On the city gate tower, Prefect Xu wore a conflicted expression. For the first time, he felt how difficult it was to scheme against someone outside his jurisdiction, even with a thousand stratagems at his disposal.
Or perhaps this was no coincidence. Was the Imperial Grandson simply too difficult to deal with? Had he guessed something?
These thoughts made Prefect Xu increasingly uneasy. He turned to Pei Dengke and asked, "Senior sir, what should we do now? Should we still proceed according to plan?"
They had prepared every aspect of their scheme against the Imperial Grandson, yet who could have imagined that he would suddenly leave? His departure did not make further plotting impossible, but it introduced many more uncertainties.
How could anything Xu Shangyi had thought of have escaped Pei Dengke?
He was pondering whether the Imperial Grandson had noticed something. Hearing Xu Shangyi's question, he said slowly, "Doesn't this suit our purposes perfectly?"
What? Xu Shangyi did not quite follow.
Pei Dengke gave a cold laugh. "Think about it. Our aim is not to arrest the Imperial Grandson and punish him. Only His Majesty can do that."
"Our aim is merely to let everyone under heaven know that the Imperial Grandson is obstinate and self-willed when investigating cases, fierce on the outside but weak within, and brutal by nature-that he has provoked mutiny among the troops and militia and is unfit to rule."
"If the Imperial Grandson does nothing, we can only force accusations onto him, which is a considerable stretch. Now that he has made a move, and to investigate a case at that, isn't this just right?"
"Not only must we continue, we must press the plan forward."
At this point, Pei Dengke could not help sighing again, and a trace of anxiety showed on his