The Birth of a Villainess

"No." Qu Xing Xu was adamant to disagree with her. He knew what she was thinking, but the risk of meeting him was too much for her. 

"I need to go." Lin Xiaofei already decided and even if he were to get angry at her, she would still go tonight. "Alone.' she added.

Qu Xing Xu took hold of her hand and squeezed it. "And what are you going to do if he brings his soldiers with him? The risk is too high if you go alone."

Lin Xiaofei sighed. Qu Xing Xu was right. What if Yu Fangzhu suddenly brought his soldiers with him? What was she going to do if he suddenly ambushed her while trying to distract her? She knew these risks but still wanted to go. It was not because she thinks that she could easily take down Yu Fangzhu. If it were the case, she would've already brought him down the moment she got her second chance in life. 

The only reason why she wanted to go and not involve anyone was precisely because of the danger of being found if he secretly brought his soldiers with him. Not only that, she didn't want anyone to hear her conversation with Yu Fangzhu.

But Qu Xing Xu wouldn't leave her alone if she decided to persist on going alone. 

She shifted in the bathtub and turned towards him so that they could face each other. The sense of shame that they felt together was gone after seeing each other's intimate part and having done a lot of things last night. 

"Is Gu Yan around right now?"

Qu Xing Xu raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why?"

"Can I take him with me tonight? I need someone who I can order some menial tasks."

Lin Xiaofei waited for him to answer. She could see that some gears were turning inside his mind as he thoughtfully looked at her. Gu Yan was his right hand man and he could be trusted with secrets, taking them in his deathbed. Not only that, he was also used to being ordered around hence, Lin XIaofei thought that it would make things easier for her if she brought Gu Yan with her tonight.

Before a long moment passed, Qu Xing Xu finally said, "He should come around the courtyard before dusk."

…

The sun slowly rises up to the sky. The heat that came from it was making everyone else sweaty and tired just by moving around. 

Around this time, several messaging birds were flying in the sky and also quickly flew down to its destination. They were trained to send messages successfully and one bird costs about a few hundreds of gold. And surprisingly, almost half a hundred of these birds flocked together. Thus, it was quite a sight and those who recognized these birds were interested about who was at the receiving end of the messages.

In the palace.

Among the places that the messaging birds had to stop was the imperial palace. Four messaging birds put their claws on the windowsill and dropped the small bamboo cylinder in their beak. The cylinder was tightly wrapped and tied with a red cloth from an exquisite and expensive fabric and the smooth surface of the cylinder would tell anyone that the person who sent this was not an ordinary person.

"What is that?" Emperor Yun walked towards the eunuch who was appointed to screen the messaging birds in the palace. Each courtyard inside the palace has one eunuch assigned to this job and now, the eunuch in his palace was standing near the window, holding a bamboo cylinder in his hand.

The eunuch held up his hand to offer the cylinder to the emperor. "Your majesty, a messaging bird from the Qu residence just flew to his majesty's courtyard."

Emperor Yun had a foreboding feeling inside him when he heard the words of the eunuch and frowned. As much as he wanted to ignore the cylinder in the eunuch's hand and try to forget that Qu Xing Xu sent him a message, he wanted to know what the duke had to say to him after his wedding.

"Alright. You can go back to your spot." Emperor Yun reluctantly took the cylinder from the eunuch and sat down before a table.

He popped the cap from the cylinder and let the paper inside it fall on the table. Seeing the white paper, Emperor Yun felt like the paper was surrounded with evil energy and once he touched it, he wouldn't be able to escape from the danger it will bring him.

Gathering his courage and strength, Emperor Yun slowly unrolled the paper. His eyes fell on the words written in the paper, his face gradually turning paler and paler the more he read the paper.

And when finally finished reading it, Emperor Yun's body shook tremendously like a leaf being pushed around by a strong wind during a storm.

"Bastard!" He roared at the top of his lungs before tipping forward like a glass falling to the ground.

A second later, the rest of servants in the emperor's courtyard shouted in alarm as they tried to catch the falling emperor. They didn't know the gravity of what the emperor read just now, the only thing in their attention was to get to the emperor.

While everyone was panicking because the emperor was angered to the point that he collapsed, Emperor Yun's head eunuch also attentively went forward to his master and since the other servants were already by the emperor's side, he went to look at the paper that was lying on top of the table like a sore thumb.

He spread it wide and read it. His face immediately broke sweats and paled significantly. 

It wasn't only the emperor who was affected. The several other messaging birds were finished delivering the messages they had to give to their recipients and flew back to the sky and back to the Qu residence. 

However, they left a line of people who were frustratedly scared and in panic, some even collapsed in anger and some were smart enough to hide their insidious plans against Qu Xing Xu after reading the letter.

And at the same time, Yu Fangzhu also received a letter. But the letter in his hand was the only one that wasn't sent by the same messaging bird. It was suspiciously lying on top of his desk inside his study the moment he walked in.

"Meet me tonight at the same cave in the mountain."