Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

As soon as Mistelin finished speaking, she noticed that Shen Liang was still standing there, deep in thought.

"Honey, aren't you going to go see him?"

[Oh, I was wondering, is this a new plot point from today's exercise?] Shen Liang frowned slightly. [The other party might be an actor from the school.]

"I don't think that's possible." Mistelin gracefully landed on his shoulder, half-sitting on it. "The couple was speaking in extremely low voices, almost like close-range lip-reading. If it weren't for my lip-reading skills and my special abilities, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to intercept that information. You freshmen have absolutely no way of knowing about this conversation. Jigong would never use this method to test you."

Shen Liang's mood brightened.

If Mistelin said that, then it means that some rats really did sneak into the Jigsaw Palace during the start of the school year, and he did indeed accidentally stumble upon a destructive act against Liyue.

Based on that conversation, the acts of sabotage were probably not limited to Jigong; they were large-scale operations orchestrated by a powerful force behind the scenes.

There's going to be some fun!

Shen Liang just loves to join in the fun.

[Aren't you going to report this to your demon sister?]

"Without evidence, what's the point of reporting? Say I overheard them discussing some espionage operation? You need to catch a thief red-handed." Shen Liang laughed. "Accusing a classmate without reason, while they might take my status more seriously and even intensify their interrogation, will only lower their trust in me if no evidence is found. It will also alert the people behind them, making their next operation even more unpredictable—it's unnecessary."

Mistelin was a little surprised. Shen Liang was right. Usually, the little guy didn't use his brain and relied entirely on his mother, older sister, and aunts when he did anything, but he was quite quick-witted when he was alone.

However, if you don't report it, what if you fail to stop their plot? It's better to report it to be on the safe side.

"So what if I didn't stop them? This is Liyue. What does it matter to me whether their plot succeeded or not? It's a dereliction of duty on the part of the people of Liyue," Shen Liang said calmly. "I just found it very interesting."

Mistelin was taken aback.

Yes, he is, after all, Raiden's son, the Crown Prince Inazuma; he is not a Liyue person.

After all these years, she had long since figured out her darling's personality. How could she forget now? He didn't care at all how much profit Liyue would lose because of this. He was just someone who enjoyed himself, and he helped Liyue resolve this crisis only out of pleasure and for fun. It didn't matter if it wasn't resolved; he could just treat it as experiencing life.

Cold-hearted by nature.

【That's true, then it's up to you.】

After Mistelin finished speaking, she felt a strange unease. She looked down at the exquisite coffin and suddenly realized what the unease was: in Shen Liang's heart, her status and identity were still different from... hers.

—If it were you, you would definitely get angry and give your child a good scolding to make him understand what it means to care about people's livelihoods and that since you are a capable person, you should protect more people.

—But I'm not qualified to teach him. He'll listen to you, but not to me. Even if I'm the blood flowing in his veins, even if I've made him completely inseparable from me, even if his memories have been reopened, when he looks at me, he'll never have me in his heart.

The coffin remained silent, as if mocking someone's clumsy imitation, a clumsy... theft of another's love.

Mistelin did not wallow in self-pity for long; she soon stopped looking at the coffin.

Even if I can't really be considered a "living person," it's still better than being a complete vegetable! If the person he subconsciously still cares about isn't me, then I'll slowly take him away! We'll create more memories! You just stay obediently in your coffin!

My dear junior, pure saint, Cecilia!

Mistelin cursed inwardly before realizing something was amiss, and sighed. Why did she feel like a mistress trying to take over while the original wife was abroad? Cecilia and her darling weren't exactly like the original wife; their relationship was just the tender affection between an elder and a younger generation. Even if she snatched Shen Liang, who adored Cecilia, it wouldn't make a difference, would it? She didn't need her darling's adoration! What she needed was admiration!

—Instead of saying that Cecilia would be happy to know how I treated Shen Liang, she would be grateful to me for taking care of my baby for so long and raising her son-in-law to be so healthy and chubby... Pshaw.

Thinking about it carefully, I should really be worried about her daughter.

A fleeting image of the carefree, bouncing Miss Shaniat flashed through Mistelin's mind.

She frowned, feeling like something was wrong with her head.

—It's really strange. That second young lady, whom my darling is destined to marry, makes me feel no competitive spirit at all. Is it my problem...? But why is it that, Ms. Cecilia, you make me feel a hundred times more threatened than she does?

At this moment, Mistelin was grabbed by the thigh and shaken by Shen Liang. She was sitting on Shen Liang's shoulder with zero weight. Looking down, she saw that Shen Liang had already silently walked to the outside of the washroom.

Beside him was Harunosuke Yuugami, who hadn't known why he'd followed.

"First, we need to know what the other side wants to detonate," Shen Liang said.

"Huh?" Harunosuke was puzzled.

"Brother Harunosuke, let's go in and see what kind of shady business those people are up to." Shen Liang gestured towards Harunosuke.

“Your Highness, this is the women’s restroom.” Harunosuke Yuugami’s expression was stiff. “You’re not joking, are you?”

Shen Liang was a little disappointed. He thought that Harunosuke would step in decisively. After all, this guy was a commoner of Inazuma and seemed to respect him quite a bit. He thought that as His Highness, he could carry out any order.

But it was just a joke, so Shen Liang let Mistelin go in and check.

Mistelin went in and emerged through the wall in less than ten seconds, her eyes serious. [The person is already gone?]

"She's gone? I've been watching this communal restroom the whole time, she didn't leave." Shen Liang decisively pushed the door open and went in.

"Your Highness! Oh, Your Highness!"

The washroom was indeed empty. Shen Liang pushed open the door of each stall, and finally saw a curtain hanging on the back wall of one stall. He pulled back the curtain, and behind it was a hole that could fit a person through. It looked like it had been dug overnight!

Shen Liang originally thought that the boys were the ones carrying out the mission, while the girls were responsible for delivering messages or simply going to the restroom. But now it seems that the other side has already started to take action!

[My mistake, I was just spacing out and didn't notice that this girl has been inside for six minutes and hasn't come out yet.] Mistelin regretted it; why did she always get caught up in this internal struggle with Cecilia... Cecilia was a completely harmless vegetable!

Although we don't know what the man and woman are targeting, we don't know when they will make their move. Waiting passively is no longer an option; they may already be at the scene of the operation. So, we should capture one of them first!

"But where are they?"

While having Mistelin quickly gather information about the surrounding area, Shen Liang left the main road and ran along the path leading to the back mountain from the boy. He fell into deep thought, muttering to himself.

"What is Your Highness looking for?" Harunosuke asked hurriedly.

"If I gave you a task to destroy something very important to Liyue, what would you choose?" Shen Liang asked.

"Your Highness...you came to Liyue with a special mission from Inazuma?" Harunosuke's face was pale. "Your Highness, I am merely an Onmyoji, I have no interest in politics, and I would never act as a spy. I can pretend I didn't hear what you said today and I will absolutely not reveal it to Liyue, but I will absolutely not help..."

"Stop talking nonsense, it's just a deduction." Shen Liang glanced at him. "If what Brother Qingzhijie said makes sense, I will tell Aunt Zhaigong that you take good care of me and that Auntie dotes on me. Maybe she will treat you differently."

Don't treat someone's crush like a possession while simultaneously claiming they're kind and caring towards you!

Harunosuke was very excited: "Your Highness is indeed as likable as rumored! If we have to choose a target to destroy, and we can't destroy the capital city of Liyue, then the first choice should definitely be the streets of Tiger Rock. That's currently the most prosperous area in Liyue, and the population is dense. If all else fails, the shipyard is also a good choice. The factories there are the lifeline of Liyue's shipping..."

"Oh, I forgot to add that it has to be limited to the area around Jigong, or more precisely, the Jueyun Mountains. Is there anything particularly worth destroying?"

"The Jigong area? Your Highness, do you have any destructive ideas about Jigong? You didn't find it boring after a day of school and want to blow up the school, did you..." Harunosuke joked, then thought seriously for a while, frowning slightly, "But the Jigong area is indeed not a place worth attacking. Although it is Liyue's reserve talent pool, in the end... there is no need to destroy it."

Please explain your reasoning.

"It's very simple. Jigong Palace basically doesn't have any important products. It's located in Jueyun, thousands of miles away from Liyue Harbor, with very little contact between them. Firstly, there are no resource development sites here, and secondly, there are no important items such as documents stored here. You should know that Jigong Palace is not the Sumeru Order Academy. It's just a high-end school. Everything here is available outside. The research here isn't as confidential or advanced as the Order Academy. In fact, you could say that there's nothing here that can't be made public."

Harunosuke paused for a moment, "So, even if we destroy this place, it won't cause any damage. The students of Jigong are even unlikely to be harmed, because this is Jueyunjian, the place with the most immortals. The teachers are probably all hidden masters. If there were spies here, it would be impossible to carry out a large-scale explosion without anyone knowing. The strength of the immortals is there. Even if you blow up the mountain, they might still be able to protect it."

"In other words, it's impossible to launch a large-scale blasting operation here; we can only target small targets," Shen Liang said thoughtfully.

"But then again, the Ji Palace is located on a secluded mountain peak. What target, big or small, would be worth destroying here?" Mistelin wondered.

As Shen Liang darted through the forest toward the back mountain, he continued to ponder and reminisce.

It wasn't that there were no clues. The couple mentioned earlier that there were twenty-six nodes in the northwest of Liyue, and detonating one of them would cut off all communication.

Nodes, communication?

Jigong Palace is isolated from the world. To avoid students having any contact with the secular world, and even making it difficult to descend the mountain, there isn't even an official road from here to Liyue Harbor. Letters are usually exchanged by carrier pigeons, or cranes handle some of the postal and communication services. In short, everything flies in the sky; there are no post stations or any so-called nodes.

What exactly are these 26 nodes? And this statement: detonating just one would sever all communication, while detonating 26 is merely a saturation attack to prevent Liyue from repairing the damage.

Why would detonating a single node disrupt the entire communication system? Even if one relay station is destroyed, it doesn't mean all the horses in the country will stop running.

Shen Liang pinched the snow-white hair that fell from his shoulder, unconsciously kneading it—a subconscious action when his thoughts quickened.

Furthermore, the other party mentioned that although this item is very important, the people of Liyue probably don't even realize its importance...

Therefore, the protection of that thing must be very poor.

At this moment, Shen Liang remembered the seemingly casual flirting between the couple at the end.

"I knew you liked the Liang Princess type, so I'll dye my hair white for you to see later."

Although it was just casual flirting between a young couple, it revealed that the two spies were very confident that they could hide their identities and escape after carrying out their mission.

But this is not because they are powerful. In fact, those who can enter the Ji Palace must have a clean background. They are unlikely to be unknown people who are not very powerful. Yesterday, the two of them did perform normally in the test. At most, they were at the level of ordinary God Eye holders. Any Yaksha could beat ten or a hundred of them.

Therefore, their confidence stems from the fact that even if the explosion succeeds, it won't cause much of a commotion or conflict. Because to the current Liyue people, that thing is unimportant; they might not even realize someone is sabotaging them after it's blown up.

Shen Liang summarized this series of deductions—

The enemy intends to carry out a minimal, low-profile explosion to destroy a small communication device that the Jigsaw Palace deems utterly insignificant and undefendable. This device exists throughout Liyue; the Jigsaw Palace's is just one example. However, this device is extremely important to certain forces outside of Liyue, so important that they are willing to dispatch agents for a massive, devastating attack.

There's only one possibility left. Shen Liang's eyes were like knives.

"This is a newly released product, so new that the people of Liyue don't understand its value, but their enemies do," Mistelin said softly.

[Good logical thinking skills.]

【That's what you think! I can...】Mistelin was about to boast that she was the Holy Mark Will of the Shaniat family, and that the girls of the Shaniat family must be the most intelligent and beautiful, but suddenly she remembered that she didn't seem to have any particularly high IQ among the girls of this bloodline, and it seemed that she couldn't brag in front of Shen Liang.

Shen Liang suddenly stopped and looked around. "Where are we?"

“It looks like this is the hill of the Gewu Academy,” Harunosuke said. “We’re not exactly running away, since there were no restrictions on the location, but we’ve probably already lost most of our credits by not participating in the battle.”

Shen Liang didn't care about that. "The Gewu Academy is dedicated to various schools of thought in practical science, right? If I'm not mistaken, Inazuma's new long-distance communication device, the 'telegraph machine,' has a computer room here, right?"

Chapter Fifty-Four: So Liang'er's Flying Thunder String resonated in a rather unfair way.

In order to make room for the Elemental Academy's combat department's drills, the students of the Gewu Academy had already left the campus and returned to the dormitory area, which was located further away.

The Gewu Academy was deserted today.

The term "Gewu" itself actually refers to "thoroughly investigating the principles of things," so this discipline is the one that the Jigong Academy specializes in studying the "principles of things." This academy has a large number of students and covers a wide range of topics, from the arrangement of the waterline of ships to the optimization and modification of the Fontainebleau photographic machine, and even how to improve soil quality to increase rice production.