Chapter 75: If Reason Fails, Then Go Crazy
Xiao Li really didn’t want to face this pack of old fossils. It wasn’t that she had stage fright; it was that these men wielded a power that even the Emperor feared. As a Princess with no right to advise on state affairs, she couldn’t stand up to them in the slightest.
She preferred to be a hunter lying in wait, setting traps and biding her time before landing a single, fatal blow.
Now was the time to reap her quarry, but there had been a slight hitch.
Who would have thought the great Emperor could be so cowardly that he wouldn’t dare face his own ministers? They couldn’t get in, but that also meant her message couldn’t be delivered. The plan was stalled.
She had no choice but to show her face.
’What a useless teammate, can’t carry him at all! Absolute trash!’
Lu Cang’s icy gaze landed on Xiao Li. His voice was cold and imposing. "We are discussing matters of great importance with Your Majesty. This is no place for a Princess."
He was telling her to leave outright.
Perhaps in his eyes, Xiao Li wasn’t a Princess at all, but the unacknowledged, unpresentable daughter-in-law his family refused to accept.
’Trying to pull rank on me?’
Xiao Li wasn’t bothered by his contempt. ’He’s the enemy. A bad attitude is to be expected. If someone wanted to kill me, I wouldn’t be giving them a smile either.’
"Chief Minister Lu, I’ve heard so much about you."
"I heard the Gao Family was sentenced to execution. I’d almost forgotten—the eldest daughter of the Gao Family is part of your Lu family, isn’t she? Are you here to plead for leniency, Chief Minister Lu?"
"Rest assured, my Brother is not a heartless man. He will surely show some deference to you, Chief Minister Lu."
She beamed at the assembled crowd. "And what about the rest of you esteemed lords? Are you all here to plead for mercy as well?"
"You want His Majesty to just sweep this under the rug? You want to cover up the crimes of those inhuman monsters? And you think you can do it with nothing but your own shamelessness?"
"The absolute nerve!"
"You old lords are getting on in years. Are you sure you don’t want to accumulate some good karma for the afterlife? Then again, with so many of you, you won’t be lonely in the eighteen hells."
"Princess Xuanyang!" someone shouted. "Watch your tongue, Princess! We are..."
Xiao Li cut off his proud declaration. "I know. You’re Mr. Xue, the great scholar of the Xue Family. So what? Shouldn’t you be vehemently denouncing those monsters to display your lofty, incorruptible character? To show that you stand above it all? So why are you standing here, silent?"
"Xuanyang!" Lu Cang roared, his voice dangerously low. "You will be silent!"
Xiao Li whipped her head around and shot back, "You shut up, you old bastard!"
"I am a Princess, of the late Emperor’s blood. Is it your place to be shouting orders at me? Do you not understand the proper deference a subject owes their ruler?"
Everyone was stunned. The Princess was truly fearless to dare speak to Chief Minister Lu like that.
"You..." Lu Cang was seething. He snarled, "Uncouth, insolent, arrogant, and disrespectful to your elders! You’re hardly fit to be called human."
’Hardly fit to be called human? And these animals are? In that case, I’d rather not be the same species as them.’
Xiao Li just laughed. "Then kill me, if you have the guts."
She snatched a saber from a member of the Imperial Army and threw it at his feet. "Lu Cang, if you have the guts, then kill this Princess!"
Seeing him standing there, seething but unmoving, Xiao Li drew another saber, strode forward, and shoved the hilt into his hand. "Go on! It just so happens I’m tired of being human anyway. Give it a try!"
"Kill me, the Princess, and it’ll be good practice for when you kill my Brother. Then the throne will be open for your Lu family to take. You’ll be able to lecture whoever you want, flaunt your power whenever you please. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?"
’It was impossible to reason with these old scoundrels. If reason didn’t work, then it was time to act insane.’
No matter how powerful Lu Cang was, at this moment he was so incensed by Xiao Li that he stumbled backward.
Everyone else was dumbfounded. What was this new tactic?
How had things suddenly escalated to killing the Princess and the Emperor?
Although Wang Changwen was enjoying the sight of Lu Cang’s discomfort, he saw the situation was spiraling out of control and quickly stepped forward to intervene.
"Princess, calm yourself! Calm yourself! I know you are furious about what has happened, but we are here to discuss a solution with Your Majesty."
"Killing people will not solve this. We must consider the stability of the Empire. Perhaps the Princess could persuade His Majesty?"
Xiao Li returned the saber and swept a contemptuous gaze over them all. "None of you could persuade him, so how could I? Besides, this has nothing to do with me."
With that, Xiao Li turned and strode toward the Imperial Study Room. She kicked the door open and swaggered inside.
Xiao Jingyun hastily ordered the door shut, then turned to Xiao Li with a look of pure admiration. "Sister, you’re incredible! You angered that old bastard Lu Cang so much his face turned green."
Xiao Li ignored him for the moment, turning instead to Dong Changrui, who stood nearby. "Could I trouble Mr. Dong to invite Elder Wang to come in? We can’t have them blockading Your Majesty all day. This matter must be resolved."
Dong Changrui looked to the Emperor for confirmation. Xiao Jingyun, now full of admiration for Xiao Li, quickly waved his hand. "Hurry, go and invite him."
He then pulled Xiao Li behind the grand desk, and the two began whispering, as if afraid of being overheard.
Judging by the Emperor’s expression, it wasn’t hard to guess that he was pouring out his troubles.
’To see an Emperor acting so spinelessly,’ Xiao Li’s urge to just shove him aside and take over grew even stronger.
They had only been talking for a moment when Wang Changwen entered. He was met with the sight of Xiao Li, sitting off to the side with her cheeks puffed out, idly flipping through a stack of memorials. The Emperor, meanwhile, sat behind the imperial desk, a pensive look on his face.
"Your Majesty."
The Emperor raised a hand. "Grandfather, please, come closer. I have something to say to you."
That single word, "Grandfather," instantly filled Wang Changwen with an indescribable sense of superiority.
He hurried over, his voice benevolent. "Please, speak, Your Majesty."
The Emperor then relayed the plan that Xiao Li had devised for him.
The Emperor knew he couldn’t continue the investigation. Wiping out so many aristocratic families at once was simply not feasible; not even he, the Emperor, had the power to do so.
Realistically, if Xiao Li hadn’t made him write and hide the imperial edict beforehand, he likely wouldn’t have even been able to handle the Gao Family.
Although the great aristocratic families were constantly feuding, they understood that they were all in the same boat. If the Emperor began to suppress them aggressively, they would cast aside their differences and unite in resistance—just as they were doing now.
Therefore, the matter had to be brought to a halt. But he couldn’t just drop it on a whim. That’s when Xiao Li came up with the idea: make them pay.
Any aristocratic family implicated in the recent deaths would have to pay a fine of one million taels of silver. Then, the matter would be considered closed. Otherwise, they could continue this stalemate, and let the entire world see the true, ugly face of these great families.
For some aristocratic families, one million taels of silver was a trivial sum. For others, it was a significant blow.
But the Emperor’s stance was firm: they had to pay.
But paying the fine was only one part of it. The Emperor then secretly hinted to Wang Changwen that with many members of the Lu family’s faction now gone, there were quite a few vacant positions. How they would be filled... would depend on everyone’s attitude.
This was as good as telling him outright: the families who paid up would get a piece of the pie.
Wang Changwen immediately went out, gathered his allies, and the group went off to pool their money.
Once the Wang family’s faction had departed, the Emperor summoned the other two major clans. He used the same method on each, breaking them down one by one.