Chapter 16: Switcheroo

The office had already been tidied up before Shen Yu arrived at the Court of Judicial Review. After Fang Rui came in, he looked left and right, found it boring, and then sat in Shen Yu’s chair without the slightest embarrassment.

So when Shen Yu entered, she saw a man in black wearing a mask leaning against the back of the chair, the chair tilted against the wall, his legs crossed and rested on the table. At that sight, Shen Yu was so startled she immediately turned and shut the door.

If anyone else had seen this, what would they think? This didn’t look like a subordinate at all! He was clearly acting like a lord!

Seeing how frightened Shen Yu was made Fang Rui feel especially pleased. Normally Shen Yu wouldn’t be so emotional. When he was emperor, the most he saw was Shen Yu’s fearful expression, otherwise she was flat and dull, which was boring.

But perhaps because he’d seen the mesmerizing side of Shen Yu, even her dull expressions looked attractive to him.

“Xiaoyu’er, did you miss me?” His voice was hoarse, but it didn’t affect the flippant tone at all.

Hearing the pet name Xiaoyu’er made Shen Yu stagger and almost fall. She felt goosebumps all over, shot him a glare and said, “Please call me Shen Yu.” Seeing his posture she scolded, “Aren’t you going to get up? If someone sees this, how am I supposed to explain things to them?!”

Fang Rui, his masked face lowered, raised an eyebrow. “Why explain? Just say you have a compromising secret in my hands and were forced to submit to my coercion. I think they’ll understand.”

Shen Yu almost shouted at him.

She glared at him, angry but unable to voice it. After all, she truly did have a huge secret in his hands, so significant it could determine life or death in the Grand Guardian’s house.

“Besides, I think the name Xiaoyu’er suits you. If you don’t want me to call you Xiaoyu’er, I’ll call you Yu’er, or Little Yu-yu.”

He put his feet down, stood up from the chair, and teased, “Judging by your look, you seem to want to tear me limb from limb.”

Shen Yu wanted far more than to tear him to pieces. Ideally she wanted him utterly annihilated.

Fang Rui walked up to Shen Yu and smiled, “It seems you still owe me one ‘husband.’”

Since the day before yesterday he’d been hoping those two words would tumble from Shen Yu’s mouth, but someone always ungratefully came and interfered, ruining his temper. Now who would dare interfere? He’d be sure to smother them to death.

Shen Yu took a step back, intentionally avoiding the topic. “We’ll talk about those terms later. Right now I want to discuss something with you.”

Fang Rui, his masked face lowered, smiled even wider. Shen Yu was indeed following the path he’d imagined, which was perfect. After all, in front of Shen Yu he wasn’t the emperor, but an unknown scoundrel without a name or face.

Without the emperor’s identity, he could tease Shen Yu freely. Watching her, he narrowed his eyes and said, “Are you thinking that I must be a fool? You wanted me to state my terms, I put them forward, and they’re not excessive. And now you want to discuss matters with me? What kind of damn matters do you think I’d give you a chance to discuss?”

Shen Yu rather wished the man before her were truly a fool, preferably one who expected nothing in return. But not only was the man not foolish, he pushed his advantage to the extreme.

Fang Rui closed in on Shen Yu. Few could force her back, but Fang Rui, now not wearing the emperor’s identity, succeeded. And as he neared, Shen Yu immediately stepped back two paces.

Fang Rui slightly arched an eyebrow and said, “This condition is only two words from your mouth, much easier than asking you to kill someone. Or would you prefer my term be that you kill someone?”

Shen Yu understood Fang Rui’s words. Although saying those two words would harm her reputation as an unmarried woman, given her current status, what female reputation did she still have to speak of?

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, reopened them as if making a grave decision, looked at Fang Rui and answered, “Fine, I’ll say it.”

She then shut her eyes, tightly furrowing her brow, looking as if a knife were held to her throat and she had no choice but to yield.

Secretly she comforted herself: just treat shouting “husband” as if it were shouting “beggar,” and it would be the same.

“Then I’ll say it… husb-…”

Seeing Shen Yu’s expression, Fang Rui immediately stopped her, “Enough, you better not say it.” This time he forbade her. He just felt the word “husband” said with Shen Yu’s current expression made it seem more like she was grieving at his funeral…

Shen Yu snapped her eyes open. One had to admit there was genuine surprise in them.

“Now, it’s not that I don’t want to say it, but you’re the one who won’t let me. That counts as a term too.”

Fang Rui pressed a hand to his forehead and waved the other. “Fine, fine, fine.” There would be plenty of opportunities later, missing this moment wasn’t critical.

“Alright, we’ve gotten through that condition. Now let’s discuss what I want to tell you.” Shen Yu’s expression changed in an instant, faster than flipping a page.

Fang Rui sighed inwardly.

He was a little worried about Shen Yu’s heartlessness. Upon hearing she didn’t have to say it, her expression looked like a thousand-pound weight had been lifted off her shoulders, such relief.

This heartless, ungrateful, carefree, and fickle Shen Yu conjured an image in his mind: Shen Yu tidying her clothes at the bedside while he, half-dressed, clutched a blanket on the bed. Shen Yu, fully dressed, glanced coldly at him and asked, “Why haven’t you left yet?”

That would have made him so heartbroken.

But then again, if Shen Yu were willing to do that with him… he would actually be willing to be the one curled under the little blanket on the bed.

He sat down at the desk, propped up his leg, picked up the tea that had just been spilled on the table, sipped it, then glanced at Shen Yu. “What you want to tell me isn’t important. What’s important is that I never do business at a loss.”

Shen Yu sat opposite him, leaning in slightly, looking as if about to conspire over something major.

“I need you to help me with a grand switcheroo, you can set the reward.”

Though he didn’t want to say it, he couldn’t help silently thinking: he already had the entire realm. What did he need silver and gold for?!

More than gold and silver, he’d rather have her for himself.

Fang Rui feigned great interest, “We’ll talk about the reward after I hear how you plan to pull off this switcheroo. How do you intend to do this?”

Shen Yu thought for a moment: she believed that if this man truly intended to harm her, he would have exposed her long ago and taken his revenge in one go. Why would he wait until now?

Thinking about it now, Shen Yu… had an absurd intuition that what he coveted was not wealth or power, but her person.

As soon as the thought arose, Shen Yu immediately dismissed it.

“In the Court of Judicial Review’s prisons, there’s a most secure cell. I want you to swap someone out of it for me.”

“Swap a person?” Fang Rui pretended to stroke his masked chin, then smirked. “Some difficulty, but interesting. I can give it a try. As for payment, I’ll claim it along with the previous two terms.”

Shen Yu was somewhat taken aback. “You’re agreeing just like that?”

“If Xiaoyu’er asks something of me, even if it’s to climb a mountain of blades or walk through fire, I’ll do it, right?”

Shen Yu didn’t know whether to slap him or not.

Every two out of three sentences this man uttered were not serious.

Seeing the man had just agreed to her request, she barely restrained herself from correcting the “Xiaoyu’er” address again. That pet name gave her another layer of goosebumps.

She was halfway through explaining the plan when Fang Rui suddenly made a shushing gesture.

“Shh, someone’s coming.” He twitched his ear, looked at Shen Yu, “Seems like a martial artist.”

“Martial artist?”

“Seems to be a highly skilled martial artist too.” Fang Rui showed a somewhat pensive look. He had only heard the footsteps as they neared the door.

After a short while, there was a knock on the door.

Shen Yu replied, “Who is it?”

From outside came a very steady, deep voice, “Your servant, Court of Judicial Review prison warden Huyan Suoyun, requests an audience with Lord Shen.”

Hearing the name Huyan Suoyun, Fang Rui thought to himself: so it’s him.