June 30, 1934
Four o'clock in the morning.
Prince Rong's Palace.
"Your Highness! Your Highness! Something happened!"
Zhong Mingzheng was sleeping soundly when he was woken up by someone. He turned over irritably, and the woman beside him also woke up. She mumbled in a daze, "What's wrong?"
This woman is Zhong Mingzheng's concubine. She entered the family earlier than Da'an. She is gentle, charming and well-behaved, and is therefore favored by Zhong Mingzheng. However, her mother's family is of low status, so since Da'an entered the family, the good days of this concubine have come to an end. She has been bullied by Da'an for many years. Now that Da'an has been completely imprisoned in the backyard, this concubine has regained Zhong Mingzheng's favor. Zhong Mingzheng values her gentle nature and even lets her take care of the young master, Zhong Yuanying. Although this concubine is still just a concubine, she is actually the mistress of Prince Rong's Mansion. According to this trend, if Zhong Mingzheng ascends the throne in the future, although this concubine cannot become the queen, she can certainly become a royal concubine. What's more, the young master now regards her as his biological mother, so everyone in Prince Rong's Mansion respects her.
"It's okay, you continue to sleep," Zhong Mingzheng said to the concubine, while impatiently pulling aside the curtain and saying to Ling Shian who pushed the door open, "What happened?"
"Your Highness, something happened in Ningguta!" Ling Shi'an said anxiously.
"What happened?" Zhong Mingzheng's face froze. He glanced at the curtain behind him, then said to Ling Shian in a deep voice, "Let's talk in the study."
"Yes." Ling Shi'an bowed and went to the study with Zhong Mingzheng.
…
study.
"What did you say?" Zhong Mingzheng stared at Ling Shi'an with an angry look on his face. "How could Jiang Jinwan disregard my orders and rush to take revenge as soon as he arrived in Ningguta?!"
"Yes, I am also angry about this matter. If it weren't for Jiang Jinwan's eagerness to avenge his personal grudge, our whereabouts would not have been exposed so quickly!" Ling Shian said angrily, "Luckily, one of our guards was unwell that night and did not follow Jiang Jinwan to the Nanshan Villa to commit the crime, so we were able to rush back to the capital to report the matter in time. Otherwise, I'm afraid we would still be kept in the dark and we don't know when Prince An would have plotted against us unexpectedly!"
"This guy is always more likely to cause trouble than to help!" Zhong Mingzheng gritted his teeth and swept all the teacups, pens and inkstones on the table to the ground. He couldn't suppress his anger, "Fortunately he died in Ningguta, otherwise, I would have chopped him off with my own hands!"
"Your Highness, now we know that in addition to Ma Zhiming, the Ningguta prefect Fang Zuotang has been under the command of Prince An since some time," Ling Shian said solemnly, "Prince An looks pitiful and a cripple, but I didn't expect that there is such a powerful force behind him. Your Highness, how should we deal with it now?"
"I had expected that the Prince of Pingxi would be the backer of the Prince of An, but I didn't expect that even Fang Zuotang would stand on the side of the Prince of An. What's more frightening is that my father had clearly deposed the Prince of An, but he demoted him to Ningguta, which is the territory of the Imperial Guards. What's even more unexpected is that Fang Zuotang would actually pledge allegiance to the Prince of An. Who would Fang Zuotang belong to? Is he the Prince of Pingxi's man? Or my father's man? I really don't dare to think about it. I really don't dare to think whether my father did it by accident or on purpose," Zhong Mingzheng bit his lip and shook his head, "If my father had set up a foreshadowing long ago, it would be too terrible."
"But if His Majesty still had this in mind for Prince An, how could he be willing to demote him? And let him survive in the clan house, and even become disabled?" Ling Shi'an said with a puzzled look on his face, "If His Majesty had a little bit of fatherly love for Prince An, he would never act like this, so I think His Majesty's behavior should be unintentional."
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