"I am indeed a corrupt official," Fang Zhiyi nodded.
"Hah, and a capitulationist too."
Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "But I am not a capitulationist."
"Oh? Wasn’t it you who ceded territory and paid reparations every time we negotiated with the Hu people? Fang Zhiyi, have you had too much to drink?" someone mocked.
Fang Zhiyi smiled faintly. "Young General Wei drove the Hu people back beyond the old capital. Today, the Hu envoys came, and I was not in court. So, gentlemen, what do you think the outcome will be?"
The crowd fell silent.
"You overestimate me too much. These secret guards watch me day and night—do you think the Emperor doesn’t know about my corruption? When I eliminate dissenters, do you think I don’t need the Emperor’s approval? When I cede land and pay reparations, do I, Fang Zhiyi, even have the authority to slam the table?"
Someone immediately stood up and pointed accusingly. "Fang Zhiyi! Stop spreading your poisonous lies here! How dare you shift the blame onto His Majesty! I—I’ll cut you down!"
He looked around for his sword but forgot he was now just an old farmer.
"You’re not fools. You just refuse to believe that your Emperor is the root of all this," Fang Zhiyi sighed.
The crowd erupted in anger.
Duke Wei suddenly coughed. "Everyone, sit down."
They all gave the old duke some face. Once the room quieted, Duke Wei spoke. "My son has been fighting the Hu people all this time, and it was Fang Zhiyi who supplied him with provisions and arms. Knowing he had no one else to rely on, my son privately asked me to disguise men as merchants to deliver the supplies."
He gave Fang Zhiyi a deep look. "But I must ask the Chancellor to choose his words carefully. My Wei family has always been loyal. We do not wish to hear anything against His Majesty."
Fang Zhiyi smiled and nodded. "I invited you all here today to ask for one thing."
He stood. "On the lands occupied by the Hu people, our citizens suffer worse than death—slaughtered at best, eaten at worst. Surely you’ve heard."
A heavy silence fell over the room.
"Do you not feel ashamed, leaving the restoration of Great Yan to a single young man from the Wei family?"
"If you hadn’t interfered back then, why would we have retired to farm?" someone snapped.
Fang Zhiyi looked at him. "And if I hadn’t, what difference would it have made?"
"I know you all despise me. Even now. But things are different today. I have money now, and money means war. You are all free men. The question is—can you old generals still wield your blades?"
His tone was laced with mockery. "Or are you all inferior to a young Wei?"
"What did you say?!"
"Fang Zhiyi, though we’ve retired, we remain subjects of Great Yan. The Hu have retreated. Raising a private army now would be no different from rebellion!"
Fang Zhiyi sat back down. "The Hu have retreated? Are you all living in a dream?"
Just then, Fang Zhiyi’s trusted aide, Abao, hurried in. Glancing at the gathered men, his heart pounded.
"Sir! The Emperor has agreed! He’s ceded the entire north to the Hu, plus three million taels in reparations. He’s ordered the Wei army punished, and—and..."
Every eye in the room widened.
"And what else?"
"He’s handing Wei Kaiyuan over to the Hu for execution!"
The hall fell deathly silent.
"How… How could the Emperor be so blind?"
"We won! Why would he do this?"
"Old Wei? Old Wei?"
Duke Wei snapped out of his daze and turned to Fang Zhiyi. "Since you foresaw this day, Chancellor, what do you propose?"
"March into Hu territory and wipe them out—every last one."
A collective gasp filled the room.
"As for the Emperor, I’ll keep him placated. You needn’t worry."
Silence again. On one side, their loyalty to the throne. On the other, Yan’s land and its suffering people.
"At the very least, I know Wei Kaiyuan does not deserve to die."
Duke Wei slammed the table. "Chancellor Fang, you said you’d provide funds and arms. Do you stand by that?"
Fang Zhiyi pointed to his head. "On my life."
"Good! It’s been too long since I last took the field. Let’s see if my blade still cuts."
One by one, they stood. Fang Zhiyi raised a cup of tea in salute. As they drank, unseen hands slit the throats of several hidden guards.
"Chancellor Fang, we’ll settle our grievances later. But this time—don’t stab us in the back!"
Someone threw down the threat before leaving.
Duke Wei stared at the dead guards, wanting to speak, but in the end, only sighed.
"Chancellor, you may have gone too far," Shen Xun said hesitantly. He was beginning to find Fang Zhiyi harder to read.
"Too far? There’s further yet to go. Abao."
Abao scurried over. Fang Zhiyi studied him—a man neither good nor bad, but fiercely loyal. In the original tale, he went unmentioned, yet he followed Fang Zhiyi into exile and died beside him on the road.
"Here’s the key to my vault. From now on, you’ll liaise with these generals. Give them whatever they ask for. If it’s not enough, I’ll find a way."
"Y-yes, sir." Abao trembled as he took the key, sensing the weight of history in his hands.
Li Li emerged slowly from behind a screen.
Looking at the two young men, Fang Zhiyi smiled. "It seems I’ll be dragging you both down with me."
Li Li clasped his hands. "At your service, Chancellor!" Like Shen Xun, he was straightforward, but these days had shown him that Fang Zhiyi wasn’t the man everyone thought.
After all, what kind of villain sends his only son to the front lines?
Of course, he didn’t know Fang Zhiyi had always taken a hands-off approach with his "cheap son."
"Rest assured, I’ll secure you both a bright future."
In the palace, the Emperor paced anxiously.
Had he conceded too much? The thought of parting with three million taels made his heart ache. If only Fang Zhiyi were here! Really, it was just a son’s death—was it such a big deal?
After much deliberation, he decided to summon Fang Zhiyi.
After all, the handover of reparations would require Fang Zhiyi’s touch. He needed to set him straight.
Perhaps due to the Hu envoys, the palace guards were more vigilant than usual. Fang Zhiyi entered calmly, surprising the Emperor. Had he come around so quickly?
No matter.
The Emperor rattled off a long list of demands, and Fang Zhiyi nodded at each. Relieved, the Emperor dismissed him with a wave.
At a corner, Fang Zhiyi spotted Li Li leading a patrol. Their eyes met, and Li Li gave a slight nod.
Fang Zhiyi smiled.
In a dungeon, several blindfolded eunuchs were dragged in.
When the cloths were torn away, they saw Fang Zhiyi before them.
"Chancellor Fang, what is the meaning of this?"
"Sir, this is no time for jokes. We must return for roll call!"
Fang Zhiyi pulled up a stool. "Do you want to die?"
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
