After saying that, Lan Linxue no longer wanted to dwell on the topic, so she stood up, turned around, and went inside.
The guard looked up and glanced at the seventh prince.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Didn't the Crown Prince explain himself? Get down there and get on with your business!"
"yes!"
The guard turned and left, carrying Lan Linxue's words with him.
Lan Linxue went inside and changed her clothes. After thinking for a moment, she said to Lao Qi, "Go back and tell Jiang Ming and his men that at 10:00 AM today, they should go to the place on the Qinhuai River yesterday and bring all the silver over!"
"yes!"
While the two were talking inside the room, a heart-wrenching cry suddenly rang out from outside.
Lan Linxue frowned.
Soon, the guards rushed in, knelt down, and reported, "Your Highness, Old Madam Gu has suddenly banged her head against a coffin!"
Lan Linxue's face immediately turned cold. She leaned forward and asked in a deep voice, "Is the person dead?"
"Luckily, one of our people was nearby and managed to bump into him, preventing him from being seriously injured. He was just knocked unconscious. But the scene outside isn't very pleasant right now."
Lan Linxue thought for a moment, then gave a cold laugh: "That's really strange. It's so lively here, why hasn't Lan Xiuyuan arrived to act as a bodhisattva yet!"
Just as Lan Linxue was muttering to herself, someone ran in to report: "Your Highness, the Fifth Prince has arrived! He's outside comforting the Gu family!"
Lan Linxue slammed her hand on the table, turned around and smiled at the seventh brother, saying, "See? You see how easily this person can be nagged. Just a little nagging and he'll appear like a monkey! I knew it, how could we leave out our Fifth Master when it's such a good opportunity to cultivate a benevolent image! I was right to be prescient!"
After Lan Linxue finished speaking, she pointed to the guards below and said, "After Fifth Master finishes speaking and comforts the widows of that family, you must applaud and cheer him on. Do you all understand?"
"yes!"
Lan Linxue smiled wickedly. "Lan Xiuyuan, you hypocrite, you despicable villain! You killed that person, and in the end, you expect his entire family of widows to worship you like a Bodhisattva. You are utterly shameless! How could you even think of doing such a thing!"
Lan Xiuyuan not only accomplished it, but he did it in a seemingly righteous and perfectly logical manner.
His eyes were filled with sympathy and pity, his tone conveyed regret and comfort, and he instructed his subordinates to make arrangements in an orderly manner. Not only were the Gu family members deeply grateful to Lan Xiuyuan, but the people on both sides also praised and defended him.
"Look at the Fifth Prince, and then look at the Crown Prince! It's like comparing heaven and earth! I don't know what the Emperor was thinking, how could he entrust this great country to such a violent and unruly wastrel! Alas, the country is in grave danger!"
Such discussions quietly arose among the people.
Lan Xiuyuan acted as if he hadn't heard anything, and his smile became even more gentle and considerate.
Although there was a slight mishap, and no one witnessed the gruesome scene after Gu Minglang hanged himself, he was still quite satisfied overall with the charred corpse before him; at least he had achieved all his goals.
Lan Linxue instantly became the target of everyone's criticism.
Ideally, he should be riddled with bullets to turn him into a hedgehog, only then can his hatred for taking away Ke'er be appeased.
However, regarding Gu Minglang's death, Lan Xiuyuan still had some questions: Nightingale returned saying she was attacked in Gu Minglang's study. And judging from the wounds on Nightingale's body, they were definitely left by a master; it couldn't be Nightingale doing anything suspicious! But who else wanted to kill this scholar, Gu Minglang?
Feng Zhouyuan didn't dare to ignore this matter at all and quickly sent people to investigate secretly. They discovered that someone had secretly followed Gu Minglang to Qin Tian Pavilion, and he immediately understood: someone was eyeing Gu Minglang's money.
Upon hearing this from Lan Xiuyuan, Lan Xiuyuan immediately understood: "It must have been Jiang Ming who dared to do this! He made Gu Minglang take 300,000 taels of silver by himself, only to find out that Gu Minglang had gone to see Qin Kou'er. Everyone knows how much silver Qin Kou'er has. Let alone 300,000 taels, she could easily come up with a million taels. So, when Jiang Ming finally panicked, he sent people not to rob the silver, but to cause trouble for Gu Minglang! That explains it all."
Feng Zhouyuan nodded repeatedly, "Fifth Master is truly thoughtful, Zhouyuan admires him greatly!"
Yes, Qin Kou'er admired this speculation, at least it didn't cause her any trouble.
Lan Xiuyuan comforted and persuaded the Gu family members to go home, and then had his subordinates send them a lot of money. His gentle, considerate, and compassionate image immediately won people's hearts.
After Lan Xiuyuan finished his performance, he turned around to check on Lan Linxue, only to find that she had already left and gone to the embankment to wait for someone to collect the silver.
After thinking for a moment, Lan Xiuyuan felt that with Lan Linxue not around, it was a good time for him to get close to Qin Kou'er.
He had barely arrived at the entrance of Qin Tian Pavilion, and before he could even enter, Lan Linxue claimed there were twelve extremely urgent matters at stake and abruptly took him away. He was so angry he was practically consumed by rage.
When he rushed to the embankment, he saw Lan Linxue praising Jiang Ming on the ground, saying that the officials of Yangzhou were honest and quick to donate their own wealth to support the country, and that they were all rare and good officials.
As for Gu Minglang, who hanged himself and was burned to death, he was simply out of touch with reality and didn't understand the Crown Prince's good intentions for the country and its people. Even if he died now, it would have been a pointless death!
When Lan Xiuyuan was carried over to ask Lan Linxue what the urgent matter was, Lan Linxue looked at him with a puzzled expression: "Nothing! I just wanted you to see if I looked dashing and every word I uttered when I was cursing just now was true?"
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