"Therefore, the Empress Dowager must be the Empress Dowager, but the prince does not necessarily refer to the Emperor."

Hearing Shang Xiye's words, Hei Xiao couldn't help but glance at him, his expression strange: "The prince doesn't refer to the emperor, does it refer to you? Could it be that your father changed his mind at the last minute and passed the throne to Shang Xiche because he knew you weren't his biological son?"

"I am indeed the son of my father, my mother said it herself!" Shang Xiye was slightly annoyed. If Hei Xiao hadn't said this, he would have really wanted to hit him.

"How do you know? You weren't even aware of it then." Black Owl hadn't teased Shang Xiye in a long time, and the two hadn't fought in a while either, so he was being a bit cheeky.

Ji Fengming, however, had a rare moment of clarity: "The princes may not necessarily refer to the emperor and my brother-in-law. Doesn't the emperor have quite a few princes? Li Gan's daughter, the one named Qin Weiyang, even gave birth to one for the emperor. How many princes was that again?"

“Shang Shenchen, the twelfth prince,” Black Owl replied.

“Yes, the twelfth prince. The thirteenth prince was just added to Consort Yin’s palace; counting the crown prince, the second prince, the third prince, and the fourth prince, the emperor has a total of six sons. Who knows if one of them is a fraud?” Ji Fengming said with certainty.

Hei Xiao felt a sense of sudden enlightenment upon hearing this, and said, "That makes sense. At Li Yu's age, the only people he can associate with are princes who curry favor with the powerful and wealthy. But I wonder which one he is associating with, and who has confused the royal bloodline?"

"Now that we know this matter is related to the princes, we can find out by investigating them one by one," Shang Xiye said with a gloomy expression and a low voice.

He promised his father that he would protect the Great Zhao Kingdom, and he would never break his promise!

For both public and private reasons, he will definitely find the treacherous person who has been confusing the royal bloodline and has ulterior motives, and will never allow his father's empire to fall into the hands of others.

They received news of Li Gan's departure.

Shang Xiye ordered Wuying to leave a hundred iron-armored guards outside the Nanli Prince's Mansion for a day to ensure that the person in the shadows knew he had been there, so as to prevent the remaining members of the Nanli clan from being silenced, which could also be considered as fulfilling Li Gan's last wish.

As for how those people fight over the family property, that's their own business.

Evening, Hui Nuan Pavilion.

When Shang Xiye learned that Lin Shuang and Bai Lu had successfully tempered their bodies, he personally checked the results of their tempering. He was amazed to see that they had grown from two frail little girls into strong women who could lift a full bucket of water with one hand.

"My little wife, your pills are truly miraculous. If we use these pills to train a group of people, sweeping across the world will be as easy as lifting a finger." Shang Xiye leisurely embraced the little bandit girl, enjoying the rare tranquility and warmth of the day.

Lin Shuang, who was going in and out nearby preparing a bath for Ji Fengyao, bit her lower lip upon hearing Shang Xiye's words, feeling as if needles were pricking her heart.

She had spent the entire afternoon agonizing over whether she had been overthinking and had wrongly accused the princess. It turned out that the princess's special favor to her and Bailu was merely for them to test a new medicine!

They said this medicine is not suitable for magpies right now.

Ha, it's all just an excuse!

It's just that the princess values ​​Xique and can't bear to use her as a test subject for medicine!

Lin Shuang gripped the handle of the empty tub tightly with one hand, and plunged the other into the tub, stirring it vigorously a couple of times. Finding the water temperature just right, she suppressed her surging emotions and said to Ji Fengyao, "Your Highness, the water is ready. You may take a bath now."

When a maid tests the water temperature for her master, she usually only touches the water surface lightly with the back of her finger.

There is absolutely no such thing as putting one's hands in water and stirring them to wash them.