The rest of the people sat back down and just looked at each other silently. The prime minister stroke his beard for a few moments, then took the initiative to speak, "The Sangfroid Prince's move this time completely messed up our earlier plan."

  "What exactly is he intending? Prime Minister daren, do you know anything?"

  The prime minister's expression turned solemn. He picked up the tea and took a sip before saying, "You all are aware of our Sangfroid Prince's relationship with Li Xueyi?"

  All the officials shook their heads. They spend everyday busy dealing with the matters of the imperial court so they had no idea what went on the Jianghu.

  Tang Doudou who was lying on the roof also shook her head with them. What relationship did she have with Xiqiu Yue?

  "Prime Minister daren, how could there be any relationship between them?"

  The prime minister smiled mysteriously. "The relationship's not simple either. Our Sangfroid Prince, towards that Li Xueyi……"

  He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was already very clear.

  Tang Doudou had black lines running across her face. Wasn't this prime minister's imagination way too reactive? It couldn't be that he was still thinking about what happened last time at the Prime Minister Residence's cooking competition?

  "Prime Minister daren, is, is that really true?"

  "If it's true, then that's…… Why did His Majesty hand this matter to the Sangfroid Prince……"

  The prime minister shook his head. "How could we possibly be able to guess at His Majesty's intentions?"

  There didn't seem to be any more useful news, so Tang Doudou put the roof tile back and lay down to think. Based on what they said, they seemed to be thinking of ways to deal with the martial arts alliance, however Xiqiu Yue wanted to target her directly…… So in the end, were they targeting her or the martial arts alliance?

  In reality, the most troublesome thing in Huai City was when you were being hunted by the imperial court.

  After all, in this place that was below the foot of the "Son of Heaven," even if the influential powers of the martial arts community wanted to make a move, they'd have to do it in secret. This gave Tang Doudou chances to take advantage of. However, the imperial court was different. They've listed so many crimes, so if she really appeared in Huai City, they could catch her openly and no one would dare to stop them.

  Although she was the martial arts Alliance Head, in the eyes of the imperial court, she was just another common citizen.

  Even a ninth rank sesame official had a higher rank than her. In the past, the only reason Xiqiu Lin hadn't dared to do anything to her was because of Baili Yu. As of now, since Baili Yu had met with a mishap, she didn't have anyone to rely on.

  In addition, this incident had gone on for quite a while, but Su Yi hadn't expressed his stance at all nor sent anyone here to help. The only possibilities were that something had also happened at Cloud City, or that Su Yi had abandoned her.

  As for why, she wished that she knew.

  She only got off the roof to head back to the guards' room when it was near daybreak. The men were deep asleep and snoring thunder. Even when she made a sound upon entering, no one stirred.

  She glanced at the only open space left but wasn't able to convince herself to lie down, so she decided to just nap on the desk for a bit.

  When she woke up again, quite a few people had already gotten up. When they saw that she was awake, someone came up to ask, "Liu Da, why were you sleeping here?"

  "That's right. Didn't you go to the latrine yesterday? Why were you gone so long?"

  "Aiy, what's that on your face? Did you fall into the latrine? Hahaha!"

  Tang Doudou pinched her throat and glared at them as she shouted, "You're the one that'd be freakin' dumb enough to fall into the latrine!"

  "Then what's with you?"

  Tang Doudou's expression turned serious and she beckoned for them to lean closer. When they saw her mysterious expression, they all drew closer. "Liu Da, you……"

  "Last night ah……” Tang Doudou lowered her voice to create a very strange atmosphere. After pausing for a moment, she abruptly raised her voice. "I encountered a ghost!"

  "Ah!" Everyone was given a scare by her sudden shout.

  "Liu Da, what kind of joke are you pulling? H-how could ghosts exist!?"

  "That's right, exactly! Stop making up nonsense! Let's go, if we don't assemble now, we'll be punished by the supervisor again!"

  They spoke as if they didn't believe, but their expressions and flustered words made it clear that they were scared.

  "Believe me, I experienced it personally! I was so scared that I screamed for help like my life depended on it. See, my voice is completely hoarse now." Tang Doudou reached out to pull those people so that they would stay and listen.

  However, who would be willing to listen to such an unlucky story? Everyone ran.

  "Could it be that none of you heard anything last night? Hey, you guys didn't hear?"

  "No, I didn't! I didn't!" The person she caught hastily shook his head.

  Tang Doudou acted as if she came to a realization. "No wonder no one came to save me even though I was shouting so loudly. It's probably because I was within the ghost's spell so you guys couldn't hear me!"

  "L-liu Da, stop making things up, otherwise we'll tell the supervisor that, that you're disrupting our concentration!"

  "Fine fine, I won't say anymore." Tang Doudou snickered, then changed the topic. "I slept outside for an entire night so I'm really dizzy. Could you guys help me ask for a day off?"

  __________

  Credits: Translated by Chiyomira

  [Chiyomira's Corner]

  Enjoy~