After a while, the voice of a servant came from outside again, “Your Highness, the Crown Princess says there is an extremely urgent matter, and she must see you.”

Li Yuanji, hearing these words, said: “Elder Brother, since Sister-in-law says so, why don’t you just meet with her?”

Under his persuasion, Li Jiancheng reluctantly said: “Let her come in.”

Soon, Zheng Shi entered with Jin Xiang, pushing the door open. Before she could pay her respects, Li Jiancheng was already saying impatiently: “Whatever it is, speak quickly!”

If one were to say that before coming here, Zheng Shi still held a trace of lingering affection for Li Jiancheng, still had that half-point of hesitation, then when she saw the disgust on Li Jiancheng’s face, everything turned to nothingness. What remained was only hatred—overwhelming, boundless hatred!

Zheng Shi lowered her eyes and said: “This matter should not be known by too many people. Please, Your Highness, dismiss those around you.”

Li Jiancheng frowned, about to speak, when Li Yuanji stepped forward first: “Since that’s the case, we’ll leave first. The matter has been discussed almost completely anyway.”

After they left, Li Jiancheng said impatiently: “Speak! What exactly is the matter?”

Zheng Shi looked sideways at Jin Xiang, who had come with her, and scolded: “What are you standing there for? Kneel down!”

Jin Xiang said with a panicked expression: “This servant only helped deliver a letter. I don’t know anything else, and I haven’t even read what was written in the letter. I beg Your Majesty to spare my life!”

Li Jiancheng, hearing something was wrong, asked puzzledly: “What letter?”

Zheng Shi did not answer directly, but took out a letter from her sleeve and handed it to him: “Please, Your Highness, look it over!”

Li Jiancheng took it with a belly full of questions. The moment he saw the characters on the letter, his expression immediately changed. After finishing reading, his face had turned iron-blue. He crushed the letter forcefully and said coldly: “What a Liu Hongji! He actually guessed it and came up with this kind of strategy. Good! Really good!”

Zheng Shi pretended to be panicked: “So what the letter says is true? Your Highness truly intends to force the palace?”

Li Jiancheng took a deep breath and said coldly: “If I say yes, are you planning to go before Father Emperor and report me?”

Zheng Shi said with a pained expression: “How could Your Highness think such a thing of this concubine? If this concubine truly intended to harm you, I would not have brought this letter to Your Highness.”

Li Jiancheng thought this made sense and softened his expression slightly: “These past years, I have been so cold to you. Don’t you hate me?”

Zheng Shi said mournfully: “If I said I don’t hate you even a little, that would be lying to Your Highness. But this concubine and Your Highness are still husband and wife who shared the wedding cup. No matter what, this concubine would never help others harm you. Moreover, regarding the events of that year, this concubine also did wrong things, so I cannot blame Your Highness entirely. And besides… this concubine does not believe Your Highness would be as heartless as described in the letter.”

“At least you still understand reason.” Saying this, he stared at the letter in his palm that had been crushed into a paper strip, and sneered: “Liu Hongji, clever all his life, yet he stumbled greatly because of you, letting me know their calculations.”

“This concubine has been eating vegetarian food and worshipping Buddha these past years, and actually didn’t know that the Prince of Qin wanted to compete with Your Highness for the imperial throne. He truly has great audacity!” Facing Zheng Shi’s words, Li Jiancheng sneered: “His audacity has always been great. This time, if not for being harmed by him, how would I have fallen to the step of forcing the palace? Li Shimin…” He slowly uttered these three characters, gritting his teeth: “After I succeed, I will make him pay the price for all his actions these years!”

“Although the Prince of Qin’s strategy has been seen through by us, he still has quite a few people under him. I fear they will obstruct Your Highness. We need to quickly think of a way.”

Li Jiancheng sneered: “Chang He is already my man. With him and those Imperial Guards, based on the people Li Shimin has under him, they fundamentally cannot stir up any waves.”

“But…” Zheng Shi looked at him, hesitating without speaking. Li Jiancheng said: “Whatever you have to say, just say it.”

“Yes.” Zheng Shi responded, then said slowly: “One fears not ten thousand but the one eventuality. The Prince of Qin has very high prestige in the army. If we cannot control him immediately, I fear the troops stationed outside the city will cause trouble.”

Li Jiancheng remained silent. What Zheng Shi said was correct. Years of campaigning had made Li Shimin a war god in the army. If he raised his arms and called out, there would certainly be many who would respond. Even in the situation where Taiji Palace was already controlled, it would still cause him considerable trouble.

Moreover, if Li Shimin retreated to defend Luoyang, then it would form a situation of two powers standing together with himself, and Li Shimin’s talents in military affairs… Just thinking about it, Li Jiancheng was already breaking out in a cold sweat.

Zheng Shi saw the timing was about right and said softly: “Your Highness, this concubine has an idea that might be able to help you.”

Li Jiancheng suppressed the thoughts in his heart and said: “Let’s hear it.”

“The Prince of Qin and Liu Hongji still don’t know that this concubine gave this letter to Your Highness. Why don’t we use strategy against strategy?”

Her words piqued Li Jiancheng’s interest, and he asked curiously: “What kind of using strategy against strategy?”

“They want to act after Your Highness raises troops, so that the Prince of Qin can righteously force the palace and then ascend the throne. If we reverse this, then… the one who acts righteously would be Your Highness.”

Hearing this, Li Jiancheng already understood her meaning: “You mean, give them false timing, making the Prince of Qin act one step before us.”

“Your Highness is wise.” Saying this, Zheng Shi continued: “Although Your Highness is the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, the name of forcing the palace, when spread about, really doesn’t sound good and would damage Your Highness’s reputation.”

“What you say has some merit.” Saying this, Li Jiancheng turned his gaze to Jin Xiang, who was still kneeling on the ground: “She is from the Prince of Qin’s mansion?”

Before Zheng Shi could speak, Jin Xiang said urgently: “No, this servant has no relationship whatsoever with the Prince of Qin’s mansion. Today when this servant went out to buy some things, someone gave this servant a string of cash, and the price was to deliver a letter to Your Majesty. This servant thought it was just delivering a letter, so I agreed.” Saying this, she said frantically: “This servant knows I was wrong. This servant will never dare again. I beg Your Highness to show mercy and forgive this servant this once.”

Zheng Shi secretly found this amusing but maintained an extremely serious expression: “Jin Xiang has served by this concubine’s side for three years. What kind of person she is, this concubine knows very clearly. She would never get involved with the Prince of Qin’s mansion. I hope Your Highness, for this concubine’s sake, will forgive her this once.”

“Rest assured, I had no intention of taking her life.” Hearing these words, Jin Xiang immediately felt relieved and kowtowed repeatedly in gratitude.

Li Jiancheng paid no attention to her, looking at Zheng Shi: “You write a letter in a moment, saying that I will act at the first quarter of the last hour tomorrow, and have Jin Xiang deliver it to the Prince of Qin’s mansion.”

Zheng Shi silently committed his words to memory and said with lowered eyes: “This concubine understands. This concubine will handle it according to Your Highness’s intentions.”

Li Jiancheng stared at her for a moment and said: “You helped me this time, and I will certainly not treat you and the two children unfairly.” Although he could not give Zheng Shi the honor of being empress of the realm, for the sake of this matter, he could let her live out her days in peace. As for Chengdao and the others, as long as they behaved themselves, he could also grant them wealth and status.