Chapter 55

In his previous life, the person Yuwen Zhe found most troublesome was Yuan Qiong, who used her status as the emperor's sister-in-law to bully him every day, and he couldn't do anything about it.

Secondly, there is the rebel leader Hong Xin. Although he is not as cunning as Yuan Qiong, he knows how to use his popularity among the people to suppress him, so he cannot be touched for the time being.

These two, one inside and one outside, colluded in evil deeds. One stood on the moral high ground, while the other stood on the high ground of popular prestige, making Yuwen Zhe grit his teeth in frustration yet helpless.

In this life, he was determined to kill Yuan Qiong first, then deal with Hong Xin. However, Hua Wenluo's accident prevented him from taking action. By the time he realized what was happening, the crisis in Jiangbei was already imminent.

He inwardly cursed his mistake and then tried to salvage the situation. Better late than never. But would Yuan Liu Niang give him that chance? Of course not!

She was unhappy that Lin Qiang had left her in the capital, and she wanted to make some great contributions to show her boss and prove her strength. Of course, she couldn't let Yuwen Zhe have the opportunity to divert his attention to other things.

Therefore, after the Empress passed away, Yuan Liu Niang, as the manager of Fengyun Gambling House, moved around and, with the help of the fourth brother, forcefully used money to break open the gate of the Prime Minister's Mansion, opening up a bright road and a path of slander.

"Prime Minister, if I were to enter the palace as an official, I would surely be able to help Fourth Miss capture His Majesty's heart just like the Empress." Yuan Liu Niang bowed with a smile, her attitude sincere. "Moreover, Fengyun Gambling House will need your patronage, Prime Minister. You don't need to worry that I will be disobedient, do you?"

The boss ordered her to plant spies in the palace, right? She'll just do it! She'll definitely impress the boss!

"You're quite sensible, girl."

"Haha, thank you for the compliment, Prime Minister."

Yuan Su, as the head of the Yuan family, was well aware of how foolish Yuan Zhen, the illegitimate daughter, was. After Yuan Qiong's death, he also needed someone to keep an eye on Yuan Zhen and prevent her from making foolish mistakes.

At this moment, Yuan Liu Niang took the initiative to come to their door. She was from a collateral branch of the Yuan family, and she was rich, clever, and had something to hide. How could Yuan Su Hui refuse?

"Do you have any requirements regarding the rank of this female official?"

“If it’s convenient for you, Prime Minister, the higher the better.” Yuan Liu Niang took out a contract from her sleeve and handed it over, her tone carrying the opportunistic flattery typical of a merchant: “This is our sincerity.”

Yuan Su glanced at it briefly, then casually placed it on the table, his expression still indifferent: "I understand. Go back and wait for news."

"promise."

Yuan Liu Niang respectfully withdrew, her face still smiling, but inwardly she was cursing "mmp!"

You old fox, you took a cut of my gambling den's profits without doing anything, and you're probably jumping for joy, aren't you? And you're pretending not to care? If this time the grade doesn't satisfy me, you just wait! I'll make you pay!

Fortunately, Yuan Su was quite generous, and his rank did not disappoint Yuan Liu Niang: a fourth-rank Master of Ceremonies.

On the day she entered the palace, she happened to run into Yuwen Zhe, who had just come out of Weiyang Palace. She glanced at him and then looked away. Now, seeing this man's cold, deadpan expression filled her with utter disgust. What right did this man have to pretend to be so deeply affectionate after forcing her to her death in her previous life, and then come to disgust her every day?

"Sixth Miss..." Yuwen Zhe couldn't ignore her passing by and had someone stop her: "Why are you here?"

Yuan Liu Niang composed herself, took a step back respectfully, and bowed, saying, "This servant is the newly appointed Master of Ceremonies of Qingwu Palace. I pay my respects to His Highness Prince Cheng."

"A-Luo, why do you have to do this?"

Yuwen Zhe was in extreme pain. He couldn't understand why Wenluo wanted to side with Yuan Su and why she had to oppose him. What exactly went wrong?

His affectionate demeanor only made Yuan Liu Niang feel nauseous. She didn't want to stay in front of this man for even a moment longer! She was afraid she wouldn't be able to resist punching him!

"If Your Highness has nothing else, I will take my leave. Consort Yuan is still waiting for me."

After saying that, he got up and left with his men, completely ignoring Yuwen Zhe's ugly expression.

"Your Highness..." Jia Er tentatively inquired, "Shall we return to the manor?"

"Go back!"

Yuwen Zhe, in his wheelchair, closed his eyes, feeling sad and sorrowful.

Sixth Sister, I've done so much for you! Why are you still unmoved? Do I really have to resort to drastic measures for you to possibly return to my side?

He couldn't help but think of the strange girl he had encountered a couple of days ago, who was covered in poison.

The girl said, "Your Highness, do you know why Yuan Liuniang didn't become Hua Wenluo in this life? Why doesn't Yuan Liuniang accept you? It's all because of that strangely different big black beard!"

The girl said, "As long as that big bearded man is around, Yuan Liu Niang will never accept you! Not only that, he will take everything from you, including that supreme position that belongs to you..."

The girl said, "The big black bearded man is your nemesis in this life. He's destined to take everything from you. With him around, you're destined to achieve nothing and die a miserable death!"

Yuwen Zhe was initially skeptical. On one hand, the big-bearded man was just a bandit; so what if he was powerful? He was a prince, the emperor chosen by heaven! Could a bandit steal everything from him? What a joke! On the other hand, the various changes since his rebirth made him uneasy; he always preferred to believe it rather than dismiss it.

Today, Yuan Liu Niang's performance has further strengthened his resolve. For Wen Luo's sake and for his kingdom, he would rather kill the innocent than let the guilty go free.

"Wenluo, you forced me to do all this..."

**

On the third day after Yuan Liu Niang entered the palace, Lao Si Bai, the old man of Fengyun Money Shop, was idly fiddling with his abacus when he saw a slightly familiar bird fly by and paused for a moment.

Tan Xiaoque's Pink Sparrow? Didn't she go back to the village with the boss? What's Pink Sparrow doing here?

The fourth brother stretched and came out from behind the counter, instructing the shop assistants, "You guys watch the shop, I'm going out for a walk."

"Okay." The waiter nodded.

Then, the fourth brother walked out of Fengyun Gambling House with his hands behind his back, and strolled along the main street of Kyoto Sanhuan, searching for Pink Sparrow's whereabouts.

"Where did it go? Am I seeing things?"

Just as the fourth brother was about to give up, he caught a glimpse of pink in his peripheral vision.

"I'm not mistaken! It must be Tan Xiaoque who snuck out again!" The fourth brother chuckled helplessly. "If I catch that girl, I'll definitely give my eldest brother a piece of my mind! I'll have him lock her up for three or four months and see if she dares to disobey again!"

After saying that, he chased after them and soon arrived at a very secluded grove of trees outside the four gates.

He glanced around at the dense forest, a sense of unease creeping into his heart. He muttered to himself, "What's this little girl doing here? Is she hiding here on purpose because she's afraid I'll catch her?"

"Little Sparrow, I know you little brat are here, come out now!" he called out, but apart from the rustling of the wind through the leaves, there was no response.

"Little..." Before he could finish speaking, a whooshing sound rang out behind him, alarm bells rang in his mind, and he immediately dodged. Before he could even catch his breath, "Thud!" The sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh rang out.

He opened his mouth, and blood gushed out. He slowly turned his head, and a man in black armor stood behind him, holding a long spear. Half of the spear was in the man's hand, and the other half was inside his body.

With a sharp "thud!", Jia Er pierced through Lao Si's body with his spear. A sharp pain shot through him. He looked up and saw a bright-smiling girl sitting on a treetop, her large, cat-like eyes incredibly cute.

As he collapsed into complete darkness, his eyes still widened in disbelief.

"Thump!" A loud sound came from the corpse falling to the ground.

"Ding-a-ling~" The bell rang, crisp and lively: "Hehe~ Prince Cheng, Smiling Tiger is one of Black Beard's most capable strategists and also the person in charge of his power in the capital. Now that we've killed him, Yuan Liuniang will be without an ally, and you can..."

Tan Xiaoque sat on a branch, chuckling as she spoke encouraging words. Yuwen Zhe remained as unmoved as an ice sculpture, but whether he took her words to heart or not, no one knew.

"Leave the body to me~ You don't need to worry about it~" Tan Xiaoque lightly raised her fair little hand, and swarms of poisonous insects poured out from the tree branches, giving Jia Er and the others goosebumps: "My darling doesn't like being watched while she eats~"

Yuwen Zhe glanced at her, then turned and left, pushing his wheelchair.

Only after they had disappeared from sight did Tan Xiaoque leap down from the tree branch, arrive at Lao Si's corpse, and ring the bell to scare away the poisonous insects around her.

She squatted down beside his head with a smile and said, "Fourth brother, since you've always been nice to Little Sparrow, I won't use you to feed my little darling this time~ How about it, aren't you touched?"

She stood up, her smile not reaching her eyes: "Besides, if we don't leave something behind, how will the boss learn his lesson? If you want to blame someone, don't blame me, blame the boss instead~"

"Little Sparrow likes the Boss so much, but why does he always disobey? This forces Little Sparrow to do this... Oh, I'm so sad..."

**

When Lin Qiang learned of Lao Si's death in Jiangbei, the provincial capital, he was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage.

"What on earth happened?!"

The fourth brother was the leader of Fengyunxu in the capital, and he had quite a few skilled men under his command. How could he have been murdered so suddenly? Who did it?

At this moment, Lin Qiang was like a lion whose dignity had been violated; his aura suddenly changed, and his starry eyes flashed with a chilling, predatory light. The messenger below, experiencing the wrath of the sect leader for the first time, was terrified. He forced himself to speak, "We are still investigating. That day, the Fourth Master said he was going out for a walk and didn't gather any brothers from the ruins, only two shadows accompanied him. For some reason, the shadows were silently eliminated, without even a chance to send a signal. That's why the Fourth Master… Please punish me, Sect Leader!"

The shadow is omnipresent, serving as the helmsman's lifeline. Aside from the helmsman himself, its location is virtually impossible for outsiders to find. How could it have been eliminated so silently?!

"Where is Sixth Sister? Where was she at the time?"

"The sixth young lady was recommended by Prime Minister Yuan and entered the palace a few days ago to serve as the master of ceremonies."

Lin Qiang took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

There's no need to investigate this; there are only two possibilities. First, there's a traitor among the fourth prince's men. Second, it's Yuwen Zhe, who has the protagonist's halo!

Yuwen Zhe!!!

Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants!

Thank you to the little angel who watered the [nutrient solution]:

Damn it, one bottle!

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!