"I think you've reminded the wrong person," Wu Yurou frowned. "I'm a princess for political marriage. As long as the two countries are on good terms, he would never dare to act rashly. Otherwise, he'd face an attack from my whole country."
"What the King of Yu wants is exactly this, a reason to send troops," Su Mingyu's gaze was profound. "I think you should know better than anyone how ambitious the King of Yu is. So do you think he'll be willing to be a restricted emperor after he really ascends the throne?"
Su Mingyu's words did remind Wu Yurou. Didn't what the King of Yu was doing now already show his great ambition?
"So what do you want me to do?" Wu Yurou looked at Su Mingyu. Although she hated this woman, she had to admit that sometimes this woman came up with good ideas.
"We have to find a way to get in touch with the people outside first," Su Mingyu said and motioned for Xia Mian to hand her a waist token. "You just need to find someone to deliver this to the people in Sinnan Pavilion. They'll handle it on their own."
Saying this, Su Mingyu bit her lower lip. "I must find out what's going on with Gu Ruobai now."
"Okay!" Wu Yurou nodded. "But I can only say I'll give it a try, because the King of Yu is keeping a very tight watch on me now."
Su Mingyu gave a soft "en". "Thank you..."
"Do you need to say thank you to me?" Wu Yurou raised her eyebrows. "I'm doing all this for myself and for Gu Ruobai."
Su Mingyu nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, yes! Anyway, we owe it all to you this time."
Wu Yurou was too lazy to talk to her anymore. She got up and walked out.
True to her reputation, even after losing a right-hand man to the King of Yu, Wu Yurou still managed to get out.
Early the next morning, Su Mingyu received a message from Qi Yue.
Then she saw Qi Yue, disguised as a cook, at a corner.
Su Mingyu walked up nervously. Looking at Qi Yue, she bit her lower lip tightly and couldn't utter a complete sentence for a long time.
It was clearly the person she wanted to see and the news she wanted to hear, but when they were right in front of her, she found she didn't dare to ask.
It was Qi Yue who saw her first. "Master! How are you? Have you been okay recently?"
Su Mingyu pursed her lips. "What exactly happened to Gu Ruobai?"
"I don't know either. I followed him and found out the place where the King of Yu had hidden his troops in the south of the city. Just as we were about to question what was going on, a team of imperial guards suddenly rushed over and took away the Prince Ruixian. Fortunately, I was in the rear. Taking advantage of the fact that no one noticed me, I managed to escape."
Su Mingyu's legs went weak and she slumped to the ground. She had still held a glimmer of hope that Gu Ruobai was playing along with the plan, but now it seemed that he had really fallen into the King of Yu's trap.
Qi Yue quickly stepped forward to help her up. "There's another thing that I find very strange."
"Master, do you still remember that cave not far from the water mansion?"
Qi Yue frowned and continued without waiting for Su Mingyu to answer. "That cave is actually a necessary passage for the King of Yu's troops during training. But I've already asked Tang Yan. He said that cave had been there before he came."
"That's impossible," Su Mingyu denied without thinking. "If there really was such a cave near his mansion, according to Tang Yan's temper, he would never have built a mansion beside such a cave."
As Su Mingyu was speaking, her face suddenly darkened. "Could it be that Tang Yan is actually a pawn the King of Yu planted beside Gu Ruobai?"
What about the stories Tang Yan had told her before and his state at that time? Were they all fake?
Su Mingyu gritted her teeth tightly. Her face was very ugly. "I still remember I once asked you to find out who owned the land of the water mansion. Do you still remember?"
"I remember that the land was bought by a wealthy merchant, but we've never been able to find out the identity of that merchant. Later, I heard that he was probably a salt merchant."
Qi Yue frowned. She didn't quite understand why Su Mingyu was bringing this up at this moment.
"A salt merchant..." Su Mingyu murmured softly. Suddenly, she seemed to remember something. "This King of Yu has been planning this for so long?"
Qi Yue was a bit confused. "Master, what on earth are you talking about?"
"The King of Yu and Gu Ruobai's fake identity, Mo Wenyuan, once had a great feud over salt. So the salt merchant you mentioned must be the King of Yu's identity in the jianghu."
Su Mingyu looked at Qi Yue with a sneer at the corner of her eyes. She never thought that she and Gu Ruobai had been set up by the King of Yu from the very beginning, and they had been completely unaware.
"Tang Yan's identity might be real, but that doesn't stop the King of Yu from recruiting him."
Listening to Su Mingyu's words, Qi Yue felt even more confused.
"The King of Yu is the one who killed Tang Yan's whole family. How could Tang Yan help the King of Yu deal with the Prince Ruixian?"
Su Mingyu snorted coldly. "Because the King of Yu is not only a merchant but also a schemer. After killing Tang Yan's family, he found out that Tang Yan's family was also involved in smuggling salt. If it were you, what would you do with such a salt field that came for free?"
"I'd definitely take it," Qi Yue answered without thinking.
Su Mingyu nodded. "Right. A normal person would definitely take it. So when the King of Yu learned about Tang Yan's existence, he found Tang Yan and asked him to help him get rid of Gu Ruobai. The best reward would be to return the Tang family's salt field to Tang Yan. It was the only thing his parents left for him. Do you think Tang Yan would give it up?"
"Oh..." So that's how it was!
Qi Yue suddenly felt enlightened. "So that means the water mansion was given to Tang Yan by the King of Yu. And the reason why Tang Yan lived there was, one, the place was sparsely populated so he could do whatever he wanted. The other was that it was close to the King of Yu's troops. So Tang Yan also served as a guard there."
Su Mingyu let out a long sigh. Her bright eyes had lost their luster and were now filled with gloom. "So, actually, from the moment Tang Yan caught me, we've been at the King of Yu's mercy."
Now Su Mingyu understood why when Tang Yan first caught her, he only used the Qingming herb to control her mind, and the second time he only used the Liuguang Magic Flower to make her hallucinate. No matter how outrageous things she did in his water mansion, he just looked at her angrily but never really laid a hand on her.