“Royal brother wants to use that dancing girl to eliminate Marquis Guanjun?” Princess of Xijiang’s eyes lit up.

Great Liang’s national strength was clearly weakened to the point of being on the verge of collapse, yet their Xijiang had never dared to make a move, precisely because of Marquis Guanjun’s existence. If they could eliminate Marquis Guanjun, they could attack Great Liang directly from the border, joining with Northern Qi to form an encirclement of Great Liang.

The Northern Qi people were barbaric and crude, lacking in civilization—nothing more than simple-minded savages. When they fought Great Liang to mutual exhaustion in the future, Xijiang could completely reap the benefits.

“Marquis Guanjun began his northern expedition against Northern Qi at fourteen, quickly becoming a renowned and consistently victorious general. Even when he was in the Northern Territories, the eldest royal brother paid close attention to this person. Marquis Guanjun shows no interest in women or lust for power—he has no apparent weaknesses. Today at the banquet, I had our Xijiang’s greatest warrior test Marquis Guanjun’s depth, but our man couldn’t even last three moves before being thrown out.”

Princess of Xijiang opened her beautiful eyes wide in surprise: “Royal brother, you’re saying Huasheng couldn’t last three moves against Marquis Guanjun?”

Prince Gong of Xijiang nodded: “Yes, so I’ve decided to adjust our strategy. Against Marquis Guanjun, we can only use cunning.”

Princess of Xijiang pondered for a moment: “Actually, the best strategy for dealing with Marquis Guanjun would be a divide-and-conquer scheme, making Great Liang’s emperor personally move against Marquis Guanjun, just like that Great Liang general who guarded Shanhaiguan years ago.”

“Divide-and-conquer would certainly be good, but this Great Liang emperor keeps going into seclusion for no reason. We probably can’t find an opening anytime soon.” Saying this, Prince Gong of Xijiang smiled: “Fortunately, heaven is on our side—Marquis Guanjun’s fiancée looks identical to the dancing girl in my residence.”

“Royal brother means—”

Prince Gong of Xijiang’s mind conjured the image of the young lady standing quietly like an elegant orchid in the field, a cold light flashing in his eyes: “I’ve already sent people back to secretly bring the dancing girl into Great Liang’s capital, then we’ll find an opportunity to kidnap Marquis Guanjun’s fiancée and perform a substitution!”

“What if Marquis Guanjun recognizes her?” Princess of Xijiang thought of that brilliantly shining young lady and shook her head gently.

With learning comes natural elegance—she didn’t believe that a dancing girl could impersonate Marquis Guanjun’s fiancée.

Prince Gong of Xijiang laughed upon hearing this: “They’re not married yet, so they won’t be together day and night. As long as the dancing girl can get close to Marquis Guanjun, what’s there to worry about not getting a chance to succeed?”

He would prepare a dagger that sealed throats with one cut or silver needles laced with deadly poison for the dancing girl. As long as she could deceive Marquis Guanjun for even a moment, she could take his life!

“Then I’ll use tea in place of wine to toast the royal brother’s certain victory here.” Princess of Xijiang picked up her teacup, touched it to her lips, then put it down and asked instead: “How does royal brother plan to deal with Marquis Guanjun’s fiancée?”

Prince Gong of Xijiang chuckled: “Isn’t she the dancing girl in the royal brother’s residence?”

Princess of Xijiang’s expression darkened slightly upon hearing this: “Royal brother has taken a fancy to her?”

“Nothing of the sort. Think about it, royal sister—once the dancing girl succeeds, I certainly won’t let her live. The world will think Marquis Guanjun died together with his fiancée. Only by having Miss Li take the dancing girl’s place, living in my royal residence, would this plan be flawless. Otherwise, if Great Liang discovers it was we, Xijiang, who acted, setting aside Northern Qi to bite down on us, Xijiang, relentlessly, would be troublesome.”

Princess of Xijiang looked deeply at Prince Gong of Xijiang and said coldly: “As long as royal brother hasn’t been bewitched, that’s good. I might as well speak plainly—you can’t handle that, Miss Li. If you really develop improper thoughts and get bitten back, that would be trouble.”

“Royal sister, can rest assured, I know my limits.” Though Prince Gong of Xijiang said this to comfort her, he chuckled inwardly.

Royal sister simply didn’t understand men. A woman who wasn’t easy to control was a fine steed—only then would a man have interest in conquering her. The little dancing girl in his residence was completely obedient to him, submitting to all his demands even in bed. After a long time, what was the interest in that?

Qiao Zhao returned to the residence and instructed A’Zhu to place the famous qin “Bingqing” that Xu Jinghong had given her in the study. After visiting Old Madam Deng and He Shi, she returned to the study and began transcribing musical scores from memory.

Having received such a precious qin as a gift, she should respond with an exceptional score.

As soon as the ink dried, Qiao Zhao instructed A’Zhu to place the newly written musical score in a box and send it to the Xu residence.

Xu Jinghong had just finished her evening meal. This was usually her time for playing the qin, but tonight no musical sounds could be heard from the quiet courtyard.

Lady Xu arrived with two maids, chiding: “Hong’er, mother never thought you would really give ‘Bingqing’ to Third Miss Li.”

Xu Jinghong glanced at Lady Xu with emotionless eyes: “Doesn’t Mother think ‘Bingqing’ would be better in Third Miss Li’s hands?”

“Silly child, you gave ‘Bingqing’ to someone else—what will you use to play music in the future?”

Xu Jinghong lowered her eyes and said indifferently: “If there’s nothing satisfactory, I can simply not play.”

Rather than let those inferior instruments pollute her ears, she preferred peace.

Lady Xu nodded to the maid behind her: “Take the qin to the young lady’s study.”

“Mother—”

Lady Xu smiled: “Use this for now. When you encounter a good Qin in the future, we’ll replace it. That Miss Li—”

Thinking of how Qiao Zhao had accepted her daughter’s beloved possession without any hesitation, Lady Xu felt somewhat displeased. But thinking of what happened at today’s banquet, she couldn’t voice this displeasure.

She was being petty—it was just excessive love for her daughter.

“Madam, Young Lady, Third Miss from Scholar Li’s residence has sent something for the young lady.”

“Show her in.”

A’Zhu entered and presented the box to Xu Jinghong.

Xu Jinghong disliked excessive talking and didn’t ask A’Zhu what was in the box, instead opening it directly.

A faint fragrance of ink wafted up. Seeing the four characters “Lasting Regret of the Vast Sky” on the cover of the booklet in the box, Xu Jinghong’s expression immediately changed. She took out the booklet and flipped through it quickly. By the end, her eyes were moist: “This is truly the lost latter half of the exceptional piece ‘Lasting Regret of the Vast Sky.’ This musical score was written by Third Miss Li?”

A’Zhu nodded: “Yes, our young lady wrote it. After finishing, she immediately had this servant box it up and bring it to Miss Xu.”

“Then she—” Xu Jinghong swallowed the rest of her words, lovingly stroking the cover of the musical score and sighing: “Never mind. She responded to me with such a treasure—why should I ask about anything else?”

Lan Xinong and the others quickly sent a joint invitation asking Qiao Zhao for a small gathering. Qiao Zhao thought briefly and guessed their intention, declining with the excuse that Old Madam Deng’s health hadn’t improved.

She wasn’t truly a carefree young lady of a noble family. Bearing blood vengeance, she would have to face the all-powerful current Chief Minister Lan Shan in the future—naturally, she had no leisure to be any kind of society leader.

Prince Gong of Xijiang had people secretly watch Li Residence for several days without seeing Qiao Zhao leave, so he decided to infiltrate Li Residence at night to scout first.

That night happened to be dark with high winds. A Xijiang scout with his face covered prowled back and forth along the base of Li Residence’s wall, finally finding a suitable place to climb over.

The masked man leaped up and hung on the wall. Chen Guang stood behind him with a grin, holding a fire poker.