Inside the hall, the emperor stood in the center without sitting on the chair. Xiao Lingyu and the fourth prince knelt in front of him.
The woman knelt behind them, her body trembling slightly with fear.
"Tell me," the emperor said, his eyes glaring coldly. "I don't want to hear a single lie or omission."
His voice was heavy and intimidating.
The Fourth Prince looked up at him timidly and bit his lip. "My father has forbidden me to enter the harem again, but I am worried about my mother. I remembered that when I was little, I loved playing and there was a dog hole under the east wall, so I thought I would try my luck there."
As the Fourth Prince spoke, he observed the Emperor's expression. Seeing that his expression was no longer as furious as before, he continued cautiously, "Thanks to your father's protection, the hole wasn't blocked. It's just that there were a few more patrolling guards nearby. I bribed them and dug the hole a little bigger..."
emperor:"……"
The hole was not plugged, or was it because he protected it?
Jiang Zhiyu almost laughed out loud.
It was obvious that the Fourth Prince was trying to flatter someone, but the flattery was...
Jiang Zhiyu glanced at the emperor's face, which had darkened considerably.
The Fourth Prince was completely unaware. Seeing that the Emperor remained silent, the guilty look in his eyes dissipated a little, and he continued, "That day, I had just left my mother's palace when I saw a woman dancing. Her movements were like soaring phoenixes and flying dragons, and I was captivated by her and couldn't help but stop and watch for a long time."
The emperor narrowed his eyes and looked at the trembling woman beside him.
What happened next, they all understood without him saying anything. If this woman was just an ordinary palace maid, she would have been favored, but she was not.
The emperor took a deep breath and asked, "When did you know her identity?"
The Fourth Prince pursed his lips and said nothing.
The emperor hummed a light, warning sound, and the fourth prince whispered, "When she finishes the dance and tells me her name."
Xiao Lingyu clenched his hands hanging at his sides into fists.
There was a hint of collapse in his eyes.
Weren't you smart enough to play word games just now?
Why are you so frank now?
Isn't this clearly telling the emperor that I know she was given to you by my second brother, but I still want to hang out with her?
The Fourth Prince also hurriedly begged for mercy, "Father, I thought that since you didn't marry her, you must be looking down on her. Even if I had the guts to do it, I wouldn't dare touch your person!"
He lay on the ground, not daring to look up.
The emperor was still furious, and the veins on his forehead were throbbing.
Even if it is his own bloodline, so what? This matter is likely to be exposed. If it gets out, if he does not punish the perpetrator, won't he become a laughing stock of the whole world?
The emperor's eyes were full of murderous intent, like an angry lion, and there was a cold light flashing in his deep eyes.
His thin lips moved slightly, and just as he was about to speak, a familiar voice came into his ears.
[So, the Fourth Prince was indirectly helping the Emperor.]
emperor:"……"
What? What do you mean by helping him?
Xiao Lingyu couldn't help but frown slightly.
[This woman was specially trained by Xiao Chuji to be a spy placed by the emperor's side to gather information.]
[Given Xiao Chuji's personality, this spy must have been carefully nurtured and carefully sized according to the emperor's aesthetic tastes and preferences. Although I don't know why the emperor confiscated her for the time being, it was only a matter of time.]
The emperor coughed lightly.
Indeed, when he first saw the woman, he did feel a little excited, but because she was sent by the second brother, and he was busy dealing with the Wala matter at the time, he delayed it.
If it weren't for the fourth brother's behavior, it would only be a matter of time before I favored her.
Xiao Lingyu was not surprised by this.
The second prince today is no longer the second prince who hated Jiang Kangan and worshipped Buddha wholeheartedly. Now, he covets the throne as much as anyone else.
[Besides, didn't they notice that this woman was too calm?]
Even though she was the lowest-ranking person present, she should have at least begged for mercy and spoken a few words when facing death. However, not only did she not open her mouth, there was not a single tear on her face, and her body was trembling. It was too regular.
Xiao Lingyu restrained himself from turning around to look, but the emperor looked up.
Feeling the murderous gazes surrounding her, the woman's body instinctively tensed up for a moment, but then, as if realizing something, she relaxed a bit and trembled even more violently.
Although she reacted quickly, the emperor still saw her tenseness at that moment.
The emperor snorted and looked away.
This time, his gaze fell on the Fourth Prince.
The Fourth Prince's head was firmly pressed against the ground, not daring to lift it up even a bit.
He had just clearly felt his father's murderous intent, but for some reason, during this period of silence, his father's murderous intent had decreased a lot.
The Fourth Prince's heart, which had risen to his throat, dropped slightly.
Father, you still remember the father-son relationship.
However, the emperor, who was thinking about the father-son relationship in his heart, was thinking deeply.
Speaking of which, it's almost time for the audition. If I keep him, I'm sure I'll be able to catch a lot of people with ulterior motives. With the reputation of having an affair, no matter how many people I deal with, the people behind them will definitely not have any complaints.
But my reputation...
Thinking of his future reputation that might be ridiculed by the world, the emperor's face turned pale.
Or just forget it and kill them once and for all. As for those people, there is still a long way to go and they will just be a little trouble.
With two conflicting thoughts in his mind, the emperor closed his eyes slightly and gritted his teeth.
Never mind, it’s better to have some trouble than to be laughed at in the future.
His eyes turned and he happened to see half of the jade pendant that fell out from the fourth prince's messy clothes.
Memories suddenly came flooding back like a tide.
The fourth prince's current mother is not his biological mother. His biological mother died of complications during childbirth. At that time, the two were deeply in love.
Before she died, she split the jade pendant, a token of love given to her by the emperor, into two pieces, stuffed one half into the swaddling clothes of her newborn child, and gave the other half to the emperor.
The person in front of her was the only bloodline she had left.
Coming back to his senses from his memories, the emperor sighed softly.
He called out to Lan Xi and asked him to take the woman away. Then he sat down, pinched his brows and whispered, "The Fourth Prince is extremely promiscuous and has defiled the harem. He has refused to change despite repeated warnings. From today on, he is confined to the Fourth Prince's residence and is not allowed to leave without my summons."
The Fourth Prince suddenly raised his head.
In name it was house arrest, but in reality, he was to be imprisoned in the Fourth Prince's mansion until he died of old age!
The emperor also knew what he wanted to say and snorted coldly: "I have spared your life, which is the greatest grace."
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