Public Opinion and the Emperor’s Mandate

Serena ordered her dark-guards to infiltrate Shunning Marquis Manor and the Bloodcloak Guard, steal their pens, ink, paper, and inkstones, and then write out all the dirty secrets of Shunning Marquis Manor and the darkness inside the Bloodcloak Guard—using their own stationery.

As for those dirty secrets, Serena never planned to write anything factual—her only goal was chaos, so she wrote whatever would stir up the most trouble.

If Shunning Marquis Manor was going to accuse her disciple of raping their young lady, then Serena would use Bloodcloak Guard's paper to write that Shunning's young lady was secretly sleeping with the servants, the young master with the concubines, the marchioness kept a lover and hooked up with capital grandees—the whole manor was a mess, not a single clean person in sight.

After the young lady's affair with a servant was exposed, they pinned the blame on visiting physician Simon Sun. Simon was framed and thrown into prison, while Shunning Marquis Manor bribed the Bloodcloak Guard, trying to torture him into confessing.

Simon Sun refused to admit to a crime he didn't commit, so the Bloodcloak Guard threatened, intimidated, and persecuted him with every trick they had. His family tried to see him, but couldn't even find him. Ever since he entered the Bloodcloak dungeon, Simon's fate has been a mystery—no one knows if he's dead or alive.

As for the Bloodcloak Guard's darkness, Serena didn't need to supply any material—the dark-guards could write out hundreds of examples themselves. This shadowy department has committed so many crimes over the years, it's impossible to list them all.

The Bloodcloak Guard is supposed to supervise officials, but instead they collude with them, cover up each other's crimes, trample lives, ignore the law, and abuse prisoners just to satisfy the jailers' twisted desires.

Each scandal sheet was barely a hundred words, but every line could make the reader's face change. The dark-guards polished the drafts and handed them to Serena.

Just as Serena ordered, the writing was plain and direct—read aloud, even ordinary people could understand every word. Serena looked over them and nodded in satisfaction.

She wasn't printing textbooks—she was guiding public opinion. As long as the words spread fast, that was all that mattered.