As both of them looked at the demon, the latter looked at Li Zheng Kang, "I have already read your memories. But, you see, speaking the truth leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I cannot lie to my contractor. So, it is best if you speak the truth by yourself."
Li Zheng Kang stared at him for a couple of seconds and let out a sigh, "Yeah, it is true, although not for long. It's only been a couple of months. He visited your store right after but upon seeing how you are doing well, he decided against revealing the truth to you.
Seeing how Queen Consort Lan had gifted her mother's heirloom to Song Yue, I believe she too figured it out. Honestly, it's not that hard for her to realize the truth. Your appearance is a striking resemblance to Queen Consort Lan's father, Lan Gengxin. Adding on top of that, you also had the ice attribute. The rest is easy to connect."
Mark already knew that his mother knew about him. So, he wasn't that surprised about it. He calmly nodded and went on to ask another question, "Does Shang Wei know the truth?"
"I don't think so," Li Zheng Kang shook his head.
Mark then asked his final question, "So, according to you, only you and those damned biological parents of mine know the truth, correct?"
As Li Zheng Kang nodded while pressing the wound with his hand in reflex in order to stop the blood flow, Mark let out a smile for once as he raised the gun. "Thank you for your cooperation. You can die now."
*Bang*
With a bullet piercing through his skull, the Grand Secretariat turned into a corpse and fell to the ground.
"Bael, your time in this world is about to end." Mark turned toward the demon king and gave his final instruction for the day, "Before you leave, dump this body right in the middle of the imperial court. But, not like this. Crave the word 'guilty' on his forehead, above the bullet wound. And thank you for your assistance so far."
"Alright. I await the next summon." Bael nodded.
As Mark opened the portal and returned to a random location on the outskirts of Helios city, Bael let out a smile while grabbing the corpse. "My choice is right. Wherever this man goes, destruction follows for sure. It's going to be fun. Looking forward to it."
A couple of minutes later;
After dumping the body in the empty courtroom, which was currently frozen in ice, Bael teleported to the outskirts of the city.
Just as he was about to return to his world, a thought suddenly struck his head and he mumbled, "I still have a little bit of time. I might as well check the presence of anyone else here. Who knows, someone might have a contract with humans."
Meanwhile, at the Helios City of Eastern Sun Kingdom;
In a large private chamber located on the third floor of the palace, also considered as one of the inner chambers where the males weren't allowed to step in unless in emergency situations (except for the king), a gathering was organized for the female guests separately from the males.
All the women here have similar status and even Song Yue had the upbringing of a noble. Hence, she has no problem mingling with the other ladies (wives and daughters of court officials, ambassadors, etc...)
Some of them were casually discussing matters of their families and household affairs, some of them were listening to the music played by a famous singing courtesan, some of them were exchanging knowledge, some of them were showing off their skills in weaving, calligraphy, and embroidery to each other, and a few were even discussing literature and philosophy.
Unfortunately, there was no one here skilled in fighting and neither did anyone have an interest in things nor were they interested in politics. All of them were only doing things that society expects them to do.
And such discussions around her made Princess Shen Ling quite frustrated. She kept her feelings to herself while talking with others, but when she was finally alone with Song Yue, she expressed her true thoughts, "I pity these women, Sister Yue. They act high and mighty but don't understand how useless they are to society. None of these ladies even had any ambition to earn proper recognition on their own and completely depend on their husbands or fathers."
"Well, if you say that way…" Song Yue couldn't finish her words due to feeling hurt by her words but Shen Ling understood it by her expression. She quickly clarified her opinion, "You are different from them, Sister Yue. You might have devoted your life to Lu Zhen but you are still doing something to help him out unlike them."
Song Yue bitterly smiled in response, "It might seem that way on the outside but I'm not much different. I just sit there all day. I couldn't even help him with house chores properly."
"Nah, don't sell yourself short. He trusts you in managing the store and the accounts. I believe he is trying to remove that inferiority complex by doing that," replied the princess, taking Song Yue by surprise.
Not because she was hearing it for the first time but it is because Shen Ling told her the same words Mark replied to her when she asked him during the vacation why he made her the manager of the store.
Feeling that Shen Ling understood Mark's thoughts quite well, Song Yue became slightly upset as she was ready to share her husband physically with other women but not his heart and mind.
The possessive part of her doesn't like someone else to understand Mark's thoughts more than her. But, the kind part of her tries to make her understand that she can stop her husband from loving other women but not vice versa.
Fortunately, the princess of the western moon didn't make Song Yue think more nonsense by changing the topic, "You know, when both of you will shift to Western Moon, I'll teach you the statecraft. Perhaps, you might become a key politician as well as an administrator in the future."
"Eh? Shifting to Western Moon? Administrator? What are you saying?" Song Yue returned to reality and she was confused by Shen Ling's words.
To which, the princess let out a chuckle, "C'mon, there's no way a person like Lu Zhen would stay at Phoenix Empire. I believe he must have already told you about his relationship with the Imperial family, although I figured it out by myself. If you think about it, all of his actions are connected to each other and they all indicated only one outcome."
Song Yue didn't need to connect all of those things as Mark revealed his goal to her long ago.
And she had different thoughts from the princess. She shook her head, "I don't think he would be willing. I mean he doesn't need to."
In her view, Mark intended to overthrow Shang Fu and sit on the throne by himself.
Princess Shen Ling probably understood what was on Song Yue's mind too. She shook her head with a meaningful smile, "You forgot about your friend, the third prince. He has awakened the Phoenix bloodline because of Lu Zhen. I heard that Lu Zhen even saved his life a while ago. And now, this variable suddenly became the favorite to succeed the Emperor."
"But Brother Wei doesn't have such ambitions. He just doesn't like his eldest brother to succeed their father. Since he is a child, he always supports Brother Wen (the second prince) to become the Emperor." As Song Yue tries to argue with her own logic, Shen Ling replied, "Well, it might change once he learns the truth. Who knows, what kind of mess will start at the Phoenix Empire? So, it is better for the both of you just move into our palace."
Song Yue fell silent, worried about her brother-like figures from the imperial family as she could only see their doom in the future, and further wondered if Mark would give his family an opportunity to get his forgiveness.
When she thought about it, her father's face appeared in her head and she felt that maybe she wasn't the right person to talk to her fiancé about forgiveness as she herself couldn't be able to do that to his fugitive dad, not knowing that he was beside her all this time.
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