“If Your Highness doesn’t ask, I won’t say anything,” Li Jin yielded.
“But if Your Highness does ask, I can’t hide the truth,” Li Jin explained.
Duoduo looked at Li Jin curiously. “Does Teacher even fear Daddy?”
Li Jin awkwardly rubbed his nose.
Who wouldn’t be intimidated by Xiao Yi’s imposing presence?
If one had to name someone who wasn’t afraid of him, there were probably only the Princess and the Princess Consort.
Even his wife, Xu Jinxin, was afraid of him!
Seeing Li Jin’s expression, Duoduo covered her little mouth and giggled.
“Teacher, don’t be afraid. Daddy has a very good temper!”
The carriage came to a stop. Li Jin lifted the curtain and looked outside.
They were still some distance from the market.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Shopkeeper Li, we have a tail,” the coachman reported in a low voice.
At once, Duoduo lifted a corner of the curtain and looked behind them.
Sure enough, several figures could be seen not far behind the carriage.
Duoduo looked at Li Jin. He knew this area very well.
“We’ll get off here. Drive the carriage toward somewhere crowded!”
After saying this, Li Jin picked up Suisui and swiftly jumped down from the carriage before entering a cloth shop by the roadside.
The carriage quickly continued on.
The people following them immediately ran over.
Two of them hurried into the cloth shop, while the others chased after the carriage.
Once inside, Li Jin slipped behind the door. He had moved so quickly that no one in the shop had noticed him.
Seeing someone rush into the cloth shop, the shopkeeper beamed obsequiously.
“Are you looking to buy fabric or ready-made clothes?”
The two men shoved the shopkeeper aside and began searching every corner of the shop.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Li Jin carried Duoduo out.
None of the people making a mess inside noticed.
After leaving the shop, Li Jin worried that there might still be an ambush outside.
Carrying Duoduo, he turned and entered the rouge shop next door.
“Shopkeeper, may we borrow your back courtyard?”
“My daughter suddenly has a stomachache!”
Duoduo played along at once, clutching her stomach. “It hurts! It hurts!”
The proprietress of the rouge shop took one look at her and immediately had an assistant lead them to the back courtyard.
Li Jin discreetly gave the assistant a small piece of silver.
“Sorry to trouble you, young man. We’ll leave through the back door in a moment, so we won’t need to go through the front.”
The assistant’s face immediately lit up when he received the money.
He told Li Jin where the back door was, then left.
Li Jin glanced at Duoduo. Duoduo pointed upward.
With a powerful leap, Li Jin vaulted onto the roof.
He surveyed the area briefly. From there to the shop, it was only a few hundred meters.
“Teacher, I can walk by myself now,” Duoduo whispered, struggling to get down.
Li Jin was already tall, and carrying her made him even more conspicuous.
But if he crouched as he moved, there was a much smaller chance of anyone below spotting them.
Li Jin nodded and took Duoduo’s little hand.
The two of them began running swiftly across the rooftops.
When Li Jin casually glanced back, he saw the assistant who had accepted his silver opening the back door for two men.
“Teacher, whose men are they?”
Following Li Jin’s gaze, Duoduo saw them too.
Fortunately, both she and Li Jin knew martial arts. Otherwise, they would certainly have been caught.
“I saw a waist token on one of them just now. It looked as though it had the character ‘Rui’ on it.”
Li Jin had sharp eyes, and the token happened to catch the light. That was how he managed to see it clearly.
“Men from Prince Rui’s residence?” Duoduo asked angrily. “Why would Fourth Uncle’s people want to catch me?”
“Perhaps they’re worried that Princess Consort Rui told you something she shouldn’t have,” Li Jin guessed.
“Something she shouldn’t have?” Duoduo asked, puzzled.
“Are you referring to the fact that the child in Princess Consort Rui’s belly was originally supposed to be a girl?”
Li Jin did not answer. He carefully surveyed their surroundings, then held out his hand to Duoduo.
“Princess.”
Duoduo obediently placed her hand in his. Li Jin picked her up and lightly leaped down.
“Ah!” Duoduo cried out when she saw the state of the shop.
She immediately covered her mouth.
Li Jin glanced inside. The shop’s door had been smashed open.
The interior was a complete mess. Some stones had been broken apart, their fragments scattered across the floor.
Fortunately, after sensing that something was wrong that day, Li Jin had secretly moved away the stones containing ore.
All the stones left in the shop were ordinary.
However, several ornaments of mediocre quality had still been left on the counter.
Now, the ornaments were gone.
After taking a quick look around, Li Jin prepared to leave.
“Teacher, what happened to the jade I was giving Grandpa for his birthday?”
“Could someone have stolen it?” Duoduo suddenly remembered the jade material she had left in the shop.
“No.” Carrying Duoduo, Li Jin quickly entered a secret passage and pressed a mechanism.
“I had the high-quality jade moved away long ago.”
Li Jin relaxed and set Duoduo down.
“Princess, are you really planning to use that piece of jade as a birthday gift?”
Li Jin recalled the finished piece made from Duoduo’s jade.
At the time, it had captivated every craftsman present.
Some had even sighed, “To carve a work like this even once in a lifetime would make it all worthwhile!”
Duoduo found it strange that Li Jin would ask such a question.
“What is it?”
Li Jin took Duoduo’s hand and carefully led her toward the palace.
“It’s beautiful!”
“No, that’s not right. It’s breathtakingly beautiful!”
“To call it a masterpiece for the ages would not be an exaggeration!” Li Jin praised.
“Really?”
“Is it that pretty?”
“Teacher, where is that piece of jade?”
“Can I see it ahead of time?” Duoduo’s curiosity was thoroughly piqued.
“Probably not right now.” Li Jin shook his head.
“Judging from the state of the shop just now, someone has their eyes on His Highness’s business.”
Li Jin guessed that the Prince of Pingyang probably still knew nothing about it.
After all, he had taken a look at the scene. The broken surfaces of the stones were still very fresh.
Whoever had caused the damage could not have left long ago.
“Who would do something so awful?” Duoduo puffed out her cheeks angrily.
Li Jin said nothing, because he did not know either.
The capital was more chaotic now than it had been before.
Ordinary people could not sense much of a difference. Only those caught up in the middle of it could truly feel how turbulent things had become.
“Teacher, is there any other news from the capital?”
Recently, the Prince of Pingyang’s residence had closed its doors to visitors, and neither Shitou nor Liqing could enter the estate.
Duoduo had no information from outside at all.
“What would the Princess like to know?” Li Jin asked after thinking for a moment.
Duoduo considered it. “Fourth Uncle is overseeing the court now. Surely Fifth Uncle hasn’t remained inactive, has he?”
Li Jin glanced back at Duoduo.
The secret passage was dimly lit, and her little face was only faintly visible in the darkness.
Her eyes in particular shone brightly, like night pearls.
“Of course he hasn’t.” Xiao Yi had never told Li Jin not to speak to Duoduo about it.
“Now that Prince Rui holds power, he is promoting the officials who support him first.”
“The officials who support the Fifth Prince are being suppressed. One after another, they have requested leave and stopped attending court.”
Duoduo’s eyes widened. “Aren’t they afraid that Fourth Uncle will take the opportunity to strip them of their official insignia and dismiss them from office?”
