Qian Ying immediately heard Prince Dongping’s dissatisfaction with the Crown Prince. He frowned and stared intently at Prince Dongping, his voice unusually urgent. “Your Highness, you must never think this way!” Seeing Zhou Weiqi look toward him, he sighed. “You must understand that the gains and losses before your eyes cannot decide anything. The final victory or defeat is what matters most. No matter how favored His Highness the Grand Imperial Grandson is, as long as His Highness the Crown Prince lives for one day, His Majesty has no possibility of bypassing His Highness the Crown Prince to directly elevate him—and the people of the realm would not allow it either.”

He looked with piercing eyes at Prince Dongping, who had raised his head again, his words resounding forcefully. “Since this is so, as long as His Highness the Crown Prince lives, he is your greatest support and fortune. What do you have to fear? What does it matter how much His Highness the Grand Imperial Grandson gains now? What His Majesty can give him is far less than what His Highness the Crown Prince can give you. You must distinguish between what’s important and what’s urgent.”

Zhou Weiqi leaned back against the chair. The exhaustion and terror of these recent days had made his thinking slower than usual. Now hearing Qian Ying say this, it took him a long while to react and belatedly perceive the advantages and disadvantages. He followed Qian Ying’s words and nodded.

This was the good quality of this prince. He might not be particularly brilliant, but he could listen to what others said—this was what mattered most. Qian Ying slowly let out a breath and continued to earnestly counsel him. “Right now His Highness the Crown Prince is also suffering. Compared to your anger, he is angry many times over. Taking advantage of this time, you should properly comfort your father. He just lost a deeply beloved Liangdi, and you just lost your closest mother. Right now you are each other’s closest people.”

As soon as Qian Ying’s words fell, the sound of knocking came from outside again. Qian Ying went out for a moment, then came in with some delight, quickly closing the door behind him. Even his voice rose somewhat. “Your Highness!”

Zhou Weiqi was startled by him. With slight surprise he raised his eyebrows, then immediately remembered the people sent to stake out the area, and his spirits lifted at once. “How is it? Has news come back?”

The one who entered was Wei Yansheng. Because of the foolish things Lady Wei had done, he had been quite embarrassed before Zhou Weiqi for a while, not even daring to speak loudly in normal times. But at this moment his face was flushed, his eyes looking directly at Zhou Weiqi, and with some excitement he called out “Your Highness” before saying in a trembling voice, “Chief Administrator Qian was right. We waited and kept watch outside for a full six or seven days, and finally we had a harvest. Just today, a carriage entered that residence right after Sixth Miss Song’s carriage. But that residence was guarded as tightly as a drum—we didn’t know who was inside and didn’t dare act rashly. After a while, that carriage came out again. The carriage turned two streets, then people chased out from the residence. I couldn’t worry about anything else, only feeling there must be something suspicious, so I led people to seize the carriage. But don’t worry, we left no traces. We all wore face coverings, and that area is already a mixed and chaotic place to begin with.”

Neither Qian Ying nor Zhou Weiqi had the patience to listen to his incoherent lengthy speech. They frowned and interrupted him. “You really did discover something wrong with that carriage? What was it?”

Wei Yansheng’s face reddened a bit. He lifted his neck, extremely proud. “It was a corpse—a young woman’s corpse. When Lady Liangdi had me arrange people to handle matters before, she gave me a portrait. I didn’t mistake her—it’s that Miss Chen’s corpse!”

As expected! Zhou Weiqi’s gaze was sinister, his entire body radiating coldness. He looked at Wei Yansheng with murderous intent. Qian Ying was right. First, Sixth Miss Song chatted with Empress Lu at the flower banquet, then immediately after the Empress developed murderous intent toward his mother. No matter how you looked at it, this matter couldn’t be separated from Sixth Miss Song. Now it seemed this was indeed the case.

Wei Yansheng could still read expressions fairly well. Seeing that Zhou Weiqi had clearly reached the extreme of anger, he didn’t dare say anything else. Controlling his tone, he carefully told Zhou Weiqi, “The carriage has been discarded. We searched everything on it but didn’t find anything. But on that Miss Chen’s neck we discovered a chain, and on the chain was something like a seal.”

Zhou Weiqi and Qian Ying exchanged glances. He immediately stood up and interrupted Wei Yansheng’s words. “Where is that chain?!”

Wei Yansheng carefully pulled out something wrapped tightly in a handkerchief from his bosom. In front of Qian Ying and Zhou Weiqi, he opened the cloth bundle. There lay a rectangular half seal about the size of a little finger, made of yellow Tianyu jade.

Zhou Weiqi clenched his fists, so excited his voice trembled slightly. He took several steps forward and personally took the seal, holding it in his hand. After the excitement passed, he looked toward Qian Ying with some bewilderment.

Qian Ying was as excited as he was. This half seal represented more than two hundred thousand taels of silver! He barely suppressed the excitement in his heart and nodded at Zhou Weiqi. “Put it away, Your Highness.”

Seeing Zhou Weiqi put the item away, Qian Ying turned his head to look at Wei Yansheng. “Are you certain all the loose ends have been cleaned up? This is the capital. The Song family still has the ability to interfere in matters outside, so we absolutely cannot be careless here in the capital. From now on when you act, you must be twelve parts careful and vigilant. Instruct your subordinates the same way. Those who handled this matter this time—you must take care of them properly and make absolutely certain not to leave even a trace of a flaw!”

Wei Yansheng saw his serious expression and heard the warning in his tone. He couldn’t help but solemnly respond, “Rest assured, this time absolutely no mistakes were made!”

Fan Liangdi had died because of these two hundred thousand taels of silver. If Empress Lu knew that Zhou Weiqi still obsessed over this silver after Fan Liangdi’s death and directly interfered, Zhou Weiqi’s situation would likely become even worse. Moreover, there was Sixth Miss Song. Thinking of Song Chuyi, Qian Ying couldn’t help feeling somewhat irritated. This Sixth Miss Song was too difficult an opponent to deal with, and unfortunately she was now about to marry Zhou Weiqi’s enemy. From now on, the two sides had no choice but to fight to the bitter end.

Provoking such a troublesome enemy was truly not something to be happy about. They had to think of some solution. Just as Fan Liangdi’s incident had allowed Zhou Weiqi to quickly suspect Song Chuyi without even needing evidence, if Song Chuyi lost Chen Mingyu, she would also immediately suspect Zhou Weiqi. She was now the Grand Imperial Grandson’s Consort personally decreed by His Majesty’s edict, naturally standing in the same camp as Empress Lu. The fear was that she would go before Empress Lu and say something again. And since Empress Lu would act against Fan Liangdi following her suggestion, she probably believed deeply in what she said.

Qian Ying walked several circles in the room with tightly furrowed brows, then slowly let out a sigh.