"Gift?" Both Lin Fan and the envoy repeated before revealing confused looks.
The leader of the group gave a nod when he heard this and said, "I'm here with a gift. Is that a problem?"
Both Lin Fan and the envoy knitted their brows, but they didn't say anything else.
They were currently in public and anything that they said would be spread, so they couldn't say what they were really feeling.
But of course, deep down, they were completely confused by this.
At the same time, the envoy couldn't help revealing a deep look of suspicion as he looked at Lin Fan.
But right now wasn't the time to talk about this matter.
So the envoy just said, "You're free to do whatever you want to do, that is your choice. The ceremony is over, so there's no need for me to stay here any longer."
After saying this, the envoy turned to leave.
However, before the envoy could leave, the leader of the crown prince's group said, "The crown prince has sent a piece of thousand year old Acacia Wood to commemorate the establishment of this new city. I ask City Lord Lin to accept this."
When the envoy heard this, his feet couldn't help stopping.
He turned back and looked at the leader of the crown prince's group with narrowed eyes before his eyes fell onto the gift that they brought.
After they lifted the cover off and he confirmed that it was indeed a piece of thousand year old Acacia Wood, he couldn't help deeply knitting his brows.
That was because…this gift was just too valuable.
A piece of thousand year old Acacia Wood wasn't just a piece of wood, but rather it was an important item that was used in the creation of new artifacts.
It was so powerful and useful that even Golden Core Realm Cultivators would be interested in it.
That was because it was strong enough to be used to create Golden Core Realm Artifacts.
Normally, this kind of thing would even be rare for princes and if they could ever get something like this, they would never use it as a present.
However, the crown prince was willing to give this piece of thousand year old Acacia Wood away for something like the establishment of a new city.
If someone said that there wasn't anything between Lin Fan and the crown prince, the envoy wouldn't believe them even if he was beaten to death.
So after confirming that it was indeed the thousand year old Acacia Wood, the envoy immediately turned his eyes to glare at Lin Fan.
Lin Fan might not have known what the thousand year old Acacia Wood was at first, but with his Appraisal Eyes, he could easily figure it out. So the moment that it was brought out, he couldn't help revealing a shocked look.
As soon as the envoy turned to glare at him, Lin Fan could only reveal an awkward look to show that he didn't know what was happening either. However, he could tell from the look in the envoy's eyes that he didn't believe him.
The leader of the crown prince's group didn't mind this at all and just said, "I hope that City Lord Lin will appreciate this item. This is an item that comes with the sincerity of the crown prince."
After he said this, the envoy glared even more at Lin Fan.
However, Lin Fan didn't have time to care about this.
Since this person had said that this was an item that came with the sincerity of the crown prince, if Lin Fan didn't give a proper answer, it would have catastrophic consequences.
After all, just a single mistake and it would be taken as a sign of offense to the crown prince.
If that happened, it wouldn't take much for the crown prince to destroy them.
So that was the last thing that Lin Fan wanted to happen.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Fan revealed a polite smile as he said, "It is my honour to accept the gift of the crown prince."
The leader of the crown prince's group gave a nod as if this was a natural thing and then waved his hand for his subordinates to bring it forward.
The piece of thousand year old Acacia Wood was placed in front of Lin Fan.
Then the leader of the crown prince's group gave a wave of his hand again before turning around to leave. As he left, he added, "City Lord Lin, we'll leave our living arrangements to you. We'll go and take a look at the city first."
Without even waiting for an answer from Lin Fan, he left with his group.
Lin Fan slightly knitted his brows when he heard this, but he quickly relaxed his expression and turned back to the envoy.
When he turned to look at the envoy, he found that the envoy had already left as well.
Since they were both gone, there was nothing for Lin Fan to say here.
So in the end, he had the host end the ceremony before he left as well.
To the side, Ming Xin and Yue Lan were both watching this with bitter looks on their faces. In the end, they shook their heads with a sigh before also heading off.
…
"That was the worst choice you could have made."
As soon as Lin Fan came into the room, that was the first thing that Yue Lan had said.
Lin Fan was taken aback by this and couldn't help taking a step back, but he still came forward and sat down in the end as he waited for Yue Lan to explain what she meant.
Yue Lan didn't explain it, but rather Ming Xin did.
Ming Xin said, "You could have politely stalled for time. They had suddenly appeared and offered a gift, but you could have said that since it was a sincere gift from the crown prince, that wasn't the right place to accept it. You could have said that this was a gift that deserved its own ceremony and refused to accept it. That at least would have bought us some time."
Lin Fan revealed a bitter smile when he heard this as he couldn't understand what the problem was.
Ming Xin then explained, "By accepting this gift, you've created problems with our relationship with both the second prince and the fourth prince. They will all doubt your intentions now because it seems like you have a connection with the crown prince. At the same time, this will also draw the attention of the other princes since this is a big move from the crown prince."
When put in such simple words, even Lin Fan could understand what he had done wrong.
But instead of wallowing in his actions, he asked, "What do we do now?"
Both Yue Lan and Ming Xin looked at each other before shaking their heads with sighs.
They really didn't know what to do now because this was just too unexpected for them and they were lacking information.
Seeing this, Lin Fan changed the topic by asking, "Did you prepare their residences yet?"
Yue Lan gave a nod in response to this and said, "I've put them in the second inn for now since the envoy is in the first inn."
Lin Fan nodded in response to this.
After a pause, Yue Lan added, "The envoy wants to meet with you about this matter."
Lin Fan revealed another bitter look when he heard this, but once again he nodded in agreement to this.
He knew that this would happen, but he also knew that he couldn't avoid it.
He was the city lord after all, this kind of thing was his responsibility to take care of.
There was no one else that could sit in for him in these meetings.
After thinking for a bit longer, Lin Fan added, "I think that I can get some information from the crown prince's group."
Both Yue Lan and Ming Xin immediately looked up at Lin Fan when they heard this, looking at him with strange looks. But there wasn't a trace of doubt that was in his eyes.
After all, he had given them information about the envoy already, so they figured that he could do the same with the crown prince's group.
Right now, information was the thing that they needed the most.
That was because the crown prince's actions had just caught them off guard too much.
The crown prince was an arrogant and willful person who put all others beneath him. He was not someone that would do something like preparing a gift for someone in celebration.
That was why they didn't know what to do at all since they couldn't read what he wanted to do.
Let alone the fact that the crown prince had offered an item with this kind of value to it.
They really needed to find out what the crown prince knew and what intentions he had for their town before doing anything.
Was there something specific he wanted?
Or did he do this to incite the other princes to take action in their town…city?
They needed all this information before being able to do anything.
Lin Fan saw these looks and said, "I'll send my scouts in later, but I need some time to gather information."
Yue Lan and Ming Xin nodded in agreement to this.
They knew that there was nothing that could be done right now, so they were more than happy to give Lin Fan this time that he needed.
But after a while, Yue Lan still added, "Try to get the information as quickly as possible. We need all the time that we can get to think of countermeasures."
Lin Fan nodded in response to this.
He knew how important it was to them, so he wouldn't hesitate at all.
He had in fact already sent the mosquitoes out as soon as he heard from Yue Lan where they were staying.
All he needed now was to wait for them to talk about something to get the information that he wanted.
He believed that it wouldn't take long for them to talk.
After all, they will believe that they were safe because there were no spies sent to watch them at all.
Once they let their guard down, they will spill all their secrets to Lin Fan's hidden spies.
After settling this matter, Lin Fan stood up and headed out of the secret room with Yue Lan and Ming Xin.
They still had to meet with the envoy after all and see what he wanted.
Though they could already guess what he wanted.
They just hoped that they would be able to convince him, otherwise there would be even more trouble for them.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦