Villainous schemes among allies

The cheerful atmosphere in the study seemed to freeze for a moment.

Jiang Wanzhi was deeply uneasy after hearing King Zhao's remarks about King Heng being "unfathomable." The sense of relief she had just felt from finding a "kindred spirit" vanished, replaced by a deeper anxiety.

That's right, we've been so busy complaining about Prince Ming and the family reunion that we haven't even dealt with the important matters yet! She's carrying several heavy accusations: "disrespectful before the emperor," "femme fatale," and "suspected of colluding with the Southern Frontier"! This has put her father, the Prime Minister, in a very precarious position!

She grabbed Prince Zhao's sleeve abruptly, disregarding all formalities and etiquette, and cried out with a mournful face, "Boss! Ally! Brother! Stop analyzing the psychology of the villains! Help! This pot of the Hundred Flowers Banquet is so dark and heavy, I'm about to be crushed! My father is almost turning his hair white with worry! The one who tied the knot must untie it! Your Highness, you have to find a way to help me settle this mess!"

Seeing her unladylike and anxious appearance, Zongzheng Zhaoran's eyes flashed with a smile, but his face remained calm and composed.

He casually brushed aside the wrinkles on his sleeve that she had pulled at him, his tone as relaxed as if he were discussing the nice weather today.

"This matter is easy to handle."

"Easy?!" Jiang Wanzhi's eyes lit up instantly, as if she had grasped a lifeline. "What's the good idea? Tell me quickly!"

King Zhao's lips curled into a calculating smile, his voice lowered, carrying an air of complete composure: "Since King Ming has gone to such lengths to set up the stage and put on such a grand show, wouldn't it be a waste if we didn't take advantage of it? We just need to turn the tables and slightly shift the source of this mess of the Hundred Flowers Banquet."

"Change direction? Turn to whom?" Jiang Wanzhi blinked, not quite understanding at first.

King Zhao looked at her and smiled slightly, "Naturally, it will be transferred to... my ninth brother, His Highness Prince Heng."

"Huh?" Jiang Wanzhi's anxious expression froze instantly, as if she had been doused with a bucket of cold water. "Push...push it to Prince Heng?"

The image of Zongzheng Hengyu's cold yet not evil face immediately flashed into her mind. She recalled the times he had seemingly unintentionally but genuinely helped her out of trouble, and his candid and strategic retreat in dealing with the rumors this time...

Throw dirty water at him? This...

Seeing her stunned and speechless, with obvious hesitation and reluctance on her face, Zongzheng Zhaoran's eyes darkened, but his tone remained gentle, with a hint of persuasion: "This is the fastest and most effective method."

"Just have Mr. Ghostface leave a clue inadvertently in Night Hawk Pavilion, implying that the Ming King initially learned about the Drunken Butterfly Flower by 'accidentally' intercepting some secret reports from the Northern Army."

"Then, slightly adjust the background of that palace maid Qingzhu, and connect her to a general in the Northern Border who was punished by Prince Heng..."

He spoke eloquently, his plan meticulous and almost flawless. If executed properly, it would not only completely clear Jiang Wanzhi and the Prime Minister's Mansion of wrongdoing, but also severely damage Prince Heng's reputation and possibly even shake his position in the army—a double victory.

However, the more Jiang Wanzhi listened, the more her brows furrowed. She finally couldn't help but interrupt him: "Wait...wait a minute!"

King Zhao stopped and looked at her leisurely, as if he had expected her reaction: "Hmm? Wan Zhi, do you find something amiss?"

Jiang Wanzhi bit her lower lip, her eyes showing some struggle: "That... Prince Heng... he doesn't seem to have done anything bad to me? This time, with the rumors going around, he seems to be... in a pretty bad situation? He even apologized and relinquished his power."

"Isn't it a bit... unfair of us to... throw all the blame on him?" Her voice trailed off, sounding a little unsure of herself. After all, who had just been so confident that Prince Heng was the villainous big boss?

But her faint sense of justice and a touch of reluctance that seemed to come from nowhere prevented her from immediately accepting this perfect plan.

Zongzheng Zhaoran quietly looked at her, observing the genuine struggle and subtle sympathy on her face.

The gentle smile on his face gradually faded, and his eyes became somewhat complicated and difficult to decipher.

With a hint of inquiry, he suddenly leaned forward, closing the distance between them. His sharp gaze locked onto her eyes, and his voice was low and slow, as if trying to pierce her heart.

“Wanzhi,” he asked softly, his tone devoid of emotion, “you have spoken up for him time and again… even going so far as to refute the plan that is most advantageous to you. Tell me…”

"Have you... fallen for my ninth brother?"

boom!

One sentence, like a thunderbolt striking straight to the top of one's head!

Jiang Wanzhi's cheeks flushed bright red instantly, even the tips of her ears turned bright red! Her heart felt like it had been gripped tightly by an invisible hand, then suddenly released, and began to pound wildly!

"You, you, you... what nonsense are you spouting!" She jumped back like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, almost falling off the chair, and shouted back incoherently, her voice distorted.

"How could I possibly like him?! He...he...he's the villain! The biggest villain! The one who ultimately killed my entire family! I'd rather avoid him than not! I wish I could...I wish I could bite him to death!"

To increase her persuasiveness, she even bared her teeth and made a fierce expression, trying to hide her damn guilty conscience and the burning heat on her face.

Do you like Zongzheng Hengyu?

What a joke!

She's here to find allies to build her business and survive, not to find love!

What's more, the target was the ultimate boss who killed her entire family in the original story!

She just... just felt that others weren't so bad? She just didn't want to owe them favors? She just... simply felt guilty?

Yes! It's because of a guilty conscience! Jiang Wanzhi is a model socialist successor, how could she so easily frame an innocent person... uh, what a villain!

Zongzheng Zhaoran took in her intense reaction, her flushed cheeks, and her blustering but weak rebuttal.

He didn't speak immediately, but his deep eyes seemed to see through everything, making Jiang Wanzhi feel like a specimen under a microscope, with nowhere to hide.

Just as she was about to succumb to the gaze and was about to reiterate her "deep hatred" for King Heng, King Zhao suddenly withdrew his extremely oppressive scrutiny.

He leaned back in his chair, and that familiar, gentle smile returned to his face, as if his earlier shocking question had been just a casual remark.

"I see." He nodded slightly, his tone becoming more relaxed. "I was overthinking it. Since Wan Zhi knows the 'plot,' she is naturally aware of its harm, so how could she have any inappropriate thoughts about him?"

He seemed to completely believe her story, and even came up with a reason for her: "It's only right that you don't want to owe him favors. After all, the deeper you get involved with him, the harder it will be to extricate yourself in the future."

Seeing that he believed her, Jiang Wanzhi felt a sudden sense of relief and quickly went along with it: "Yes, yes, that's right! You understand me as an ally! So I just felt it wasn't right from a moral standpoint! I absolutely didn't mean anything else!"

She nodded vigorously, trying to completely erase the terrible word "like" from the conversation.

King Zhao smiled, no longer dwelling on the topic, and instead said, "Since Wan Zhi is unwilling, then let's try another method. Instead of directly framing him, let... let the truth naturally point to King Ming's own mishap, how about that?"

"Although the effect is slower, it may give you more peace of mind."

Upon hearing that there was no need to frame Prince Heng, Jiang Wanzhi immediately felt relieved and nodded repeatedly, "That's good, that's good! Let that fool Prince Ming suffer the consequences of his own actions!"

A smile returned to her face, and the slight discomfort and guilt she felt inside were suppressed.

Zongzheng Zhaoran watched her relax, his warm smile still on his lips, but deep in his eyes beneath that smile, a dark light flashed and disappeared.

Zongzheng Zhaoran no longer delayed. Now that he had decided to help Jiang Wanzhi clear her name, he began to make detailed arrangements.

He didn't avoid Jiang Wanzhi; instead, it was as if he was giving her a "practical lesson in ancient political maneuvering."

He walked to the desk, spread out a piece of paper, but did not start writing immediately. Instead, he pondered for a moment and said, "Since we want the Ming King to suffer the consequences of his own actions, we need to accurately return the boomerangs of several key pieces of 'evidence' to himself."

Jiang Wanzhi immediately leaned closer, her eyes wide with curiosity, like a curious child: "How exactly do I do it? What do I need to do?"

The opportunity to witness and participate in the "male lead's" actions is extremely rare! Although this male lead seems to be a bit cunning.

King Zhao smiled slightly and tapped his finger on the paper: "First, there's that gambling addict, who suddenly paid off his debts and disappeared."

"Wasn't he arranged to 'disappear' by the Night Hawk Pavilion?" Jiang Wanzhi asked.

“He has ‘disappeared,’ but we can make him ‘reappear.’” A cold glint flashed in King Zhao’s eyes, “and in a way that is extremely disadvantageous to King Ming.”

"Mr. Ghost Face will arrange for someone to accidentally discover a male corpse with an indistinct face outside the investigation line of the Jingzhao Prefecture. The corpse is wearing the shop assistant's clothes, and several ingots of official silver bearing the mark of the Imperial Household Department are scattered around it."

"Upon investigation, it was found that this person was killed after a gambling debt dispute. Further investigation would vaguely point to an underground money lender who was related to the steward of the Ming Prince's Mansion."

Jiang Wanzhi gasped: "The dead can't prove anything, but the source of the silver and the motive for silencing them both point to the Ming King? That's too ruthless!"

She paused, a little hesitant, "But... is that guy really dead?"

King Zhao glanced at her, his tone indifferent: "Of course not. The Ghost-Faced Man had already taken him to a safe place. An unclaimed starving corpse can be easily disguised and counted." It was as if he were talking about a trivial matter.

Jiang Wanzhi: "..." Okay, let's pretend she didn't ask.

Ancient political intrigue is indeed the heart of the matter.

“Secondly,” King Zhao continued, “there are those fabricated records of flowers and plants from the southern border entering the warehouse. Since the accounts of Fuyuzhai can be added, they can naturally be subtracted, and even… something else can be added.”

"For example?" Jiang Wanzhi felt like she was playing the straight man in a comedy duo.

"For example, there is an earlier document with handwriting similar to that false record, but the content is an order stub for purchasing a batch of ordinary spices, and the recipient of that batch of spices... happens to be a villa under the name of the Ming Prince's Mansion."

King Zhao smiled slightly, “In that case, the false record pointing to the Prime Minister’s residence looks more like a clumsy conspiracy to frame someone else in order to cover up the fact that the Ming Prince’s residence purchased special spices, perhaps in preparation for the Hundred Flowers Banquet.”

"Brilliant!" Jiang Wanzhi couldn't help but clap her hands. "Turning the tables on him! Let King Ming taste what it's like to be tricked by your own methods!"

She was completely absorbed in this "villainous" act, temporarily putting her meager conscience aside.

"Finally," King Zhao's gaze deepened, "there is the palace. That Deputy Steward of the Inner Court, since he could be used by King Ming once, he can naturally be used in return."

"Wasn't he terrified? How can you still hire him?"

“The more afraid someone is, the easier they are to control.” King Zhao said indifferently, “He will be surprised to find that the little eunuch who instructed him to revise the report draft and add guiding words was in close contact with an old servant who had been expelled from the palace of King Ming’s mother.”

"And this discovery will be presented to Father Emperor in an extremely accidental way."

Jiang Wanzhi was stunned!

This series of interconnected events turned almost every point that the Ming King had meticulously planned into a bullet that bounced back!

"Your Highness... no, what's wrong with your brain?!" She exclaimed sincerely, "Look at this plan! This strategy!"

"This is treating the Ming King like an ant!"

Zongzheng Zhaoran accepted her crude yet vivid praise without hesitation, and smiled calmly: "It's just using someone else's strength against them, going with the flow." He picked up his pen, quickly wrote a few extremely obscure words, then blew on the ink to dry it and folded it up.