“Go quickly! Sister Bai is inside…” Lu Yuanpeng said to Fan Yugan. “We have business to attend to, so we’ll leave first!”

Fan Yugan nodded. He had originally wanted to apologize again to Lu Yuanpeng for failing to protect Lu Fenglang, but seeing that Lu Yuanpeng had already hurried off to chase after the departing Prince Gaoyi, he said to Sima Ping: “Let’s talk again later!”

Sima Ping raised his hand and patted Fan Yugan’s arm: “I’m leaving…”

As soon as Fan Yugan entered the door, he knelt with red eyes and kowtowed, saying he had failed the imperial grace: “Now, Lord Liu is trapped in Dongyi, Lu Fenglang’s life or death is unknown, and only this guilty subject still shamelessly lives. I truly have no face to meet Your Majesty, but… having not yet personally pleaded guilty to Your Majesty, Fan Yugan dares not die without permission.”

“Get up!” Bai Qingyan gestured for Wei Zhong to help the still-injured Fan Yugan sit down. “Although the memorial mentioned your affairs in Dongyi, the scope was limited after all. Please sit down and explain everything clearly from beginning to end.”

“Yes!” Only then did Fan Yugan begin from Lu Fenglang entering the palace to present treasures, making contact with the empress, including advising the empress to have her hide an imperial edict under the old emperor’s pillow. To increase the authenticity of the edict, Lu Fenglang also suggested that the empress add that after the young prince ascended the throne and came of age to rule personally, the empress would need to accompany the late emperor.

Then, before the palace coup occurred, the empress somehow either sent someone to kill Great Zhou’s spies or Great Zhou’s spies betrayed Great Zhou, actually sending someone to notify Lord Liu to leave quickly – the second prince was staging a coup!

Later, they fled, and Dongyi’s navy pursued them, but only caught up on the fourth day. Only then did Lu Fenglang realize they had been calculated by the empress. The empress had left an escape route for the young prince. Once the second prince’s uprising succeeded and he discovered that Great Zhou’s envoys had fled, he would naturally assume Great Zhou had taken the young prince away and send troops to pursue and eliminate this threat to his throne.

And the young prince had probably already been sent away.

After hearing the whole story, Bai Qingyan pondered for a moment and said, “You were injured trying to go back and rescue Lu Fenglang?”

Fan Yugan pressed his lips together, unable to hide the guilt in his eyes: “It also cost four or five fishermen their lives. In the end, I was injured and fainted. I don’t know what happened after that.”

Later, Prince Hancheng’s body was taken back by Dongyi, and their new naval commander spoke arrogantly, saying that if the Great Zhou emperor didn’t personally come to retrieve Prince Hancheng’s body, they would chop it up and feed it to dogs.

After all, Lu Fenglang was the legitimate granddaughter of Great Zhou’s Grand Commandant. If Dongyi had taken Lu Fenglang back, there should have been news, but there was no word at all from Dongyi. In the vast ocean… Fan Yugan only felt that Lu Fenglang was probably doomed, his heart filled with even more guilt, feeling he had no face to see his good friend Lu Yuanpeng.

In the brightly lit main hall, Bai Qingyan sat upright in the main seat, holding a cup of hot tea in her hands.

The swaying lamplight cast shadows across Bai Qingyan’s extremely beautiful features, making it impossible to read her emotions.

“Eldest sister, I estimate… this Dongyi empress still sent that young prince to Great Zhou’s territory!” Bai Qingjue spoke in a low voice. “This empress calculated very clearly. If Great Zhou goes to war with Dongyi, someone will probably soon bring this young prince to us, eagerly wanting to be our Great Zhou’s puppet emperor.”

Bai Qingyan’s eyes didn’t move: “Probably wanting to use Great Zhou’s power to ascend to the throne!”

After speaking, Bai Qingyan’s brow furrowed. She suddenly turned to look at the stack of spy confessions that Bai Qingjue had set aside, as if thinking of something, and pulled out one confession from a shop assistant.

Bai Qingjue had required these people to write down all the shopkeeper’s suspicious behavior and everything he had done in the month before and after the recent naval battles, leaving out no detail, so there were more confession papers. Even these… were ones Bai Qingjue had selected, giving Bai Qingyan only the non-repetitive ones.

The confession Bai Qingyan held… was provided by a shop assistant. This assistant wasn’t a spy, but whether from fright or wanting to push all blame onto the shopkeeper, he said that every year, a month or half-month before New Year, the shopkeeper would personally make many local specialty snacks, then go to sea with only a few close followers… also bringing lots of dried food. He’d be gone for about eight days before returning. If those specialty snacks were all eaten by them, why were even the boxes containing the snacks gone when he returned? He found it very strange.

Bai Qingyan narrowed her eyes. But an eight-day round trip – who knew where this shopkeeper went…

Her finger tapped irregularly on the table. He must be going to deliver that food to someone?

What kind of person would be intimate enough for this shopkeeper to go to such great trouble just to deliver some food? That could only be someone very close, someone the shopkeeper cared deeply about.

She pulled out another one. There was also the day before those fishermen protected by Prince Hancheng returned, someone came looking for the shopkeeper. After the shopkeeper hurriedly left, he sent several people to a residence in the east of the city that had been uninhabited for a long time.

A crystal-clear line suddenly became clear in Bai Qingyan’s mind.

“Xie Yuchang, immediately take people… to this shopkeeper’s residence in the east of the city, and invite this Dongyi seventh prince over!” Bai Qingyan set the confession aside, her deep, profound eyes looking up at Xie Yuchang. “Remember to keep quiet. The seventh prince has hidden guards around him. Make sure all these guards are completely in the net before acting, don’t let anyone escape!”

“Yes!” Although Xie Yuchang didn’t know how His Majesty knew that Dongyi’s seventh prince was in the shopkeeper’s residence in the east of the city, he still firmly cupped his fists and responded, hurrying out to go east and capture the person. Their emperor had never been wrong.

Fan Yugan, sitting in his chair, quickly stood up upon hearing this, his face full of confusion: “Your Majesty, this is…”

“Let me ask you, which official exactly sent someone to warn Lord Liu that the second prince was forcing the palace… and intended to kill our Great Zhou envoys!”

Looking at Bai Qingyan’s calm, water-like eyes that seemed filled with convincing, composed strength, Fan Yugan spoke in a low voice: “Dongyi’s Vice Minister of Revenue…”

Bai Qingyan nodded, waved her hand to indicate Fan Yugan should sit down, and said to him: “Lu Fenglang has already been rescued and brought back. Rest assured!”

“Then… where is she?” Fan Yugan was incredulous yet joyful. Thinking of Lu Yuanpeng, who had hurriedly left earlier, he quickly said: “Is it that Lu Yuanpeng and Sima Ping went with Prince Gaoyi to see Lu Fenglang?”

Bai Qingyan nodded: “If you’re not at ease, just go see her tomorrow morning!”

Hearing this, Fan Yugan finally breathed a sigh of relief. In his heart, he cursed Lu Yuanpeng and Sima Ping harshly – those two bastards, seeing him just now and not even telling him a word, letting him feel so guilty.