MTLNOVEL Chapter 172: The Report
The lanterns from the banquet still flickered beneath the trees, casting long shadows on the crimson silk draped over the tables. Distant laughter echoed from the clearing, dulled now, like the final notes of a performance no one had truly enjoyed. Somewhere, a stringed instrument stuttered through a farewell melody.
Zhu Mingyu did not look up.
He sat inside his tent, the door flap left slightly open so he could hear the outside world breathe. A scroll was unrolled on the table before him, but he hadn't read a word. His fingers pressed into the lacquered wood, the tension in his shoulders coiled tight and sharp.
She hadn't returned.
And she always made sure to sleep in his tent at night. Even if they weren't in the same bed. In fact, the only reason why she even had her own tent was because that was what was expected.
He didn't need to ask when Shi Yaozu stepped through the entrance, silent as ever. The shadow guard paused just inside the tent, his posture rigid but not nervous. No one else would have noticed the change—but Mingyu knew how to read silence like scripture.
"She's gone," he said flatly.
Yaozu inclined his head once. "Yes, Your Highness."
A beat passed.
Mingyu exhaled slowly, the weight of those words hitting him harder than expected. "Taken?"
"No." Yaozu's voice remained low, calm. "She let it happen."
This time, Mingyu did look up.
"What do you mean?"
Yaozu took a step forward, the flickering lamplight catching the faint dust on his shoulders. His mask was still on, but his eyes—those traitorous eyes—were darker than before. Distant.
"She was followed," Yaozu said. "We knew it, but she didn't care. She dismissed me outside her tent and told me not to interfere, that whatever came next was not my burden."
Mingyu stood slowly, his hand curling into a fist atop the table.
"She wanted to be taken?"
"She allowed it." Yaozu nodded once. "I could smell the powder they used. It wouldn't have affected her. The servant was likely a distraction. But she stood still anyway. Let the girl circle her like prey. Didn't even flinch when the strike came."
The silence stretched between them.
"She's baiting them," Mingyu muttered, more to himself than to Yaozu. "For what?"
"I don't know," the guard replied. "She didn't tell me."
Mingyu turned his back, walking toward the far end of the tent where a low table stood beside a chest of maps. He opened the lid and stared at the documents within, though his eyes didn't see them.
"She knew something was coming," he said. "Even if she didn't know exactly what it was—" He cut himself off, his jaw tight. "She's been two steps ahead this entire hunt."
Yaozu nodded once but bother to speak.
Mingyu's voice dropped even more as he looked down at his desk, his fists clenched. "Then why the hell do I feel like I'm behind?"
The flap shifted again. A presence entered the tent, quieter than expected but not unseen.
Zhu Deming.
He looked like he hadn't slept, his eyes shadowed, hair damp from a recent wash, likely post-banquet. But there was no fog in his gaze—only cold calculation. His gaze swept from Mingyu to Yaozu in an instant.
"She's gone?"
"She allowed herself to be taken," Yaozu confirmed.
Deming didn't react at first. Then he crossed the tent in two strides and poured himself a cup of tea, hand steady.
"Where?"
"Unknown." Yaozu shifted his weight. "They didn't take her north. Too obvious. They didn't run west—we'd have felt them. And if they took her east, they'd be backtracking through camp. The only option is south—deep into the hunting territory. Or underground."
Deming stared down into his tea for a moment before asking, "Did she say anything else before she dismissed you?"
Yaozu paused. Then: "She said this needed to play out."
Deming snorted softly. "Of course she did."
Mingyu rubbed a hand over his mouth, then turned back to them both.
"She's going to get herself killed."
"No," Deming said instantly, shaking his head. "Not unless she wants to. And that woman isn't going to let anything happen to her that she doesn't want. I've seen her… she is too powerful."
Yaozu's gaze flicked toward the younger prince as something like agreement passed between them.
"She's not reckless," Deming continued. "And she's not weak. If she chose this moment, it's because something set her off. Maybe its because all the players she needs are in the same place. She didn't want to move until every piece was on the board."
"You think she planned this days ago?"
"I think she planned this before the banquet ever started."
Mingyu moved to the map table and spread a set of papers over the surface—sketches of the hunting grounds, elevation markings, cave systems, and blocked-off old mines. His hand hovered over a shaded region near the southern slope.
"There's an abandoned mine here. Collapsed after the earthquake five years ago. Supposedly sealed."
"It's not," Yaozu said.
Both princes turned.
"I checked it out on the first day we arrived here. It looked like someone had been moving in and out of it for a while now," Yaozu continued, his face completely devoid of emotion.
Mingyu stared at the map again. "If that's where she is…"
"She doesn't want to be rescued," Deming reminded his brother sharply. "Not yet. We rush in too early, and we risk ruining whatever it is she has planned."
"Whatever it is she's doing is going to get her hurt," Mingyu snapped.
Yaozu didn't flinch. "She knows pain. She's not afraid of it."
"That's not the point—"
"It is to her," Deming cut in. "You know it is."
The silence that followed felt heavier than before, like the tent itself had sunk into the ground.
Mingyu exhaled through his nose. "So we wait."
"For now," Deming agreed. "We wait. And we watch. She'll leave a signal. She always does."
"And if she doesn't?" Mingyu asked.
Yaozu's voice was quiet but firm. "Then we tear the forest apart and destroy anyone standing in our way." He looked at the Crown Prince for a moment. "And maybe it's time to take off that mask of yours."