"You found out so quickly?" The emperor frowned. "Tell me, what happened?"
Zuan felt a chill. The other party's first reaction was not surprise, nor did they care who the murderer was. Could it be that they already knew something?
So he told the other person what he had discovered, while observing their expression. Sure enough, when the other person heard that the murderer was the King of Qi, they did not show any surprise.
"How did they find out so quickly?" the emperor asked, frowning.
Zu An was taken aback: "Wouldn't it be better to find out the details of the case quickly?"
"Of course not," the emperor said displeasedly. "I assigned you to investigate this case not only to find out the truth, but also to take this opportunity to get closer to Prince Qi and find a way to give him the fake manual. Now that you have found out the truth so quickly, what about the fake manual?"
Zu An thought to himself, "As expected, the emperor doesn't care about a woman's life or death; he's more concerned about those who threaten his power."
He then explained, “Your Majesty need not worry, I have already gained the trust of the Prince of Qi.”
"Oh?" The emperor immediately became interested. "What do you mean?"
"Before entering the palace today, I went to the Qi Prince's residence and pretended to pledge allegiance to him..." Zu An recounted the events of the morning in a mix of truth and falsehood, concealing the fact that he genuinely wanted to form an alliance with the Qi Prince, but telling all the other details, including the Qi Prince's words.
This was also his initial plan: to play both sides between the two big shots. He couldn't treat them like fools; they would find out about his little schemes sooner or later. Rather than that, he might as well tell them the truth.
Normally, King Qi would assume that he would keep it a secret from the emperor, and the emperor would assume that he would keep it a secret from King Qi. However, Zu An did the opposite and became a playboy who had his cake and eat it too. The only difference was that while other playboys kept beautiful ornamental fish in their fishponds, he kept two ferocious sharks in his own.
After hearing his story, the emperor was indeed overjoyed: "You really are a talented young man!"
He was quite excited, pacing back and forth in the study, clearly processing the information he had received.
After a while, he stopped and said, "King Qi is not someone who trusts people easily. He will definitely set up some extremely difficult tasks for you to do later."
Zuan said with a smile, "So the Emperor's cooperation may be needed at that time."
The emperor laughed: "You cunning lad, Zhao Jing probably never dreamed he would fall into your hands."
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