All the men in the room looked hopefully at Ye Yaming.

Deep down, they all felt somewhat ashamed. A household full of grown men, yet they were pinning their hopes on a seventeen-year-old girl to solve their problems—they truly felt useless.

Ye Yaming walked into the room, found a chair, and sat down. She recalled the information about the capital that Lu Guanyi had mentioned and what she had gathered from Zan’er, while asking Ye Hongchang, “Uncle, do you know what kind of person the Third Prince is?”

After all, Ye Hongchang had spent most of the past decade or so in the capital running a tea business, so he would know something.

He nodded, “The Third Prince is the son of Consort Hui. Consort Hui is said to be from a minor official’s family with no prominent background. The Second Prince’s situation is similar. Both princes usually maintain a low profile and rarely cause trouble, so there aren’t many rumors about them outside.”

He had already told Ye Chongming this when Ye Yaming arrived.

But in everyone’s view, these words were as good as saying nothing, offering no help with the situation facing the Ye family.

Low profile and not causing trouble, yet now they had come to the Ye family, brought by Wang Kuan—clearly their intentions were not good.

Ye Yaming nodded.

The intelligence she had collected was roughly the same.

The Great Jin was established 130 years ago, with the founding emperor seizing power from the old dynasty and establishing a new regime. After ascending the throne, to consolidate power, he had reluctantly married a daughter of an old noble family as his empress and had taken many daughters from noble families into the palace. As a result, the newly established regime was almost overthrown.

After surviving this political crisis, he set a rule that princes could only marry or take concubines from the daughters of officials of the fifth rank or lower. Those of the fifth rank or above, especially daughters from noble families, were excluded from the selection process.

So the consorts in the current Emperor’s harem all came from humble backgrounds, all from families of civil officials. The only exception was the recently deposed Empress Shi from the Duke Wei’s household.

When Ye Yaming first received the information compiled by Zan’er, she thought the Duke Wei’s family was truly foolish. They knew the Emperor married Empress Shi out of necessity and might behead them at any time, yet instead of keeping a low profile, they had brazenly competed for power.

But on second thought, she realized the Duke Wei’s household might have had no choice.

Whether they competed or not, they would eventually be eliminated by the Emperor. So they might as well make a bold move and try to depose the Emperor, putting the Fourth Prince on the throne, which was the only way to keep their heads secure.

With the Crown Prince from the Empress Yuan in front and the Fourth Prince from the Empress Ji behind, the Second and Third Princes, with no significant background, naturally had to keep a low profile.

Now that the Fourth Prince had fallen, was the Third Prince starting to show off?

Ye Yaming asked, “Where is that eunuch staying? At Wang Kuan’s residence?”

Ye Chongming was momentarily stunned, showing some embarrassment on his face: “After they left, I sent someone to call for you, and then returned to discuss countermeasures with your uncle and your father. I didn’t check where he was staying.”

Ye Hongchang quickly added, “It wouldn’t be easy to check, would it? If they found out…”

Well, that made sense.

The Ye family had always been merchants of low status; even a minor official from the yamen could make them kneel. Now that a eunuch from a prince had arrived, it was normal for them to be frightened out of their wits.

Ye Yaming called out, “Zan’er.”

Zan’er quickly ran in: “I’m here.”

“This morning, a tea merchant named Wang Kuan accompanied a eunuch from the capital to the teahouse to speak with Grandfather. Go find out where that eunuch is staying and when he established a relationship with Wang Kuan.”

“Yes.”

“Before you go to investigate, take a detour to Official Qi’s residence and deliver a letter to Young Master Qi for me.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Ye Yaming immediately wrote a letter, and Zan’er took it and left.

Seeing Ye Yaming handle the situation calmly, the men of the Ye family, though not completely reassured, were no longer as panicked and bewildered as they had been initially.

After Zan’er left, Ye Hongchang asked, “Prefect Qi can’t handle the Third Prince’s matter, can he?”

They had considered this issue before Ye Yaming returned. The Ye family had partnered with Young Masters Lu and Qi, but Young Master Lu had suddenly gone to join the military a year and a half ago, leaving Young Master Qi to do business with them.

Now that trouble had come, the only one they could rely on was Prefect Qi. But how could a mere prefect stand against the Third Prince? That’s why they were so anxious.

Ye Chongming exchanged a glance with Ye Yaming, his eyes asking whether the Lu family could handle this matter.

Behind the Lu family was the Crown Prince. As long as the Crown Prince intervened, no Third Prince would be a problem.

Ye Yaming said, “Let’s not talk about how to handle it yet; let’s first investigate the situation. Palace eunuchs cannot leave the capital without the Emperor’s consent. If that eunuch has come to Lin’an, Prefect Qi would certainly know about it. Let’s first investigate the situation. Besides, didn’t Grandfather arrange to give them a response tomorrow? Tomorrow I’ll go to the teahouse with you and speak with that eunuch in person to probe their true intentions.”

“And after probing? Ming’er, do you have a method? Your fiancé…” Ye Hongchang couldn’t help but ask.

Everyone suspected that Ye Yaming’s engagement was fabricated, with no actual powerful figure from the capital involved. But Ye Hongchang didn’t think so.

He knew his father well—cautious in all things, he wouldn’t have the courage to concoct such a lie. Fabricating imperial edicts and noble attire was a crime of deceiving the Emperor. The Ye family wasn’t yet in such dire straits as to need such a risky move.

Even if the Ye family were to take such a risk, the Master of Intelligence Zhinian would not be involved. Only a fool would join the Ye family in committing this crime of deceiving the Emperor. What did the fate of the Ye family have to do with Master Zhinian?

He vaguely suspected that Ye Yaming was engaged to Lu Guanyi.

After all, Ye Yaming was beautiful and intelligent. She had gone to Huizhou with Lu Guanyi, and spending time together day and night, feelings could have developed. Lu Guanyi breaking through class barriers to become engaged with Ye Yaming made perfect logical sense.

Moreover, Lu Guanyi was from a marquis’s household, a descendant of military nobility. After returning from Huizhou, he had gone back to the capital and then to the frontier. As a descendant of military nobility, earning a small achievement to obtain the rank of a fifth-grade military official was quite normal, wasn’t it?

With this suspicion, Ye Hongchang had later gone to Minzhou with Ye Yaming and Qi Ji, and had seen Qi Ji showing great respect to Ye Yaming—exactly the respect a younger brother would show to his sister-in-law. This further confirmed Ye Hongchang’s guess.

But since his father and Ye Yaming refused to discuss who the fiancé was, even when outsiders made unflattering speculations, they didn’t come forward to clarify. Ye Hongchang suspected there was a reason they couldn’t speak about it.

So even though he had guessed the truth, he hadn’t asked his father for confirmation.

But now, with the Ye family facing such a crisis, he had to ask. Those present were all close family; his father and Ming’er shouldn’t have kept secrets from them.