Night had fallen.
Venerable Qin sat in an ebony lounge chair, her waist and abdon wrapped around a black and white cat.
The central air conditioning maintained the room temperature at a perfect 24°C. Venerable Qin liked the sensation of a breeze, but a direct blast from a fan wasn’t good, so she had summoned a servant to fan her from the side.
As if she were waiting for sothing or simply daydreaming, Venerable Qin gazed at the moon outside the window without uttering a word, her expression solemn.
At that mont, the door opened quietly, and Li Lianhua stepped in with brisk, light steps. Seeing the servant fanning, she frowned, made a gesture with her eyes, and commanded, "Go!", promptly dismissing the servant from the room.
She took the fan from the servant. Once the door was securely closed, she grinned and leaned close to the lounge chair, whispering sothing into Venerable Qin’s ear.
In an instant, it was as if Venerable Qin had been injected with adrenaline—her eyes widened and with a snap, she sat bolt upright from the lounge chair.
The black and white cat owed and jumped off the chair.
"Where’s the body?" Venerable Qin asked.
"The car was completely burnt out~ The Director of National Security was inside too~" Li Lianhua spoke with a laugh.
"Hey hey!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Venerable Qin clenched her left fist and smacked it onto her right palm, laughing joyously.
"You’re really going to beco Qiansui~ When that ti cos, little will also be able to soar upward with you," Li Lianhua chuckled.
Venerable Qin’s smile vanished in an instant as she said, "You little rascal, you sure have beautiful dreams~ What good is it to promote you? What’s in it for ?"
Li Lianhua started waving the fan and said with a smirk, "Hehe~ I know Venerable Qin cares for , has a soft spot for ~ Once you ascend, you definitely won’t leave behind~"
Venerable Qin rocked her body and laughed, saying, "You little clever spirit."
"Now that Venerable Xu has been eliminated, Venerable Qin, for our next step, should we directly take out... the Emperor...?" Li Lianhua ventured cautiously.
Venerable Qin shook her head, "It’s not that simple. Even though Venerable Xu is dead, most of those old bosses in the military are his people. I need to transfer them out first, crush those who need to be crushed, investigate what needs to be investigated! Let’s throw out this dirty water first."
"You’re wise~" Li Lianhua gave a bow.
"Hehe~ Now that Zhao Ling has lost her claws, I’ll go directly to stage a coup and reorganize the military! She won’t have much to say about it," Venerable Qin said laughingly.
"So... are you going to see the Emperor now?" Li Lianhua asked.
"No rush. First, I’m going to feed my ’Huahua’ before anything else. Zhao Ling, she won’t be getting any sleep tonight~" Venerable Qin spoke with a smirk.
She bent over with her arms outstretched, cooing "Huahua~ Huahua~," but the cat was already curled up asleep under the table.
Elsewhere.
Inside the Emperor’s bedchamber in Lingxiao Palace.
Zhao Ling picked up the phone, listening quietly to the report from the other side.
At the ti, she showed no emotion, just a slight frown, but after hanging up the phone, large tears started rolling down, and her stomach hurt terribly.
"Venerable Xu... Xu... How could this..." She curled up on the bedside, her eyes scanning every corner of the room, feeling as though enemies were closing in from all directions.
Two and a half hours later, she forced herself to remain composed and attended the ergency eting.
At this mont, military bosses from various departnts were participating in the eting via AR video, and Venerable Qin along with colleagues from the Security Bureau also appeared in the conference room.
Night had fallen.
"You military folks are truly in disarray," Venerable Qin began, and at this mont, she was the power figure second only to the Emperor of Yin, above ten thousand people.
Zhao Ling didn’t confront her, for she had no evidence, and Venerable Qin’s people were everywhere in the system. Moreover, with only one Venerable left in the three institutions, as the Emperor, if she publicly quarreled with Venerable Qin during the eting, the entire upper echelon of Yin Country might disperse.
The room was quiet for a while, but then, several military chiefs expressed their opinions. Commander Lu, whom she had t earlier, even ca to the eting room and reported his whereabouts after the eting with Venerable Xu that afternoon.
"Commander Lu, you are the pri suspect, and we think it is necessary to suspend your duties temporarily and investigate this matter thoroughly," Venerable Qin said.
"Commander Lu is on an assignnt and it’s not suitable to transfer him out temporarily," Zhao Ling said.
"Venerable Xu last t with him, no? You’re quite blatant in your favoritism," Venerable Qin replied with a smile.
"Elder Lu has followed Venerable Xu for decades, and there’s the military surveillance as evidence. Venerable Qin, aren’t you being too arbitrary?" Zhao Ling said.
"In these tis, apart from the laws of our ancestors, everything else can be forged," Venerable Qin said.
Zhao Ling clenched her fists, wanting to stand up and punch Venerable Qin through, but at that mont, she felt soone was holding her shoulder. She looked up to find Venerable Xu standing behind her, shaking his head at her.
In the blink of an eye, Venerable Xu was gone, and there was no one behind her.
"Your Majesty, Commander Lu is currently the main suspect, and it’s indeed necessary to start an investigation," the Deputy Director of National Security said.
"Both Venerable Gu and Venerable Xu have been assassinated, and you have narrowly escaped assassination yourself; we believe the assassin’s next target might well be Venerable Qin," a minister said at this ti.
Venerable Qin smiled at him and then said, "Right, right, now I am also in danger. Should we improve my security?"
"Venerable Qin is overthinking it; I doubt any assassin would co for you," Zhao Ling said.
"Are you so sure, Your Majesty? Could it be that you’re aware of the inside story of the assassinations?" Venerable Qin said with a smile.
Zhao Ling frowned and asked, "Your question is quite misleading."
"It’s not that I want to mislead anyone. Currently, the country is on edge, and Venerable Xu was, who knows, doing what, leading the army in so ’rectification movent’ within the nation, making the civilians anxious... Who knows if he wasn’t using the opportunity to eliminate dissenters and today perhaps he reaped the consequences..." Venerable Qin said.
In anger, Zhao Ling interrupted her: "The person who wants to eliminate dissenters... won’t be Venerable Xu."
"Your Majesty... we should remain calm for now. With the assassin on the brink of the city, Fengrao City has already seen three assassination attempts—two successful. We are all hanging by a thread. It seems the assassin is specifically targeting our upper echelons," one director said.
"Director Zhao is right, now is not the ti for infighting. I think what Venerable Qin said is quite right, just a bit too blunt. With the enemy at our door, we still don’t know who exactly it is—it could be terrorists, it could be radical civilian groups, and there have been nurous rumors of internal splits within the army," a minister raised his hand to speak.
"It’s still better to investigate the army. The military has been active throughout the year, and there have been two terrorist attacks in the country. I think we should take a close look at the military to see if there are any issues involved with corruption and seizing power."
"The army should be investigated, and several bosses are suspects."
One by one, the ministers and directors sitting around the conference table were cornering Zhao Ling, and she was unable to interject. Venerable Qin and these ministers and directors looked at her with a faint and imperceptible smile on their faces.
"I believe that this matter should be handled cautiously; investigating the military can easily lead to destabilization of morale," the Director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau said, breaking out into a sweat at this point.
"What do you know? You deal with Westerners all day! Has your brain gone bad?"
"And you understand?! Disheartened military morale! Didn’t you see what the army has been doing this year? Searching every ho! You think that’s fine!?"
The Director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau had barely spoken a word when he was attacked by others. He glanced at Zhao Ling with his head bowed and then fell silent.
Zhao Ling looked around at these people next to her, and sighed deeply.
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