He fell back against the cushion in the round-backed armchair, slowly drew a breath, and nodded for Wu Feng to continue. Since the capital had already arranged for his sons to be adopted by Prince Su, there must be some other arrangements as well. They had to thoroughly crush the fact that he was a disloyal, unfilial traitorous subject before all under heaven.

Wu Feng glanced at him, seeing his flushed face and cold sweat seeping from his forehead. After hesitating a moment, he didn’t conceal anything and honestly told him about the Crown Prince’s investiture on February twenty-first. At the end, he added: “We no longer have anyone in the capital. We can only see news from the official gazette.” Originally they’d thought this time they could kill Emperor Jianzhang and frame Zhou Weizhao for it, but they never expected that not only would the matter fail, but they’d instead lose all their remaining hidden agents without a single one left.

Prince Gong gave a cold laugh and asked him: “Has there been any word from Han Zhengqing?”

Originally he’d trusted Han Zhengqing partly because Han Zhengqing had sent over his own biological son and had truly rebelled against the court, feeling that Han Zhengqing had no way back. But now with Han Yang defecting at this time, he couldn’t help but suspect Han Zhengqing’s intentions. Even if he truly had no way back with the court, perhaps he wanted to use himself as a stepping stone, raising the grand banner of being a wronged prince, and then after succeeding planned to cross the river and demolish the bridge, discarding him to become emperor himself?

How else could Han Yang’s betrayal be explained?

But if it was Han Zhengqing’s intention, Han Yang had deceived people yet went directly to Jinzhong, clearly going to relieve Jinzhong’s siege. Yet Han Zhengqing hated Prince Zhennan, who stood with the Eastern Palace faction, to the bone, and there was still the matter of Consort Fan between him and the Crown Prince! If they’d planned this together, he felt it utterly unlikely, leaving his mind even more chaotic and muddled.

Fortunately, while he was being bombarded dizzy by this string of bad news and nearly dying, Han Zhengqing himself was actually quite shocked by the news from the capital.

He wasn’t just shocked—besides shock, there was more anger. He felt as if his five organs and six viscera were all on fire, burning until his entire body’s blood boiled. He slammed his palm on the table surface, shattering the thick table into several pieces.

Even this couldn’t dissipate the boiling rage. He simply thoroughly smashed everything in the tent clean, as if only continuously destroying things could vent his fury.

He’d been becoming more and more agitated lately. In the past when he grew angry, he was accustomed to showing no emotion, never letting his feelings leak out. But recently, somehow, he’d become abnormally violent, constantly smashing things and hitting people at the slightest provocation.

His confidant instinctively retreated two steps backward before standing firm, somewhat afraid and somewhat trembling as he lowered his head. He knew Han Zhengqing regarded Prince Dongping as the apple of his eye without the slightest difference. When Xu Da went to the capital this time, first he was to handle this deadly matter for Han Zhengqing, and second he had to be responsible for ensuring Prince Dongping returned safely without the slightest error.

But how could he possibly return now? Not only had Emperor Jianzhang not died, but he’d caught Xu Da and the others all in one net. Even deeply embedded nails like Zhang Tianshi and those around Zhou Weizhao had been completely uprooted. Moreover, Prince Dongping had actually personally served as the supervising executioner—what did this mean? This meant that from beginning to end, Prince Dongping was exactly as he himself said—he’d determined the Crown Prince was his father, and as for Han Zhengqing, this father who’d thrust himself forward, the prince simply looked down on him, had looked down on him from start to finish.

Han Zhengqing’s eyes were bloodshot, nearly mad with the desire to kill.

He hadn’t expected Prince Dongping to be so ungrateful. At this point, what angered him wasn’t that Xu Da and the others had failed to accomplish their task, but rather Prince Dongping’s attitude.

When Prince Dongping was small, he’d often taken him out to play. As a child, Prince Dongping had followed behind him every day calling “Uncle, Uncle.” With such good feelings, and with Lady Fan’s letter in her own hand as proof, who knew Prince Dongping would still be this stubborn?

The confidant was more worried about other matters. Seeing Han Zhengqing descend into complete madness, he couldn’t help but feel afraid, but afraid or not, it had to be said. Frowning, he carefully reminded him: “Marquis, since this matter failed, I’m afraid it will be difficult to account to His Highness.”

Han Zhengqing’s entire mind was on his son. Only now, when his confidant brought up the matter aside from Prince Dongping, did he realize it wasn’t just his son’s matter causing him distress. He couldn’t help grinding his teeth.

Being able to kill Emperor Jianzhang and frame Zhou Weizhao would naturally be best, but failing to kill him didn’t mean there were no other methods. He gave a cold laugh: “Account? How should I account? I have one hundred and ten thousand troops under my command. Zijing Pass, Xuanfu, and Jizhou are all currently in dire straits looking after themselves. Things are already like this—what more does he want me to account for?” Speaking of this, his teeth ached again: “The victor becomes king, the defeated becomes bandit. When he ascends the throne later, what reputation does he need to fear? The history books aren’t without examples of those who killed all their relatives before ascending—what does this amount to? If he can’t even bear this, he might as well—”

Speaking to this point, he stopped irritably, finally feeling his mind clear somewhat. He plopped down in the only intact chair, irritably kicked a piece of wood by his feet, rubbed his brow and asked: “So what exactly is the situation in the capital now?”

Finally asking about proper business—the confidant silently recited prayers and quickly told him: “Xu Da and the others are completely finished. There’s nothing left…”

Han Zhengqing felt uncomfortable hearing this: “What do you mean nothing? He didn’t confess everything, did he?”

The confidant shook his head: “They were all executed. Certainly nothing was extracted from them—he knew that confessing would do no good. It’s just that even if any remain, they’re all fence-sitters. Where would they still dare have contact with us? They’d be afraid of not avoiding us fast enough. Moreover, those people in the capital have probably all been dealt with. We’ve lost our channels. Wanting to do anything in the capital won’t be easy—I’m afraid we can’t make any moves there anymore.”

Since making moves in the capital wasn’t easy anymore, then think of other methods. Han Zhengqing was rather open-minded about it. He’d always been open-minded—as long as in the end he could make the Crown Prince and his people die without burial places to accompany Lady Fan in death, he could accept anything.

Thinking of this, he no longer had any thought of continuing to string Cui Shaoting along and toy with him. The corners of his mouth curved into an arc: “Then we won’t do anything in the capital.”

Reputation—naturally having it was good, saved a lot of trouble, and the price paid would be much less. But if there wasn’t any, it didn’t matter either. He didn’t care about reputation, nor did he fear accusations of being a traitorous minister. As for Prince Gong, he certainly also felt life and power were more important—he wasn’t the type to be so inflexible. If this path didn’t work, just take another one.