She returned to the Princess Manor with a belly full of disappointment and heartache, feeling utterly exhausted. When she saw Ye Jingkuan, she felt even more ashamed. Burying her face in her hands for quite a while to calm her emotions, she finally leaned into Ye Jingkuan’s embrace and let out a low sigh. “I feel like my elder brother has become completely unrecognizable.”
In a low voice, she recounted everything that had happened that day, finding the Crown Prince utterly unreasonable. “He always manages to misinterpret Mother Empress and Weizhao’s good intentions, twisting their kindness into malicious designs against him. If Weizhao hadn’t gone to console Chen Dezhong’s family today, how would the people in the Eastern Palace view him in the future? Those following him all come to bad ends one after another—what does he think these people are after?”
These people followed the Crown Prince for nothing more than wealth and glory, yet those who followed him ended up either dead or injured. Ye Jingkuan tightened his arm around Princess Rongcheng’s shoulder, his expression also far from relaxed. “Yingshu came to see me today, and I chatted with him for a while. It’s indeed as you said—people follow you for nothing more than prospects, but when they’re losing their lives one by one, what prospects are there to speak of? Yingshu said that Lai Chenglong mentioned even Fu Youde has started pulling strings, wanting to be transferred out of the capital.”
A position as Crown Prince’s Junior Preceptor—a post others would scramble for before it was too late—yet Fu Youde now wished he could rid himself of it as quickly as possible. This showed how deeply disappointed he was with the Crown Prince. Princess Rongcheng straightened up and fell silent for a moment. “No wonder. This time he suggested that elder brother push out Chen Dezhong, and elder brother agreed without hesitation. Though he breathed a sigh of relief thinking he wouldn’t be implicated, his heart must also be afraid—afraid that one day elder brother will just as casually throw him out to take the blame. If I were him, I’d also be thinking of alternative escape routes.”
Not only him, but even Cui Yingshu and the Prince of Zhennan had both simultaneously developed thoughts of retreat. The Crown Prince was truly unsettling—there was a perfectly good broad road before him that he refused to walk, instead insisting on taking dangerous shortcuts and focusing on unorthodox methods. It was as if lard had clouded his mind. No one wanted to become the next Elder Chen.
Ye Jingkuan glanced at Princess Rongcheng, his voice extremely low. “Actually… the Grand Prince can now stand on his own. Even if the Crown Prince…” Seeing Princess Rongcheng suddenly lift her head, his tone involuntarily softened, as if afraid of frightening her. “Actually, even if the Crown Prince can no longer handle affairs, it wouldn’t matter much.”
Princess Rongcheng knew what he said was already being polite. With the Crown Prince’s current deranged methods of amassing wealth, something bigger was bound to happen sooner or later. Being unable to handle affairs would already be a tremendous blessing. If his illness became severe and he returned to his former state, that would actually be a kind of fortune. Mother Empress would probably even breathe a sigh of relief. Thinking of this, and recalling the Empress Dowager Lu’s expression before she left today, she felt a chill run through her entire body. “This is… this is Mother Empress’s intention?”
Ye Jingkuan lowered his eyes. Of course Empress Dowager Lu hadn’t thought of this point. The Crown Prince was after all her biological son. She had doted on and indulged him for so many years, long since practicing her tolerance toward him into a habit. No matter how great an error the Crown Prince committed, for the sake of her previous investment and efforts, she could only rack her brains to cover for him and clean up his messes.
Before he could speak, he heard Princess Rongcheng call out softly, “No!” “Mother Empress won’t agree. She’s always felt she owed elder brother. For his sake, Mother Empress couldn’t even look after her younger brother properly. Now that elder brother has finally reached this point with such difficulty, how could Mother Empress give up on him?” She grasped Ye Jingkuan’s hand somewhat urgently. “Prince Consort, don’t be foolish, and please persuade Father as well… Mother Empress won’t agree. When the time comes and my elder brother finds out you once had this thought…” With the Crown Prince’s current temperament, he would certainly regard the Prince of Zhennan’s manor as a thorn in his side, wishing to eliminate it as quickly as possible.
Ye Jingkuan shook his head. He gripped Princess Rongcheng’s hand in return, looking directly at her, and said in a low voice, “This was Sixth Miss Song’s idea… and Her Majesty the Empress also agreed.”
Princess Rongcheng’s eyes widened as she asked in a lost voice, “Song Six?!” Her heart was practically stirred into tumultuous waves, finding it somewhat unbelievable. “How dare she… how dare she conceive such an idea?!” And she had spoken of it to Empress Dowager Lu, who had actually agreed?!
Ye Jingkuan didn’t find Princess Rongcheng’s loss of composure inappropriate. After all, when he had heard this news, he too was so shocked he couldn’t help but gasp. The Crown Prince was her future father-in-law, Zhou Weizhao’s biological father, and Empress Dowager Lu’s own son. As an outsider, she actually dared to come up with such an idea—wasn’t she afraid that Empress Dowager Lu and Zhou Weizhao would resent her for it later?
He waited for Princess Rongcheng to calm down slightly before continuing from where he left off. “I’m also not entirely sure how Sixth Miss Song persuaded Her Majesty the Empress, but Her Majesty the Empress wasn’t angry. I suppose she must be deeply disappointed in the Crown Prince as well.” He curved his lips into a smile that was somewhat helpless yet somewhat mocking. “Speaking of which, my brother-in-law has really gone too far. Princess, I must speak honestly with you—if the Crown Prince continues like this, not only Fu Youde, but even I won’t be able to hold on much longer…”
Princess Rongcheng pressed her lips tightly together. She knew the Prince of Zhennan had grown increasingly dissatisfied with the Crown Prince. They had been loyal and devoted to the Eastern Palace, yet the Crown Prince was always cold toward them. Regarding the recent series of troubles that had emerged, the Crown Prince had never given the Prince of Zhennan’s manor any advance warning so they could be somewhat prepared. That the Crown Prince concealed and guarded against the Prince of Zhennan’s manor even in such important matters clearly showed he didn’t consider them his own people. The Prince of Zhennan inevitably felt disheartened, and even Princess Rongcheng herself felt it was unfair, all that the Prince Consort had done for the Crown Prince.
Yet she still couldn’t help but feel her entire body turn cold with shock at Song Chuyi’s wild fantasy. Empress Dowager Lu had invested too much effort in the Crown Prince. She truly couldn’t imagine how Song Chuyi had persuaded Empress Dowager Lu to give up on the Crown Prince. Moreover, she also found it incredible—did this young lady even know what she was doing? As the saying goes, there are no parents who aren’t right in this world. Wasn’t she worried that Zhou Weizhao would resent her for this in the future?
Unable to figure it out, she naturally voiced the doubt in her heart. “How can she be so audaciously bold? Even if this must be done, it shouldn’t be her doing it!”
If one wasn’t careful, this would later become the reason for Empress Dowager Lu and Zhou Weizhao to resent and blame her. For such a clever person, how could she make such a mistake? She clearly could have used someone else’s mouth to facilitate this matter!