With all the preparations complete, all that's left is to wait for the day the actual banquet will arrive.
Lanqin asked Yuxiao and others to confirm whether all the wives had received their invitations, making sure that nothing went wrong.
However, due to someone's loose tongue, the news spread like wildfire throughout the capital.
All the officials in the capital knew that the Fourth Prince was going to hold a lotus appreciation banquet at the Yuanmingyuan Garden, which became a popular topic of conversation.
Zhu Wanqing's spies were all over the capital, and they soon found out as well.
She went to the Fourteenth Prince's room. He was lying in bed sleeping. He spent his days either sleeping or drinking. Although he lived a carefree life, it was also quite boring.
Zhu Wanqing put on a bright smile, walked to the Fourteenth Prince's bedside, sat on his lap, and said, "Wake up?"
The Fourteenth Prince hadn't fallen asleep at all. He held her hand, opened his eyes slightly, and looked at her with a hazy, drunken gaze.
Zhu Wanqing said, "I just received news that Emperor Yongzheng is going to hold a lotus appreciation banquet at the Yuanmingyuan Garden."
Upon hearing this, the Fourteenth Prince sat up abruptly from the bed, but then realized there was nothing surprising about it.
Royal court gatherings are frequent, and he often attended various gatherings when he was in the palace.
Perhaps it was because he missed his family that he was so excited to hear the news.
Zhu Wanqing, unaware of his thoughts, inquired tentatively, "Fourteenth Prince...do you want to go?"
The Fourteenth Prince frowned, looking at her with confusion. "What do you mean?"
He is now essentially a deserter, forced to hide here and unable to go out and meet people. How could he possibly attend the lotus-viewing banquet? If Yongzheng saw him, wouldn't he be furious and arrest him immediately?
Although he wanted to go back, he didn't want to go back in this way.
Zhu Wanqing clearly had another meaning. She looked him over and said, "Although the guards in the Yuanmingyuan are strict, they are not as strict as those in the palace. Besides, this is just a banquet being held in the Yuanmingyuan, so the Emperor will not have many guards with him. Why don't we take advantage of this opportunity to..."
She made a throat-slitting gesture, and uttered two words from her red lips, "Assassination!"
The Fourteenth Prince was shocked. He had known about Zhu Wanqing's actions for a long time, but he felt that it was inappropriate to do so.
Without thinking, he shook his head. "No, that's not good."
Zhu Wanqing frowned, grabbed the Fourteenth Prince's arm, and hurriedly advised, "What's wrong with that? You know the route of the Yuanmingyuan so well, and I have people with extremely high martial arts skills. With the two of us, the chances of winning are very high. Such an opportunity is rare. If we miss it, we don't know when the next one will come!"
She kept analyzing the situation with him, but the Fourteenth Prince kept shaking his head and frowning in opposition, "No, Yongzheng is a suspicious man by nature. How could he let us succeed so easily?"
"But what if he's not on guard? Anyway, assassinating him is definitely a risky move for us. So why not take the gamble! As long as we plan our plan flawlessly, we have a very high chance of success. You're familiar with the layout of the Old Summer Palace, so design an escape route. If we fail, we can just leave through that route!"
Her analysis was very logical and her plan was indeed very appealing to the Fourteenth Prince.
However, the grievances he suffered over the years taught him to think things through carefully and ensure that nothing goes wrong. "It's still not good. Yongzheng is too cunning. This may be a conspiracy."
Seeing that he still wouldn't agree after all she had said, Zhu Wanqing had no choice but to shut up and look at him with displeasure.
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