“Wait.” Only then did Yun Yaoyao turn her full attention to the woman. “Show me what you can do. I have no intention of wasting my energy on someone useless.”
The woman froze, finally abandoning any thought of hiding her abilities. “My real name is Guan Wanyu. Other than my appearance and body, I possess a natural fragrance. It can bewitch the mind and stir the most primal desires hidden within a person’s heart.”
Guan Wanyu rose, wiped away her tears, and sashayed toward Zhou Siren. After a brief bout of teasing, Zhou Siren once again revealed the look of a lecher barely able to restrain himself. He even wailed in agony as he spoke.
“Your Majesty, please make her stop! I have a tigress at home. If she finds out about this, I’ll be doomed… No, I won’t even live to see tomorrow’s sun!”
Yun Yaoyao kept her expression impassive, but she was overjoyed inside. Since ancient times, even heroes had been unable to resist beautiful women—let alone a beauty with the added buff of a bewitching natural fragrance!
This woman was another immensely useful talent.
Watching Zhou Siren grow increasingly addled, Yun Yaoyao found it amusing. Who would have thought that a man who loved money as much as his life was also so thoroughly henpecked? It seemed the tigress at home was quite a remarkable woman herself.
“All right. Let him go.”
Guan Wanyu immediately returned to her proper, docile appearance and consciously stepped farther away.
The moment his rationality returned, Zhou Siren darted behind Yun Yaoyao, looking shaken to the core. “This woman is truly more terrifying than the tigress at home! Your Majesty, I absolutely cannot get too close to her again!”
Yun Yaoyao laughed. “Lord Zhou, I’m afraid the two of you will still need to interact in the future. Isn’t Liu Xi, the Vice Minister of the Granary Department, a lecher? With Guan Wanyu helping you, taking down Liu Xi will be faster and more secure.”
Zhou Siren nodded glumly. “Your Majesty is absolutely right. Once we take down Liu Xi, taking down the Ministry of Revenue will be just around the corner!”
“Mm.” Yun Yaoyao ordered a small contingent of the Dragon Shadow Guard to accompany Guan Wanyu. “Tell them everything you know. They’ll rescue the person you care about.”
Guan Wanyu gave an elegant bow. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Yun Yaoyao and Zhou Siren discussed the matter at length.
Before leaving, Yun Yaoyao gave Guan Wanyu a meaningful look. “When you assist Lord Zhou in bringing down the Ministry of Revenue, you don’t have to force yourself if you’re unwilling to sell the last boundary of your body.”
Zhou Siren was startled.
Guan Wanyu, however, froze. Tears welled in her eyes, and all the humiliation and pain she had buried deep within came fully to the surface. She sank to her knees, her trembling sob carrying genuine gratitude.
“This commoner, Guan Wanyu, thanks Your Majesty!”
It wasn’t that Yun Yaoyao had suddenly developed a saintly compassion. She had simply thought of Guan Wanyu’s name. Surely it had once carried her parents’ beautiful hopes for her daughter, yet she had ended up in such a wretched state. She must have endured hardships beyond imagination.
The woman was trapped in the mire. As a fellow woman, the least Yun Yaoyao could do was reach out and pull her up.
As dusk fell, Yun Yaoyao went straight back to her sleeping quarters to rest, while Tu Shanjin also returned to Yunning Palace.
Moonlight spilled into the two palaces, and both of them wore smiles on their faces.
Yun Yaoyao: I took down three major figures in a single night. Even sleep tastes sweeter!
Tu Shanjin: I infiltrated Tushan Ze’s inner circle and toyed with him. I feel refreshed from head to toe.
Autumn deepened. A cool breeze drifted over the palace walls, carrying a refreshing chill.
After court ended, Yun Yaoyao hurried toward Yunning Palace in a fury.
Damn it, those old, muddleheaded conservatives had infuriated her!
When she arrived at Yunning Palace, Tu Shanjin had already prepared two cups of hot tea. He sat there with a book in his hands, reading with great interest.
“What happened?” Tu Shanjin cast her a sidelong glance. “It’s rare to see you this angry.”
Yun Yaoyao downed a cup of tea in several gulps. “It’s those little bastar—little darlings in court!”
“They submitted memorials saying you’re a calamity in the form of a beauty. They also said you don’t respect your elders, that you’re unfilial, and blamed my occasional lateness to morning court on you. They even said that our lack of heirs is because you’re not trying hard enough. Oh, and one minister actually blamed the flooding in the south on you too.”
How could Yun Yaoyao not be angry when they were slandering “Yun Yaoyao” right to her face?
“They don’t look for the cause in me, an emperor with terrible self-control. They don’t look at Yun Liang’s actions, or at the corruption and dereliction of duty among the officials. Instead, they blame everything on a woman. Isn’t that absurd?”
“Since ancient times, whenever a dynasty flourished, women were never mentioned. But once a state fell, those despicable men shamelessly shifted every bit of blame onto women, whose status was far below theirs, and bestowed upon them the title ‘calamity in the form of a beauty.’ What an irony.”
“Don’t pay them any mind. That is merely their own incompetence. Only incompetent men blame women for everything.” Tu Shanjin spoke indifferently.
Rarely did he see her angered by outsiders, so he added, “Who were they? Tell me their names. I have ways of punishing them.”
Yun Yaoyao shook her head, her expression turning smug. “If someone wrongs me, I always get revenge on the spot. After they finished speaking, I immediately put on a performance as a furious tyrant and attacked indiscriminately. They were so frightened that they didn’t dare say another word afterward.”
Tu Shanjin: “…”
He returned to immersing himself in the book he held.
Curious, Yun Yaoyao leaned over to look. Tu Shanjin immediately closed the book and placed it on his lap, his expression turning solemn.
“Let’s discuss serious matters.”
“The Dragon Shadow Guard has already rescued Guan Wanyu’s younger brother. Following the leads she provided, they discovered the true mastermind behind everything.”
“It was Yun Liang.”
Yun Yaoyao was astonished. “It was him?”
Tu Shanjin continued, “He was also the mastermind behind the poisoned wine.”
Yun Yaoyao was puzzled. “A double safeguard? Why would he target people in the Ministry of Revenue?”
After thinking it over, Yun Yaoyao understood. “He only just pledged allegiance to Prince Ze, so this must have been Prince Ze’s order. That means Prince Ze has already guessed that I would target the Ministry of Revenue. Well, anyone clever enough could figure out that I’d be going after the Ministry of Revenue soon.”
“I just didn’t expect Yun Liang to have this much ability. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have managed to rise to the position of Minister of Rites.” Yun Yaoyao had simply assumed from the beginning that he was an idiot.
“Yun Liang has completely become Tushan Ze’s lapdog. It seems we need to eliminate him as soon as possible…”
Just then, Tu Shanjin happened to have something useful to offer. He took out a stack of intelligence reports. “I’ve investigated someone who may be useful in dealing with Yun Liang.”
Yun Yaoyao took the documents and read them carefully. The more she read, the brighter her eyes became.
Of course! How had she forgotten about this person?
The top scholar who had risen through the fiercely competitive imperial examinations three years ago—and Yun Yaoyao’s maternal uncle, Lin Qingti!
After Yun Yaoyao’s lovestruck mother had severed ties with her family for the sake of a poor scholar and dug wild vegetables to support him through his studies and the imperial examinations, Lin Qingti had devoted himself to his books. In the end, he had placed first and become the top scholar.
The title of top scholar—what a resounding and dazzling honor it was. He had originally possessed a brilliant future, but just then, Yun Liang had been promoted to Minister of Rites.
Out of disgust and jealousy toward Lin Qingti, and because he didn’t want his colleagues reminded of his own past—how he had relied on a woman’s support—Yun Liang had secretly suppressed him with all his might.
From then on, Lin Qingti’s moment of glory remained forever frozen on the day of the Palace Examination Presentation Ceremony, when his name had been called three times as the top scholar of the first degree.
In its place, he had been relegated to a lowly position as a records clerk in the Hanlin Academy, confined to a tiny corner of the world and ordered around by others as he handled whatever odd jobs were assigned to him.
It was truly lamentable.
Supporting Lin Qingti in dealing with Yun Liang was indeed the best course of action.
The only question was what attitude Lin Qingti would have toward Yun Yaoyao, the only daughter of his late sister, whom he had never even met…
As she pondered this, a sarcastic voice sounded from beside her.
“Yun Yaoyao, aren’t you the Book of Life and Death who governs the fates of all living beings? How is it that you’re only finding out about Lin Qingti now?”
Yun Yaoyao’s heart gave a little jolt.
Here we go again—the tyrant’s paranoia was acting up!
Without the slightest hesitation, Yun Yaoyao replied, “Come on, I had to keep track of the fates of countless people. And now I’m stuck inside your mortal body, so naturally my memory has gotten worse. Isn’t that perfectly normal?”
“But you…”
Yun Yaoyao flashed him a smile, swiftly snatched the book from Tu Shanjin’s lap, and dashed away with it. “You’ve been sneaking around reading this book for ages. I’d like to see what’s so interesting about it!”
Tu Shanjin’s expression changed instantly.
Yun Yaoyao skimmed through the pages at lightning speed. Gradually, a wicked grin spread across her face.
“Well, well, Tu Shanjin. So you were reading an erotic novel!”
