"What's wrong, Your Excellency? Is there something amiss with my status?"
Ying Ziying, sitting below the hall, was completely bewildered. Why was the prime minister reacting so strongly to him?
"Phew, it's nothing, it's just that your father, Fusu, and I have a past relationship..."
Before Li Lin could finish speaking, Ying Ziying, his face contorted with rage and shame, retorted, "Prime Minister, why must you humiliate me like this? Prince Fusu is my cousin, how can he be my father?"
"ah?"
Now it was Li Lin's turn to be embarrassed.
[What's going on? Isn't Ying Ziying Fusu's son? Aren't they father and son? Wait, Ying Ziying's age seems a bit off. He looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties, and Fusu seems to be around that age too... It seems unlikely that they are father and son, unless Fusu had a son when he was only one or two years old... That seems improbable, right?]
"I apologize, I have misremembered. I do not know who Young Master Ziying's father is."
"Prime Minister, you have only just taken office and you are already humiliating Ziying like this. Could it be that Ziying offended you in the past? You can say it directly, instead of beating around the bush and resorting to such despicable insults in front of me!"
He looked furious.
The feeling of clenching his teeth was quite unbelievable to Li Lin.
What happened?
If Ying Ziying isn't Fusu's son, whose son is he?
What did he just say?
Cousin?
Could he be the son of Chengjiao, the younger brother of the First Emperor?
boom!
This thought immediately made Li Lin realize the seriousness of the problem; he had actually encountered such a taboo topic, which was his oversight.
His mistake!
Realizing his mistake, he immediately got up from his seat and walked apologetically to Ying Ziying, saying sincerely, "Young Master Ziying, I am truly sorry. It was my oversight just now. I have been dealing with too many things these days, so much so that I was unable to think in time and made such a blunder. I am really sorry. How about this, when I establish my own government in six months, you can continue to serve as the chief clerk of the Prime Minister's office?"
"this......"
Ying Ziying looked surprised. He had been furious just moments before, thinking that Li Lin had humiliated him in every way, but Li Lin's sincere apology and genuine sincerity had surprised him.
But he didn't know what to say.
"I am good friends with Prince Fusu. Prince Fusu once said that he had a son named Ziying, which is why I am being so abrupt today. The origin of all this can be traced back to a joke that Prince Fusu made to me in the past."
To be honest, Li Lin, feeling extremely ashamed at this moment, really had no good excuse.
Who told him to accept the knowledge of later generations and believe that Fusu's son was Ying Ziying?
Thinking about it carefully, that makes sense.
Ying Ziying was the one who supported Qin Er Shi when he ascended the throne. Moreover, Fusu was killed by Huhai. If Ying Ziying was his son, why would he be left alive if he wasn't eliminated completely?
It should be noted that all the legitimate heirs who posed a threat to Hu Hai were killed by him.
Even if he were incredibly stupid, Ying Ziying would still be killed, but that didn't happen. Instead, Ying Ziying was entrusted with important responsibilities.
This shows that Ying Ziying could not be a threat to the succession to the throne.
Furthermore, considering that Ying Ziying and his two sons later conspired with a traitorous eunuch to kill Zhao Gao, his two sons must have been at least fifteen or sixteen years old.
In ancient times, people married and had sons at the age of fifteen or sixteen. Based on this calculation, Ying Ziying would have been at least thirty to forty years old during the reign of Qin Er Shi.
Therefore, it is unlikely that he was Fusu's son.
However, if it were the son of Chengjiao, the younger brother of the First Emperor, it would make sense. After all, Chengjiao's sons were less legitimate in terms of accession, and since Ying Ziying supported Huhai's ascension to the throne, he would naturally not be the target of Huhai's purge.
Now it makes perfect sense.
Therefore, Li Lin, in a moment of quick thinking, shifted the blame onto Fusu, who was speeding along the road.
Fusu, who was thousands of miles away, had already passed through the Yan region and was about to enter the Zhao region to go to Shangdang.
"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo..."
Fusu sneezed several times during the bumpy ride in the carriage.
This left him somewhat bewildered.
"Young master, is it because we traveled too fast that you are feeling unwell?"
"Perhaps!"
"Then let's spend the night in Shangdang County and set off again tomorrow!"
"Um!"
Fusu was slowly helped down from the carriage by the guards beside him and walked slowly into Shangdang County. He sneezed constantly along the way.
This made the guards somewhat worried about his health.
Fusu, on the other hand, felt something was off.
He has always been very healthy. Having inherited the physical qualities of the First Emperor, how could he possibly sneeze constantly due to the fatigue of traveling?
However, he never expected that someone would secretly shift the blame onto him.
He became the scapegoat.
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