When she looked at County Lieutenant Tang again, Liu Shuyue noticed a trace of unease on his polished, affable face. His fingers kept rubbing together restlessly, as though he were waiting for her to continue.
She suddenly understood.
So that was it—
Shen Fang did not want to carry out this decree. Unless they truly had no way to survive, what family would willingly send their children to a court thousands of miles away? No one was foolish. The court army's defeat in Yun Prefecture was already common knowledge. If so many soldiers could not even take down the Liu family, it could only mean that the King of Qi was incompetent and royal power was waning. Then, out of nowhere, some unorthodox Immortal Master appeared and called upon every region to offer up young boys and girls. No matter how one looked at it, it carried the air of a collapsing empire with demons running rampant.
As the local official of Zhangwei City, if he blindly served a foolish king and acted as the tiger's accomplice by tearing families apart, would not the good reputation he had worked so hard to build be ruined?
Yet he did not dare openly oppose the King of Qi.
If the King of Qi held him accountable, what could a mere Prefect like him use to withstand a king's wrath?
So Shen Fang had thought of Liu Shuyue.
If the former Immortal Master stepped forward to refute this talk of ascension, then his memorial questioning the decree would have public support. Or, going a step further, he could claim that Liu Shuyue had taken control of Qingzhou and refused to let any children be sent to the Royal City. Naturally, he could then shift all responsibility away from himself.
Even the Royal City's