Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1797 My Aunt is the Empress 4
At the time, Linlang didn't tell Master Zhou the specific person. In fact, she deliberately set a trap, wanting Qingcao to ask. That way, the more secrets she told Qingcao, the more Qingcao would be unable to deny being the Crown Prince's spy when it was exposed in the future. This would make it easier to deal with the person. Otherwise, without a legitimate reason to get rid of her personal maid who had been with her since childhood, if the Crown Prince wanted to harm her, he could spread her reputation for being mean and ungrateful everywhere.

But if Qingcao betrays his master first, and he then tries to deal with it, even if the eldest prince wants to harm him, he won't succeed.

Sure enough, Qingcao ran over to ask Linlang which prince had told her about the eldest prince.

Linlang had been waiting for this question, so she immediately said, "It was the Third Prince who told me. Thanks to him, otherwise I would have been kept in the dark by the First Prince and thought that he really liked me, and then I would have been in big trouble if I had married him."

Linlang wanted to shift the blame and make the First Prince and the Third Prince fight. That way, she wouldn't need to retaliate; the two of them would fight each other to the death, since their families were evenly matched and could kill each other.

In the previous two lives, the original owner chose one of them. The reason the other didn't destroy the first one was because the Zhou family's power protected the other. Now, Linlang hasn't chosen one yet. Without the Zhou family's protection, it's uncertain whether they can survive the other's attack.

When Qingcao heard that it was the Third Prince who said it, she thought that the Third Prince had indeed spent a lot of time with Linlang recently, so it was very likely that he was the one who said it.

Qingcao hurriedly told the Crown Prince the news, completely unaware that Linlang had discovered her spy identity and used her against her will.

Just as Linlang had expected, the First Prince was indeed furious when he heard that it was the Third Prince who had mentioned it, and he didn't doubt it at all.

The main reason is that the Third Prince and the First Prince are evenly matched. The First Prince believes that with the Third Prince's strength, it is quite possible that he can find out about this matter and then tell Linlang about it, so that Linlang can strike him out of the game.

Now that the First Prince knew that the mastermind was the Third Prince, he naturally wouldn't let him off the hook. The First Prince thought to himself, "If I'm not doing well, neither can you," and he wanted to kill the Third Prince.

Soon, the Third Prince discovered that the First Prince was targeting him. He was immediately puzzled. After all, among ten princes, they might fight, but they wouldn't usually target one person so fiercely. Otherwise, if the fight got too intense, the other side might not be able to withstand it and would retaliate with all their might, potentially resulting in both sides being severely injured. In the end, the other eight princes would benefit. So only a fool would fight to the death with one person before the major events were settled, thus benefiting the other princes.

However, since the eldest prince attacked the third prince, the third prince could not refuse to fight back, after all, he couldn't very well let the eldest prince beat him to death.

The third prince then began to cause trouble for the first prince, only to discover that the first prince actually had a beloved woman and even had two sons with her, which greatly shocked him.

—This was naturally revealed to the Third Prince by Linlang, just to cover up her previous statement that the Third Prince knew the First Prince's secret.

Furthermore, the fact that the First Prince attacked the Third Prince was also revealed to the Third Prince by Linlang. After all, the First Prince wasn't stupid; he knew that the Third Prince had his secret, so how could he dare to openly deal with the Third Prince? If he angered the Third Prince and the Third Prince revealed his secret, not only would the Zhou family no longer support him, but even other people, including his own father, might not choose him. Therefore, he launched the attack in secret.

Little did he know that Linlang would reveal all this to the Third Prince, letting him know who was causing him trouble.

Now that the Third Prince had such a big weakness in the First Prince's hands, he couldn't help but think, "Elder brother, you have such a weakness, yet you still dare to attack me?" So the Third Prince secretly revealed that the First Prince had a lover and two sons, letting the ministers who were hesitant about whether to support the First Prince, as well as the Emperor, know about it.

The Third Prince knew that once the news of the First Prince's actions got out, those who had been hesitant about supporting him would no longer do so, and even the Emperor would be disappointed in him. After all, a person who placed personal feelings above the fate of the nation was not worthy of support.

If someone like this, who only cares about love and romance, were to become emperor in the future, he might just pull off a scene where he chooses beauty over the throne.

The eldest prince never expected that his secret would be exposed.

Although the Third Prince leaked the information in secret, the First Prince knew that it must have been the Third Prince who leaked it. As far as the First Prince knew, although the Zhou family knew about his affairs, they were afraid that he might rise to power, so they remained neutral and did not reveal his affairs or completely break ties with him.

The third prince was one of his political enemies, and suppressing him would be the best option, so he was the most likely to expose the matter.

Although he hated the Third Prince to the core, now that this matter had been exposed, he had to deal with the consequences first and didn't have time to continue causing trouble for the Third Prince.

The biggest consequence of this incident was that the emperor summoned the eldest prince to the palace and gave him a severe scolding, calling him incredibly stupid and beating him for having such a foolish son.

Being called stupid by the emperor clearly meant that, barring any special circumstances, his path to the throne was essentially over.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the eldest prince became dejected.

Although he had plans two and three, as long as he forcibly took Zhou Linlang and forced her to marry him, even if the Zhou family didn't want to support him, they would have to support him in the end for Zhou Linlang's sake; or he could kill Zhou Linlang, marry her half-sister, force the Zhou family to take sides, and the Zhou family would have no choice but to support him.

However, with the emperor and many ministers opposing him, even with the support of the Zhou family, it would be difficult for him to ascend to the throne.

Moreover, given that the emperor and many ministers are not on his side, even if he implements plans two and three, this old fox might not support him and let Zhou Linlang or that concubine's daughter fend for themselves, so as not to get on his ship that can't be disembarked and bring disaster to the Zhou family. Therefore, his plan may not succeed.

In the end, it was all the Third Prince's fault. If the Third Prince hadn't revealed his situation, this wouldn't have happened. After all, if this matter hadn't been exposed, his second and third plans could still have been implemented. Since no emperor or other ministers opposed him, the Zhou family might have sided with him.

The thought that his future was ruined by the Third Prince made the First Prince hate the Third Prince to the core. However, he had been scolded by the Emperor and imprisoned for three months, so he couldn't cause trouble for the Third Prince for the time being. He could only think of another way.