Love letters are not allowed in the exorcism notebook!-Chapter 603 - 26 Eldest Miss Shen’s Perfect Plan

Li Mumu’s persona as an Eldest Miss was fake; after coming to Tianmen, she knew nothing about the local elite, and she didn’t usually mix in the circles of the Mortal World.

But Shen Qingxi really was an Eldest Miss; she didn’t need to pretend to be anyone else.

The high-society gossip and dark secrets she spilled were hardly speculations or fabrications—they were the utter truth.

After all, she lived in that very circle.

Even so, Li Mumu couldn’t help feeling... did this person know too much?

"The Wei Family had followed the President in battle and were known for their bravery, but suffered tragic losses. Wei Anran’s father and brothers had already sacrificed themselves on the battlefield. After his death, it could be said that the Wei Family lineage had nearly been extinguished. He and Cheng Xuefei were childhood sweethearts, but he never made their relationship public."

Shen Qingxi spread her hands and said, "Those who weren’t afraid to die are all gone; naturally, the ones remaining are those who fear death. Now that we’ve entered a time of peace, it’s unclear whether the Wei Family branch still retains any of their valor. From this perspective, it’s possible the Wei Family plotted unrest in secret, only to quickly quell it with their troops, to prove themselves... such a possibility does exist."

"Another possibility is that maybe Wei Anran didn’t die. Without his father and brothers to protect him, he might have suffered tyranny at the hands of his kin, so he faked his own death, dedicated himself to Cultivation in secret, and with Cheng Xuefei, staged the theft of the Imperial Jade Seal. Pretending to join the Former Dynasty’s Deposed Emperor, he incited the President to annihilate his entire three branches of family."

Are you writing a novel or what?

"That’s how they’re all written!"

Shen Qingxi said with pride, "Trust me, it’s never wrong!"

I’ll trust you when pigs fly!

Why am I wasting time I could be using to sleep and beautify, sitting here listening to these brainless, feel-good plotlines?

Li Mumu felt deeply ashamed for the positive impression she had just started to form about this person.

It must have been the cosmetics that blinded me.

"So what exactly are you planning to do?"

Xia Yubing was also somewhat intolerant of such baseless speculation, and she asked bluntly.

Shen Qingxi smiled and said, "I don’t intend to vindicate the Shen Family, but I must take primary responsibility for the loss of the Imperial Jade Seal and must recover it myself. My plan is—to invite you two to meet with the Former Dynasty’s Deposed Emperor with me, acting as partners to extract information from him and retrieve the Imperial Jade Seal!"

"You don’t have any evidence that it was he who took the Jade Seal."

"But it is only in his hands that it can have the greatest effect, isn’t it? Even if it’s not him, he might have caught wind of something."

"Speaking of which..."

Li Mumu suddenly asked, "Do you know the name of that Former Dynasty’s Deposed Emperor, or where he lives?"

As it turned out, the presence of the last Emperor of the Former Dynasty had always been low-key; aside from the common folk knowing about the new Emperor’s ascension and the change of era to Longyin, they had no further knowledge of this young Emperor.

In the last few years of the Imperial Court’s rule, the Qian King, as Regent, seized the spotlight... No matter what kind of spotlight, the man was brimming with self-satisfaction, having vented the frustrations that had been stifled in his heart for half his life.

After his moment in the limelight came the era of the President, who ascended the stage to direct the country.

Although the new government had been established for only two years, the President had already held sway over the court and outshone his superiors for several years, with the entire Imperial Court trembling under his military might.

Otherwise, how could the transition between the old and new courts have been so smooth and peaceful? It was simply that by then, the court had no means to check the President’s power; appealing to heaven was futile, and there was no recourse on earth. For the remnants of the Former Dynasty, struggling in agony, stepping down peacefully was a form of relief.

During that tumultuous era of change, the last Emperor was never able to voice his own stance, never able to make his presence felt. Thus, he was crowned in confusion and abdicated in silence, leaving nothing of value in the history books.

You say he’s suspected of stealing the Imperial Jade Seal, of wanting to restore the monarchy, but the least one must know is who he is, where he is, and what he looks like, right?

Mumu, at any rate, did not know.

"If you ask others, they definitely wouldn’t know, but I am the Eldest Miss Shen!"

Shen Qingxi puffed out her chest proudly: "After the remnants of the Former Dynasty moved from the Capital, the vast majority spent a fortune to buy mansions and settle down as landlords, and eighty percent of the mansions and villas in the Seaside District were built with investments from the Shen Family, of which the Shen Family has thorough knowledge. Take for instance this row of seaside villas, the owners of number 16 and 18 are the Former Dynasty’s Minister of Revenue and the Governor of Yuzhou."

"The Imperial Family of the Former Dynasty did not lack money. Even if the Imperial Family was short of funds, there were many loyal officials and filial subjects willing to provide money and effort on their behalf, so at that time, they bought ’Wuliu Villa,’ the property with the largest grounds on Yilan Road, and renamed it Xia Mansion."

"From last year up to now, people searching everywhere in Tianmen for clues to the Emperor’s whereabouts have never ceased. Among them are officials from the old government dismissed by the new, old scholars who had earned a name for themselves in the Former Dynasty, and some speculators with ulterior motives... so, the whereabouts of the Deposed Emperor are not exactly secret, it’s just that the new government does not allow it to be publicized, and ordinary people are simply unaware."

Shen Qingxi raised her finger and pointed at the agate bracelet in Li Mumu’s hand: "This bracelet was exchanged from a concubine at Xia Mansion today for only five thousand. I felt like I was taking advantage of her, and yet she kept thanking me!"

Ah? Is this thing really worth five thousand?

Li Mumu looked at the agate bracelet in her hand, unable to find the words.

The quality was indeed top-notch; the color was pure, without a single flaw, as clear as glass... For those ordinary people who didn’t understand such gemstones, there was a simple standard: the more it resembled glass, the more valuable it was.

Such an item, upon reflection, could indeed have come only from the palace.

But I didn’t expect that you would actually go to their place to buy it!

You’re truly fearless, child.

"We must not delay; let’s set out right now!"

Shen Qingxi stood up, donned a hood, and disguised herself as a sullen old freak.

"My plan is this—we rush in like this, wake the Emperor up from his bed, drape a yellow robe over him, and tell him that we’ll stage an uprising tonight and seize Tianmen! Then we extract the clues about the Imperial Jade Seal from him."

"As for the master fighters from the Inner Court and the Imperial Bodyguards inside the mansion, I’ll leave them to you two to deal with!"