My chat group is full of female losers

Chapter 310 Clues to Tian Shu

The Spring Banquet proceeded smoothly and concluded successfully. After Si Ren's Waterloo outside the East Warm Pavilion, the other leading ladies had no intention of causing trouble at the banquet. They behaved themselves throughout the banquet and returned home afterward.

As for Si Ren, she left the capital overnight. After all, she had lost face so badly that she was utterly ashamed and didn't want to stay a moment longer.

In short, Chu Lu successfully passed the Si Ren test.

The next day.

Chu Lu woke up feeling refreshed. After being helped to wash and dress by palace servants, he went to the morning court as usual, and only after dealing with the officials did he return to the imperial study.

He sat down and said in his mind, "Qin Su, you said that Si Ren's level is high and the rewards are high, but the correction value only increased by ten points, which doesn't seem like much."

“Once the correction value reaches sixty points, experience gain becomes severely diluted. Under these circumstances, being able to gain ten points at once is already quite remarkable,” Qin Su explained.

“Alright,” Chu Lu paused, then asked, “So, are these seventy points enough to deal with those two chiefs?”

Qin Su had previously stated that if he could defeat Si Ren, he would gain a large amount of modification points, potentially even allowing him to eliminate the remaining heads of the Treasury and the Imperial Observatory in one fell swoop. However, in his view, ten points was hardly a significant improvement, hence his question.

“That’s enough,” Qin Su replied immediately. “Sixty-three correction points are needed to perfectly handle Zhou Ming, the head of the Treasury, and sixty-eight correction points are needed to handle Wang Gaoyuan, the director of the Imperial Observatory. Both have met the requirements.”

“Very good,” Chu Lu’s eyes sharpened, “Then let’s do it immediately.”

What happened after that was unremarkable. Chu Lu used the same old trick, almost replicating the plan he had used to deal with Li Zhu, the head of the Imperial Horse Stables.

He first found a pretext to secretly summon Zhou Ming, the head of the Treasury, and Wang Gaoyuan, the director of the Imperial Observatory, respectively. Then he mobilized the Imperial Guards who had been lying in ambush. The whole process went exceptionally smoothly. The two men offered almost no real resistance before being captured and thrown into the imperial prison to await interrogation.

Since the situation was very similar to that of Li Zhu at that time, it will not be repeated here.

After the interrogation, Chu Lu slowly walked out of the gloomy prison, breathing in the fresh air outside, while calculating his gains from the ordeal.

The harvest was unexpectedly meager.

First, the correction value only increased by three points, from seventy to seventy-three. Experience dilution is indeed powerful; no wonder Qin Su said that a ten-point increase in the previous instance was already considered a lot.

Secondly, regarding intelligence, Chu Lu did not obtain any specific information about Tian Shu from the two men. Although they knew of Tian Shu's existence, due to the extremely high level of secrecy in the organization's information transmission methods, they knew virtually nothing about Tian Shu—its gender, name, appearance, and hiding place were all unknown.

However, Chu Lu didn't mind, since Qin Su was there and he could just ask her directly.

After returning to his palace, he asked, "Qin Su, shouldn't you tell me about Tian Shu now?"

However, Qin Su did not answer immediately this time.

After a moment of silence, she slowly spoke: "Chu Lu, do you remember what I said before? Due to some complicated reasons that are difficult to explain, you cannot find Tian Shu immediately."

"Remember, what happened?"

“Now I can explain the reason,” Qin Su said in her usual calm tone, “Simply put, I don’t know.”

Chu Lu was taken aback: "What?" "I don't know anything about Tian Shu," Qin Su repeated, "just like those two chiefs, I don't know anything about their gender, name, appearance, or where they are hiding."

Chu Lu frowned: "Why? Is it the same situation as the female lead's side? I don't know why, but I just can't confirm the other party's story and character settings?"

"No," Qin Su denied. "The fundamental reason why I don't understand Tian Shu is that this novel, or more accurately, this novel, is still being serialized and is not yet finished. In the original text, although Tian Shu appears, his true identity has never been revealed. It's a plot hole that hasn't been filled yet. Since the author hasn't written anything, I naturally don't know anything about it either."

"I see," Chu Lu said knowingly.

Undeterred, he added, "Then it seems we'll have to find him ourselves. Since it's a trap, there must be some foreshadowing and clues, right?"

“Yes,” Qin Su affirmed. “Although we don’t know Tian Shu’s exact identity, his purpose for infiltrating and his general plan are mentioned in the original text. We can start from there, follow the clues, and try to find out his true identity.”

"So what is his plan?"

"Tian Shu has deep connections in the army of this dynasty. His plan is to conceal his identity, infiltrate the army, and gradually contact the soldiers at the bottom level. On the one hand, he will obtain key intelligence such as the deployment of the Imperial Guards and the distribution of rations and pay. On the other hand, he will take advantage of the soldiers' long-term embezzlement of rations and pay and the fact that they are suspected by the court to continuously incite their dissatisfaction with the court."

Qin Su paused, then continued, "Ultimately, it triggered a mutiny in the army, which overthrew the imperial court. By the way,"

She suddenly changed the subject and said, "Do you still remember Su Heng?"

Chu Lu pondered for a moment and replied, "That friend of the protagonist of that story? You mentioned before that his death was a key turning point in the original plot. It was after that that the protagonist became completely determined to overthrow the emperor."

“That’s right. He was also a key turning point in the Tian Shu Plan. Su Heng had an excellent reputation, and his death greatly intensified the soldiers’ anger, which accelerated the Tian Shu Plan and ultimately led to its success.”

"I see," Chu Lu nodded. "So, to find Tian Shu, we must start our investigation with the military?"

“Yes,” Qin Su said, “You can send trusted people to secretly investigate whether there are any signs of leaks in the deployment maps of the various Imperial Guard units, whether there are any anomalies in the ration and pay records of each battalion, or whether there are any rumors circulating in the army recently targeting the court. As long as you investigate carefully, you should be able to find a breakthrough.”

Chu Lu pondered for a moment and felt that Qin Su's analysis made a lot of sense, so he replied, "Okay, let's do it that way."

After the discussion, he let out a long yawn, feeling a wave of weariness wash over him. After all, he had been interrogating people all night.

“Then I should rest too,” he said.

"Okay, get some sleep."

Chu Lu responded and was about to lie down, but when his gaze fell on the pillow, he paused slightly and a hint of hesitation appeared on his face.

"What's wrong?" Qin Su asked.

"It's nothing, I just suddenly remembered that strange dream I had last time, it seemed to be right after the interrogation," Chu Lu said with a slight frown, "I wonder if it will be the same again this time."

Qin Su didn't know how to respond for a moment, so she could only try to comfort her in a calm tone: "Don't think too much about it, get some rest."

"That's true." Chu Lu chuckled self-deprecatingly, said no more, lay down, and closed his eyes.

(End of this chapter)