Inlaid With Jade - Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
Marriage Withdrawal 
  
In the afternoon of late autumn, the sky was clear and sunny. When Northern Imperial Guard Chief Li Heming led a team of Imperial Guards on horseback, he saw the Lin family’s second miss, Lin Yu, walking out of the Liufang bookstore on East Street. 

The shop had built a high threshold at the door’s entrance to gather luck energy. Indeed, twice as many people were in and out of the door as in the shops next door.
  
There were few girls in the bookstore, and the threshold was too high for the sickly second daughter of the Lin family. She lowered her head slightly, lifted her skirt’s hem, and carefully stepped out the door. The hem of her dress brushed against the threshold that was rubbed shiny by the clothes and shoes of many book lovers. After coming out, she fixed the jade ornament on her waist before walking forward. Behind her, left and right, were a boy and a maid, the boy’s arms full of thick books while the maid carrying lipstick, powder, and other girl’s things wrapped in oil paper; it seemed they had been on the street for a while. 
  
The maid wanted to reach out and give her a hand, but she raised her hand and gently pushed it away, shaking her head to indicate that it was unnecessary. Few noble daughters raised by aristocratic families have such a temperament and style as hers.
  
It was not winter, but Lin Yu wore a thin cloak embroidered with a cluster of green bamboo. She had fair skin, thick hair, and a dignified appearance. She wore an exquisite jade hairpin in her hair. In this capital, she was born with a first-class beauty.
  
Li Heming glanced at Lin Yu, but this glance had seen her from head to toe. 

Li Heming had a pair of bottomless black eyes, cold and ruthless, like an eagle. Rumor has it that when interrogating a criminal in the Imperial Prison, these eyes could tell at a glance from the criminal’s bloody clothes and rotten flesh how much torture he could still withstand and how much blood he could shed. This rumor, naturally, wasn’t a compliment.
  
Since Li Heming entered the Northern Office, both major and minor officials died in his hands, and only a few people could live out of his hands. Even if you survive the imperial prison, your body would be branded with many scars. Civilians, high-ranking officials, and dignitaries, all of them avoid him. So, at this time, when ten pairs of iron hooves stepped over the stone street, passers-by quickly stepped out of the way.
  
When Zelan, Lin Yu’s maid, heard these hooves, she subconsciously raised her eyes to see the eye-catching flying fish clothes on the horses and looked at the leader. She only saw a side face with sword eyebrows, starry eyes, a straight nose, and thin lips. He was born well, but his face was full of coldness, and his expression was indifferent.
  
Zelan’s complexion changed slightly, and she whispered to Lin Yu: “Miss, that seems to be Chief Li of the Imperial Guards.” 
  
Lin Yu listened to her without raising her head but softly said, “I know.” 
  
Since she came out of the bookstore, she had never even looked in the direction of those hoofbeats, and Zelan had never heard anyone on the street mention Lord Li’s name, so she didn’t know how she knew about it. She wanted to ask, but remembering those old stories between her young lady and Lord Li, she held back her curiosity. 
  
The boy, Wenzhu, saw her confused face, shook his head, and sighed. Why are you so stupid? In this city, eight out of ten people who run wild on horseback are the Imperial Guards arresting people under imperial decree; what’s so hard to guess? 
  
The Lin family’s carriage was parked in front of the bookstore. Zelan helped Lin Yu get on the carriage and put the things bought inside. She saw Wenzhu making a wink towards her, and after freezing for a moment, she reacted and asked Lin Yu in the carriage, “Miss, Lord Li is heading towards West Street. Do we have to make a detour?” 
  
Lin Yu picked up candied fruit from a small food box in the carriage. She momentarily fell silent. “Why must we take a detour?” She meant that they didn’t have to avoid him. 
  
Zelan nodded, “I understand.” After saying that, she immediately raised her hand and told the driver to move. 
  
As the wheels rolled, Lin Yu put the candied fruit into her mouth, biting into it, but then immediately took out her handkerchief and spat it out. She frowned and wrapped the candied fruit with a handkerchief. Her moist red lips gently pursed: who made this snack? It’s so bitter. Is it infested with worms? 
  
Indeed, Li Heming was ordered to arrest someone today, and the person he arrested was Wang Changzhong, the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue. More than a dozen tall horses stopped in front of the Wang Mansion, and the Imperial Guards dismounted, arresting people and searching the house. Wang Changzhong’s wife, Mrs. Li, hugged her two children and stood in the courtyard with tears in her eyes, watching Wang Changzhong being chained and escorted out of the door, but she didn’t even dare to ask for mercy. The children screamed ‘Father,’ but Mrs. Li covered their mouths, leaving only vague cries. 
  
Li Heming did not enter the house. He sat high on the horse and watched Wang Changzhong being forced out indifferently. However, when Wang Changzhong saw him, he saluted as usual: “Mr. Li.” 
 
The chains on his hands collided, making a loud noise. Li Heming did not return the salute but only raised his hand to give a signal to escort the person back to the Imperial Prison. 
  
Lin Yu was weak, so the coachman drove the carriage slowly as usual, but even so, they still bumped into Imperial Guards’s horses when traveling through the front of the Wang Mansion. That would have been fine, but the Imperial Guards’s horses parked on the street blocked the road and their way. That horse and the ordinary horse were different. They had seen dead people and stepped on human blood, and they smelled of blood. The coachman saw that his horse stopped and refused to move forward, so he whipped the horse’s belly, saying anxiously: “Damn it, why did you stop? Move!”
  
The horse ate the pain, snorted, and took a few steps backward. Lin Yu in the carriage was shaken from side to side, busy holding onto the wall to sit still: “Zelan, what’s wrong?” 
  
Ze Lan looked at Li Heming, sitting on the black horse and staring at the carriage. Like the frightened horse, she was a little scared. She whispered to the carriage, “Miss, horses are blocking the road ahead. I’m afraid it will take a while to pass.”
  
“Horse?” Lin Yu pulled open the carriage curtains. Her white jade fingers lift the curtains to see a black horse standing outside the window; the person sitting on the horse wore a striking flying fish suit. She froze momentarily and subconsciously looked up; her watery eyes met that person’s dark, deep eyes. His face was cold as ice. If it wasn’t Li Heming, then who is it? 
  
The old story between Lin Yu and Li Heming was not a secret in Yingtian Prefecture; at least every marriageable boy and girl knew it. Not for anything else, but because half a year ago, when Lin Yu was about to turn eighteen, the Lin family withdrew from the marriage engagement between Lin Yu and Li Heming.
  
Allegedly, it was Lin Yu’s intention.