After being forced to leave the marriage, I became the wife of a top scholar.

Chapter 271 Her Dilemma
Meanwhile, Lin Yunche had been waiting anxiously at the princess's residence for several more days. He had secretly gone to the backyard of the princess's residence to look for Lin Sishu for two or three consecutive nights.

But Lin Sishu seemed to have known all along and hid herself, leaving Lin Yunche empty-handed several times.

"Looks like I'll have to make another trip tonight," Lin Yunche said, sitting on the small stool, looking somewhat dejected.

Pan Hu, sitting to the side, gritted his teeth as he looked at Lin Yunche, and threw a bundle of wild vegetables in front of Lin Yunche.

“I say, Young Master Yun! You can run around however you want at night, no one can stop you.”

"But could you come and help me out now?!"

After Pan Hu finished speaking, he twisted his old shoulders, imagining how he had been holed up here picking wild vegetables for the past two days, and how his heart had almost turned to ashes from picking them.

He was puzzled! How could a princess's residence like this so much as to eat wild vegetables?

Putting aside everything else, the food he ate in the concentration camp was better than what he eats now in the princess's residence.

Thinking of this, Pan Hu couldn't help but think of Feng Niang's cooking skills, and he began to miss his mother!

Lin Yunche glanced at the wild vegetables on the ground and picked them up.

Pan Hu's eyes lit up when he saw Lin Yunche's actions. Could it be that his words had finally moved the kid and he was finally going to help?
But the next second, Lin Yunche threw the wild vegetables back to Pan Hu, causing Pan Hu to yell, "Hey! What are you doing?"

Lin Yunche exclaimed with ecstatic joy, "I've got it! I know where Lin Sishu is!"

Pan Hu wasn't very excited; he glanced at Lin Yunche lazily.

Lin Yunche finally came to his senses and said to Pan Hu with a grin, "Pan Hu! Don't worry, this is definitely your last day picking wild vegetables!"

"When I see my uncle again tonight, I'll know what's going on."

After saying that, Lin Yunche hurriedly ran out of the house, leaving Pan Hu alone facing a small hill of wild vegetables.

"You brat! You ran away again! It's only going to happen tonight! Why aren't you picking wild vegetables now!" Pan Hu shouted inwardly, looking resentfully at Lin Yunche's back.

Pan Hu then shook his head, picked up a wild vegetable, and resignedly continued picking.

Lin Yunche ran out of the house and stared intently at the backyard of the princess's residence.

That's it! That's right! When the Lin family was on the march, they had a military rule that every general should know how to remember the bitterness of the past and appreciate the sweetness of the present.

This was something he heard from Lin Feiyun when he was a child.

"Dad, we are clearly hunters, so why do you like to go up the mountain to dig up wild vegetables?"

"Even in winter, you still require us to dig out a piece of land in the yard?"

Lin Feiyun smiled and patted ten-year-old Lin Yunche's head, saying, "Big Head, this is the rule of our Lin family, and also the rule of our Lin family army."

"This is to remind us that no matter where we are, we must never forget the suffering of the people and the suffering of war."

"Father, I don't understand. If there were no war, there would be no Lin family army."

Lin Feiyun smiled and continued, "What is the Lin family army!"

"If there were no more wars in the world, it wouldn't matter if the Lin family army didn't exist."

Thinking of this, Lin Yunche suddenly twitched the corner of his mouth. He hadn't forgotten his uncle! His uncle was still part of the Lin family army!
So in the evening, Lin Yunche, dressed in night clothes, went straight to the vegetable garden in the southwest corner of the princess's residence.

Just as Lin Yunche had expected, the vegetable garden was not large, but there were still people living nearby to guard it.

Lin Yunche followed the path slowly to the small house, and soon heard people talking inside.

"Furan! What brings you here today!" Princess Yunni's voice came from the small wooden house.

The man named Fu Ran coughed twice and said in a high-pitched voice, "Princess, this old servant received some news in the palace today. Thinking that this news is related to you, I dared not delay and came to inform you in time!"

"Oh?" Princess Yunni asked, "What news?"

Fu Ran looked up at Yun Ni, then glanced at Lin Si Shu beside her.

Princess Yunni said, "It's alright. General Lin has long lost his former vigor. He is now just the consort of my princess's residence, and has no other identity."

Fu Ran nodded slightly, knowing full well what was going on.

Over the years, Princess Yunni has tried every means to torment Lin Sishu, and the methods of torment he, an old man who has been in the palace for many years, has never seen before.

Anyone who can endure it and doesn't commit suicide is already a real man.

Therefore, Lin Sishu is indeed no longer the same person he was back then; otherwise, he wouldn't be kneeling on the ground like a dog, begging the princess for mercy and to be spared punishment.
Fu Ran was relieved.

"Princess, it's like this. Today, this old servant heard that something happened to the Lin family in Huaizhou City!"

"Lin?"

As she spoke, the princess secretly glanced at Lin Sishu, only to see Lin Sishu standing there blankly, seemingly not having heard her.

However, Princess Yunni still seemed unwilling to let Lin Sishu know.

"Prince Consort! You may leave now!"

Lin Sishu nodded blankly, turned around and walked out of the wooden house. She picked up a ladle from the water vat in front of the house and went to water the vegetables in the garden.

Now that Lin Yunche, who was hiding behind the house, had shown himself, he could face Lin Sishu directly.

But what he wanted to know more about now was what had happened to the Lin family! Lin Yunche frowned deeply, clinging tightly to the window, his ear pressed against the wall, afraid of missing a single word.

"Alright, go ahead and say it!" Princess Yunni said, seeing that the person had already walked away.

Fu Ran nodded and said, "Princess, the Lin family is probably doomed."

Lin Yunche hid outside the wooden house, listening to one shocking piece of news after another. He could no longer stand and squatted down on the ground.

impossible! Absolutely impossible!
Lin Yunche suddenly felt a pain in his chest, followed by a gushing out of blood.

"Wanqing won't die! Wanqing won't die!" Lin Yunche muttered frantically. At this moment, he no longer cared about seeing Lin Sishu, but quickly ran back to his residence. As soon as he returned, Lin Yunche began to pack their things.

The noise woke up Pan Hu, who was still asleep. Pan Hu opened his eyes and saw Lin Yunche's anxious look, and suddenly shuddered.

"Young Master Yun, what's wrong? Have our identities been exposed?"

Lin Yunche did not answer directly, but said, "Pan Hu, now send a message to Yang Cong and the others, we are going back to Huaizhou!"

Pan Hu noticed the bloodstains still wet on Lin Yunche's lips and knew things might have changed. Without saying anything more, he took out the pigeons they had prepared beforehand from under the bed, tied the letter to the pigeons, and released them.

After the news was released, the two secretly arrived at the north gate of the princess's residence under the cover of night.

According to Lin Yunche and his group's prior knowledge, the princess's residence was always heavily guarded, with the main gate being particularly heavily guarded. The north gate, being the furthest from the center compared to the other gates, might be a potential point of entry.

But when the two arrived here, they discovered that there were forty or fifty guards stationed here.

Upon seeing this, Pan Hu angrily said, "Bah! I knew before that the princess's residence was guarded like an iron barrel, but today I've seen it for myself. There are so many people guarding one gate."

"Even the city gates of Huaizhou don't have this many soldiers guarding them!"

After saying that, Pan Hu grinned. Lin Yunche's expression wasn't much better. The escape plan they had discussed with Yang Cong was probably useless now because of his preemptive action.

With so many guards, forcing our way in would surely alert the other guards at the princess's residence.

What to do! Lin Yunche bit his lip, not even realizing that he had bitten it until it bled.

"Pan Hu, are you afraid?" Lin Yunche suddenly asked.

Pan Hu turned to look at Lin Yunche, only to see that Lin Yunche's eyes were filled with a bloodthirsty look like a wild beast, as if he was about to tear the guards in the distance to shreds at any moment.

Ha! Given all this, how could Pan Hu not understand Lin Yunche's plan!

"I'm not afraid! This mere princess's residence, I'll fight you to the death this time."

After saying that, Lin Yunche and Pan Hu got up to rush out, but they did not expect that a huge force would pull them back from behind.

"Who goes there?" Lin Yunche and Pan Hu turned around abruptly and saw a burly man standing behind them.

Just as Lin Yunche was about to make a move, the burly man stepped aside to give them space, and the person behind him immediately came into view.

"Stop! I'm here to help you!"

Lin Yunche withdrew his hand, staring in shock at the person in front of him, "How could it be you!"

The newcomer nodded to the burly man, who then stepped back to a distance. "This isn't the place to talk. Come with me!"

Lin Yunche and Pan Hu exchanged a glance. Now that things had come to this, they had no choice but to trust her this once.

So, led by that man, they soon arrived at the secret room in the garden.

Lin Yunche had been to this secret room before. Could she have been sent by her uncle?
Lin Yunche was now full of doubts. He looked at Yun Ni warily, wanting to see what tricks she was going to play.

Princess Yunni noticed Lin Yunche's wary gaze. She turned around, met Lin Yunche's eyes, and smiled, saying, "Young Master Lin, if I wanted to harm you, I would have had A Mang capture you just now."

"How could I possibly give you the opportunity to speak to me at such close range?"

Lin Yunche and Pan Hu thought about it and agreed. The burly men beside Yun Ni were perfectly capable of easily capturing the two of them, so there was no need to waste so much breath on them.

"But you just said you would help us? Why?" Lin Yunche couldn't understand; Princess Yunni had absolutely no reason to help him!
But Yunni gave him that very reason.

Princess Yunni then took out the map and tiger tally that Lin Sishu had presented to the Northern Dynasty and said, "Because I want Sishu to get what he wants."

Lin Yunche glanced at what Yun Ni was holding, then looked at Princess Yun Ni with a heart full of doubt.

Princess Yunni then slowly spoke: "In the Northern Dynasty, everyone knows that Si Shu is a general of the Shang Kingdom and a prisoner of our Northern Dynasty."

He deserved to die!

"It was me! I forcibly abducted Si Shu and made her my prince consort!"

"It was me who made Si Shu bear the infamy of treason and collusion with the enemy."

"Only in this way can I save Sishu's life."

"But it is precisely because of this that I turned Si Shu into a soulless living dead."

Princess Yunni's eyes welled up with tears as she spoke, "In front of everyone, I insulted him like an animal, and I beat him until he was covered in bruises, with not a single unscathed spot on his body."

“I watched with my own eyes how his once bright and lively eyes have become lifeless.”

"You could say that I preserved his body, but I also killed his soul."

Lin Yunche could see a lot of complex emotions in Yun Ni's eyes: pain, helplessness, heartache, and determination.
Lin Yunche seemed to understand something. Could it be that the rumors they now knew about Princess Yunni only treating Lin Sishu as a plaything were just a cover-up put on by Princess Yunni?
But his uncle really was "dead"!

"How can I believe what you say!" Lin Yunche asked.

Yun Ni composed herself and said calmly, "I can give you these two most important tokens."

"I can also give you the confession from Father Emperor's interrogation back then, and then you'll know what to do!"

Lin Yunche was still skeptical until he actually received the two tokens and the letter of commitment that Yun Ni had mentioned.

Lin Yunche glanced at the confession, which detailed the entire process of Lin Sishu being framed, completely different from what his uncle had told him before.

What exactly is going on!

Yun Ni seemed to sense the doubt in Lin Yunche's mind. "Young Master Lin, what I had Si Shu say to you before was just to test whether you were reliable!"

"Now it seems that even if he really betrayed the country, your Lin family will spare no effort to protect him. I can finally rest easy."

Lin Yunche suddenly realized, "Then what exactly is your purpose in doing this?"

(End of this chapter)