Chapter 514: The Empress Dowager Card

With the record of super-wizard power, Hermione easily joined the British moon landing team, and, relying on her good natural science literacy and Muggle-born background, quickly built relationships with several core figures in the team—as expected, the chief engineer was none other than Sir Travers, the most influential academic figure in the Prime Minister's faction. Harry had met him several times, which might be one of the reasons he took extra care of Hermione.

Or perhaps, it was because Sir Travers mentioned Harry a bit too often, and Hermione also began to consciously or unconsciously talk more with Harry, making it seem like what the Muggles imagined, that they were really some kind of intimate and ambiguous lovers-not-quite.

As Zhang Qiu returned from China, all of this became clear—not only the relationship between Harry and the girl beside him, but also the reason for the cold attitude of the Soviet personnel, and even some technical problems were no longer problems.

"I dare say Yanayev doesn't want to land on the moon at all." In the Three Broomsticks, Zhang Qiu held a wine glass and said confidently, like those common middle-aged people discussing politics. "His essence is to use the development of moon landing rockets as an excuse to study more advanced intercontinental missiles—so he doesn't care at all whether connecting fifteen engines in parallel is feasible, because he doesn't really want to go to the moon. He cares more about how to make his rockets land on the heads of other countries 'without warning'."

"According to that, this plan is also not feasible?" Harry said with some disappointment.

"Who said it's not feasible?" Zhang Qiu held up a finger. "This is just like how we checkmate Draco; we use the same method to checkmate Yanayev—which is to really go to the moon."

"But if he isn't sincerely wanting to solve the technical problems..."

"Those aren't technical problems. You know I brought someone this time." Zhang Qiu shook that finger dismissively. "A real scientist, or rather, a chief engineer. He knows the moon like the back of his hand; landing on the moon is like going home for him."

Harry didn't know how to describe his feelings.

"So, by following him to complete a moon landing program, we have a way to pin down Yanayev." Zhang Qiu skipped over that matter in a very relaxed tone. "Of course, coming back to it, Hermione's joining gave Draco a little room to maneuver, but he can't make any waves after all. If we decide to support Pan Xi, then Pan Xi will definitely be able to become Mrs. Ma Erfu."

"Alright, your confidence is justified." Harry felt that the topic had finally returned to a field he was confident in controlling, which made him feel a bit more relaxed. "Now Draco has escaped the topic of going to the moon, but he has also lost the excuse to have contact with Astoria—especially since he even gave up Quidditch."

"What we need to be most vigilant about now is actually Draco suddenly stopping the act, showing his cards, and telling us that he wants to break up with Pan Xi and that he just likes Astoria. We would have no way to refute that at all." Zhang Qiu said. "Fortunately, due to some power checks and balances, he still maintains his relationship with Pan Xi. But we really need to act as soon as possible. Once Draco graduates, he will no longer worry that breaking up with Pan Xi will lead to him being abandoned by everyone at school, so the time for him to show his cards won't be far off."

"But what should we do?" Harry pondered. "Did you bring any other love masters?"

"No more, just Old Cheng alone. And actually, strictly speaking, I didn't bring him; he just had nowhere else to go."

"Cheng?"

"You can call him Charles; he has an English name." Zhang Qiu pointed upstairs. "He was the chief engineer at Moon Palace for over twenty years. Now he's retired and returned home, but he's very restless, shouting every day about moon revival, restarting the new field program, and so on. The Cabinet is sick of him—it just so happened that you wanted to land on the moon, so they sent him over."

Harry began to imagine an annoying old man who always muttered about old rules; he quickly thought of Filch.

"What's even more outrageous is that the Cabinet couldn't find an official reason, so they actually called him a dowry." Zhang Qiu rubbed her face. "We were clearly in true love, weren't we?"

"What is that!" Harry said, somewhat between laughter and tears. "How can an extra little old man affect the feelings between us?"

"Sigh, it's normal that you don't understand. By rights, or according to Master's original idea, we are just a very ordinary couple. If we could develop feelings, we would get married peacefully; he didn't force it originally." Zhang Qiu sighed. "But he operated too much. Now you are the undisputed new king of the Wizarding World, and our Prime Minister happens to want to find a sense of existence... Now they hope to package our relationship as a political marriage, just like Princess Wencheng."

"Who is Princess Wencheng?"

"A political marriage with profound significance in Chinese history. Her marriage achieved long-term peace, cultural exchange, ethnic integration, and other important strategic goals. Later, she was even deified in Tibetan culture, but no one cared whether she and Songtsen Gampo were in true love." Zhang Qiu sighed. "I also understand that since the princess enjoyed glory and wealth, she had to bear the fate of a political marriage, but our feelings are clearly a matter between two people. I don't want to let such beautiful feelings become cold cultural symbols in history books."

"Oh, that's a problem, unless we refuse this marriage, but that's impossible. This reminds me of Ron running for goalkeeper. Even if he could stand out in fair competition, people deliberately gave the position to him, which made him very unhappy—but it's not without a way. He played with style in that position and showed his true technique, so people were convinced." Harry shrugged. "So, I think this is not a very distressing thing. As long as we live our own lives well, the world will understand."

"The people on your side can certainly understand, but the Chinese," when Zhang Qiu said this, a sound of a wine bottle being thrown to the ground came from upstairs, "they don't have time to pay attention to my life. These dowry people are all frustrated people who have been squeezed out. They will even smear our feelings in various ways, just to vent their frustration of not being appreciated... Believe me, in order to write articles proving that they are not appreciated, the Chinese will make up anything."

"We can always think of ways to deal with them." Harry rubbed his head. "Of course, when we were talking just now, I thought of a good idea about how to make Pan Xi a real Mrs. Ma Erfu, which is to package this as a political marriage."

"But the Parkinson family is nothing worth paying attention to." Zhang Qiu frowned. "And compared to dealing with Lu Xiusi, I still feel it's easier to handle Draco."

"If Lu Xiusi is an extremely difficult ambitious person to deal with, Narcissa is not, right?" Harry tried to think. "If we can get her support, and, I feel that Draco is more willing to listen to his mother, it's just a feeling."

"If we can play this card well, that's also very good. The Empress Dowager card is often bigger than the true love card." Zhang Qiu was thoughtful. "But still, even if Pan Xi is placed in front of Narcissa, she doesn't have any eye-catching advantages, right?"

"She has methods and connections. This was formed by long-term management of the club. Or even if we deliberately ignore this fragile relationship, the ability she trained in management work is real. For the Ma Erfu family, who wants to withstand pressure and continue to win hearts among the pure-blood nobles, she will be a very good help." Harry analyzed. "Moreover, our attitude happens to be one of her advantages. If the Ma Erfu family wants to continue to uphold the theory of pure-blood supremacy, this will face considerable pressure in front of the Ministry of Magic, which emphasizes 【you cannot rule Muggles without understanding Muggles】; or they compromise toward the generalized theory of wizard supremacy and admit the role of Muggle-borns in ruling Muggles, which will not pass among the vast majority of Death Eaters."

"Hmm, then our attitude refers to..."

"You should know that I am not only a favorite in the eyes of the Ministry of Magic, but at the same time, secretly, I am also the Dark Lord." Harry still felt a bit awkward when he said this. "Of course, many Death Eaters don't know this, but Lu Xiusi undoubtedly knows it, and Narcissa might also know it. So, our support in Narcissa's eyes is the simultaneous support of both the black and white paths of the Wizarding World, and she might feel that Draco doesn't know this and dismiss his opposition as 'not knowing better'."

"Alright, seriously, I think this is indeed critical because it constitutes an information gap: Narcissa will feel that the reason Draco didn't firmly choose Pan Xi is because he doesn't understand Harry Potter's double life." Zhang Qiu couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh. "And she might not be sure whether she can tell her son this secret, so she can only stubbornly scold her child for not knowing better."

"Of course she can't. Think about how the Dark Lord treats those who dare to call him by his name?" Harry said solemnly. "Narcissa must have long been accustomed to avoiding the Dark Lord's true identity."

"Perhaps we also have to worry a little bit about Draco being rebellious, the more his mother scolds him, the more determined he becomes, or something. But this probability shouldn't be high, after all, there is still the white-path status." Zhang Qiu sipped her drink slowly. "And when it comes to the status of the white path, I think I won't be worse than you in the future. After all, if we really handle these Chinese dowry people, they will start writing a lot of articles praising our achievements—they are equally good at this aspect."

"So in the short term, our first thing is to tell Pan Xi that she still has this card to play, and convey a little meaning of matchmaking and pushing the boat along." Harry summarized. "And in the long term, we'd better find a way to handle your dowry."

"It might be a bit too long, long in the literal sense." Zhang Qiu revealed a bitter smile containing a hint of secret joy and self-satisfaction. ===== CHAPTER 515 =====