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Her father's words were like icicles, piercing Su Yuyue's heart one by one, leaving her feeling cold all over. She had never seen her father so angry with her before; the decisiveness in his words and the cruelty of reality instantly brought her to her senses.
Yes, the imperial family is ruthless, and emperors are cunning... How could she be so naive?
She returned to her room dejectedly, unwilling to give up like this, unwilling to believe that Brother Chen only wanted to use her.
In despair, a secret thought arose: Night Hawk Pavilion! That mysterious and unpredictable organization, said to be able to solve any problem! Brother Mingchen seemed to have vaguely mentioned having dealings with the extraordinary individuals of Night Hawk Pavilion before…
Relying on fragmented clues she had heard in the past and the connections of the Duke's daughter, Su Yuyue went through many twists and turns and finally made contact with Night Hawk Pavilion through an extremely secretive method.
In an inconspicuous private room of a teahouse, she met a man wearing a straw hat, whose face was obscured. His voice was deep and hoarse, like sandpaper being rubbed together.
"We understand Miss Su's request. However, can you afford the price for your help?"
"As long as you can ensure his safety in the North, I can find a way to give you any amount of gold and silver!" Su Yuyue said urgently.
The man in the straw hat let out a low, enigmatic laugh: "Gold and silver? Heh... Miss Su, what we're more interested in is 'information.' For example... the Duke of Zhenguo's views on the current princes? Or perhaps, the Duke's mansion's... network of connections in the military?"
Su Yuyue felt a chill run down her spine; this was practically treason! She instinctively wanted to refuse.
Seemingly sensing her hesitation, the man in the straw hat slowly added, "Miss Su is indeed deeply devoted to His Highness Prince Ming, but unfortunately... the flowers are willing, but the water is indifferent."
"What do you mean?" Su Yuyue suddenly looked up.
"What I mean is that Zongzheng Mingchen never truly cared for you." The man in the straw hat spoke in a cold and cruel tone, with a ruthless satisfaction at revealing the truth. "His approach to you was solely for the sake of the Duke of Zhenguo's military power. Every 'chance encounter' and every 'sweet word' he uttered with you was meticulously planned."
"He has never lacked female companions, such as... the concubine's daughter of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel who is skilled in singing and dancing, and... the palace maid in his mother's palace whose features bear a slight resemblance to yours... Do you need me to provide more details? He even once said to his confidant after drinking, 'Su Yuyue? A beautiful but useless woman. If her father weren't the Duke of Zhenguo, would I have bothered with her? If things go well, the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion might keep her if they know what's good for them, otherwise...'"
With each word the man in the straw hat spoke, Su Yuyue's face paled a little more. Her lips trembled as she tried to retort, but she found herself unable to utter a complete sentence.
Those details she had deliberately ignored, those occasional feelings of unease, now surged into her mind like a tide, corroborating the cold information provided by Night Hawk Pavilion, shattering her last illusions.
So it turns out... it was all a ploy.
It turns out... her so-called deep affection was nothing but a joke born of her wishful thinking.
So it turns out... the man she loved so deeply actually saw her this way behind her back!
After a piercing pain came a raging rage and a chilling cold. Tears welled up uncontrollably, not for the unfaithful man, but for my own trampled sincerity and foolish infatuation.
Watching the transformation in Su Yuyue's eyes—from disbelief to despair, then to utter stillness, and finally to a chilling, eerie fire—the man in the straw hat knew that his goal had been achieved.
"It seems Miss Su has understood," the man in the straw hat said calmly. "In that case, our deal..."
"No need." Su Yuyue abruptly raised her head, interrupting him. Her voice was no longer soft, but carried a newly tempered coldness and hardness. "His life or death is no longer my concern."
She stood up, straightening her back, as if all her girlish innocence and tenderness had vanished in an instant. The illusion had shattered, revealing the cold reality beneath. She could no longer rely on anyone, no longer be that fool blinded by emotion.
Su Yuyue left the private teahouse room with an icy and resolute air. Her once bright eyes were now only a deep, cold pool with a barely perceptible wildfire within. Her departing figure seemed to sever the invisible blade that bound her to all past weaknesses.
Once Su Yuyue was confirmed to be far away, an inconspicuous hidden door inside the teahouse slid open silently. The figure wearing a bamboo hat slipped inside, and the hidden door closed immediately.
This is not an ordinary tea room, but an extremely hidden passageway entrance that leads directly to…
Prince Zhao's residence, study.
The flickering candlelight illuminated Zongzheng Zhaoran's gentle and refined profile as he meticulously reviewed documents, his expression focused, as if all the disturbances of the outside world were irrelevant to him.
The hidden door opened again, and the man in the straw hat entered, locking the mechanism behind him. He then slowly removed the straw hat from his head, revealing an ordinary face that would be easily lost in a crowd. However, when he took out the ghost mask with the eerie smile painted on it from his robes and solemnly put it on, his entire aura instantly became deep and unfathomable.
He was none other than Mr. Ghostface, a seemingly loyal strategist in the Night Hawk Pavilion, but in reality, he was the deepest pawn planted by King Zhao—a double agent.
"Your Highness." The masked man's voice returned to its usual hoarse calm as he bowed respectfully to Zongzheng Zhaoran behind the desk.
Zongzheng Zhaoran did not look up, his brush still moving smoothly across the Xuan paper, his tone as gentle as ever: "Is the matter settled?"
“Yes,” the masked man replied. “As Your Highness instructed, I have told Miss Su the ‘truth’ in its entirety. She… has already ‘awakened’ and harbors deep hatred for the Ming King. In my observation, she is very likely to turn her attention to Your Highness next.”
"Heh." Zongzheng Zhaoran let out a very soft, cold laugh and finally put down his pen. He raised his eyes, and those eyes that were usually warm like a spring breeze were now frozen solid, with a deep-seated hatred and ferocity from his past life that almost gnawed at his bones and burned his heart.
He is Zongzheng Zhaoran, reborn and returned.
In his past life, he was captivated by Su Yuyue's pitiful yet shrewd and capable demeanor, genuinely accepting her "defection" and even considering her a trustworthy ally. Little did he know how deep the scheming was hidden beneath this seemingly understanding black lotus flower!
She maneuvered between him and Prince Heng, using the information she obtained from him to repeatedly pledge her allegiance to Prince Heng. Finally, at the most crucial moment in their struggle for the throne, she delivered a fatal blow to him!
The defection of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion directly led to his complete defeat, disgrace, and eventual fall of the throne into the hands of Prince Heng. He himself was left with a miserable fate of being confined to a fiefdom and never allowed to enter the capital again!
The excruciating pain, the deep-seated hatred of being betrayed by someone you trusted, did not diminish after being reborn; instead, it burned even more intensely.
In this life, he proceeded step by step, patiently plotting and scheming, not only to make his cold-hearted ninth brother, Zongzheng Hengyu, pay the price, but also to make this hypocritical and vicious woman, Su Yuyue, taste the bitter fruit she deserved!
"Of course she will come to me." Zongzheng Zhaoran's voice was still gentle, but there was a chilling intent between the lines. "In the previous life, she used that pitiful yet ambitious look to gain my trust, and in the end... ha."
He didn't finish his sentence, but the masked man could sense the almost tangible killing intent in his words. As the most trusted confidant of King Zhao, he knew deeply about the prince's past life and understood why the prince was so wary and disgusted by this woman.
"Your Highness is wise, foreseeing her sinister intentions in advance. This time, I reminded her precisely to encourage her to willingly enter into the scheme."
Mr. Ghostface said respectfully, "She thought she had seen through the Ming King's manipulation and wanted to use Your Highness's power to take revenge and seize power. Little did she know that all her reactions were within Your Highness's calculations."
Zongzheng Zhaoran stood up, walked to the window, looked at the deep night outside, and a cold and cruel smile appeared on his lips, completely opposite to his usual gentle demeanor.
“Indeed. She thought she was the one playing the game, but little did she know that from the moment she stepped into the Night Hawk Pavilion contact point, she had already become a pawn on my chessboard.”
He said slowly, “A pawn… used to confuse King Heng, stir up the situation, and, at the appropriate time… make her reap the consequences of her own actions.”
A game within a game, a scheme within a scheme.
Su Yuyue thought she was a schemer who had become clear-headed after turning from love to hate, but little did she know that she was walking step by step into a more sophisticated trap tailored just for her.
Zongzheng Zhaoran not only wanted to use her status and power as the daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, but also wanted to drag her and the forces behind her into an abyss of no return when she thought she had succeeded.
"Since she wants to join forces, then I will give her that opportunity." Zongzheng Zhaoran turned around, his face now showing his usual gentle smile, as if the momentary ferocity he had displayed just moments before was merely an illusion.
“Ghost Face, you know what to do next. Guide her to “smoothly” come into contact with me, but be careful not to overdo it. Make her feel that she has found a way out through her own “wisdom” and “charm”.”
"Understood, Your Highness." The masked man bowed and accepted the order. "I will ensure that Miss Su 'gets her wish' and joins Your Highness's ranks."
The candlelight crackled softly, and in the study, the shadows of the master and servant cast long, intertwined shadows on the wall, like an invisible giant net slowly closing in.
…………
After returning from the teahouse that day, Su Yuyue seemed like a completely different person. She no longer spent her days in tears, nor did she show any concern for the Prince Ming in front of her parents.
She became unusually quiet, often sitting alone by the window, gazing intently at the scenery in the courtyard, sometimes for most of the day.
The Duke of Zhenguo thought that his daughter had finally come to her senses and given up her inappropriate thoughts, which put his mind at ease. Little did he know what kind of undercurrents were surging beneath the calm surface.
With King Ming fallen and King Heng's power waning and his ruthlessness becoming uncontrollable, it seems that only one option remains... King Zhao, whose reign is as clear as day, who appears gentle and unassuming yet managed to escape unscathed from the Hundred Flowers Banquet turmoil and even secretly fueled King Ming's downfall.
A bold idea began to grow wildly in her mind. Since men were unreliable and family might not be trustworthy either, why not forge a path for herself?
King Zhao needs assistance, and she, the legitimate daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, possesses the identity and power he desires.
Perhaps... she could join forces with him?
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