Song Jin calling himself the future Prince Consort right in front of Li Ji could be described as completely unreserved.

The livestream bullet comments went empty for two seconds as everyone waited for Li Ji’s reaction.

Li Ji faced the camera and introduced him once more: “This is the Second Princess Consort, Song Jin.”

Song Jin: “…”

The bullet comments were instantly flooded with “Hahahahaha,” instantly dissolving the stiff atmosphere.

After appearing on screen, Li Xiao and Song Jin went back to organizing their data, leaving Li Ji alone to answer the netizens’ questions.

Old Liu’s voice came from outside the frame.

“Your Majesty, there are many people in the comments section showing concern about the rebel attack on S1301. They want to know if the rebels’ weapons were incredibly powerful, and why the garrison failed to intercept them.”

Li Ji’s expression turned solemn. “The fact that the rebels successfully invaded this time has nothing to do with whether their weapons were powerful or not, because the garrison never activated the interception protocols at all.”

Old Liu: “Someone also asked if it is true, as General Yi said, that the garrison did not lift a finger to resist the rebels?”

Li Ji: “The garrison indeed did not come to help.”

The concise and direct answer caused the livestream room to explode.

“I didn’t expect it to be true! What is the garrison trying to do?!”

“This is too terrifying! Was the garrison headquarters controlled by the rebels in advance?”

“As expected, General Yi’s words are more reliable! Meng Jian even wrote a short essay praising the garrison!”

“No wonder the Third Legion fought such a grueling battle!”

“Even the students joined the fight. You garrison personnel, are you even human?!”

“The garrison is so arrogant and yet there’s no punishment?!”

Old Liu repeated the last question, and Li Ji replied indifferently, “The main individuals responsible at the garrison base have already been detained and are undergoing the investigation process. Once there are results, they will be published on the Royal Family’s public page.”

After ten minutes of questioning, Old Liu used the excuse that Li Ji still had official duties to prepare to end the livestream.

This livestream was essentially just for a public appearance to quiet the online public opinion; there was no need to keep chatting indefinitely.

But since the bullet comments kept spamming Li Xiao and Song Jin’s names, Li Ji stood up, gestured for Li Xiao and the other to come over and say a few words, and then elegantly departed.

Having been called out, Li Xiao was forced to sit in front of the camera, casually pulling along Song Jin, who was trying to slip away by himself.

Old Liu continued to act as the host, scrolling through the netizens’ questions: “Someone is asking if Shengya’s troop deployment this time is truly to crack down on crime? Are they planning to attack Danse?”

Li Xiao silently looked toward Song Jin.

Song Jin was eating fruit when he was suddenly stared at by everyone. He looked entirely innocent: “How should I know?”

Li Xiao: “Aren’t you a citizen of Shengya? Since you’re already here, give us a shallow analysis.”

Another wave of “Hahahahaha” swept across the bullet comments.

“Song Jin: Weak, helpless, and shivering.”

“Hahaha, Second Prince, you are trying to drive our Second Princess Consort into a corner.”

“Don’t be afraid, Song Jin, we won’t lump you together with the other Shengya people.”

“You are a daughter-in-law of our Danse. Speak boldly! Whoever dares to blacken your name, I’ll fight them to the death!”

“Hahaha, anyone who didn’t know better would think Song Jin was the one who sent the troops.”

Song Jin unhurriedly ate two strawberries before finally speaking up: “Shengya has always been very friendly toward Danse. How could they just attack out of nowhere? Don’t listen to those onlookers on the Shengya internet talking nonsense.”

After he finished speaking, Old Liu chimed in from outside the frame.

“During this rebel invasion, the Princess Consort and thirty-nine other Shengya exchange students all participated in the battle. I wonder if everyone saw them in the videos?”

This single sentence completely slapped the faces of those pushing the “Shengya conspiracy” theories online.

A number of self-proclaimed military experts had been trying to set the rhythm, claiming that the rebels were actually engineered by Shengya to carry out a decapitation strike before a major war, intending to heavily cripple Danse before mobilizing troops for a war of aggression.

In the comments section—

“I didn’t notice the others, but Song Jin definitely took down a lot of enemy troops single-handedly!”

“I can brag about the Second Princess Consort’s strength for a whole year!”

“I thought it was strange before! I just didn’t dare to speak recklessly for fear of getting flamed.”

“Since the Princess Consort put it that way, a war definitely won’t break out.”

“Do you guys really not know who is behind those setting the rhythm online?”

At the military headquarters on the Imperial Capital Planet.

Meng Jian watched the livestream with a freezing face. “Pressing heavy troops against the border while brainwashing the people of Danse on this side—Shengya truly has excellent methods!”

Meng Zai had been forced to take a vacation and was called to the office by his father. Seeing this scene, he sneered, “These fools! I’m afraid they are helping others count the money even after being sold!”

As he spoke, he randomly found a spare terminal, began frantically showering the livestream room with gifts until he reached the top of the leaderboard, and left a comment in the message section.

The content he posted was bolded in red font and frozen right in the middle of the screen.

【You make it sound so pleasant. You cannot represent the Shengya military. If Shengya really attacks, can you bear the responsibility?】

Song Jin glanced at the line of text and chuckled. “Since I cannot represent the military, why should I be responsible for the war? I am still in Danse. If a war really breaks out, I will be a victim too.”

【If Shengya really invades, I’m afraid you will run faster than anyone else.】

Song Jin maintained a smile. “Whether I run or not has no impact on Danse. Unlike certain people, who want to kill off their own people before the external enemy even arrives.”

These words were heavily loaded with innuendo, and the bullet comments went wild.

“Oh, I think I’ve realized something!”

“Don’t say it, seriously, don’t say it.”

“Stop speaking in riddles, who is this ‘certain people’!”

“The rebels invaded, and the garrison turned a blind eye. This is already very telling.”

“Indeed, Danse’s biggest problem right now isn’t an external enemy, it’s a mole!”

【You, a foreigner, should stop sowing discord here! Do you really think anyone can be fooled by you?】

Song Jin dropped his fork into the bowl with a light thud and casually stuffed it into Li Xiao’s hands, the smile on his lips fading slightly. “What right does someone like you, who doesn’t even dare to log into a main account, have to clamor here? Do you not dare to expose your surname?”

The word “surname” violently struck a nerve with the mass of netizens.

Although Song Jin hadn’t explicitly said anything, they all simultaneously thought of the Qi family.

The last time at S80, they had let the Ravens break in. Although it was later confirmed to be a misunderstanding, this time at S1301 was a bona fide enemy attack. For the garrison to collectively remain stationary, it was hard not to suspect they were acting under the orders of the General in charge of that division.

A massive wave of the character “Qi” swept across the bullet comments, and many people began tagging the top donor to lash out at him.

“What are you, a keyboard warrior, blabbering about here?”

“Song Jin helped us protect His Majesty and the spectators, what have you done?”

“I think you are the one sowing discord, get out!”

“Speechless, I really hate black flakes like this.”

“Second Prince, please stop eating and protect our Princess Consort!”

Old Liu watched the bullet comments scrolling frantically and said to Li Xiao, “Prince, many people want to hear your thoughts.”

Li Xiao was eating his fruit, looking completely out of the loop. “What thoughts?”

Just as Old Liu was about to speak, Song Jin said testily, “They are asking you what thoughts you have about that surname that just scrolled past?”

Old Liu: “…”

This method of drawing out a topic is truly high.

Li Xiao deliberately asked, “Which surname?”

In the next moment, the bullet comments were filled with the character “Qi” once again.

After Li Xiao finished chewing what was in his mouth, his expression became somewhat grave.

“This matter shouldn’t be discussed here.”

Anyone with clear eyes could tell from Li Xiao’s attitude and tone that something had definitely gone wrong with the Qi family, and they couldn’t help but feel shocked.

The amount of hidden information here was simply too massive.

Previously, a video had been leaked online showing His Majesty being attacked and trapped on the high-altitude chains.

The enemy’s attacks were highly targeted, clearly intending to drive His Majesty to his death.

If the spectators hadn’t called out for help in unison, drawing the guard team over, and if Li Xiao and Song Jin hadn’t protected him together later on, His Majesty would have been as dead as could be.

Just think about it: as the ruler of a nation, even if he were to watch a competition, he would inevitably be in the safest place. It was impossible for him to appear on the chains for no reason.

This meant that before the video was taken, His Majesty had already suffered an attack at the observation tower.

If all of this was related to the Qi family, it was truly terrifying upon deeper thought!

Li Xiao: “Next, the Security Bureau will carry out arrests on all personnel suspected of major crimes. If everyone is interested in this area, please pay more attention to the official announcements.”

The bullet comments went empty for a moment.

Everyone found it hard to believe.

Li Xiao hadn’t mentioned the word “Qi” once, yet every word spoke of the Qi family.

The phrase “suspected of major crimes” was practically already a formal classification.

Thinking of His Majesty’s disheveled state in front of the camera, the netizens grew increasingly furious.

They had almost let them succeed!

As Li Xiao spoke, he issued a command to 09 using his mind: [Use an alternate account to spam a wave of the character ‘Meng’.]

09: [Received!]

07: [I’ll help spam too!]

At the military headquarters, Meng Zai abruptly stood up and shouted angrily, “What nonsense is this brat spouting?! The process hasn’t even begun, how can he make this kind of thing public?!”

Meng Jian’s face was dark, his ominous premonition growing stronger and stronger.

He swiped open his terminal and tried to dial Li Ji’s personal frequency.

The request remained unanswered, so Meng Jian turned around and dialed Old Liu’s frequency, which also failed to connect.

“Father!” Meng Zai pointed at the livestream screen. “Look quickly!”

Meng Jian looked up impatiently and saw the screen filled with the character “Meng.” His eyes twitched, and he slapped the desk as he stood up. “Presumptuous!”

“This must be arranged by that brat Li Xiao!” Meng Zai’s eyes widened, dizzy with rage. “Someone, come! Quick, shut down this livestream room!”

The assistant urgently contacted the platform, but the communication repeatedly failed to connect.

After failing to contact several main managers in a row, he finally found the assistant of a manager. Only after a long while did the other side pick up.

Meng Jian’s assistant: “Immediately cut off the Third Legion’s livestream room!”

Platform assistant: “I am very sorry, I do not have this authority.”

Meng Jian’s assistant: “Then get someone with the authority to do it!”

The platform assistant hemmed and hawed for a long time before whispering, “That is His Majesty’s livestream, after all… I’m sorry, I still have things to do, let’s leave it at that.”

Meng Jian’s assistant: “You people—hello?!”

The communication was cut off mid-way, leaving the assistant with a terrible expression.

Since when did these people fear the Royal Family so much?

Over the years, they had allowed black materials about the Royal Family to circulate online and had even pushed things along behind the scenes. Why hadn’t they seen these people say “that is the Royal Family, after all” back then!

On the bullet comments, 07 and 09 had only sent a few dozen “Meng” characters before things spiraled out of control. Dense layers of the character “Meng” spammed the screen for a full minute without stopping.

“Please respond, Second Prince!”

“Is it also related to this surname?”

“I beg of you! If I don’t hear an answer, I’m going to lose sleep again tonight, sob sob.”

“We absolutely cannot tolerate moles causing trouble!”

“Shengya hasn’t even done anything to us yet, and we’re already throwing ourselves into chaos!”

“Some people have truly been floating for too long, forgetting who they are!”

In the livestream room, Li Xiao saw the screen filled with the character “Meng.” Frowning, he said to the technical staff outside the camera, “Quickly filter out this character.”

The technician hurriedly responded, “Yes!”

Song Jin said lazily, “The people who needed to see it have already seen it. What’s the use of filtering it? They can still use homophones.”

Just as he finished speaking, all kinds of homophonic characters popped up on the screen.

Li Xiao looked somewhat anxious and couldn’t help but speed up his speech: “We still have work arrangements next, so we will end the livestream here.”

“What are you nervous about?” Song Jin held his hand. “You didn’t say anything, it was the netizens themselves who said it.”

Li Xiao lowered his eyes slightly, his hand holding the fork tightening. “But—”

Song Jin forcefully pulled his head over and pressed it against his own shoulder. “It’s exactly because you are like this that you are always bullied.”

Li Xiao: “…”

He used so much force.

The bullet comments had completely gone crazy.

“It was our own choice to spam it!”

“Don’t be afraid, Second Prince, we will always stand by your side!”

“Heavens! We can’t even mention it, it’s too suffocating! Is this real?”

“Today has truly shattered my three views.”

As soon as the livestream ended, all kinds of content online regarding Qi Shoude instructing the garrison to abandon resistance exploded onto the web.

The Third Legion released an official arrest announcement, publishing the names of the chief person in charge of the S1301 garrison as well as other military officers ranked Major and above.

Very quickly, the hot term #S1301 Garrison Treason# rushed to the top of the trending searches, with the discussion volume breaking one hundred billion in a short period of time.

Li Ji had wanted to take advantage of this wave of public opinion to issue a formal investigation announcement, but he was informed by Old Liu that they could not contact the personnel in the Propaganda Department.

Li Ji was so furious he smashed a teacup to pieces.

“Meng Jian sure moves fast.”

They hadn’t returned to the Sky-falling Constellation yet. Even if they held people accountable later, that group of old slickers could just blame it on signal issues; they had plenty of excuses to shirk responsibility.

Opportunity waits for no one. Li Ji beckoned to Old Liu: “Use my private account to publish all the announcements that need to go out!”

Old Liu: “Yes!”

As the online public opinion continued to ferment, someone noticed that His Majesty had actually updated his status. First, he forwarded the Third Legion’s announcement, followed by a whole series of investigation announcements regarding the S1301 enemy attack incident.

“Summary: The Qi family is going to be thoroughly investigated. Anyone from the Qi faction who surrenders will receive leniency. If they stubbornly refuse to admit it, they will probably be thoroughly finished.”

“The Royal Family is playing for real!”

“Am I about to witness history?!”

“Support the thorough investigation!”

“And the Meng family!”

“To the person upstairs, this incident has nothing to do with the Meng family, okay?”

“The Second Prince already called them out, and yet there are still people coming out to whitewash them.”

“When did the Second Prince call them out? Some people truly have wild imaginations.”

Countless media outlets forwarded Li Ji’s announcement. Combined with Li Xiao’s ambiguous words in the livestream room, it directly pushed the Qi family to the eye of the storm.

An alternate account claiming to be a military insider posted an update—

【Learned from a reliable source that General Qi was arrested at the military headquarters, and his immediate family members were also taken away. It is said that the control level at the military headquarters is still being maintained at the top tier. To explain to friends who don’t understand, this level of control is only activated when a major war breaks out. The situation is probably much larger and more serious than we imagined.】

This update was frantically forwarded, and countless people mentioned the Meng family under the hot keywords related to the Qi family.

The Royal Family had no further announcements targeting the Meng family, leading to endless arguments over whether the Meng family was involved.

But to Meng Jian, this already counted as a humiliating disgrace.

Reputation is a strange thing. You can do a hundred good deeds, but as long as you get linked to a single bad deed, all your previous efforts might go down the drain.

Conversely, you can do a hundred bad deeds, but as long as you do a single good deed, you might be brought back to life.

Right now, the Meng family was the former, while the Royal Family was the latter.

In the office, Meng Jian smashed a whole shelf of antiques.

If it weren’t for wanting to maintain the Meng family’s reputation, he wouldn’t have needed to wait all these years; he could have eliminated Li Ji and taken the throne long ago!

“Father, the more it is a time like this, the more we must remain calm!” Meng Tu’s voice came through the video screen. “Right now, our number one priority is to protect the border. Only by defending it successfully can we have a voice; otherwise, no amount of clarification will be of any use.”

“Clarification?” Meng Jian was driven to laughter by rage. “Clarify to whom? Clarify whose words? They didn’t name names. If you actively jump out to clarify, aren’t you looking to get insulted?”

Thinking of Li Xiao’s performance of acting pitiful in the livestream room, Meng Jian’s anger surged up repeatedly.

He had never suffered this kind of silent loss before!

If the Shengya army weren’t pressing against the border, how could those two brothers be allowed to talk such nonsense!

Meng Tu’s face was dark: “They are using Shengya’s actions this time to force our hand, but since the situation has already reached this point, we don’t have many choices left.”

Although Song Jin had claimed in the livestream room that Shengya wouldn’t attack, ordinary citizens might dare to believe those words, but they didn’t dare.

No one knew if this was a smokescreen from Shengya to make them lower their guard.

Meng Jian took a few deep breaths, suppressing the irritation in his heart. “How is the border?”

Meng Tu: “They have already attacked five star pirate groups, and they’ve even distributed a lot of relief supplies to nearby residents. They are putting on quite a show.”

As he spoke, a person quickly approached outside the camera frame.

“Officer, we just received word that Shengya’s military is carrying out bombings against the Hyenas. This is the current bombing radius!”

Hearing the name of the Hyenas, Meng Jian was startled.

“Put it up let me see!”

The video captured by the satellite clearly displayed the bombed area, and Meng Jian’s face changed drastically.

Just then, the adjutant ran hurriedly into the office, lowering his voice and reporting at rapid speed: “Officer, we just received word that the Hyenas’ feed base has been bombed!”

“I’ve already seen it!” Meng Jian gritted his back teeth, his face freezing cold.

Adjutant: “Should we counter?”

Meng Jian slammed a fist onto the desk: “How do we counter?! What reason do we use to counter?!”

The adjutant’s expression stiffened.

The border was a disputed zone between the two nations. There wouldn’t be a problem for them to deploy troops, but going to stop Shengya from cracking down on crime wouldn’t make sense. Especially under the current circumstances, any slight move by the Meng family might be picked up by the Royal Family to make an issue out of it.

Without realizing it, the situations of the Royal Family and the Meng family had actually swapped.

The adjutant thought for a moment: “We can go crack down on crime too. Let’s protect all the feed bases first. Shengya surely won’t come over to snatch them, right?”

Meng Jian walked back and forth anxiously with his hands behind his back.

On the other end of the video screen, Meng Tu pondered for a moment and felt this method was feasible: “It can both salvage some reputation and protect the bases. We can give it a try.”

Meng Jian narrowed his eyes slightly. “When two armies clash in a lawless gray zone, it won’t be up to us to decide how things go.”

Meng Tu: “Are you worried Shengya will take the opportunity to attack us?”

“It’s not outside the realm of possibility.” Meng Jian grabbed the walnuts and rolled them in his palm, reflecting for a long while before saying, “Send one legion to the nearest base first to test Shengya’s attitude.”

Meng Tu: “Yes!”

Hanging up the video call, Meng Jian sent another video request to Li Ji.

This time, it connected after a short while.

“Old Meng, what’s wrong?” Li Ji’s attitude was as usual.

Meng Jian suppressed his impatience and spoke up: “Your Majesty, I just saw the announcement you posted online, and I feel it is somewhat inappropriate.”

Li Ji sat in the command seat, taking the teacup handed over by Old Liu. “What is inappropriate?”

Meng Jian: “Setting aside whether Qi Shoude committed a crime for a moment, right now an external enemy is pressing against the border. We should first gather all forces to prepare for battle. Your announcement is highly likely to cause instability within the military.”

“It is exactly at a time like this that we should do this.” Li Ji took a sip of tea. “Are we supposed to nurture a mole while waiting to die?”

Meng Jian: “I feel you are being too arbitrary. The enemy attack on S1301 hasn’t been thoroughly investigated yet, and you are already suspecting there is a ghost inside. Before the battle even starts, the morale of the entire military will be shattered. How are we supposed to fight a war then?”

Li Ji looked at the screen, his face calm. “Meng Jian, do you think I posted this for fun without any evidence?”

Meng Jian: “Sometimes so-called evidence might not necessarily be real.”

“Guard your border well.” Li Ji set the teacup down with a light thud. “Mind less about other matters.”

With that, he hung up the video call.

Looking at the darkened screen, Meng Jian’s lip line was stretched perfectly straight.

In the warship’s command cabin.

Song Jin reviewed the intelligence sent back from the border front lines: “Progress is going very smoothly.”

Li Xiao leaned over and glanced at his screen.

Shengya’s military had already bombed two feed bases.

Targeting only the feed bases to bomb would be too obvious and would highly likely arouse the suspicion of that old man Meng Jian, so Xiao Jin simply had Shengya’s military expand the attack range to all star pirate groups along the border.

Song Jin: “That big brute Jiang Chi is quite nimble when it comes to working. He found quite a few feed bases. How did you find such a person?”

“Ran into him by chance,” Li Xiao fabricated a casual explanation.

In his past life, he had only interacted with Jiang Hao and occasionally heard Jiang Hao mention that he had an older brother who had passed away during the chaos of the star pirate wars.

Jiang Chi’s wish was simply to let Jiang Hao live an ordinary life. It just so happened that his army was at the border at that time, and Jiang Hao actively approached him. The very first sentence he asked was—If I help you fight, can I get a household registration?

After returning this time, he had gone looking for Jiang Hao and unexpectedly got to know Jiang Chi, who turned out to be fairly reliable.

Song Jin chuckled: “That old man Meng Jian is probably going to be driven completely insane, right?”

“This is just the beginning.” Li Xiao’s gaze shifted back to his own screen as he continued with the task at hand. “If he can’t keep his composure over just this, then who is the rest of the play supposed to be performed for?”

Curious, Song Jin leaned closer to take a look.

Seeing the text Li Xiao was editing, he nearly died laughing.

“It’s truly a pity you didn’t become a scriptwriter.”

Li Xiao said in all seriousness, “If there’s an opportunity in the future, I’ll give it a try.”

Song Jin: “Is anyone really going to believe something this absurd?”

Li Xiao: “The more absurd it is, the easier it is to attract attention. If no one believes it, worst case scenario we just switch to a different narrative. Anyway, it’s not like we have anything else to do.”

Song Jin: “…”

While everyone online was focusing on whether the Qi family would be uprooted and whether the Meng family was involved, an alternate account published an update under the related hot keywords.

【The Meng family’s ancestors belonged to the Mengyue tribe. This tribe loved gathering together to eat human flesh, and they also liked collecting human bones and human skin. They were extremely perverted—】