“I trust you to handle this matter, Father, you can rest assured! But remember… You must look carefully to see if that letter truly came from our Li family!” Li Mao gripped his son’s hand forcefully, secretly signaling, “This letter… concerns whether the heads of our entire Li family will remain on our shoulders or fall to the ground in blood!”

“Father, rest assured. Your son understands the gravity of the situation!” Li Mingrui replied solemnly.

After Li Mingrui used visiting Prince Liang as a pretext to bring wine and pastries to Prince Liang’s mansion, he watched as Prince Liang took out a letter from a brocade box filled with correspondence and handed it to Li Mingrui.

After reading it, Li Mingrui recognized his father’s handwriting and felt shocked. During the interval when Prince Liang lowered his head to drink tea, Li Mingrui pretended he couldn’t see clearly and held the paper up to the sunlight streaming through the diamond-patterned window lattice. In the light where dust motes danced, he could make out an extremely faint mark on the paper—a barely visible character “Li” that could only be discerned under strong light. Li Mingrui’s heart sank.

The letter was indeed from the Li family.

His gaze swept over the brocade box beside Prince Liang. To show respect, he stood up and placed the letter on Prince Liang’s desk. “I wonder where Your Highness obtained these letters? These letters have never been found, and it has been Father’s constant worry. It’s not for any other reason… we’re just afraid someone might use these letters to stir up trouble, and then Your Highness would have no one to rely on in court.”

“How this prince obtained them cannot be disclosed to Mingrui at present. Please forgive me, Mingrui.” Prince Liang spoke with polite courtesy, then placed that letter back into the brocade box.

“What are you saying, Your Highness!” Li Mingrui’s attitude toward Prince Liang became even more respectful. “This humble minister is Your Highness’s subordinate. How could I presume to inquire about my master’s affairs!”

“Mingrui, such words make you seem like a stranger! This prince has always regarded Mingrui as a brother and has never considered you an outsider!” Prince Liang paused at this point, then suddenly took that letter out of the brocade box again, unfolded it to let Li Mingrui see it once more, and directly set it on fire.

“Your Highness!” Li Mingrui was quite surprised, his gaze fixed on the letter paper being gradually consumed by flames, his throat working.

“The Left Chancellor’s writing has been destroyed. In court, the Left Chancellor can completely deny this matter!” Prince Liang placed the nearly burned letter into the ink wash basin and patted the brocade box. “Mingrui, I won’t hide this from you… These letters came into this prince’s hands just last night! With these letters in this prince’s possession, please tell the Left Chancellor he can rest assured—they will never see the light of day! The Left Chancellor was once a trusted minister at the Emperor’s side. This prince absolutely cannot stand by and watch the Left Chancellor be threatened by others. This prince… hopes the Left Chancellor can assist this prince wholeheartedly in our great endeavor, just as he once assisted the Second Imperial Brother!”

Prince Liang’s words were both clear and somewhat ambiguous.

Li Mingrui’s peripheral vision fell on that brocade box, his brow twitching. He wondered whether Prince Liang’s words were threatening his father to obey him using the letters, or whether he hadn’t obtained all those letters yet.

If Prince Liang had truly read through those letters, he would certainly be able to see that it was Father who had single-handedly incited the Second Prince’s rebellion, and that it was also Father who had promised to provide external support for the Second Prince. Only when he realized the Second Prince could not succeed… did he abandon the Second Prince and immediately rush to the Emperor’s rescue.

Li Mingrui speculated that the latter possibility was more likely.

After all, during the time in Yanwo, Li Mingrui had followed his father’s instructions and had already made overtures to Prince Liang first, to demonstrate loyalty.

But Li Mingrui was only speculating and dared not be certain.

After leaving Prince Liang’s mansion and boarding his carriage, Li Mingrui’s expression was dark as he recalled Prince Liang’s action of burning the letter just now. Only by burning them… making the letters disappear from the world would be the most secure approach.

Currently, he couldn’t determine how many letters Prince Liang held, nor could he confirm exactly how many Bai Qingyan possessed.

Their people had scouted the Bai mansion in Shuoyang and reported that the hidden guards protected it like an iron fortress. As for Prince Liang’s mansion, the Emperor had just withdrawn the hidden guards and patrol camp personnel. While Prince Liang had not yet gained power, now was the best opportunity to strike.

From the moment Wen Zhenkang’s wife came to threaten Father with letters, this affair had become endless. Their Li family absolutely could not be constrained by more people because of these letters!

Li Mingrui was more decisive than Li Mao. That very night, he sent people to set fire to Prince Liang’s mansion. The Emperor was awakened in the middle of the night and heard that Prince Liang’s mansion was on fire. Greatly alarmed, he hurriedly asked about Prince Liang’s condition. Only after learning that Prince Liang was safe did he feel relieved.

The next day at morning court, Grand Censor Elder Pei submitted a memorial impeaching Left Chancellor Li Mao for having close relations with the formerly treasonous Second Prince, stating directly that if the Second Prince could have ascended to the throne, he would certainly have been a more virtuous ruler than the current Emperor! Elder Pei requested His Majesty to thoroughly investigate whether Li Mao had participated in treason and presented a letter written personally by Left Chancellor Li Mao to the Second Prince.

Left Chancellor Li Mao was temporarily stripped of his position and imprisoned. After his eldest son Li Mingrui read the letter, he declared that someone had forged it and requested His Majesty to summon Imperial Teacher Tan and Duke Shoushan, both of whom had extremely high calligraphy accomplishments, to authenticate it. Both great ministers seemed to believe the letter was suspect of being forged, but for safety’s sake, they needed more time to study it.

The capital city grew more lively by the day, providing endless topics of conversation for the citizens.

At the same time, a green-robed strategist from the Left Chancellor’s mansion, known as Ziyuan, also arrived in Shuoyang and presented the Left Chancellor’s mansion’s calling card at the Bai mansion gates, requesting an audience with the Princess.

When Bai Qingyan received word, she was studying the approximate timing of when the Rong-Di had raided Dengzhou over the years. Hearing Nanny Tong’s report, Bai Qingyan acknowledged with a sound and had the person brought to the main hall, saying she would come shortly.

The green-robed strategist from the Left Chancellor’s mansion sat restlessly in the main hall. The moment he stepped through the Bai family’s main gate, he was awed by the Bai family’s profound heritage. Recalling how he had previously advised Li Mao and sent people to Shuoyang to either capture Bai Qingyan or manufacture evidence against her, he deeply felt that he had been like a frog at the bottom of a well.

Before coming to Shuoyang, he had thought that after Bai Qingyan returned to Shuoyang, she would also face many difficulties. He hadn’t expected that Shuoyang was the Bai family’s true foundation. No wonder… the Bai family had chosen to retreat to Shuoyang for self-preservation.

What made the green-robed strategist even more uneasy was that Bai Qingyan was training troops!

This could almost be considered Bai Qingyan’s weakness, but… she had reported her military training to both the Emperor and Crown Prince, and the Emperor had even bestowed gold and silver for Bai Qingyan to use in training troops.

The green-robed strategist was greatly shaken. With Bai Qingyan training civilians as soldiers in Shuoyang, when the day came that they were fully trained, Bai Qingyan would be completely able to become the local emperor here, commanding universal response with a single call.

The green-robed strategist’s heart was agitated as he clenched his fists tightly.

Before long, seeing Bai Qingyan approaching gracefully, the green-robed strategist hurriedly knelt and paid his respects: “This humble person greets Your Highness.”

“You are… a strategist from the Left Chancellor’s mansion?” Bai Qingyan’s gaze swept over the green-robed strategist once, then she walked leisurely to the main seat and sat down.

The strategist turned around on his knees and kowtowed to Bai Qingyan: “In response to Your Highness, that is correct! The Left Chancellor sent this humble person here… to apologize to Your Highness. This humble person dares not deceive Your Highness. Because the Left Chancellor’s weakness is in Your Highness’s hands, he has been restless day and night. Therefore, this humble person sent people to Shuoyang, hoping to find an opportunity to exchange for that weakness with Your Highness. We harbored no other intentions. This time, having provoked Your Highness’s thunderous wrath, the Left Chancellor has already realized his error and has specially sent this humble person to apologize to Your Highness, accepting whatever punishment Your Highness deems fit, begging Your Highness for some mercy.”