A wicked mother swaps her son and sucks his blood? The true legitimate daughter is reborn and goes o

"Please give your instructions, Your Highness."

Song Qingning also wanted to know how to add fuel to the fire that the Prince of Huai had mentioned.

Xie Xuanjin took a sip of tea.

Not long after, a message reached the Ye family study.

Emperor Yuan's attitude toward this matter was within Ye Zhang and Lady Anguo's expectations. They knew that the bigger the matter became, the less likely Prince Rui would dare to deal with the Ye and Chu families in the future.

Upon receiving the news, Ye Zhang and Lady Anguo exchanged a glance and quickly reached an agreement.

Ye Zhang then left his study and ordered his servants, "Send the bodies of Seventh Young Master and Miss Chu to the Duke of Shen's residence!"

The two bodies had not yet been placed in coffins and were still lying on the ground.

The servants, having received their orders, found a cart, loaded the two corpses onto it, and headed straight for the Duke of Shen's mansion.

The Shen State Duke's Mansion.

After entering the palace last night, it took a long time of negotiation, and thanks to the Emperor's protection, Ye Zhang was forced to accept the apology.

Shen Yue was given fifty strokes of the cane and sent directly back to the Duke of Shen's mansion.

At this moment, in Shen Yue's room, Duke Shen Lin and Prince Rui Xie Yuqi had deep, thoughtful expressions.

They were all reminiscing about what happened last night.

"Ah, it hurts, it hurts so much..." Shen Yue kept crying out on the bed, which made Shen Lin feel both distressed and annoyed.

He couldn't help but scold Shen Yue, "Now you know pain? Fifty strokes of the rod would have killed anyone else. It's not that you're physically strong enough to withstand it, but that His Majesty is protecting you. He must have already given instructions to make them go easy on you!"

There are also rules and methods to administering caning.

It all depends on the executioner's skill; there are light and heavy blows.

If punished severely, fifty strokes of the cane could be fatal.

A light beating only causes some physical pain and will not cause disability or death.

"His Majesty is only doing this because of your Consort Gui!" Shen Lin knew perfectly well.

Even after the death of the Imperial Concubine, she continued to protect the Shen family.

Shen Lin was relieved that the Emperor still valued his relationship with the Consort.

This was the Shen family's get-out-of-jail-free card, and also the biggest boost to Prince Rui's ascension to the position of Crown Prince.

Six years ago, Crown Prince Wenzhao died of poisoning, and Xie Xuanjin was banished from the capital, leaving only Prince Rui. That was the best opportunity, but unexpectedly, in just three years, Xie Xuanjin built a Shence Army of 50,000 men.

In the following two years, the Shence Army rapidly grew to 100,000.

Even the emperor was wary of it.

Not only was the emperor wary, but other powerful families and court officials also dared not easily take sides.

The Prince of Huai also has the Meng family behind him, and being a legitimate son, this is a great advantage.

Behind King Kerui...

Shen Lin knew that Xie Yuqi's marriage alliance with the Ye family was intended to bring the Ye family into their camp.

But Shen Yue set the fire, completely destroying Prince Rui's plans!

"Shen Yue, you've really ruined your cousin's big plan this time!" Shen Lin gritted his teeth, wishing he could beat Shen Yue a few more times.

Shen Yue felt extremely aggrieved. "I...I didn't set the fire!"

"You really didn't set the fire?" Xie Yuqi's cold gaze swept over him.

Shen Yue met his gaze. He had been very firm just moments before, but now his expression was tinged with guilt.

He tried hard to recall the previous night; he had fallen asleep as soon as he got into the carriage.

When he regained consciousness, he was already at the Ye residence, and a fire had broken out. Even now, he is still in a daze and has no memory of the period before he woke up.

The servants of the Ye family all said they saw him break into the Ye residence with a torch, threatening to burn Ye Shu and Chu Yin to death.

He didn't believe what the servants said.

But last night, the Emperor also brought his attendants into the palace.

Under the emperor's imposing presence, the servants were terrified and dared not conceal anything, revealing everything that had happened after he left Jinsheng Tower.

The servant said that they were originally going back to the Duke of Shen's mansion.

But after the prince got into the carriage, he instructed him to go to the Ye family.

He wanted to ask the young master what he was going to do at the Ye family, so he lifted the carriage curtain, only to find that the young master had already fallen asleep.

He dared not disobey the crown prince's orders and could only drive to the Ye family.

But the horse got spooked on the way, and the carriage overturned by the roadside.

The servant fell and hit his head, then collapsed and fainted.

Before his consciousness faded, he saw the prince, who had fallen to the ground, stagger to his feet and continue walking forward. He even snatched a torch from a passerby and shouted that he wanted to burn Ye Shu and Chu Yin to death.

The servant's confession confirmed Shen Yue's crimes.

Shen Yue didn't believe his personal attendant would dare to wrong him; what he said might be true, which made Shen Yue even more frustrated.

He couldn't remember any of those things and even doubted himself, wondering if he had blacked out from being drunk and actually done those things.

"Cousin, I...I was wrong. Chu Yin deserves to die, but I know the gravity of the situation. I wouldn't so blatantly put her to death. Besides, if Chu Yin dies, Ye Shu can't die either!"

Ye Shu is dead, who will Yu Zhen marry?

Without a marriage alliance, my cousin would not receive any support from the Ye family.

Xie Yuqi looked coldly at Shen Yue.

He resented that he had made a mistake while drunk and that he had acted impulsively.

Xie Yuqi had thought about last night's events countless times, feeling that there were too many coincidences, as if he had fallen into someone's trap.

But he had no evidence, and no clue whatsoever.

Although Shen Yue has been saved, the marriage alliance plan has failed.

After this incident, the Ye family will no longer be of any use to him.

Xie Yuqi's eyes darkened, a hint of ruthlessness flashing within them. "The Ye family cannot be an ally, nor can we allow them to become an obstacle in the future!"

If you can't have it, you should destroy it!

Shen Lin understood Xie Yuqi's meaning, "Qi'er, you haven't slept all night, so take a short rest at home."

As soon as Shen Lin finished speaking, he heard hurried footsteps outside the door.

Then came the butler's panicked voice, "Master, something's happened!"

Inside the room, Shen Lin, Shen Yue, and Xie Yuqi all felt a tightness in their chests, a sense of foreboding creeping in.

Shen Lin hurriedly opened the door. "What is it?"

"They're corpses..." The butler's face turned ashen. He had glanced at the two corpses earlier and was still in shock.

Seeing Shen Lin's impatience, the butler immediately calmed himself down. "It's the Ye family. The Ye family sent two corpses to our residence, and they're currently parked outside!"

Shen Lin's expression changed drastically, and he immediately lost his composure.

"Is the Ye family determined to hold this matter accountable?"

Sending a corpse here is just inviting trouble from the Duke's mansion!

"Damn the Ye family, Shen Yue, why didn't you burn a few more courtyards last night? You should have burned the entire Ye family down!" Shen Lin roared.

He then looked at Xie Yuqi, whose face was equally gloomy, and said, "Qi'er, what should we do now? That's a corpse! Such an unlucky thing! How dare the Ye family send it to our Duke's mansion? We can't let them do this. We have to make them take the corpse back!"

Shen Lin felt that the corpse was unlucky.

Xie Yuqi also felt it was unlucky.

But suddenly, as if he had thought of something, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Since they've brought the bodies, that's perfect. Let's go and call the coroner to see if the bodies are indeed Ye Shu and Chu Yin!"

Shen Lin calmed down a bit. "You suspect there's something fishy going on?"

"It's not that I doubt it, it's just that what happened last night was too coincidental. If there really is something fishy going on, it might be possible to turn the situation around," Xie Yuqi said.

The two then walked out of the room together and headed straight for the gate of the Duke's mansion.

Two corpses lay outside the gate of the Duke's mansion.

Besides the corpses, the area was also surrounded by a huge crowd of people.

They had all heard about the Duke's heir burning the Ye family's son to death.

Seeing the Ye family sending the corpse to the Duke's mansion, everyone followed out of curiosity, eager to see what would happen.

Song Qingyan was also in the crowd.

She wasn't there to watch the show; her heart was set on her only hope now—Shen Yue!