“The Emperor has begun taking elixirs and is showing increasing favor toward Prince Liang…” Bai Jinxiu connected these two matters and suddenly understood the key point. “Could it be that Prince Liang presented them?”

At this moment, Wei Zhong spoke at the right time: “Before Prince Liang went to Yanwo for disaster relief, he dismissed most of the servants in his mansion, keeping only the cleaning staff and a few who personally attended to him. Everyone else was sent away! Now Prince Liang’s mansion is guarded by secret guards personally dispatched by His Majesty, making it like an iron barrel—quite difficult to gather information.”

Bai Qingyan’s hand paused as she lifted her teacup. The Emperor sent secret guards to protect Prince Liang’s mansion.

Was it merely because Prince Liang presented elixirs that the Emperor valued him so highly? Or rather… was he valuing Prince Liang’s mansion!

If it were to protect Prince Liang, placing secret guards around him would suffice. Why guard Prince Liang’s mansion?

Could it be that the Emperor didn’t dare openly violate the ancestral prohibition against imperial descendants touching elixirs, so he ordered Prince Liang to refine elixirs in his mansion?

“Have you investigated Prince Liang’s mansion’s recent purchasing activities?” Bai Qingyan asked.

Neither Wei Zhong nor Bai Jinxiu had thought of this. Wei Zhong was the first to apologize: “This servant was negligent!”

“Focus on investigating whether Prince Liang’s mansion has purchased realgar, saltpeter, pine resin, and similar items,” Bai Qingyan said.

Bai Jinxiu nodded: “I’ll handle this. We should be able to find out quickly.”

“If the Emperor has truly touched elixirs…” The Grand Princess shook her head. “I’m afraid his life won’t be long, but this matter… the Emperor has done it extremely secretly. Anyone who goes to advise the Emperor will certainly be suspected by him of having planted spies around him.”

As the Grand Princess, she couldn’t go advise him either. She was the Grand Princess of Jin… she was the Emperor’s aunt, yes, but in the Emperor’s eyes, she was also a member of the Bai family!

Although the military power that kept the Emperor restless had been completely surrendered by the Bai family, the Emperor still wasn’t at ease with them… He was extremely wary of her granddaughter Bai Qingyan. If she, Bai Qingyan’s grandmother, went to advise at this time, even if the Emperor wouldn’t do anything to the Grand Princess, he would certainly think to strike at the root and develop murderous intent toward Bai Qingyan and even all the Bai family orphans.

Rather than that, it would be better to just let the Emperor torment himself! It would be good for the Crown Prince to ascend the throne quickly. At least the Crown Prince… trusted Bai Qingyan.

Bai Qingyan wasn’t worried about who should go advise the Emperor, only concerned that if the Emperor died too early, it would needlessly create variables.

“The reason I called you here before you enter the palace, besides telling you about this matter, is to warn you to be careful of Prince Liang!” After the Grand Princess finished speaking, she said to Wei Zhong, “Bring the person up!”

Wei Zhong nodded in acknowledgment, turned, and left the courtyard.

Bai Jinxiu looked toward the Grand Princess, puzzled: “Grandmother?”

“Ever since Prince Liang admitted to having that maid beside A’Bao place that letter supposedly forged in your grandfather’s handwriting… into your grandfather’s study to save Prince Xin, I’ve been thinking daily about Prince Liang! I always felt that Prince Liang wasn’t foolish enough not to know what crime treason was. His actions seemed intended to place the Bai family in a deadly situation!” The Grand Princess couldn’t help but feel alarmed, speaking of this, unconsciously fingering the prayer beads in her hand. “So I had Wei Zhong investigate why Prince Liang would treat the Bai family this way, and we finally discovered some clues.”

As soon as the Grand Princess finished speaking, Wei Zhong quickly entered, dragging a young man whose legs were so weak from fear he couldn’t stand straight.

The man had no beard, fair and delicate skin, and was missing one arm.

Upon entering and seeing Bai Qingyan in her silver armor with her aura of battle, then seeing the dignified Grand Princess, his knees went weak, and he fell directly to his knees, trembling and shaking all over. Wei Zhong had to grip his collar and drag him before the Grand Princess, Bai Qingyan, and Bai Jinxiu.

The man hastily knelt properly, repeatedly kowtowing heavily toward the Grand Princess, not daring to raise his head.

“Who are you?” Bai Jinxiu stared at the man kneeling on the ground and asked.

“This… this servant served Prince Liang tea and water in Prince Liang’s mansion. Previously, this servant followed Eunuch Tong Ji and took orders from him. Later… after Eunuch Tong Ji died, Prince Liang dismissed the servants and attendants from his mansion. This servant was also transferred to serve Prince Liang personally, replacing Eunuch Tong Ji in serving Prince Liang!”

The eunuch tentatively raised his eyes, but upon seeing the hem of Bai Qingyan’s silver armor, was so frightened he buried his head in the ground again, honestly confessing: “One day, this servant… to let Prince Liang know that he had a good relationship with Eunuch Tong Ji and earn his favor, deliberately arranged to secretly burn paper money for Eunuch Tong Ji so Prince Liang would discover it, then told Prince Liang that this servant had an excellent relationship with Eunuch Tong Ji.”

“Who knew… this lowly one overheard Prince Liang talking with a black-clothed man, saying he had a blood feud with the Bai family, that back then Duke Zhenguo had sought to overturn the case for Censor Jian Congwen, intending to force Consort Tong to death, which forced the Second Prince to rebel! If Duke Zhenguo hadn’t been meddlesome… the current heir apparent should have been the Second Prince by right, so why would the Second Prince have needed to rebel? That black-clothed man asked… Duke Zhenguo’s entire male lineage was dead, so why did Prince Liang still want to drive the Bai family to extinction? Prince Liang said, because… because Duke Zhenguo’s daughter was still alive, so the Bai family’s glory remained! He wanted the Bai family to be utterly destroyed, their reputation completely ruined, only then could he vent the hatred in his heart, so he was sincerely cooperating!”

The eunuch trembled uncontrollably as he spoke these words, his whole body shaking, seeming still very frightened.

“This servant knew he had overheard Prince Liang’s tremendous secret and wanted to flee quickly, but was unexpectedly alerted by Prince Liang! This servant had no choice but to stick to the previous story, saying he wanted to secretly burn paper money for Eunuch Tong Ji! But Prince Liang said, since this servant had such a good relationship with Eunuch Tong Ji, close as brothers, why not go underground to accompany Eunuch Tong Ji, so Eunuch Tong Ji wouldn’t be lonely!”

“Then the guards around Prince Liang knocked this servant unconscious. When this servant woke up, he was already in a carriage. They brought this servant to Eunuch Tong Ji’s grave, wanting to bury this servant alive beside Eunuch Tong Ji. When this servant tried to escape, that guard drew his sword to kill me. This servant could only jump into the river to escape with his life, losing his arm in the process! This servant must thank Master Wei for saving him from the river and arranging for a corpse to replace him; otherwise, this servant’s life would have been finished!”

The eunuch finished speaking in his shrill voice, crying and wailing, then glanced up at Bai Qingyan. Meeting her scrutinizing gaze directly, he quickly lowered his head again.

“Who was that black-clothed man? Did you see clearly?” Bai Qingyan asked.

“I did not…” The eunuch finished speaking, then hurried to add, “However, this lowly one heard Prince Liang address that person as ‘Your Highness’! He said… please rest assured, Your Highness, this prince sincerely cooperates with Your Highness!”

Your Highness?

Bai Qingyan lowered her eyes, stroking the teacup in her hand as she contemplated carefully.

A prince cooperating with Prince Liang. Bai Qingyan mentally excluded several princes from the capital. The imperial bloodline in the capital with great ambitions and abilities had long been viewed as a threat and eliminated when the Emperor first ascended the throne!