Transmigration Of An Assassin

More Planning

Tang Shushui did not move immediately, and that was what made him frightening. Most people, after deciding on revenge, rushed to strike. They wanted immediate satisfaction, wanted to see fear appear on the enemy's face as quickly as possible. Anger made people impatient. It made them reckless. But Tang Shushui was not reckless. He understood something most people did not. A household like the Wang family could not be destroyed with force alone. It had to rot from the inside, and rot always began with suspicion.

For the next several days, Tang Shushui behaved as though the matter had already passed. He did not send servants to argue outside the Wang residence. He did not spread rumors in the marketplace. He did not mention the incident involving the children again. To outsiders, it looked as though he had finally accepted reality and swallowed the grievance quietly. Which was exactly what he wanted. Only Bai Fengju knew that behind closed doors, Tang Shushui had already begun quietly collecting information on the Wang family.

What he gathered was not evidence of corruption, hidden crimes, or political weakness. Instead, he focused on something much smaller. Habits. He wanted to know where Wang Jin went after leaving court each day, which roads he preferred taking home, which tea houses he frequented, which shops he stopped at most often, and whether he regularly spoke to anyone along the way. At first, Bai Fengju did not understand why any of it mattered. To her, the reports seemed almost meaningless. But Tang Shushui understood very clearly that a man's secrets were rarely hidden in grand actions. Most of the time, they hid themselves inside daily routine. 

That evening, Bai Fengju met each other the study in the restuarant quietly. Tang Shushui sat beside the table in a dark robe with several sheets of paper spread before him. He looked calm and amiable  as always, but there was something unusually cold in his expression today. Bai Fengju lowered her eyes toward the papers before picking one up.

"He visits the same bookstore every fifth day?" she asked after a moment.

Tang Shushui nodded lightly. "And afterward, he buys osmanthus cakes from the same stall."

Bai Fengju frowned slightly. "That hardly sounds suspicious."

"Of course it doesn't," Tang Shushui replied calmly. "If it were suspicious, Lady He would've noticed already."

He tapped one of the papers gently with his fingers before continuing. "The first step isn't proving betrayal. It's creating the possibility of betrayal."

Bai Fengju fell silent. Slowly, she began understanding what he meant. A single rumor would never be enough to shake Lady He. In fact, it might even push her to defend Wang Jin more fiercely. After all, the entire capital knew Wang Jin's reputation as a devoted husband. He had no concubines, never visited brothels, and treated Lady He with unusual patience for a man in his position. That kind of reputation could not be destroyed with one accusation. But if tiny inconsistencies began appearing one after another, things small enough to seem accidental, Lady He's confidence would slowly begin cracking on its own. Once doubt entered someone's mind, they would start searching for proof themselves. And when that happened, even innocent things would begin looking suspicious.

Tang Shushui lowered his eyes slightly as though lost in thought. "Wang Jin has spent years building the image of a perfect husband," he said quietly. "That's precisely why this plan will work. The more perfect someone appears, the less people can tolerate flaws."

If Wang Jin had already been the type of man who chased women openly, this plan would not have worked so easily. If he had concubines already, or spent his nights in brothels like other officials, Lady He would have learned long ago how to endure it quietly. She would still be angry, perhaps even humiliated, but not shaken. A woman who already expected betrayal rarely destroyed herself searching for it.

But Wang Jin had gone too far in the opposite direction. And that was exactly why this would work.

Because the more flawless someone appeared, the more unbearable even the smallest crack became.

Lady He did not simply trust Wang Jin. She was proud of him. Proud that her husband was different from other men. Proud that while other wives worried about concubines and outside women, she never had to. That pride had slowly turned into certainty, and certainty made people blind.

And now, if that image of perfection suddenly cracked, how would Lady He react?

Poorly.

Very poorly.

Because she had never prepared herself for betrayal in the first place.

Women whose husbands openly chased beauty outside eventually developed a kind of tolerance toward disappointment. Not acceptance, but expectation. They learned how to ignore certain things to preserve peace inside the household. Some cried. Some fought. Some quietly swallowed their anger for the sake of their children and reputation. But at the very least, they understood the kind of men they married.

Lady He was different. 

Lady He never had to learn that lesson.

For an entire decade, Wang Jin carefully built the image of a devoted husband around her. Whether that devotion was genuine or calculated no longer mattered, because Lady He believed it completely. And once someone believed something for ten years, it became difficult to separate that belief from reality itself.

This was no longer only about whether Wang Jin was cheating. It was about humiliation. If Wang Jin truly had another woman after all these years, then it meant Lady He had been fooled for an entire decade without ever noticing. The marriage she quietly took pride in, the husband she believed made her different from other women, would suddenly become proof that she had been blind the entire time.

That was the part Tang Shushui understood best.

A calmer woman might stop investigating after finding nothing suspicious immediately. She might convince herself she was overthinking and let the matter die quietly before it damaged the marriage further. But Lady He would not be capable of doing that because once doubt entered her mind, everything would begin looking suspicious to her.

Bai Fengju stared at Tang Shushui for a long moment, the candlelight flickering faintly between them. The more she listened to him explain the plan, the colder she felt. At first, she thought everything depended on Wang Jin actually having another woman outside. But now, she slowly realized that was not true at all.

Her brows furrowed slightly. "But what if he's not cheating?" she asked quietly.

The room fell silent for a brief moment.

Then Tang Shushui smiled.

It was not a warm smile. It was the kind of smile that made Bai Fengju's spine turn cold.

"Then it would still work," he said calmly.

Bai Fengju stared at him in disbelief. "How?"

Tang Shushui lowered his eyes toward the unfinished letter resting on the table. His fingers tapped lightly against the wood before he spoke again. "Because Lady He will still investigate him."