Chapter 24 - Hong Bao's Secret Weapon

While Qiang Wei pondered on the crown prince's true nature and the heavenly empress went back to her own palace and the heavenly emperor paced around his room, still thinking of all the dangers, that may befall his beloved son … while all of that happened, in still another part of the nine heavens Hong Bao skipped over to the scribe's palace from the courtyard Shun Tao had ordered her to monitor.

Her flowery dress was swirling around her legs with each of her steps and her hair swayed in the breeze. Had she not been of low status, she probably would have had many suitors in the nine heavens. Well, it was not like Hong Bao cared for that. She was bent on making Shun Tao fall in love with her.

Being on her way to report on the mission, he himself had entrusted to her, she hummed a tune and patted the casket with cookies, she was carrying. Those cookies were her secret weapon. And in a double sense, at that!

As soon as Shun Tao had given her her mission, Hong Bao had forged a plan: Shun Tao couldn't observe those gods because of his high status, that would lead to him being recognized instantly. She, meanwhile, couldn't do it without help, because her status was too low.

The gods Shun Tao wanted her to monitor might not have a task right now, but they would definitely enter one of the palaces as high ranking officials in the future. They were talents, after all. She, in contrast, was only a small servant. Most of them wouldn't take her seriously, not to mention speak to her.

To accomplish anything, a bribe was in order!

Thus, Hong Bao had made cookies and then went to observe those gods. She didn't need long to find one, that was a little more easygoing. The best of it was: That guy had a sweet tooth. He was the perfect person to carry out her plan on.

Like that, Hong Bao had skipped over. Even though he was easygoing, he was a little taken aback first. His attitude became much better, after she took out her bribe, though. Waving the casket with the cookies before him, she had found out his name to be Leng Jin Yu. He came from the mortal realm like her and had ascended after cultivating for a long time.

In short: Leng Jin Yu was indeed the perfect person to help her. Those other gods wouldn't bother with her, but he and Hong Bao shared their roots in the mortal realm. Even more important: Some of the other talents here were already born gods and had backing in the nine heavens. Leng Jin Yu had to rely on himself, which was much harder. If he didn't have some luck, he'd most probably not make it to any position in the next several hundred years.

So, with the promise of asking fate's scribe Shun Tao to help him a little and bringing over cookies every day, Shun Tao's helper Hong Bao gained herself her own helper.

Leng Jin Yu might have been someone without a backer, but he had still ascended to be a deity, which wasn't that different from being a true born god, so the other talents didn't ignore him like her.

That was why Hong Bao could report the names and backgrounds of all the gods he had on his list of subjects by the next day already. Shun Tao was impressed by her abilities.

And here came the second task of Hong Bao's cookies into play: She delivered them together with her findings every day. She was sure, that with some time, Shun Tao would notice, what a good wife she'd made.

Unfortunately, this lead to an issue of conflicting interests: While Shun Tao wanted results as soon as possible, to save his poor neck, Hong Bao wanted to maximize the time she could spend on this assignment.

With the excuse of not wanting to be too obvious, she only reported her findings in installments. She had known way more, when she visited him the first time, but only told him some things on the first day. Only now, on the fourth day, did she get to reporting what exactly the young gods were doing in the courtyard.

Shun Tao couldn't blame her. It was indeed not an easy task. Especially since the person he wanted to catch, would certainly be extremely secretive. It would be strange if she managed to get him so soon. So he could only wait, listen to Hong Bao's reports and munch on the cookies.

"So, them aside. What about the three people, I told you to examine especially close?" Hong Bao had told him about the other gods and he still listened in case one of them was the culprit, but none of what they were doing seemed to have to do anything with Jing He's trial in the mortal world, so he wanted her to concentrate on the most likely candidates.

"It's a little difficult."

Shun Tao sighed. Why had he expected something like that? "Don't worry. Everything you can tell me about their activities will help."

Hong Bao nodded. "About the first one, Yi Jun, I'm afraid he isn't interested in the scribe's palace. He was writing most of the time, but all of that was just about love. He probably intends to join the palace of the goddess of love."

"Oh." Shun Tao nodded and had to repress a relieved smile. That was one less person to worry about. "Then there's no need to pay any more attention to him. She'll surely notice him, if he's hardworking."

Hong Bao nodded again. "The second one, Zhi Hao, was monitoring the mortal realm through water."

Shun Tao tensed. "What exactly was he monitoring?"

"Mn, I'm not too sure about it, but it seemed like he was monitoring different people. He might be following their everyday lives."

That must be him! Shun Tao sat up straighter, clearly interested in what Hong Bao had to say. The servant girl grew cautious. I can't give too much away about Zhi Hao. If he decides on him today, I won't have anymore chances!

"Do you know which people he monitored?"

Hong Bao shook her head and tried looking sad. "Unfortunately, not yet. There were different people. It might take a while to find out more."

Shun Tao sighed and slumped a little in his seat. That would have been too easy … "What about the last one? I believe he was called Wen Xia?"

"That's true. Like Zhi Hao, he's monitoring people in the mortal realm. I also don't know which people he is watching, yet, but it seems like he changes the person of interest really fast. It's one person in one hour, and another one in the next."

Shun Tao nodded. That was something one would really do to become a good fate's scribe. He himself had done so, too, back when he was a young god, waiting to be chosen for his profession. It was not impossible for him to be the one messing with Jing He's face. Maybe he was just too eager, to get his desired status, so he monitored Jing He's mortal self Zhong Jing Yi and brought his fate off track, when he could, and learned everything else in the meantime, when there was no opportunity for him.

To find out, which of these two the culprit was, he could only hope for Hong Bao to find out, who the people were, Wen Xia and Zhi Hao were monitoring. If one of them was Zhong Jing Yi or someone close to him like his parents, then he'd know and could plan his counterattack.

"Then, watch those two a little while longer. You don't have to find out, who exactly the people they monitor are. That could be a little difficult. But you have to find out what kind of people they are: men, women, children, adults … Whatever you notice about them, report it back."

"Sure!" Hong Bao smiled sweetly, hoping for Shun Tao to notice, but the fate's scribe was already somewhere else with his thoughts.

The culprit can't only monitor Zhong Jing Yi and his family. He has to do other things, too, or it would be too easy to notice. I have to alter the crown prince's fate again. The more challenges he faces today, the better. He'd turn up more often in the observations then and Hong Bao can't miss it.

Hong Bao's face fell, when she noticed, that Shun Tao wasn't really paying attention. "Then … I'll be going."

"Mn. Thank you!", Shun Tao said, but he didn't even look at her.

Hong Bao turned around and left his palace, sighing to herself. "It's really not easy making a god like him fall in love with you."

Meanwhile, Shun Tao had taken out Jing He's scroll of fate and his brush and started to write: After Zhong Jing Yi turns seven years old, a letter reaches the Zhong's village, that requests them, to go to the main family's house in the capital city. On their way there, they are attacked by bandits and both Mister and Madam Zhong are killed, leaving only Zhong Jing Yi, who is then sold into slavery.