The war god prince climbs the wall every night, and the princess is angry

The corner of Shen Qionghua's mouth twitched, and she thought to herself that Prince Rui was really moody. He was fine just now, and she didn't know what happened now.

However, she was in a very good mood now and didn't mind facing other people's cold faces. A smile appeared on the corner of her lips and she said, "This time, it was thanks to the prince that I was able to break through."

Xie Nanyuan looked at her smiling face, and the slight dissatisfaction in his heart caused by being ignored just now disappeared in an instant.

The palace was not a place to talk, so the two walked towards the palace gate.

Shen Qionghua knelt for nearly two hours. Just now, she was in the Taiji Hall, and she was so focused on the disaster relief money that she didn't notice anything. Now that she had left the tense atmosphere, the pain that she had deliberately ignored surged up, and her movements became quite slow.

Shen Qionghua knew without even looking that her knees were severely bruised.

She frowned, trying her best to maintain a dignified appearance. Xie Nanyuan walked beside her, slowing down his pace, and a hint of heartache unconsciously appeared in his eyes.

After coming out of Xuanwu Gate, the two got on the same carriage.

Now that he has completely torn his relationship with the Marquis of Yongning, he knows everything about each other and there is no need to avoid suspicion anymore.

Shen Qionghua got on the carriage and let out a long breath the moment she sat on the seat.

The carriage slowly drove away from the palace and headed towards the Shen family.

In the car, Xie Nanyuan slowly spoke, "I didn't know you even knew where the secret room in the Yongning Marquis' Mansion was."

He was a little curious. The secret room in the Yongning Marquis Mansion was really hidden and the mechanism was even more sophisticated. If Shen Qionghua had not asked Xiaowu to tell him the courtyard where the secret room was located, even if the Yongning Marquis Mansion was searched thoroughly, it would be impossible to find the silver.

Everyone in the Yongning Marquis' Mansion was on guard against the Shen family. How did Shen Qionghua know about the existence of the secret room?

Facing Xie Nanyuan's question, Shen Qionghua's eyes flashed with panic, but she forced herself to remain calm and said, "I discovered it by accident. I never thought Prince An would come up with such a method to kill me. Fortunately, I knew there was a secret room, so I didn't let the dirty water splash on the Shen family."

Seeing Xie Nanyuan about to open his mouth to ask more questions, Shen Qionghua quickly changed the subject, "It's a pity that there is no evidence to prove that Prince An did this. Marquis Yongning took all the responsibility, which allowed him to escape."

"Otherwise, just based on the fact that he embezzled disaster relief funds, the emperor would be extremely disappointed in him."

"However, Marquis Yongning is Prince An's right-hand man. It would be great if we could cut off Prince An's arm. I wonder what kind of punishment the Emperor will impose on Marquis Yongning?"

After this incident, Shen Qionghua completely refreshed her bottom line towards Prince An and Marquis Yongning.

Today's event is a two-birds-with-one-stone strategy.

First of all, of course, he wanted to frame the Shen family and make them bear the crime of deceiving the emperor so that he could vent his anger.

Secondly, the reason why Prince An had been pretending to be nice to her was all for the Shen family's money. Now that the Shen family had offered so much money, how could Prince An not be tempted? It was probably more than one million taels of silver that Prince An planned to use to expand his own power later.

He even embezzled the money used by the imperial court for disaster relief and did not care about the lives of the refugees at all. If such a person really became the crown prince and ascended the throne, it would be a disaster for this country.

Xie Nanyuan met Shen Qionghua's expectant eyes, pursed his lips, and said, "The result may not be what you wish."

A hint of doubt flashed across Shen Qionghua's eyes, and he asked, "What do you mean, Your Highness?"

The Marquis of Yongning has admitted that he embezzled disaster relief funds. Could it be that the Emperor will just let it go?

Xie Nanyuan asked, "Do you think the emperor doesn't know what Prince An did?"

Shen Qionghua was stunned. "Your Highness, are you saying that the Emperor knows that Prince An was responsible for what happened today? Then why..."

Why pretend not to know?

Why protect Prince An?

Could it be that Prince An's status in the emperor's heart is so high that he can turn a blind eye to such corruption of disaster relief funds?

As Shen Qionghua thought about this, a hint of anger appeared on her face.

Xie Nanyuan didn't tell her directly, but asked her another question, "What do you think of my existence in the emperor's heart?"

Shen Qionghua blurted out: "The prince is the emperor's most beloved son, a general who can guard the border and protect the people."

Xie Nanyuan smiled and shook his head when he heard this. "Maybe he is my favorite son, but while he loves me dearly, he also sees me as a threat."

Threat?

A trace of confusion flashed across Shen Qionghua's eyes, and then he suddenly realized: "What the prince means is..."

Xie Nanyuan nodded, "That's right."

Shen Qionghua's breathing became a little faster. She didn't expect that she had actually ignored this point.

Yes, how could she treat the father-son relationship in the royal family as the father-son relationship in ordinary families.

The current emperor has just reached the age of forty, while all the princes except the fifth prince have reached adulthood. The tiger is not yet old, but its cubs have grown up. People often say that no poison will eat its own cubs, but they also forget that there is no room for two tigers in one mountain.

Even if they share the same blood, there will be a life-and-death struggle.

The emperor was in his prime, watching his sons grow up one by one. The ministers under him kept submitting memorials to him asking him to appoint a crown prince. The entire court was staring at the dragon throne he was sitting on. How could he not be on guard?

Shen Qionghua thought about the reason why she originally decided to join King Rui.

The emperor has only five princes. The eldest prince is ill, the fourth prince is extremely licentious, and the fifth prince is still young, and his mother was a palace maid in the cold palace. None of them can cause any harm to Prince An.

The only one who could compete with Prince An was Prince Rui. Prince Rui was the legitimate son of the Empress Dowager and the daughter of the late Empress. His maternal family was the Duke of Zhenguo, a powerful military family. He was both civil and military, and had made great military achievements at a young age. He enjoyed a very high prestige among the people and the army.

She saw that these conditions were enough to make Prince An afraid, but she forgot that not only Prince An was afraid, but the emperor was also afraid of seeing such a capable son.

Perhaps the reason why Prince An was able to keep making small moves was not only because he was shameless, insidious and cunning, but also because the Emperor was using Prince An to restrain Prince Rui, so he turned a blind eye to some of the things Prince An did.

If Prince An is gone, or even Prince An can no longer pose a threat to Prince Rui, then the Emperor will probably be unable to sit still.

The emperor may have taken into consideration that Prince Rui was his legitimate son and was raised by him, and therefore had a deeper affection for him than for other princes. As long as Prince Rui behaved himself, it would be okay to dote on him more.

But he could never tolerate a situation where he no longer wanted to favor her, or when Prince Rui coveted the throne under his butt, but he was helpless.

Prince An had no military merits, and most of the court officials who followed him were recruited by him. His greatest support was Marquis Yongning, who held a small amount of military power.

If the two forces are to be balanced, then nothing can happen to the Marquis of Yongning, otherwise the balance between Prince An and Prince Rui will be broken, and this...

This is exactly what the emperor cannot tolerate the most.