Chapter 63: Sister, How Are You This Incredible!

Luo Wushuang blinked, asking in confusion, “What about Shen Zhiyan?”

Shangguan Liqian smiled, her tone as light as a drifting cloud. “Give him an official post. Let him be the one to guard those people.”

Luo Wushuang had her suspicions, but she pressed on, “And then?”

“And then…”

A meaningful smile played on Shangguan Liqian’s lips. She spoke unhurriedly, “Spread a rumor. Say that one of them accidentally offended a person of high status. Until the culprit is identified, the entire group will be detained…”

As her theory was confirmed, the anger in Luo Wushuang’s eyes began to fade. She puffed out her cheeks and spat, “Those old fossils in court always stick together like glue, acting all high and mighty because of their age. This time, we’ll leave them at each other’s throats until they’re covered in filth.”

Seeing Luo Wushuang’s somewhat coarse behavior, Shangguan Liqian pressed a hand to her forehead with a helpless, low chuckle. She reminded her, “The elders of those families will certainly find a way to learn the truth from their sons. When that time comes, they will wonder why Shen Zhiyan, the actual ringleader, is the only one who didn’t get dragged down.”

Luo Wushuang’s eyes lit up. She connected the dots instantly. “They’ll start guessing… and their suspicion will fall squarely on Shen Zhiyan.”

“And if a dispute breaks out in prison and a few of them happen to die…”

Shangguan Liqian coughed twice, speaking as if it were a mere afterthought. “They are all hot-blooded young men. If they clash with the jailers and get taught a lesson, it’s only natural. Just… tell the guards not to go for the kill.”

Luo Wushuang’s eyes grew even brighter. The last of her anger vanished, replaced by a look of pure adoration for Shangguan Liqian.

Sister says ‘don’t go for the kill,’ but she clearly means for them to die by Shen Zhiyan’s hand. When that happens…

Even if Shen Zhiyan grew a thousand mouths, he would never be able to explain himself.

Sister is so wicked! I love her for it!

She made up her mind; she would do exactly as her sister suggested.

Once the blame was pinned firmly on Shen Zhiyan, once the ministers were enraged and a rift opened between them and the Duke of Dingyang’s estate, she would take the opportunity to hold Shen Zhiyan accountable for his past atrocities—like slaughtering civilians to pad his kill count during the bandit suppression.

By then, far from pleading for mercy, everyone would be screaming for the Duke’s entire family to fall.

Faced with the fury of the court, she wouldn’t have to worry about saving face for the Grand Princess anymore.

And since the Grand Princess’s faction would be forced to take the fall for such a massive disaster, it would only be natural for them to try and drag down as many people as possible in their death throes.

The ministers, currently united only by shared interests, would scatter like sand to save their own skins. When that happened, wouldn’t they be hers to mold and crush as she pleased?

This move really did kill several birds with one stone.

Sister is so amazing! How can she be this incredible!

Meeting Luo Wushuang’s sparkling gaze, Shangguan Liqian maintained her gentle, elegant facade. Her words bore no trace of blood, yet she was dealing death as surely as any blade.

Unlike the easily angered and easily soothed Luo Wushuang, Shangguan Liqian had been genuinely incensed when she saw the Empress being targeted earlier.

Otherwise… she wouldn’t have bothered to interfere with Wushuang’s handling of those dandies.

In truth, she had already known the answer when she asked the Empress what she intended to do.

Wushuang’s methods were always direct and decisive. To her, nothing was more satisfying than a swift execution.

But to Liqian, that wasn’t satisfying enough. Merely dying was too easy.

She wanted those people to watch in despair as their families were dragged into the abyss. She wanted them to see the relatives who had once pampered them choose to discard them like trash just to survive.

There was nothing more chilling than being abandoned by one’s own kin.

***

Events unfolded exactly as Shangguan Liqian had predicted.

These dandies were the darlings of their respective households; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been so lawless.

By that afternoon, the nobles had already sent word to their children in prison. At first, they were merely annoyed that their sons had been dragged down by Shen Zhiyan. Out of respect for the Grand Princess, they kept their grievances quiet.

However, during the next morning’s court session, Luo Wushuang did not punish Shen Zhiyan. Instead, she granted him an official post.

This was the breaking point for the ministers whose sons were still rotting in cells.

Wasn’t Shen Zhiyan the leader? Why was he rewarded with a title while our children are still locked up?

The ministers, who doted on their youngest sons, didn’t stop to think about how wicked their children actually were. They only began to suspect… that their boys were being used as pawns.

Once the seed of suspicion was planted, it sprouted and grew of its own accord.

To make matters worse, the Empress showed “mercy” by allowing the distraught mothers to visit the prison. It just so happened that as they arrived, they witnessed the jailers following behind Shen Zhiyan brutally beating the young nobles.

The dandies, who had never suffered a day in their lives, couldn’t endure the pain. They shrieked and cursed, their cries echoing through the halls.

When the mothers tried to rush in, they were stopped by the jailers. They were told they needed permission from Shen Zhiyan, who was now an Aide to the Minister of Justice.

As they waited anxiously amidst the sounds of agonizing screams, the mothers tried to peer through the iron bars in the dim light, desperate to identify their sons.

With similar heights and ages, even a biological mother struggled to distinguish them in the shadows.

However, they could all clearly see Shen Zhiyan standing at the front, his face illuminated by the flickering candlelight.

Separated only by a gate, Shen Zhiyan’s expression was anything but pleasant as his former sycophants pointed at his nose and cursed him.

Fuming with anger, he didn’t stop the jailers when they first began to strike.

Consequently, he failed to notice the mothers standing just out of reach, staring at him with eyes full of pure, unadulterated hatred.

Once his anger had subsided, Shen Zhiyan leisurely signaled for the jailers to stop.

He was just about to lecture these ignorant fools—and perhaps use some clever words to regain his standing among them—when a sudden cry rang out from the crowd:

“This is bad! Young Master Li is spitting blood!”

Panic surged through Shen Zhiyan. He instinctively tried to push through the crowd to check.

A Secret Guard disguised as a jailer behind him moved at the perfect moment, sending a sharp gust of palm wind directly into the back of Shen Zhiyan’s knees.

Just as he reached the side of the dandy who was coughing up blood, Shen Zhiyan stumbled and crashed directly onto him.

Accompanied by a groan of agony, the “jailer” rushed forward as if to help him up. But before pulling him away, the guard’s hand swept past Shen Zhiyan’s waist, drawing a dagger from his belt and plunging it into the dying dandy to finish the job.

Due to the angle, the people blocked by their robes couldn’t see a thing. Even Shen Zhiyan didn’t realize what had happened at first.

Not until the screams erupted behind him:

“Blood! There’s so much blood!”

“Shen… Shen Zhiyan killed him!”

“Shen Zhiyan is a murderer!”

The “helpful” Secret Guard didn’t mention that the dagger actually belonged to Young Master Li—it had been a gift to Shen Zhiyan. Coincidentally, the mother of that very same Young Master Li was among the women watching from the gate.

From that point on, things spiraled out of control.

The Secret Guards outside—no, the “jailers”—failed to hold back the frantic mothers. Shen Zhiyan’s desperate cries of “I didn’t kill him!” were easily drowned out.

The other young men, seeing their friend murdered before their eyes, lost all reason.

Ignoring their own precarious situation, they swarmed Shen Zhiyan, raining punches and kicks upon the man who had no way to clear his name.

Enraged and fearing for his life, Shen Zhiyan had no choice but to fight back.

But today, it was as if he were possessed by a god of slaughter. Anyone he hit died; anyone he kicked was crippled.

In less than fifteen minutes, he had single-handedly created a scene of carnage: seven crippled, six dead, and countless others injured.

The prison erupted into a cacophony of wailing and grief.

“My son! Oh, my son!”

“Look at your mother! Open your eyes!”

“Shen Zhiyan killed my child!”

“It was Shen Zhiyan!”

Faced with the mothers’ bloodshot eyes and their frantic vows for blood for blood, Shen Zhiyan stood there, splattered in gore. His expression was one of absolute terror and confusion. He wanted to explain, but no one was willing to listen.