“This is improper, I’m afraid…” Lu Jin said with a smile, “I have already interrogated the man, and the confession is in Your Highness’s hands. I wonder what further detailed investigation the Ninth Prince wishes to conduct? If Yan takes the man back to dismember him, that would be one thing, but if any recanting of testimony were to occur, wouldn’t that make it seem like our Great Zhou extracted confessions through torture? How wronged our Great Zhou would be.”

Hearing Lu Jin speak this way, a Yan court minister could no longer contain himself. He bowed to Lu Jin and said, “The man is from our Yan. Since Minister Lu has already interrogated him, why are you afraid to have us take him back? Our Ninth Prince said he wants to investigate further and will certainly give Great Zhou an explanation. Yet Minister Lu keeps making excuses and obstructions, which inevitably makes people suspect that this guard was forced to confess under torture!”

Hearing these words, Xiao Rongyan cast his cold, piercing gaze toward that fool who was foolish without knowing it.

Indeed, upon hearing this, Bai Qingyan straightened up, the smile disappearing from her face. Her voice turned cold and stern, rising two tones yet remaining unhurried: “The Yan envoy speaks strangely. Our Great Zhou extracting confessions through torture? Did our Great Zhou force Minister Zhong’s guard to… go to the Liu residence to assassinate Minister Liu, a key minister of our Great Zhou court? Or did our Great Zhou’s people go to the embassy to kidnap this assassin and hold a blade to his throat to force him to assassinate our court ministers?”

“Yan must not forget that our Minister Liu is still lying in bed with his life hanging in the balance! First it was my brother, now it’s my pillar minister. This is already the second time your Yan has harmed our Great Zhou!” Bai Qingyan’s voice was cool and thin. “It is because I am well-cultivated that I say this. If I were a tyrant, I fear none of you Yan court ministers would be able to walk out of this hall standing today!”

When Bai Qingyan spoke, her deliberate pace naturally carried an intimidating presence of authority without anger. Now with her voice raised and seeming to carry ice shards, it was even more terrifying.

The Yan envoy was so frightened he quickly lowered his head, wishing he could bite off his tongue. He was from the Empress Dowager’s faction and naturally needed to find ways to exonerate Zhong Xingxiao. Even if he weren’t from the Empress Dowager’s faction, with Yan now trapped in such circumstances, he still needed to clear Yan of suspicion to negotiate this gamble of nations with the Great Zhou.

Their Yan had used the four words “rumors can kill” to force Great Zhou to negotiate this national gamble with them. Now they had handed such a huge handle to the Great Zhou, giving the Great Zhou an excuse to send troops. As a Yan court minister, how could he not panic?

“My Yan minister’s inappropriate words spoken in urgency need not be taken to heart by Your Majesty. As Your Majesty said… it was indeed our Yan’s guard who went to Minister Liu’s residence to commit assassination. This point is indisputable,” Xiao Rongyan said calmly. “The death of one guard doesn’t matter, but… since it involves the birth brother of our Yan Empress Dowager, this matter… our Yan still needs to investigate thoroughly.”

Just as Xiao Rongyan finished speaking, Wei Zhong came in with quick steps, bowed, and said to Bai Qingyan, “Your Majesty, that assassin… Imperial Physician Huang couldn’t save him. The man is dead!”

Xiao Rongyan’s palm tightened.

“Assassinating a key minister of our Great Zhou, dying ten thousand times wouldn’t be enough to vent our hatred,” Bai Qingyan said indifferently. “Dead… what a bargain for him.”

Not giving the Yan court ministers a chance to speak, Bai Qingyan continued, “Regarding this assassination attempt, what Minister Zhong, the birth brother of Yan’s Empress Dowager, was thinking, I can roughly guess. Either he feared Minister Liu’s mouth, or he wanted to sabotage this national gamble. It seems… when the Ninth Prince of Great Yan came to our Great Zhou court earlier, saying that Yan still had some capital to fight our Great Zhou, those words weren’t false!”

Bai Qingyan deliberately elevated Yan’s status in her words.

“Now that Minister Liu has not yet awakened, Minister Zhong is not suitable to appear in the negotiations for this national gamble!” Bai Qingyan tapped her fingers on the table and said, “Let’s begin negotiations tomorrow! The sooner the negotiations conclude, the sooner you Yan people can leave our capital city.”

Now that the handle was in Great Zhou’s hands, and Great Zhou was willing to loosen up and negotiate, this time Yan would probably have to show enough “sincerity” to appease the “assassination” incident.

The Yan court ministers had already gauged this Great Zhou Emperor’s meaning, roughly understanding she was hinting that Yan needed to prepare to cut flesh to successfully negotiate this national gamble.

Even if they had any dissatisfaction, upon hearing that Bai Qingyan had set a date saying negotiations could begin tomorrow, everything else seemed unimportant.

Xiao Rongyan also saw through Bai Qingyan’s intention. However, from Yan’s standpoint, if they had to haggle with the Great Zhou over every detail regarding the “assassin” matter, it would be counterproductive. Being able to set tomorrow for negotiations was good news for Yan.

The Yan envoys naturally all thought this way. Hearing that this national gamble could be discussed tomorrow, their expressions showed surprise beyond expectation, yet they felt it was reasonable…

After all, the Great Zhou was already in a strong position, and this time they had truly caught Yan red-handed. If they made some demands that would trouble Yan during tomorrow’s negotiations, Yan would be more likely to agree than before. Even if the Great Zhou demanded that Yan cede several cities, Yan, having been caught with evidence, would have to agree. Then the Great Zhou would have a very good chance of obtaining Yan without bloodshed.

Such a deal would move any Great Zhou Emperor who was even slightly greedy.

For Xiao Rongyan, even if Lu Jin had been heavy-handed and an assassin had died, so be it. But he understood Zhong Xingxiao – he didn’t dare to order his subordinates to assassinate a minister of the Great Zhou’s court.

Yet this assassin had ultimately confessed under Lu Jin’s interrogation, but he happened to die just when their Yan court ministers arrived. For a moment, Xiao Rongyan couldn’t figure out whether this assassin’s death was Bai Qingyan paving the way to smoothly finalize agreements and detain hostages later.

However, what Xiao Rongyan was most worried about was that this assassin had other origins and different purposes.

Setting aside personal feelings, the current outcome was not bad for Yan, but Xiao Rongyan had to understand why this assassin assassinated a Great Zhou court minister and who was behind the instigation.

“Since the assassin is dead, please have the Great Zhou Emperor hand over this criminal’s corpse to Yan,” Xiao Rongyan said.

“The matter of assassinating our Great Zhou’s Minister Liu is not yet concluded. Does Yan think… that because I agreed to negotiations tomorrow, this matter can be lightly brushed aside? You even dare to demand the corpse from me?” Bai Qingyan’s voice carried laughter.

Seeing this, Lu Jin smiled and asked, “Could it be that the Yan Regent wants to take this Yan ‘martyr’ back for a grand burial?”

“Minister Lu’s words are too pointed!” Yan’s Minister of Revenue stepped forward and said loudly, “Our Regent wants to take the corpse back merely to bring it before Minister Zhong and have Minister Zhong give an explanation! After all… this assassin claimed to be acting on Minister Zhong’s orders. Even though the confession is now written, Minister Zhong is still a key minister of Yan. Your Majesty should give us a chance to clear Minister Zhong of suspicion.”