novelaction Chapter 546: Ulterior Motives
Chapter 546: Ulterior Motives
Meisheng was about to refuse.
But the skinny monkey took the lead and put hot water beside the bed to wash Zhou Chang's feet: "Yes, that's perfect. Just now, the princess, ah, no... Miss Yuan also sent 500 gold coins over, saying that it would be convenient for the prince to spend."
"You accepted it?" Zhou Chang was unwilling to accept any more money or property from Yuan Qi from the bottom of his heart, but he had no choice but to accept the medicinal herbs and daily necessities he sent.
The skinny monkey's movements clearly showed that he knew Zhou Chang's thoughts. "I was going to refuse, but the other party insisted. Besides, the five hundred gold coins are all gold leaves. I'm afraid they are for the prince to keep as a reward. After all, we are living in the official inn now, and everything is taken care of by Lord Yang. We don't have much to spend. But this is the north after all, and we are unfamiliar with the place. It's easier to get things done with more money, and I'm afraid we still need to have some face..."
The skinny monkey kept talking, leaving Meisheng no chance to speak.
Zhou Chang asked in return: "What else do we have to do?"
Yuan Yu has been rescued, and apart from looking for the kidnappers, I really can’t think of anything else to do.
The thin monkey also asked back: "Your Majesty, you are not planning to return to Jindu like this, right?"
Zhou Chang didn't understand.
The skinny monkey turned around and saw Mei Sheng still standing there, so he sent him off, "Mr. Lin, do you have anything to do? If not, it's getting late, and you should go back to rest. Your Majesty, I will take care of you here, so I won't bother you any more."
Mei Sheng had finally gotten used to being with Zhou Chang these past few days, but now that the skinny monkey had come, he became reserved again: "You, don't call me Master, I'm not really a Master, just call me Mei Sheng."
"Mr. Lin is a man of honor after all. I am just a servant and I dare not act rashly," the thin monkey said in an unusually cold manner. "We have been traveling all day today. Mr. Lin, please go back and rest first. As for the silver, I will send it to you tomorrow."
"Ah, no..., I don't..." How could Meisheng not feel that the skinny monkey had a bad attitude?
Zhou Chang felt something was wrong, but he also advised Mei Sheng: "Mei Sheng, you should take a good rest for a few days. You don't need to worry about me. We may have to go back to Jindu soon, and the journey will inevitably be hard. You have to be prepared."
"Yes... then Meisheng will take his leave." After hearing this, Meisheng had no choice but to agree. He picked up his bedding, bowed, and left.
As soon as Mei Sheng left, Skinny Monkey asked, "Does the prince really want to take him back to Jindu?"
"What's wrong? What do you think of him?" Zhou Chang and Shouhou could talk about anything, and Shouhou knew Meisheng's past, so he could ask him questions directly.
The skinny monkey smacked his lips, wrapped Zhou Chang's feet with a towel and put them back on the bed, then said, "Nothing else, but I just feel that he seems to be a little weird, but I can't really explain it."
Zhou Chang now felt nothing but gratitude towards Mei Sheng, so he couldn't help but ask, "Why is it so strange?"
"Your Highness, don't you want to eat?" The skinny monkey brought another plate of snacks, but Zhou Chang had no intention of eating. "This is the craftsmanship of Longyunlou. It's better than the small kitchen the princess used to cook. Ah, no... I mean it's not worse than what Miss Yuan's private kitchen makes."
The skinny monkey made several slips of the tongue, but Zhou Chang pretended not to hear them.
"If it tastes good, eat more. I can't eat any more." Zhou Chang kept asking, "You haven't told me yet, what exactly do you dislike about Mei Sheng?"
The skinny monkey didn't hesitate to sit on the stool beside the bed with the plate in his arms, and said as he ate, "Your Highness doesn't know, that day on the river, the kidnappers' boat started moving, and we couldn't catch up with the boat even though we paddled, but we saw Your Highness fall into the water from a distance, and it seemed that a boat came to rescue him. Now of course we know, it was Young Master Lin's boat."
"Yeah, so what? But it's all thanks to his boat that saved me." Zhou Chang didn't hear anything wrong with this.
The skinny monkey finished half a plate of cakes in two or three bites. "It's true that his boat rescued the prince, but we were almost catching up. No matter how we shouted, his boat didn't hear us and kept rowing, as if he wanted to throw us off. In the end, in order to catch up, our boat capsized. Fortunately, everyone can swim, but it took a lot of effort to swim to shore."
"Ah, you all fell into the water, are you all okay? What about Yuan Qi? Is she okay?" Zhou Chang also knew that it was unnecessary to ask this, because not everyone he saw today was fine.
The skinny monkey kept stuffing snacks into his mouth, and said in a slurred voice: "It's all right. I didn't expect Miss Yuan to be such a good swimmer. She's indeed from the south."
Zhou Chang stopped worrying about it and thought of Mei Sheng again, so he wanted to defend him: "Maybe the wind was strong on the river and Mei Sheng and his boat couldn't hear it. He told me this before. He was afraid that someone was going to harm me, so maybe he mistook you for kidnappers."
"If that's the case, it makes sense, but..." The skinny monkey stretched his neck to swallow the last piece of cake, "After the prince knew that you fell into the water, we were all worried to death, especially Miss Yuan..."
Zhou Chang didn't hear the rest of the sentence, but only heard "Yuan Qi was so anxious that she went crazy" and couldn't help asking, "Is Yuan Qi sick because of this?"
"Is Miss Yuan sick?" The skinny monkey had no idea, but after thinking about it, he understood, "Oh, she should be. No wonder she looked so bad a few days ago and kept hiding in the carriage. It turns out she was sick. She should be much better in the past two days. At least she finally smiled when she met the prince today. Otherwise, it would be too scary."
Zhou Chang felt disappointed, and he didn't know what it felt like. "Please continue."
The skinny monkey took another bite of the cake and said, "When Governor Yang heard that the prince had fallen into the water and disappeared, he was also anxious. Brother Gao and I urged him to send more people to look for him. But Governor Yang was still worried at first, saying that making a big announcement about the search might be detrimental to the prince, and what if some bad guys had other ideas? He was only willing to send people to inquire secretly. But Miss Yuan took the initiative and took out a million taels of gold. Both the underworld and the white world offered a reward, saying that as long as the prince was safe, she would give it all."
"One million taels of gold?" Zhou Chang opened his mouth wide.
This amount is more than double the ransom for Yuan Yu.
"That's one million taels. So, the whole Beiji City and even the Thirteen Prefectures of Yuebei have been in an uproar these days. Wen Hanlin, no, now he's Wen Canjun, has brought 500 borrowed soldiers to search along the banks of the Jinmin River and its tributaries, including the inn where your Highness is staying, called Feng County... They've also searched there." The skinny monkey stood up to fetch another plate of snacks while talking. "But, Your Highness, with such a big scene, even if you were sick and couldn't leave the house, how could Meisheng not know about it? Why didn't he come to report it?"