Chapter 274 Fire

It has to be said that as long as the prince can be brought to the battlefield, this plan is absolutely foolproof, and the chances of him coming back alive are really slim.

But the biggest problem now is that these account books do not belong to Prince Duan!

This was given to him by his biological father. This is a blatant frame-up!

Hou Hongtu sat down on the ground with a pile of account books, with a brazier next to him.

He finally understood why his father locked him up at home and didn't allow him to have any romantic affairs. It wasn't because he was not doing his job properly, but because he was afraid of getting him involved.

But if you were really worried about your son getting into trouble, why did you give these things to me? Why did you let me bring them in myself?

Tomorrow is the tenth day of the tenth month, the Harvest Festival.

This is one of the most important festivals in Zhaoling State. There will be a banquet in the palace, and all civil and military officials and their families will be present.

If someone reported that Prince Duan was colluding with Qi and plotting to murder the Crown Prince, and then there was irrefutable evidence...

On such an important day, if something like this happened, coupled with the blow caused to the emperor by the death of the nineteenth prince, how angry would the emperor be?

Then the prince's men would take the opportunity to stir up trouble, and the emperor, in his rage, would have no time to investigate carefully. I'm afraid that Prince Duan and Prince Wuling would be dead before the palace banquet was over!

Last year's Harvest Festival was the day when his eldest son became famous all over the world. In just one year, the romantic life that made him famous is about to disappear.

He is the son of the Hou family. He cannot go against the prince, nor should he go against his own father, but he really has feelings for love.

He once thought that this was his lifelong career. No one looked down on him here, no one laughed at him for being a playboy and a spendthrift. Everyone admired him and even worshipped him. He got unprecedented satisfaction and sense of existence here.

In the end, he brought catastrophic disaster to the entire Fenghuaxueyue world...

Hou Hongtu held the post tightly, his nails almost breaking. In the end, he threw all the things into the brazier.

"I was the one who leaked the news that Prince Duan was investigating the Nineteenth Prince, helping the Crown Prince escape a disaster. Now I've ruined your lousy plan to frame someone else, so we're even!"

Hou Hongtu watched the seven scrolls turn to ashes. He did not feel any regret but rather relieved. However, as he saw the flames gradually weaken, he became more and more uneasy.

Since the prince and his men are going to take this step, they must have made all the necessary preparations. How could the "evidence" be just these few account books?

There are countless posts on this romantic site. What if there are others? Wouldn’t he have burned them in vain?

Besides, would the prince’s carefully planned plan be terminated just because these account books are lost?

That's obviously unlikely!

At worst, the person who comes in to search can bring a few account books with him, walk around the house, take them out and say that he found them himself. If he wants to frame someone, he will definitely win!

He had mastered this little trick before he was ten years old! But I have to say, it really works.

"It's your business if you want to fight Prince Duan, but this time you really were the one who provoked me first. You ruined my dreams, my career, and my happiness. Don't blame me for not letting you have your day!"

Hou Hongtu kicked over the blazing brazier. The entire brazier was made almost entirely of wood and paper except for the nails. It would catch fire in just a few minutes.

Hou Hongtu looked at the blazing fire and felt an indescribable pleasure in his heart. Perhaps there was a demon in his bones who liked to cause destruction everywhere.

After seeing the fire getting bigger and bigger and it would not be easily put out, he began to bang on the doors of every house along the street, "Wake up, there is a fire, run for your life!"

His shout, coupled with the raging fire, attracted the attention of the night watchmen and patrol soldiers. Soon, the shop assistants guarding the nearby shops quickly got up, rolled up the silver and money in the shop and ran away.

…

The tenth day of October is another harvest festival.

However, during this year's Harvest Festival, the atmosphere in Yulin City was a bit heavy because a fire broke out on the main road in the city last night.

The weather was dry in autumn, and the night wind was strong. The fire burned all night long. King Wu Ling had to dispatch people from the Yanling Army to put out the fire until dawn.

The fire started at Fenghuaxueyue, and the two adjacent stores were completely burned to ashes. The store next to it also suffered heavy losses. However, King Wuling promised to compensate them according to the price, so the victims did not cause any big trouble.

But next to the ruins of the romantic place, there were many people crying inconsolably.

Most of those people are the same as the eldest son. They regard Fanghuaxueyue as their home and regard it as a big stage to realize their life ideals.

They found like-minded friends here and formed their own small circle. Many of them even gained a high social status because of their romantic life and became celebrities in Yulin City.

Those posts were the result of their hard work, and they were all destroyed in a fire.

The eldest son said that he was reading a post at night and accidentally fell asleep and knocked over the candlestick, which caused the fire. He felt very sorry.

Qin Qingyao did not blame him, although she was very sad, but what was burned were all personal belongings. The most important thing was that the fire was so big that burned half of the street, but there was no casualty. This was simply a blessing in disguise!

Faced with Qin Qingyao's comfort and tolerance, Hou Hongtu really felt uncomfortable.

"Princess, my father said he would find me a job at the Ministry of Revenue. I've already agreed. I may not be able to stay here any longer. I'm sorry."

Qin Qingyao smiled and patted Hou Hongtu on the shoulder. "People always strive for higher goals. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Congratulations!"

Hou Hongtu knew that even if the prince's plan failed this time, he would definitely find other ways to frame Prince Duan and Prince Wuling.

But apart from taking care, he could not say anything else. He was a member of the Hou family. No matter how good their personal relationship was, he was not on the same side as the Wuling Palace.

He really looked down on the Crown Prince's despicable tactics, but in this world, the winner is king and the loser is the enemy. As long as the Crown Prince successfully ascended the throne, who would care how he climbed there?

Besides, he didn't believe that Prince Duan's hands were clean. Who knows how he dealt with the prince behind his back.

However, the fight between the two brothers affected the lives of so many people, making his personal ideals, ambitions, interests and hobbies all worthless.

His former good friends, brothers with whom he could talk about anything, were now in two different camps when they met again.

…

The Wuling Palace was very generous in compensating the shops that were burned to ashes. They even added one thousand taels of compensation for mental damage to the quotes offered by others.

Dugu Yu handed all these matters over to the housekeeper and discussed with Qin Qingyao, "Two stores burned down at once. I'm afraid it will be difficult to rebuild them in a short time."

Qin Qingyao nodded dejectedly. "Actually, the shop is secondary. The most valuable thing is the things inside. They are the result of more than a year of hard work. They are gone just like that. I don't know how many people are hurt physically and mentally. I never want to write again."

Dugu Yu, "Actually, I think Fenghuaxueyue has indeed developed a little too fast in the past year or so. The rules you set at the beginning were too rough, and they contained all kinds of things."

"Think about it. A few times ago, someone tried to exploit your romantic interests to manipulate public opinion and harm others. That's a terrifying thing. Why not take this opportunity to close down the remaining stores and reorganize them?"

"You should get those guys who read the postings in the store every day to gather together, brainstorm, and think carefully about the specific rules. Even if you lose some customers, this will also make your romantic business less troublesome and last longer, right?"

Qin Qingyao nodded in agreement. Although there hadn't been any literary inquisitions in Zhaoling Country, it was always better to be cautious in what you said and did. "Well, you have a point. Then we'll close down our shop from today!"

…

Lin Xiafeng attended the palace banquet tonight as usual. This time, she was not summoned by the emperor, but invited by the queen.

She will be marrying into the Prince's Mansion next month, so it is understandable that the Queen brings her daughter-in-law with her in advance.

This time, the emperor emphasized praising two people, one was the prince and the other was Qi Zhongyuan.

Because in the imperial examination in September this year, Qi Zhongyuan won the first place!

It was all because of the incident of the nineteenth prince's death that the Qi family didn't dare to celebrate such a happy event in a big way, and Qin Qingyao also forgot to find Qi Zhongyuan to fulfill her promise.

They had agreed that as long as he got into high school, Qin Qingyao would pour him tea and apologize.

Strictly speaking, the prince has been much smoother this year thanks to the halo of the heroine Lin Xiafeng. However, Qin Qingyao still can't understand, can Lin Xiafeng alone really make him change so much?

Wasn't he the most stubborn and self-righteous before? He had many capable people around him but he always insisted on his own way. Why is it that he now listens to Lin Xiafeng's words?

It is said that love makes people blind, and even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince cannot escape this curse!

If Lin Xiafeng knew what she was thinking, he would probably roll his eyes at her. Would the prince listen to her?

If he really listened to her, he should stay in the Eastern Palace and do his official duties honestly, and make a good impression on the emperor and the court officials, instead of coming up with some clumsy trick of framing others.

Was he trying to kill Ling Jingxuan with fabricated evidence like that? If he was so weak, why would he wait until today? He had tried to make it look like it was real, but in the end, a fire had put him to death.

It is still unclear how Hou Hongtu started the fire. The Grand Tutor was clearly locked up at home, so how could it be such a coincidence that he went out last night? How could it be such a coincidence that a candlestick started such a big fire?

Only the idiot Prince would believe that Hou Hongtu didn't do it on purpose, and he still went to great lengths to stuff that useless playboy into the Ministry of Revenue. Isn't he afraid that Hou Hongtu will turn against himself?