A table of dishes—almost no one touched their chopsticks.
Their stomachs felt blocked by something, unable to be filled even with delicacies.
After eating, without Yan Sanhe needing to summon them, everyone consciously gathered in the study.
Lu Da looked worriedly at the room full of young people, shook his head, and went to patrol the courtyard with his hands behind his back.
“Ahem, let me say a few words.”
Everyone’s gaze focused on Li Buyan.
“The incense has burned down another section. There’s not much time left. Don’t anyone slack off—help think of solutions, offer suggestions.”
Li Buyan raised an eyebrow: “Third Master Xie?”
Xie Zhifei: “Mm?”
Li Buyan: “Squeezing onto a bench with Yan Sanhe—very comfortable, very quiet, very sleep-inducing, wasn’t it?”
Xie Zhifei: “…” What’s that supposed to mean?
Li Buyan: “Snoring away in a series. At a time like this, how can your heart be so big? If I bought you a boat, could it fit?”
Xie Zhifei gritted his teeth: “I’ve been staying up night after night. I’m exhausted.”
Li Buyan’s gaze moved to Ding Yi.
Ding Yi quickly waved his hands: “Miss Li, I didn’t doze off.”
Li Buyan’s brow pressed down: “You didn’t doze off, but that brain on your neck is meant for thinking through problems, not just to be decoration.”
Ding Yi: “…”
“And you, Huang Qi.”
Li Buyan narrowed her eyes: “You can’t have a deficient brain and still have a bad attitude.”
Huang Qi felt truly wronged. “Miss Li, where was my attitude bad?”
Li Buyan: “Just now at dinner, everyone else couldn’t eat, but you still drank a bowl of soup. At a time like this, how can you still have the mood to drink soup? If that’s not a bad attitude, what is?”
Huang Qi: “…”
Li Buyan’s peripheral vision drifted toward Zhu Qing.
Forget it.
He’d been running back and forth. He was quite tired. Won’t criticize him.
Everyone’s gaze fell on Pei Xiao, waiting for the heroine to criticize him.
After waiting quite a while—no movement.
Strange. Why did the heroine let him off?
Just then, Yan Sanhe’s finger tapped on the desk.
“The problem lies with the old general. There are still suspicious points about his cause of death.”
Young Master Pei, who’d been let off, felt a bit guilty and actively responded: “How could there still be suspicious points? Didn’t he die in battle?”
“Could it be…”
Li Buyan pondered: “Among those five thousand men, there was a spy, and he was killed by the spy?”
Xie Zhifei looked at these two, thinking to himself: You two really don’t deserve not to be family—you both have such similarly foolish brains.
“Yan Sanhe, there’s one person we must find.”
“Prince Han.”
“Yes!”
Xie Zhifei: “In that battle, the old general was the bait. Prince Han led troops to attack the Tartars’ main force first, then went to the rescue. He should know the inside story best.”
Yan Sanhe frowned: “The important question is, how do we see Prince Han?”
Xie Zhifei fell silent.
Yes, how to see him?
This was the key question!
Because Prince Han raised troops in rebellion, he was confined to his prince’s residence. No one could see him.
Not only could no one see him, but anyone with even the slightest connection to Prince Han’s residence would definitely suffer misfortune if the new Emperor found out.
“I have a method.”
Ding Yi, who’d been criticized for having no brain, voluntarily spoke up.
“What if I, Master Lu, Zhu Qing, Miss Li, and Huang Qi set out to extract him from Prince Han’s residence?”
Xie Zhifei shook his head repeatedly.
“Even if you extract him, you can’t hide it for long. Once the Imperial Guards discover it, they’ll seal the city gates. They’ll dig three feet into the ground to find him. By then, our crimes will be considerable.”
“I also have a method.”
Huang Qi, criticized for having a thin brain, spoke up.
“Find a residence closest to Prince Han’s residence, buy it, dig a tunnel. If several of us work together digging for ten days to half a month, we might be able to dig a secret passage to Prince Han’s residence.”
Xie Zhifei made an affirming sound. “Ten days to half a month isn’t enough. Ten to eight years might be possible.”
“How about…”
Li Buyan drew out her tone. “We bribe Prince Han’s residence Imperial Guards? Third Master Xie, you’re best at this.”
Xie Zhifei made another affirming sound.
“I could get in, but why would Prince Han talk to me? What if he makes conditions? What if the condition he makes is for me to rescue him—what then?”
Li Buyan scratched her chin, her gaze drifting to Young Master Pei: Do you have any ideas?
Young Master Pei’s eyes quickly looked at the floor.
No ideas!
“So we now face two difficulties.”
Yan Sanhe summarized: “First, how to see Prince Han; second, how to make Prince Han speak.”
Xie Zhifei remained silent for a long while. “Originally I didn’t want to trouble him with this, but now it seems only he has hope of seeing him.”
Pei Xiao’s mind flashed with inspiration: “Huairen.”
“Knock knock knock!”
Lu Da’s voice rang out beyond the window: “Young master, His Highness the Crown Prince has come again.”
Speak of the devil and the devil appears.
Yan Sanhe and Xie Zhifei exchanged a glance. They just didn’t know how much hope the Crown Prince had of seeing Prince Han.
…
“See Prince Han?”
Zhao Yishi’s expression grew grave, his gaze slowly sweeping over Pei Xiao, Xie Zhifei, and finally landing on Yan Sanhe.
“Miss Yan, though I’m the Crown Prince, some matters are not within my control.”
Yan Sanhe: “What do you mean by that?”
He smiled bitterly. “When the late Emperor passed, he left words: Prince Han must not step outside the prince’s residence for his entire life.”
Yan Sanhe immediately understood. By leaving such an oral decree, Emperor Yonghe was actually protecting this son in disguise.
Raising troops in rebellion—by law, nine generations should be executed. Even as an imperial prince, Prince Han couldn’t escape complete family extermination at minimum.
Back then, when her father rebelled, if her mother Lady Liang hadn’t killed everyone, the outcome would have been the same.
Emperor Yonghe didn’t want to personally kill his son, much less see brothers kill each other, so he used the word “confine” to allow those in the residence to barely survive, forcing the new Emperor outside to step back.
Thus the current situation formed: those inside couldn’t come out, and those outside shouldn’t think of getting in.
Understanding was understanding, but the matter still needed to be pushed forward.
Yan Sanhe: “I urge Your Highness to think of a solution. This person is crucial—perhaps the truth lies with him.”
These words amounted to coercion.
A flash of annoyance crossed Zhao Yishi’s eyes. His index finger forcefully rubbed against his thumb.
In that moment, he thought no one would glimpse from this small gesture his unspeakable difficulty.
However, both Xie Zhifei’s and Pei Xiao’s gazes were on him.
Xie Zhifei quietly gave Yan Sanhe a “stay calm” look, then changed the subject with concern: “Huairen, why did His Majesty summon you to the palace so late at night?”
Pei Xiao smoothly continued: “It can’t be that something happened, can it? Tell us quickly.”
Faced with his friends’ concern, Zhao Yishi’s two fingers slowly relaxed.
“The Oirats allied with the Tartars and captured Black Mountain City.”
“What?” Xie Zhifei’s brow jumped.
“This is only the beginning.”
Zhao Yishi’s gaze turned to Xie Zhifei: “I recommended General Bu to His Majesty.”
“Use Bu Liu?”
Xie Zhifei pondered for a long while. “In his early years when he followed Old General Zheng, he fought at Black Mountain City. He’s extremely familiar with the terrain there.”
His dark pupils brightened: “Huairen, using Bu Liu is brilliant.”
“But what about the warhorses?”
Pei Xiao interjected: “No matter how capable General Bu is, he can’t fight the enemy on two legs.”
“This is precisely why I came to the villa so late at night.”
Zhao Yishi looked at Yan Sanhe: “Miss Yan, aside from Prince Han, could you possibly…”
“No.”
Yan Sanhe suddenly raised her gaze, her tone firm:
“I must see him. And I’ve thought of a method to see him.”
At these words, everyone in the room’s eyes lit up, asking almost in unison—
“What method?”