Chapter 1118: Man's Plans Cannot Outdo Heaven's

Hao Yuntu had originally intended to see his son when the young man came to present the gift, but something truly had happened, so he could only leave Hao Zhen waiting.

A letter had arrived. The Office of Investigation had received it and urgently forwarded it into the palace.

Seated behind his desk, Hao Yuntu stared at the letter in thought. It said that the internal upheaval in Wei had been planned entirely by Shao Pingbo, that Shao Pingbo himself was presently in the Qi capital, and that there was a strong possibility he intended to sabotage Qi and tie it down as part of the Jin-Wei war. The letter warned Qi to be careful.

"Your Majesty!" Two military generals who had been urgently summoned strode in and saluted.

They had been waiting for morning court when a eunuch suddenly called them aside and said the emperor wanted to see them. That was why they had appeared here.

Hao Yuntu gave a slight grunt and passed the letter on his desk to Bu Xun. "Let them see it."

Bu Xun handed the letter to the two generals. They leaned their heads together and read it at the same time. When they finished, they exchanged a look, both wearing grave expressions.

The bearded general cupped his hands. "Your Majesty, who sent this letter?"

Hao Yuntu said, "I don't know. What do the two of you think? Is what it says true or false?"

The dark-skinned general replied, "Your Majesty, if this Shao Pingbo truly intends to create chaos in the Qi capital, then at a moment like this the matter is extremely serious. Wei's upheaval is a lesson before our eyes. In this subject's view, better to believe there may be something to it than assume there is nothing!"

The bearded general nodded. "Exactly. This subject thinks the same."

Hao Yuntu rose and said heavily, "Good! The two generals think as I do. That is why I summoned you. Secretly mobilize the troops under your command in the capital and cooperate with the Office of Investigation!"

"We obey!" The two generals cupped their hands.

Hao Yuntu turned to Bu Xun. "You will coordinate everything. Activate every force the Office of Investigation has in the capital, both open and hidden. If Shao Pingbo is in the city, you must seize him for me. Take him alive if at all possible and force out Jin's sabotage plan!"

Bu Xun hesitated. "Shao Pingbo is the elder brother of Princess Consort Ying. If force has to be used during the arrest..."

Hao Yuntu cut him off heavily. "If you can't take him alive, take him dead. Dead or alive, I want him. If Princess Consort Ying is involved, deal with her as well. Show no leniency. In short, we absolutely cannot allow anything like Wei's upheaval to happen again in Qi!"

Bu Xun understood. Faced with something like this, there was no need to worry about Princess Consort Ying's feelings, nor did it matter that Shao Pingbo was related by marriage to Qi's imperial clan.

With those words from the emperor, Bu Xun knew exactly how far he was permitted to go. He bowed. "Yes!"

...

"Eldest Young Master!" Shao Sansheng hurried up the pavilion stairs, his expression far from good.

Shao Pingbo, standing by the window, turned around. "Has our whereabouts been exposed?"

Shao Sansheng shook his head. "No."

Shao Pingbo stared at him. "Then why are you panicking?"

A frightened look crossed Shao Sansheng's face. "There was a small mishap with the palace operation."

Shao Pingbo was greatly startled. He strode over and asked in a low voice, "What happened? Every detail of the plan was reviewed over and over. I told you to watch it closely. How could something still go wrong? Did Hao Yunsheng refuse to cooperate?"

"Eldest Young Master, you've misunderstood. The main plan has gone smoothly. Nothing is wrong there. It's just... it's just..." Shao Sansheng hesitated, unable to get the words out.

Hearing that the main plan was intact, Shao Pingbo relaxed slightly and softened his tone. "Just what?"

Shao Sansheng's expression turned bitter. "Something unexpected happened with Prince Ying Hao Zhen. He went into the court waiting chamber and consumed the poisoned food!"

Prince Ying Hao Zhen was the Shao family's son-in-law and Shao Pingbo's brother-in-law. Their plan had now poisoned Shao Liuer's husband. How could this not leave them stricken?

Shao Pingbo stared blankly at him. All the sharp intelligence vanished from his face in an instant, leaving him almost dazed. Slowly, he stepped backward and sat down. "How could that happen? Didn't we already arrange a plan to lure him away?"

"We don't know the exact circumstances yet," Shao Sansheng said. "The eyes and ears inside the palace reported that Hao Yuntu was supposed to see Prince Ying. He had already reached the entrance to the inner palace. But for some reason, Hao Yuntu suddenly encountered what seems to have been some major matter and didn't see him. Prince Ying returned to the court waiting chamber, and then... then he drank it..."

Smack!

Shao Pingbo suddenly slapped the armrest of his chair and shouted angrily, "Why didn't our people inside the palace stop him in time?"

Shao Sansheng said sorrowfully, "The people we planted in the palace are only responsible for observing. They don't know the plan and know nothing about the poisoning. Eldest Young Master, that was your own instruction. Too many people knowing would make it easier for the secret to leak. No one at the scene besides Hao Yunsheng knew what was happening, and even Hao Yunsheng doesn't know you're behind it. There was no way to stop Prince Ying in time. By the time the news reached us, it was already too late!"

"My own instruction..." Shao Pingbo murmured, his eyes unfocused. The man who was usually so shrewd seemed suddenly confused.

Then he remembered. Yes. Every detail from beginning to end had been arranged personally by him after careful review.

To ensure nothing could go wrong, he had spent thought on every step. Yet for all his calculations, he had never accounted for Hao Yuntu suddenly encountering some major affair right before morning court and therefore failing to see Prince Ying.

It had to be something major. A man like Hao Yuntu handled matters great and small every day. Years of experience had long tempered a certain steadiness into him. Ordinary incidents would not disrupt his normal behavior.

"Could word have arrived about the changes in the armies at the front? It shouldn't have. I calculated the timing of every move in every region carefully. He shouldn't receive those reports until around noon today at the earliest..." Shao Pingbo muttered.

Shao Sansheng bowed slightly at his side, anxious. "Eldest Young Master, what do we do now? Jade Corpse Poison has no antidote. We need to think of something quickly."

Shao Pingbo looked exhausted. "You just said it yourself. There is no antidote. What can I possibly do?"

"The Ghost Doctor's disciple! The Ghost Doctor's disciple is in the Qi capital. We need to warn the Young Mistress at once and have Prince Ying treated before the poison takes effect."

Shao Pingbo's spirit seemed drained. "Warn her? How? Warning her is easy. But if Prince Ying seeks out the Ghost Doctor's disciple for treatment before the poison has even manifested, have you thought about what that would mean? It would get Liuer killed."

Shao Sansheng was beside himself with anxiety. "Then what do we do? Are we supposed to watch the Young Master-in-Law die with our own eyes? Watch the Young Mistress become a widow?"

"We cannot warn them! They still have a chance to save themselves. An ordinary person struck by Jade Corpse Poison would die violently on the spot. If a cultivator uses spiritual power to suppress the poison, however, the victim can hold on for a while. Prince Ying is no ordinary man. He always has retainer cultivators with him. They will certainly notice that something is wrong in time and should be able to keep him alive for a while. Since the Ghost Doctor's disciple is in the Qi capital, when they realize ordinary treatment is useless, they should go ask him for help. There should still be a chance." By the end, Shao Pingbo was almost murmuring to himself. "I only hope the Ghost Doctor's disciple can cure this poison!"

Shao Sansheng asked, "What if even the Ghost Doctor's disciple can't cure it?"

Shao Pingbo fell silent.

Shao Sansheng continued, "I hear the Ghost Doctor's disciple has much of his master's temperament. He's just as eccentric, and not everyone who begs for treatment can persuade him to act. They say the Qi emperor once wanted to see him, yet he didn't even give the Qi emperor face. What if they can't persuade him to save Prince Ying?"

Shao Pingbo still said nothing.

"If Prince Ying dies, we won't be able to explain it to the Young Mistress! Eldest Young Master, think of something!"

"I have no way. We can only leave it to Liuer's fortune. With this accident, what comes afterward actually becomes easier. At least Hao Zhen himself will be cleared of suspicion, and Liuer won't be implicated. We won't have to spend further effort arranging to get the husband and wife away. Go. Watch how the situation outside develops and report to me at any time."

After speaking, he slowly closed his eyes and said nothing more.

His complexion was poor. His entire spirit seemed to have fallen into an extremely low state, giving him an air of dejection and powerlessness.

But that was only the surface. No one could understand the sudden bleakness that had risen inside him.

If there was anyone in this world Shao Pingbo still cared about from the bottom of his heart, it was only the younger sister his mother had entrusted to him before her death: Shao Liuer. As for his father, father and son had long since become strangers. What remained was more concern for the formal bond between them than genuine closeness.

He truly did not want anything to happen to Shao Liuer.

For this younger sister, he had even allowed private feeling to enter an affair of this magnitude. Within such a vast scheme, he had deliberately arranged an additional plan to protect Prince Ying, accepting a certain risk that the entire operation might be exposed. For a man like Shao Pingbo, that was almost unimaginable.

But man's plans could not outdo Heaven's. In the end, calamity had still reached Prince Ying Hao Zhen.

If Hao Zhen suddenly died, Shao Pingbo truly did not know how he would face Shao Liuer.

An incident this large could not conceal every truth forever. Some things would inevitably come to light in the end.

If Shao Liuer learned that her own elder brother had poisoned her husband to death, then with new hatred piled atop old grievances, she would probably never forgive him.

Once his father Shao Dengyun learned the truth, he would probably think his son worse than a beast.

The only reason Shao Pingbo could still use to comfort himself was that at least Shao Liuer's own safety could be preserved.

Loneliness. An overwhelming loneliness.

"Cough, cough..." Shao Pingbo raised a fist to his mouth and began coughing hard. Once the fit passed, he waved his hand, signaling for Shao Sansheng to leave.

"Yes." Shao Sansheng answered softly, his face equally bleak, and slowly turned away.

He had not been gone long when he hurried back again. "Eldest Young Master, that man from yesterday is here again." He lowered his voice and added, "The one from Misty Pavilion."

"Him?" Shao Pingbo's eyes snapped open. He braced a hand on the armrest and rose, as though his spirit had returned in an instant. "How many people?"

At the same time, he strode quickly to the window, used one finger to open a narrow crack, and looked down. He saw the man standing in the courtyard.

"Just him," Shao Sansheng replied.

Shao Pingbo frowned, puzzled. By his understanding, a man like that should not have come personally to see him two days in a row.

But refusing to meet him was impossible. The other man had found this place effortlessly yesterday, proving Shao Pingbo's whereabouts were already within his grasp. There was nowhere to hide.

Shao Pingbo tilted his head in indication. "Invite him up. You stay downstairs and keep watch."

"Yes!"

Not long after Shao Sansheng went down, yesterday's visitor came upstairs.

Shao Pingbo smiled and cupped his hands in greeting. "Sir, your visit today truly surprises me. Do you have some instruction for me?"

The visitor said coldly, "Your situation is extremely dangerous. Leave the Qi capital immediately! If you wait much longer, I'm afraid you won't be able to escape even if you want to!"

Shao Pingbo probed, "Why?"

"I just received word. Early this morning, Hao Yuntu learned that you had come to the Qi capital. He has already secretly ordered people to capture you. Fortunately, I stayed in the capital for one extra night. Otherwise, by the time the news reached me, it might have been too late even to arrange for someone to warn you. That's why I came personally."

"Hao Yuntu knows I've come to the Qi capital?" Shao Pingbo's pupils abruptly contracted. "Does he know my exact location?"

"Not that. But to capture you, Bu Xun has already begun activating every open and hidden force the Office of Investigation has in the capital. Do not underestimate that power. Here in the Qi capital, even Misty Pavilion must concede that even a mighty dragon does not suppress the local snake! Now that they have a specific target, I believe it won't take them long to uncover your hiding place!"

[End of Chapter 1118]