Seeing Yan Weiyi frightened by his words, Jingrong smiled with satisfaction, but it seemed to carry tens of thousands of poisonous needles.

“Master Yan need not panic. If this prince had truly added stone spotted poison to the tea, at this moment, you wouldn’t be sitting here unharmed.” After speaking, he deliberately adopted a puzzled tone and asked, “However, that northern ginkgo tree was planted by you, Master Yan. Even if you were poisoned, you would know how to cure it, wouldn’t you?”

Yan Weiyi only knew that right now, he had fallen into a trap!

Everything he had done was now in Jingrong’s grasp.

His gaze lifted from the cold tea in the cup as he said, “If Your Highness has something to say, why not speak directly?”

“Good. Since that’s the case, this prince will get straight to the point.” Jingrong leaned forward and said, “Although this prince has never had dealings with you, Master Yan, I have heard a little of your great name. Back then, you were also a civil official in our Great Lin court, but unfortunately, you embezzled funds and were stripped of your official position.”

“And then?”

“Not long after, your son Yan Xu was appointed as Vice Minister of War, and coincidentally at that time, this prince was ordered to investigate a case of hidden weapons. Who would have known that when all those threads were traced back, they would lead to your son Yan Xu. In his fury, His Majesty charged him with the crime of treason and had him beheaded for public display.”

Those last four words, Jingrong spoke especially clearly!

As he spoke, he was also carefully observing Yan Weiyi’s expression.

He had probably struck Yan Weiyi’s soft spot, for the anger and hatred he had originally restrained suddenly burst forth from his brow.

Jingrong continued, “Master Yan must feel that if this prince hadn’t followed that thread all the way down in the investigation, perhaps Yan Xu could have escaped with his life. But fate is beyond human control—those who commit treason must always be executed. The principle, I imagine Master Yan understands even better than I, since you were once a Junior Minister of Justice.”

Yan Weiyi’s face across from him transformed from angry hatred to a greenish pallor.

“Your Highness has gone in such a large circle—what you really want to discuss is the matter at Liang Mountain, isn’t it?”

“Mm!” Jingrong smiled and nodded.

“I believe Your Highness is clear about all the details, yes?”

“Mm!”

Yan Weiyi actually breathed a sigh of relief and asked again, “Then does Your Highness also wish to send me to the prison of the Court of Judicial Review? To charge me with the crime of attempting to harm an imperial prince?”

“That won’t be necessary.” Jingrong curved his lips. “It’s just that this prince has already given orders for Lu Jiang to take people to your back garden. By this time, all the northern ginkgo trees in the garden should have been uprooted.”

“What?”

“Such a highly poisonous thing—leaving it in this world is also a disaster. Consider those trees as taking the blame for you, Master Yan.”

Jingrong spoke lightly and easily!

But Yan Weiyi’s face was black as charcoal!

Although the northern ginkgo trees were used to make stone spotted poison, at the end of the day, they were also his treasures. After cultivating them for so many years, Jingrong had them all uprooted with a single sentence. To say his heart didn’t ache would be a lie.

Swallowing his saliva, his face was truly ashen.

But—

Jingrong withdrew the smile from his lips.

He said seriously, “Master Yan cannot possibly be unaware of two words called ‘exploitation,’ can you? Between you and me, it’s precisely because of your son’s matter that you want to kill this prince—that’s quite reasonable and understandable. However, why would Master Yan want to be someone else’s scapegoat?”

Someone else’s scapegoat?

Naturally, Prince Yi’s scapegoat!

Yan Weiyi remained silent, understanding his meaning somewhat.

Jingrong unhurriedly picked up the teacup before him and poured the cold tea onto the ground while saying:

“Since you’ve become a scapegoat, this prince has no reason not to slaughter you, right? However, those northern ginkgo trees can be considered as having been your scapegoat, so this prince will no longer pursue this matter. Moreover, there’s a saying that goes ‘kill the chicken to warn the monkey.’ With this lesson, Master Yan should not commit the offense again, yes? After all, someone wanted to use Master Yan’s hand to kill this prince. Although your goals were aligned, no one is willing to become the other party’s chess piece, right?”

These words containing deep meaning—Yan Weiyi understood them all in his heart!

Prince Yi knew he wanted to avenge his son by killing Jingrong. With their goals aligned, they naturally stood on the same front. Blinded by hatred, he had actually worked for Prince Yi time and again, and in the end, the one who would bear the blame would naturally be him.

While Prince Yi’s hands remained completely clean!

“Thank you… for Prince Rong’s reminder.” Yan Weiyi slowly spoke these words.

At this moment, Jingrong unhurriedly took out a round jade pendant from his sleeve, placed it on the table, and pushed it before Yan Weiyi.

“I must also trouble Master Yan to convey to the owner of this jade pendant on this prince’s behalf: next time before taking action, it would be best not to leave evidence. Although this jade pendant doesn’t represent anything in particular, if it were presented before His Majesty, some matters would be hard to explain.”

That jade pendant was worn by those death warriors who had assassinated him at Yi Zhuang.

Although he wasn’t clear why Prince Yi’s death warriors would wear such obvious jade pendants on their persons, allowing him to follow the vine to find the melon and ultimately trace it back to Prince Yi—he didn’t know if it was an oversight on Prince Yi’s part or if those death warriors were too stupid!

Yan Weiyi accepted the jade pendant, his heart surging turbulently.

Although from beginning to end, Jingrong had never spelled everything out completely and hadn’t mentioned Prince Yi even once!

His words had still, invisibly, left Yan Weiyi stunned for quite a while.

After he left Peach Blossom Garden carrying that state of mind, Lang Bo, who had been waiting outside the pavilion, walked in.

He asked carefully, “Why did Your Highness let him go?”

Jingrong’s icy gaze looked toward the distant peach blossom forest. His sword-like brows furrowed toward the center as his thin lips lightly uttered a sentence:

“The more ants there are around you, the method of eliminating them one by one won’t work. The best method is to let those ants… bite each other.”

…

Yan Weiyi left Peach Blossom Garden and headed straight for Prince Yi’s manor.

In that short time, news that Jingrong and Ji Yinshu were safe and sound, as well as that there had been progress in the disappearance case, all reached Prince Yi’s ears one by one.

The teacup in his hand fell from his fingers onto the table before him with a “thud” and broke in half!

His seemingly calm face was extremely cold and stern.

“Who would have thought they could escape death and even dig up this disappearance case.”

A miscalculation!

He said coldly again, “Just how is Yan Weiyi handling things? Such an excellent opportunity and he couldn’t even kill them—useless!”

Dou Quan at his side remained silent.

At this time, a servant outside announced, “Your Highness, Master Yan has arrived.”

Prince Yi’s expression darkened as he nodded.

A short while later, Yan Weiyi entered with an expressionless face.

He cupped his hands and stood in the center of the room.

“Master Yan’s people really don’t handle matters efficiently. Such a good opportunity, and they actually bungled everything.” Prince Yi snorted.

“It was my failure to handle matters properly.”

“Forget it. This prince doesn’t mean to blame you. Consider this matter a warning—don’t let it happen again.”

A next time?

Yan Weiyi was extremely displeased in his heart. He had become his scapegoat, the northern ginkgo trees he had painstakingly cultivated had been uprooted by Jingrong, he had nowhere to vent the fire in his heart, and Prince Yi actually came out with “don’t let it happen again.”

So he still wanted to use his hands again!