If I were born again, I would marry a strong but short-lived husband.

It all depends on the Emperor...

The floor heating in the house is very warm.

After hearing this, Shen Sui'an felt a chill spreading from the soles of his feet to his back.

Many things that she couldn't understand suddenly became clear to her at this moment.

Why was Lu Heng able to overthrow the Qu family so easily? Why did the emperor still treat the Qu family with thunder and lightning even with the queen and the queen mother in the palace?

Except for the old lady who is wise and intelligent, everyone else in the Qu family lives a confused and comfortable life.

I believe that everyone in the Qu family feels that with the support of the Queen and the Queen Mother, and the Fifth Prince being the legitimate son, it will not be a problem for their Qu family to continue to prosper for another hundred years.

Who could have thought that the Qu family would decline in just a few years.

But what if the emperor can no longer tolerate the Qu family?

It would be too easy for some people to take advantage of the relationship between the Qu family and the Fifth Prince to cause chaos.

Moreover, the current emperor is not the empress dowager's biological son. If the Qu family really committed the capital crime of treason, even if the emperor did not care about the relationship between the empress dowager and her son, people in the world would not say that he was ungrateful.

Shen Sui'an thought of the criminal he found at Qu's house that day.

Is it true that a member of the Qu family is suspected of treason, or is it that the criminal intentionally hides in the Qu family to add fuel to the fire of its demise?

Who can tell for sure nowadays?

Old Madam Qu understood this principle earlier than her, so she immediately ordered everyone in the Qu family not to interfere in the Fifth Prince's affairs, and went to the palace to confront the Queen.

In fact, it was also a way for the Qu family to show weakness to the emperor.

I hope the emperor can see Madam Qu’s sincerity.

"Madam, Fuqiu is here." Mu Jin came in and whispered.

Shen Sui'an came back to his senses and suppressed his chaotic emotions, "Come in quickly."

As soon as Fuqiu entered the room, she said, "Young Madam, you are so wise. The princess sent people to burn the pleasure boat last night, and the maidservant next to Miss Song was burned to death."

"Where is Song Xiuzhi?" Shen Suian was not at all surprised by Guangning's cruelty.

"I broke the window to let her escape, and she jumped into the water. Our people rescued her. Madam, Miss Song is more than a month pregnant." Fuqiu looked at Shen Sui'an with shining eyes.

The young mistress had actually anticipated all of this.

Shen Sui'an frowned, "Is the child saved?"

Calculating the time, the twins should have been conceived around this time, and she didn't want anything to happen to them.

Fuqiu: "Ms. Song, you are very lucky. Nothing happened to you at all."

Shen Sui'an curled his lips and sneered, "That's really lucky."

"By the way, the people sent by the princess didn't recognize the identity of the little maid, so they chopped off her hand and sent it to the second young master."

"..." Shen Sui'an once again looked at Guangning's ruthlessness with admiration.

Shen Sui'an whispered to Fuqiu, "Don't tell anyone yet. Let Lu Heng think that Song Xiuzhi is dead. But, you must let him know that Song Xiuzhi is pregnant."

"I'll do it right away." Fuqiu said.

……

……

Lu Heng tossed and turned last night and couldn't sleep. When he closed his eyes, Shen Suian's contemptuous eyes emerged in his mind, and he seemed to still hear his sister crying when she was sent away.

He found that his life had become a mess since Princess Shang became the prince consort.

Originally, he was a high-spirited top scholar and was also the imperial attendant appointed by the emperor. He was deeply trusted by the emperor and his future should have been bright.

He even looked down on Lu Yuan for using shady and secretive means to become the commander of the Pacification Division, even if he was a third-rank official.

Among the aristocratic families, everyone who mentioned Lu Yuan did so with contempt and disgust, thinking that he was an insult to the aristocratic family's character.

Until he took up a sinecure position in the Ministry of Rites.

Others politely called him the Prince Consort, but secretly lamented that his official career was over and that he was not as good as his brother Lu Yuan.

He, Lu Heng, would actually be said to be inferior to Lu Yuan one day.

It's a big joke.

As the only legitimate son of the Duke's Mansion's eldest wife, he had been placed with high hopes since he was young. No matter in which aspect, he was better than Lu Yuan.

But yesterday Shen Suian dared to say in front of him that he was not as good as Lu Yuan.

"Damn it!" Lu Heng punched the bed hard.

This alarmed the maid outside.

"Second Young Master, are you up?"

Lu Heng was furious, "Get lost!"

After a long while, Liu Mo's voice came, "Master, something happened on the pleasure boat."

"What's the matter?" Lu Heng rubbed his eyebrows. When he thought about the fact that he had to meet Princess Guangning today, he felt annoyed.

Liu Mo: "The pleasure boat was lost, and Miss Song is nowhere to be found."

Lu Heng opened the door suddenly, "What did you say?"

"Master, over there on the pleasure boat... only Miss Song's boat was burned. It caught fire in the middle of the night and no one noticed anything unusual. Jingzhao Prefecture went to check and said it was caused by an accident."

"I went to see it myself. It wasn't Miss Song who died, but her maid. However... I don't know if her hands were burned off, or..."

Lu Heng immediately walked outside and said, "Let's go take a look."

As they walked, he asked Liu Mo, "Where has Song Xiuzhi been recently? Has she been discovered?"

"Miss Song rarely appears during the day, so she shouldn't be discovered by Her Royal Highness the Princess." Liu Mo said.

"But..." Liu Mo recalled a scene he had seen before.

"Miss Qu seems to have been to the painted boat. I wonder if she has seen Miss Song."

Lu Heng looked towards the direction of Danbo Courtyard with a sharp gaze, "She must still be jealous of Song Xiuzhi and deliberately revealed her hiding place to the princess."

What a sinister and vicious Shen Suian is.

Pretending to be so elegant and dignified, he actually only uses such despicable means.

Lu Heng strode out of the Duke's Mansion and was about to get on the carriage when a masked man rode up quickly and threw a rectangular box at Lu Heng's feet.

Liu Mo wanted to chase after him, but was called back by Lu Heng.

"No need to chase, they are the secret guards in the palace." This box was most likely sent by Guangning at the request of the secret guards.

"Open."

Liu Mo responded and walked forward to open the box.

A pair of burnt and bloody hands appeared in front of them.

"Ah!" Liu Mo was startled.

Lu Heng's face turned gloomy and pale, his eyes fixed on those hands.

"Put it away!" he gritted his teeth.

Now he was certain that it was Princess Guangning who had the pleasure boat burned and Song Xiuzhi's hands chopped off.

She was not even afraid that he would know about it, and she asked the secret guard to send these hands to him, which was clearly a warning to him.

"Go to the pleasure boat!"

On the other side, the princess's mansion.

Princess Guangning sat sideways on several layers of bedding. Although the palace maids used skillful force in beating her, her skin was delicate and tender, so she still felt a little uncomfortable sitting these two days.

"Sent it to Lu Heng?" Guangning asked lazily.

"Your Highness, the Prince Consort has seen it with his own eyes."

Princess Guangning curled her lips, thinking that Lu Heng should come to see her soon.

He should repent sincerely and promise not to have any second thoughts in the future.

But she waited and waited, only to receive the news that Lu Heng had gone to the pleasure boat.

"Lu Heng! He doesn't take me seriously at all!" Princess Guangning was furious and smashed the teacup in her hand to pieces.