Even His Highness Knows

To see through his intentions and respond within such a short span of time, Luo Zhao's quick thinking had improved somewhat.

But that was where it ended.

Gu Chengyin never fought a battle he hadn't prepared for. The strategy of deflecting blame elsewhere had already been mapped out in his mind, with several possible directions rehearsed, before the words even left his mouth.

If Luo Zhao was willing, there was a way to play it.

If Luo Zhao was unwilling, there was a way to play it.

If Luo Zhao was vague and equivocal, there was a way to play it.

Any of those was easier to handle than a powder keg.

What was a powder keg?

It was a clash of blades, where emotion overwhelmed reason, a chaotic mess where no logic or scheme could gain any foothold.

In a powder keg, anything you said was wrong, anything you did was wrong, even silence was wrong.

But as long as you escaped that powder keg, as long as you pulled the situation back into a realm where reason could be spoken, where pros and cons could be weighed.

Then it became Gu Chengyin's home turf.

So whether Luo Zhao was willing or not made little difference to him.

What mattered was that she had responded.

As long as she responded, Lin Qingyan's and Gu Xiaoli's attention would shift away from each other.

The taut string would loosen, and the powder keg would be temporarily defused.

As for what came next, he had his own ways of handling it.

So Gu Chengyin withdrew his gaze from Luo Zhao.

He did it slowly, so slowly it felt like he was performing some ritual.

First, his eyelids lowered slightly, as if pondering some profound question.

Then they slowly rose again, shifting toward the other side.

There stood Lin Qingyan and Gu Xiaoli.

Gu Chengyin's gaze lingered on Lin Qingyan's face for a breath, then on Gu Xiaoli's face for another breath, and finally he gave a slight shake of his head.

That shake carried a trace of regret, a hint of helplessness, a flavor of disappointment at one's own charges not living up to expectations.

Just like an elder looking at his own children who haven't made anything of themselves.

Then Gu Chengyin spoke.

His voice carried a deliberate, almost overflowing sense of disappointment.

"Look at you two. Even Her Highness knows how to choose when it comes to matters of great principle."

"And yet the two of you, like little children, are squabbling back and forth right here. Is that proper?"

Gu Chengyin's tone rose and fell with perfect control.

The first half — "even Her Highness knows" — he deliberately emphasized, as if highlighting something that shouldn't need to be said at all.

If Luo Zhao understood such a truth, why couldn't the two of you?

The second half — "is that proper" — carried a note of heartfelt anguish.

Like a dedicated schoolteacher facing two disobedient students, angry yet unable to truly scold them.

This sudden twist caught Luo Zhao completely off guard.

The affectionate smile she had plastered on her face was still frozen at the corners of her lips, not yet retracted.

But her entire body seemed struck by a thunderbolt from heaven, frozen in place.

Her lips were slightly parted, her eyes filled with bewilderment, and only one thought kept spinning through her mind.

Wait... that wasn't how the script was supposed to go.

What had Luo Zhao's imagined script looked like?

She had pictured herself saying, with deep affection, that she was willing to be Gu Chengyin's concubine, leaving him caught between a rock and a hard place.

Either he'd be forced to pick up the thread awkwardly, or he'd have to retract his question publicly.

Either way, he would have been plunged into even greater embarrassment.

And the powder keg between Lin Qingyan and Gu Xiaoli would only grow more chaotic and tangled with her new variable thrown in.

At that point, Luo Zhao could step aside and watch the show at her leisure.

But Gu Chengyin didn't follow her script.

Far from being trapped, he seized the momentum and turned her into a lesson for Lin Qingyan and Gu Xiaoli.

What did he mean by "even Her Highness knows"?

What did he mean by "how to choose when it comes to matters of great principle"?

Since when did she know how to choose?

She was clearly digging a trap for Gu Chengyin!

And yet, coming out of his mouth, she had been transformed into some noble, principled, big-picture positive example?

Luo Zhao opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found her throat stuffed full of cotton — not a single word could escape.

Because she suddenly realized something.

Although Gu Chengyin had twisted her original meaning, his words sounded perfectly reasonable to Lin Qingyan and Gu Xiaoli.

Because she had indeed said it. However one interpreted it, it could be read as her being willing.

And Lin Qingyan and Gu Xiaoli had clearly already grasped this.

Lin Qingyan's expression changed.

Moments ago, when she had looked at Luo Zhao, her eyes were filled with suspicion and disbelief, as if staring at a person who had suddenly gone mad.

But now, that suspicion gradually faded, replaced by something hard to put into words.

She thought of how Luo Zhao had always treated Gu Chengyin. She thought of that strange glint in Luo Zhao's eyes whenever she mentioned Gu Chengyin in front of her, more than once. She thought of all the efforts Luo Zhao had made to get close to Gu Chengyin.

So Luo Zhao was willing to stoop to being a concubine, just to have Gu Chengyin?

Lin Qingyan didn't finish that thought before pressing it down.

Her lips tightened, and her gaze drifted from Luo Zhao to the ground.

There was no anger on her face, no hostility — only a faint, indefinable wistfulness.

Gu Xiaoli's reaction was more direct.

A flash of realization flickered through her big eyes, followed by a spark of understanding.

If even Luo Zhao was willing to set aside the dignity of a crown prince and willingly become her brother's concubine, then what more was there for her to say?

Gu Xiaoli might be a catgirl, but she wasn't stupid.

She knew that when she had jumped in front of them moments ago, though it had felt satisfying and cathartic, she was actually causing trouble for her brother.

Lin Qingyan had come bearing an imperial decree. That was the emperor's command — it couldn't be defied.

No matter how much she fought, she couldn't change the fact that the imperial decree had arranged the marriage.

Her fighting would only put her brother in an even harder spot and make the situation more unmanageable.

If even Luo Zhao could humble herself for her brother's sake, why couldn't Gu Xiaoli?

Lin Qingyan had clearly come to the same realization.

She had always believed she was the one in the right.

An imperial decree of marriage — legitimate and proper. She was Emperor Luo's personally chosen legal wife for Gu Chengyin.

So when Gu Xiaoli had jumped out, she had genuinely been angry.

Angry at Gu Xiaoli's immaturity, angry at Gu Xiaoli's utter lack of tact, and even angrier that Gu Chengyin hadn't immediately sided with her.

But now, Gu Chengyin's words made Lin Qingyan suddenly realize something.

Her fighting here, her causing a scene, her staring down Gu Xiaoli in a standoff — who benefited from that?

Was it her?

No.

Was it Gu Xiaoli?

No.

The only ones who benefited were outsiders, the ones standing on the sidelines enjoying the spectacle.

The ones who wished nothing but misfortune upon Gu Chengyin.

And who suffered?

Gu Chengyin.

Her man.

And the mastermind behind all of this: Emperor Luo.

He had simply issued one decree, and successfully thrown Gu Chengyin's world into chaos.