Volume 3, Chapter 463 – Wei Ziqing’s Calculations

Lu Zhuxin lifted her gaze, narrowing her eyes as she stared at Wei Ziqing.

She wasn’t surprised that Wei Ziqing had managed to guess Chi Xiyan’s intentions.

As long as one could deduce the identities of the two sisters and then conduct a simple investigation into the Chi family’s recent affairs, this conclusion wasn’t hard to reach.

Not to mention, Wei Ziqing was a fated male lead with a perfectly functioning brain.

Still, to play along with Wei Ziqing, Lu Zhuxin put on an expression of nervous surprise.

“Noble Consort, what do you mean by that?”

Wei Ziqing was quite satisfied with the girl’s reaction.

Still, he kept his expression serious and asked in return, “The matter between the Chi family and the Lingxiao Sword Sect is being handled by Wei Qingyu, correct?”

“Mm.” Lu Zhuxin nodded.

Wei Ziqing continued, “Wei Qingyu is the Empress’s hawk and hound, directly under her jurisdiction.”

“Everything concerning the Demon Suppression Bureau is reported to the Empress every single day.”

“Something as significant as the matter between the Chi family and the Lingxiao Sword Sect, there’s no way she could have hidden it.”

“So, the Empress must have known about the Chi family and Lingxiao Sword Sect situation long ago.”

“But this matter has already been dragging on for nearly a month now, and yet the Empress hasn’t responded at all. Why do you think that is?”

Wei Ziqing’s gaze grew a touch sharper as he stared at the girl before him, carrying a faint sense of pressure.

He watched as the girl, under his pressure, gently clenched the hem of her clothes.

The gesture was slight, but it didn’t escape Wei Ziqing’s eyes.

Rеаd оո KαtReаⅾіnɡСafе

The girl pressed her red lips together tightly, her tone still fairly composed. “So you’re saying, the Empress never intended to get involved from the very beginning?”

Wei Ziqing shook his head. “You don’t understand the Empress, which is why you’ve placed your hopes in her.”

“But have you ever considered? The Lingxiao Sword Sect made a move against the Chi family because they coveted the family’s assets.”

“So what about the Empress?”

Hearing this, Lu Zhuxin widened her eyes at just the right moment, looking at Wei Ziqing with an expression of disbelief.

Wei Ziqing watched the girl’s reaction with great interest.

So far, he was quite satisfied with how this girl was behaving.

Intelligent, quick to understand implications, and with a certain degree of composure, able to calmly restrain her own emotions.

Unfortunately, she was still too young, and a few small gestures betrayed what she was really feeling inside.

Still, this actually worked out better for him.

Wei Ziqing chuckled inwardly, though on the surface he still let out a sigh. “It seems you already understand the situation you’re in now.”

“So in that case…” Lu Zhuxin said, sounding as if she couldn’t quite believe it. “Everything we’ve done has been in vain? We might have even walked straight into a trap.”

“No, it hasn’t gone quite that far.” Wei Ziqing said. “The only one capable of standing against the Lingxiao Sword Sect is the Empress.”

“Your choice wasn’t wrong. Entering the palace is also an appropriate move.”

“If the two of you sisters become the Empress’s consorts, the Lingxiao Sword Sect naturally won’t dare to act against you any further.”

“And with that status, the Empress will also be able to justifiably intervene in this matter.”

Rеad оn KаtReaԁіnɡСafе

“It’s just that if the Chi family’s assets fall into the Empress’s hands, it will be very difficult to reclaim them afterward.”

The girl lowered her gaze slightly, her entire body seeming to lose its strength. “So in the end, my sister and I can only barely manage to keep our lives, is that it?”

Seeing this, Wei Ziqing suppressed the smile threatening to curl at the corners of his mouth and slowly stepped forward.

“Actually, there’s no need to be so hopeless.”

“I have another idea. There might still be a chance to preserve part of the Chi family’s assets.”

Lu Zhuxin raised her head, looking at Wei Ziqing with a suspicious expression. “Noble Consort, is that true?”

“I can’t say I’m entirely certain.” Wei Ziqing said. “But I think it’s worth a try.”

“Hm?”

At that, Wei Ziqing briefly laid out his idea.

“Second Miss Chi, what do you think of this?”

Lu Zhuxin blinked, looking at Wei Ziqing with an expression of astonishment.

So this was what the man had been calculating!

His nerve was even bolder than she’d expected.

Simply put, Wei Ziqing’s plan was to have Chi Xiyan voluntarily offer the Chi family and the Lingbao Commerce Association to the imperial court, in front of court officials.

This way, even the Empress wouldn’t be able to directly claim the Chi family and the Lingbao Commerce Association as her own private property, and it would have to be received by court officials instead.

But a piece of meat this large would inevitably become an object of contention among the many factions at court.

Reаԁ oո КatRеaⅾіոgCafе

At that point, Wei Ziqing would step in and put Chi Xiyan forward for the position.

Chi Xiyan had originally come from the Chi family, was well versed in business, and was more familiar with the family’s operations than anyone else. On top of that, she was now a palace consort, someone close to the Empress.

Moreover, she wasn’t from the capital and stood independent of the court factions. There was a good chance the Empress would agree to this proposal.

Lu Zhuxin didn’t feel like offering any opinion on this proposal.

If things followed the setting of the original novel, the Empress would most likely agree to whatever proposal Wei Ziqing put forward.

As the fated male lead of a power fantasy world, even if his proposal were a pile of garbage, the Heavenly Dao would still turn that garbage into gold and, through some incomprehensible logic, achieve a thousand percent success rate.

But that was only how things worked in the original novel’s setting.

Right now, Lu Zhuxin knew that Wei Ziqing had made several mistakes.

First, the Empress’s true target had never been the Chi family, but Lu Zhuxin herself.

Second, the current Empress was very likely not the same Empress he thought he knew.

So the starting point of his deductions had been wrong from the very beginning.

And yet, through sheer coincidence, Wei Ziqing had stumbled onto Lu Zhuxin, which made this the closest he’d ever come to the truth.

Still, this proposal of Wei Ziqing’s happened to be quite helpful to Lu Zhuxin’s next plan.

Lu Zhuxin had been hesitating over how to drag this fated male lead into her scheme, and now he’d delivered himself right to her door.

Hehe, how perfect!

Lu Zhuxin laughed inwardly, though her face remained composed and serious.

Reаⅾ оո ΚatReαdiոgСаfe

She stood up and bowed solemnly to Wei Ziqing.

“Thank you, Noble Consort, for lending your help. Muxue will never forget this kindness.”

Seeing this, Wei Ziqing knew the matter was settled.

From the moment this Second Miss Chi accepted his proposal, she had been thoroughly tied to him.

He smiled and said, “Second Miss Chi, have you thought about how you’ll explain this to your elder sister?”

“Mm.” Lu Zhuxin nodded. “I’ll go speak with her about it.”

Explain, my ass.

Lu Zhuxin couldn’t be bothered to explain anything.

Even without the proposal Wei Ziqing had just laid out, once she left the Illusory Heart Formation, Chi Xiyan would have offered up the Chi family on her own anyway.

After all, what Chi Xiyan cared about now was no longer that small fortune belonging to the Chi family.

She had already found something far more important than wealth.

Lu Zhuxin hadn’t gone through all the trouble of constructing that illusion just to play house with Chi Xiyan.

The conclusion Chi Xiyan had reached within that nine year long dream would be branded into her consciousness like a thought imprint.

Even if it wasn’t real, it would become real all the same.

So there was no need for Lu Zhuxin to do anything redundant.

If Wei Ziqing thought he could use this as an opening to drag Chi Xiyan onto his ship, then he’d been doomed to fail from the very start.