Chapter 88
"What did you say?"
"No, it's nothing." Zhou Yanqing didn't want to continue the topic, afraid that she would be reminded of her feelings for that man in her past life, so she asked instead, "So, after the Sano matter is over, what do you want to do?"
"Didn't we agree to help exonerate Tan Muhe?"
"Then what?"
"And then?" Si Yanmo didn't understand what he was asking. "Then I'll help you get rid of your destined death. Anyway, I reckon you'll be fine once the Third Prince ascends the throne."
"I'm asking yourself." Zhou Yanqing frowned. This person hadn't said a word about himself after all that talking. "You've been helping others the whole time, don't you want anything for yourself?"
Si Yanmo was stumped by his question. Since her rebirth, it seemed that she had been pushed around in many things.
She has many things she wants to do. But as Zhou Yanqing said, she's always helping others, as if she's never had anything for herself.
No, there are some.
“I’ve gotten what I wanted. Haven’t I become a sorcerer?”
At first, he thought he could become a diviner and help as many people as he could. Unexpectedly, he encountered the unexpected turn of events with Zhou Yanqing and was fortunate enough to become a shaman.
What's there to regret?
"Don't you ever want to live the life you envision? Don't you want to spend time with your family, friends..." Zhou Yanqing suddenly paused, her voice softening, "My love, what can we do together?"
It seems she hadn't really thought about that.
In her past life, she lived too short a life, so short that her life ended just as it began.
Now that I think about it, if nothing unexpected happens, she should live to be at least 50 years old, right? So, after Zhou Junsong ascends the throne according to his destiny, what should she do with the remaining 30 years or so?
She watched as Zhou Yanqing's hand covered hers, which was holding a hand warmer, and suddenly realized that the person beside her hadn't lived long in his previous life either; he just didn't remember.
"What if it were you? What would you do if you survived?"
Zhou Yanqing answered quickly, "To govern the Qin region well, and to spend my life with... with the one I love. I will accompany her to do whatever she wants, and to be able to hold her as we fall asleep every day, that would be enough for me."
As he said this, his eyes were fixed on Si Yanmo with a kind of infatuation. He unconsciously raised his hand to brush away the stray hairs on her forehead and smiled, "Doesn't it sound rather uninteresting?"
Si Yanmo shook her head. "No, I think it's a very good answer."
A barely perceptible hint of surprise flashed in Zhou Yanqing's eyes, her voice trembling slightly with anticipation, "Then... if I were to say..."
Before they could finish speaking, Sano ran over and told the two that the disaster victims had been settled.
He had no choice but to pull his thoughts back, feeling somewhat annoyed by Sano's interruption, but he didn't lash out.
Now is definitely not the right time; their marriage was hasty enough in the first place.
If it were a confession, he wanted it to be grand, not wanting his Amo to suffer any more grievances.
This topic was temporarily put aside, and Zhou Yanqing began to teach Sano how to build his first personal guard, while the manager of Jasmine Garden could provide them with a lot of other support.
The group planned to first train the people they had on hand, and then expand their forces by recruiting more people in other places.
This way, when we go to Sak, we can better confront the Sak King.
However, while it's easy to find financial support, Sano's biggest worry is his parents.
He confided his concerns to Si Yanmo and the other woman, saying, "It's easy to expand the resistance forces now, but I'm afraid that bastard will use my parents as a threat."
There is indeed something to hold against us, and everything could come to nothing.
Si Yanmo couldn't help but worry. She knew that Sano, like herself, cared most about his family.
The resistance forces are slowly expanding, and sooner or later this news will reach King Sak's ears. They must resolve this crisis before anything happens.
But they didn't even know where the other side was holding Sa's parents, so how could they rescue them?
She couldn't help but look at Zhou Yanqing beside her. He hadn't said a word, but he looked calm and composed.
Do you have a solution?
Seeing the other person nod slowly and deliberately, she was both happy and angry. "If you had a solution, why didn't you say so? You've left me here anxiously waiting!"
Perhaps out of anger, she punched Zhou Yanqing in the chest, causing him to cry out in pain, "You're trying to murder your husband!"
"Who told you not to say anything!" Si Yanmo said matter-of-factly.
Seeing that his wife was annoyed, Zhou Yanqing quickly pulled her into his arms and coaxed her gently, "Oh dear, I was just thinking about how to make things safer."
Sano became a little anxious upon hearing this, "Brother Yanqing, why don't you speak first?"
Zhou Yanqing took a deep breath and slowly explained her plan...
His thinking was this: since they knew nothing, it would be time-consuming and laborious to rush to find the place of imprisonment, not to mention that it would be terrible if King Sak found out first.
So he decided to lure the snake out of its hole.
"That's why I insisted on coming with you."
He decided to bring a witness to King Sak himself, expose Sano's false identity, and then have King Sak replace him with another hostage.
"What about Sano?" Si Yanmo couldn't help but ask.
“He’ll stay,” Zhou Yanqing said. “I’ll say that Sano ran away after I found him, so he can stay here to continue recruiting soldiers and stabilizing morale.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to lower his guard by just saying I’m dead?” Sano tilted his head, thinking his idea seemed better, but Zhou Yanqing rejected it.
While saying it outright might seem like it would dispel King Sak's doubts, it would actually give Zhou Yanqing a handle to use against him.
King Sak could easily insist that Zhou Yanqing had been deceived, and could even counter-accuse Zhou Yanqing of killing the hostage in order to frame them and then forging the hostage's identity.
In his eyes, there's no way to prove anything since the dead are dead, so whatever he says is fine.
This would actually prevent Zhou Yanqing from achieving her goal.
"But how can saying that help us find Sano's parents?" Si Yanmo was still somewhat puzzled.
Zhou Yanqing smiled slightly, a hint of arrogance in her eyes, "This will be achieved through extortion."
The hostage was fake, and he even fled in fear. Zhou Yanqing instantly seized the opportunity to manipulate King Sak.
He only needs to pretend to be profit-seeking to blackmail the King of Sak, make a deal with him, and then let the King of Sak get some benefits.
In his excitement, he could begin the next step of his plan—Zhou Yanqing, under the guise of doing what was best for him, lured him out so he could kill him and silence him.
He would give King Sak a "plan" to expose the location where Sano's parents were being held, and say that he would kill them as soon as possible. This would lure Sano out to rescue them, allowing him to wipe them out in one fell swoop and silence them.
The matter of the fake protons will naturally be lost to the sea.
"Once we find out where Sano's parents are being held, we'll rescue them." He said it lightly, but there was still a hint of worry in his eyes. "However, this plan is not foolproof. Even if King Sak really falls for it, if he has too many people planted, I'm afraid we won't be able to rescue Sano's parents, and we might even be exposed."
Upon hearing this, Si Yanmo came up with an idea, "Why don't we switch the baby out with the baby?"
Zhou Yanqing raised an eyebrow, curious.
“Don’t forget I’m a divination master. All I need to do is convince him how accurate my predictions are, and give him a timeframe when Sanhok might arrive, so he can plan ahead and rescue the person then. I think that will be much easier.”
Without further ado, half a month later, Zhou Yanqing and Si Yanmo set off together for Sak's capital city—Sak City.
As for the "witness" they chose, it was Sayong.
He had been living in the Sa family for a long time, and King Wu Zhao of Sa had also met him. As a witness, he was more convincing. In addition, he knew martial arts, so if something really happened, the group could find a way to escape.
The Sak Palace was more magnificent than Si Yanmo had imagined. Although it was snowing heavily, the golden bricks and tiles on the palace walls could still be seen, and it was obvious that a lot of money must have been spent on it.
Entering the palace further convinced her that although the frost disaster had caused the people to be displaced, the palace itself had not been affected.
Outside the palace, the continuous heavy snow, even with constant sweeping, still reached above knee-deep, while inside the palace, everything was flat, with hardly any trace of snow remaining even in the cracks between the floor tiles.
The thin layer was quickly swept away as soon as it was applied.
The palace maids and servants were all red from the cold, and they were dressed in very thin clothes. Si Yanmo couldn't bear to see them like that. If she weren't worried about the performance not going well, she certainly wouldn't have stood by and watched.
Now she could only lower the carriage curtain and look back at Zhou Yanqing.
The man saw the reluctance in her eyes, pulled her into his arms, and gently comforted her, "If you can't bear to watch, we'll stop. We'll just wait for Sano to kick that old bastard down."
Si Yanmo twitched the corner of her mouth, but another unsettling thought crept into her mind. "Do you think... what if Sano becomes like that one day?"
“Sanho?” Zhou Yanqing smiled and shook his head. “He won’t. I can tell he will be a wise ruler. You can tell by what he did for those disaster victims.”
"But people's hearts can change." Si Yanmo has experienced too many of these things.
She could hardly trust anyone. Even if someone seemed good now, wouldn't they one day lose themselves in the pursuit of fame and fortune?
"If you're worried, wait until he turns bad, then I'll bring you over, and we'll beat him up together."
Zhou Yanqing's joking manner, like that of an elder, successfully made her laugh, and she finally relaxed a little.
The carriage had just passed through the palace road, so they had to walk the rest of the way.
It was even colder here than in Meiyan City. Zhou Yanqing specially brought the fox fur coat he had worn before and wrapped it up tightly, afraid that he would get even a little cold.
The two men, along with a small group of people, escorted Sa Yong into the main hall, where Zhou Junsong happened to be.
He wasn't surprised to see the two of them, after all, he had received two letters half a month ago.
One letter was from the Southern Emperor, instructing him to stay in Sak for a few more days. He said that the King of Qin had discovered the hostage was fake and that he should keep a close eye on them to prevent any trouble. He suggested that the King of Sak should obediently send another hostage to settle the matter peacefully.
The other letter was from Si Yanmo, in which she mentioned the same thing, but this time she hoped the other party could be a witness. Si Yanmo didn't elaborate on the specifics.
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