Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Feng Ren came out of the palace, his facial expression as cold as stone.

“Huaiyu, let’s go.”

Feng Jin secretly stole a glance at his father. Then, he heard the sound of things crashing and the sound of the imperial maids screaming in the palace. He hesitated for a while and decided to keep up with his father’s pace. In his heart, he was utterly disappointed at the emperor. He had completely given up.

As Feng Ren expected, the emperor only granted a huge amount of money and medicine to Feng Jin and considered it as a temporary compensation. He did not mention the ways to deal with the envoys of the Northern Borderline at all. He evaded the subject under discussion. He even defended the gang from the Northern Borderline without the tiniest bit of disguise.

Even if Feng Ren threatened to resign, the emperor had already made up his mind. The emperor was even somewhat happy.

Although Feng Ren was the head of the secretariat who did not really run affairs, he was still a minister. People holding insignificant positions should not be looked down upon.

If he voluntarily resigned, the emperor would then be able to appoint his confidants and gradually grow his status of being the emperor in the palace.

Secretary Liu had eagerly gone inside the palace to report Feng Ren’s arrival upon hearing Feng Ren’s intention of resigning. However, the emperor was delighted. Feng Ren almost laughed when he put their two reactions together… A eunuch actually had a better foresight than an emperor!

If the Feng family kept devoting themselves to such an emperor, they would be done for soon.

It was best if he got himself out of the situation early.

******

If one were to talk about chess skills alone, ten of Lu Zheng could not defeat a calculative Wei Ci.

“I’m not going to play chess with you anymore. I feel like I’ve punched a wall with my fist every time and I feel very upset.” Seeing that the game was as good as lost, Lu Zheng frankly admitted his defeat. It would be self-torture if he continued to play the game.

He initially wanted to look for Jiang Pengji to seek consolation, but he found that she had already disappeared when he turned around.

“Zixiao, have you seen where Lanting went?” Lu Zheng asked casually.

Wei Ci replied, “He left 15 minutes ago. I think he has gone to bed.”

Lu Zheng nodded and immediately came to his senses. Gritting his teeth, he wanted to throttle the person in front of him. “You were still playing chess with me 15 minutes ago, yet you had the leisure to pay attention to someone else!”

Wei Ci was speechless.

Jiang Pengji was originally watching the two of them play chess, but she knew that Lu Zheng would definitely lose based on the situation of the game. All of a sudden, she was not in the mood to continue watching the game.

Contrary to what Wei Ci said, she did not go to bed. Instead, she changed into her casual clothes and went to drink with Liu She––yes, to drink wine with Liu She.

Liu She thought, What can I do? I’m very despaired too!

He watched how his daughter drank wine as though it was water and did not take a single sip of wine himself.

“Lanting, do you have any worries?” he asked.

Jiang Pengji ordered her attendants to leave and asked Liu She, “You’ve said before that you want to marry my sister off to Wuma Jun. Are you serious about that?”

Liu She frowned and replied, “Of course I’m serious. I’ve said it before––the old scores of the last generation don’t require you to…”

“If so, I have a presumptuous request.” Her eyes lit up and there was some sort of splendor in between.

“What is it?”

Jiang Pengji answered, “I want to look for a woman with outstanding looks as her dowry for her marriage with Wuma Jun.”

Nansheng was already in chaos. The factions of Nanman had conquered down towards the south with their military and drove straight in into the heart of Dongqing. One out of the five countries would be destroyed soon. She could no longer wait.

Liu Xi’s physical age would be 13 in a few months’ time. No one knew what the world would be like in a few years time. Jiang Pengji planned to start making strategies now instead of waiting until then.

Liu She was somewhat stunned.

He understood that his daughter probably wanted to use a pretty woman to ensnare a man. She wanted to make the already chaotic situation even worse and secretly benefit from it. The use of a woman to ensnare a man and meddling in his matters might, after all, be a good strategy, but Wuma Jun was apparently just an unfavored prince…

Regarding that, Jiang Pengji just sneered coldly.

“Does the Dongqing Royal Family still have integrity? They could rape and insult the wives of the ministers, murder their own brothers, have affairs with their sister-in-laws, and kill and rob their parents. Do you think they wouldn’t snatch their sons’ wives? Instead of giving him the beauty right away, it’s better to let him snatch her away himself. That way, people won’t grow suspicious.” As she tapped on the table with her fingers, she added, “Besides, this woman should have similar facial features to Wuma Jun’s mother, Wang Shi––as much as possible.”

Liu She’s hands trembled. The teacup that he was holding dropped onto the table all of a sudden and there was tea all over the table.

His face became extremely grave. Seeing his reaction, Jiang Pengji gave a look that said “sure enough.”

“What you said isn’t difficult to accomplish. I’ll get someone to look for her.”

Liu She tried to keep himself calm, for fear of revealing extra emotions.

Jiang Pengji did not seem to notice that Liu She had lost his composure a while ago and continued to drink, a tiny smile hanging in the corner of her lips.

However, Liu She, who was next to her, felt uneasy. As time went by, the psychological pressure given to him by his daughter had increased.

It was very fun to enjoy a night of soft singing by the orioles and the darting of swallows in the evenings in the disreputable quarters of the city.

Late in the morning the next day, Jiang Pengji, who smelled of alcohol, returned to the hot spring resort.

“What bloody place did you come from?” Lu Zheng saw her and was about to go forward and greet her, but he was shocked by the various scents of rouge on her body. The rouge smelled good, but it could not ward off the smell of alcohol. When the two were integrated, it was a kind of olfactory torture for those who were used to smelling all kinds of incense.

“Changqing Alley. It’s not a disgusting place.” Jiang Pengji cleaned her face with a soaked towel. She looked a lot more refreshed.

Lu Zheng did not say a word. Even if he had come to Shangjing and bathed in a hot spring for the first time, he knew what sort of a place Changqing Alley was. It was a place where men sought comfort and where all kinds of beauties gathered. The teenager in front of him had not even matured yet.

“The wine and performances there are pretty good. If you like it, I’ll take you there later.”

Upon Jiang Pengji’s invitation, Lu Zheng hurriedly replied, “Why, I’m embarrassed… However, I’ve heard that there are many intelligent women there. Lots of clever, young men would compete in poetry to make the women laugh… I really want to see it for myself.”

Wei Ci was speechless. He silently glanced at Lu Zheng, who was somewhat itching to go. Then, he looked at Jiang Pengji and snorted coldly.

Seeing that Wei Ci walked straight past the two, Lu Zheng said bitterly, “Zixiao has never liked to be close to females. That place isn’t at all appealing to his eyes. He heard what we said just now… I hope that he won’t tell on us to the Master…”

“He won’t,” Jiang Pengji replied confidently.

Lu Zheng asked, “How do you know?”

Jiang Pengji responded, “It’s my intuition.”

Wei Ci did not tell on them indeed, but Jiang Pengji and Lu Zheng were not able to go to Changqing Alley because Master Yuan Jing left Ji Shan with his students that afternoon. Upon seeing the situation, Liu She felt that bathing in the hot spring was boring, so he took Jiang Pengji and went down the mountain with her on a free ride.

They were still talking and laughing when they arrived at the city gate. However, a piece of news struck out of the blue: Something had happened to the eldest prince of the Count of Zhenbei!