First-Year Internship—And You Went to Site 749 to Contain Monsters?!

Lu Ding held his knife: ”And after that? After An Wuyang becomes the Crown Prince, what about your father?”

”Your father poses a threat to the current Great Jing emperor. Wouldn’t he pose an even greater threat to An Wuyang?”

”The current Great Jing emperor at least has cultivation. Even though most of the ordinary military power is in your father’s hands, the Great Jing emperor isn’t completely empty-handed either. He even has things that could overturn the table.”

”But An Wuyang, after sitting in the Crown Prince’s position, would have to subdue the cards originally held by the Great Jing emperor anew, and he doesn’t have a cultivation realm. Wouldn’t your father’s threat to him be even greater?”

”Grand Duke Lu, your reasoning is flawed here,” An Ning explained.

”You stand with the Filial Prince, representing the cooperation between Great Jing and Great Han. The people under my father’s command would not dare to act recklessly with you and Great Han’s might to deter them. Moreover, there is a very simple method.”

Since she put it that way, Lu Ding didn’t lack the patience to actively play the straight man: ”What method?”

An Ning smiled slightly: ”Learn from His Majesty’s approach—just control me in your hands. I’ll go to Great Han, I’ll go to the new city. Although An Ning’s cultivation is insufficient and my strength is lacking, my mind is still passable. I can help Grand Duke Lu with planning and strategizing.”

”Handling miscellaneous matters should still be within my capabilities.”

Fu Xinghe: !!!!!!No!!!

Are you all crazy!!?

I’m just a damn assistant investigator, and everyone wants to steal my position.

Since when did doing odd jobs become so popular?

Fu Xinghe was on guard against a thousand things.

He had mentally prepared himself for a fair competition when Yan Feifan came up.

But then...

An Ning came out of nowhere!

Compared to his own steady and solid approach, and Yan Feifan’s freewheeling creativity, An Ning leaned more towards bold yet meticulous gambling, belonging to the unorthodox, each with their own merits.

And what Fu Xinghe found most incomprehensible was:

Didn’t you say you disliked this feeling of being caged?

What’s with this tone of barely concealed anticipation now!!!?

Are you messing with me!!?

Going to Great Han, aren’t you still a hostage!?

In the new city, you couldn’t pick out half a person with a brain; Fu Xinghe had to handle everything.

Busy.

But fulfilling.

At least no one was competing with him.

Now, leaving the new city, the inexperienced Han Yu was one thing—Brother Lu didn’t fancy him, and he wouldn’t leave anyway, posing zero challenge to Fu Xinghe.

But what’s with you, An Ning, with looks that could sink fish and down geese, a man’s heart in a woman’s body!?

Crossing borders to engage in internal competition with me, stealing work!?

Lu Ding was also curious: ”You have no freedom here. Going to Great Han, will you have freedom then?”

An Ning smiled: ”Looking at your track record, Grand Duke Lu, you have always been one to ’persuade’ with virtue.”

What a way to persuade with virtue.

However, Lu Ding indeed didn’t do things like forced confinement.

After passing through Great Jing, he would reach God Ascension.

By then, whatever An Ning thought wouldn’t matter.

Because if he was unhappy, or if this Great Jing’s Prince Zhao was not behaving, he could just eliminate them directly.

He just couldn’t interfere with another country’s governance, given the 749 Bureau’s rules and regulations, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t challenge Prince Zhao to a one-on-one.

Lu Ding re-sheathed the knife at his waist: ”Then it’s tentatively decided for now. Wait until we reach the Royal Capital, then you can contact your father.”

If Prince Zhao’s side could be secured.

Listening Rain Pavilion could handle administrative duties, Prince Zhao’s side would provide military power, external resources and funds from other aristocratic families, and investments in local actual control.

By then, An Wuyang would have money, people, and soldiers, plus the support of local influential forces in every part of Great Jing, and actual territorial authority.

If he didn’t become Crown Prince, who would?

At this moment, An Wuyang, who was idle and sleeping soundly, had no idea he already lacked nothing.

Just waiting for Lu Ding to enter the pass!

An Ning stood up and bowed in thanks: ”Thank you, Grand Duke Lu.”

The curve at the corner of her mouth lifted quietly.

Originally, her plan didn’t include going to Great Han or the new city.

But plans couldn’t keep up with changes.

Meanwhile, Shi Tangxue, pinned under Lu Ding’s foot, had long been stunned in disbelief amidst the pain!

Who would have thought An Ning had so many arguments, such deep scheming and cunning!!!

Deceived!

Set up!!!

She thought herself peerlessly clever and supremely intelligent, never imagining she’d been played like a fool.

Thinking about Lu Ding’s earlier statement that she wouldn’t live.

Since it’s death either way!!

Shi Tangxue was no coward!!!

She immediately struggled and cursed: ”An... An Ning... you bitch!”

”Are you... worthy of... Little... Little Fan?”

Hearing this, An Ning couldn’t help but want to laugh: ”Ning Xiaofan? Oh right, I forgot about that fake eunuch.”

”Do you really think I like him? Just a petty hoodlum, at most a bit more interesting than the others in the deep palace. Although I am a woman’s body now, I haven’t forgotten the fact that I used to be a man. You want me to like a man?”

”It was all an act for you to see. If I didn’t put on such an act, how could I gradually uncover your identity by interfering with your feelings for him?”

Contempt gradually rose on An Ning’s face, her profile cold and sharp: ”Trying to hide in plain sight right under the nose of someone who’s been in the dark for years?”

She shook her head slightly: ”Overestimating yourself.”

Fake eunuch?

Lu Ding caught the key point.

A princess, and a Holy Maiden of the Great Jing Yellow Heaven Sect—how classic.

He asked curiously: ”Who is Ning Xiaofan?”

”Replying to Grand Duke Lu, Ning Xiaofan is the most favored young eunuch beside the Great Jing emperor’s youngest son, An Xuancheng. He’s also a fake eunuch with decent talent.”

”He possesses unique petty cleverness and has helped An Xuancheng gain much favor from the Jing Emperor. He now holds a high position in the Great Jing Pestle Department.”

”The reason I was able to come out this time is the combined result of his and this Shi Tangxue’s efforts—one persuading and tempting me, the other facilitating with methods.”

”But I estimate they likely have other schemes, wanting to use this excuse of me being fond of traveling to do their own things.”

Logically, that should be the case.

But having experienced the events just now, Lu Ding knew: ”I’m afraid you turned their scheme to your advantage, didn’t you?”

An Ning, dressed in elegant white men’s brocade robes, clasped her hands, her bearing extraordinary, her gender ambiguous: ”Since they were rushing to deliver themselves, I could only go with the flow. Even if something happened, I’d have room to maneuver, after all, they were the ones who enticed me.”

Vicious! Full of arrogance.

Unlike Fu Xinghe’s low-key, subtle flamboyance, An Ning didn’t conceal her mentality of intellectual superiority in the slightest, yet she would remain cautious—proud, but not arrogant.

As for Yan Feifan, he tended to show off a bit, liking to share his guesses and triumphs with Lu Ding, then receive praise and laugh happily.

Lu Ding thought to himself, these brainy types, each indeed had different and hard-to-conceal characteristics.

But someone like An Ning...

Regarding what she just said, Lu Ding felt it wasn’t that absolute.

Proud people, once they don’t dislike petty cleverness, can easily develop a fondness for people like Ning Xiaofan who play such tricks.

Then, with that Ning Xiaofan taking the lead.

An Ning’s father, Prince Zhao, joining forces with An Xuancheng, An Ning planning strategies, and the Yellow Heaven Sect Holy Maiden using the Yellow Heaven Sect as a white glove, working from within and without—the Crown Prince position wouldn’t be hard!

Then An Xuancheng becomes Crown Prince, Ning Xiaofan gets to embrace several beauties, Prince Zhao’s predicament gets resolved, and An Ning’s identity finds liberation and resolution.

Well, a grand happy ending.

Thinking of this, Lu Ding only felt that every time someone resembling a male lead template appeared, he would inexplicably show up to stir the pot. They really had offended the Grand Duke.

As for An Wuyang.

Lu Ding could also think of some things.

His role lay in being the current Jing Emperor’s favorite junior, given his bloodline concentration.

Without his involvement, An Wuyang and the Jing Emperor would be on the same side—clean, talented, good-hearted, with no backing, no interference from any faction. The Jing Emperor abdicating wasn’t dying; with An Wuyang ascending, he’d still have a say. And given An Wuyang’s character.

He wouldn’t do anything to the Jing Emperor either, since the Jing Emperor hadn’t treated him badly.

And the Jing Emperor, freed from the shackles of the throne, would have more of his own time to break through to the later stages of Spirit Refinement, aiming for deification.

Then it would be an elder doting on a junior, a junior being filial to the elder, the two joining forces to deal with the An Xuancheng and Prince Zhao camp.

Well!

Thinking this far, Lu Ding felt that if he didn’t interfere, the subsequent development would be truly spectacular, evenly matched, with the key point being the conflict between the Jing Emperor and Prince Zhao, the two top-tier combatants on each side.

But now...

Prince Zhao is on An Wuyang’s side, the Jing Emperor is also on An Wuyang’s side....

Lu Ding laughed.

He lifted his foot, releasing the pressure on Shi Tangxue: ”Interested in telling me what you wanted to do? I can promise you, if you confess honestly, I can make you suffer less, but not none at all.”

Shi Tangxue’s face, a beauty in anger: ”Lu Ding, you’re a beast, conspiring with this bitch An Ning! Now that I’ve been tricked by you two, kill me or slice me, do as you please!!”

Slandering wildly: ”I spit on you!!!”

Lu Ding used his aura to block it, splashing it back onto her face.

Not angered.

Instead, he laughed: ”I’m a beast? Someone from the Yellow Heaven Sect can call a proper 749 Bureau investigator a beast? Hahahaha.”

The laughter stopped abruptly. Lu Ding’s expression turned completely cold: ”Remember, don’t beg for mercy later, don’t scream too loudly. Proceed with the punishment!!”