The legitimate daughter brings disaster to the concubine! Seize the imperial power and the throne

"Your Highness is going to look for Prince Shen?" Princess Ning hurriedly stepped forward and asked.

Prince Ning stopped and looked at Princess Ning deeply. "No matter what others say or guess, I will never go against Prince Shen."

"But……"

"You believe in me." Prince Ning said firmly, "The final winner will definitely be Prince Shen."

Without waiting for Princess Ning to speak, Prince Ning could not wait to leave and soon disappeared from sight.

Princess Ning felt uneasy for some reason. She stood at the door and thought for a moment. The maid approached cautiously, "Princess, what are you worried about? It's a good thing that the prince has been canonized."

Princess Ning said nothing and waved her hand: "Everyone, please leave. Let me be alone for a while."

"Yes."

After standing in the corridor and waiting for a long time, the moonlight climbed up the branches. Princess Ning took a deep breath and called the maid: "Rest."

……

Under the moonlight

Prince Ning came to the Prince Shen's mansion and waited for about a quarter of an hour. The housekeeper said embarrassedly, "Your Highness, my prince has gone to bed. Please come back another day."

"No hurry, I will wait a little longer."

The housekeeper had no choice but to go in and report again.

They waited for more than half an hour before the butler came back and respectfully invited Prince Ning in.

The hall was brightly lit. Prince Shen was sitting in the main seat, still wearing his daytime clothes. He had a sullen face and remained silent. When he heard footsteps, he slowly raised his head.

A pair of sharp eyes stared at the person who came.

"Second brother." Prince Ning's scalp numbed under the pressure of this overwhelming momentum. He took a step forward and placed the imperial edict on the table: "This is absolutely not my intention. I will never compete with you for it."

Seeing the edict clearly stating the title of prince and the imperial seal printed on it, Prince Shen found it an eyesore. In the past, he had never noticed this inconspicuous younger brother.

But at this moment, Prince Shen looked at him seriously and sneered: "Are you here to show off?"

"Second brother." Prince Ning gritted his teeth, knelt on the ground with his knees softened, raised three fingers and swore: "Everything I say today is sincere and I have no second thoughts."

Prince Shen was shocked by Prince Ning's actions, and the anger on his face was reduced a lot. After looking at him for a while, he bent down and helped him up. He asked: "Father has appointed you as a prince and ordered you to take charge of the six ministries. This is real power. What are your plans for the future?"

Prince Ning hesitated.

"Don't be nervous, my brother. I'm just asking casually." Prince Shen pulled him to sit down and asked casually, "I heard that my father wants you to be the child's master?"

Prince Ning nodded.

"How dare a bastard born of a concubine's wife be called His Highness?" Prince Shen sneered, "My father is really partial. He has refused to even look at many of his grandchildren. I asked for the title of Crown Prince last year, but he was fooled with just a few words. It's really an honor to let a prince be the tutor of a bastard."

"Although I am your master, I still have the final say on how to teach you." Prince Ning quickly realized what Prince Shen meant and continued, "If the emperor knew that this boy was not up to the task, he would naturally give up on him."

Seeing Prince Ning speak so frankly, Prince Shen smiled even more. He put away the imperial edict on the table and handed it back to Prince Ning: "There is no need for us to be so formal with each other, brothers."

After chatting for most of the night, Prince Ning finally breathed a sigh of relief and walked out of Prince Shen's Mansion.

The night is parted, and a faint white spot can be seen in the sky

The East Palace was deserted with flickering candlelight. Xue Yuan walked in and quietly extinguished the candlelight, then slowly backed out. Just as daybreak came the sound of movement in the house.

"Princess, it's still early, you should take a rest."

Lu Jingning shook her head. She really wasn't sleepy, so she asked someone to come in and help her wash up. She also asked about her mother's condition yesterday.

"I did not hide anything according to your instructions. When the Crown Princess found out, she didn't say a word. I saw her expression and didn't blame her. Instead, I asked the nanny beside me to make some clothes for the little prince."

What she did yesterday in Shangguan Mansion was quite outrageous. When she came back, Shangguan had already gone to bed, so she did not disturb her.

That night, I tossed and turned thinking about this matter.

"Go and see Mother."

After Lu Jingning dressed neatly, she went to pay her respects to Shangguan. Shangguan was having dinner with Ling'er. When she saw her coming, Shangguan smiled and waved at her: "Aning is here, come and sit down."

"Mother."

"Elder sister." Lin Ge'er stood up and saluted Lu Jingning obediently.

Lu Jingning nodded, indicating that he could sit down.

The maid immediately placed a set of clean bowls and chopsticks on the table. Shangguan picked up a shrimp dumpling and placed it in Lu Jingning's bowl: "You have lost a lot of weight these days. Eat more."

There was only concern in his tone, no complaints, and Lu Jingning breathed a sigh of relief.

After dinner, Yunzai took Lin Ge'er to **zi, giving the mother and daughter a chance to be alone together.

This time, Shangguan took Lu Jingning's hand and comforted her: "Aning, don't think too much. In your mother's heart, you are more important than anyone else. As for the Shangguan family, we have done our best."

With these words, Lu Jingning felt much more at ease.

Moreover, she found that there was no longer any expectation or regret for the Shangguan family in Shangguan's eyes, and her emotions were calm.

The eunuch outside the door came to urge him.

Shangguan let go of her hand and said, "Go ahead. No matter what you do, whether it's right or wrong, mother won't blame you."

"Thank you, mother."

Lu Jingning smiled slightly and followed the young eunuch to the front hall. Along the way, the young eunuch talked about the doubts of the civil and military officials about Lu Lin.

"Write down all the people who have doubts and hand them over to me later," Lu Jingning ordered.

The young eunuch nodded.

She entered the Council Hall from the side hall. When Eunuch Changxi saw her coming, he knelt down before her and pointed at the mountain of memorials on the table.

"All of these are doubts about the young prince's background. We also need to ask the emperor to appoint a crown prince as soon as possible to stabilize the government, so as to avoid causing panic among the people. If the news spreads to the three armies, it will disrupt the morale of the army."

Lu Jingning sat down and flipped through a few books. It turned out that what was said was true, and the contents of several consecutive books were almost the same.

She put the memorial down.

If they want to make Lu Lin the crown prince, they have to verify Lu Lin's identity. But the crown prince is already dead, how can they verify it?

This group of people took advantage of this weakness and wanted to make the Emperor of Southern Liang compromise.

After all, it is not an ordinary family. They can just acknowledge a bastard as their son. When it comes to the country and the people, the bloodline must be correct, otherwise other people will be dissatisfied and make trouble for various reasons.

"Where is Prince Ning?" she asked.

"Replying to the emperor, Prince Ning has asked for leave today."

He was just canonized yesterday and he fell ill today. It was obvious that he didn't want to teach Lu Lin, but he couldn't disobey the imperial edict, so he could only claim to be sick.

Prince Ning's attitude also let Lu Jingning know whether the other party was an enemy or a friend.

In that case, there is no need to be polite.

"Let Imperial Doctor Li and Imperial Doctor Liu go to Prince Ning's mansion immediately." Lu Jingning ordered.

Changxi nodded.

Then Lu Jingning asked about Bu Yan again.

"Lord Bu just arrived in the capital early this morning, and the prince's mausoleum is already being repaired..." Eunuch Changxi spoke carefully, fearing that he might anger the little ancestor in front of him.

Lu Jingning took a deep breath, suppressed his grief, and ordered: "If the prince's golden body returns, arrange for several ministers to be present to test his bones with blood in public to prove his innocence."

"Yes."

When Eunuch Changxi told the ministers waiting in the corridor about the blood test, everyone was stunned.

"This... is this what the emperor meant?" one of the ministers asked in disbelief. Blood test for paternity is a scandal and would not be checked easily.

I didn't expect the emperor would agree so readily.

"The emperor is just trying to silence you. My lords, please be patient and wait for a while." Eunuch Changxi said in a deep voice.

Since they dared to do blood and bone tests to prove their identity, how could others dare to question it?