The widow, Ning Qing, walked to the side of her bed. She gently bent over and opened a compartment in her pillow. She then took out a stack of paper.
Her figure was too graceful. The scene of her bending her waist was too alluring.
Yun Zhonghe's heart thumped wildly.
Beast, you're a beast. She had just been poisoned not long ago and has not fully recovered yet.
Ning Qing walked over and placed the stack of papers in front of Yun Zhonghe. She then said, "This is my investigation report. I am going to hand this over to the Baronage Alliance and decide the fate of the City of Torn Gust. Have a look!"
Yun Zhonghe fetched the papers and had a look only to realize that they were blank. There were no words on the paper?
However, he was not surprised. Instead, he gently heated the paper over the flame of a candle. The words on the paper gradually appeared.
This was but a minor trick in his eyes.
Yun Zhonghe finished reading the report in a minute.
Jing Zhongyue's intuition was right. This report was extremely unfavorable to the City of Torn Gust.
Ning Qing's attitude was very clear.
In the great battle between the City of Torn Gust and City of Autumn Waters, Jing Zhongyue, from the Valley of the Torn Gust, had to bear the greatest responsibility.
Furthermore, that lady was cruel and loved to kill. It was recommended that the Baronage Alliance prosecute the Valley of Torn Gust sternly.
Yun Zhonghe read the report over and over again.
He then raised his head to look at the woman of unparalleled beauty.
This woman looked gentle and elegant on the surface, but her personality was extremely clear.
A report done up by an ordinary person would not display such a one-sided result. Instead, the report would be deliberately left unclear, and there would usually be a seventy-thirty split when it came to which party should be held responsible.
However, Ning Qing's report only had negative things to say about the Valley of Torn Gust.
The personality of this woman was too intense. Yun Zhonghe knew that just from looking at her nose. It was sleek and perky, with an extremely determined will.
"Lady Ning Qing, isn't this report extremely unfair to the Valley of Torn Gust?" Yun Zhonghe said, "There would have been no right for us to speak if there was no investigation. The reason as to why the City of Torn Gust attacked the City of Autumn Waters was that the City of Autumn Waters instigated and fueled the flames of a rebellion within the leader of the Wild Boar Territory. They attempted to create a chain effect and cause the leaders of the other territories in the Valley of Torn Gust to rebel and overthrow Jing Zhongyue's position as castellan. After all, it was unprecedented that a woman had inherited the position."
Ning Qing did not speak. Instead, she took out another document and handed it over to Yun Zhonghe.
This time, he could read the document without heating the paper.
This document was even more detailed. It narrated the cause and effect of the battle between the Valley of Torn Gust and the City of Autumn Waters in extreme detail. It was nearly ten thousand words long.
Yun Zhonghe was slightly shocked when he read the document. He started to respect Jing Zhongyue.
She was… merciless.
Many leaders under her had been unsatisfied and ready to take action when she inherited the position of castellan as a woman. They were either going to raise their flags in rebellion or join up with the other baronages to defy the orders of the City of Torn Gust.
Furthermore, during that time, Jing Zhongyue had thought that her greatest concern was not the leader of the Wild Boar Territory, but the Orchid Field Territory and Silver Territory.
Even though the Wild Boar Territory was vast, it was situated in the middle of nowhere and had no real strength. It was a border region.
However, the Orchid Field Territory and Silver Territory were different. Half of the salt wells in the Valley of Torn Gust were situated in these two territories. They were the lifeblood of the Jing Clan.
The outcome would be disastrous if these two territories were to stage a rebellion.
However, the leaders from these two territories were not able to come to a decision. On the one hand, they were dissatisfied that a woman had sat in that position. On the other hand, they were extremely fearful of Jing E. Thus. They only dared to pretend to obey orders without actually executing them and did not openly defy the Jing Clan.
At that time, the Mo Clan from the City of Washed Jade, as well as the Tantai Family, sent envoys to establish a relationship with the leaders of the Orchid Field Territory and Silver Territory. They wanted to get them to serve the An Clan.
The Jing Clan had been unworthy back then. The An Clan, who used to be a minister under the Jing Clan, rebelled and snatched away the hundred-year-old family estate from the Valley of Torn Gust.
Furthermore, Jing E had had a sudden stroke over a year ago, which suddenly pushed Jing Zhongyue, a woman, into the position of castellan. It was the best time for them to scheme and plot to usurp the position.
While the two leaders were undecided on their stances, Jing Zhongyue had immediately put the spies from the Black Blood Hall to work.
Rather than call the rebellion of the leader from the Wild Boar Territory an instigation by the City of Autumn Waters, it might as well have been the scheme of the spies from the Black Blood Hall.
It was half seduction, half coercion. Anyway, under the schemes of the Black Blood Hall, the leader of the Wild Boar Territory rebelled directly. The City of Autumn Waters also immediately mobilized their troops.
According to the agreement, the Silver Territory and Orchid Field Territory were also supposed to mobilize their troops and rebel.
However, Jing Zhongyue had been waiting for this day for a long time. She had planned out the entire battle. The spies under her command had long infiltrated the rebel forces of the Wild Boar Territory.
The leader of the Wild Boar Territory had just mobilized his troops for the rebellion when Jing Zhongyue immediately led an army of three thousand men to quell the uprising.
They completely quelled the rebellion in half a month and killed off all of the rebel forces under the leader of the Wild Boar Territory. They also exterminated the family of the leader of the Wild Boar Territory.
Her decisive, forceful actions thoroughly scared the Orchid Field Territory and Silver Territory.
The two territories were supposed to mobilize their troops to rebel, but they immediately changed their stances when they saw how powerful Jing Zhongyue was. They turned from rebel forces to anti-rebel forces.
Jing Zhongyue was relentless. She snatched the three-thousand-men army of the two leaders and led an army of six thousand down south to attack the City of Autumn Waters.
She won every battle she was involved in and conquered over a thousand square kilometers of the City of Autumn Waters' territory. She also massacred five thousand enemy soldiers and created a mountain of corpses.
After the battle, all of the leaders in the Valley of Torn Gust submitted to her. They were all scared out of their wits. No one dared to go against her in any way.
The City of Autumn Waters and City of Washed Jade also immediately became dormant.
Jing Zhongyue had directly extinguished every single spark of rebellion with the momentum of a raging wind. She had secured her position as castellan within the shortest amount of time and established an undeniable authority.
This woman was truly insane, decisive, and merciless. She also had an adventurous spirit and was never sloppy.
Not only did she not move to stop the rebellion when she found out that there was a bud of rebellion within her territory, she instead opted to lure the culprit out and actively helped the cavalries of the leader of the Wild Boar Territory plan out the uprising. She then quelled the rebellion as a warning to others and achieved complete peace.
In this battle, Jing Zhongyue had killed more people than the rumors made it out to be. She also did not only destroy the enemy forces.
What was even more merciless was that she had sent her forces to scatter large amounts of salt into the fields of the City of Autumn Waters when she invaded the city to render tens of thousands of acres of their land useless.
The woman truly had the disposition of an overlord. She was cold and merciless toward her enemies.
"Do you now have a clear understanding of your master?" Ning Qing asked.
Yun Zhonghe replied, "I have a clearer understanding."
Ning Qing said, "What do you feel?"
Yun Zhonghe answered, "I am awed. I am filled with respect."
Ning Qing asked, "What is your mission this time?"
Yun Zhonghe said, "To deal with you using seduction and make you change your mind so that the report would be more favorable for the City of Torn Gust."
Ning Qing said, "Are my tastes really that weird in Jing Zhongyue's eyes? I have been a widow for many years. Have I really become so perverted?"
Yun Zhonghe said, "Lady Ning Qing, are you insulting me?"
"Yes," Ning Qing replied. "What would be the outcome if you failed this mission?"
Yun Zhonghe answered, "I am a hooligan, a beggar, an illiterate. I have never made any contributions, yet I undertake a high position in the City of Torn Gust. Castellan Jing Zhongyue has been under a huge amount of pressure because of this matter. She has been called an incompetent leader. If I fail this mission, I think she would not have to take any action. Other people from the City of Torn Gust would dismember me, peel my skin, and pull out my nerves."
Ning Qing said, "What you mean is that for you, I should at least edit this report. After all, I do owe you a favor for saving my life."
Yun Zhonghe said, "That's right. Also, you, Lady Ning Qing, are from the Ning Clan. Modifying this report and helping the City of Torn Gust is also beneficial to the Ning Clan."
Ning Qing suddenly said, "Yun AoTian, you confessed just now that the poem you composed has long been prepared. You also said that it is custom-made for me and even that the poem was not composed by you. Is that true?"
Yun Zhonghe said, "You mean the poem 'Mister Taia' that started every sentence with the words 'every,''blood,''a,' and 'difficult'?"
Ning Qing replied, "That's right."
Yun Zhonghe said, "Do you care about this matter a lot?"
"Very much so," Ning Qing answered. "If it had been composed by you, then that feat would not pale in comparison to composing a poem in seven steps. That would prove that you are a genius. A Poetry Genius is a gift from the heavens and is very valuable. If the poem was not composed by you and everything had been planned beforehand with a person composing a poem specifically for me, then you are worthless."
Yun Zhonghe said, "But it is a fact that I saved your life."
"My life is also worthless," Ning Qing said.
F*ck!
Yun Zhonghe said, "There's already a thorn in your heart. You would feel like I am lying even if I said that the poem was composed by me. That's because I am a habitual liar and that 70% of everything I say is lies."
"That's right," Ning Qing said. "Even if some of the things you say are lies, I am willing to take them as the truth. On the other hand, even if you are speaking the truth, I would feel as though they are lies."
Yun Zhonghe said, "So in your heart, I am a fake genius. That means that it is not regrettable if I die."
"That's right," Ning Qing said. "Either you compose another poem to prove that you are a genius, so that…"
Ning Qing's gaze searched the study before landing on the guqin on the rack.
It was not an ordinary guqin. It was a zither with fifty strings.
Ning Qing said, "Compose a poem using the zither as the central theme. You have the time it takes to burn one joss stick. It has to be more exceptional than 'Mister Taia' to prove that you are a genius, a genius whose death would be regrettable."
In an instant, a poem surfaced in Yun Zhonghe's brain.
"A Beautiful Zither" by the great deity Li Shangyin.
It could be said that no one wrote about the zither ever again after this poem came out, as it was an exceptional, unprecedented, timeless piece of work.
It was a truly classic poem that appeared once in a millennium. It was a nuclear bomb in the world of poetry, a weapon that could kill in seconds.
It was able to blast a person to a pulp.
However, Yun Zhonghe raised his chin and said slowly, "I am not going to be belittled by you so much that I would compose a poem just because you told me to. I have a poem that would be unparalleled for centuries to come in my head, but… I am not going to recite it. You felt that I was belittling poetry in the past, but I feel that you are belittling me."
Ning Qing said, "You not composing a poem will only prove that your so-called talent is fake. It proves that the poem, 'Mister Taia', that you recited just now was not composed by you, but was instead composed long ago by a talented man by Jing Zhongyue's side. Furthermore, the poem was custom-made for me. It proves that you are a true illiterate, a man pretending to have talent, a real beggar."
"I am fine with that," Yun Zhonghe said. "Lady Ning Qing, you can think whatever you want."
Ning Qing said, "Since you are not a literary genius, then you are worthless. It is not worth it for me to protect you. I do not have to care about whether you are dead or alive. At the very most, you can choose not to treat me. I am fine with that. It is just death."
"Actually, you are not going to change the report even if I prove that I am a Poetry Genius. Am I right?" Yun Zhonghe asked.
Ning Qing said, "Of course, I no longer have anything to my name. All I have is my reputation. I will never destroy it. I would rather die."
Yun Zhonghe said, "Actually, you do not care about who the person who provoked Ning Que to harm you is. That's because she only poisoned you and threatened your life, while you do not care much about your life. You do not care because the other party did not damage your reputation, am I right?"
"That's right," Ning Qing said.
Yun Zhonghe continued, saying, "What a joke. My enemy planned every move and committed all these acts and even got Ning Que to poison you, all because he wanted you to write something unfavorable toward the City of Torn Gust in the report so the Baronage Alliance would prosecute the Valley of Torn Gust. However, in actuality, he did not have to do anything. Your report was already going to destroy the City of Torn Gust."
Ning Qing said, "I do not wish to target anyone. My report has to be absolutely fair and align with the truth. My reputation cannot be defiled."
Yun Zhonghe said, "Lady Ning Qing, you would rather die than change your stance. I would not be able to get you to edit the report no matter what I do, am I right?"
"That's right," Ning Qing said. "When the time is up, I will submit this report and recommend that the Baronage Alliance severely prosecute the Valley of Torn Gust. As for who will be harmed and destroyed? I do not care!"
Yun Zhonghe said, "You said that you would reverse my fate. How are you going to reverse my fate if you do not edit this report?"
Ning Qing said, "I am willing to take you in if you are truly a talented individual. We are a group of clean, noble people."
Yun Zhonghe replied, "Which means to say, as long as I create an exceptional poem with the zither as the central theme, you are going to protect me and allow me to follow by your side?"
"That's right," Ning Qing confirmed.
Yun Zhonghe said, "I'm sorry, I don't need that. No way."
Ning Qing knitted her brows and asked, "Why?"
Yun Zhonghe said, "I… love Jing Zhongyue more."
Ning Qing asked again, "Why?"
Yun Zhonghe answered, "Because she's younger and more merciless. She frequently scolds me and abuses me. She beats me up without reason and often threatens to kill me."
Ning Qing froze in shock. She stared at Yun Zhonghe for a long time before she said, "Actually, things like ravaging and beating you… I can do that too."