Jiang Lijin pushed open the door to the main house, her steps brisk and purposeful.
Tianyan followed behind, holding the briefing. Chiron walked at the very back, reaching behind to shut the door tightly. Tianque dutifully stopped under the eaves, standing bolt upright, blocking out the wind and any prying eyes from the outside.
Jiang Lijin walked to the table and sat down, pouring herself a glass of water.
"Eileen's money can't be spent in vain." She took a sip of water and set the glass on the table. "The Yunlan Group has played their trump card, so I have to give them a return that far exceeds their investment."
Tianyan pulled out a chair and sat down, his long legs casually crossed, a hint of amusement in his green eyes. "How does the boss plan to deliver? Yunlan's business spans over a dozen star systems; they won't care for ordinary profits."
"I'll give them a new empire," Jiang Lijin said. Her tone was light, but the weight of her words was immense.
The room instantly fell silent. Chiron pulled over a chair and sat opposite her, his deep gray eyes resting on her face.
"The royal family is banding together against me right now simply because Graven's scandal has damaged the overall interests of the nobility." Jiang Lijin tapped her fingers against the glass twice, her logic crystal clear. "But they are by no means a united front internally. As long as we muddy the waters, the remnants supporting Graven and the old Emperor's diehard loyalists will completely break ties."
"How do we muddy them?" Tianyan asked, a shrewd gleam in his eyes.
"When Graven was alive, he was continuously poisoning the old Emperor." Jiang Lijin threw down this trump card.
At these words, Tianyan's breathing hitched for half a beat.
The old Emperor was the highest authority in the empire and a high-ranking female, and Graven was her biological son. If this news got out, the entire capital planet would turn upside down.
Chiron was the first to react, his mind racing. "The old Emperor's genetic sequence has a defect; this is a top secret within the Academy of Sciences. Graven participated in the gene repair project back then, so he indeed had the access required to reach the most core serums."
"With so many people around the old Emperor, how did Graven manage to slip the poison in?" Tianyan keenly grasped the crux of the matter.
Chiron's voice was gentle, yet it carried a cold rationality. "The old Emperor has to take a specially formulated mental energy stabilizer every day. The formula for this serum is only known to Graven and a few core researchers. As long as the ratio of one auxiliary ingredient in the formula is slightly altered, it can produce an undetectable chronic toxin..."
Jiang Lijin added, "I checked Graven's private optical computer. Although the core data was destroyed, the residual access logs show that he routinely checked the old Emperor's top-secret medical reports every month. That wasn't out of concern; that was him monitoring the progression of the poison."
This was the information Xiao Yi had told her, and bringing it out now perfectly filled in the most lethal missing link.
"Is the intel reliable?" Tianyan stared at her.
"It's reliable." Jiang Lijin met his gaze. "But I don't have evidence."
"That's enough." Tianyan let out a low chuckle, his eyes revealing the ruthlessness of a black market boss. "In our line of work, hard evidence is the last thing we need. As long as we have this pretext, I'll set up the rest of the board."
Chiron naturally followed the train of thought. "The old Emperor's public appearances have drastically decreased over the past two years, with the official excuse being mental energy decline. I can forge a few incomplete lab reports in the Central Hospital's old archives. They don't need to point to anyone specifically; we just need to plant the concept of a chronic toxin. The old Emperor is naturally suspicious and has her own medical team. Once she grows suspicious, a simple check will reveal the truth."
"Even though Graven is dead, the interest groups backing him are still around." Tianyan began to calculate the resources at his disposal. "The black market has its own intelligence hubs. I'll have someone go to the underground trading grounds on the capital planet and drop off a batch of experimental waste of unknown origin. Mixed in with the waste will be a few fragmented formulas."
"The old Emperor's spy network will definitely investigate," Chiron chimed in, the two of them cooperating flawlessly. "Once they investigate, it will lead right back to Graven. The moment the old Emperor discovers she was poisoned by her most trusted son, her first reaction will be a purge."
"A thorough investigation into all of Graven's former subordinates." Tianyan snapped his fingers. "Graven's old subordinates aren't fools either. If the old Emperor wants to kill them, their only option to survive is to rebel. The private armies held by the nobles, when combined, are enough to start a civil war on the capital planet."
This was exactly the situation Jiang Lijin wanted.
She wouldn't have to lift a finger; she'd just let them tear each other apart. Suspicion, rupture, internal friction, and destruction. This was the most effortless and deadliest strategy.
"What about Tinia's side?" Chiron looked at Jiang Lijin.
Jiang Lijin turned to Tianyan and instructed, "Go to the underground communications room later. Send an encrypted directive to Tinia and have him adjust the direction of public opinion."
Tianyan nodded, immediately catching on. "Understood. We'll leak some scraps first to whet their appetites and make the royal family's internal conflicts public."
"And Baal," Jiang Lijin tapped her fingers on the table. "Pass the message to him while you're at it. Aren't there a few pro-war senators in the Federation who have been looking for an opportunity to test the Empire's bottom line? Have Baal toss the border drill proposal to those people."
"The more chaotic the capital planet is, the more depleted their military forces will be, and the safer you will be," Chiron summarized softly, a hint of a smile rippling in his gray eyes.
The different parties coordinated seamlessly.
Five men, belonging to different factions and possessing different backgrounds. Any single one of them could walk unhindered across the stars. Yet now, they all revolved around her, willingly acting as her blades, not even asking a single unnecessary why.
"Thanks," Jiang Lijin looked at them, her voice softening a bit.
"We're family, there's no need for such formalities." Tianyan stood up with a smile and stretched. "Get some rest early, boss. I'm heading underground to contact our hidden lines, and I'll make the accounts look pretty while I'm at it."
Chiron didn't linger either. He stood up and looked at her gently. "I'm going to handle the medical data. Have a good sleep."
The courtyard fell quiet once again.
Jiang Lijin returned to her own bedroom.
In the bathroom, the warm water cascaded down her back, washing away the exhaustion of the day.
Jiang Lijin reached out to wipe the condensation off the mirror, looking at the radiant yet somewhat aloof face reflected within.
She used to utterly despise the troubles and forced matchmaking brought by this identity, but now, she was starting to use this identity and the chips in her hands to protect the people around her.
After showering and changing into clean pajamas, Jiang Lijin leaned against the headboard.
A faint static sound echoed in her mind.
[Host.] Xiao Yi's voice popped up.
Jiang Lijin gave a mental hmm in response.
[Do you feel like you owe them a huge favor?] Xiao Yi asked.
Jiang Lijin didn't deny it. Seventy-two percent of Eileen's private assets, the black market intelligence network Tianyan offered without hesitation, the forged data Chiron staked his career on, and the pressure applied by Baal using military authority. These things were too heavy, so heavy that she, someone accustomed to being a lone wolf, didn't know how to repay them for the time being.
[You really don't have to think that way.] Xiao Yi's voice was soft, its tone soothing.
Jiang Lijin lowered her eyes, looking at the crystal in her hand.
"You always view relationships between people as a transaction," Xiao Yi said. "You feel that if they give something, you must return an equal or even higher value. If you no longer have value, they will leave."
"But feelings aren't a business deal." It was rare for Xiao Yi to say something so philosophical. "Take me, for example. When I was first bound to you, it was completely involuntary. I don't even have a physical body; I'm just a string of code and data."
Jiang Lijin listened quietly without interrupting.
"But you actually care whether I'm tired or not. When I can't smell anything, you describe the taste and texture of food to me in your mind in painstaking detail. Even knowing I don't have hands to wear it, you still bought me such an expensive psionic crystal, just so I could have something beautiful to attach myself to."
Jiang Lijin looked at the glowing crystal, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curving into a tiny smile.
"Chiron and the others feel the exact same way," Xiao Yi continued, its logic surprisingly clear. "The 3S-level match only provided a premise for you to meet. What truly makes them stay so devotedly, and even willing to give everything for you, is simply you as a person."
Jiang Lijin fell silent.
"If the Mastermind had matched them with Felwin," Xiao Yi gave an extremely vivid example, "Felwin would only treat them as trophies to show off, not caring about their well-being at all. With Baal's violent temper, he would have swatted her away with his tail long ago. Tinia is so shrewd, how could he possibly let her squander his family fortune? Chiron would be even less likely to violate his principles and forge medical data for her. As for Tianyan and Tianque, they probably wouldn't even show their faces."
Xiao Yi's analysis hit the nail on the head.
"They are willing to do all this for you because you are worth it," Xiao Yi concluded, its voice full of pride. "You are a very, very good person, and that is why they are willing to treat you as family. You don't need to prove anything, nor do you need to calculate how to pay them back. You just need to be yourself, and they will always stand by your side."
"For a system, you sure know a lot," Jiang Lijin replied in her mind, her voice carrying a rare touch of gentleness.
"Of course! I am your exclusive system, after all!" Xiao Yi immediately took the compliment and became thoroughly smug.
Jiang Lijin chuckled softly. She closed her eyes and pulled the blanket up higher.
She slept soundly through the night.
