Song Chengze let Meng Qi wipe the sweat off his face and sighed, "It's okay. Although the wounds are quite scary, after all, he fell from such a height. Fortunately, Zhou Yu and I have been practicing a few punches every day to withstand it. As long as we rest well, there will be no root cause of the disease."
Meng Qi hummed softly, but her hands kept rubbing back and forth, and Song Chengze let her do it.
"Is it Prince Jing or the Crown Prince? Or are they both working together?"
Song Chengze was stunned, "You know?"
"The eldest maidservant beside Second Sister came over just now and told me something, but it wasn't complete. Why would King Jing go?"
Song Chengze shook his head. "I don't know whether he did it intentionally or not. The prince just said that he met the fourth prince in the palace this morning and heard about this matter. He wanted to fulfill his filial piety together, so he took Hongzhe with him."
"Hongzhe went too? I heard the prince went last, so what's going on?"
"Yes, now that I think about it, a large part of this should have been arranged by Hongzhe, including the frightened horse and the person who stopped the report back."
Song Chengze gestured for Meng Qi to sit down.
"Just as we were about to leave, someone came looking for the Crown Prince, saying that the Emperor had summoned him. The Crown Prince had no choice but to go back first. He gave me the sacrificial text and asked me and the Fourth Brother to go first. If he couldn't make it, his mother's family would naturally take care of it."
Song Chengze meticulously recounted to Meng Qi everything that had happened today. (For more on this, please refer to the last third of "The Substitute Bride," which contains a detailed explanation, so I won't go into it here. If you think it's just a rant, feel free to skip it; just understand that she fell into a trap set by the Crown Prince and King Jing.)
After listening to Song Chengze, Meng Qi raised her eyes and looked at him quietly. After a while, she said quietly, "Who do you think it is, Your Highness?"
"What do you think?"
"Both of them were involved, but it's probably not a collaboration, but a coincidence."
Song Chengze was a little surprised because Meng Qi's point of view was the same as Lu Jinzhou's.
"Oh? Tell me about it."
"Let's talk about Prince Jing first. First, if Prince Jing arranged this in advance, he couldn't have predicted the Emperor would summon the Crown Prince. And if the Crown Prince had been with you all the way, Prince Jing wouldn't have been able to pull it off smoothly. Secondly, if he had planned this, he wouldn't have just acted on that startled horse. He would have also arranged people at the bottom of the cliff in advance to ensure that there was no chance of error. Therefore, I believe that it's more likely that Prince Jing acted on impulse. As for the reason, Your Highness needs to investigate thoroughly. However, since he followed the Crown Prince all the way out of the palace, I suggest Your Highness focus on the palace. Especially since Prince Jing has been so close to the Crown Prince recently, has he discovered something about Your Highness?"
Song Chengze nodded, his eyes full of relief, "Go on, where is the prince?"
"The Crown Prince did it intentionally and had made certain preparations. However, the location of his attack likely wasn't that narrow road, but rather the Black Mountain Forest Farm he mentioned, or near the residence. It would have been more convenient for him to arrange and make plans there, and he already had an alibi for himself. If anything happened to you, he would simply kowtow before the Emperor with deep sorrow."
Meng Qi thought for a moment and continued, "And I think the Crown Prince doesn't want your life. He wants to give you a warning. And the Crown Prince also said that it was after Prince Jing saw him in the palace that he decided to go with him. It seems that the Crown Prince is also unaware of Prince Jing's intentions. After all, you also said that this is the first time in all these years that you have accompanied the Crown Prince to pay tribute to Queen Jiang."
Song Chengze hummed, "I'm also wondering why the fourth brother insisted on going with us. As you said, we can only start from the palace to investigate, especially what happened from last night to this morning."
Meng Qi stood up and placed the handkerchief back into the wooden basin, rubbing it gently. "If our analysis is correct, then if the Crown Prince allowed Prince Jing to go, it would definitely disrupt his plans for you. Why did he bring Prince Jing with him?"
"He has to take us. The fourth brother sounded so sincere. If he insists on not letting the fourth brother go, people will know that there is something fishy going on." Song Chengze snorted coldly.
Yes, that's right.
Meng Qi returned to the bedside and wiped Song Chengze's forehead again. "The Crown Prince is also very strange. Everyone knows that he has been displeased with you recently. Why didn't he give the memorial to Prince Jing instead of giving it to you? If he was really kept by the Emperor, the memorial would need to be presented by someone closer to him. You can't just give the memorial to Prince Jing and let him present it when we get there, right?"
Song Chengze snorted, "Maybe he was afraid that I wouldn't leave halfway. You don't know, when he handed me the box containing the sacrificial text, the fourth brother's eyes seemed to be able to spit fire, as if he could rush up and snatch the box from my hands at any time."
After Song Chengze said this, he suddenly seemed to think of something. Meng Qi was also surprised. They looked at each other and found something unusual.
"What did you think of?" Song Chengze asked.
"Your Highness, if Prince Jing really has that attitude, then something is wrong. He's just accompanying you. It's surprising that he insisted on going with you. Why did you act like this after seeing you take the sacrificial text? It's not like you're going to offer sacrifices for Concubine Xian's family."
Song Chengze slapped the bed hard, pulling at the wound on his body, and it made a "hissing" sound. Meng Qi felt around nervously, "Where is it stretched? Let me see if there's any bleeding. Let's call the doctor in."
Song Chengze looked at Meng Qi's nervous expression and said in his heart, "No, it's okay, let's continue talking, don't interrupt her train of thought."
Meng Qi heard him say this and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that his body indeed did not seem to be torn apart. "So, I'm afraid the problem lies with the sacrificial text?"
Song Chengze nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "When I first received it, I had no idea what it was, and I had to walk a long way before I opened it to look at it. At that time, Zhou Yu said that if a sacrificial text was made like this, someone who didn't know would think it was some kind of treasure. Now that I think about it, I'm afraid that the fourth brother really thought it was a treasure."
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