Wang Yang had come to see the Prince of Badong for two reasons: first, to counter Liu Yin's threat; second, to defuse a hidden mine.
He would set the second point aside for now and start with the first.
Since the Prince of Badong was still relying on him to handle the silk and satin, surely it was not too much to ask for help dealing with Liu Yin on that account?
But there was an art to asking the Prince of Badong for this favor.
If he played it up, he could say that Liu Yin was making an issue of the matter: ostensibly, he had sent that protector-general to ask about Liu Cheng, but his questions kept straying, ever so casually, toward Wang Yang's silk and satin business. He would make the Prince of Badong feel that Liu Yin seemed to have discovered something-that questioning Wang Yang was like Xiang Zhuang performing a sword dance with his true aim fixed on the Duke of Pei!
This approach looked like a way to kill with a borrowed blade, but it carried enormous hidden risks.
The Prince of Badong might already be considering silencing him permanently; he was merely continuing to use Wang Yang because the silk and satin business was not finished. If Wang Yang stirred the grass and startled the snake like this, the prince might panic, abandon the whole plan, and silence him ahead of time to cut off future trouble. Then Wang Yang would have thoroughly botched things.
Trying his hardest to avoid that outcome could easily lead him to the opposite extreme.
Playing it up meant linking Liu Yin to the silk and satin business.
Playing it down meant never mentioning the silk and satin at all.
The latter seemed sound, but in fact had