After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Upon learning the truth, the Marquis of Yongchang both cried and laughed, making him appear extremely pitiful.

No wonder people say you should find a good-looking husband. Even if he's a bad person, emotionally broken, or going crazy, a good-looking man is still so endearing. Conversely, even if an unattractive man speaks softly and gently to you, you'll still feel a surge of anger.

Ugh, what nonsense is she thinking!

The best course of action now is to find out who else, including the Marquis of Yongchang, is lurking in Ganzhou City. If we don't nip it in the bud, it will grow back in the spring.

A quarter of an hour later, Marquis Yongchang calmed down. He sat there hunched over, looking as if he had aged suddenly. Not in appearance, but in spirit and energy.

Asking for paper and pen, he wrote down all the contact points and spies in Ganzhou and the surrounding counties. As he put down the pen, he looked up at Lu Zhiyuan and said, "I want to return to the capital to see the Emperor one last time."

The Crown Prince agreed and ordered Gu An to return to the capital with him. This matter originated in the capital and should end there.

Gu An never expected that the justice he had sought for decades, hiding and running, would be achieved so easily. He closed his eyes, and scenes of his past with his brothers in the army flashed before his eyes.

In his youth, he was truly unlikable. Born into a wealthy family, he looked down on soldiers from humble backgrounds. Relying on his extensive knowledge of military strategy, he was arrogant and always thought himself the best. He was all talk and no action, yet he felt the marshal was incompetent at using his men, assigning someone as capable as him to transport supplies and handle miscellaneous tasks. Because of his family's wealth, he spent his days showing off, filling his tent with frivolous and impractical items.

Thinking of this, Gu An gently shook his head, and the scene of the night of the incident immediately appeared in his mind.

It was just an ordinary night, but some people will never see each other again.

She took a deep breath, rubbed her nose hard, and held back the tear from her eye. Just as she was about to go downstairs to arrange her return to Beijing, something suddenly occurred to her.

They turned back.

"Your Highness, this Marquis of Yongchang is trying to fool us."

"Oh?" The Crown Prince frowned. "General Gu, have you discovered something?"

"The Marquis of Yongchang is not the current emperor's brother; he is the Grand Uncle, the late emperor's brother. They are from different generations, completely different generations."

Marquis Yongchang gently raised his head. "Is it possible that Marquis Yongchang is just a title? Is it possible that the original Marquis is already dead?"

"Dead? The Grand Uncle is dead?" Gu An shook his head: "Impossible! I don't have any other strengths, except for gathering information. How could you know something I don't even know? Besides, he was a Marquis, the Grand Uncle. If the Grand Uncle is gone, the court will definitely announce it to the world. So who are you?"

"Announcing it to the world?" Marquis Yongchang sneered. "Has the Xiao family announced the identity of the Grand Imperial Uncle to the world? Who can prove that Marquis Yongchang is a descendant of the late emperor? Is it recorded in the imperial genealogy or in the Xiao family genealogy?"

"This..." Gu An choked for a moment.

Indeed, the matter of the Grand Uncle was not announced to the world, and even the title of Grand Uncle was passed down in private; the Xiao imperial family did not acknowledge it.

The world only recognizes the Marquis of Yongchang, but no one in the world can even find the Marquis of Yongchang's residence.

"You ask me how I know the Grand Uncle is dead? It's simple, because I killed him." Marquis Yongchang looked at his hands: "There are many shameful things in the palace, some of which are kept secret."

Even the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, who have lived deep within the palace for so long, might not know this, let alone an outsider like you.

"I..." Gu An was angry, but he couldn't refute it. To the royal family, he was indeed an outsider.

The Gu family was once prominent, but not to the point that they could freely enter and leave the palace. Naturally, he was unaware of what happened inside the palace.

Marquis Yongchang looked at Lu Zhiyuan: "The Crown Princess said I was poisoned by snake venom. I wonder if this poison can be cured? I don't ask for much, I only ask that my eyes can be restored to normal, so as not to frighten the Emperor. If the Crown Princess is willing to cure me, I can tell you everything related to the Grand Uncle. This secret is useless to others, but it may be useful to His Highness the Crown Prince."

“The snake venom in the Marquis’s body can be treated, but not completely.” Lu Zhiyuan pried open the Marquis’s eyelids to take a look: “First, use silver needles to suppress it, then use medicine to guide the flow, and finally use medicinal cuisine to regulate it.”

The whole process will take about three to five years. I won't live that long, but I can leave you, My Lordship, a prescription.”

"Thank you, Your Highness, but I didn't intend to live that long." Marquis Yongchang closed his eyes. "His Highness the Crown Prince and General Gu wouldn't let me live that long either. I only ask to appear normal in front of the Emperor; I don't want him to worry about me."

Lu Zhiyuan pondered for a moment: "I will refine a pill for you one day. You only need to take it when you go to the palace to meet the Emperor. It will protect you for three hours. After three hours, the snake venom will quickly erode your internal organs. At that time, you may die on the spot, or you may become an even more terrifying monster and be strangled by the Imperial Guards, or you may be like General Gu, rising from the ashes like a phoenix, reshaping yourself and achieving immortality."

"Thank you, Your Highness. This is my way of repaying you." Marquis Yongchang bit his finger.

When the blood was sprinkled on the prescription, a miraculous scene unfolded: some of the words on the prescription turned red, some disappeared into thin air, and the rest remained black.

This is the real prescription.

The red one is taken internally, and the black one is applied externally; the combination of the two is the elixir of immortality they have been searching for for many years.

Such an ingenious design could not have been conceived by them even if they hadn't taken the initiative to demonstrate it.

The deal was struck, and the Marquis of Yongchang revealed the last secret he possessed.

The late emperor was not favored in his childhood and was aloof, preferring places like the Cold Palace. When the late emperor was thirteen years old, an enemy country sent a hostage, who, like Xiao Yebai, lived in the palace.

As for the hostage, as long as he's alive, that's all that matters. Nobody in the palace cares how he lives.

When the late emperor met the hostage, the hostage was weeping because of the reprimands he received in the palace. It was the late emperor who comforted him. Fifteen years later, the hostage returned to his country and told the late emperor a secret before leaving. He was not a man, but a beautiful woman.

She and her brother were twins, born of the same mother. In their country, giving birth to twins was considered unlucky. Therefore, her mother concealed her birth, intending to announce it a few years later, saying that she was her brother's younger sister, born a year after him.

Man proposes, God disposes. The two countries went to war, and they were defeated. According to the agreement, they had to send a hostage to Northern Liang.

Her father and mother were reluctant to part with her brother, because he was the most likely monarch to revitalize their country.

Helpless, she had no choice but to change into her brother's clothes and use his name to become a hostage in Beiliang.

Fifteen years later, fate played another cruel trick on them. Her brother was murdered and was nearing death. Seeing the turmoil in the court and the country, her father and mother thought of her again. They wanted her to return and take her brother's place on the throne, to help him rule over their father.

The empire left behind by my brother.

She couldn't refuse, because during her years as a hostage, besides the late emperor, only her brother cared about her.

On the night she revealed her identity, she changed into women's clothing and gave herself to the late emperor.

Her name was Helan Yan, but few people in either Beiliang or her country knew this name; they knew Helan Cheng.