Koala Reads

"Shen Linyi and Shen Qianzhan listened intently, their fingers tightening on the edges of their sleeves."

"As Qiao Yanxi laid out the files the Qiao household had gathered over the years, each revelation made their faces go colder. The Ji clan had not only colluded with outsiders, they had been raising private troops under the cover of disaster relief and bandit suppression. A Xue’s mechanical inventions had been repurposed and fitted to weapons. If the emperor so much as hinted at making the eldest prince his heir, the Ji family would almost certainly conspire with the outer court to stage a rebellion."

"The Great Zhou had only recently been founded; the people were only just beginning to find peace. If the Ji clan rose now, the ones who would suffer most were ordinary folk. If there was a way to settle this without bloodshed, it would be a blessing for the realm."