The Attack of the Wastrel

Xie Jianyu broke into a burst of confident laughter. He might be lacking when it came to scheming but he was a professional with weapons and war. 

The situation now was that the conflict had been scaled up to involve the entire continent but things were pretty much the same. With all eyes on him, Xie Jianyu confidently said, “There are about thirteen kingdoms who are supporting the North Qiu Kingdom, among which six have sent envoys over to test out Xia Kingdom’s reaction to them. This shows that they are not sure whether the Xia Kingdom has really obtained evidence against their scheme. Hence, we can use this to our advantage and break apart these traitors one by one to decrease the power and influence of the North Qiu Kingdom Kingdom. On the other hand, we can collaborate with the neighboring kingdoms of the North Qiu Kingdom in case they ever decide to go to war……” 

As Xie Jianyu spoke, some of the other advisors in the room nodded their heads in agreement while others frowned and pondered deeply to themselves. After Xie Jianyu finished his suggestion, Rong Yuan added, “You are wrong about one thing. There are no longer thirteen kingdoms who have allied themselves with the North Qiu Kingdom but only eleven.” 

Xie Jianyu jumped in shock for a second before he continued with awkward laughter. 

If he was successful, Fengyang Kingdom would no longer be affiliated with the North Qiu Kingdom. Furthermore, amongst the other countries that had sworn allegiance to the North Qiu Kingdom, there was another envoy who was willing to work with the Xia Kingdom. That envoy must have thought twice about his alliance with the North Qiu Kingdom after seeing how the scheme was exposed so early. Rong Yuan had maintained the same attitude towards the envoy. However, this time he did not trust the envoy completely and decided to observe the envoy for a while. 

The continent was large and there were more than thirty kingdoms on it. The North Qiu Kingdom was the strongest followed by Xia Kingdom, Fengyang Kingdom, and Dayin Kingdom. 

At that point, there were still twenty envoy groups who were still at Chiyang City, seventeen of which, were willing to collaborate with Xia Kingdom. 

While it seemed that this number was big and gave a huge advantage to Xia Kingdom, there were a few kingdoms among them who previously allied with the North Qiu Kingdom. Hence, they were a cause of concern. 

“Then what do you think we should do?” Rong Yuan expressionlessly asked after Xie Jianyu had finished his analysis of the continent’s stand. 

“Well...” Xie Jianyu frowned and thought for a while before he slowly explained, “Perhaps we can start from the small kingdoms that allied with the North Qiu Kingdom. Pretending that we don’t know their motives, we can fake an alliance with them before we stab them in the back. By the time they recover from the blow, it would be too late.” 

Instantly, Rong Yuan’s eyes brightened, showing the admiration he had for Xie Jianyu. Xie Jianyu’s suggestion was exactly what Rong Yuan was planning to do. This was also the reason why Rong Yuan had not exposed the envoys when they met with him. 

Although Gu Lingzhi had obtained quite a few resources from the Secret Chamber, she decided not to obtain the records from the other Secret Chamber regarding the North Qiu Kingdom. This was actually a plan by Gu Lingzhi, and it made the North Qiu Kingdom believe that she had not obtained any records but only memorized the names of the few kingdoms that swore allegiance to them. Gu Lingzhi’s actions had saved them a lot of trouble. 

As he thought about this, Rong Yuan turned towards Gu Lingzhi with a warm look in his eyes that showed his admiration and love for her. As expected of Rong Yuan’s chosen woman, she was so much more outstanding compared to all the other ladies out to chase him. 

Many people shuddered at their interactions amidst such an intense atmosphere. 

“Prince Yi’s suggestion is valid. Let’s go ahead with that then.” Staring at the color of the sky outside the hall, Rong Yuan concluded the day’s meeting there, ignoring the expressions on the group’s faces. Without hesitation, he pulled Gu Lingzhi’s hand and led her out of the hall, leaving the others in the room confused by what he meant with ‘that’. 

“Yes, it is late. Let’s do what Prince Yi suggested and trick the envoys of the traitor countries. Head back and rest for tomorrow’s wedding ceremony.” Rong Han knew that Rong Yuan was frustrated with having to attend serious country matters a day before his wedding and hence, he concluded the meeting with two sentences before dismissing the group. 

This jogged the minds of many and they recalled that the next day was the wedding. No wonder Rong Yuan seemed distracted in the past two days, whereby his meeting timings became shorter and shorter. 

As they thought over this, many wore wonderous expressions. 

Since Gu Rong and Lin Yue-er had escaped to the North Qiu Kingdom, Gu Lingzhi did not have any relatives and only a few seniors of the Gu Clan were present. However, would Gu Rong allow his daughter to be wed off smoothly? 

Once the couple left the meeting, Rong Yuan led Gu Lingzhi to Ronghua Palace. Due to the wedding that was happening the following day, the palace was decorated with beautiful fabrics and splendor. 

Gu Lingzhi could not recognize the Ronghua Palace from all the decorations and she hesitated to walk forward with Rong Yuan. 

“What is it?” Sensing Gu Lingzhi’s hesitation, Rong Yuan asked kindly. 

Gu Lingzhi’s heart jumped and she felt her heart melt at Rong Yuan’s sweet smile. Perhaps due to the approaching wedding, Rong Yuan appeared warmer and kinder these few days and the feelings between the two grew deeper and deeper. 

“I should return.” Before the day of the wedding, it was not appropriate for the bride and groom to meet. As such, Gu Lingzhi intended to return to the Gu Clan’s estate at Chiyang City that night before Rong Yuan picked her up from there for the wedding the next day. 

Rong Yuan instantly frowned and he said, “It isn’t far. Let me send you over tomorrow.” 

“But we should not meet before the day of the wedding.” 

“Who said that?” Rong Yuan’s eyes widened and he gripped Gu Lingzhi’s hand tighter. “As long as I am here for you, there isn’t anything we can’t do.” 

“We should follow tradition.” 

Before Gu Lingzhi could reply, Xin Yi cut in. Tianfeng Jin and other men had accompanied the two. 

The wedding was the next day and the good friends of the couple were there to offer help with any other preparations. They went to the Gu Clan’s estate in the Chiyang City, but it was empty. After arriving at the palace, they had heard that Gu Lingzhi had followed Rong Yuan to a meeting and the two only returned then. 

“Xin Yi is right. No matter what you think, we should not break the rules. You might not care about it but you have to think about Gu Lingzhi’s reputation,” Ye Fei agreed. 

Since she had not qualified to participate in the Royal School’s exchange, she had been bored by herself in the palace. Luckily, she had a friend that accompanied her, or she would have rushed to the North Qiu Kingdom without care of the consequences. 

Gu Lingzhi scanned the crowd around her and Rong Yuan as Ye Fei spoke. She immediately recognized Pan Yue, who had used the Yirong Pill to head into Xia Kingdom secretly. He wore a white robe and waved the fan in his hands. 

Speaking of which, it was Pan Yue who alerted Rong Yuan to the scheme at the North Qiu Kingdom. Before things began to unfold, Gu LIngzhi and Rong Yuan were worried about whether they would place Pan Yue in trouble. Now they knew that they had been overthinking. Looking at Pan Yue’s appearance then, they heaved a sigh of relief knowing that nothing had happened to him. 

As Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan scanned Pan Yue, Ye Fei suddenly recalled that Gu Lingzhi might not know who the man was. Hence, she turned towards Pan Yue and introduced him, “This is Wu Yue, you may just ignore him.” 

“Fei’er, don’t do that…” A painful expression flickered past Pan Yue’s face and he stared at Ye Fei like an abandoned puppy. Such an exchange caused goosebumps to form on others. 

Pan Yue’s figure might not be comparable to Xie Jianyu but he was also strong and burly. He was a head taller than Ye Fei and the pitiful expression he wore was uncomfortable to others who knew him. 

As she looked at Pan Yue’s expression, Ye Fei scorned slightly in disgust and she regretted bringing him into the palace. This man should have been left to entertain himself at the guest house. 

“Shut up! One more sentence and I will chase you back to the guest house!” 

“No!” Pan Yue objected and softened his eyes at Ye Fei again, “Are you going to abandon me all the time? I knew you were lying when you said you would take responsibility for me. Back when you pushed me in front of others, you called me husband and lover whenever you liked but now you are pushing me away. I refuse!” 

With that, Pan Yue’s face turned sad and angry at the same time and he stood rooted to his spot. He was determined to remain there no matter what Ye Fei said. 

Yet, his words shocked many and their mouths fell open in shock. 

“Ye Fei, you…” How could she not know before? Behind  Ye Fei’s feminine and cute stature was a playful spirit. 

“Don’t listen to him!” Ye Fei’s face turned as red as a tomato and she stammered, “This…is a misunderstanding!” 

“What misunderstanding? Are you trying to lie about what you did?” Not waiting for Ye Fei to finish her explanation, Pan Yue cut in. This made Ye Fei seem like a horrible person. 

“You…you…” 

“Let me explain.” Seeing that Ye Fei was so red from anger, Qin Xinran helped her, “About a month ago, Ye Fei was cheated by a group of bandits and she was drugged with… something bad. Luckily, she met Wu Yue by coincidence and he helped her. Now, the Ye Family is investigating into this manner and they are discussing a wedding between the two.”

After hearing Qin Xinran’s explanation, the remaining pity that Gu Lingzhi held in her eyes for Pan Yue immediately turned into disgust. 

If Pan Yue had not helped Ye Fei, Gu Lingzhi would never have believed him. However, he used that method to help her with the drug. That deserved a beating!