Cang Yu muttered under his breath, “My lord, didn’t you say you weren’t interested in Miss Bai? Why…”
Shen Hanzhi gave him a cold look.
Cang Yu immediately shut his mouth.
“I naturally won’t fall for her.” Shen Hanzhi didn’t know whether he was explaining himself to Cang Yu or trying to convince himself. “It’s simply rare to find someone like her in the capital.”
He started walking down the mountain.
“Leave two men here, just in case anyone else comes to disturb Miss Bai.”
Cang Yu: “Yes, my lord!”
……
Inside the Yue Lao Shrine, Bai Zhen’er closed the door and rushed behind the statue.
“Yue’er! Are you all right?”
“They’re gone! Heroine, hurry and let my best friend—huh? Where is she?”
“She slipped away!” Liu Yueti pointed at a half-open window. “The moment the Regent’s men withdrew, she left!”
“But she said she’d remember our kindness this time and repay us in the future.”
“She just couldn’t reveal her name yet, so she left me a token.”
Liu Yueti took out a jade pendant.
“Should I keep it, or should you?”
“There seems to be a character engraved on it.” Bai Zhen’er examined it closely. “I think it’s the character ‘Zhao.’”
“Ah!”
Her eyes suddenly widened as she remembered something.
“Wei Zhao!”
She grabbed Liu Yueti.
“She’s the female supporting character from the original novel, Wei Zhao!”
“She’s the beautiful female guard who follows the male lead and goes through life and death with him!”
“What?! Isn’t she one of our rivals?” Liu Yueti was shocked. “Then does this mean the male lead is about to make a move against the villain?”
“How much of the original plot do you still remember? Tell me quickly!”
“Actually, I don’t remember that much.” Bai Zhen’er honestly admitted, “If I knew that much, would I have mistaken the male lead?”
“According to what the system revealed, all our rivals have their own special advantages. Besides Wei Zhao, who’s highly skilled in martial arts, there’s one who knows medicine, and another who was reborn with knowledge of the plot…”
“Oh…”
Liu Yueti suddenly understood.
“Then what’s your special advantage?”
“I originally had a ‘万人迷’ aura—a charm that made everyone fall for me.”
Bai Zhen’er gave two foolish little laughs.
“I traded it for you.”
Liu Yueti: “…”
“You silly thing! How could you be so stupid?!”
“But I don’t need that many people to like me.”
Bai Zhen’er held her hand.
“I only need you, my father, and preferably Shen Hanzhi too…”
“I’m not greedy. Three people liking me is enough.”
“Everyone in the world would love you!”
Liu Yueti held her face.
“The system can take away your special aura, but it can’t take away your natural charm!”
“Hehe. But the system still found a way to give me a little information from the back door.”
Bai Zhen’er held up her fingers to indicate something tiny.
“After all, even the system was out of options. It doesn’t want us to lose either.”
“I know a few important turning points.”
“Before the finale, nothing will happen to Shen Hanzhi. And there’s another particularly important event coming up…”
“The Flower Appreciation Banquet!”
……
Wei Zhao flipped over the wall into the courtyard. She had barely caught her breath when she heard someone laughing behind her.
“I warned you long ago that Shen Hanzhi wouldn’t be such an easy target.”
Wei Zhao relaxed her guard and turned around.
“I was this close.”
“This close?”
Ling Buzhan laughed.
“You mean the kind of ‘this close’ where you nearly lost your life while he only injured his hand?”
“Injured his hand?” Wei Zhao frowned. “I didn’t hurt him.”
“What?”
Ling Buzhan looked surprised.
“But my men reported that he had a handkerchief wrapped around his hand today…”
Then he realized what had happened.
“So you didn’t even manage to injure him, and you still dare say you were this close?”
“The infamous assassin Jade Rakshasa is nothing special after all.”
Wei Zhao coldly looked at him.
“When I strike, I always aim to kill with one blow. If I came this close to touching him, then I was this close to killing him.”
“Fine, fine.”
Ling Buzhan humored her.
“If you say so.”
“How did you escape? I was actually planning to go rescue you.”
“I encountered two…”
Wei Zhao remembered the two girls and a hint of amusement appeared in her eyes.
“…interesting young women.”
Ling Buzhan didn’t think much of it.
“Then you were lucky.”
“Do you still want Shen Hanzhi’s head?”
Wei Zhao: “Of course!”
“Once I take that villain’s head, I’ll unquestionably become the greatest assassin under heaven.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Three days from now, Princess Pingyang is hosting a flower appreciation banquet.”
Ling Buzhan lifted his teacup.
“Shen Hanzhi’s Black Armored Guards won’t be allowed inside the princess’s residence.”
……
Bai Zhen’er pulled out a sheet of white paper and picked up a brush with the solemn air of a military strategist.
“Three days from now, at the Flower Appreciation Banquet, Shen Hanzhi and Ling Buzhan will have their first confrontation. From that moment on, they’ll become sworn enemies, completely at odds with each other!”
Liu Yueti nodded repeatedly.
“How will they clash? Why will they become enemies? What happens?”
Bai Zhen’er answered matter-of-factly,
“I have absolutely no idea!”
Liu Yueti nearly slid off her chair.
“But I do know that after the Flower Appreciation Banquet, Wei Zhao will stop operating in secret. Instead, she’ll openly follow the male lead as his guard.”
Bai Zhen’er clenched her fist.
“We have to stop that from happening!”
“We can’t let her get close to him first!”
“Otherwise, they’ll be together every day. They’ll start bickering, and before they know it, they’ll develop feelings for each other!”
Bai Zhen’er made a kissing gesture with her fingers.
“What if they end up kissing?!”
“That makes sense.”
Liu Yueti asked, “So how do we stop them?”
Bai Zhen’er clenched her fist.
“Break them apart!”
“How?”
Bai Zhen’er maintained her determined pose.
“Find a way!”
Liu Yueti tilted her head.
“What way?”
Bai Zhen’er looked at her guiltily.
“I’m still thinking.”
Liu Yueti laughed.
“Ha! I knew it’d be difficult.”
“We can’t exactly invite Wei Zhao to switch sides, can we? Since she’s a character connected to the male lead, there must be some special bond between them.”
Bai Zhen’er collapsed onto the sheet of paper.
“Then what are we supposed to doooo?”
The two were at a complete loss.
Liu Yueti rolled her eyes thoughtfully.
“Speaking of which, what’s going on between you and the Regent?”
She leaned closer with a nosy expression.
“I don’t think his attitude toward you that day looked like he was completely indifferent.”
Although he was still arrogant enough to make you want to punch him, I definitely can’t tell Zhen’er that.
“You think so too?”
Bai Zhen’er immediately perked up.
“I also felt like he might have developed some feelings for me!”
“After all, I used to have that ‘万人迷’ aura. I deliberately tried to win him over too. Surely it should have had some effect!”
Liu Yueti: “Uh, no. I don’t think it’s because of the aura…”
“It must be the aura.”
Bai Zhen’er dejectedly lay back down on the table.
“Could it be because the aura is gone, so everything I did came to nothing?”
“He seems to have been avoiding me lately.”
Liu Yueti rested her chin on her hand.
“Sweetie, are you perhaps misunderstanding how charming you are?”
“The Regent avoiding you definitely means there’s something wrong with him…”
“Wait!”
She suddenly slapped the table.
“Wei Zhao assassinated the Regent, right?”
Bai Zhen’er blankly nodded.
“Right.”
Liu Yueti excitedly clapped her hands.
“Then we can report her!”
“Wouldn’t that separate the two of them perfectly?”
Bai Zhen’er immediately sat up.
“That’s right!”
She hesitated.
“But Wei Zhao might die.”
Liu Yueti stared at her.
“If you’re the one who reports her, that might not necessarily happen.”
“Bestie, don’t you think we need a guard too?”
Liu Yueti draped an arm around her shoulders.
“A beautiful female guard who’s highly skilled in martial arts.”
“Listen to me. First we do this, then we do that…”
“Hehehe—”
The two girls leaned close together and broke into mischievous laughter.