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

Cui Hongjing's eyes were already filled with tears. "Although my father didn't kill me, he has been suppressing me. For so many years, I could only cultivate my own power in secret and didn't dare to let him know anything. In fact, to be honest, although my father is cold-blooded and has no family affection, from the perspective of an emperor, he is not a tyrant. On the contrary, I have to admit that he has done a great job as an emperor. I don't want the throne. Isn't it good to be an idle prince? But if I don't fight for it, how can I save my life and how can I avenge my mother?! I don't want to fight for it like the deposed prince. First, I don't want to cause great suffering to the people. Second, even if I want that position, I have to fight for it openly. Therefore, I have never told anyone about the edict."

"Your Highness, I..." Zhuang Xiang lowered his head. "I have always known that you have a prejudice against the emperor, and I have always believed that the reason is that the emperor does not like you. I also know that Your Highness can only fight in secret to find a way to survive. But I never knew that there was so much hatred involved behind this. The death of the previous emperor and the lives of hundreds of people in the three families of Concubine Jing were all caused by the emperor..."

"I tell you this just to let you know that you will never be able to imagine how cruel and cold-hearted I am as a father. He is obsessed with the imperial power. For the imperial power, he can disregard everything, even his own father, son, and beloved woman. As long as his imperial power is threatened, he can kill it without blinking an eye. Maybe even his own life is not as important as the imperial power."

Zhuang Xiang sighed, "Your Highness is right. In the eyes of the court officials and the common people, he is a good emperor, an extremely good emperor. This is also one of the reasons why Your Highness is so worried. What Your Highness is thinking about is not only his own hatred, but also the people of the world. Your Highness does not want to put the people of Dazhen in dire straits because of his own personal grudges... However, if Your Highness ascends the throne, he will definitely do better than the emperor..."

Cui Hongjing shook his head gently: "Whether it is my father, this king, or other princes, they all represent the royal family of Dazhen. If the people knew what the good emperor in their hearts had done, they would be disappointed, disappointed in the royal family, and might even become disloyal. If this emotion is used by the enemy country or people with ulterior motives, it may even lead to unpredictable consequences. So this king does not want those scandals to be known to the world. But if the crimes of the murderers who killed my royal grandfather and mother are not made public and justice is not done to the deceased, this king will not be willing to do so. This is what I am really struggling with."

"Originally, I wanted to maintain this and take things one step at a time, but I didn't expect the deposed crown prince to accidentally learn about the will. He told my father before he died. This is the real reason why I was assassinated many times after the deposed crown prince died."

Zhuang Xiang understood immediately, "No wonder I was wondering why there were so many experts trying to assassinate the prince during that period. It turns out that they were all sent by the emperor. He is really cruel."

Cui Hongjing sneered, "Even if you escape once or twice, there will always be a next time. I can't guarantee that I will be so lucky every time. So, I found Li Mo and asked him to kill the Crown Prince of Chang. The Crown Prince of Chang is warlike and cruel, and he deserves to die. Once he dies, the two countries of Zhen and Chang will surely become enemies, and then my father's attention will be diverted to the war between the two countries. I know that Prince Xiao is the best candidate for the war between the two countries, but because he has the blood of the royal family of Chang, my father cannot send him to fight, and he must send a prince to serve as the general of Pingchang. Then, my father has only one candidate, and that is me! After that, those assassins never came again."

Zhuang Xiang felt a bitter taste in his throat. It was not easy for the prince.

While other princes were idle all day long, the prince was thinking all day about how to save his life from his biological father.

"This is the first thing I have hidden from you." Cui Hongjing's voice was very calm, as if he was telling someone else's story. "The second thing is about the princess... You already know that Xue'er's real identity is from the royal family of Nanyue. She is the daughter of Princess Anping of Nanyue. I only thought of this after I learned that Gu Jia bought Xue'er from the Tiegu Gang..."

Zhuang Xiang remembered very clearly that before leaving Beijing, Li Mo found the prince and handed him the content of the news that the Tiegu Gang had sold to Gu Jia.

Li Mo said at the time: "Although I don't like you, I know you are sincere to Xue'er. I tell you all this so that you can better protect her. With her identity, she is doomed to be restless. I am worried that someone will take advantage of her identity... I am afraid that I can't protect her well by myself... Besides, there are some royal secrets involved, maybe you are more likely to find out..."

That small piece of paper recorded some doubts about Mei Xueer's birth.

After the death of Prime Minister Mei's first wife, he never appointed another wife. At that time, there were two concubines in the mansion, Shen and Li, and Li was Mei Zhihua's mother. Because Li was arrogant and domineering, and regarded Shen as a thorn in her side, Shen, who was weak by nature, did not want to confront her, so she asked to live alone in Qingzhou Manor. At that time, Prime Minister Mei was busy with court affairs all day long and had no time to take care of these backyard affairs, so he let her go, and everyone thought that Shen was not favored.

But seventeen years ago in May, less than a year after Shen went to Zhuangzi, Prime Minister Mei also went to Qingzhou and brought Shen back. With him came a baby in swaddling clothes, Mei Xueer.

After returning to Beijing, Prime Minister Mei immediately appointed Shen as his successor. Shen became Prime Minister Mei's legal wife, and Mei Xueer became the eldest daughter.

Prime Minister Mei announced that his daughter was already two months old. Shen was already pregnant before she went to Qingzhou, and she went there just to take better care of the fetus.

When Mei Xueer was brought back to the capital, it was said that she was two months old. However, just three months before that, South Vietnam was destroyed and Princess Anping of South Vietnam passed away.

There is another unconfirmed rumor that Princess Anping was pregnant before her death, but the exact month is unknown. Although the princess tried her best to conceal it, her belly was already very obvious when the South Vietnam was destroyed. The South Vietnam royal family suppressed this scandal.

This is what Gu Jia bought with two hundred thousand taels of silver.

What Cui Hongjing knew was that in the first year after Mei Xueer was brought back to Beijing, which was the first year of the current emperor's reign, the emperor sent Prime Minister Mei to Nanyue for more than a month, with the secret purpose of finding the imperial seal. This matter was extremely secret at the time, and other ministers in the court did not know about it, but Prime Minister Mei mentioned it to Cui Hongjing and told him that because Princess Anping was assisting the King of Nanyue in handling many government affairs at that time, Prime Minister Mei had a lot of contact with Princess Anping and the two had a good personal relationship.

Cui Hongjing gradually pieced together a clear thread through various doubts.