Han Zhi suspected he had misheard. In his view, this was merely a small matter—as long as Grand Consort Fan and Zhou Weiqi were willing to help, there was no reason it couldn’t succeed. But now Qian Ying clearly stood before him with a troubled expression, bowing and scraping as he said that Grand Consort Fan had specially bestowed a batch of jewelry to add to Han Yueheng’s trousseau. The list of additional trousseau items was long and densely written—one glance was enough to know it was quite valuable.
But none of this was the point. He took the list but didn’t even look at it, placing it on the table. His eyes sinister, he asked: “What?”
Qian Ying was frightened by his gaze and subconsciously lowered his head even further, hesitating as he gathered courage to say it again: “His Highness has already tried to find a way, but Her Majesty the Empress said the list has already been finalized and the Imperial Observatory has already done the calculations, so there’s no reason to change it again…”
All nonsense and empty words! Han Zhi thought of the previous matter with Song Chuyi. He had thought that was the only time Aunt would cast him aside to choose the interests of her own son, but now he suddenly realized that perhaps blood truly was thicker than water. No matter how much Aunt usually doted on him, it was limited. At critical moments, he was just a chess piece. When useful, naturally all was well, but once he became useless—a discarded piece—he would be abandoned without hesitation.
This discovery made him somewhat frightened. He had always thought that even without his mother’s love, he still had Aunt, and there was no difference between the two. But now it seemed that wasn’t the case. He wasn’t Aunt’s son, and Aunt wouldn’t wholeheartedly plan for him.
When Qian Ying didn’t receive a response from Han Zhi, he felt truly uneasy inside. Emboldening himself, he continued to make excuses for Grand Consort Fan: “This is also something the Lady couldn’t help. Others may not know, but Heir, you surely know. Her Majesty the Empress has always preferred Crown Princess Lu somewhat more. After the Lady spoke once and was refused by Her Majesty the Empress, if she continues speaking, she’ll incur Her Majesty the Empress’s displeasure…”
When he came, Zhou Weiqi had told him to fabricate well, but looking at Han Zhi’s sinister eyes and the malevolence emanating from his entire body, he suddenly felt he really couldn’t continue speaking.
Han Zhi indeed didn’t want to listen anymore. He waved his hand to signal him to withdraw and sat in the chair for a long while without moving.
Guan Shan stole in and obediently stood beside him for a while. Seeing Han Zhi finally move, he then came over to report: “Wei Yanxi ran to the estate again. That Young Master Zhang also doesn’t know what’s good for him… You’ve been so good to him…”
Been so good to him, yet he still wanted to join forces with others to harm him! Thinking of this matter, Han Zhi’s entire person became even more terrifyingly gloomy. His eyes fierce, he heavily slapped the table. The tea cup on the table immediately shattered and scattered in all directions. He laughed coldly, feeling that Song Six had truly grown capable—able to even dig out Zhang Run and persuade Zhang Run to deal with him. Sometimes human intuition was frighteningly accurate. That time at Chongyin Workshop when Song Six and Zhang Run simultaneously appeared there, he felt there was no such coincidence in this world. Even though the two rooms were far apart, even though Song Six was with Ye Jingchuan at the time, even though Zhang Run’s private room truly had no other traces, he instinctively felt with his intuition that something was wrong here.
So he deliberately leaked a bit of information to Zhang Run, deliberately indulged Zhang Run’s outings to cultivate friendship with Wei Yanxi. Sure enough, last time Zhang Run went out to Chongyin Workshop, he had Guan Shan inquire and heard that Song Chuyi had also gone to Chongyin Workshop.
Once could still possibly be coincidence, but the same thing happening twice was too much of a coincidence. When he schemed against others, that was natural and proper, but if someone wanted to scheme against him, that was truly courting death. If Song Six dared to touch the tiger’s backside, she should have anticipated what kind of end she would meet.
He didn’t even look at the fragments flying everywhere, nor did he care about the wound on his hand cut by the tea cup shards. While carelessly pulling out fragments, he asked Guan Shan: “How is Song Yan’s side?”
He had always known that if Song Chuyi had any weakness, it was her only full sibling—her younger brother Song Yan. Destroying Song Yan would make her suffer even more than destroying her.
He knew this point, and had to thank Song Chuning for it.
“Comes every day.” Guan Shan’s face unconsciously showed a proud smile: “He wants to save someone, but how easy is it to save someone? We tricked him saying that as long as he wins one round, we’ll release the person, but those gambling with him are all veterans of many years. Even if it were you, Heir, you’d probably be no match, let alone this young calf fresh from the stable?”
Given time, Song Yan would unconsciously immerse himself in such gambling games until, like those true gamblers, he could never extricate himself.
He had originally wanted to let Song Six off—since both Aunt and Cousin thought so highly of her, he thought that if he could truly facilitate her marriage with Cousin, it would be a great help to Cousin. But just when he finally thought it through, Song Six insisted on touching the tiger’s backside, insisted on making him take action to teach her a lesson. Initially he was still worried that doing this would displease Aunt and Cousin, since this would truly severely affect the relationship between the Song family and the Eastern Palace. But now thinking about it, Aunt and Cousin don’t care about him that much either, do they?
“Same as before—in a few days, change location and change the person gambling with him.” The corners of Han Zhi’s mouth hung with a contemptuous smile: “When the timing is about right, go to Earl Changning’s manor to demand money to redeem the person.”
There were many sons of aristocratic families addicted to eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, countless more who engaged in cockfighting and dog racing, but Earl Changning’s manor had never produced such descendants. If Song Yan became the first, the scene would certainly be quite a sight. Moreover, Tang Mingzhao in Shu was strict with rules of the highest order. If news of Song Yan’s gambling addiction reached his ears, he would undoubtedly expel Song Yan without hesitation.
A ten-year-old child scholar? His entire life would stop at child scholar.
Guan Shan readily agreed: “You don’t need to instruct me on this—I know it myself. I’m being careful, changing locations constantly, fearing discovery by the people following Song Yan. Moreover, that fellow cries in front of Song Yan from time to time. Song Yan is anxious to save someone and concerned about his schoolmate’s reputation—how would he dare make it public?”
He wanted to continue saying more when the door outside was knocked. Guan Hai rushed in before Han Zhi could say “enter,” hurriedly reporting: “Heir, something has happened to Lord Xu and Lord Jia!”
Xu Liang and Jia Yingxin? What could happen to those two? Han Zhi had just raised an eyebrow when he heard Guan Hai say it all in one breath: “The two of them planted people in the Jinwu Guard, Yulin Guard, and Imperial Guard—now the matter has been exposed and they’ve been arrested!”