Backlash Struck at Once

Jian Qu took it and looked it over, discovering several dates, locations, and names, followed by line after line of tiny notes.

Su Ziji explained, "Memorize everything on it, then burn it. Once you return to the Capital City, find someone to spread it in secret. Make sure everyone hears it—not a single item can be omitted."

"But, my lord, this... this also includes rumors about your romantic affairs..." Jian Qu looked carefully, and his hands began to tremble.

He had already understood. This was material for fabricating rumors.

It contained all manner of rumors, most concerning not politics but private virtue. More than ten people were involved, including Prince Qi, Princess Xinping, and Su Ziji.

There was very little concerning Princess Xinping, only adding a touch of scandalous color to some of Su Ziji's rumors.

Throwing away a thousand gold for a courtesan at a pleasure house, meeting an unknown farmer's daughter by chance and exchanging love letters, being invited by Princess Xinping several times to compose poetry—the protagonist, and thus the focus of these tales, was Su Ziji.

Prince Qi's stories were even more bizarre. In his youth, he had supposedly had an affair with a woman invented out of thin air in the palace. After this woman's beauty faded and her jade perished, the secondary consorts and concubines Prince Qi later took all bore traces of her—if not eyes like hers, then lips like hers—as though piecing together a puzzle. A romantic saint indeed.

There were also some rumors that looked true but were actually false. Jian Qu had occasionally heard Marshal Qian mention tales of noblemen's amorous escapades, gossip that had once swept through the streets. They had unexpectedly been included here to be spread alongside the rest, and those stories had even acquired continuations.

Seeing