Deposed Crown Prince: After three years of service on the frontier, the entire court knelt and begge

After hearing Yin Pan'er's words, Da Lei smiled and said, "It's alright... Your Highness, I definitely trust you..."

"Your Highness, to be honest, at the beginning I trusted you more than I trusted the Prince..."

After hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er smiled and said to him, "That's good. I was just afraid you might have some misunderstanding about me..."

Da Lei gave an awkward smile, then said to Yin Pan'er, "Your Highness, no...did I say something wrong that caused you to misunderstand? If so, I apologize on your behalf..."

After hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er smiled and then said, "No...no..."

Da Lei said to Yin Pan'er, "That's good. Let's talk about the jade thumb ring first. We don't know where this jade thumb ring came from."

After hearing what Da Lei said, Yin Pan'er looked at Da Lei with a face full of curiosity.

He then spoke directly, "Weren't you all always by Xiao Ce's side?"

Da Lei gave a wry smile, then said awkwardly, "They were indeed inseparable... but they just appeared out of nowhere... and the prince's condition, which had previously baffled all the doctors, suddenly improved..."

Upon hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er looked surprised and then asked, "Was Your Highness really ill back then?"

After hearing Yin Pan'er's words, Da Lei gave an awkward smile, then nodded and said, "That's right, Your Highness, did you know that back then?"

After hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er smiled awkwardly, then nodded: "That's right, I did know back then... but... but... I think it was some kind of trick by the prince... after all, the illness came so suddenly, without any warning... after all, in my impression, the prince has always been a very healthy person..."

Da Lei smiled at Yin Pan'er and then said, "Your Highness, you're right... At first, we all thought so too... However, we later discovered that the Prince was indeed very ill. According to the Prince himself, when he was ill, he felt like he was about to die..."

Upon hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er looked surprised and asked, "What's going on?"

Da Lei smiled at Yin Pan'er and then said, "I don't know. Actually, even the Prince doesn't know. He just fell ill for no reason, and then he recovered for no reason... After he recovered, he had this jade thumb ring..."

Yin Pan'er said to Da Lei, "Da Lei, the prince isn't that familiar with this jade thumb ring, how come you...?"

After hearing Yin Pan'er's words, Da Lei smiled and said, "Because this jade thumb ring was used by the old prince before, in a sense, this jade thumb ring represents the old prince... so we can recognize it immediately..."

Da Lei spoke with absolute certainty.

However, Yin Pan'er looked at Da Lei with a dazed expression and asked, "Old Prince? Which Old Prince?"

Da Lei looked at Yin Pan'er, who seemed a little dazed, and said directly to her, "Lord Xiao Dingshan, weren't we your men before?"

Yin Pan'er nodded first, then said to Da Lei, "Isn't the old prince dead?"

Da Lei nodded: "That's right... he's indeed dead. But nobody knows who got this jade ring from or where, and then gave it to the prince... Most importantly, we didn't know what the jade ring was for before... We never imagined that this jade ring would be related to these robots, that it was actually the key to one of these robots..."

After hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er nodded: "If you put it that way...it really is...and I seem to remember that the old prince had no children in his entire life..."

Da Lei shook his head: "No, she did have a child, but I heard it died young... However, no one knows what happened in the end... because those are just rumors..."

Upon hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er immediately said to him, "That's right. However, this matter seems to be getting increasingly interesting... I didn't think much of it before, but now it seems that this matter is inextricably linked to our Xiao Kingdom..."

Da Lei nodded to Yin Pan'er, then said, "That's right, that's indeed the case..."

Yin Pan'er said to Da Lei, "But there's some good news. It seems our prince can communicate with those robots... perhaps he can handle them..."

Da Lei nodded as well, and then fell into deep thought.

Yin Pan'er looked at Da Lei as if she was deep in thought.

Yin Pan'er then said to Da Lei, "Da Lei, have you thought of something?"

Da Lei said to Yin Pan'er, "Your Highness, when did you think these robots were manufactured...?"

After hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er asked in confusion, "Da Lei, what do you mean by that? I don't quite understand..."

Da Lei then said to Yin Pan'er, "Your Highness, think about it... if you want to use this jade thumb ring as a key, wouldn't you first need to have the jade thumb ring as a key, and then research a lock..."

Yin Pan'er nodded.

"So, this jade thumb ring was actually an item the old prince kept close to him, or rather, something very important to him. We shadow guards used it for deployment; in a sense, it was like a military tally... rarely seen in public, and very few people knew about it..."

"So, do you think it's possible that all these robots were created by the old prince?"

After hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er froze on the spot.

Then, looking utterly astonished, he said, "That's right, it's possible... although it doesn't make sense... but the things we've encountered lately can't be described by logic..."

After hearing Yin Pan'er's words, Da Lei smiled and said, "Not bad..."

Yin Pan'er saw Da Lei say this: "But, if the old prince had such powerful assistance... why did he die such a tragic death..."

Da Lei nodded, then said to Yin Pan'er, "Your Highness, if it really was the old prince who did it... and if these robots are related to the old prince, then... is there a possibility..."

Yin Pan'er was shocked to hear Da Lei say this, and then said to Da Lei in unison, "The old prince is not dead at all!"

Upon hearing Yin Pan'er's words, Da Lei nodded repeatedly and then said, "That's right... Think about it, that mad Taoist we knew before, he was very powerful. He knew how to use disguise techniques, and he could use this technique to change our appearance. We still don't know how they did it..."

Yin Pan'er nodded: "That's right. Back then, when you were pretending to be people from Japan, I really didn't recognize you at first glance..."

Da Lei nodded to Yin Pan'er, then said, "That's right...not only that...that mad Taoist was helping us in a way...until he suddenly disappeared..."

"If the old Prince Xiao Dingshan possessed such technology, then faking his death would be an easy matter, not difficult at all..."

Yin Pan'er nodded and said to Da Lei, "Da Lei, you're right... Moreover, it seems that none of you have seen the remains of the old Prince Xiao Dingshan?"

Da Lei nodded, then said to Yin Pan'er, "We saw the body, but the face was unrecognizable... the features were almost completely unrecognizable..."

"At that time, we didn't think much about the situation, let alone consider faking our deaths. Most importantly, even the old prince's personal steward didn't see anything wrong with it..."

After hearing Da Lei's words, Yin Pan'er nodded: "Now that you're saying this... it's very likely that Old Prince Xiao Dingshan really is alive..."

Da Lei became more and more excited as he thought about it.

At this moment, Yin Pan'er said to Da Lei, "That's not right. Da Lei, what do you think his purpose is? It doesn't make sense... If he has this kind of strength, why doesn't he go directly to Xiao Ce? One of them has brains, and the other has strength. Wouldn't it be great for them to join forces?"

Da Lei said to Yin Pan'er, "Your Highness, you must know... the person whom the old Prince Xiao Dingshan has always liked, cherished, and supported has always been Crown Prince Xiao Ce..."

Da Lei glanced at Yin Pan'er meaningfully and said, "It's that Crown Prince Xiao Ce, not our Prince!"