Meanwhile, Song Yinghuai stepped into the study.
"Don't bother with the formalities," Song Yinghuai raised his hand to stop Tan Xiong and Fang Kuan from bowing. "Generals, you must have urgent matters to discuss when you came to the mansion. Let's get straight to the point."
Tan and Fang didn't stand on ceremony and took their seats.
As soon as Tan Xiong sat down, he said, "The envoy from the capital entered Jizhou from Jindi six days ago."
"But the envoy refused to move forward when he reached Tongzhou, which is at the border between Yanjing and Jizhou."
Zhu Xiao asked, "What does he want if he doesn't come? Is there delicious food or beautiful women in Tongzhou?"
Tan Xiong replied, "Don't be absurd. Lao Fang and I went to Tongzhou to welcome him as soon as we got the news. But the envoy still refused to set off. He even said... he even said..."
Tan Xiong hesitated.
"What did he say?" Song Yinghuai seemed to have guessed something and his face remained calm.
"The envoy said that the prince must go to Tongzhou in person to welcome him into the capital!" Fang Kuan shouted angrily.
"Bang!" A loud noise!
The low tea table in front of Zhu Xiao was slapped into two pieces by him.
"That eunuch is going too far!" Zhu Xiao roared angrily. "Your Highness is of such noble status. How dare he ask the prince to go to Tongzhou to welcome him? Who does he think he is? Come or not, it's up to him!"
Tan Xiong waved away the flying sawdust and ash in the air. Even his usually calm temper couldn't hold back. "Your Highness, this subordinate also thinks that we should just leave that eunuch in Tongzhou. Anyway, if he doesn't enter the capital, it's not us who should be in a hurry. Isn't the crown prince more anxious than us?"
Recently, when the crown prince Song Changfeng learned that the turmoil in Yandi had been quelled and that Song Yinghuai was about to take major actions in the border area, he couldn't sit still. He sent six urgent orders by carrier pigeon, urging the envoy from the capital to enter the capital quickly to hold back Song Yinghuai from making meritorious deeds.
But now, the envoy was hesitating to enter the capital.
No one knew who was more anxious at this moment.
Everyone's eyes were on Song Yinghuai, expecting him to give an order so that they wouldn't have to go to Tongzhou to invite the envoy again.
They couldn't bear this humiliation anymore!
Song Yinghuai sat in front of the table, slowly turning the Vajra Bodhi Buddhist beads on his wrist.
His eyes hidden in the shadow, against his handsome and imposing face, seemed to be hiding a fierce beast, ready to attack at any time.
Finally, he put down his hand that had been playing with the Buddhist beads and said softly, "It doesn't matter. It's just a trip to Tongzhou. I'll go and welcome him."
"Your Highness!"
The three of them shouted in unison.
"Why do you have to endure that eunuch's humiliation!"
Song Yinghuai raised his hand to stop their indignant words. "Those who achieve great things don't care about minor details. Moreover, in the eyes of Buddha, he is just a lifeless object. What's wrong with me bringing him here?"
Zhu Xiao took a deep breath. The most impulsive one among them, he wanted to say something else, but Tan Xiong stopped him and said,
"If Your Highness wants to go, this subordinate won't stop you. But one day, this subordinate will surely cut that eunuch into a thousand pieces to avenge Your Highness's humiliation today!"
"Yes! I'll tear him apart to relieve my hatred!" Fang Kuan slapped the table and stood up, shouting loudly.
"Me too!" Zhu Xiao's eyes were bloodshot with anger. "I'll go to the army right now and tell the brothers that the crown prince is going too far and that eunuch deserves to die!"
Song Yinghuai's eyes flashed and he nodded. "It's time for everyone to know that we in Yandi have been bullied."
His fingertips tapped lightly on the table and his expression was gloomy.
An army fighting in desperation will surely win.
Let the Yan army know that their prince had been humiliated by the envoy from the capital. Only when they were filled with indignation could they gather enough killing spirit.
Time was of the essence. Since Song Yinghuai had decided to go to Tongzhou, he planned to set off immediately.
However, as soon as he took a step, he was attracted by a grid in the corner of the study.
His eyes suddenly turned cold. He strode towards the bookshelf and stared at the bronze unicorn ornament on the second shelf from the bottom, silent for a long time.
Zhu Xiao and the others looked at each other in surprise and stepped forward.
"What's wrong?" Zhu Xiao craned his neck to take a look and asked. "Is there something wrong with this mechanism?"
This unicorn mechanism was the switch to open the secret room in the study.
Song Yinghuai stared at the unicorn for a while and then said in a cold tone, "Someone has entered my study and tried to open the mechanism."
"What?"
The three of them were shocked and immediately surrounded the switch to examine it.
"Has this mechanism been opened?" Zhu Xiao took a deep breath, his heart pounding.
In this secret room, besides providing a place for Song Yinghuai to secretly meet with people like Master Guangzhi who were inconvenient to enter the mansion on weekdays, there were also a large number of private treasury accounts of Yandi's industries and various secret evidence of court officials. These things must not be lost.
"No, it hasn't been opened," Song Yinghuai said. "This mechanism can't be turned without the right amount of internal strength."
Ordinary mechanisms could be turned with a little force, but this one was made by Master Xu, the 27th generation descendant of Lu Ban, the current master of mechanisms.
In addition to turning it in the right sequence, the person who opened the mechanism also needed to use internal strength at the same time.
The internal strength should be neither too much nor too little.
Therefore, besides Song Yinghuai, there was probably no one else in the world who could open it.
Song Yinghuai reached out his hand, turned the left half of the unicorn in a circle, then the right half, and finally pressed the unicorn's eyes.
A wall behind the bookshelf slowly opened, revealing a door. Inside was a dimly lit passage.
The group walked in and watched as Song Yinghuai checked everything. Then he said,
"The thief probably thought the unicorn looked like a mechanism. But after trying it and finding it didn't work, he thought it was just a real ornament and didn't move the bookshelf anymore."
"How could there be someone in the Prince of Yan's mansion who could enter the study?" Fang Kuan was filled with doubts. "Previously, those agents from the Eastern Depot also tried to sneak into the study to search for something. But when they found that there were only ordinary things here, they gave up and didn't bother anymore."
"Later, Your Highness killed those agents for Miss Caiyu. Who else in the mansion could be a spy?"
Song Yinghuai suddenly fixed his eyes. His fingertips happened to be on the newly placed evidence of the Dong family's collusion with rich merchants. His eyes were filled with gloom.
Tan Xiong suddenly felt the temperature in the secret room drop sharply. He put his arm around Fang Kuan's shoulder. "You've already mentioned her name. Why are you still asking?"
Fang Kuan:??
Everyone looked at Song Yinghuai in unison.
Suspicion and bloodthirsty emotions slowly welled up in Song Yinghuai's eyes, emitting a chilling light.
Zhu Xiao shivered and tried to persuade him, "Don't be angry. You've known for a long time that she's a spy. You kept her by your side, so you should have known that you would face this sooner or later. Why get angry just because she did something?"
As soon as he said this, the temperature in the room dropped even further, making people's teeth chatter.
Tan Xiong really couldn't stand it anymore. "You usually seem so smart. Why can't you even persuade someone properly today!"
Was the prince angry because Caiyu was a spy?
The prince was probably in love. These days, he had been searching the city day and night to save her. Just now, he had even caused a stir for Caiyu, ignoring the feelings of his mother and the Jiang family. As a result, Jiang Jinyue was forced to jump into the Taiye Pond.
But he never thought that someone would collude with the enemy and take advantage of his anxiety to leave the mansion. They sneaked into the study and searched for the secrets of Yandi!
As for Caiyu's abduction this time... whether it was real or just an act, it remained to be confirmed.
The group chattered on and on, and their voices were buzzing in Song Yinghuai's ears.
He closed his eyes tightly, recalling the subtle eye contact between Caiyu and Nanny Yu before he returned to the mansion.
He also remembered that after he had searched Yanjing for five days and five nights, Caiyu called him "Your Highness" with a broken and sobbing voice!
He thought that no matter how good an actress that girl was, at least the abduction and danger were real!
But now it seemed that he was wrong after all.
A rare moment of heartbeat, only to find it's all an act.
Proud as Song Yinghuai, how could he swallow this humiliation?
When he opened his eyes again, his lips were tightly pursed. His eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of snow, turning blood - red. There was both hostility and an imperceptible pain between his eyebrows.
Suddenly -
"Hehe!"
A cold laugh escaped from Song Yinghuai's throat. His fingertips stroked the booklet in his hand and his expression was gloomy.
"Very good, excellent."