My Lord, the princess doesn't want you anymore.

A gust of night wind blew by, and Zhuang Xiang felt a chill on his face.

He slowly raised his head and looked up at the night sky.

A drizzle started to fall from the sky without me noticing.

He couldn't tell whether the water on his face was rain or tears.

No matter how cold the night was, it was not as cold as the chill in his heart at this moment.

It was a chill that penetrated deep into the bone marrow, a chill of extreme disappointment, a feeling of confusion and helplessness that made one feel at a loss.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. I will never betray you no matter what!" He said silently in his heart, then tightened the hilt of the knife in his hand.

Just as he was about to leave, Cui Hongjing's voice came from inside the tent, "Come in!"

Zhuang Xiang hesitated for a moment, but still lifted the curtain.

In the tent, Cui Hongjing was still sitting in front of a low table with his back straight as before, with no expression on his face.

"What does your Majesty want me to do?" Zhuang Xiang lowered his head to hide his slightly red eyes.

Cui Hongjing looked at him for a long while, then said slowly, "Sit down and talk to me."

Zhuang Xiang had no choice but to sit down opposite him.

Cui Hongjing poured a cup of tea himself, placed it in front of Zhuang Xiang, and then sat up straight again.

Neither of them spoke and the atmosphere was somewhat awkward.

"Do you think that I am cold-blooded, selfish, and will do anything to achieve my goals?" Cui Hongjing broke the silence first.

Zhuang Xiang really wanted to say "I dare not", but he just moved his lips and didn't say it.

Cui Hongjing sighed, took a sip of tea and put it down.

"If I say that if I don't do this, she will die. Do you believe it or not?"

Zhuang Yi slowly raised his eyes and looked at the master in front of him whom he had followed for more than ten years.

Cui Hongjing looked at the bloodshot eyes and said, "Over the years, you have been my most capable right-hand man and the person I trust the most. I can tell you anything. Over the past decade, I have only kept two things from you. One is..."

Zhuang Xiang quickly said, "If Your Majesty feels that I should not know this, then please don't..."

Cui Hongjing raised his hand to stop him from speaking. "The first thing is that my grandfather really left me a will, passing the throne to me. Only I and Prime Minister Mei know about this."

Zhuang Xiang was shocked again. Although some people in the court had suspected this, no one dared to be sure.

But he didn't respond, just listened quietly.

"This matter has never been clear to me. At that time, there was a crown prince, who is my father today. My grandfather was not a foolish emperor, so he naturally knew that the crown prince was the foundation of the country. No matter how much he doted on me, he would not dote on me to the point of disregarding the foundation of the country and abolishing the crown prince and making me, who was only five years old at the time, the crown prince. Besides, my father had not made any major mistakes at that time and was quite capable."

Zhuang Xiang said: "Unless something happened before the late emperor passed away, which made him completely disappointed in the prince."

Cui Hongjing nodded: "I was still young at that time, and many of my memories are only fragments. In my grandfather's life, there were three people he trusted the most. One was Grandpa Fu, the second was Prime Minister Mei, and the third was General Xiang. When my grandfather passed away, General Xiang was stationed at the border of Zhenchang, and only Prime Minister Mei and Grandpa Fu remained in the capital. Therefore, some things were told to me by Prime Minister Mei later, and I was able to piece together those fragments of memory gradually."

"Two days ago, after I met Grandpa Fu, many of my guesses were basically confirmed. It's just that Grandpa Fu is not very clear about some links. But what is certain is that Grandpa was harmed by my father. The illness of Grandpa came very suddenly. It was my father who bribed Doctor Zhang, who is now the judge Zhang."

"Wasn't it Xue Yuanpan who was in charge of checking the pulse of the late emperor? He was the father of Doctor Xue who entered the Imperial Hospital a few days ago."

"Yes, so I said that although the details are not clear yet, it is an indisputable fact that my father killed my father to seize the throne. It's just that I don't have any solid evidence at the moment. In addition, after my grandfather passed away, Judge Xue suddenly resigned and then died mysteriously."

"But, it doesn't make sense!" Zhuang Xiang was shocked. "Logically, the emperor should have silenced Zhang Yuanpan after the incident, but why did he let him be the chief judge of the Imperial Hospital? He even summoned Xue Yuanpan's son to the Imperial Hospital. One is the person who knows the secret of his murder of his father and the other is the person who may know the secret back then..."

Cui Hongjing shook his head. "My father is too suspicious of me. I dare not ask Zhang Yuanpan directly. I have sent people to ask him quietly. But he is very tight-lipped. If I want to learn anything from him, I am afraid there is no hope. As for Xue Yuanpan's son at that time, he is the doctor Xue in the palace now. I investigated him long before he entered the palace. He is a medical idiot. Apart from medical skills, he has no interest in anything else and knows nothing about what happened back then. I think Xue Yuanpan didn't say anything to him before he died."

"I've gone off topic... Actually, you know some of these things. Let's go back to the will. When my royal grandfather passed away, I was only five years old. How could I take on the responsibility of governing the country? Prime Minister Mei meant that all the court officials supported my father at that time. If I had taken out this will, my father would have immediately killed me and would never have cared about the father-son relationship. So Prime Minister Mei advised me to keep a low profile. You also know that when I was young, my father was very good to me. His attitude towards me changed because he heard that my royal grandfather wanted to make me the crown prince. Not long after my royal grandfather passed away, my mother also passed away. Do you know that she was strangled to death by my father himself..."

"...Ah? People only think that Concubine Jing died because she committed a serious crime. It is a serious crime for a concubine to commit suicide. Everyone thinks that the emperor had no choice but to kill the three clans of the Dong family..." Zhuang Xiang was shocked and angry, "Besides, didn't they say that among all the concubines in the harem, the emperor only truly loved Concubine Jing? Why did he do it himself... Your Majesty, is this news true?"

"That's what Aunt Wan and Grandpa Fu told me. They wouldn't lie to me. This is the main reason why Aunt Wan and Grandpa Fu hate my father."

"That's right." Zhuang Xiang nodded. "Eunuch Fu has followed the late emperor all his life, needless to say. I know that the relationship between Imperial Concubine Wan and Imperial Concubine Jing is even closer than that between real sisters."

"Not only did he strangle my mother to death, he also killed all three clans of my mother's family!"

"But, why is this happening?"

"I don't know either, but I feel that Aunt Wan knows something. But no matter how I ask, she refuses to say anything... No matter what the reason is, my mother, as well as Grand Secretary Dong, my grandfather, and all three members of the Dong family died tragically at the hands of my father. Tell me, how can I not avenge this vengeance?"