Chapter 233 - Give Them a Hand (2/2)
Shan Congwen made an ambiguous reply. The King Hui immediately came to know what Shan Congwen meant after reading it.
“What does Shan Congwen think he’s doing? Not long ago he was fawning on me trying to convince me to cooperate with him, but now he’s adopting a totally different att.i.tude!” The King Hui was both angry and afraid – angry with Shan Congwen’s fence-sitting, and afraid that Shan Congwen might disclose his plan to usurp the throne.
“I think you might as well pay Shan Congwen a personal visit, Your Highness,” an aide of his suggested.
The King Hui, though indignant, took his aide’s advice eventually.
Shan Congwen’s men returned from the imperial temple empty-handed, which sent him even more restless.
It was not until after having a meeting with the King Hui that Shan Congwen came to know the reason.
He found it hard to believe that there was a prophecy saying Zhou Mingci was to be the next emperor.
Shan Congwen immediately understood why the King Hui was so anxious, but he was still hesitating, because he couldn’t put his trust in the King Hui, though the reason had now come to his knowledge.
“I think you know very well what I desire. Yuwen Tong’s head is the only thing I want in return for helping you take the throne. If you refuse to kill Yuwen Tong after ascending the throne by dint of my a.s.sistance, wouldn’t all my efforts be in vain?” said Shan Congwen.
The King Hui remarked, “Under no circ.u.mstances will I break the promise I made you. When I become emperor of this country, Yuwen Tong naturally will be a mortal malady for me, one I will stop at nothing to eliminate even without my promise to you.”
Shan Congwen was hesitant, for this had happened so suddenly and he kept feeling that there were so many uncertainties.
Shan Congwen replied, “Please give me some time to consider this. I know time is not something you have in abundance. You shall have my reply by tomorrow at the latest.”
The King Hui was disgruntled, but there was nothing he could do about it. He said, “This is a golden opportunity. As long as you offer me help, all terms of our previous deal will remain unchanged, and I’ll fulfill all my promises to you, but if you give up this opportunity, the consequences…”
Shan Congwen’s face slightly changed.
…
In the Ling Mansion.
“Zhou Mingci did have an audience with Shan Congwen, but neither of them has taken any action after such a long time. Surely they’re still going to take the bait, aren’t they?”
Ling Zhang, after hearing the message sent back promptly by Yao Yi and the others, was deeply worried. Not long ago, when Yuwen Tong had told him about the plan, it had struck him as very ingenious, but now neither Zhou Mingci nor Shan Congwen had made their move, so he feared that they might not rise to the bait.
Yuwen Tong said, “There’s no doubt that Zhou Mingci will fall prey to the trap. It’s probably Shan Congwen who’s being the problem. He is worrying that Zhou Mingci might refuse to hold up his end of the deal after he helps him.”
Ling Zhang asked, “Then what do we do?”
Yuwen Tong thought for a while and then said, “Shan Congwen’s going after two goals. The first one is to kill me, and the second one is to throw the Great Yue into disarray and make a puppet of the new emperor. If one of these two is achieved, he would no longer have that many misgivings.”
Ling Zhang furrowed his brow. “If one of these two is achieved?”
The having sensed something, he asked, his countenance slightly changed, “What do you want to do?”
Yuwen Tong said, “Help him achieve the first goal of his.”
An I-knew-it expression appeared on Ling Zhang’s face, but the problem was that it was Yuwen Tong’s life that Shan Congwen wanted to take.
“I’ll just pretend to be severely wounded and is close to death,” said Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang felt that even this was very difficult. “But how? Once word gets out that you’re injured, there’ll be an unbroken stream of people coming to sound you out. How are you going to fool all of them? On top of that, in what way will you be able to keep up the pretence of a serious wound without arousing people’s suspicions?”
Yuwen Tong replied, “Most people are easy to fool. After the incident in the hunting ground in the western suburbs, they all believe that the Wan Kingdom wants me dead, but this time around, apart from them, we also have to trick Shan Congwen, which will take some other finesse.”
Then he added, “Actually finesse is not important. What’s important is the fact that I’m seriously wounded and dying.”
As a result, this time Yuwen Tong had no intention whatsoever of playing any elaborate tricks. He planned to directly arrange an a.s.sa.s.sination and then fake grievous injuries.
On that very night, the whole capital city was thrown into confusion – Marshal Yuwen had sustained severe wounds in an attempted a.s.sa.s.sination and was at his last gasp.
Shan Congwen was briefly dumbstruck as the news reached his ears. “Yuwen Tong is dying?”
“Yes, he is rumored to be ambushed by some a.s.sa.s.sins. Their emperor has hurried to the Ling Mansion bringing with him a large group of court physicians.”
Shan Congwen had a subtle expression on his face, feeling both overjoyed and worried that this was some kind of subterfuge. He instructed, “Figure out a way to get some definite information about this. I need to confirm Yuwen Tong is really dying!”
Meanwhile, the King Hui, who had also received the news, was almost delirious with joy, feeling that this was help from heaven!
“If Yuwen Tong really dies, Shan Congwen would no doubt join hands with me, and it’ll spare me the trouble of eliminating him after my enthronement, too. Divine intervention – this is definitely divine intervention!”
“Your Highness, we must confirm as soon as possible that Yuwen Tong is really dying from grievous wounds. We cannot afford any mistakes.”
“You are right. We need confirmation.” The King Hui exercised all his self-restraint and recovered himself.
Very soon, the threshold of the front doors of the Ling Mansion was worn smooth by shoes of a steady stream of visitors coming to pry. As regards Yuwen Tong’s injury, even physicians of the imperial hospital found it incurable. It seemed that he was really near his end.
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