Chapter 2148: Plot Against Plot
Zu An coughed awkwardly, then refocused his attention. After the maids helped them wash up, he chased away everyone else and only left the ‘maid’ Shang Liuyu behind to serve the two of them alone.
If this were a normal situation, such a move would be extremely risky and would draw the suspicion of the imposters. But it was actually the imposters’ plan, so there wasn’t any need to worry about such things. This was the first time Zu An had felt a joy similar to ‘playing around with women on imperial orders’.
When he saw Shang Liuyu continue to stand off to the side in a cautious and conscientious manner, Zu An couldn"t help but find it a bit laughable. He said, “Just sit down and eat with us.”
Shang Liuyu gave the food on the table a look. She couldn"t help but swallow as well. After tossing and turning all night, she had actually been really hungry for a while.
“But...” She still had many misgivings. If others saw her eat with the Dragon King and Mermaid Queen, her ident.i.ty would definitely be exposed.
Zu An guessed why she was hesitant and said in consolation, “Don’t worry, with me here, I’ll know if anyone approaches us.”
Shang Liuyu finally calmed down and sat down. She couldn"t help but harrumph and ask, “If you really are that great, then why were you replaced by those imposters in the first place, making big sister suffer so much? We’re now left in an extremely pa.s.sive situation.”
When she heard that, Shang Hongyu felt a bit sad. The real Dragon King was probably already dead. Even though the two didn’t share very strong feelings, they had still remained married for so many years.
“In the past, those guys were deliberately acting as if nothing was wrong, so I was caught off guard and fell for their tricks,” Zu An said. He could sense that Shang Hongyu was getting emotional, so he gently held her hand under the table and secretly said, “Don’t worry, I"ll help you get revenge.”
When she sensed the warmth from his hand, Shang Hongyu’s mood finally improved a bit.
Even though Shang Liuyu was really hungry, she still ate in an extremely graceful manner. After she finished a pastry, she wiped the corners of her mouth and asked, “What do we do from now on?”
Shang Hongyu replied, “After our observations as of late, we"ve determined that with Ka Qier as the leader, most of the attendants and maids in the palace have been replaced. That’s why we have to be careful.”
“Just where did he come from? Just how was he able to do all of this, swapping out so many people without being exposed in the slightest?” That was Shang Liuyu’s biggest source of confusion as of late.
“The ordinary servants and maids might have been controlled by Heart-Devouring Demon Spiders. As for the higher-level ones like Ka Qier, we don’t know how he managed to achieve that either,” Shang Hongyu said with a frown.
“Heart-Devouring Demon Spiders?” Shang Liuyu exclaimed, and her expression changed.
Shang Hongyu secretly gave Zu An a look and said with a smile, “It was information from that regent friend of yours. Previously, your brother-in-law didn’t treat it as a big deal. It was you who continued to advise the Ocean races to prepare some preventive measures.”
“But in the end, it was still too late.” Shang Liuyu sighed. She wondered when these alien monsters had infiltrated the Dragon Palace.
“In the end, it’s all your brother-in-law’s fault for ignoring his responsibilities and always going around skirt-chasing. Otherwise, these aliens wouldn’t have had a chance,” Shang Hongyu said with a cold snort. That really upset her quite a bit. She didn’t actually mind that much that he was always womanizing, but if all the Ocean races were placed in unprecedented danger as a result, that was completely different.
Shang Liuyu gave Zu An a look as well. “That’s right. He can"t escape blame for that.”
Zu An was speechless.
Why am I suddenly becoming the target of their anger for no reason?
Forget it, since I"ve enjoyed the benefits of being the Dragon King, it’s not a big deal to suffer some of his grievances too.
“Ahem, I wasn’t able to tell what kind of a creature that faceless impersonator of the Dragon King was,” Zu An said. The most worrisome thing for him was why he couldn"t expose the imposter through the Keyboard System’s Rage system.
Shang Liuyu couldn"t be bothered to continue criticizing him and also became worried, saying, “Those imposters seem to care a lot about the crown in my possession, which means they likely intend to open the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons. I wonder just what they want to obtain from the tomb.”
“For now, we can only try to beat them at their own game. You should take out the crown, and then we’ll find out what their purpose is once we follow them in,” Zu An said.
Shang Liuyu frowned. She secretly tugged on Shang Hongyu’s hand. The two sisters exchanged a look, and she communicated with her eyes.
Big sis, is he really the real brother-in-law?
Shang Hongyu’s face reddened.
Of course he’s your brother-in-law, or else why would I... do that stuff with him?
Shang Liuyu was still doubtful. She just felt that something wasn’t quite right here. It felt as if those imposters were trying to fool her into giving up the crown somehow.
Could you perhaps have been fooled by some illusion they placed on you?
Shang Hongyu was speechless. She had to admit that her little sister was quite vigilant.
Zu An could more or less guess what the two sisters were saying to each other with their looks. He decided to just say, “That’s right, it is indeed the plan of the imposters. They want to trick you into giving up the crown.”
When she heard what he said, Shang Liuyu looked as if she had been zapped by electricity. She looked at him with a wary expression.
Zu An smiled. “Let me finish first. Saving you and keeping you in the palace were things that Ka Qier and the others actually know about. They were cooperating with us in creating this illusion. But there is one thing that they don’t know, which is that I"m not the fake Dragon King.”
Shang Liuyu looked at her big sister. Shang Hongyu nodded with a smile.
“That"s why we are plotting right back to find out what those imposters are planning,” Zu An continued.
“But will those guys not suspect you at all?” Shang Liuyu asked skeptically. The imposters weren’t idiots, or else there was no way they would’ve been able to completely seize control of the Dragon Palace so quickly before the Ocean races could even react.
“Of course they’ll be suspicious. Otherwise, why do you think they made me and your big sister do those things?” Zu An said with a sigh.
Shang Hongyu’s face immediately reddened. She gave him an annoyed look.
Should you be saying these things in front of my little sister?!
Shang Liuyu was stunned at first, but then she quickly realized what had happened.
Those imposters were probably worried that big sis wouldn’t really agree to fool me, so that was why they had him bully her day after day, since she would have no way out then and could only cooperate in humiliation. That way, Ka Qier and the others would feel completely at ease.
She looked at Zu An with apologetic eyes.
Brother-in-law is now different from before. It wasn’t that he was still only thinking about those perverted things even in this kind of situation, but rather that he was trying to gain the enemy’s trust. I misjudged him.
And big sis... She really suffered too many wrongs.
Fortunately, somehow miraculously, her brother-in-law really had returned. Otherwise, she wouldn’t dare to imagine what her big sis would have had to go through.
“Brother-in-law, I’m sorry. I’ve always carried many misunderstandings about you all this time.” Shang Liuyu bowed seriously toward Zu An.
When he saw how sincere she was being, Zu An ended up feeling embarra.s.sed instead.
Sigh, all this acting really is going too far. Just how am I going to clean everything up in the future?
“Ahem, it’s not too big of a deal. Most importantly, from now on, we need to join together as one... Ahem, I mean work together as one.” Under Shang Liuyu’s suspicious gaze, Zu An quickly changed his wording. “Just pretend to have fallen for it first and keep the crown with you. We’ll enter the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons later and see what exactly is going on inside.”
Shang Liuyu’s beautiful brows furrowed. “But there are so many of those imposters, so what if they suddenly surround and attack us? We might end up... being attacked.”
Her expression clearly showed that she didn’t trust the Dragon King too much. After all, if he really was that awesome, he wouldn’t have been so easily replaced by the enemy.
Will he really be able to do it?
Shang Hongyu coughed lightly and said, “Trust him. With him here, there won’t be any problems.”
She"d still had some doubts before, but after their time together, she really was amazed by how powerful Zu An was.
Yeah, regardless of whether it"s off the bed or...
Even though Shang Liuyu was still full of doubts, she knew that her big sister wasn’t the type to joke around about important affairs. She thus nodded and said, “Okay, the crown is hidden in...”