The Governor and the Chief Constable arrived at the County Yamen early that morning and heard that Lin Yue'e had arrested the Northern Envoys.
The Northern Envoys had now escalated the matter into a diplomatic incident, and officials from the Ministry of Rites had come to demand accountability.
The Governor and the Chief Constable had a real headache on their hands. If they failed to handle this properly, they would certainly be demoted and have their pay docked.
Lin Yue'e declared with righteous confidence, "Those Northern Envoys were lurking near the Ninth Princess's Residence. I suspect that since His Majesty refused to marry the Ninth Princess off for a political alliance, they intended to abduct her. I was preventing trouble before it happened!"
After Li Chen left last night, Lin Yue'e had searched the surrounding area, then spent the night compiling information on the Northern Envoys' activities since entering the Imperial Capital. That was how she had arrived at this possibility.
She also suspected espionage or collusion with a member of the imperial family, but she had absolutely no evidence for those theories.
"Do you have evidence that they intended to abduct the Ninth Princess?"
"I haven't established that yet, but give me some time."
"So you don't?"
"We can't wait until they've done it before intervening, can we? I'm the constable in charge of that district. Keeping it safe is my duty!"
The officers around them thought Lin Yue'e was incredibly bold to dare talk back to the Governor like that.
Seeing the Governor's face grow increasingly red, the Chief Constable tried to persuade him. "Sir, Constable Lin has a very good point. If she hadn't stopped them in time, and those Court Envoys really had abducted the Ninth Princess, we'd both be guilty of dereliction of duty."
It