Rejected Beauty Practices the Villain Play
Chapter 171: Concealing the Knife

Chapter 171: Chapter 171: Concealing the Knife

Imperial authority, aristocratic families, and the Marquis Mansion—these three powers form a balance of power. The imperial authority is constrained by the aristocratic families, while the aristocratic families are in turn constrained by the Marquis Mansion. Only under this delicate equilibrium has Yanyang experienced decades of peace.

Yet beneath the surface, undercurrents swirl relentlessly.

"What if the royal family joins hands with the aristocratic families?" Xie Jue inquired.

"Impossible!" Marquis Zhenbei laughed. "Unless he’s gone mad."

"Alright." Xie Jue said flatly. Thirty thousand Northern Iron Cavalry entered the city to garrison, and he dispatched his own Shadow Guards to monitor Gaoping and Guli, unwilling to waste more words with his father.

If the Crown Prince was willing to collude with the Beiman, could he truly lack ambitions to turn his blade against the Marquis Mansion?

Yet the Marquis Mansion held military power and Jiangnan had a great commander stationed. With his father harboring no intent to overstep boundaries, the Crown Prince could find no fault with the Marquis Mansion and could only make an issue of the negotiations with the Beiman.

He wanted to redeploy troops from the border, but without Marquis Zhenbei’s approval, neither he nor Xie Zhang could mobilize the armies. Hopefully, he was just overthinking.

In addition to overseeing the finances of the Marquis Mansion, Xie Jue had established an intelligence unit stationed in the Capital City, dedicated to collecting information on the aristocratic families and the royal family. He kept this secret from his father, brothers, and younger brother, and even planted spies in the Imperial Palace. Firstly, it was to protect his sister, and secondly, to gather intelligence from within the palace. Xie Jue knew that if Marquis Zhenbei discovered he had inserted agents into the palace, he would certainly fly into a rage, so Xie Jue chose to conceal it.

After returning to the Capital City, Xie Jue extracted information on Emperor Jianming and the Eastern Palace. When he learned of the Crown Prince’s order to kill Fengyu, he felt a vague sense of unease. There was no justification for killing Fengyu!

He always saw things with remarkable clarity. The moment he suspected someone, he would investigate them with all his might.

During tonight’s outing, Dugu Jing’s assassination attempt and Lin Cheng’s perfectly timed appearance were certainly schemes of the Eastern Palace.

By the time the three brothers emerged from the main courtyard’s study, it was almost dawn. Xie Jue had barely slept the entire night, yet he still needed to attend the negotiations at court. Xie Zhang patted his shoulder with concern.

"Ting Feng, Father is right. We and the royal family will never reach that step," Xie Zhang said gently. "Father intends to implement new policies. The royal family will only ally with us to confront the aristocratic families. Once the new policies are in place, we’ll return to Ningzhou."

"Alright." Xie Jue thought, the Crown Prince might indeed wish to turn his blade toward the Marquis Mansion, but he really had no leverage—unless he no longer even cared for the throne.

He turned to look at Xie Xun, who was sighing as he gazed at the moon. "What happened to your leg?"

"What about it?" Xie Xun raised an eyebrow.

"Your second brother is asking why you couldn’t stand steady when Father kicked you," Xie Zhang said with a chuckle. "Did it hurt?"

"My skin is thick and tough, it didn’t hurt a bit." Xie Xun’s expression changed abruptly. "Ah, no!"

What hurt was the Third Miss—revengeful to the core, she would surely give him trouble. Xie Xun kneaded his forehead, but he couldn’t really blame anyone.

The father and sons had already discussed things once, but who would have thought they’d be dragged back to the study in the middle of the night to talk further, all because Xie Jue’s investigations had uncovered the Crown Prince’s apparent collusion with the Beiman.

Xie Xun was furious!

For the royal family to collude with the Beiman was an utter affront—a slap across the faces of generals like them, who shed blood defending the frontiers.

Marquis Zhenbei, however, felt Xie Jue was overthinking, which prompted Xie Xun to argue with his father. Heated words were exchanged, escalating into a flurry of reckless outbursts, as he lost track of the time.

What Xie Xun didn’t expect was that when the Marquis kicked him, the Third Miss happened to pass by.

When Xie Zhang and Xie Jue observed their younger brother’s sheepish demeanor, Xie Zhang remarked, "Zhixu... seems a bit odd?"

Xie Jue made a noncommittal sound, also sensing something unusual. The two returned to their courtyard together. Xie Zhang hesitated before asking tentatively, "Is Chu Ning in your room?"

"Yes."

"Where is he sleeping?" Xie Zhang recalled that his second brother’s courtyard only had the main hall fit for sleeping, while the guest rooms were converted into studies, leaving only heated divans that wouldn’t provide proper rest.

"The bed."

Xie Zhang, parsing the noncommittal response, chuckled lightly. "You and Chu Ning are both grown men now; you shouldn’t share a bed."

"We didn’t."

Xie Zhang: "..."

Reflecting that they hadn’t slept at all after returning to the courtyard, eating and preparing for the morning court session instead, Xie Zhang set aside his concerns. What he initially intended to advise was that Xie Jue and Fang Chuning should be mindful of their conduct in the Capital City. The politics here were unlike the borderlands, and excessive closeness could fuel rumors, especially since they weren’t blood-related brothers.

Yet seeing how unaware Xie Jue appeared of any potential impropriety, Xie Zhang decided to drop the matter; after all, in Ningzhou, they often shared a single tent anyway.

Meanwhile, Fengyu, after taking a kick, returned to her own body, still feeling phantom pain, as though her bones were aching. Though she bore no physical injuries, she couldn’t forget the piercing agony of that moment.

Did the young marquis often get kicked by the marquis?

Zhang Boxin fought his own father and nearly ended up in prison. Yet here, the Marquis beating his sons with measured cruelty was considered par for the course. Truly, sons were fair game for scolding—or worse.

Seeing Fengyu return, both Qiuxiang and Chunlu were baffled. "Miss, aren’t you practicing swordsmanship today?"

Recalling the sparse words of the Marquis, Fengyu shook her head. With major family events brewing in the Marquis Mansion tonight, Xie Xun hadn’t had the chance to inform her, leaving her to take the brunt of misplaced ire.

At first, she’d been enraged. But then she considered that Xie Xun might frequently suffer such "lessons" from the Marquis, and she decided to generously forgive him. Burdened by her heavy thoughts, Fengyu found it difficult to sleep. Playing the flute would only disturb others’ dreams, so she idly sat beneath her window, reviewing the ledgers of the Twelve Provinces. She planned to make a trip there after her elder sister’s wedding.

If Ningzhou managed to broker peace, perhaps the trade routes between the northwest and Sannan could reopen. Sannan, with its thriving agriculture and animal husbandry but scarce mineral resources, was strategically valuable. Yet Yanyang banned the trade of mineral resources with Sannan. Smuggling iron ore was tantamount to treason. Fengyu, however, thought otherwise—perhaps they could barter for Sannan’s seeds and crops instead. Yanyang’s agricultural development paled in comparison to Sannan’s.

Speaking of iron ore, the Beiman possessed a unique resource called Red Sand Mine. Its ores were incredibly tough and nearly indestructible, which explained why the Beiman excelled so decisively on the battlefield. Though Red Sand Mines were once found along the borders of Ningzhou and Beiman, they had long been depleted.

Currently, only one-third of the Northern Iron Cavalry could be equipped with Red Sand Armor. The Beiman, on the other hand, outfitted their entire army in Red Sand Armor and wielded Red Sand-refined spears, scimitars, and lances. Their lances could pierce through horse armor and standard cavalry gear, making them deadly in both defense and attack. In any full-scale battle where the Beiman fought in earnest, Yanyang suffered heavy casualties.

Red Sand Mine would inevitably become a major point of contention in the Yanyang-Beiman negotiations.

But would the Beiman agree to concede it?

No one anticipated that the negotiations between Yanyang and the Beiman would completely collapse on the very first day.

Yanyang’s opening demand: Red Sand Mine.

The Beiman’s opening demand: Xie Jue’s life.

Neither side feigned politeness, nor did they engage in roundabout diplomacy. They cut straight to their demands. Dugu Jing, surrounded by the Beiman think tank Slate, the Priest Jin Tu, and two Beiman Generals, minced no words.

When they met Emperor Jianming, Dugu Jing outright declared that since Xie Jue had killed Beiman soldiers before the negotiations, blood must be repaid with blood; only then could the talks proceed further.

The court erupted into an uproar. Firstly, the audacity of the Beiman to demand the execution of a Marquis’s son in the Capital City was outrageous. Secondly, the boldness of the Marquis’s second young master, Xie Jue, to kill Beiman generals on the eve of negotiations was equally shocking.

Standing in the first row of military officials, Marquis Zhenbei remained silent. If it were the Beiman King himself present, he might have directly lashed out. However, dealing with a junior prince felt beneath him. Marquis Zhenbei had no intention of saying anything further.

"Why did Xie Jue act to kill the Beiman generals on the eve of negotiations?" Emperor Jianming inquired.