AUBTN -Chapter 364 Then Turn the Tables

“He’s guarding against us even more tightly than he guards against those assassins lurking in the shadows.” Shen Jue concluded with a cold sneer.

Lu Yan remained silent for a long time.

After a while, he closed his eyes and let out a heavily restrained sigh. “Power… in the end, it really does corrupt the mind.”

“He’s just afraid. And once a person is afraid, they’ll gamble everything!” Shen Jue tilted his head back and drained the wine in his cup.

Lu Yan looked at him and spoke in a low, distant voice. “What? Feeling cold feet? Thinking again that once all this chaos is over, you’ll take Su Hewan and vanish into the mountains, never again concerning yourself with the affairs of court?”

“At this point… don’t you want that too?” Shen Jue suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze burning as he shot back.

Lu Yan’s hand holding the wine cup paused slightly.

He said nothing.

Did he want it? Of course he did.

But the responsibilities they carried—how could they simply be set down?

“If I tell you something else, what then?” Shen Jue said.

“What?” Lu Yan had a bad feeling.

Shen Jue lifted his cup again. “Your father came to see me. To protect you, he offered to resign from office and retire from court. And if His Majesty still refuses to let you go, he is willing to use his own life in exchange for you walking out of this imperial prison alive!”

CRACK!

The fine white porcelain cup in Lu Yan’s hand was crushed into pieces.

“What did you say?” Lu Yan shot to his feet.

“I need to see my father! Arrange it immediately! When did I ever need him to sacrifice his career just to pave my way out?”

“Why are you so agitated? Calm down!” Shen Jue pressed down hard on Lu Yan’s shoulder, his strength startling, and lowered his voice in a sharp warning.

“Do you think this is about whether your father is willing or not? It’s because the young emperor is wary of the Lu family! A family with two extraordinary talents—power that threatens the throne. That’s the real issue!”

“Wary of the throne?” Lu Yan laughed in fury, his voice carrying a bleak, violent edge.

“If he’s so wary, then why did he make me an ennobled foreign prince in the first place? Does he think I care about that ridiculous title?!”

“Watch your words!” Shen Jue frowned and cut him off sternly.

“Watch my words?” Lu Yan sneered repeatedly, shaking off Shen Jue’s hand, his eyes full of mocking rage.

“What, your imperial prison isn’t secure enough? Afraid someone’s listening through the walls?”

“Who are you venting your anger at?” Shen Jue also flared up, anger surfacing on his normally cold, beautiful face as he lowered his voice and snapped, “Right now, the most important thing is figuring out how to get you out of here!”

The two of them stood facing each other inside the cell.

After a moment, Lu Yan took a deep breath, and his ragged breathing gradually steadied. He lowered his eyes.

“Whatever the case, I want to see my father.”

“Alright. I’ll arrange it.” Shen Jue nodded slightly.

He looked at Lu Yan’s weary yet still rigid expression, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something.

This time, it wasn’t just the emperor’s suspicion of the Lu family—he might even replace the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

But in the end, Shen Jue swallowed the words back down.

Forget it. The situation was already chaotic enough. No need to add more burden.

“Back to the main point,” Shen Jue said, his tone shifting as his expression returned to the cold, calculating composure of a strategist.

“The true mastermind behind the envoys’ side is targeting His Majesty’s assassination. And the upcoming prayer ceremony—where all officials will accompany the emperor—will have the weakest security coverage. That will be their best opportunity. So… we need to stage a play.”

Lu Yan immediately understood.

“Turn the tables on them,” Lu Yan replied coldly.

That night, a piece of confidential news seemed to sprout wings and quickly spread through every street, alley, and noble residence in the capital:

The Regent Prince Shen Jue had grown extremely dissatisfied with Prince of Jing Lu Yan over the assassination case involving the Eastern Isles envoy. Using the advantage of the Imperial Prison as his own domain, he had actually subjected Lu Yan to inhumane torture.

It was said that in the Imperial Prison, all kinds of brutal punishments—skinning, bone-scraping, and more—were used in rotation.

The usually imposing Prince of Jing was beaten until his skin split and his body was covered in wounds, yet he still gritted his teeth and did not make a single sound.

The East Depot and the Jinyiwei had completely broken ties.

In the Wutong Courtyard of the Imperial Residence, Yu Qing slowly woke up amid the scent of medicine. What met her eyes were layers upon layers of gauzy bed curtains, and Su Hewan sitting by the bedside, her eyes bloodshot.

“Wanwan…” Yu Qing’s throat hurt as if it were burning dry.

She didn’t care that her entire body was weak and limp.

She grabbed Su Hewan’s hand and blurted out, “Where’s Lu Yan? How is he?”

Su Hewan looked at her friend, her movements extremely gentle. She patted Yu Qing’s hand in return.

“Don’t worry. Lu Yan is perfectly fine. He’s probably still in the Imperial Prison right now, drinking fine daughter’s red wine and reading military manuals.”

“What?” Yu Qing froze.

Su Hewan sighed and explained everything—the plan between Shen Jue and Lu Yan, and how they had staged a bitter-ploy scheme together.

After hearing it all, Yu Qing first let out a long sigh of relief and collapsed back onto the pillow.

But before Su Hewan could even pour her a glass of water, Yu Qing’s expression suddenly changed. Her originally pale face flushed bright red in an instant—whether from anger or fever, it was hard to tell.

“Fine… just fine!”

Yu Qing snapped like an enraged cat. “Is Shen Jue sick in the head? Using such an extreme method to scare people—does he think it’s funny?! And Lu Yan too—he actually went along with him! Why didn’t anyone tell me about something this big?!”

What she was angry about wasn’t that Lu Yan was fine—it was that she had cried so many tears and worried for nothing!

Su Hewan couldn’t help laughing as she held her down. “We wanted to tell you too, but who knew you’d suddenly fall ill and pass out!”

“I was scared to death!”

But Yu Qing couldn’t care less.

“No! I can’t swallow this!” she shouted, struggling to sit up. “I’m going to settle accounts with Shen Jue!”

As she spoke, she looked like she was about to storm out and tear down the East Depot chief on the spot.

Su Hewan quickly pressed her back down. Yu Qing, still weak, was forced to remain on the bed.

“Let go of me, Wanwan!”

“Ancestor, calm down! In your current state, are you going to go perform a live collapse in front of him?”

“What, you’re already protecting your husband now? I’m going to scratch his smug face off today!”

Just as the two were tugging at each other by the bedside, the door suddenly pushed open from outside.

A cold night wind followed as Shen Jue stepped inside, wearing a dark robe and cloak, as if he had just walked in from the night itself.

In his hands was a tray, and on it sat a white porcelain medicine bowl.

Inside was a dark brown, steaming concoction.

The moment Yu Qing saw him, her struggling stopped. She shot him a fierce glare.

Facing her murderous gaze, as if she wanted to swallow him whole, Shen Jue rarely looked unsettled.

For the first time in his life, he felt truly at a loss.

Taking a deep breath, he placed the medicine bowl heavily on the small table by the bed.

In a tone as cold and rigid as a death sentence, he said, “Drink it. This was my miscalculation—I didn’t inform you in advance. This medicine, infused with thousand-year ginseng and snow lotus, is my apology.”

The moment those words fell, the air froze once again.