Tang Dynasty Hidden Guards

Xue Wei pondered for a moment and said, "I feel that he is very shrewd and good at pretending. The first time I met him at the music hall, he fought with me in front of Wu Chongxun. The next day, he came to see me and was very sincere. He told me that Yu Jianxiu was on the surface a man of the Crown Prince. He told me to be careful of Yu Jianxiu, saying that Yu Jianxiu was actually a man of the Two Zhangs and was putting on an act with Li Duozuo."

Li Lingyue sneered, "Li Longji and your brother Chongjian were born in the same year and month, only one day apart. But your brother is like a three-year-old child in front of him. He is the most scheming, cunning, and ruthless member of the royal family I have ever met."

I'll just tell you one thing, and you'll understand: Yu Jianxiu isn't the Crown Prince's man, and his claim of currying favor with the Zhang brothers is a lie; he's actually Li Longji's man.

These words left Xue Wei and Yuan Min speechless. They had a good impression of Li Longji, but they never expected that Li Longji had been lying to them from beginning to end.

The real actors were Li Longji and Yu Jianxiu.

"Mother, Li Longji is only eighteen years old after all. Aren't you overestimating him?" Xue Wei still had some doubts.

"You think I'm overestimating him?"

Li Lingyue coldly said, "If I told you that the real Zhu Ling and her son are long dead, and the current Zhu Ling and her son are just a fake substitute, and only that foolish son is real, and if I also told you that the real mastermind behind the Wei River Yellow Dragon Incident was actually Li Longji, would you believe me?"

Xue Wei's heart sank lower and lower. "So... the whole thing—that the纨绔子弟 (playboy) Zhu Kuan harassed Amin and then tried to kidnap her in the middle of the night—was all arranged by Li Longji? His purpose was to deceive Wu Chongxun and also to gain my trust!"

Li Lingyue said calmly, "One can infer three things from one example. Since Zhu Kuan is fake, then his harassment of Amin must have been arranged in advance by someone. Since he could arrange it in advance, it means that he has been monitoring your every move. So... who is monitoring you? Obviously, it is Yu Jianxiu."

Yuan Min's face turned deathly pale. She never imagined that someone could be so scheming.

"My mother is amazing too, she knows everything!" Xue Wei couldn't help but sneer. She clearly knows everything, but she just doesn't remind him.

"Don't assume I know everything."

Li Lingyue gently shook her head. "I only understand many things now. I always thought that the imperial seal and wealth were in Li Longji's hands, until I saw the imperial seal in your study just now. I realized that things are not as simple as I thought."

Moreover, my men are merely observers. Without my orders, they dare not rashly tell you the truth. I also want you to investigate the case yourself, Wei'er. The Emperor has sent you to investigate the Yellow Dragon Case on the Wei River as a test and a probe. I cannot ruin this opportunity.”

"You just don't want the Emperor to realize that you have a spy!" Xue Wei muttered to himself.

"So Li Longji's ultimate goal was to use me to kill Zhu Ling, destroy all evidence, and even Wu Chongxun became his pawn."

"Now you know how powerful Li Longji is! Wu Chongxun calls himself the Poisonous Scholar, but he's not even worthy of carrying his shoes."

Xue Wei remained silent. The Emperor had also ordered him to kill Zhu Ling, which showed that the Emperor saw things more clearly. She had known all along that Zhu Ling was an imposter, and Li Longji was nothing more than the mantis, while the Emperor was the oriole. It was just that the Emperor had not taken action and had been watching them from the sidelines.

The mother was a step ahead of Li Longji; she saw through his disguise, but she only saw the mantis, not the oriole behind it.

"Why did he hand over the imperial seal and his wealth to Li Chongrun?" Xue Wei asked the most crucial question.

"I can't see through it either!"

Li Lingyue frankly admitted her shortcomings, saying, "There must be some hidden story behind this. Why did the wealth and the imperial seal end up in Li Chongrun's hands? And why did he hide it from my father? I can't figure it out, but I don't want to delve into it."

Li Lingyue then turned to her son and said, "Although Li Longji was very cunning, he was ultimately a loser. Wei'er, he was actually defeated by you, who had the will of Heaven."

.......

Li Lingyue ultimately did not stay for dinner, but instead left with the two jade seals.

Xue Wei stood by the window, speechless. Today he had witnessed Li Longji's cunning and shrewdness, as well as his mother's forbearance in controlling the situation.

Yuan Min walked over, hugged him from behind, and whispered, "Old Xue, let's back out, okay? Power struggles are too terrifying!"

Xue Wei suddenly said, "Amin, I understand something now. What we thought was a coincidence was actually a play arranged by someone else."

"What do you mean?"

"Ghost Market!"

Xue Wei said coldly, "He showed me the celadon porcelain, but he just wanted to lure us to the Ghost Market."

Yuan Min was startled. "You mean, my purchase of the celadon porcelain and your purchase of the imperial seal were both arranged by Li Longji?"

Xue Wei gritted his teeth and said resentfully, "I knew it! How could there be such a coincidence? No one else bought the imperial seal, but I was the one who got it. Such fine jade, wouldn't it be better to cut it up and make it into a jade pendant and sell it for a few hundred taels of silver? But they only sold it to me for ten taels of silver. I really thought I had found a great bargain!"

"Then what is his purpose?"

Xue Wei sneered, "With the Li Chongrun case exposed and the whereabouts of that wealth and the imperial seal unknown, he's a bit panicked. So he needs to use me to tell the emperor that the wealth and the imperial seal are still hidden somewhere in the capital and haven't been found yet. Wasn't the emperor's treasure discovered in the ghost market of Chang'an?"

"That makes sense, but why did he keep the imperial seal instead of giving it to Li Chongrun?"

Xue Wei shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe he wants to keep some leverage over us! The Emperor's Seal isn't important. It doesn't matter if we can't find it."

Yuan Min muttered softly, "I think he just wants to experience what it's like to be an emperor."

Xue Wei laughed. "The reason you gave is very likely the truth!"

"Old Xue, what did your mother say to you?"

Xue Wei hesitated for a moment, "She told me a few secrets about herself, one of which is her bottom line. I promised her I wouldn't tell you, but I can tell you the others."

"If it's her secret, you don't have to tell me."

"Actually, it's nothing. It's her scandal. She said that her only real sons are me and Chongjian. She doesn't know who the fathers of her other two sons surnamed Wu are, and she doesn't consider them her own sons. She meant that I should believe her and that she would never harm her own sons."

"I know that; she hinted at it to me before."

"She also told me the whole truth about my imprisonment, which was basically consistent with our guesses. The two Zhangs didn't know about the Hidden Guards until the end of last year when Wu Chongxun told them the truth. The two Zhangs were furious and decided to take revenge on Shangguan Wan'er, so they released me from prison."

Yuan Min suddenly whispered, "Have you noticed that your mother is actually very capable? She knows everything. She and Li Longji are like a spear and a shield, evenly matched and evenly matched."

Xue Wei nodded secretly. Yuan Min was indeed exceptionally intelligent; she had also noticed it.

Xue Wei sighed again and said, "This is her biggest secret. Why does she know everything? She told me this secret because she wants me to help her and become her right-hand man."

"Then what will you say?"

"I haven't made my stance clear yet, but I will tell her that I am her son, I will always support her, and I will step in without hesitation when it matters. But apart from that, she is her, and I am me."

Yuan Min gently wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest. "I so wish you could stay out of this, but I know it's unrealistic. Lao Xue, I support you, I'll always support you."

Xue Wei smiled slightly, "I thought you were going to praise me. Old Xue, you're amazing too!"

Yuan Min pinched his cheek, looking at him with disdain. "You're so shameless! I won't praise you, because I don't like Li Longji's kind of ruthlessness at all. I hate it, you know?"

Xue Wei shook his head. "He's too scheming, I don't like him either, but one day I'll be better than him."

Xue Wei thought of something else. In history, Princess Taiping and Li Longji fought to the end, but Princess Taiping lost a move and was betrayed by her son Xue Chongjian, losing everything. But with him as the spoiler, would Princess Taiping still lose?

Moreover, he felt that his mother had not told him the whole truth. When Wu Chengsi died, Li Longji was only fourteen years old. How could Yu Jianxiu be loyal to a fourteen-year-old boy? Yu Jianxiu should be loyal to Li Dan.

Furthermore, Xue Wei believes that the key to the whole incident lies in why Li Longji entrusted his wealth and the imperial seal to Li Chongrun, since holding onto money is the most important thing.

My mother said she didn't know either. Did she really not know, or did she know the truth but refuse to tell me?

However, Xue Wei did not mind his mother's decision to keep something from him. If she had told him everything, she would not have been Princess Taiping, who almost became the second female emperor in history.

Moreover, Xue Wei felt that he saw things more clearly than his mother. At least he knew that Wu Zetian actually understood everything, like a chess player watching the performance of the pieces with a cold eye. In the end, his mother was just a slightly more skilled piece.

However, Wu Zetian was clearly unaware of Li Chongrun's secret chamber, which was the only loophole in the entire game that she had seized upon.

"Old Xue, is this case closed?" Yuan Min asked again in a low voice.

Xue Wei said calmly, "I can only say that the first part is over, but I feel that the subsequent parts will come one after another, and eventually they will piece together a complete truth for us."