The subordinate asked, puzzled, "Master, why are we looking in the Prince of Yan's fiefdom?"

This man was Li Heng's confidant, and he could usually guess most of Li Heng's orders, but he was really puzzled by today's order.

Sending assassins to the Prince of Yan's fiefdom was clearly a way to frame the Prince of Yan.

However, the Prince of Yan's fiefdom was poor, and the Prince of Yan was a low-key person. He only had one son born in his old age, so he posed no threat to his master.

He couldn't figure out the reason, so he asked.

Li Heng slowly leaned back in his chair, recalling the face of Prince Ning in his mind.

As the prime minister, he naturally saw Prince Ning often, but Prince Ning was always joking and laughing, so he didn't notice anything amiss.

Today, Prince Ning sat with Helian Qing with a solemn face. The unusually similar demeanor between them, and the fact that the two had become so close in such a short time, made him suspicious.

Once suspicion takes root, one will notice many things that were previously overlooked. He saw a shadow in the eyes of Prince Ning that he had not seen for several years.

This led to the bold conjecture that Prince Ning might also be his grandson.

Then I remembered what Xie Jinyao had said: in her previous life, the Empress ultimately supported the Prince of Yan's heir.

Of all the princes in the royal family, why was it the heir apparent of the Prince of Yan?

The Prince of Yan and his wife had been married for many years without children, but when they reached middle age, they suddenly received good news: the Princess of Yan was pregnant.

But over the years, she only conceived once and has never had another child since.

The three events, taken together, made him suspect that Prince Ning was not the Empress's son, but rather the Crown Prince of Yan.

As for why the Prince of Ning of the Helian family became the Empress's son, while the Empress's son became the Prince of Yan's heir, he could not understand it for the time being.

Previously, Li Heng thought that the Prince of Yan was just an ordinary member of the imperial family. Even though he knew that the prince had eventually obtained the throne in his previous life, he had never really been wary of him.

If the Prince of Yan's heir is the Empress's biological son, he has no choice but to take him seriously. But the fact that a perfectly good prince is being sent away to be raised elsewhere makes it hard for him not to suspect that there is some kind of conspiracy involved.

He then thought of Xie Jinyao saying that even the new emperor listened to him in his previous life, yet he did not directly usurp the throne. He couldn't understand why.

We must take precautions in advance.

Let the Crown Prince mistakenly believe that the Prince of Yan and his son want to kill them, let them kill each other first. In short, he is now eager to take the lives of Ye Zhen and the Crown Prince.

After briefly explaining the situation to his confidants, he instructed, "Have the border town investigate what exactly happened to Prince Ning."

Today's discovery is truly unbelievable. How could the Empress raise someone else's child? But it's better to be wrong than to overlook something.

Upon hearing this, the subordinate's expression also turned serious. "Could the royal family sending their son to the Prince of Yan's residence be a backup plan?"

This is not impossible.

The emperor had been on the throne for many years, and there were covetous eyes everywhere. Perhaps he was worried that his position was unstable, or that his sons would be completely schemed against, so he secretly hid one of them elsewhere as a precaution.

After all, his master had done something similar before.

Just as I was thinking this, I heard Li Heng say, "I haven't seen Chengye for six years. I should find an opportunity to see him. Go and get busy."

After his subordinates left, Li Heng closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, but after a short while, he opened his eyes again in frustration and smashed the teacup next to him on the windowsill.

The teacup shattered with a crack, but the flames of anger in Li Heng's heart could not be extinguished.

I don't know whether to be angry at the Shen mother and son, or at my useless subordinates.

Xie Tingzhou used only a fake beard to distract the woman, who then cleverly faked her death, only to be burned to ashes by Xie Tingzhou.

He could only suffer in silence, unable to even remind the woman that the bearded man was well hidden in the dark room.

"waste!"

He cursed angrily, and after cursing, he couldn't help but think of Xiao Shi and Xie Jinyao.

Another teacup was smashed out.

Then the steward came to report, "Prime Minister, Young Master Helian has come with Madam Shen and the others to retrieve their belongings, and they have brought quite a few people with them."

There was also a very tall man among them. If they tried to stop him, a fight would be inevitable. The steward was unsure whether he should intervene or not, so he came to ask Li Heng for instructions.

Normally, even if Li Heng harbored murderous intent, he would still go out and deal with the situation, but today he simply couldn't put on a benevolent face when facing Helian Qing.

They had no choice but to give up and tell them to move it.

But he couldn't do nothing, so he picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote a letter to the Prince of Dingyuan.

The letter mentioned that he had just learned that Helian Qing's mother was his daughter, and that he would take good care of Helian Qing from now on, asking Prince Dingyuan not to worry.

He also mentioned that Madam Shen had a misunderstanding about him, which affected Helian Qing as well, but he didn't care about that. He was very happy to be able to see his grandson.

After writing and sealing the letter, he also wrote another letter to the steward of the Prince of Dingyuan's mansion, sending both letters to the border town, one openly and one secretly.

Li Heng leaned back in his chair again, closed his eyes to rest, and this time his mind was much calmer.

Helian Qing was just a child after all. As long as the Prince of Dingyuan recognized this marriage, the Li family and the Helian family would have an unbreakable connection.

If he intentionally or unintentionally stirs up trouble in the future, causing the Prince of Dingyuan to mistakenly believe that the royal family is wary of the military power of the Prince of Dingyuan's mansion.

At that time, the old King Dingyuan will be old and worried that after his death, his grandson will be left alone and helpless. He will surely entrust his grandson to his maternal grandfather.

Li Heng's plan was well-thought-out; these schemes would indeed be effective in ordinary situations.

But he never dreamed that the Prince of Dingyuan and the Emperor were father and son, and his deliberate attempt to ingratiate himself with the Emperor was doomed to failure.

Moreover, Xie Tingzhou had already written to Prince Dingyuan, explaining Li Heng's schemes against Helian Qing.

The Prince of Dingyuan was so eager to kill Li Heng that he couldn't possibly trust him. Of course, that's a story for another time.

After the fake Lu Xiaocao was exposed, the case of the young children came to light, and the other innocent victims were given a proper burial by the charity.

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