Poisonous Goddess: I'm just lazing around in the mortal realm.

Gu Changzhe snorted coldly, and the look of disgust in his eyes was genuine.

Although Prime Minister Pei instructed him to deliberately oppose the Crown Prince, after spending these few days together, he genuinely began to despise this Crown Prince from the capital who was ignorant of the hardships of ordinary people.

The ideas and plans proposed were all wildly imaginative and completely impossible to realize!

"You keep calling him 'little boy' all the time. If the Crown Prince finds out you're talking about him like this, you'll have to send him a memorial!"

Although Pei Zhiheng's tone was unfriendly, he had known Gu Changzhe for decades and knew him to some extent.

But the mere mention of this war...

Pei Zhiheng's expression immediately fell; he naturally understood what his friend meant.

They were simply expressing their disdain for the Crown Prince, believing he was incapable of carrying out the sneak attack successfully.

He slowly put his hands behind his back, suddenly at a loss.

After a moment, as if suddenly remembering something, he turned to look at Gu Changzhe, who was standing calmly with an expression on his face.

"You must have your own plan. Otherwise, you should have gone to the Crown Prince to make a scene the moment you received the imperial edict!"

Gu Changzhe rolled his eyes, turned around and sat back down at the table, picking up the oranges he hadn't finished eating earlier.

The sour juice exploded in his mouth instantly, but he remained calm.

"You think too much."

"How could I be overthinking this! I know you perfectly well!"

Pei Zhiheng frowned slightly. Although he still couldn't stand the sour smell, he knew that he, General Weiyuan, was the only one in Philadelphia who could break the deadlock.

He quickly stepped forward and pointed to the imperial edict.

"I will get an explanation for this imperial edict from the Emperor on your behalf, but on the condition that you help the Crown Prince complete this mission."

Upon hearing this, Gu Changzhe immediately threw the orange in his hand onto the table, his face displeased.

"I already told you I hate that brat, and yet you still insist I help him? What would I do for him? He's got your daughter in his hands now, and she's not even mine!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Pei Zhiheng also became angry.

"Isn't that your own niece? It's easy for you to talk when you're not in the situation. Are you only siding with the Crown Prince? It's clearly the Crown Prince who's dragging the entire Pei family into this mess!"

"That's because your daughter was disobedient and secretly ran away, which gave the Crown Prince leverage over her!"

"Then your daughter is obedient, and coincidentally, she falls in love with that second prince!"

"you!"

With a wave of his hand, Gu Changzhe shook all the items off the table. He suddenly stood up and glared at Pei Zhiheng.

His eyes blazing with anger, he naturally knew that the old fox was trying to provoke him.

Although Pei Zhiheng tried to appear calm, his legs, which were trembling like a leaf, involuntarily moved backward. He certainly regretted his hasty remark.

I pointed out the other person's most painful sore spot.

"How did you find out about this?" Gu Changzhe suppressed his anger and asked in a low voice.

Pei Zhiheng took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the fine sweat from his forehead.

"It was my eldest daughter who noticed this first. The jade pendant your daughter is wearing is no ordinary object. It must be of great significance to wear it on such an important occasion."

"You mean the one during the Emperor's birthday celebration?"

Gu Changzhe narrowed his eyes slightly. He was naturally unaware of the existence of this jade pendant. At the time, he had only written a letter to the Second Prince once, and when the Emperor summoned him, he thought the matter was over.

"Of course! That jade pendant should be a dragon and a phoenix. I've seen another one on the Second Prince's waist. I think you're not even as good a father as I am!"

Pei Zhiheng's verbal sparring left Gu Changzhe momentarily speechless, causing him to slump back into the armchair.

"How could this be? I even arranged for the Second Prince to..."

His brow furrowed, recalling how, on the eve of receiving the Emperor's summons for his daughter to return to the capital, he had already sensed the Emperor's intentions and thus wrote a letter.

Just to make the second prince give up his daughter's idea and end their past.

But now, even their close friends can see through their antics...

What if outsiders see this?

The future Third Prince's wife had an unusual relationship with the Second Prince, a matter that was more troublesome than his military defeats.

Pei Zhiheng naturally noticed his friend's concerns, and he quickly offered words of comfort.

"I don't think the Second Prince would deliberately hide this from you for the sake of his own future. It's probably because young women need time to let go. You see, my daughter Sui Sui has experience with this."

After saying that, he even touched his nose somewhat guiltily.

He was willing to gamble the entire future of the Pei family so that his daughter could marry the person she loved.

Fortunately, his daughter managed to pull herself back from the brink and showed some backbone.

The Third Prince is no good man.

Gu Changzhe couldn't help but roll his eyes at him, somewhat displeased.

"The Second Prince isn't a good person, so the Third Prince is too? Don't think that just because I've been in Philadelphia all this time I don't know the mess you made a while ago! Retiring to your hometown, huh? How shameful!"

After saying that, he casually picked up an orange and threw it at the other person.

Pei Zhiheng nimbly dodged, and seeing that the other party seemed to have calmed down, he spoke softly.

“If you don’t plan for yourself, you should at least plan for Shi Ning. That’s why I came to find you today.”

His face turned cold, and he sat down opposite Gu Changzhe.

"What do you mean?"

Seeing his friend's rapid change of attitude, Gu Changzhe couldn't help but suspect that the other party was setting him up again.

“Now that the Crown Prince is hindering us, and the Second and Third Princes are hypocritical and incapable of shouldering great responsibilities, haven’t you thought about this…”

"Nanyang will always belong to the Duan family, Old Pei!"

Gu Changzhe interrupted Pei Zhiheng.

Pei Zhiheng waved his hand, his face showing no sign of panic at being exposed.

"What I mean is, have you never thought about canceling this marriage? The palace is a pit of fire right now. I was able to protect myself and get out of the marriage with the An family unscathed. I gambled the entire Pei family on this."

Ever since the Crown Prince used Pei Suisui to threaten him...

He then realized that none of these men surnamed Duan were good people.

Although he had previously held a sliver of hope for the Crown Prince, it now seems he had misjudged him; they all resembled their father and were no good at all!

Gu Changzhe turned his head slightly to look at his friend and said...

"You want to cancel this marriage? But what am I supposed to do? Don't you know that Shi Ning came to the capital this time to protect the lives of my Gu family's Eagle Guards?"

Pei Zhiheng frowned slightly; he was clearly unaware of this matter.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Gu Changzhe continued.

"The Emperor's spies have infiltrated Philadelphia at some point and know that the Gu Family Eagle Guard, who were once incredibly powerful and helped him ascend the throne, are hiding among the Philadelphia garrison."

"you--"

Pei Zhiheng gasped. He naturally knew about the Gu family's Eagle Guards.

If it weren't for the Gu family's elite guards, numbering less than a thousand, how could Duan Yuan have successfully seized the throne?