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Fang Thirteen exposed a puzzled look, but very quickly calmed down her frame of mind. At least, it was much faster than I had anticipated.

She isn’t Fang Lita, after all, so it’s impossible to deceive her so simply. But still, the role of those words of mine was just to fan the flames. Before a pivotal “opportunity” arises, it wouldn’t matter what sort of effect these words bring out. I know that Fang Thirteen won’t be able to immediately think it through, so I didn’t continue speaking on this topic. If I did continue asking, then it would instead make me appear excessively eager and raise the probability of being exposed.

Furthermore, the following words shouldn’t be directly spoken from my mouth to her ears.

After I hypocritically comforted Fang Thirteen with several words, I turned to return to my own room. The cosmetics were all on my person, so they weren’t discovered by Fang Lita. But when I returned to my room, I was met with a hideous mess of a room with even my quilt and mattress cut open. Lumps of cotton were scattered all around the room, making my room an unpresentable pigpen.

Tila was standing at the doorway and after seeing me, she helplessly smiled and said:

“My room has also changed into this appearance. When we return, let’s go together to a shop and buy some things, sister Thirteen said she’ll pay for it all.”

I wordlessly and silently threw the scissor-cut, tattered, messy bed sheet into the rubbish bin, then chuckled mirthlessly:

“Would this happen to normal people? I’m sure that not even they would be ransacked so cleanly.”

Tila frowned and whispered:

“Exactly and I was even asked over and over about some letter and being told not to pretend, accusing me of being the one to read some letter for sister Thirteen to hear. How would I know about some letter, I think he’s just trying to find some reason to bully us.”

I feigned ignorance and asked:

“I feel that it’s unlikely he’d go so far, right? Fang Thirteen has already handed over the greater part of the authority to him, so what would be the point of finding trouble with us when he’s already full?”

Tila looked left and right a couple times and made sure nobody was nearby before coming closer to me and whispering:

“Many people are saying that sir City Lord plans on taking back sister Thirteen’s military power. Hasn’t he wanted to take the initiative to attack recently? Sister Thirteen hasn’t done things according to his words, so sir City Lord has been quite dissatisfied.”

I went silent for a moment, then drew Tila to sit on the bed and whispered back:

“Where does this information come from?”

Tila disclosed with a low voice:

“There are many people outside saying this, don’t you know?”

I shook my head and said with a nervous expression:

“But, your words actually reminded me. Do you know what happened this time?”

Tila replied:

“I only know about some letter……but as for the concrete details, sir City Lord didn’t say anything and sister Thirteen also didn’t tell me.”

Once I told her the brief overview of the situation, Tila jumped up and indignantly snapped:

“Who? Who set us up? I say, no wonder they were talking about some letter the entire time, who the heck would be so bad! It’s not like we dug up his ancestor’s tomb, how could such a wicked thing happen!”

I shrunk back my neck and hesitated for a moment before remarking:

“Actually, that’s what I was thinking just a moment ago. But now I suspect……forget it, I shouldn’t say it.”

Tila’s curiosity had just piqued by my words, so she hurriedly asked:

“Who do you suspect? It’s isn’t me right, it really isn’t.”

I looked into her eyes and spoke with a complicated look in my eyes:

“You have to guarantee that you won’t tell Fang Thirteen.”

Tila questioned:

“Why?”

“Just promise me.”

Tila helplessly lifted up three fingers and made a solemn vow that she would guarantee it. Only then did I slowly explain:

“When I was chatting with Fang Thirteen a while ago, I was actually feeling a little confused. But when you spoke about that military power issue just a moment ago, it made me think of an additional possibility……it’s impossible for this letter to be young lady Thirteen’s and after eliminating you and me as suspects, the only one left capable of approaching Fang Thirteen’s bedroom is the only one remaining, sir City Lord. If this is his scheme on young lady Thirteen, to deliberately forge this letter then seize the opportunity to take back military power……I mean, after all, think about it, so long as this matter comes to light, there won’t be any way for Fang Thirteen to rid herself of the suspicion, thus leading to a drop of prestige in the hearts of the populace. Afterwards, Fang Lita could use this as a pretext to take back control of the military and it would be a reasonable affair.”

Tila trembled from head to toe and asked with incredulity:

“Im-impossible, right? I feel that even if sir City Lord wants to take back military power, h-he wouldn’t use such a method……he’ll use this opportunity to take back military power? Don’t tell me, those rumors circulating outside are true, he really intends to make moves on sister Thirteen? Not good, I need to tell sister Thirteen!”

As she spoke, Tila tried to run out, but I pulled on her hand and pulled her back, saying:

“Didn’t you just swear that you wouldn’t say it?”

Tila anxiously cried and tried to throw off my hand several times in failure, then stamped her feet and refuted:

“How can I care about that at this moment! Sister Thirteen might be in danger!”

I retorted:

“But it’s also likely that she isn’t, correct? This is merely our guess, we don’t have any actual proof. The reason why I made you guarantee is because I’m afraid you’ll go find Fang Thirteen straightaway. They’re siblings no matter what, so it isn’t our place to say these words, otherwise we might drive a wedge between them. At the present stage, we just have to try and clear the suspicion off of our heads.”

Tila gave my words some careful consideration before dolefully imploring:

“Is there really no other way?”

I squeezed both hands together and slowly reiterated:

“Endure it, we must endure it. Just watch on, if sir City Lord really wants to take away young lady Thirteen’s authority, then it explains that our conjecture is most likely correct. When the situation turns chaotic and complicated, we can only watch on and see who will be the final winner.”

Tila sighed and commented with immeasurable melancholy:

“We have no other choice but to do so……”

The two of us acted as if we were the only two left in the world as we sat and felt emotions running through us for a long while.

So would Fang Lita reclaim military authority from Fang Thirteen?

I had confidence in him to do so. His obstinate nature, baseless belief in himself for being infallible, and tendency to place petty bootlickers near himself while pushing virtuous servants away has placed a deep impression on me. But what I believe even more is that nobody is willing to place their own life in the hands of another and that nobody is willing to live a life under the shadow of another.

Therefore, on the evening of the same day, I sent a carrier pigeon over to Fang Yuan’s place.

My demand was quite simple. When Fang Lita sends over his troops to attack, ruthlessly teach him a lesson. But let him return and don’t immediately go the full mile, just conquer the 5 cities to the north and that will be enough. Then stop his hand and wait for my next instructions. In order to prevent Fang Yuan, this fatty, to turn traitor, I wrote a special line for him at the end that I would be keeping watch on him with Fang Thirteen. If he became greedy and went to reach for more, I would assist Sky Star City’s army in kicking his ***.

I don’t know whether it’s because my luck was looking up or Fang Lita’s luck dropping down or maybe it was the effect of both of our lucks working together, but it wasn’t even 2 days before Fang Lita wrested back military authority from Fang Thirteen and went to the front lines.

The situation that Fang Thirteen had strenuously strived to guard for a month took less than a week to break.

It’s hard for me to imagine how Fang Thirteen was able to drag her handicapped body around and depend on the not-so-prosperous Sky Star City to nibble away at the surrounding cities, thus lying down the foundation for these 10 cities. The amount of hardship that she suffered is something that I, someone who goes with the flow, will never understand.

But there’s a point that I am very clear about; making money is like trying to dig up gold with a needle while spending money is like throwing water on sand. The landscape that Fang Thirteen took a long time to establish, Fang Lita squandered half of it in less than a week.

Not even the most capable worker is able to save a hopeless case, this is reality.