Seeing his suspicious movements, I blocked his hand. “What are you planning?”
An Jin’s gaze wavered. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
I snatched the luminous silk from his hand, angrily saying, “Stop fooling me! Are you trying to injure yourself to deal with those wolves and tigers?”
An Jin lowered his eyebrows, coldly saying, “White Yuanxiao, report!”
“Yes!”
“Return the luminous silk and leave immediately.” He stared into my eyes. The twilight swirled, making his dark eyes alternate between light and shadow, hazy and unclear.
I scratched my head for a moment, stubbornly declaring, “Reporting to the secret master, I am not White Yuanxiao right now, but your wife, Xiao Yao!”
“You…!” He laughed in anger, attempting to snatch the luminous silk from my hand. I hugged the silk and ran in circles. He grabbed my waist, delivering a heavy smack to my bottom.
“You disobedient little monster – won’t you let go?”
I shook my head vigorously.
It was now too late to leave. In the distance, the clear neighing of several horses could be heard. Among the riders were Su Xi, Su Hui, and several competition participants.
I suddenly had an idea, pushing An Jin away and spreading my arms to block him, my eyes filling with tears.
“I won’t let you go!”
An Jin was stunned.
I heard the horse hooves slow behind me, and hurried footsteps approaching, now very close.
“I absolutely won’t let you win this competition!” I shouted loudly, with a hint of hysteria. “You’re my husband. How can you think of winning someone else’s favor?”
An Jin quickly understood, his expression changing, becoming furious. “How long are you going to keep entangling me? This is simply absurd!”
Behind him, Su Xi and Su Hui stood at a distance, having heard everything clearly. Su Hui’s puzzled voice came: “An Dage, madam? Why are you still here?”
“Zhuo Yi, are you two still arguing here?” Su Xi asked suspiciously, “Time has passed, why haven’t you gone out? We thought something had happened to you and specially came to look.”
“It’s all because of her!” An Jin said angrily. “I was hunting halfway when she stopped me and wouldn’t let me leave.”
I held back tears, suddenly turning around, facing Su Hui’s shocked face. “It’s all your fault! All because of you!”
Su Hui and Su Xi looked at An Jin, then looked at me.
“Madam, what are you talking about?” Su Hui asked in confusion.
I glared at her hatefully, turning to An Jin. An Jin looked somewhat bewildered but cooperated by making an angry and distressed expression. “You want to win the competition, isn’t it just to help Su Hui obtain the ‘Ancient Melody’ hidden in the palace?”
Everyone was in an uproar, turning their gaze to Su Hui. Su Hui’s cheeks were slightly red, seemingly overjoyed.
An Jin then followed my lead, becoming embarrassed and angry: “Xiao Yao! What nonsense are you talking about? Trying to make everyone laugh at our family? Completely unreasonable!”
I took a deep breath, crying out sadly: “Heartless men in the world, eight or nine out of ten. When we were childhood sweethearts, you used to call me Little Yao Yao, but now with a new love replacing the old, you call me Xiao Yao?!”
An Jin’s face darkened, his eyes clearly saying: Don’t overact…
I quickly lowered my head, pretending to sob, feeling proud of finding such a reason and creating such a plausible explanation so quickly. Indeed, I was more suited to the unreasonable shrew approach, completely acting true to type!
However, I became angry. The innocent Fifth Princess had become a sacrifice in the struggle between the three kingdoms. Her love was a conspiracy, and her lover was a wolf hiding behind a handsome appearance.
Why could this wolf, after using and killing an innocent girl who was infatuated with him, still act like a gentle and praised husband?
After discussing with the Qi Emperor, An Jin secretly transported the princess’s coffin into the imperial palace. Perhaps in the Qi Emperor’s view, such a massive secret would be safest kept in his own hands.
“They are about to lose control,” An Jin whispered in the darkness, his eyes glowing eerily, emanating a murderous aura. “They will soon reveal their flaws.
The secret department’s covert agents were divided into six levels, with the sixth level being the section leaders who directly reported to An Jin. After this incident, I was promoted from the lowest-level scout to a scout guard, receiving a small gold-inlaid badge.
Seeing my action, An Jin’s expression was complex. He had never seen me cherish even the jade pendant he gave me, yet I was now so protective of this small badge.
He endured for a long time before finally exploding. During a “heart-to-heart” talk, he looked up to see me secretly admiring the badge. His face turned blue, and he violently snatched the badge, throwing it out the window, causing Yuan Xiang to yelp.
I was heartbroken. However, An Jin threatened to completely remove me from the secret department if I continued to care about it, so I could only remain silent.
Having a superior husband was truly troublesome. One misstep could lead to both family and career falling apart.
Fortunately, I still had Yuan Xiang. The next day, he led me to the mulberry tree in the courtyard, digging frantically and unearthing my gold-inlaid badge. As the badge was restored, I suddenly had an inspiration and thought of a way to deal with the Su family.
Framing, planting evidence, shifting blame.
Chapter Forty-Four: Plotting Against Yan Huo
Since the secret department’s agents had their own identity badges, and Southern Rui had fish symbols, the Western Liang agents must also have their own distinctive mark. Now that the Su family was in disarray, if they were discovered to be hiding Western Liang’s tokens and correspondence, they could naturally be charged with treason.
Although the secret department had not previously found Western Liang’s tokens and letters, forging them was not difficult. We only needed to secretly place these tokens and letters somewhere in the Su residence and find an appropriate opportunity for someone to “discover” them. Once the Su family was convicted, we could also expose their crime of murdering the Southern Rui Fifth Princess and hand them over to Southern Rui as a gesture of Great Qi’s sincerity.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt this was an excellent plan. However, when I presented this strategy to the Secret Master, he merely shook his head and smiled, saying, “I’ve already thought of this method.”
I was thoroughly discouraged. A superior was indeed a superior, with a quicker mind. However, he had not implemented this plan because Western Liang was different from Southern Rui and Qi Kingdom. All covert agents were centrally controlled by the current monarch, with very few knowing the secrets about agents.
The agents sent by the secret department to Western Liang had not yet discovered what tokens the country used.
An Jin’s thinking had always been meticulous. The Su family matter was significant, and he would carefully deliberate before making any decision. Arbitrarily forging a Western Liang token would be immediately recognized as fake by Su Quan, leading to complications for Great Qi. Given the Su family’s cunning and loyalty to Western Liang, they would refuse to admit guilt and might provoke further conflict between Southern Rui and Great Qi. Only when they believed their secrets were truly exposed would they be thrown into chaos, giving us a chance to find the real tokens.
Therefore, the primary condition for implementing this framing strategy was to determine exactly what Western Liang’s token was. However, the agents sent by the secret department had been unable to truly approach the core figures of Western Liang, specifically the current Western Liang Emperor, Yan Huo.
