15 Chapter Fourteen

The guards were stunned.

"Hello? I asked you if you had any money?" Yu You Lei was irritated, and waved a hand in front of their faces. After considering for a moment, she asked, "Do you even listen to my orders?"

This time, it was Bai Liu who reacted first.

"Yes, Mistress." Falling down onto one knee, he lowered his head. The other guards all followed suit, saying the same thing as Bai Liu did.

Ignoring their actions, Yu You Lei repeated herself again.

"Okay, so do you have money?"

"This. . ." Bai Qi wanted to cry. They were paid to follow the orders of Li Juan Tian, but they . . . Were they going to be forced to hand it over just like that?

"Hand it to me." Yu You Lei saw the look flash by Bai Qi's eyes, and knew that he, at the very least, had money.

Bai Qi looked over to Bai Wu, silently begging for assistance. Bai Wu himself seemed helpless, and could only dig out what little amount he had on him.

The others looked at each other, and upon seeing the very same helplessness in each other's eyes, could only reluctantly dig through their pockets for money.

A smile blossomed on Yu You Lei's face as she stared at the pile of gold coins which was slowly forming. Slowly but steadily, the tiny pile was beginning to become slightly bigger.

However, this smile soon faded when she realized the guards stopped adding coins to the miniscule pile.

"What? Is that all the six of you have?" Yu You Lei asked, almost ready to personally go forth and pull off all their clothes in order to find some money. With some difficultly, she managed to restrain herself.

"Y-yes, Mistress. Us servants do not bring much with us when guarding the Crown Prince, nor do we received much in terms of coins either. . . " Bai Wu was left with the responsibility of breaking the news, since none of the other guards were willing to do it.

He felt a shiver run down his spine as he stared at the face of Yu You Lei, which had already turned cold.

Yu You Lei's eyebrows furrowed, her expression instantly freezing up. She moved forward to count the coins, hoping there were more than there seemed to be. In the end, there were only 70 gold coins altogether in the pile!

She completely ignored Bai Wu's attempt at rousing her sympathy, and immediately demanded, "Go grab all your money and give it to me!"

The simplest way to earn money for now was to extort the guards!

Bai Wu broke out into a cold sweat, and tried his best to turn the situation around.

"We were ordered by Master to guard Mistress, and we cannot leave your side. If we want to go grab our money, then Mistress has to follow us." Bai Wu explained. It wasn't a lie, since Li Juan Tian had ordered them to keep Yu You Lei within a few hundred meters of them at all times.

Yu You Lei let out a scoff.

"Who ordered you to come here anyways?" She asked, half curious, and half wanting to murder that person.

Bai Wu immediately answered, "The Crown Prince."

Bai Wu didn't receive any orders from his master to conceal his identity, so now he could sell Li Juan Tian out without hesitation! Sorry, Master, the future Mistress might murder me otherwise. Good luck!

Yu You Lei's brows drew together tighter, as she mumbled, "The Crown Prince? Li Juan Tian?"

She paced around the room. With her intelligence, she knew he'd probably sent the guards here to kill her at first. Whatever, at least they were following her orders now. That saved her the trouble of calling for a servant.

Speaking of which, You Ping, who'd been ordered to wait outside, had already almost fallen asleep, and therefore didn't notice the movement from the room.

Yu You Lei could always ask the Crown Prince for money. However, she didn't like owing people favours, so decided to try and earn money on her own instead.

She quickly threw the gold coins back onto the floor, gaze clearly telling the guards she wanted them to take back the money. They did so immediately, grabbing the coins as if they were their last hope for survival.

Yu You Lei didn't even want to owe the servants of Li Juan Tian anything. What if he used this to prevent her from bring him down in the future?

That father of hers couldn't be trusted with finances, and therefore handed most of those duties to his main wife, Li Min Hui.

It was clear that Li Min Hui wouldn't be allowing Yu You Lei to access even a single bronze coin anytime soon, especially after she'd hurt Yu You Jia.

Other than Li Min Hui's hold over the finances, there was still her second brother, Yu Yuan Fu. He seemed to be her only option for the time being!

Yu You Lei stopped pacing, and waited for the guards to finish picking up their coins.

After that, she sent a message to Ji Xiang, telling him to prepare a few spiritual fruits for her.

Since there were spiritual herbs, gems and beasts, there were also spiritual fruits and vegetables. They were basically normal fruits and vegetables which grew in a place with abundant spiritual qi, and as such absorbed the spiritual qi in the air.

Spiritual fruits and vegetables could help boost a persons spiritual qi and stamina for a short period of time, and could also help in the long run if eaten often. Yu You Lei had a lot of these in her forest, and therefore could eat them as snacks.

With her weak body, she'd need to rely on these fruits and some pills to be able to move around freely.

Yu You Lei quickly threw the healing pills she brought out earlier into her mouth like jellybeans, and then chewed as she quickly made sure she looked presentable.

Fixing her hair, and changing her expression to a more peaceful and pure one only took a minute.

Yu You Lei felt the effects of the healing pills take place, and upon seeing the guards were also ready, leaped out the window without hesitation.