Bai Zhiyi watched helplessly as the handsome and refined Crown Prince left hand in hand with a man.

She stood there frozen for a long time without moving.

The servants followed her gaze and also looked as if they had seen a ghost.

"this……"

Bai Zhiyi snapped out of her daze and muttered to herself, "How could this be? How could this be? I don't believe it!"

The people in the general's mansion did not know that the person in front was Wei Jingzhuo; they thought he was just a junior officer who had come to join the general.

I never expected that this person was a homosexual.

He shook his head regretfully.

Then he looked at Bai Zhiyi and saw that she looked distraught, so he couldn't help but step forward and ask, "Miss Bai, what's wrong?"

"N-nothing..." She looked disappointed, still unable to believe that the brilliant and talented man would fall in love with another man.

She comforted herself, thinking that maybe she had misjudged the situation, and that the two were just ordinary friends.

Although she comforted herself in this way, she still felt vaguely uneasy.

It's just that in his previous life, His Highness never had any intention of taking a wife or concubines after ascending the throne.

Later, as the court officials mentioned it more often, he selected a child from the royal family to be the crown prince.

In her previous life, she always believed that Wei Jingzhuo had never married or taken a concubine because he was poisoned.

But no one has ever said that he likes men. Could it be that many things have changed because of her rebirth in this life?

When she got home, she saw a letter on the table; it was a letter written by her mother.

The letter urged her to return to the capital as soon as possible, as Consort Li had hinted to her mother several times that she should marry the Fifth Prince.

The letter also said that the Duke had asked her mother to propose a marriage to Consort Li.

Her mother is now urging her to return to the capital as soon as possible, but she knows that once she goes back, she will have to cut off all contact with His Highness.

She had just found His Highness; how could she be willing to go back at this time?

In her past life, she married that man and ended up with such a tragic fate. This time, she traveled a long way to avoid the same destiny she had in her past life.

Only by marrying Wei Jingzhuo can she escape the Fifth Prince's entanglement.

She quickly wrote a letter to her father, stating that she would not marry the fifth prince, and she also subtly mentioned the crown prince.

Tell him to calm down.

My father is a cautious man. If he knew that the future emperor would be the crown prince, he would definitely try to marry me off to him.

But she didn't know how to tell them these things, so she wrote in the letter that she had met a highly virtuous monk who predicted that the Great Jin Dynasty would be in chaos and that many heroes would emerge, among whom a group of northwestern generals would rule the Great Jin Dynasty.

This Northwest general is the same young general who disappeared a few years ago. She only revealed that she is now close to that young general.

As for whether her father would believe her, she also told him in the letter about the floods that would occur in the south the following month.

We'll know for sure if it's true in just one month, and she also mentioned in the letter that the emperor will be holding another selection of candidates in a few days.

After writing it down, she had it delivered by fast horse to the Duke's mansion in the capital.

The Duke's Mansion consists of meritorious officials who followed the ancestral emperor to conquer the Great Jin Dynasty, and they have long been high-ranking and powerful families in the Great Jin.

No one was more astute about the rise and fall of a family than the Duke's family.

After receiving Bai Zhiyi's letter, the Duke paced back and forth in his study with his hands behind his back, seemingly pondering whether his daughter's words were credible.

The Duchess, sitting to the side, wore a crimson brocade dress and a magnificent gold hairpin. She sat upright in the study, her willow-leaf eyebrows furrowed.

"Master, do you think what Zhi'er said is true?"

During the Great Jin Dynasty, they only listened to Master Dingyuan of Yunyin Temple.

However, for some unknown reason, the master went into seclusion a few years ago after meeting His Highness the Crown Prince.

He has not yet left the pass, and despite Emperor Kangping's repeated invitations, he has not been able to persuade Master Dingyuan to come down the mountain.

As for what he said to the former crown prince, no one knows.

The Duke thought of the brilliant and talented Crown Prince, whose whereabouts were still unknown, and no one knew where he had gone.

If that person could really make a comeback, and with his maternal grandfather, the Northwest General who commands an army of 100,000, there's really no telling what would happen if the emperor were to pass away one day.

Many people in the court now support the Fifth Prince, but there are also those low-profile ministers who are former crown princes.

It's hard to know who will win, and he won't easily take sides until the very last step.

He wasn't very optimistic about the Fifth Prince either. The Fifth Prince appeared to be respectful and courteous to everyone, but none of the people around him were particularly capable.

If it weren't for his powerful maternal family and Consort Li's help, he probably would have been eliminated by the former crown prince long ago.

However, apart from the Fifth Prince, the other princes in the court are all mediocre.

The eldest prince's birth mother was a palace maid of humble origin, and in addition, she was dull-witted and unfit for great responsibilities.

The second prince was sickly and lived in the prince's residence for a long time, just getting by day by day.

The third prince was none other than the deposed crown prince, Wei Jingzhuo.

The fourth prince died young, and the other princes were too young, so he could only choose the fifth prince.

Although the emperor was middle-aged, everyone knew that Emperor Kangping had suffered severe internal injuries in his early years when he followed the Northwest Army to the border to resist the Western Rong.

On the surface, nothing seemed amiss, but in winter he rarely attended court.

As high-ranking officials in the imperial court, they had to think about the future of their families.

If what Zhi'er said is true, then he will have to consider the possibility of a marriage alliance with the Fifth Prince.

He stopped and looked at his wife. "Tomorrow, Consort Li will summon you to the palace. Find a way to postpone Consort Li's marriage. Since Zhi'er is in Youzhou right now, we can also use that as an excuse to delay things."

As for the emperor holding a selection of consorts in a few days, he didn't believe it. There was no news about it in the court at the moment, so why would the emperor be thinking about holding a selection of consorts?

And it's not time for the draft yet.

He didn't believe in the Taoist priest Zhi'er mentioned, but he didn't want to put all his family's hopes on the Fifth Prince too soon.

The Duchess, unaware of his thoughts, frowned and said anxiously, "Does my lord know that if we don't agree to Consort Li's proposal, she will betroth a noblewoman from another family?"

"And if the Emperor really wants to hold a selection of concubines, then our Zhi'er will also have to participate."

The Duke scolded her lightly, displeased, "There's not even a hint of it. When did the Emperor say he was going to hold a selection of concubines? Besides, if the Emperor really wants to hold a selection of concubines, let Zhi'er stay at the Lin family for the time being and come back after the selection is over."

She was still worried.

"If the Emperor finds out, won't he blame us?" she asked worriedly. "Besides, there are rumors that Zhi'er is a goddess. Do you think the Emperor will allow Zhi'er to marry so easily?"