All the empress wanted was a pawn or puppet to maintain her supreme position.
Xie Qian genuinely did not want to get involved in this mess, so he truthfully told Shi Wuxia his inner thoughts.
"Now, all I ask for is the medicine in Miss Shi's possession. Please rest assured, Miss Shi, I dare not covet the Crown Prince's things."
There was no time to doubt or be skeptical.
The following day, the Crown Prince of Yan was summoned to the palace.
The emperor had been secretly keeping an eye on the Prince of Yan's heir, knowing that he had grown up quite well under the tutelage of the Prince of Yan and his wife.
Today I met a young man with gentle features and a straight back, and I was very happy. I asked him a lot about the situation in Yan and we chatted about some everyday things.
Upon learning that Princess Yan had been frightened at the Ten-Mile Pavilion and had been rescued by Shi Wuxia, he was happy for her and asked, "Why didn't you bring more people with you this time? It would have been better if you had someone to take care of you on the road."
From the moment his son was sent to Yan, he sent royal guards to his side.
But a few days ago he received a letter from his secret guards, saying that his son had left all the royal secret guards in Yan when he returned to the capital this time, without taking a single one with him.
Xie Qian respectfully said, "Your Majesty governs the country well, bandits have disappeared, and the roads are peaceful. However, my father is getting old, and I thought I should leave him more men so that I can feel at ease."
He knew from a very young age that he was not his father's or mother's biological son, and the two elders did not deliberately hide it from him.
The two elders also thought he was a child of the Helian family until he received the Empress's letter.
The empress revealed in her letter the secret of the royal family exchanging children with the Helian family, which shocked him so much that he burned the letter on the spot.
Since it concerned royal secrets, he didn't dare involve his father and mother, so he kept it a secret. However, he also guessed that the secret guards who had been by his side since childhood were not the secret guards of the Helian family, but the royal family.
Since there's no intention to compete for this position, the more low-key the better, and naturally, people who shouldn't be brought along shouldn't be brought.
When he realized yesterday that Shi Wuxia was testing him, he was glad he made the choice.
Now that the emperor has asked about this matter again, Xie Qian pondered whether the emperor was testing him or just asking casually.
The emperor was indeed testing Xie Qian, and was very satisfied to see that Xie Qian acted with discretion.
He changed the subject, "It's rare for you and your mother to come to the capital. Since your mother is unwell, you should go to Fengyi Palace to pay your respects to the Empress on her behalf."
To make it easier for the Empress to meet with her son, he deliberately did not summon Princess Yan to the palace.
Unexpectedly, when Xie Qian arrived at Fengyi Palace, he only kowtowed three times outside the gate before turning around and leaving the palace.
The reason given was that he was an outsider, and since the Empress was recuperating in the inner palace, it was inconvenient for him to enter. He would wait until the Princess Consort of Yan was feeling better before accompanying her to pay respects to the Empress.
This is not impolite; in fact, it is quite proper.
The Empress went to great lengths to bring him to the capital in order to urge him to fight for power, but now Xie Qian refuses to even see her.
"My perfectly good son has been turned into a useless piece of trash by those two good-for-nothings. He doesn't even know how to accept things that are offered to him."
The "good-for-nothing" she was referring to was naturally the Prince of Yan and his wife.
Zheng Qiao'er hadn't expected this outcome and asked, "Your Majesty, what should we do?"
Without the cooperation of the Prince of Yan's heir, even if the Empress had extraordinary abilities, it would be useless; she couldn't possibly become Empress by herself.
The Empress was furious, her eyes filled with malice. Enraged by the Prince of Yan's son, she took another pill, vomited blood, and fainted again.
When the emperor learned that his son had not seen the empress, the empress fell ill again in grief. In a panic, the emperor ordered Xie Qian to be summoned to the palace again.
Not long after Xie Qian returned to the Prince of Yan's residence, Shi Wuxia arrived there as well.
This time, she was still hiding in the shadows, but Xie Qian still spotted her immediately.
Shi Wuxiao smelled her own arm, incredulous, "You really could smell it?"
But after she got back, she took several showers, but didn't even dare to use soap, for fear of leaving a soap smell.
Does this person have a dog's nose?
Or was his skill so advanced that even she couldn't detect it?
When my godfather arrives, let him investigate further.
Xie Qian found it inexplicably funny to see her sniffing with her nose like a dog, switching between her arms to sniff.
He couldn't tell her that it was a fragrance unique to girls, otherwise she might think he was a lecher and beat him up.
He had no choice but to change the subject, saying, "I didn't see her; I just kowtowed outside the hall and came back."
He didn't want to be feared by the Crown Prince and have no peace for the rest of his life.
Shi Wuxia had spies in the palace and already knew, and knew even more: "The Empress has fallen into a coma after taking drugs. The Emperor thought she was upset because she couldn't see you, so he sent people to find you and bring you into the palace."
Xie Qian's gaze darkened.
Given the Empress's stubbornness, he had even less desire to get involved.
But if the emperor listens to the empress and insists that he enter the palace, and he enters the palace many times, it will be difficult for him to clear his name.
I'm afraid that's exactly what the Empress was planning.
If things go wrong, the Empress can still beg for mercy by relying on her relationship with the Emperor, but he and the Prince of Yan's mansion will only face certain death.
Thinking even deeper, what if the empress used extreme measures to do something to the emperor, forcing him to give him the throne? Then he would be passively labeled a traitor.
How could the Crown Prince spare him?
Xie Qian felt this was truly an undeserved disaster.
No, the Prince of Yan's mansion is weak and vulnerable; it cannot withstand the Empress's actions...
After pondering for a long time, he suddenly asked Shi Wuxia, "Is the young lady married?"
If he were to become the Crown Prince's brother-in-law, the Crown Prince would surely listen to his explanation, wouldn't he?
Shi Wuxia was thinking about things in the palace when she was caught off guard by his sudden question. She instinctively replied, "No, why are you asking?"
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