in front of commoners.
“Ahchoo…” Lin Mengya sneezed when a gust of wind blew towards her.
“Why have you come out?”
Long Tianhao turned around immediately, removed his warm big cloak and put it on Lin Mengya.
Not only was the cloak still warm with Long Tianhao’s body temperature, it also smelt like his special scent.
It wrapped around her so tightly that not a bit of wind could get to her.
Her heart was warmed by it at the same time. The man would always show her the attentive and sweet side of him.
“My elder brother wants to see you. It’s so cold outside, let’s get into the tent.”
Somehow, the atmosphere had become one of intimacy. It felt as if the younger brother-in-law was meeting the elder brother-in-law for the first time.
Lin Mengya and Long Tianhao seemed to have drawn closer together and Long Tianhao nodded in response.
The two entered the tent one after another.
Those people who could be in Lin Nansheng’s tent at this moment ought to be his confidantes.
In other words, the people in the tents could be seen as Lin Mengya’s family members.
Long Tianhao thought he was having some kind of an illusion because he felt that every one’s eyes had come to focus on him the moment he stepped into the tent. It was as if they were scrutinizing him inside out.
“Elder Brother, this is Prince Yu, my… husband.”
The last words felt exceptionally awkward. The moment it came out of Lin Mengya’s mouth, she began to blush. However, her coyness made her appear even more alluring.
“Your Highness, Prince Yu, thank you for taking good care of my sister all this time.”
Although Lin Nansheng was supposedly the elder brother-in-law, Long Tianhao’s status was even more respected. Therefore it was Lin Nansheng who needed to formally greet him first.
“Don’t worry about it, General Lin. We’re a family after all. Since Mengya is my wife, it’s only right that I take care of her.”
He definitely did not put on the airs of being a royal, neither did he try to behave overly intimate and casual with them. He simply carried himself like a regular in-law, while friendly, he still kept a polite distance between them.
“Will someone prepare a place for the Prince?”
Lin Nansheng finally relaxed a little.
Apparently, he had observed the expression on his younger sister’s face. In addition, the cloak hanging over her shoulder was definitely not hers.
He found some comfort in knowing that Long Tianhao sincerely cared for Ya’er.