After the cannon fodder father and daughter married into the family, the whole family regretted it

Although the little girl wasn't quite there yet, the bond between them was genuine.

Now we are close friends and childhood sweethearts; in the future, we will be a loving couple, together for a long, long time.

Fang Nanzhi asked about Qingyan's illness for some reason, and Qingyan's ears turned red.

It didn't hurt my ears.

Qin Yan's gaze turned cold as he stared at the Crown Prince with suspicion.

He didn't know what Qingyan was thinking; if he did, he would definitely scoff.

What kind of close friends or childhood sweethearts are you dreaming of?

My sister has made many friends since she was a child, including quite a few men.

Closer to home, isn't Jin Yunting the best friend my sister herself acknowledged? Further back, there's the chubby boy in the village, a childhood friend with whom she played in the mud since they were little. If we're talking about childhood sweethearts, who can compare to him?

There were also classmates and friends from the county, Yu Zhenghai and Wei Qinglin...

In short, his sister has many friends, and even Crown Prince Qingyan is just one of them.

Don't even dream about being husband and wife. Bah! The dignified Crown Prince is such a shameless person.

Qingyan quickly composed himself, his expression solemn, so as not to reveal anything amiss.

"Ahem, did many people know that Aunt Qian went out of the manor today?"

In short, it clarified the direction of the investigation.

The other party intercepted them midway, so they must have been prepared in advance.

"It can be investigated. I believe that it was Chen's men who intercepted the lady. They wanted to take Shadow Four away."

"The assassin must have learned of the news and was coming for Shadow Four."

Bai Wu analyzed.

He felt that given the assassins' cruel and arrogant behavior—they even dared to assassinate the crown prince—it couldn't be that they had abducted the lady.

If they did it, the lady certainly wouldn't be unharmed.

That makes sense.

"Shadow Four came to us of his own accord, and now they want him to leave. What are those retainers after?" Qin Yan wondered.

"We previously guessed that Shadow Four came to our door in order to drag our General's Mansion into a deeper mess, that is, to make us attract the assassin's attention."

"We also had a plan to use this against them, which is why we left them behind. Now that Chen Yong has left, does it mean that the Chen family's troops no longer need anyone to draw the assassins away?"

"Or rather, have they already accomplished what they wanted to do?"

Fang Nanzhi became more and more confident as she spoke.

Thinking back to Ying Liu, who had been sent to the Yun Mansion and then "disappeared," Fang Nanzhi seemed to have grasped something.

Those who have been keeping an eye on the Yun family recently say that Yun Congsheng has been perfectly normal since that secret conversation, but Ying Liu has never been seen again.

It's unclear whether he was trapped in a secret room or if there was another passage within the secret room that allowed Shadow Six to leave silently.

In short, the presence of cloud clusters is something worth paying attention to.

"Leaving aside their purpose, it seems that the Chen family's troops wanted to rescue Ying Si, so they used a threatening letter. They also anticipated that Bai Wu would bring people to rescue the lady. They left few guards at the mansion to give Ying Si the opportunity to leave without being tracked."

The general's mansion has many guards, but don't forget, Fang Nanzhi has gone out.

After being assassinated one after another, most of the guards in her mansion, especially those with high martial arts skills, were assigned to follow her openly and secretly.

With Bai Wu leading the remaining main force away, the General's Mansion became an empty shell, and the remaining ordinary guards were truly unable to track down Shadow Four.

"And the Chen family's troops, or even our household, have been infiltrated. They notified the assassins, instructing them to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill Shadow Four."

After analyzing the situation, Qin Yan glanced at the Crown Prince again.

"But why would the assassins abandon Shadow Four and target the Crown Prince? Have they completely lost all scruples?"

The reason they wanted to kill Fang Nanzhi was because she had the backing of a general's mansion and the crown prince.

Was killing the crown prince an attempt to undermine the crown prince's power?

If they succeed, it would be quite terrifying.

With the Crown Prince dead, Fang Nanzhi has lost her powerful backer. Will the Emperor even take his anger out on the General's Mansion because of this?

After all, the Crown Prince got into trouble because of the General's Mansion.

That would finish off the Fang family.

With the Fang family finished, there aren't many people left who have the ability to care about or push forward Chen Yong's case.

"Send a message back to the palace, saying that I have been assassinated and wounded."

Qingyan thought for a moment and then gave the instructions.

"Yes." A eunuch appeared silently, responded, and left.

Judging from his movements, Qin Yan knew that he was a highly skilled martial artist.

The fight just didn't happen... was it intentional, or...?

Realizing something, Qin Yan felt a chill run down his spine; the Crown Prince had deliberately injured himself.

He was already plotting it when he was assassinated.

Perhaps only the final, unexpected arrow was something the Crown Prince hadn't anticipated.

Even without Shadow Four, there would probably be hidden experts to shield him from harm.

and many more!

"Shadow Four, why did you shield His Highness from an arrow?"

The assassins had previously been heading in the direction of the Crown Prince and Fang Nanzhi.

Zhizhi, Chen Zixi's daughter, may also be assassinated, but Shadow Four is not in a hurry.

However, when the Crown Prince was in danger, the other party rushed to his aid without hesitation, seemingly very worried.

Qingyan had been thinking about this issue for a long time.

"Chen Zijun was executed for treason and rebellion, but the retainers he left behind are more loyal to me, a member of the royal family, than to the other members of the Chen family. Could it be that Chen Zijun deliberately cultivated them?"

The retainers they train are not loyal to their own people, but to the royal family.

If all the ministers in the world were like this, being an emperor would be so much easier.

Is Chen Zijun still a treacherous minister? He's destined to become the most loyal minister in the land.

No, then he was just unfairly burdened with the bad reputation of secretly keeping retainers. Wouldn't it have been better to just send them to the emperor early on?

Is there something wrong with Chen Zijun's brain that makes her do such a thing?

Other people do good deeds anonymously, but he does good deeds and gets a bad reputation? Is he just bored?

"Perhaps we can start by investigating when the Chen family's troops were first trained," Qingyan said to himself.

He didn't think that Chen Zijun, who was once second only to the emperor, would enjoy doing something like picking lice and putting them on his own head.

There must be a reason for this.

“That’s not easy to investigate. Even Ninth Grandfather doesn’t know much about it,” Fang Nanzhi said, shrugging.

Now she felt that the assassin was mysterious, the Chen clan was mysterious, and Yao Xin was also hiding a lot of secrets.

This case is really difficult.

Previously, it was suspected that the assassins were from the Jin family, who had joined forces with other aristocratic families. But they killed the Crown Prince. Have the aristocratic families gone so crazy?

Not only did she think it was crazy, but even the assassins' own people thought their accomplices were insane.

Jin Ke wasn't particularly happy when he received the news that Shadow Four was dead.

Because he didn't know whether Shadow Four had already handed over what they were desperately searching for to the Fang family.

When he learned of the assassination attempt on the crown prince, he was both shocked and furious, and slammed his hand on the table.

"Who gave you the audacity?"

Ordering the killing of the crown prince—has he gone mad?

Who doesn't know that the Emperor now treats the Crown Prince like the apple of his eye? To touch the Crown Prince, is it an attempt to provoke His Majesty?

"Master, we didn't do it; it was the Ying family who did it."

The man knelt on the ground, not daring to lift his head.

This time, they acted together as a group, each with different masters behind them. If the other side suddenly attacked the Crown Prince, could they still stop them?

"Ying Tianwei." Jin Ke almost gritted his teeth.

That old bastard, is he trying to kill them? He's got some nerve.

He was dissatisfied with the Crown Prince and would do whatever he wanted in private, but he insisted on dragging his people into it.

Their mission this time is solely to kill Shadow Four.

"Master, before we returned, Master Ying asked us to pass on a message." The kneeling man seemed to sense his master's anger, and his body trembled slightly.

Jin Ke's icy gaze fell on him, almost as if he wanted to devour him: "Speak!"

"Master Ying said that Jinzhou Prefecture and Quanzhou Prefecture are the places where our two families stand. The emperor sent people to investigate, which is to sever the foundation of our two clans."

"The emperor has done the first thing, so naturally we should do the fifteenth. Please, sir, do not be so sentimental."

"And then there's Chen Zijun's case. What good would it do us if we really brought up what happened back then? We'd definitely offend the Emperor and the Crown Prince. We might as well do it sooner rather than later!"

The man spoke very quickly, and after he finished speaking, he lowered his head even further.

These words could easily get you killed.

Jin Ke laughed angrily: "Fool! Fool! That old bastard Ying Tianwei acted improperly and was caught red-handed in Jinzhou Prefecture. Now he wants to drag my Jin family down with him? No way!"

"Go, withdraw all our personnel and suspend all current operations."

No matter what happens to Chen Zijun's case, he can't get involved with Ying Tianwei anymore. That guy is a mad dog. Does getting old make people more audacious?

The man responded and quickly left.

The study fell silent again.

Alone, Jin Ke's anger subsided, and he began to calm down.

Like the Jin family, the Ying family's roots were in Jinzhou Prefecture and Quanzhou Prefecture.

They are friends who have helped each other for generations.

Ying Tianwei is the current patriarch of the Ying clan. He is 62 years old and, according to seniority, he should address Fang as Uncle.

When he was young, Mr. Ying Tianwei was a decisive and influential figure. In his later years, he settled in Jinzhou and rarely came to the capital. As a result, his understanding of the situation in the capital was somewhat outdated.

Furthermore, Jin Ke believed that Ying Tianwei was used to having absolute power in the prefectural city and had a rather narrow-minded view of the world.

News also came from his hometown that Prince Ning, with the help of others, had made a breakthrough in Jinzhou Prefecture, investigated Ying Shi, and seemed to have obtained some evidence.

Qing Min, who went with them, was an imperial envoy and chief official who diligently went out every day to arrest some low-level salt smugglers.

Those people all came from poor backgrounds, and they would move on after each attack. Arresting those small fry wouldn't shake the salt market in the two prefectures at all.

Qingmin is not a threat, but Prince Ning has leverage over the Ying family, so it's no wonder Ying Tian is furious.

The Jin family had made preparations in advance, so they didn't suffer any losses.

No, Ying Tianwei risked his life to kill the Crown Prince, so the intelligence that he had some leverage over the Crown Prince was false.

Perhaps the Ying family had been given a crucial handle, a handle that could bring down the entire Ying family in the salt smuggling case.

This forced them to take desperate measures.

Jin Ke couldn't sit still any longer and got up to pace around the study.

Don't misunderstand, it's not that I'm worried about the Ying family, but rather that the two families have been friends for generations, and neither of us knows how much the other knows about what the other has done.

What if Ying can't escape in the end and tries to drag Jin down with her, revealing some of Jin's secrets?

It's not a "what if" situation! That's what the old man meant when he said that.

Ying really wanted to drag Jin down with her.

Jin Ke's face was gloomy, and the candlelight made him look somewhat ferocious.

After a long silence, he finally spoke: "Someone come here!"

A man appeared in the study.

"Our people are going back..."

"Father!" Before he could finish speaking, a deep, youthful voice interrupted him.

Jin Yunting was helped in.

After apologizing to Fang Nanzhi, he returned home and fell ill again.

Although it's not serious, my body is still weak.

Jin Ke's expression softened slightly: "Ting'er, why are you here? Didn't your father tell you to rest well and not worry about clan affairs during this time?"

Jin Ke wanted his son to rest for two reasons: first, for his health, and second, because the father and son had disagreements on certain matters, and Jin Ke didn't want to be bothered by his son.

“Father, you have already made many mistakes, and now you are being swept along like this. Have you thought about the consequences?”

Jin Yunting asked directly.

Jin Ke frowned: "How did you know?"

Jin Yunting waved his hand, signaling the servants to leave.

The kneeling man glanced at the master's expression and left as well, leaving only the father and son in the study.

“Father, I have my own sources of information. I only ask that you do not act arbitrarily and ruin the entire clan.”

Jin Yunting's gaze was sincere.

His father was so angry that he almost lost his composure.

What do you mean by "ruining the entire clan"? What did he do? You're making it sound like he's a spendthrift who led the whole clan to their own destruction.

Does anyone talk about their own father like that?

Jin Ke wanted to yell at her son, but she held back when she saw his son's frail body.

“Ting’er, there are things you don’t know… We, the Jin family, had no choice…”

“Then Father can tell me that I am the young master and will inherit the position of clan leader in the future.” Jin Yunting said confidently.

Jin Ke was momentarily speechless.

Before he could give a perfunctory answer, Jin Yunting continued, "It doesn't matter if Father doesn't want to talk about it. I have eyes and a heart; I can see and think."

"The case of Chen Zijun back then was orchestrated by the Jin family, and perhaps by other prominent families as well."

Jin Ke's heart sank; his son had indeed guessed it.

"As for where Chen Zijun offended the Jin family, I've never heard of it. It's not a personal grudge, but a political disagreement."

"When Chen Zijun was in a very high position, all the powerful families who held important positions in the court would give way to him. My son guessed that Chen Zijun disliked the powerful families and wanted to weaken and suppress them."

Therefore, he became a thorn in the side of the Jin family and other clans.

Jin Ke's pupils contracted, not expecting his son to have already thought of this.

Ting'er is indeed intelligent. If it weren't for his health problems, the Jin family would have prospered for many more years because of him...

Jin Ke sighed and revealed a little of his true intentions: "What Chen Zijun wants is not just to suppress the aristocratic families, but to eliminate them altogether. He is ruining our future and destroying our ancestral legacy!"

This time, it was Jin Yunting's turn to be surprised.

How could that be? These aristocratic families have existed for five or six hundred years since the chaos of war.

The emperor and the powerful families were always checking and balancing each other. How could Chen Zijun, a prime minister, have the audacity to do such a thing?

It seems he not only has the guts, but also the ability to threaten them, otherwise the Jin family wouldn't be targeting him like this.

But where did he get his strength?

“But Father, Chen Zijun is already dead. The late Emperor trusted Chen Zijun and might have supported him, but the current Emperor may not stand with Chen Zijun,” Jin Yunting said after thinking for a moment.

"The royal family's attitude is unclear. Are we really going to prematurely and deliberately provoke them?"

I'm afraid it might become a stepping stone for others to explore.