“Young miss! Young miss! Where did you go?!” Hearing Xia Ling and Hun Lian shouting out to her, she knew that they were going to start shouting if they saw her with Cao Peizhi (Wei).

“Brother Wei, hurry and go!” Pushing him to go, Lin Ning had to snap back and make sure that his image wasn’t going to be ruined.

“I got it. Do not ever cry in front of another man. I will be sure to know where you have gone.” Cao Peizhi had placed a kiss onto her forehead, making her hold her breath for three seconds before she came back. Seeing her shocked expression, he could only wish that he could mess with her more.

“You-!”

“Young miss?! Why are you here???” Hun Lian looked to see that her miss was alone in the garden in the middle of the night when she should be resting.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to take a little stroll.” Lin Ning thought of something to not make it look suspicious of her to be wide awake.

“You are going to get sick if you stay out here. Come, let’s go inside.” Xia Ling held a warm coat in her hand, wrapping it around Lin Ning as they assisted Lin Ning back to her bedroom.

***

“Master, did you want us to look into the matter involving Miss Lin?” Qin Yun could see that their master was not pleased, he had been staring at Lin Ning who had been led back to rest for the night.

“Find out if the second princess consort is planning anything.” Cao Peizhi was not pleased by Qian Qiang’s warning for Lin Ning when she clearly did not want to be involved with the second prince. “Also, keep an eye on the emperor.” Cao Peizhi had also recalled that the emperor was interested in Lin Ning’s marriage which made him grow suspicious of him. He did not want to overlook anything that could happen to Lin Ning when he was not there by her side.

***

“I must get rid of her!” Yi Jiao had grabbed onto a flower vase, smashing it onto the ground. “She has attracted too much attention for herself.” Yi Jiao did not like Lin Ning in the least bit, she found her to be too bothersome to the imperial family. She knew that Lin Ning had caught the attention of her brothers, Cao Peizhi, and even her father. She had heard from Qian Qiang that her father personally asked about the marriage for her. ‘I cannot let this woman go if she has attracted far more than I know. She will only cause trouble in my life if she seeps into it.’ She did not like it the least bit, it made her blood boil with rage.

***

“Ning’er, are you ready?” Hearing her father ask her, Lin Ning was enjoying the breeze one last time in her old garden.

“En, let’s be on our way.” Lin Ning entered into the carriage, sitting down with her parents who held one another. Thinking about it, she hoped that whoever bought this manor would be able to love it just as much as she did. It had taken three days for them to pack up all that they needed, making their way to the new home of theirs. Listening to people outside all traveling, Lin Ning did not know what was going on, but it seemed busy out there. “What is going on outside?” Lin Ning could not see, so she would just ask what was going on at that moment.

“There seems to be a bit of a delay up front.”

“Delay?” Lin Ning opened her eyes, seeing a black color emitting around which made her think that something was bound to happen to them while they were on their travels. ‘I cannot let mother and father be harmed. Mother is still pregnant. Not only that, but I may have changed the course of the novel.’ Knowing fairly well that now that she had been involved with all the main characters of the novel, then she would have to start taking action herself.

“Qin Yun. Duan Fa.” Calling them both, they arrived at the window of the carriage as they awaited for what she was going to tell them. “How does it look out there?” Lin Ning wanted to know what was causing such things to happen at this time of day.

“Miss Lin, it seems as though the Yao family’s heir is publicly trying to claim Miss Xu as their future wife.” Hearing that from Qin Yun, it made Lin Ning recall that this was where the crown prince got involved to take a step for the woman that he fell for. Her parents were there, so she was not allowed to go out and if she did then they would only drag her back into the carriage. Listening to the entire thing, it was not too hard to hear all the ruckus from out there.

“Miss Xu, this is the first time that I have seen a woman like yourself reject me. It seems as though you do not know that my uncle is the emperor of this country and my aunt is the empress.” Hearing Yao Gui say, it only made him seem like he was using the position of his family to get what he wanted.

“Is that supposed to mean something?” Xu Meili did not seem to care about his words that sounded nothing but like childish words.

“I will have my parents send a dowry to your home. Your parents will not be able to reject such a dowry.” Yao Gui only made it more and more annoying for them all to listen, Lin Ning sighed and pulled out a small marble from her sleeve pocket.

‘Let’s see how good I still am at aiming.’ Lin Ning opened her eyes behind her blindfold to see the red from Yao Gui who held lustful intentions for Xu Meili. Flicking it from her thumb, she could hear the sound of the marble go as it hit directly at the forehead of Yao Gui.

“OOOOWWWW!!!! Who was the one who threw a pebble at me?!” Hearing Yao Gui shout, Lin Ning knew that he was going to think of it as a pebble. She did not even notice that a certain someone was watching her throughout the entire time.