The Rebirth of an Ill-Fated Consort (Chapters 1- 203)

Chapter 174 : Helping Others Put On a Show

Translated by : Minodayz

Edited by : Anks & Ely

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Qi Feng sucked in a mouthful of cold air- Jiang Ruan's words had totally flabbergasted him. However, what was even more astonishing was her demeanour and expression when she uttered those words because they embodied an inexplicable sense of ruthlessness and evil maleficence. Suddenly he realised that Mo Cong's description of Jiang Ruan as a "poisonous woman" was not even close to describing her. Her heart was more than capable of ruthlessness, but most importantly, she had greater gumption and had the audacity to exact her ruthlessness. No young lady would dare to speak such audacious and anarchistic words, except for her who had not only spoken them out loud but also with self-confidence. Throughout history, in the fight for the throne, the winner became the Emperor while the loser became the evil traitor- this had always been the undeniable truth, yet no one would have dared to speak about it so blatantly.

After a pensive moment, he responded, "Even if he had the guts to do it, there is no way to escape the attention from all the eyes that are around the capital. Should anything happen to the military provisions, and if they were held up before leaving the capital, then the whole debacle would unravel. Zhang Ji would definitely not have a good ending. Moreover, Eighth Prince is not stupid, there is no way he would make use of such a foolhardy plan that would so easily be exposed and used against him."

Jiang Ruan smiled faintly, "Xuan Li is a very mistrustful and paranoid person so naturally he won't utilize such a flawed scheme. As such, any tampering of the military provisions would not be noticed nor raise any suspicion within the ten li distance after it departed from the capital via the main road. At this point, he would start his show and it would be highly entertaining to watch him work to obtain his main objective- gaining the Emperor's trust."

"You..." Qi Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, "seem to understand Eighth Prince quite well." Jiang Ruan's words appeared to show a kind of familiarity towards Eighth Prince, and this in turn caused a strange and weird feeling to skitter across Qi Feng's heart. How could a virtuous young lady have the opportunity to meet and establish familiarity with Xuan Li. Even with her status as a Junzhu within the imperial palace, her level of apperception of the person's character and motives to the point of being able to anticipate his next move; such firsthand knowledge could only have been possible only if they were constantly in each other's company and were in an intimate relationship.

A conjecture fleetingly flashed across Qi Feng's heart. Could it be that Jiang Ruan liked Xuan Li because only when someone likes another would they take notice of what that person does, what they think, and would have a good grasp of their every move and action. However, when Qi Feng took stock of Jiang Ruan's expression, he mentally shook his head. Jiang Ruan's eyes were tepid and calm, her smile affable, but what was missing was affection; what she had done and her tone of voice definitely didn't reflect any interest towards Xuan Li. This certainly caused Qi Feng to be in a quandary.

"Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster[1]." Jiang Ruan had taken note of Qi Feng's misgivings and smiled, "Sooner or later, the Jinying Wangfu will have to face Eighth Prince. And since the stance for both is a fight to the end, naturally it is imperative to make advance preparation. Otherwise, we would be taken for fools. Furthermore, it would be detrimental to wait until we found ourselves in a life and death situation." She said all this in a quiet whisper but Qi Feng seemed to have awakened from his stupor at the underlying antagonism behind her words. And yet, on the surface her face was still exquisitely beautiful, her eyes were gentle and calm. It was almost as if he had imagined the whole scene.

[1] 知己知彼百战不殆 知己知彼，百战不殆 (zhījǐzhībǐ, bǎizhànbùdài) – "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War.