Chapter 152: Taking Leave and the Reunion of Master and Servant

Two days later, in the reception hall of the Prince Xuan Manor, Meng Tianyan and his entourage came to bid farewell to Meng Yuanheng.

In the master seat, Meng Yuanheng sat closely beside Shen Qianmo, holding the hand of the woman next to him. Leaning back against the chair, he lifted his eyes casually to survey Meng Tianyan and Liu Wusheng, who were seated in the lower positions.

Feng Ze was the commander of the guards accompanying Meng Tianyan on his diplomatic mission to Jingzhou. Therefore, under the pretext of having to arrange and dispatch guards, he had already excused himself earlier.

Having confirmed with his own eyes that Shen Qianmo was safe and sound, and having already expressed his feelings to her, the purpose of his journey had been achieved. Though his heart was filled with despair, he had no regrets.

Since there was no hope in this lifetime, why bother with meaningless encounters?

Lowering his head to take a sip of tea, Meng Yuanheng curved the corners of his lips and said with detached calm, "The Seventh Prince stopped speaking midsentence. Could it be that His Majesty has more imperial edicts to announce?"

Meng Tianyan was no fool; naturally, he caught the mocking undertone in Meng Yuanheng's words. He forced himself to steady his expression, banishing the awkwardness from his face, and saluted with cupped hands: "Please forgive me, Prince. I am merely acting under orders to convey His Majesty's intent. Doubtless, the Prince has understood clearly—His Majesty requests that the Prince return to the capital immediately. Although the previous imperial decree cannot be rescinded, His Majesty promises that once you return to the capital, your title and peerage will certainly be restored."

Meng Tianyan was truly doing nothing more than faithfully transmitting Meng Tianxu's words. He had no desire to say anything extra, or perhaps he simply dared not say anything more. As for Liu Wusheng, today he seemed like a different person. Sitting below Meng Tianyan, despite his unsightly expression, he remained completely silent.

This was solely because today's Meng Yuanheng was out of the ordinary, making the two of them distinctly sense an aura of danger.

This indolent man leaning against the back of his chair wore a cyan robe, cold, restrained, and stern. Just two days ago, his hair had been as black as ink, but today it had turned into a full head of silver silk, tied up casually and draped behind his shoulders. Although his gaze was very calm and his expression extremely composed, this stillness felt more like the oppressive quiet before a storm, all the more startling to the senses.

This was the first time the two of them had seen Meng Yuanheng with a full head of white hair. Only now did they confirm that the rumor of Prince Xuan turning white-haired overnight for the sake of the Princess Consort was indeed true.

Meng Tianyan was a few years younger than Meng Yuanheng. In his memory, the teenage Meng Yuanheng had possessed an peerless demeanor—bright, flamboyant, disdainful of everything, and inspiring awe. He had always been the object of everyone's praise and envy around him, as well as the benchmark that he himself had strived to catch up to. Yet now, before his eyes, the man who used to possess unrestrained and flamboyant eyes held nothing but icy chill. His lean, stern facial features, matched with that head of white hair, struck an even deeper chill into people's hearts.

For some reason, Meng Tianyan always felt that today's Meng Yuanheng carried an even heavier aura of slaughter than when they had first met two days ago.

He knew that the Northwest was by no means a place to linger. Now that His Majesty's intentions had been conveyed to Meng Yuanheng, this trip could be considered fulfilling his mission without disgrace.

"Restore my peerage?" Meng Yuanheng pulled the corners of his lips into a disdainful smile and said, "I have understood His Majesty's intentions. Unfortunately... I am afraid I cannot grant His Majesty his wish."

Meng Tianyan's heart sank. Was Meng Yuanheng truly determined to make a complete break with the imperial court?

He was about to speak when Meng Yuanheng raised a hand to stop him. With a cold, razor-sharp gaze, he stared at Meng Tianyan and said, word by word: "Please ask the Seventh Prince to return and relay to His Majesty that whatever His Majesty has previously done to the Prince Xuan Manor and the Meng Family Army, I and every single soldier of the Meng Family Army will engrave it in our hearts. Even if I were willing to take the risk of trusting His Majesty once, I am afraid the soldiers of the Meng Family Army would never consent."

Meng Tianyan was clearly unaware of the incident from seven years ago, but he distinctly felt the fierce, murderous aura instantly emanating from Meng Yuanheng. His heart trembled, he swallowed hard, and he spoke with difficulty: "Why must the Prince be so resolute? For generations, the Prince Xuan Manor has remained loyal to the sovereign and patriotic, contributing countless great military achievements to Da Sheng. If the Prince holds any grievances against the imperial court, you can simply inform me; I will surely report it to His Majesty. Everything is negotiable."

"Negotiable?" Meng Yuanheng's grip on Shen Qianmo's hand tightened, his deep voice growing even colder. "Right now, I am afraid there is not even room for negotiation. However, I accept the Seventh Prince's good intentions. I can make this promise here: as long as the Meng Family Army remains in the Northwest, the massive armies of Beidi and Xiliang will never invade Da Sheng from the Northwest."

Hearing this, Meng Tianyan could only harbor a bitter inward laugh. That was a given; as long as the Meng Family Army was in the Northwest, how could Beidi and Xiliang easily find an opportunity to breach the northwestern defense line and invade Da Sheng? But what about the Southwest? What about the Northeast? Da Sheng's defense lines at those two borders remained fragile. Although compared to the Northwest, Beidi and Xiliang's routes to invade Da Sheng through the Southwest and Northeast were somewhat circuitous, if they were determined to commit aggression, could they not still succeed?

He looked at Meng Yuanheng with a heavy expression and asked, "Has the Prince truly made up his mind?"

Meng Yuanheng replied indifferently, "I simply wish to secure a path to survival for the Meng Family Army and my wife and child. If I do not do this, I fear that in the netherworld, I will have no face to ever meet my late father and the successive ancestors of the Prince Xuan Manor."

Meng Tianyan was silent for a long time before finally nodding and saying, "Since that is the case, I have nothing more to say. Now that His Majesty's edict has been delivered, I will not disturb you any further. I bid you farewell."

Naturally, Meng Yuanheng had no intention of keeping them. He gave a bland instruction to Yan Mo, telling him to notify Qiao Yuan, the newly appointed prefect of Jingzhou city, to escort them out of the city.

Watching the backs of the two as they left, Shen Qianmo turned to Meng Yuanheng and said, "Judging by the reactions of Meng Tianyan and Liu Wusheng just now, the two of them should be unaware of Rong Yunhe coming to Jingzhou to carry out a secret assassination."

In her past life, she had studied psychology for a few years. Although she was not up to the standard of a mind-reading detective, she possessed some knowledge of micro-expression recognition. Micro-expressions were the truest representation of a person's inner thoughts and the most accurate clue to understanding someone's genuine intentions.

Based on her observation of Meng Tianyan and Liu Wusheng just then, it was clear that neither of their expressions showed any obvious abnormalities.

Yun Yi tapped his folded fan against his palm and shook his head, saying, "This Meng Tianxu is simply not human. On one hand, he sends Meng Tianyan and the others to Jingzhou to urge you to return to the capital; on the other hand, he dispatches Rong Yunhe to assassinate you in secret. Meng Tianyan is his own biological younger brother—is he not afraid that Meng Tianyan might die in Jingzhou city and fail to return?"

Shen Qianmo smiled faintly. There was simply a certain type of person in this world: in their eyes, besides themselves, everyone else was mere cannon fodder, objects to be utilized. Clearly, Meng Tianxu was such a person.

Hearing Yun Yi mention Meng Tianxu, Shen Qianmo felt the dangerous, murderous aura instantly radiating from the man sitting beside her. She turned to look at him, gently patted the back of his hand, and softly called out, "A-Heng."

Yun Yi glanced at Meng Yuanheng, recalling the heavy grief and indignation of the incident seven years ago. "Why did the Prince let Meng Tianyan return so easily just now? People of the royal family are none of them good; keeping him detained in the Northwest to suffer a bit would have been for the best."

"Although Meng Tianyan cannot amount to much, if he is determined to stir up trouble and trip Meng Tianxu up, it will be enough to make him suffer." Under Shen Qianmo's soothing, Meng Yuanheng gradually calmed down. Leaning against Shen Qianmo's shoulder, he said indifferently, "If you say, what would Meng Tianyan think if he knew that while Meng Tianxu sent him to Jingzhou, he also secretly dispatched assassins to assassinate me?"

Hearing this, Yun Yi slapped his folded fan against his palm and chuckled twice. "In my view, Meng Tianxu being abandoned by all his followers is only a matter of time."

Shen Qianmo turned to look at Meng Yuanheng and asked softly, "Did you intend to let them return all along?"

Meng Yuanheng leaned against Shen Qianmo's shoulder, snorted coldly, and said indifferently, "Didn't Meng Tianxu desperately want to make me lose face? By letting them return, I am simply giving him that opportunity all the sooner."

Half a month later, just as Meng Tianyan and his entourage returned to the capital, the hidden guards sent to the capital to fetch the household members also returned to Jingzhou city. Aside from the servants and guards who had previously remained stationed at the Prince Xuan Manor in Shengjing, the Duke's Manor had only sent Nanny Xu, Xu Qingzhou's family, and the few maidservants and old maidservants who had always stayed by her side in the Wind Lotus Courtyard.

Although Meng Tianxu had issued an edict stripping Meng Yuanheng of his peerage, he still did not dare to openly ransack the Prince Xuan Manor. However, for safety's sake, Steward Mu had already transferred all the important items out of the manor when he was reassigned to the Northwest. Therefore, the Prince Xuan Manor in Shengjing actually held nothing of value or importance, and by now it had become an entirely empty estate.

As for the reaction from the Duke's Manor, Shen Qianmo had anticipated it long ago.

Through the investigations of the Prince Xuan Manor's hidden guards, she was naturally well aware of everything Shen Yi'an had been up to over these past days.

Ever since she fell off the cliff and went missing, the Duke's Manor had regarded her as a dead person, stopping just short of holding a public funeral for her. Now that Meng Yuanheng occupied the Northwest and had become a rebellious subject in the eyes of the world, Shen Yi'an wished more than anything that he had never given birth to such a daughter. It was said that he had already submitted a memorial to Meng Tianxu, claiming that he had severed all father-daughter ties with her.

Fortunately, she was not the original owner of this body, so upon hearing the news, her heart did not ache quite so intensely. She only sighed inwardly, realizing that sometimes blood ties were even colder and thinner than human sentiments.

Looking at the slightly emaciated Nanny Xu before her, Shen Qianmo said apologetically, "Nanny Xu, you have suffered hardships on this long journey."

From the moment she caught sight of Shen Qianmo, Nanny Xu's eyes had been brimming with old tears. She wiped her face, stepped forward to take Shen Qianmo's hands, and said with a smile mixed with tears, "What are such words from the Princess? To have the opportunity to come here and serve the Princess and the little heir, this old servant is more than happy. This old servant heard everything the Princess experienced over these past few months back in the capital; it is only a pity that being too far away, this old servant could not help with anything..."

As she spoke, thinking of the immense suffering her young mistress had endured during these days, Nanny Xu's tears fell anew.

Nearby, Green Bamboo also clutched Nanny Xu's arm, wiping away tears continuously. The maidservants and old maidservants behind them, catching the emotion, all reddened their rims of eyes.

Shen Qianmo smiled faintly. "Our reunion as mistress and servants should be a joyous occasion. Why are you all crying one after another? Quickly wipe your tears away before people laugh at us."

"Right, right, right..." Nanny Xu wiped her tears with her sleeve and said with a smile, "The Princess is blessed with great fortune. Not only have you returned safely, but you are also carrying the little heir; this is truly a magnificent blessing. If the Madam were still alive in this world, there is no telling how happy she would be..."

At the mention of Xie Yun, who had passed away young, Nanny Xu could not help but shed tears once more.

Shen Qianmo offered a helpless, bitter smile. Nanny Xu and Green Bamboo were good in every respect, but this habit of easily shedding tears sometimes left her quite speechless.