5 5. The truth

The moment she closed her door, she allowed herself to sit on the floor feeling all her energy drained away. She remembered her conversation with her master earlier.

"You are not my niece"

Lihua looked at her master confused. She is sure that her master did not come to see her just to say that.

"We are not related by blood. Your father is a close friend of mine. He asked me to take care of you for a while."

"And?" she doesn't know what to reply to him. Master Guang looked at her closely.

"They are back now and you have to return to them now."

Silence. Lihua doesn't know what she should be feeling or saying right now. She felt that her master is still playing some tricks on her right now.

"hmmm okay."

Master Guang sighed after hearing her reply.

"I am not really good with this," he said suddenly looking at the man on his side. The one that Lihua followed earlier.

"Can you tell her the rest?"

"Yes, master" the man said.

Lihua looked at him closely now. This young man must have been a new member of the Holy Mountain because she hasn't seen him before. The young man suddenly realized that she is looking at him intently, so he introduced himself first. "Young Miss, I'm Tingfeng."

"What did you call me?" Lihua couldn't believe what she heard.

The young man was startled and doesn't know how to answer her. He looked up at Master Guang for help.

"Tingfeng is a Holy Mountain agent and Minister of War's personnel. He is tasked to bring you back to the Minister of War's household." Master Guang said helping out Tingfeng.

Lihua looked at her master and the young man named Tingfeng. What kind of a joke is this? Lihua asked herself.

"Whether you will accept it or not, you are the first daughter of Minister of War Hu Yang and his first wife Hu Jia. You need to leave the Prime Minister's mansion immediately."

When Master Guang is about to turn around to leave, Lihua stopped him.

"Am I still a Holy Mountain agent?" she doesn't know why she asked this.

"Yes, you are and you will always be. Your intelligence about the Chao Shen will be very useful for your mission."

"What is my next mission?" Lihua looked up immediately.

"Turn the empire upside down."

The next day, Lihua doesn't feel like waking up. If not for the mean and arrogant Chao head butler who keeps on banging the door of the servants quarter to wake her up, she will not move at all. She lazily went out of the servants quarter and moved towards the first master's room. Her task is to make sure that everything that the first master needed is ready even before he wakes up. Since she is just one of the lowly servants in this big manor, she doesn't have any choice but to do her job. Even though she became Chao Shen's trusted person, she remained a lowly servant. She is the one who doesn't want to be promoted because she believed that being a lowly servant will help them more in spying on the royal family and their people. But the truth is, she doesn't want to be part of the scheming happening within the ranks of servants in this household. Especially now that they are looking for a girl to be his future wife.

After checking if everything is in order, Lihua knocked on her young master's chamber.

"Young master, are you now awake?" she did not hear any response inside. She softly knocked. But still no response. She is about to peek inside when she heard a cough from behind. She immediately turned around to see the already dressed Chao Shen. He is wearing a blue silk robe with a black belt. He looked dashing today than usual. Lihua frowned when she saw a dark look on his face. She just stood there for quite a while when she noticed a couple of servants are approaching. She immediately bowed her head and said, "Forgive me your highness. I did not know that you are now awake."

Chao Shen is about to say something when he also noticed the servants who reached his room now.

"Greetings, young master" all eight servants greeted altogether.

Chao Shen acknowledged their greetings with a nod.

"Young master, the carriage is now ready." said the servant in front without looking at him.

"Okay, I understand" then he motioned them to go away.

When they are out of sight, Chao Shen looked at her again.

"Are you feeling better now?"

Lihua ignored his question. She lowered her look and said, "Young master is now leaving. I will take my leave now." when she is about to turn around, she was stopped.

"Wait"

Lihua turned around again.

"No one is here, you can speak freely"

But Lihua knew that they are not alone. She is sure that someone is watching them.

After a few minutes, Chao Shen, whose frustration is now visible said, "Fine, if you don't want to talk about it now. When I came back later, I want to know everything." he turned around to leave when he heard her voice. He almost turned around quickly smiling but he stopped himself.

"Where are you going?" Lihua still remembers her mission on the Prime Minister's mansion. To look closely and know everything about Chao Shen, the first son of the Prime Minister who he wants to be the next Crown Prince.

"At the palace. We are summoned to welcome back the Minister of War Hu Yang."

Lihua felt something triggered inside of her when she heard her 'father's' name.

"oh," that's the only response she had made.

Chao Shen turned around to see her reaction but then, she already turned around and started to walk away. He is very confused right now. He wants to know what's going on but he needs to hurry up the palace. He promised to himself that he will not let it slide later when he came back.