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Chapter 289: Uncertainties

The two went to a pastry shop and bought some of Miao's favorite snacks before heading towards the Prince's Mansion. Just as they were about to turn into the path in front of the main gate of the mansion, Zhu Yu was suddenly pulled back by Fu Lu.

"Second Master, something's not right." Fu Lu was tall and strong, but his eyesight was good. Before he could even turn around, his eyes had already caught sight of the situation ahead. "There are two more guards in front of the Prince's Mansion. They look unfamiliar and are not from the Prince's Mansion."

Zhu Yu knew that Fu Lu was quite good at both observation and recognizing people, so he did not doubt his judgment. However, the two of them had only been out for such a short time, a little over an hour, so what could have happened in the Wangfu?
She cautiously peeked out from behind the wall and saw two guards standing at the entrance of the Prince Shuo's mansion.

No wonder the talisman immediately sensed something was wrong.

Normally, the Prince Shuo's mansion doesn't have two guards standing outside. After all, the mansion is the only gate on this street, and people don't usually go in unless they have something to do. There's no need to arrange two "gatekeepers" to stand there just to show off.

Although Zhu Cheng has mobilized his troops to leave, he has done so in a relatively low-key manner. It is even less likely that he would blatantly arrange for two guards to stand outside the gate, as if he were afraid that others would not suspect that something unusual had happened at the Prince's residence.

"Second Master, what should we do? I'll do whatever you say!" Fu Lu asked Zhu Yu in a low voice. "If you say to charge in, those two are just standing there so casually, it's no problem at all. I could take them down with one hand."

“No, there are only two people at the door, but we don’t know what’s going on inside,” Zhu Yu shook his head. “If we act rashly and manage to rush in, we’ll alert the people inside. Let alone controlling the situation, we probably won’t be able to get out again.”

"Second Master is right! So what do we do?"

Zhu Yu looked up at the sky and said, "Let's go. It's not safe to stay here. It's only another hour until dark. We don't know what the situation inside is like. Luckily, we brought enough money with us when we came out. Let's go and eat first so we'll have the energy to deal with what's going on inside."

Fu Lu nodded quickly and quietly left with Zhu Yu, where they found a restaurant and had a hearty meal.

As darkness fell, the two returned to the vicinity of the Prince's Palace.

This time, Zhu Yu, carrying the talisman, wandered around until he arrived at a relatively secluded alley. He pointed to the courtyard wall next to him and said, "This wall is too high for me to climb. Can you help me lift it up?"

If I'm not mistaken, going in from here should lead to the small kitchen behind the chestnut grove. There's some firewood piled up inside the wall, making it convenient to go down there.

Fu Lu had always trusted Zhu Yu's judgment. Since she said so, he squatted down without hesitation, clasped his hands together, and prepared to lift Zhu Yu up: "Second Master, be careful when you climb over the wall. Keep an eye on the sounds inside. If anyone is nearby, jump down. I can catch you and make sure you don't fall."

Zhu Yu nodded, carefully stepping onto the talisman's palm. With that push, he used the momentum to climb up, grabbing the top of the wall and using both feet to push off the wall.

She was right; the small kitchen was indeed behind the wall, and there was a pile of firewood at the base of the wall, as high as half a wall, just enough for Zhu Yu to step on.

She peered warily around the wall, and when she saw no one, she nodded to the talisman.

Despite his robust appearance, Fu Lu was not clumsy at all. Seeing Zhu Yu nod, he easily leaped up, touched the wall with his toes, and then rolled over the wall, landing silently on the inside of the high wall.

Zhu Yu then carefully stepped on the pile of firewood and jumped to the ground.

After confirming that no one was around, Fu Lu led him quickly to the outside of the Chestnut Garden's courtyard wall. Once they were sure no one was inside, they climbed over the wall again.

The entire Chestnut Garden was quiet, with only the light from the oil lamp shining from Yan Shu's room. The two men quietly crept to the door of Yan Shu's room, but before they could make any further moves, the door suddenly opened, and Yan Shu rushed out, a riding whip in her hand. After recognizing the two people outside, she abruptly pulled the whip back down.

"Come in quickly!" She grabbed Zhu Yu and Fu Lu, pulled them into the room, and then hurriedly closed the door again.

"What happened?" Zhu Yu pulled Yan Shu in front of him and examined her carefully. "Are you alright?"

Although judging from the way she rushed out the door and was about to crack the whip, she didn't seem to have anything wrong with it, Zhu Yu still needed to confirm it just to be on the safe side.

In fact, she had a pretty good idea of ​​what was going on inside the Prince Shuo's mansion.

The situation is already quite chaotic. After all, Yan Shu is a princess of the Jie Kingdom and Lu Zhang's newlywed wife. If she suffers any harm here at this critical juncture, things will be really difficult to handle.

Yan Shu also pulled Zhu Yu along and looked her over: "I'm fine, perfectly fine!"

I pretended to be lame in front of them, and seeing that I was a person with limited mobility, they probably thought I couldn't escape either, so they didn't pay much attention to me.

But you, how did you get in? I heard those people outside making arrangements saying that there were people guarding every entrance.

"Did you two break in? You don't look like it, your hair isn't even that messy!"

Zhu Yu was both amused and exasperated, never expecting that Yan Shu would still be worried about him under these circumstances.

"Are all those people outside from the Pang family?" she asked Yan Shu.

Having stayed at the Prince of Shuo's residence for so many days, Yan Shu had roughly figured out the situation here and nodded: "It must be someone from the Pang family."

Before they arrived, I was sunbathing in the courtyard when I overheard two servants from your manor whispering outside the courtyard. They said that as soon as your father and the others left, your stepmother immediately started making arrangements to invite her brother and sister-in-law from her maternal family to come and have a chat.

The servant she had sent to the Pang family to invite people dared not do so, saying that the prince had instructed that no one from the Pang family should be allowed to visit while he was away from home.

As a result, your stepmother got angry and ordered her maids to drag the servant out to the courtyard and beat him half to death, leaving him unable to get up from the ground.

After that, she sent someone to the Pang family to invite people, and the servants in your household dared not disobey anymore and quickly left.

Not long after, the Pang family arrived with their entourage.

"Where is my mother?" Zhu Yu asked with some concern.

Because of Pang Yuzhen's anger these past few days, she has kept Miao Shi in the Chestnut Garden, but now it is clear that Yan Shu is the only one left in the entire Chestnut Garden.