Chapter 165: Betrayal

"But once the secret silver ore matter is exposed, the entire family will be implicated."

The Viscountess suddenly spoke, her fingertip tracing a silver line across the table, the soundproof barrier rippling, "Unless we can find the transaction proof from back then." She snapped her head up, a cold glint flashing in her eyes.

"Duke Huo Ke is so eager to silence witnesses; perhaps that secret letter is still in his hand."

Luo Bin rubbed his brow, feeling as if he had been suddenly thrust onto the chessboard as a piece.

His father's expectant gaze, his mother's tightly clenched silk handkerchief, and the faint guard‑shift sounds from outside the window all reminded him that this game left no retreat.

He suddenly recalled the griffin token Ba Long had given him, perhaps he could enlist the power of the Round Table Council.

"First, keep Duke Huo Ke steady; don't let him sense our suspicion." Luo Bin stood, the Condemnation Sword casting a cold shadow behind him, "I need to infiltrate his manor and retrieve that secret letter. As for my father—"

He looked at the bandaged Viscount Wei Er Ke, "You must feign a severe injury and fall into a coma, so the family can completely withdraw from this vortex."

Viscount Wei Er Ke and the Viscountess exchanged a glance and smiled simultaneously.

The former laughed boisterously, the latter with a sly grin, leaving Luo Bin speechless.

"You two elders really know how to play a good trick; everything's on me!"

"Good kid, you finally have a hint of a lord's bearing." The Viscountess suddenly tore a sapphire necklace from her collar and slipped it into Luo Bin's hand, "Duke Huo Ke's concubine likes Eastern Realm jewelry; this is a counterfeit I bought on the black market last year, it might come in handy."

Luo Bin stared at the gem glowing faintly in his palm, and suddenly felt the crisis wasn't quite so heavy.

At least they're not a hopeless lone piece—after all, the Wei Er Ke family has never learned to surrender without a fight.

Luo Bin's fingertip brushed the sapphire necklace, his face bewildered; he stared at the cunning light in his mother's eyes, and a suspicious flush rose to his ears.

Viscount Wei Er Ke's cough rang out, and irritated, he tapped the table, "Ai Lun! That's—cough—Duke Huo Ke's second wife Ai Sha Er!"

"What about the second wife?" the Viscountess raised an eyebrow, her fingertip twirling a strand of hair, "When she was a flower seller at the dock, I already knew she wasn't ordinary." She suddenly leaned toward Luo Bin, lowering her voice, "Last month the minstrel she newly hired spoke with a Northern accent—exactly like the guard captain of Duke Huo Ke's manor."

Luo Bin instantly grasped his mother's meaning, his Adam's apple bobbing as he shoved the necklace into his chest.

The Condemnation Sword's hilt suddenly knocked against his thigh, prompting him to recall that he was now wearing a faded linen shirt, its cuffs still stained with yesterday's wound salve. "So I need—" he tugged at his collar, "to be bait?"

"Don't worry, my Knight." The Viscountess suddenly pulled a dark‑green velvet coat from the wardrobe, its gold‑threaded laurel pattern shimmering in the candlelight, "This was your coming‑of‑age attire at sixteen; wearing it now—" she measured her son's shoulder width, "—will just expose your collarbone."

Viscount Wei Er Ke's hoarse protest slipped through his fingers, "This is sheer nonsense," and before the words finished, the lion‑head relief atop his cane had already punched a small dent in the carpet.

The Viscountess ignored him, her fingertips deftly fastening the dark‑green velvet coat's gilt buttons on Luo Bin; as she turned the cuffs, the boy's pale wrist bones were revealed, glimmering like pearls in the candlelight.

"Behind Lady Ai Sha Er's malachite screen lies a spice room," her voice softened, as if instructing a debutante, "You must pretend the rosemary chokes you; she'll personally blend a fragrance for you—then her jade bracelet will clink against a glass bottle, and the hidden mechanism in the study will be concealed within that sound." As she spoke, she pressed her oil‑slicked fingertip against Luo Bin's ear, the spicy scent mingling with rose powder flooding his nostrils, "Remember, don't support her waist with your left hand; she broke a rib last winter."

Luo Bin felt like a dagger packed into an ornate gift box—meant for shedding blood, yet forced to pose with an elegant curve within silk lining.

The Condemnation Sword warmed faintly beneath the velvet coat, its hilt's order sigil searing through the fabric onto his skin, as if reminding him of the absurdity of the moment.

Two weeks earlier he had been battling mechanical sea monsters in the capital; now he had to flash a docile smile at a minister's concubine.

"Mother!" he suddenly seized the Viscountess's wrist, feeling the edge of a magical scroll hidden in her sleeve, "If I'm discovered—"

"It won't happen." The woman's fingertip lightly brushed his back of the hand, the amethyst on her ring pressing against the pulse in his wrist, "Duke Huo Ke needs a scapegoat, but Lady Ai Sha Er needs a 'Northern minstrel' she can flaunt at the banquet—see, you both get what you want." She suddenly drew a parchment from the bottom of her makeup case, on which a love poem that made one's skin prickle was written, "I had someone copy this; remember, when you recite 'the amber in your eyes is the poison I drank,' you must lower your gaze and pluck the strings."

Having been copied, it was prepared in advance.

Viscount Wei Er Ke finally gave up struggling, slumping in the armchair and covering his face with his cuff.

He heard his wife softly instructing their son how to stir tea with a silver spoon, how to flash his left canine when laughing, and suddenly recalled kneeling in the snow thirty years ago to receive Duke Huo Ke's supply wagon, assuming the same puppet posture at others' whims.

The difference now is that his son is to seduce Duke Huo Ke's second wife, possibly betraying his own flesh.

When Luo Bin pushed open the drawing‑room door, the midnight bell struck its first toll.

The Viscountess watched his silhouette vanish into the shadows, her fingertip lightly brushing the sapphire on the necklace—a piece she had "borrowed" from Lady Ai Sha Er's jewelry box a few days earlier.

Viscount Wei Er Ke stole a glance at his wife through his fingers, noticing her adjusting earrings before a mirror, as if the earlier scheme wasn't a perilous trap but preparation for an afternoon tea.

"You had planned this all along," he suddenly said, his voice carrying a weary relief.

As the Viscountess turned, the pearls on her earrings swayed gently, "When Duke Huo Ke sent men to raid the estate, I was waiting for this piece." She walked to her husband's side, rewrapping his blanket, "Besides," her fingertips brushed the Condemnation Sword's tassel left on the table by Luo Bin, "our son was born to stand in the light, not to rot in the gutter with some old thing."

Viscount Wei Er Ke instantly expressed displeasure, "That's my son; I recall you strongly didn't want him to return, even trying several times to drive him away."

The Viscountess gave an awkward smile, explaining, "At that time I was also worried his intentions were impure, that he might steal my research findings."

(End of Chapter)