During the Qin Dynasty, he brought chaos to the seven kingdoms.

Chapter 16 A chilling thought

"Empress Dowager, who is she? Why did you let them go!"

Cheng Jiao looked at Hou Sheng, who was in a somewhat disheveled state, and asked him while suppressing his anger.

The thought of how that lowly person treated him made him want to draw his sword and kill him!

Hou Sheng still felt that his throat was dry and sticky, which made him very uncomfortable.

When he heard Cheng Jiao's question, he was so angry he felt like he was going to vomit blood.

Are you referring to a person?

Your Qin state has shoved a bunch of Luo Wang people around me, and you're asking me why I let them go?

But he also knew that in Qin, Lü Buwei was in charge, and Cheng Jiao, this little fellow, had little influence and was not very useful.

If he really wanted to get rid of the assassins from Luo Wang around him, he would have to hope that the alliance of the various states would succeed, so that he could take the opportunity to bargain with Lü Buwei.

Upon realizing this, Hou Sheng's eyes instantly turned sinister.

Jingni, is that it? I'll have Lü Buwei send you over and play you to death, you slut!

"Empress!" Cheng Jiao, seeing that Hou Sheng remained silent, emphasized his words again, "Who is that woman?"

Hou Sheng looked at the crowd of nobles watching the spectacle upstairs and downstairs, and waved his hand irritably.

"Guards, escort the Qin envoy out of the country!"

How could he possibly reveal the truth in public? If even a whisper of it got out, wouldn't he lose face in all seven kingdoms?

Threatened by a female assassin from the Luo Wang organization...

If you're unlucky, you might even lose your phase!

Cheng Jiao clenched his fists and glared angrily at Hou Sheng.

But he couldn't possibly interfere or deliberately cause trouble.

He came to persuade the State of Qi not to join the alliance of states, and to claim credit for his efforts.

If they fail, not only will they have a hard time explaining to their grandmother, but Lü Buwei might also find an opportunity to seize power from the Han faction again.

"Walk!"

Cheng Jiao flicked his sleeves and left angrily.

This is not Qin after all, and even if it were Qin, he could not do as he pleased, lest Lü Buwei find an opportunity to bring him down.

……

That night, a gentle breeze blew and a full moon hung in the sky; it was already mid-July.

Inside the house, Cao Yuan was playing with Xiao Mengjiang.

Inside the courtyard, Li Wu, who had been running around all day, was reporting to Jing Ni.

"Cao Yuan, courtesy name Mengde, also known as Aman, was a locksmith."

"In April, Zihan from Xiaoshengxianzhuang encountered the injured Cao Yuan while on a spring outing outside Linzi City. Zihan then placed him with Meng Jiang in Mengjia Village to recuperate."

"In June, Cao Yuan and Meng Jiang came to Linzi City and opened a locksmith shop called Golden Key."

Jingni waited a while, and seeing that Li Wu still hadn't continued, she asked doubtfully, "That's all?"

A hint of embarrassment flashed across Li Wu's beautiful face. "Lady Jingni, that's all. That's all."

Jing Ni said somewhat discontentedly, "You only found this much in a whole day?"

She questioned Li Wu's professional competence.

Li Wu nodded, her tone grave. "I dispatched almost all the Luo Wang agents in the city to investigate, and this is all we found. There's not a trace of any information about Cao Yuan before this, as if it were deliberately erased."

She frequently handles intelligence and is well aware of what such a situation means; it's a chilling thought.

Given their all-encompassing intelligence network, it's unbelievable that they could only find out about Cao Yuan's situation over the past three months. They couldn't find a single piece of information about anything prior to that.

Could it be that Cao Yuan sprang from a stone or fell from the sky?

Jingni was taken aback upon hearing Li Wu's words.

Even as a combatant, she knew that the less intelligence there was, the bigger the problem would be.

"He has a courtesy name, Mengde, and a nickname, Aman..." Jingni pondered, "Could he be a descendant of one of the eight major Confucian lineages?"

Among the various schools of thought in the various states today, only the Confucian school is keen on using characters as initials, which is rare among the other schools.

Li Wu's alluring eyes lit up slightly. "Possibly! Who else but a Confucian disciple could impress Fu Nian, the most talented scholar in the Confucian school today, with their talent?"

Jingni shook her head, her beautiful eyes revealing wisdom and clarity.

"Confucianism has always been one of the schools of thought that Luo Wang (the organization) focuses on. If Cao Yuan is truly a disciple of Confucianism, given his talent that surpasses Fu Nian's, Luo Wang should have heard something about it, regardless of which lineage he belonged to..."

Although they did not understand how powerful Cao Yuan's essay "Human Nature is Good and Human Nature is Evil" was, they were clear about Fu Nian's position in Confucianism.

The fact that Cao Yuan could treat Fu Nian as an equal and with such respect clearly shows that he was very well-versed in Confucianism, perhaps even more so than a great Confucian scholar.

"That's true." Li Wu blinked her foxy eyes, her heart pounding like a cat's claws.

Who exactly is Cao Yuan? Which faction does he belong to?

She felt a strange sense of anticipation.

If Cao Yuan was a descendant of some extraordinary person, or a prince of some country...

Li Wu felt a surge of excitement, as if she could see a glimmer of hope for escaping the net and finding a way to survive.

However, among the seven kingdoms, such figures and such power are few and far between.

Li Wu became troubled again.

Once a spider is caught in a web, gaining a new life and freedom is as difficult as climbing to heaven!

"The surname Cao mostly originates from the royal family and wandering nobles after the fall of the State of Cao. Could he be a descendant of Cao Shuzhenduo? Or perhaps Cao Gui or Cao Mo?"

Jingni didn't notice the change in Li Wu's expression and continued her analysis.

For some reason, she really wanted to know what Cao Yuan's past was like.

Li Wu smiled wryly and said, "Lady Jingni, it seems pointless to say all this, doesn't it?"

A fallen family that has been in a country for hundreds of years is common in the Seven Kingdoms. If you randomly pick someone and go back three hundred years, they could be a descendant of royalty. Anyone who is even slightly poor would not have been able to have descendants to this day.

Jingni remained silent.

Don't say Cao Yuan isn't, even if Cao Yuan were, so what?

How many princes and nobles from the seven kingdoms have been killed by the Luo Wang (Net of Heaven)?

She even preferred that Cao Yuan was just a locksmith rather than someone with a distinguished background, so that even if he couldn't escape the shackles of the net, at least he wouldn't get involved in those darker matters.

Li Wu looked at Jing Ni strangely and found that Jing Ni seemed to be in a daze.

She vaguely sensed that something was off about Jingni, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

As a subordinate, she couldn't ask directly, lest she commit insubordination.

I had no choice but to keep this question to myself.

……

the next day.

Just as dawn was breaking, Cao Yuan, who was fast asleep, was woken up by Jing Ni pulling off his blanket.

Anyone who is having a beautiful dream—with Jingni on the left, Lingji on the right, Nongyu on top, Lianyi below, with two Simings in the middle, and Tian Mimi in the other hand—will become very irritable if they are suddenly woken up.

Cao Yuan was no exception.

He was very angry, and his anger was extraordinary; he needed to vent.

however.

When Cao Yuan opened his eyes, which were practically spitting fire, and saw Jing Ni's cold and pretty face, his "little bit" of morning grumpiness vanished instantly.

"Sister Jingni! Is there anything I can do for you?"