Chapter 606 - Sneaky and Conniving

“No!” Ji Yunshu shouted with fear and despair she had never experienced before.

It was as if she had been dragged down into the abyss. Her surroundings seemed to become more and more illusory, while Jing Rong’s figure seemed to move further and further away. Tears brimmed in her eyes, with her vision blurring and stinging as though someone had thrown chili powder into her eyes.

When she cried out earlier, her mind was buzzing endlessly. Countless scenes of her with Jing Rong flashed throughout her mind. All the time they had spent together, from Jinjiang, to the capital, then to Yufu, played out one by one in her mind. She couldn’t dispel them however she tried.

At this moment, the only thought in her heart was that she couldn't lose Jing Rong. However,

that man was still standing there calmly, robes fluttering gently in the wind. His finely chiseled face exuded the inborn grace and comportment of a royal. Those sharp eyebrows rested flatly about a pair of eyes that were entirely devoid of fear, looking straight at her with an impenetrable gaze. He was too calm!

Bows bent, preparing to launch sharp, cold arrows. Once the bowstrings were released, all of the people in the courtyard would definitely die.

The air seemed to be frozen, the practically visible tension in the atmosphere strung just as tight as the drawn and loaded bowstrings. Suddenly, half of the archers took out their daggers and stabbed the archers right next to them. A single stab to death! More than a dozen bodies fell from the roof along with their bows and arrows. It was a gruesome scene.

After mercilessly murdering their fellow archers on the roof, the remaining half then quickly picked up their bows to aim at the people in the yard. However, their arrows were aimed at Wen Panshi’s men instead. Ready and waiting for Jing Rong’s orders

Hasn’t this situation changed way too quickly?

At the same moment, the guards by Wen Panshi also unsheathed their swords in preparation, surrounding Jing Rong and others like a defensive shield. The air was filled with killing intent.

Wen Pangshi, Wen Xian, and Zhao Huai were shocked. What was going on? Why were Jing Rong’s men mixed in with their own archers? Their jaws were about to drop to the floor.

Seeing this scene, Ji Yunshu's eyes widened. The feeling of being suddenly pulled from the claws of death made her unable to react for a while. She was in such a daze that she couldn’t tell if she was shocked or happy.

Wen Panshi looked at Jing Rong, his lips trembling, "you?"

In response, Jing Rong had an expression of indifference, as though nothing had happened. He then suddenly stepped forward, narrowing his sharp eyes, and walked towards those people in an imposing.

The next moment, he quickly pulled Ji Yunshu free from those people's hands. She fell heavily into his arms, and her waist was wrapped securely. He looked down at the red-eyed woman in his arms and frowned, "Listen carefully, in the future, without this prince's order, you will never be allowed to risk your life to come and save this prince. This prince will only say this once. If you do it again, I will break your legs." His voice emphasized each word sternly. Despite his harsh tone, at the end of the day, he was worried about Ji Yunshu getting hurt. If anything happened to her, he wouldn't be able to live. [1]

Ji Yunshu pursed her lips and met his gaze. She still could not stop the tears from falling. How could she tell him that the moment she learned he was in danger, the only thing on her mind was to save him, and that if he couldn’t be saved, she would accompany him in death? But regardless of how many things she had to say, she could hardly speak.

Afterwards, Jing Rong pushed her to Shi Ziran. "Take care of her."

"Yes, your highness."

Then, Jing Rong's sharp eyes flicked upwards to look at Wen Panshi, "General Wen, if you don't want more people to die in vain, you'd better get out of the way." Yes, he called him General Wen!

Wen Panshi could not believe it, "How... did you know that? " He did not understand how Jing Rong knew about the trap he had set up. How did Jing Rong manage to plant his own men within his subordinates?

Jing Rong took two steps closer towards him, leveling his gaze and lifting his jaw slightly, "Did you really think your plan was perfect?" Ridiculous!

"I look forward to what you have to say."

"Fine, then this prince will tell you properly." He said, "Actually, your plan had already started from the moment when Official Lin delivered the information about the goods entering and leaving the relay station in the last few years was to me. You wanted this prince to investigate the Si Family, then sent assassins after us, making sure that one would be left alive by all means to lure us here. As a result, we would eventually find the secret chamber hidden in the house, and you expected that this prince would go to the relay station to investigate further. Whether or not the room was demolished, you wanted the prince to discover the secret compartment as well as the candlestick.

“Then, Zhao Huai also suddenly came to assassinate this prince at that time, intending to destroy that secret compartment. The purpose was to tell this prince that the mechanism to open the secret chamber of the Si Residence was also that candlestick, so that you could lure us into the secret chamber. To be precise, you wanted to lure this prince into the secret chamber and then kill us all at once. But you wouldn't have guessed the person who started the plan, Official Lin, was also the very person who exposed the plan."

"How did you find out?"

"I would have to thank the dust in the room. It's a room full of dust, whether on the cabinet or on the ground. All of them were covered with grey dust. However, there were several clear fingerprints on the fallen candlestick. At that time, this prince saw the dust on Official Lin’s sleeves, so I deduced that he pushed the candlestick over in a deliberate attempt to have this prince discover it, allowing your plan to start smoothly. [2]

“That plan seemed seamless and perfect. You could lead this prince and my men into the secret chamber and then kill us all secretly. But in fact, your plan is full of mistakes and loopholes. I also played a good show with you from the beginning to the end, not because there is no evidence to arrest you, but rather, I wanted to know how you transported the relief funds from the tightly guarded warehouse. Where did it go? Why did you steal the relief funds and why did the investigating officials who came here from the capital disappear for a while before they died? I want to understand why you wanted to kill this prince without hurting Teacher Ji?

“I wanted the answer to all these questions. So this prince jumped willingly into the trap you set. I let Lang Po sneak into the secret path and be caught by you. Of course, you can't kill him because you needed me to come here voluntarily. Now, I got the answers I wanted. I just didn't expect that all of you… are from the Imperial Duke’s household."

Ugh! Who would have thought that Jing Rong knew everything from the start? It's not easy to maintain the act all that time.

Even though his plan was exposed, Wen Pangshi didn't panic. "You really are just as sneaky and conniving as your father." It was unclear whether this was meant to be an insult or compliment.

Jing Rong laughed, "It's not that this prince is sneaky and conniving, but that you, General Wen, have underestimated this prince."

Wen Pangshi's face turned black and he clammed up.

[1] Yes, you guessed it. This is the scene that inspired the cameo.

[2] Who noticed this clue when it first came up?

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