Chapter 18: The Mastermind Among Masterminds (3)

“Then I’ll leave it to you,” Yun Zui said indifferently, and continued forward. Yun Zui made no attempt to ingratiate herself, prompting Chi Nie to immediately look for a new topic. “Now that there are no idle onlookers nearby, can you finally tell me what the late emperor tasked you with?”

Yun Zui cast a glance at Chi Nie, her expression faint but laced with a profound irony as she mocked, “You think yourself clever, but in truth you’re no less foolish than the rest—actually believing what I just said.”

Chi Nie had only wanted to make conversation, but to his surprise, this girl Yun Zui had ridiculed him so directly. It was the first time anyone had called him, the so-called genius prince, a fool.

“Yun Zui, has anyone ever told you that you’re bold?” Chi Nie looked at her with amused interest.

This Yun Zui was truly unusual—very much like himself. If she had no connection to Su Rantong, Chi Nie would have already had her executed without hesitation. No one had ever dared to speak to him this way before; any who did were long dead.

Yun Zui, hearing this, averted her gaze coldly and replied, “I think you ought to go home.”

Now, as Yun Zui and Chi Nie walked side by side through the street, they drew one hundred percent of the passersby’s attention. When Yun Zui walked alone, the glances she attracted amounted only to forty percent or so. She concluded, therefore, that Chi Nie was the source of this spectacle.

She wished he would leave—Yun Zui had no desire to be the center of attention.

As for whether anyone had ever called her bold, she had no friends, save for members of her organization, and none of them had ever said such a thing.

Yun Zui’s return to the Prime Minister’s residence was not concealed in the slightest. Moreover, Chi Yuan made a grand entrance into the palace, passing word to Emperor Chi Xuan that, at the command of Concubine Dowager Yun Zui and Chi Nie, he had come to request punishment for Yun Yao and Yun Shang.

Since Yun Yao was the emperor’s favored consort, Chi Yuan cunningly left the decision to Chi Xuan himself.

Yet in the end, Chi Xuan forced himself to mete out punishment to Yun Yao.

The entire imperial city was in an uproar—a woman thought dead for a year had returned to life, and the whole household of the Prime Minister’s residence, from highest to lowest, had been flogged, even Consort Yun Yao in the palace was not spared.

What on earth was happening?

The people were abuzz with speculation, and all knew that Chi Nie had played a hand in these events.

The inn where Yun Zui was staying was now honorably surrounded by guards armed with blades, all under Chi Xuan’s command to escort Yun Zui safely back to the palace.

For as the late emperor’s consort, Yun Zui was meant to reside within the palace—she was not to reveal herself in public.

But with her doors tightly shut, no one could approach; even Chi Xuan, waiting outside to personally escort her back, was left in the cold.

For the emperor himself to wait upon her was an honor, yet now he found himself shut out.

He considered entering directly, but with Chi Nie inside, Chi Xuan hesitated.

No one dared knock at the door. Who knew what business Chi Nie and Yun Zui were conducting within?

Passersby, frightened by the imposing presence of armed guards, gave the inn a wide berth. The city’s rumor mill surged higher than ever.

Yun Zui closed the window in exasperation—so many guards standing outside, it seemed she had no choice but to return to the palace.

But she would not go without first making an impression.

“Is your status truly so lofty? Why does the emperor himself hesitate to enter?” Yun Zui doubted that Chi Xuan was waiting outside out of deference to her title as dowager consort.

She knew she did not wield such power.

But Chi Nie was a different matter.