This possibility flashed through Li Qingchen's mind. Although he couldn't be sure at the moment, it wasn't surprising that Prince Jing and his daughter would do such a thing, given their narrow-mindedness.
Having sorted things out, Li Qingchen had a plan in mind. However, after glancing at the screen behind him, he couldn't reveal his true intentions to Li Zizhuo.
So he said in a distant and indifferent tone, "Since your master has committed a serious crime, it is only right that the whole family be imprisoned. This case will be tried by the three judicial authorities, and no innocent person will be wronged."
"As for your request, I have only met your young lady a few times, so I am afraid I cannot help you. You may return now."
...
Zi Qiao raised her tear-filled eyes in disbelief, looking at the tall, blurry figure in front of her.
"The young prince said he only met my young lady a few times?" she asked unwillingly.
Li Qingchen glanced at her coldly and asked, "What, does your young lady tell you that she and I are very close?"
Zi Qiao was speechless when asked the question. She bit her lower lip hard and thought to herself that her own daughter was indeed more accurate in judging people's hearts.
While she was in prison, the girl instructed her to use those words to blackmail the young prince if he stood idly by. At the time, she secretly thought the girl was being petty. But now it seems that one should not test or trust people too much; in a life-or-death situation, one must rely on leverage to protect oneself.
Zi Qiao stood up shakily, her tone calm yet powerful: "By the way, my young lady also asked me to pass on a message to the young prince."
Li Qingchen frowned at her, hoping she would stop there, but Zi Qiao clearly didn't understand and continued talking to herself:
"Even if the young prince has forgotten the life-saving grace of the past, he should not forget the secret buried beneath the pond on the outskirts of the city. If the Wei family is safe, the secret will sink to the bottom of the sea. If the Wei family is in trouble, the secret will surface and become the burial of the Wei family."
Having said this, Zi Qiao bowed and took her leave without any further hesitation.
Li Qingchen stood there, motionless for a long time.
Is Wei Shuwan blackmailing him?
If we're going to die, we'll all die together?
Li Qingchen clenched his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. He was merely trying to deceive people; he wasn't truly refusing to help, yet she had so easily lost her composure and revealed her true colors!
He let out a long sigh of relief.
"Tsk tsk tsk tsk~" Li Zizhuo walked out from behind the screen, making strange noises. He stopped in the spot where he was standing next to Li Qingchen and looked out the window at the departing figure of the maid.
“Even a lowly maid in the Wei family is so arrogant, it’s clear that Miss Wei is no pushover.” He turned to look at Li Qingchen, his face full of incomprehension: “What is it about this woman that you like?”
Li Qingchen also turned his gaze to him and reiterated, "Do you want me to say it again? My relationship with Miss Wei is just ordinary. By chance, I saved her and she saved me. So we're even. We don't owe each other anything."
Li Zizhuo couldn't help but laugh again. His laughter wasn't loud, but he was so loud that it made people feel uncomfortable.
Li Qingchen ignored him and simply said, "I have other matters to attend to, so I won't stay here with you any longer. If you like my place, you are welcome to stay for lunch." He then strode out of Jingchen Pavilion.
Li Qingchen ordered Gu Zhuang to prepare a carriage, and soon after, he left the mansion in the carriage.
Since he wasn't in the mansion, Li Zizhuo naturally didn't want to stay either; it would be so boring without anyone to bicker with. So he also left the mansion through the back door.
After Li Zizhuo's carriage circled around, it arrived at the front gate of the Prince's Mansion. It paused briefly by the roadside, and a vendor selling candied hawthorns by the roadside quickly lifted the curtain and boarded the carriage.
"Young Master," the vendor bowed to Li Zizhuo.
Li Zizhuo lifted his eyelids slightly, his expression lazy as he said, "Alright, no need for formalities. Where did my brother just go?"
"Reporting to the eldest son, just now the young prince's carriage went straight north along Zhuque Avenue, it looked like it was going to the palace."
"Hehehe—as expected!" Li Zizhuo had long guessed that Li Qingchen was most likely going to the palace to plead for the young lady from the Wei family. His outwardly cold demeanor masked a passionate heart; it was all just an act for him.
Li Zizhuo was extremely pleased that his good younger brother could read his mind. However, his smile suddenly stopped, and before his lips, which had been curled up in a wild smile, had even faded, his tone and gaze turned incredibly gloomy: "What did you just call him?"
"Young...Young Prince..." the vendor hesitated, unable to think of anything wrong with what he was saying.
But Li Zizhuo's face gradually became ferocious, his eyes narrowing into slits, revealing a sinister aura. The vendor, terrified, immediately knelt down, begging for mercy despite not knowing what he had done wrong: "Young Master, I..."
Before he could finish his rambling, a hand gripped his neck tightly! The vendor's face quickly turned bright red, but Li Zizhuo showed no sign of letting go; no matter how much he struggled, the grip tightened...
As the carriage wheel turned, the extravagant carriage that had only stopped briefly in front of the Prince's mansion drove away, but a person rolled off the carriage and onto the roadside, where he lay motionless.
The area in front of the Prince's Mansion was not a bustling market, and vendors were not usually allowed to set up stalls. Only itinerant vendors carrying candied hawthorns and wheat stalks were allowed to stop for a while. That's why no one else noticed him lying on the ground in time.
Finally, it was the guards at the gate of the Prince's mansion who discovered the situation. They came over and checked the patient's breathing, only to find that he was no longer alive.
In the carriage, Cao An, Li Zizhuo's confidant, who was sitting in the second seat, turned around and reminded the people in the carriage: "Young Master, this is Shengjing territory after all. Doing this may cause unnecessary trouble."
Li Zizhuo snorted coldly: "Listen to what he just called my good younger brother? Little Prince!"
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