"Wanwan!" Xiao Changtai cried out in shock and pain, his voice filled with disbelief. "In your heart, am I truly so incompetent? Destined to be a failure?"
"Heh... hehehe..." Ye Wantang laughed through her tears, her sobs becoming uncontrollable.
"Wanwan, don't cry, it's my fault..." Xiao Changtai stepped forward, wanting to embrace Ye Wantang.
Ye Wantang pushed him away again: "More than your defeat, I fear your success."
Xiao Changtai's pupils contracted sharply at her words.
"When your hands are stained with blood, burdened with sin, and you don the imperial robe, you will no longer be my husband, nor the good man I once knew in my heart."
She seemed to use all her strength to utter these words clearly. After speaking, she stumbled away.
One general's success is built upon ten thousand bones; the path to changing rulers is paved with blood.
At the end of this road, even the closest kin, most trusted allies, and deepest loves become unrecognizable.
Xiao Changtai had long known his wife was naturally indifferent to worldly affairs. She yearned for a peaceful and carefree life. He knew that once she discovered his ambitions, she would struggle to accept it, but he never expected her to be so resolute.
His eyes bloodshot, he slammed his fist on the table, grinding out the words through clenched teeth: "Xiao Changqing!"
If not for Xiao Changqing's schemes against him, how could he have been exposed so early? Leading to his wife seeing no hope and falling into such despair?
Xiao Changtai hated Xiao Changqing to the core. The thought of being reprimanded by His Majesty today for harboring wolfish ambitions made him wish he could tear Xiao Changqing limb from limb.
"Your Highness, Prince Ding already knows it was Prince Xin who set the trap." Tianyuan stood respectfully behind Xiao Huayong with bowed head.
As long as it didn't involve the princess, His Highness remained the tall and majestic deity in Tianyuan's eyes!
Xiao Huayong stood in the Eastern Palace garden, fragmented sunlight filtering through the leaves to sprinkle upon him. Before him was a table with several ceramic pots, beside which lay cut ginkgo branches. Tianyuan didn't know that his tall and majestic deity of a master had been contemplating creating a ginkgo bonsai these past few days to gift to Shen Xihe.
"Have them push Fifth Prince's candidate for the Hexi Governor position." Xiao Huayong filled the soil and began trimming the branches and trunk.
"Yield to Prince Xin?" Tianyuan was startled. "Your Highness, the Hexi Governor controls the northwest passage. Prince Xin has long coveted this position to later scheme for the Fierce King to pursue the Princess..."
Only when Xiao Huayong turned his head with a slightly cool gaze did Tianyuan realize he had spoken out of turn.
"If she's unwilling, no one can force her. If merely pleasing the Northwest King was sufficient, would it be their brothers' turn?" Xiao Huayong continued his gentle pruning.
"But we shouldn't let Prince Xin's people succeed. What if they pose a threat to the northwest later?"
"Shen Yueshan won't stumble over the same stone twice." With a snap, Xiao Huayong trimmed off excess branches, a faint smile appearing at his lips—a profoundly deep smile. "Having Fifth Prince's man become Hexi Governor will make Fourth Prince hate him even more."
Pausing, a trace of tenderness surfaced in his eyes: "This also serves as a reminder for Youyou. With the brothers benefiting most from this matter, given her intelligence, she'll surely detect their behind-the-scenes machinations and will only despise Little Ninth more."
Upon hearing Xiao Huayong's explanation, Tianyuan suddenly understood, his admiration for his master's brilliance reaching new heights.
"More importantly... this will make His Majesty wary of Fifth Prince. The more people His Majesty has to worry about and guard against, the less attention he can spare for me."
"Acknowledged!" Tianyuan responded loudly, swiftly departing to convey the orders.The appointment of the Hexi Governor had been disputed for three days. With the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet approaching and still no resolution in sight, the Youning Emperor was deeply dissatisfied.
Coincidentally, a silver mine was discovered in Fengzhou at this time, with the Deputy Protector of Anbei credited as the primary contributor deserving reward. The Youning Emperor thus transferred the Deputy Protector of Anbei to serve as Hexi Governor, promoting him from rank 4a to rank 3a.
After court adjourned, everyone's gazes toward Xiao Changqing and Xiao Changying shifted noticeably—the promoted official was their maternal uncle.
Some even sneered sarcastically: "The silver mine discovery was remarkably well-timed."
The process of verifying and confirming silver mines involves tedious and complex procedures that typically require at least a month to finalize.
This meant the Rong family had discovered the silver mine a month ago or even earlier. Since the Anxi Defense Map incident occurred afterward, it was easy for people to suspect that Xiao Changqing and his brother had deliberately paved the way for their maternal family.
Little did they know the brothers' predicament: while the Fengzhou Prefect had originally discovered the silver mine, he lacked certainty and dared not report it rashly. Fearing potential complications, he sought assistance from the Anbei Protectorate Headquarters, agreeing to share credit equally.
Just as they confirmed the silver mine's existence—during the brief time it took to share a drink—Deputy Protector Rong Ce secretly submitted a memorial behind their backs, claiming all credit for himself. If they tried to explain now, they might be accused of concealing the discovery and attempting embezzlement.
Thus Rong Ce received his promotion, but in doing so earned not only the bitter hatred of Prince Ding Xiao Changtai, but also the deep enmity of the Anbei Protector and Fengzhou Prefect.
"To think it was Rong Ce..." Shen Xihe fell into deep contemplation upon hearing the news.
"You were right—this is the brothers playing thief while crying thief!" Shen Yungan fumed.
Shen Xihe didn't disagree. She also believed the Anxi Defense Map incident was undoubtedly connected to Xiao Changqing and his brother, yet something felt off. If Xiao Changqing were truly behind it, he wouldn't have made it so obvious to everyone. Nor would he install someone as conspicuous as Rong Ce.
"I sense there's someone else pulling strings behind the scenes," Shen Xihe told Shen Yun'an. "Brother, investigate who replaced Rong Ce as Deputy Protector of Anbei."
"You suspect someone deliberately created a diversion, set up Rong Ce, and quietly profited by inserting their own person into the Anbei Protectorate to replace him?" Shen Yun'an pondered this and found it plausible. "I'll send someone to investigate immediately!"
The moment Shen Yun'an's men began their investigation, they alerted Xiao Huayong, who had Tianyuan monitoring the situation closely.
"Your Highness predicted correctly—the Crown Prince is indeed investigating who replaced Rong Ce as Deputy Protector," Tianyuan reported.
"Just as expected..." Xiao Huayong's smile softened even the mole at the corner of his eye. "She's the only one who would think to this depth."
While everyone else, including His Majesty, focused solely on Rong Ce, only Shen Xihe detected that the situation wasn't so simple.
"Why couldn't it be the Crown Prince?" Tianyuan felt his lord was overly captivated by the Duchess.
"Shen Yun'an isn't foolish..." Xiao Huayong replied lazily, "but he lacks this level of insight."
Tianyuan dared not speak further, sensing that any further doubt about the Duchess's intelligence might provoke his lord's displeasure.
"Unfortunately, she'll be disappointed this time..."
The person replacing Rong Ce was the Emperor's agent from the Golden Guard, though this Golden Guard position had been snatched away by Xiao Huayong's own operative.The Golden Guard, Your Majesty's imperial guard, upon investigating this far, would naturally assume that the replacement would also be Your Majesty's trusted confidant, and thus would not delve deeper into the matter.
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