Chapter 8
The atmosphere froze.
After a long moment, the mysterious figure removed his hood, revealing a gentle face.
“Miss Hua, may I ask how you knew?”
I said nothing and held out my hand.
Cursing under his breath, Shen Shuo pulled out a banknote and gave it to me.
I tucked it away and cheerfully answered,
“Half of it was deduction. The other half was a bluff.”
Shen Shuo looked one breath away from keeling over.
I stared at him in disbelief.
“Is that really necessary? What a miser!
“How about this? I won’t take your money for nothing.
“I’ll give you some advice.
“I hear the conflict between the Third Prince and Crown Prince has only intensified over the past six months.
“My guess is that it began when the highly decorated First Prince returned from the frontier.”
The expressions of both the Crown Prince and Shen Shuo changed.
The present emperor had three sons.
The First Prince was born to a concubine and had no great status, but his military achievements were outstanding.
The Second Prince was the Crown Prince, the legitimate son and rightful heir.
Third Prince Shen Shuo’s mother had died early, leaving him largely to his own devices.
The emperor was growing old, and the First Prince had returned to the capital. Naturally, there would be a struggle over the succession.
The Crown Prince and Third Prince only pretended to oppose each other in order to mislead everyone else.
They wanted to muddy the waters of the capital and lull the First Prince into complacency.
“Your eldest brother has been making a spectacle of himself for so long. Has the emperor responded at all?
“The older a man becomes, the more he fears death.
“The more the First Prince schemes, the more the emperor will see his wolfish ambition and think he is eagerly awaiting the imperial funeral.
“Do you imagine that pleases His Majesty?
“Instead of dancing to your opponent’s tune, why not focus your attention on the one man who holds the final say?”
I finished speaking and ignored the two men as sudden understanding dawned on their faces. Then I yawned and went home to sleep.
People trapped in the game often failed to see what was right before them.
After a long while, the Crown Prince gave a derisive laugh.
“Qi Sanyuan truly is blind.
“He cast aside a pearl and brought home a stone.”
Shen Shuo withdrew his gaze from me.
“She certainly is interesting.”
The Crown Prince spoke with pointed amusement.
“Anyone who can make a block of ice like you stamp his feet in rage is certainly interesting.”
After that night, I paid little attention to court politics.
I had only offered them a few pointers because my father supported the Crown Prince.
If the First Prince took the throne, my poor old father would gain nothing good from it.
Wouldn’t that interfere with my blissful life of idleness?
Besides, I was currently busy “upgrading and renovating” the food street.
The food street my sister-in-law gave me truly did excellent business.
But most of its customers were commoners.
The wealthy looked down on it.
They believed it was either unclean or beneath their status.
So I spent a large sum first renovating the storefronts, then remodeling the counters so every step of preparing the food was clearly visible.
At the same time, I introduced enticing new dishes such as hot-and-sour glass noodles, fried chicken, and spicy crayfish.
Business immediately became even more prosperous.
Every day, I happily kept myself busy counting money.