Chapter 1222: Sir Truly Is an Extraordinary Man!

"Ah!" Noble Consort Lan shot to her feet. Those few words struck like a blow to the head and woke her in an instant. She nearly cried out in delight, losing her composure.

Her ten fingers clasped tightly before her chest. She forced herself not to become too excited, yet inwardly she was shouting with joy, pacing back and forth in front of her seat again and again. Yes! Such a good solution—how had she never thought of it? She had spent every day wearing a miserable face. Why had she never thought to find a way to solve the problem? Why had she never sought out someone who truly understood matters and asked for guidance? What could endless sorrow and weeping possibly resolve?

Taishu Huan'er, beside her, was somewhat dazed by what she had heard.

Marry... marry Shao Pingbo?

"Your Ladyship!" The cultivators outside, who had been watching the hall closely, saw the sudden reaction and flashed inside at once, thinking something had happened. In an instant, they surrounded Jia Wuqun and Yuan Cong.

Yuan Cong immediately became alert to everything around them. Jia Wuqun, however, treated it as nothing. No matter how the waves rose, he remained as calm as drifting clouds and a light breeze. His gaze stayed on Noble Consort Lan's reaction, and even his eyelids did not twitch.

Feeling everything around him tighten, Yuan Cong glanced back once. Someone who had dared wag his tongue at the Misty Pavilion truly did have nerve.

The moment those cultivators rushed in, Guo Wenshang and the others outside panicked as well. Afraid something had happened, they hurried into the hall. After looking around, however, they saw nothing unusual and had no idea why the guards were so tense.

At the doorway, Mai Deman also hurried over anxiously and craned his neck to look inside, not knowing what had happened.

He knew some of the arrangements behind the meeting, but he did not know Jia Wuqun's true purpose.

There was one thing he did know: if anything truly happened to Jia Wuqun here, he would have no way to answer to Chancellor Zi Pingxiu. If the Chancellor became furious, destroying his household would be easy, to say nothing of his future career. That was no laughing matter.

The sudden flood of people into the hall brought Noble Consort Lan back to herself. She turned, saw Jia Wuqun surrounded, and immediately became angry. "What are you doing?"

One cultivator asked, "Your Ladyship, are you all right?"

Noble Consort Lan instantly understood. Her own loss of composure had caused the reaction. She swept her sleeve. "Absurd! Sir Jia is an honored guest. What could possibly happen? Withdraw. All of you, withdraw!"

With so many people crowding the hall, how was Jia Wuqun supposed to continue speaking? No wonder he had refused to say anything earlier.

She was still waiting impatiently for him to clear away her confusion. She was afraid this group might anger him. If he swept his sleeves and left, where would she ever find another person who understood matters so clearly? To her, this Sir Jia was unlike any lucid mind she had ever encountered. Growing anxious, she repeatedly waved them away.

When everyone remained frozen, she drove them off again, now more visibly angry. "Do not disturb the honored guest! Sir Jia is enlightening the Princess. Withdraw at once!"

Seeing that nothing had happened, the cultivators exchanged looks. Realizing they might have overreacted, they slowly withdrew.

Guo Wenshang, the elderly eunuch, and the others exchanged glances as well before gradually retreating.

Noble Consort Lan could not speak too harshly to the cultivators, but she had no such restraint toward the servants. She snapped, "Get farther away from this consort!"

She now fully understood why Jia Wuqun had been unwilling to speak before others. This truly was not something outsiders could be allowed to hear, and she had begun cooperating of her own initiative.

The eunuchs and palace maids withdrew in alarm.

Mai Deman, still at the doorway, looked around. Seeing that there was truly no danger and that it had been a false alarm, he too slowly backed away, letting out a lingering breath of relief.

Once there were no outsiders, Noble Consort Lan looked apologetic. "My subordinates do not understand propriety. Sir, please do not take offense."

Jia Wuqun knew perfectly well when to take offense and when not to. At a moment like this, he certainly would not. If he became offended and left, all his previous effort would have been wasted. He smiled and shook his head, indicating that it did not matter.

"Sir truly possesses the magnanimity of an accomplished gentleman." Noble Consort Lan offered the compliment, and there was a measure of genuine admiration in it. She had personally seen how composed this mute man remained when circumstances suddenly changed around him. His bearing truly was extraordinary. Precisely because of that, her confidence in him grew stronger. This was indeed a man of real ability.

Yet after the interruption, she had also calmed down considerably and realized she might have rejoiced too soon. After first stabilizing him with a little praise, she once again humbly asked for guidance. "Sir's method is certainly excellent, but would Shao Pingbo agree to such a thing?"

Jia Wuqun narrowed his eyes slightly without moving his lips. His fingers flew across Yuan Cong's back.

"To eat one's lord's grain is to share one's lord's worries! That rotten proposal came from him, and it brought the Princess to this state. He cannot escape responsibility! If he will not relieve the Princess's troubles, will not relieve His Majesty's troubles, yet dares humiliate the imperial clan and profane imperial dignity at will, then what exactly does he intend? Is that the conduct of a loyal minister?"

"The Princess is chaste, and she must be chaste. That point can never be conceded. In this matter, so long as His Majesty agrees, Shao Pingbo will have no choice but to agree as well!"

"Besides, Shao Pingbo is still a worldly man. He gave His Majesty ruthless advice and stopped at nothing. What was it for? Was it not for his future prospects? Marrying the Princess would prove her chastity, relieve his sovereign's worries, win His Majesty's favor, and give him limitless prospects. So long as His Majesty intends it, he will find it extremely difficult to refuse—unless he is willing to abandon everything he has gained in Jin. If so, that is another matter. Does Your Ladyship think he could bear to give it all up?"

"And this affair would bring enormous benefits to Your Ladyship and the Princess as well! Not only would the Princess's chastity be restored, but Shao Pingbo, having relieved the sovereign's worries and gained His Majesty's favor, could become someone Your Ladyship relies upon in the future. If your son-in-law is an important minister of the state, who would dare slight Your Ladyship?"

Noble Consort Lan's gaze flickered rapidly. That final sentence truly struck home.

Living in the inner palace, what she feared most was the day she lost favor and other vicious women could trample her at will. No one understood better than those inside the palace how miserable a fallen woman could become. When women turned on women, their cruelty and venom were beyond description. They could reduce you to less than a pig or a dog. Even the pet dog of someone still in favor might force you to kneel and lick its feet.

Yet she was not a fool. However tempting the idea, there were still practical difficulties. She said anxiously, "Sir speaks truly. If His Majesty wished it, Shao Pingbo naturally would not dare refuse. But as you yourself said, Shao Pingbo is a favored minister beside His Majesty, highly regarded by him. How could His Majesty casually wrong him in such a way? His Majesty places affairs of state first. He would never damage the foundations of the state over a household matter."

"This consort is only a woman of the inner palace. I fear I could never persuade His Majesty to agree. Convincing him would be extraordinarily difficult and might even provoke his fury. Sir, do you have a method you can teach me?"

By saying this, she was effectively admitting that her daughter was no longer chaste. Otherwise, marrying a princess would have been an honor. How could it be called wronging Shao Pingbo?

In truth, how could Noble Consort Lan not know whether her daughter remained chaste? Even if one ignored everything else, the tears Taishu Huan'er had shed every day after returning were enough to explain it.

When Taishu Huan'er heard her mother's words, she bit her lip hard and her eyes reddened. So even in her mother's eyes, her chastity had been damaged and she had become cheapened.

Jia Wuqun pointed his free hand toward Taishu Huan'er.

"Persuading His Majesty is a trivial matter, hardly worth mentioning! Whether His Majesty agrees rests entirely with the Princess alone. If the Princess is willing, then His Majesty will be willing. If the Princess is unwilling, then not even an immortal could devise a solution! I dare ask the Princess one question: are you willing?"

"Huan'er?" Noble Consort Lan glanced at her daughter. At this point, she had no time to worry about her daughter's feelings. She hurriedly answered on her behalf. "Naturally she is willing! From ancient times to the present, marriage has always been decided by one's parents. As her mother, this consort will decide for her! As for exactly how this willingness should be shown, this consort still does not understand. I would gladly hear Sir's wise counsel!"

"To make His Majesty agree is difficult, yet also not difficult. Timing, place, people, the proper degree of pressure, and the occasion—none can be wrong..."

Yuan Cong recited in a flat voice everything Jia Wuqun's fingers were rapidly tracing across his back.

Jia Wuqun's expression and posture remained composed. Almost his entire body was still, with only one hand moving freely across another man's back. After working together for some time, one wrote and the other spoke with considerable coordination.

As one ingenious step after another flowed from Yuan Cong's mouth, Noble Consort Lan clasped both hands tightly before her chest. From time to time she nodded again and again, her eyes shining with an unusual light, her face filled with excitement. Only today did she understand what it meant to hear a truly inspired stratagem.

Even Taishu Huan'er listened in a daze.

If things truly unfolded this way, and she really did marry that man...

Before today, she had never imagined she might possibly marry him. Yet after hearing Jia Wuqun's method, she discovered that the possibility genuinely existed.

For some reason, an indescribable pleasure of revenge suddenly welled up inside her.

And beyond that sense of revenge, her thoughts grew hazy. An image returned to her mind from the farmhouse where she had met that man: she had knocked over the food, and he had crouched down, picked it up bit by bit, then slowly put it into his own mouth...

Yuan Cong continued speaking. By the end, the corner of his cheek was twitching slightly. Inwardly, he muttered to himself: where in the world had Niu Youdao dug up someone with methods this sinister?

He had accompanied Jia Wuqun through one arrangement after another before this and had not felt much. Only now, when the map was fully unrolled and the dagger revealed, did he finally understand how badly this tongueless fellow knew how to trap people.

Jia Wuqun's fingers stopped, and Yuan Cong's voice ceased as well.

Noble Consort Lan, so delighted she had already stepped forward twice, exclaimed, "Sir's stratagem truly is marvelous! But..." She turned to look at her daughter. "If Huan'er marries him and he harbors resentment, deliberately neglecting or mistreating her, what then?"

Jia Wuqun replied through Yuan Cong, "The Princess is beautiful. If she is chaste, then it is a fine marriage. Even if there is some blemish, whose sin brought it about? If he does not bear that responsibility, who should?"

"Your Ladyship, he may dare mistreat other women, but he would not dare mistreat the Princess. The ruler of Jin is His Majesty. So long as His Majesty lives, so long as the Taishu clan still holds Jin's supreme power, it is not Shao Pingbo's place to bully a daughter of the Taishu clan! If the Taishu clan no longer holds power, would there still be any point worrying about this?"

"He stops at nothing for the sake of his future, and that future depends on the Taishu clan. He is nothing more than one minister before His Majesty. His glory, wealth, and rank are all in His Majesty's hands. I will ask the same question again: is Shao Pingbo willing to abandon everything he has gained today? If he had that kind of backbone, if he could truly let it all go, would he ever have resorted to such filthy methods in the first place?"

"Your Ladyship, even if the Princess suffers some slight grievance after marrying him, could it possibly be greater than the grievance she suffers now? Whether to endure some small hardship, or to carry this extraordinary humiliation for the rest of her life—Your Ladyship may decide for yourself. This Jia has said all there is to say."

When he finished, Jia Wuqun smiled faintly.

In truth, he rather hoped Shao Pingbo would abandon everything he had gained in Jin and flee.

After hearing all this, Noble Consort Lan truly had no doubts left. Filled with delight and admiration, she said, "Great fame is never bestowed on an empty reputation. Only today do I understand that the title 'Hidden Chancellor' was truly not gained in vain. How hateful that everyone around this consort is so mediocre! If only I had met Sir earlier and received your guidance, how could Huan'er ever have fallen into her present state? Sir truly is an extraordinary man!"

Jia Wuqun smiled modestly and waved a hand on the surface.

Inside, however, he muttered to himself: met me earlier? I, Jia Wuqun, would have had to be stuffed senseless with too much food to meddle in the private affairs of your inner palace before this.

[End of Chapter 1222]