"She backed down far too cleanly." Elena tucked both legs onto the chair. "The moment the marriage alliance was rejected, she immediately switched plans. That means she never expected the alliance to succeed in the first place. That parchment scroll was only a probe. This ledger is the real card she intended to play."
Su Li flipped to the seventeenth page, his finger pausing over a line of numbers.
"Look at this."
Elena leaned closer.
That entry recorded the military pay the royal family had allocated to three northern garrison towns. The figure was outrageously high, yet beside it was marked: "Actual disbursement rate: thirty percent."
"Seventy percent of the military pay was siphoned off." Elena sucked in a sharp breath.
"If this gets out, those military nobles will be strung from the city gates and dried in the sun." Su Li closed the ledger. "The fact that she gave this to me means she no longer intends to cover for the royal family."
"Or rather, she's leaving herself a way out." Elena dragged over a chair and sat beside Su Li, lowering her voice. "That woman's thoughts run far deeper than those of her uncles. You need to watch out for her."
Su Li stuffed the ledger into his Space Ring.
"Keep it for now. Accounts are dead. People are alive."
Saina's booming voice came from the kitchen.
"Su Li! The ribs are thawed! Come help me peel the garlic!"
Su Li rose from his chair and stretched lazily.
Far beyond the courtyard, Livia sat inside her carriage and lowered the curtain.
There were no maids in the carriage. She was alone.
She took a sheet of paper folded into thirds from her bosom, its surface densely covered in writing.
It contained every contingency plan she had organized before