CH 119.2

Chapter 119.2 – Praying for Salvation

Meng Fei walked swiftly through the prime minister’s Mansion, with a brisk pace that was almost as fast as a jog. Even when he stepped into Xie Yuan’s courtyard, he did not slow down his pace. His hurried footsteps startled Xie Yuan, who was looking at the snow again. He frowned and turned back.

When he got closer, Meng Fei knelt down on one knee and said, “This subordinate has failed his duties and failed to stop the Left General.”

Xie Yuan’s eyes flickered, and he asked, “What about the corpse? Has it ever been destroyed?”

Meng Fei said truthfully, “At that time, I only saw the Left General loading a body into the carriage and could not personally confirm it with my eyes. However, the Princess was indeed missing, so I used my own hands to burn the body together with the carriage.”

There was no problem with this kind of disposal, and if the body is burned, it will be over. Without evidence, whatever the Left General said would be useless. When it came to eloquence, even ten Left Generals would not be his match.

The only thing to be worried about was the Rong Emperor becoming suspicious. Xie Yuan just went to him this morning and told him about Liang’s strategy of sowing discord, and it was likely that the Rong Emperor would have some doubts in his heart.

But there was one thing left; the Left General entered the palace too quickly, and they couldn’t destroy the body of the “Third Princess” without causing suspicion yet. Would there be any trouble?

Xie Yuan was thinking about this, but before he could tell Meng Fei to do anything, the prime minister’s mansion’s butler arrived in a hurry. Someone came from the palace to pick up the Third Princess’s body and bring it to the palace. They would have a shaman pray for her soul, and only then could she be buried in a coffin.

The Rong people had a custom of having shamans pray for a soul’s salvation. When Xie Yuan came to apologize in the morning, the Rong Emperor did not mention this. But after the Left General entered the palace, he sent someone to come here urgently. How could there be no deeper meaning behind this?

Xie Yuan immediately realized that something unexpected that he didn’t know about had happened, and whispered to the butler, “Try to delay them a bit.”

The butler received the order and didn’t ask much, and quickly left.

Xie Yuan immediately led Meng Fei towards where the corpse was and asked, “Did you ever find anything wrong with the body?”

Meng Fei followed closely behind, replying confidently, “No, I personally inspected it. The body doesn’t have anything that stands out.”

Xie Yuan paused slightly when he heard this. He suddenly thought; if the replacement body he found was fine, then could it be that it was Ayana’s body that had special markings? Ayana was a princess, and also his first wife. No matter how indifferent he was, it was impossible for Meng Fei to inspect her body. Plus, she died in such a miserable state that even the person who took off her clothes and tidied up her body didn’t dare to look too much.

So, what special markings did Ayana have on her body?

Xie Yuan thought carefully for a while, but even after more than ten years of marriage, he couldn’t remember anything right now because he was never interested in her. This made him feel a bit frustrated, and the unease in his heart grew even stronger.

After taking a few more steps, Xie Yuan suddenly asked, “Did you tattoo the royal family’s crest on that body?”

Meng Fei quickly said upon hearing those words, “I’ve already had someone do it. It should be good enough to fool people.”

Xie Yuan couldn’t think of anything else, so he hurried to the place where the coffin was enshrined to look at the body inside. He knew it was a substitute found by Meng Fei, but at first glance, he couldn’t find any flaws in it, whether in shape or other things.

He reached out and lifted the corpse’s stiff right hand, then pulled the sleeve all the way up to its upper arm. He could see a medium-sized eagle tattooed on the arm.

The eagle was the symbol of the Rong Emperor’s original tribe, and the children of the tribe leader would be tattooed upon birth. Girls would be tattooed on their arm, while boys were tattooed on their chest. Xie Yuan had never noticed Ayana’s tattoo, but he had seen this eagle more than once.

Looking at it now, there was no difference. Xie Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. But he didn’t know if there were any other special characteristics on Ayana’s body. Plus, now that people from the palace had already come, it was impossible to tamper with this corpse anymore.

As expected, the butler could not stop them for long. Almost as soon as Xie Yuan finished investigating, a group of soldiers rushed into the mourning hall.

Xie Yuan’s face darkened slightly, and the leading officer took two steps forward to salute him. However, he was being neither humble nor arrogant as he said, “Your Majesty has ordered to escort the Princess back to the palace to pray for her salvation. Prime Minister, please do not obstruct us.”

As soon as these words were spoken, Xie Yuan’s face darkened even more, but he finally suppressed his emotion and said, “Since it is His Majesty’s will, of course I must obey.”

As soon as he said that, the officer became even more impolite. He waved his hand to summon a few soldiers, and immediately carried the coffin and left. The group of people broke into the mourning hall and unceremoniously took away the body, it was really the epitome of impoliteness.

Xie Yuan gritted his teeth and almost exploded in anger, but now was not the time to pursue this matter. He only thought for a moment, then immediately decided to follow them to the palace. But because these soldiers were walking too fast, he couldn’t even go back to change his clothes, so he chose to follow just in his casual clothes.

Meng Fei naturally followed, and had only taken two steps before Xie Yuan suddenly turned around and whispered a few words to him.

After accepting his orders, Meng Fei stopped and waited for Xie Yuan’s back to disappear from sight. Then, he immediately turned around to complete the task he had been assigned.

The newly built capital city of Rong was not as large as the capital of Liang, and the prime minister’s mansion was not very far from the royal palace. It took only a quarter of an hour by carriage to reach the entrance of the palace. As prime minister, Xie Yuan naturally had the right to enter the palace, but as a vassal, he could only walk inside once he arrived at the gates. It was much slower than the carriage carrying the coffin that went straight inside.

So by the time Xie Yuan rushed in front of the palace, he heard the Rong Emperor’s angry voice coming from the hall. “This is indeed not Ayana!”

Author notes:

Lu Qipei (raising her eyebrows): The villain needs to be beaten to death with a rod, how could we give him a chance to breathe?