Chapter 3: Unmasking the Pretender

To get solid proof of Shen Ruowei’s scheme without alerting her too early, Wan’er decided to play a long game. She grew even closer to Ruowei than she had in her past life, pretending to trust her completely while secretly having every movement of the Shen household watched.

Through Xiaocui, whom in this life she trusted with important tasks from the very start instead of treating her like an ordinary maid, Wan’er discovered that the Shen family, on the surface just an ordinary family of silk merchants, was in fact closely tied to a hidden power behind the court: the faction of the Second Prince, Xiao Yifeng, who was secretly fighting his elder half-brother for the position of Crown Prince.

She also uncovered a shocking truth: Xiao Yichen, the man she had loved with all her heart in her past life, had never truly valued her. His “rescue” after the fall of the Lin family had only been a move to use her name as the Grand General’s daughter, to win over her father’s old army and serve his own political ambitions.

One night, Wan’er deliberately let slip a piece of false information about the route of her father’s army supply convoy, telling it only to Shen Ruowei during an intimate chat. Three days later, that information, with a few key details she had deliberately altered, turned up in a secret letter that her father’s soldiers seized from an unknown spy.

The proof was clear: only Shen Ruowei had known that information, and it had leaked out exactly as Wan’er had planned.

“Did you think I was as foolish as before?” Wan’er looked at Shen Ruowei coldly when she confronted her in private, without a trace of false “sisterly” feeling left in her voice. “From today on, stay away from the Duke of Zhenguo’s household.”

Ruowei went pale. She had never imagined that a plan she had hidden so carefully for years could be exposed with a single move. She stared at Wan’er with eyes full of both fear and venom. “You… how did you…”

“I’m simply not as naive as I used to be,” Wan’er replied, and turned to leave without a moment’s hesitation.