Lan Shanyang glared at her son, annoyed. "Useless! All you do all day is tear down houses and land! Humph, the more you say that, the more I want to see what kind of three-headed, six-armed Qin Kou'er really is!"
"She's much prettier than all your concubines!" Lan Linxue muttered softly.
Actually, Lan Linxue's voice wasn't quiet; at least Lan Shanyang heard it clearly.
"Even if Qin Kou'er is beautiful, she shouldn't be so beautiful as to make you think of giving up the position of Crown Prince, right?"
Ultimately, this issue remains the key.
Lan Linxue immediately frowned: "This has nothing to do with Qin Kou'er, it's our problem. Stop changing the subject! I haven't finished speaking. I can't continue as the Crown Prince. I think you should replace him with someone else!"
Lan Shanyang gritted his teeth, wishing he could immediately slap Lan Linxue's head and twist it away.
"Without this empire, how will you survive? If you lose the throne, do you know that you'll be the first to die when the new emperor ascends the throne?"
Lan Shanyang couldn't understand why Lan Linxue was so stubborn on this issue.
Lan Linxue rolled her eyes, then looked at Lan Shanyang with a serious expression and said, "Why did I lose the throne? Just because I'm not the crown prince? What a joke! I said I wouldn't be the crown prince, but I didn't say I wouldn't be the emperor! And I certainly didn't say I didn't want this throne!"
Upon hearing his son's words, Lan Shanyang immediately frowned. "What do you mean? You want the throne even if you don't want to be the crown prince? You're determined to start a rebellion, aren't you?"
"Of course not!" Lan Linxue immediately retorted, "Do you think becoming the crown prince guarantees the stability of the empire? I am the crown prince now, but can I smoothly take over the empire? I'm still being harmed every day! You are still the emperor, would you kill half the officials in the court just to protect my empire? You can't! So, to be frank, the position of crown prince is nothing more than a target, a target that everyone wants to get rid of! Why should I be that target? I don't even know why I keep going on and on about something so stupid!"
Hearing his son say this, Lan Shanyang crossed his arms and frowned as he looked at him. "Then what do you mean? You don't want to be the crown prince but you still want the throne. You don't want to rebel but you still want to seize the world. Tell me, what exactly do you want to do?"
Lan Linxue glanced at Lan Shanyang, "Then you don't need to worry about it! In short, I'm not taking this crown prince position! Give it to someone else!"
"Give it to whom?" Lan Shanyang was so angry that she laughed. "Do you think these are the shrimp dumplings you ate when you were a kid? You can't just throw them into someone else's bowl just because you don't like them! This is the lifeblood of the Lan family. Tell me, who are you giving it to?"
"Wasn't Lan Xiuyuan jumping around anxiously over there? Give him the position! He likes it, let him be the one in charge!"
Upon hearing Lan Linxue's words, a thought suddenly flashed through Lan Shanyang's mind. He turned his head slightly to look at Lan Linxue, carefully approached him, and asked, "You want Lan Xiuyuan to be the scapegoat, and then you step on it, right?"
At this point, Lan Shanyang shook his head again, "No! It wasn't you who stepped on the landmine! It was you who made the third and sixth brothers step on it, right? They stepped on the landmine, the landmine killed them, and then you could reap the benefits, right? Is this how you can take back the throne without rebelling?"
Lan Linxue looked at Lan Shanyang, blinked, and didn't say anything.
He had said long ago that if anyone in the world could see through his tricks, it would definitely be his father!
See, they guessed right.
However, he would never admit to such a thing, even if it meant his death. After all, Lan Jiayuan and Lan Xiuyuan were his own sons; there were bound to be some things he couldn't say.
"I'm asking you if that's your plan?" Lan Shanyang stared intently at Lan Linxue.
Lan Linxue shrugged irresponsibly. "Father, aren't you overthinking this? I didn't say anything; it's all just your speculation. Besides, the third and sixth princes are law-abiding citizens. Don't make it sound like they're coveting the throne. That's not a good idea!"
Lan Shanyang slapped Lan Linxue across the face, gritting his teeth and saying fiercely, "Stop talking nonsense! I know their character perfectly well, I don't need your sarcastic remarks! You don't need to say anything now either, I know what you're up to the moment your eyes dart around! Looks like that's what you're planning! Fine, Lan Linxue, I'll give you the satisfaction! You're like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind! In the end, no one can escape being caught in the crossfire!"
At this point, Lan Shanyang gave a cold laugh: "If you give up the crown prince position, they will fight tooth and nail for it. When they are fighting tooth and nail, you can then wipe them out in one fell swoop. Hmph, they probably never dreamed that you, the deposed crown prince, would be their death knell. Because no one will care about a deposed crown prince anymore! What a scheme! What a cunning method! Your father is truly gratified!"
Lan Linxue looked up at Lan Shanyang, then suddenly smiled beautifully, "You should at least smile sincerely as a reward for your son's brilliant plan!"
"You've thought this through!" Lan Shanyang stood up and paced irritably on the ground. After figuring everything out, he looked at Lan Linxue with a cold smile. "You really went to great lengths. Afraid that I would hinder your plans, you went to great lengths to travel thousands of miles to Jiangnan, clean up the Jiangnan officialdom, and even killed a prefect of Yangzhou, while also blowing up the dikes of four counties. With these 'achievements,' I'm afraid I'm powerless to protect you, because those old bastards like Hu Tianyong will definitely not tolerate you, right? Lan Linxue, you're something else! You've even schemed against your father's bones!"
Lan Linxue chuckled, "It's alright! Father Emperor has always been a genius, if I don't make a big fuss, I won't be able to get my way. So, Father Emperor, this time I've made up my mind, so please don't be too stubborn. Your health isn't good either, if you really get angry, your concubines will cry their eyes out!"
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