บท 19: Hidden Agenda II

"His… His Highness, the-the banquet…" the older maid Wei Yan said while the trio chased after their Fourth Prince after being able to see him clearly when the Two Senses Distortion Barrier broke.

The Fourth Prince halted his steps, allowing his servants to catch up to him.

He half-turned his body and the silver moonlight shined behind his back, making his shadowed countenance look mysterious, "The banquet? It doesn't matter anymore. We will be fine for the time being." He gave them a smile and turned back to go where his carriage was parked.

The two maidservants where dazed for a second before following right after him while Ting Niao, his only eunuch, stood there for almost a minute as if thinking of something before sprinting forward.

*****

Clack- click- click… It was almost the end of the Fifth Watch (3-5 am) when in the middle of a beautiful verdant backyard of a grand guest courtyard several nail-sized crystal beads of all colours and without a definite shape were thrown onto a greyish board.

"Still the same… can't understand its meaning." When all of them stopped, a soft whisper sounded as a pair of golden eyes watched seriously at two glittering golden, one black and one blood-coloured crystal beads at the centre of the greyish board as they were encircled by a row of nine translucent and nine white crystals beads while all the other crystal beads were dispersed around after them.

Tap- tap- tap-

"Brother Tian, have you already figured it out?" Minutes later, a young man clad in black robes with violet patterns appeared out of the shadows and asked with his deep voice while approaching to the owner of the golden eyes who was no other but the white-robbed Holy Prince, Yin Tian, that had been sitting cross-legged before the greyish board for more than a couple of tens of minutes by now already.

"No, not yet. It's always the same and I can't seem to understand its meaning. But it's to be expected, I'm not good at Destiny Calculation," Yin Tian said seriously; there was no magnanimous smile in his perfect semblance and his holy and kind bearing had frozen a few degrees.

The black-robbed young man stopped a step behind Yin Tian, "Haha, if the Golden Imperial Prophet Shi who still uses 1080 crystal beads were to hear you while seeing at the 108 you use, he would cry while begging for forgiveness.

"Brother Tian, you are so cruel, pffth."

"Haa- Anyway, what brings you here Brother Zheng? I'm sure King Rui wouldn't risk being exposed to ask me just that," Yin Tian said without still bothering to look behind him.

"Ahh, about that… are you really marrying the Fourth Prince of this Empire?

"I just received a Red Imperial Command through the Communication Crystal Mirror and…" the young man in black, who surprisingly was the King Rui who was said to not have a good relationship with the Holy Prince, said as he took out a translucent palm-sized circular mirror that had a nine-coloured glitter.

"Oh, it has been transmitted already. Imperial Father is surely fast," Yin Tian nodded slightly.