Hearing the commotion, the two turned their heads and both smiled as they stood up – one raising his cup in greeting, the other bowing deeply.

One was Rong Pu, the other was Shen Mi.

The two who had quarreled like fire and water during the day were now hiding in this tower at midnight, drinking together.

Tie Ci entered without any surprise, smiling: “Don’t tell me you didn’t finish your argument during the day and made an appointment tonight to compete in drinking?”

Though she said this, her tone was extremely relaxed. Rong Pu examined her carefully, then turned to Shen Mi: “I told you His Highness wouldn’t be fooled.”

Shen Mi breathed a sigh of relief: “Now I can rest easy.”

Murong Yi had already sat down beside them, taking the jar from the wine warming pot and pouring half a cup for Tie Ci. Without lifting his head, he said: “Acting and pretending, overplaying the performance – it only fooled those few dim-witted deans.”

Tie Ci sat down beside him. He naturally drew her into his embrace and brought the wine cup to her lips: “Come.”

His posture was intimate, completely ignoring the two people across from them.

Tie Ci lowered her head to drink, then slipped out of his embrace and poured him a cup as well, patting his hand: “The affection display is enough, be good.”

Having given him face and expressed intimacy, the demon consort finally stopped making a fuss and held his own cup, leaning against the cushions to drink slowly.

When he wasn’t paying attention, Tie Ci poured wine for the two across from them as well, smiling: “At first I was nearly fooled by you two and was worrying about how to mediate. Later, when I saw Shen Mi stand up afterward, I understood your plan.”

Rong Pu said softly: “The dean of Celu Academy is elderly and already seeking a successor. If this successor is one of our people, the future literary legacy of Da Qian will fall into Your Highness’s hands. However, these major academies are very wary of Yueli. Under normal circumstances, even if our people were officially appointed, they would inevitably be marginalized. Only by staging a performance…”

So from the moment Shen Mi went there, he had consulted with him and agreed to feign discord, laying the groundwork for today’s public quarrel.

With Shen Mi’s current status and position, being actively invited to Celu would naturally lead them to eagerly court him, and the treatment and position given wouldn’t be poor.

Da Qian had rules that the court never interfered with academy personnel appointments. Tie Ci couldn’t set this precedent by placing her own people, but now Rong Pu had helped her achieve this.

In fact, although Tie Ci wanted to bring all three major academies under her wing, she hadn’t planned to lay out such schemes so early. After all, Rong Pu had only recently taken over Yueli, and being able to develop it so successfully was already an unexpected joy for her. Moreover, this person had a weak constitution and shouldn’t overexert himself mentally.

Who would have thought his vision was so far-reaching that he had already set his sights on Celu.

Seeing Rong Pu’s slightly pale complexion, she sighed inwardly and raised her wine cup: “To painstaking efforts.”

Rong Pu smiled and drank.

Tie Ci then toasted Shen Mi: “To enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens.”

Though Rong Pu and Shen Mi spoke of this matter lightly, she could imagine that during this period, to make the act realistic and gain everyone’s trust, Rong Pu must have given Shen Mi quite a hard time. With the dean’s disfavor, Shen Mi’s days at the academy certainly wouldn’t have been pleasant.

All for her sake.

Shen Mi smiled and drained his cup in one gulp: “Willingly and gladly.”

He told Tie Ci about his future plans at Celu. Using his mother’s weather prediction abilities, he would put on several good performances at Celu Academy, striving to establish his position before the old dean passed away. He even produced a detailed, comprehensive, and feasible plan.

Tie Ci asked him why he didn’t go to the prosperous Mingquan, given that they offered a higher position.

Shen Mi was silent for a while before saying: “The dean feels that while Your Highness’s people are now scattered everywhere, it’s best to keep a few of our own in the capital.”

Tie Ci looked at Rong Pu: “Don’t you plan to return to the capital recently?”

Rong Pu also paused slightly before saying: “No.”

Tie Ci lowered her eyes to drink, saying nothing.

Once she returned to the capital, she would launch a full assault on the Xiao family. When the court fell into chaos, what role Prime Minister Rong would play and how much he would be implicated was difficult to estimate.

This past year, Rong Pu had tried his best to extract the Rong family from the center of power. He had requested that Tie Ci transfer his father and uncle out of the capital, brought several outstanding family descendants to Yueli, moved part of the family business to Haiyou, and had many all-night talks with Prime Minister Rong.

But no matter what promises Prime Minister Rong made to him, Rong Pu dared not fully believe them, and he knew Tie Ci wouldn’t fully believe them either.

His choice not to return to the capital now was telling Tie Ci that whatever happened to the Rong family afterward, he wouldn’t interfere.

He had done his best. If this massive ship was unwilling to change course with him, he wouldn’t willingly sink with it.

The person who appeared most gentle and weak was actually the most iron-hearted.

This was his choice. Tie Ci really couldn’t say anything about this matter and could only respond with silence.

Rong Pu handed her a scroll: “This is the map that Palace Master gave you. It’s been checked – no poison.”

He continued: “Today I sent many people to pursue that servant, and also conducted investigations among those who were present in the academy at the time. The academy has had many mixed personnel these past few days, but fortunately most of the visiting scholars have names and identities. We initially traced it to one scholar and a servant beside a steward within the academy. However, when we went to find them, both had disappeared. I went to look at the steward’s residence and noticed some disorder in the flower bed outside his bedroom, so I ordered a search and found this.” He handed over another cloth bundle.

Opening the bundle revealed a handful of pale red soil and a broken piece of wood.

Tie Ci examined the cut on the wood for a long while before saying: “This wood is already slightly rotted, yet the cut is extremely smooth and neat. From the width, it seems like a very broad short blade, and the opponent’s blade was very fast to leave such clean knife marks on such loose wood.”

“How fast?”

“I couldn’t achieve such speed anyway.”

Rong Pu looked somewhat surprised: “Then it must be a master.”

“This soil…” Tie Ci leaned closer to smell it, but Rong Pu said: “Be careful, don’t get too close.”

He waved his hand gently above the soil while Tie Ci carefully distinguished the scents within.

“Blood? No, not just that, there’s something else… such a strong smell of rotting flesh… ugh.”

Rong Pu immediately offered his sachet.

But his arm was intercepted mid-air by another hand that also held a sachet. Their arms crossed in the air, and when their gazes met, Murong Yi’s deeply lowered eyelids carried killing intent. He loosened his fingers and the sachet in his hand hit Tie Ci on the head.

Tie Ci: “…”

An endless battlefield where the only victim was her, her, and still her.

She took the sachet to cover her nose, watching Murong Yi slowly push Rong Pu’s arm back to its original position, saying coolly: “When being human, one should keep hands and feet honest, otherwise sooner or later you’ll end up like this tree root – crack.”

Tie Ci was thunderstruck by his self-provided sound effects and quickly changed the subject: “In this soil, it feels like a corpse has been buried for three months.”

“So I suspect there really is a corpse buried in this soil – the remains of the missing steward’s servant. That steward just happened to be in charge of the martial arts field equipment.”

“But didn’t the servant just die?” Tie Ci said. “You suspect the opponent killed the servant with extremely fast blade work, then used poison to dissolve his corpse into the flower bed soil, making the person disappear without a trace, dead or alive, breaking all leads. No, this isn’t right. If they could kill with poison, why use a blade? Moreover, this blade technique is bold and powerful – only someone with a broad heart could develop it. Such a person couldn’t possibly also practice sinister poison arts.”

“Indeed, those tainted by poison can hardly develop such forceful martial arts. Poison arts are soft and insidious, corrupting one’s character. Therefore I suspect there were two people – one who killed the servant with the blade, and another who used poison to dissolve the corpse for a clean disposal.”

Tie Ci stared at that knife cut, having a vague notion in her mind. She felt she had seen such blade work before, but couldn’t remember where no matter how hard she tried.

“This time, because we invited many guests and you were coming, for safety’s sake, Yueli was loose on the outside but tight within. I even borrowed people from Commander Xiahou and tracking experts from Yang Yixiu in Ziyang, but the opponent still infiltrated and escaped. Clearly their strength is not to be underestimated. I’ll continue investigating, but you must be careful when you return to the capital.”

“Haven’t you noticed? The opponent’s target wasn’t me, but this group of students.” Tie Ci said. “This truly puzzles me.”

“Since they didn’t succeed within the academy, they certainly won’t give up on the return journey to the capital. Your Highness might as well wait and see.”

Tie Ci nodded, seeing Rong Pu coughing softly, she couldn’t help saying: “I can handle these matters myself, you should worry less…”

Before she finished speaking, coughing sounds arose – louder, clearer, and more urgent.

Tie Ci: “…”

She turned to look at Murong Yi with annoyance: “Sir, is there a slipper stuck in your throat?”

Murong Yi: “…”

After a long pause, he stared at Rong Pu and said ominously: “Not only is there a slipper stuck in my throat, I could also strangle a white lotus flower in my armpit.”

Rong Pu looked at him innocently and said to Tie Ci: “Your Highness, for some reason, Brother Murong always finds me disagreeable no matter what. Could it be because I accidentally discovered his private meeting with Jian Xi the other day?”

Murong Yi: “…”

After a long pause, he said: “Such strong Pu-erh tea.”

Rong Pu ignored him and said to Tie Ci: “Regarding Jian Xi’s matter, could Your Highness give me an explanation?”

“I know you’re worried about Jian Xi. Her behavior is indeed suspicious. From a safety perspective, even with the slightest doubt, she shouldn’t have been selected. From this aspect alone, you were right.”

“But?”

“But from another angle, isn’t it possible that Jian Xi’s display of deep scheming and ill intentions was the result of someone else’s design?”

“I’m all ears.”

“That girl Jian Xi’s temperament – you can tell she’s dutiful, even somewhat timidly dutiful. Would such a person deliberately approach another’s lover? Would she constantly act independently to attract attention? If she were that type of person, when she wrote five-character regulated verse as quatrains, she could have directly explained ‘meaning exhausted’ to gain support for herself, but she didn’t. She gave up a golden opportunity, which doesn’t match your impression of ‘deep scheming and attention-seeking,’ because no matter which behavior, the fundamental purpose would be to win, to stand out, to gain yours and my attention.”

“Your Highness is very perceptive.”

“Her behavior has always shown a sense of fragmentation, which aroused my suspicion. You and I both know that what initially made us wary of her was that despite receiving my favor, she tried to approach Murong Yi. This behavior, similar to You Weixing’s, would trigger very unpleasant associations and lead us to eliminate her directly – which is exactly what you did.”

Rong Pu said nothing, looking at the clear brow of the person before him. The You Weixing incident had left even him with psychological shadows. As the person directly involved, Tie Ci should have been even more wary, especially since she treasured Murong Yi so much.

Even he had unhesitatingly eliminated Jian Xi for this reason, yet she maintained clear thinking and was willing to give Jian Xi another chance.

The woman he loved.

She was the most magnanimous and tolerant woman in the world.

Tie Ci said: “I don’t want to ruin someone’s future based on speculation. So I asked Murong Yi to test her. He could use any method – I just needed a judgment.”

Murong Yi smiled beside them, satisfied that Tie Ci had refuted Rong Pu and pleased by Tie Ci’s absolute trust in him.

So he had made an exception and used his beauty as bait once, only to discover that Jian Xi was very careful to avoid suspicion.

From this, one could judge that the supposed deliberate approach to him didn’t exist.

Many misunderstandings in this world arose from personal subjective assumptions. They could be resolved with just a little testing, yet people were often overconfident in their judgments or too burdened by psychological barriers to take that step.

Just like how the hidden enemy thought You Weixing had left deep shadows in Tie Ci’s heart, and that those in power were decisive and ruthless in their resolve. If Jian Xi violated a taboo, she would never have another chance.

They didn’t know that his A’Ci was indeed iron-hearted toward enemies, but gentle and kind toward her people.

Rong Pu was silent. After a long while, he said: “Your Highness is meticulous and thoughtful, caring so much even for an ordinary commoner girl. Rong Pu feels ashamed.”

Tie Ci smiled and was about to comfort him with a few words when she saw Rong Pu turn toward the screen: “You’ve heard everything too. Come out and thank His Highness.”