The Prodigal Son

Shi Wang recognized every single word in the letter.

But when these words were put together, Shi Wang felt as if he didn't recognize a single one, and his head was buzzing.

Eliminate the Crown Prince?

Should he look at what he's saying?

Given the merits of the Shi family ancestors, even if the imperial court discovered their illegal gold mining, at most they would only confiscate a portion of the Shi family's property.

But if they were to assassinate the crown prince, and the court found out, not even a god could save the Shi family!

crazy!

The boss is absolutely insane!

After a long while, Shi Wang finally came to his senses and said in a panic, "Father, we can't do this, absolutely not! We can have everyone at the gold mine killed, that way the Crown Prince won't be able to trace it back to us!"

Yes, silence them!

Kill them all!

Leave no one alive!

"You think you, as the older brother, wouldn't think of this?"

Shi Dingyuan, panting heavily, gritted his teeth and growled, "You think killing everyone will stop the Crown Prince from finding us? He's the Crown Prince! He can investigate any case he wants to investigate! Unless you can make the entire Nanping Mountain disappear completely!"

Murder?

His thinking is too simple!

That's the current crown prince, and the one with the most secure position!

The power he could wield was beyond the imagination of historians.

"Then let's confess our crimes to the imperial court!"

Shi Wang panicked even more, "This isn't a serious crime like treason. The court will remember our ancestors' merits and certainly won't make things too difficult for us!"

"You know nothing!"

Shi Yi trembled as he put down the letter. "Do you know how many people have died in the Nanping Mountains while mining for gold?"

"The crime of disregarding human life alone is enough to plunge us into the abyss!"

"Once the Crown Prince traces us back to us, our secret of raising assassins will be exposed!"

They raised two thousand elite warriors!

In the imperial court's eyes, this was a capital crime of treason!

Even if the imperial court, mindful of the merits of the Shi family's ancestors, spares the execution of the entire Shi family clan, the Shi family will likely still face the fate of being exiled as a whole.

If it really comes to that, how different is it from the execution of the entire family?

The eldest brother understood this, which is why he wanted to keep the crown prince in Huai County and use his own life to help them complete their plan to get rid of the crown prince.

If the plan succeeds, the eldest brother will certainly not survive, but at least it will provide a way out for the historians.

If the assassination fails, their entire family will be executed!

"He's gambling!"

Shi Wang trembled all over, his face filled with fear as he growled at his father, "Didn't you say we weren't allowed to gamble? He's risking the lives of his entire family to gamble, aren't you going to stop him?"

This is far more serious than him gambling away tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Even if they successfully assassinated the crown prince, how could they guarantee that the court wouldn't trace it back to them?

Their chances of winning are too slim!

This is simply playing with the lives of nine generations of relatives!

He doesn't want to gamble!

It's better to live a miserable life than to die a good death!

Even being exiled is better than having one's entire family executed!

Shi Dingyuan remained silent, suppressing his inner fear and weighing the options in his mind.

Of course he didn't want to gamble!

But now, it seems they have no choice but to take the gamble!

Just as Shi Yi said, as long as the Crown Prince investigates the Shi family, the charges of disregarding human life and raising assassins will be enough to destroy the Shi family.

Emperor Gao's dying wish was: members of the Shi family should not be killed unless they have committed serious crimes such as treason or rebellion!

Leaving aside the fact that raising assassins is tantamount to treason, the word "etc." alone can be interpreted in many ways.

Illegal gold mining and disregard for human life—aren't these serious crimes?

They could also gamble that the imperial court would spare the Shi family out of consideration for the merits of their ancestors.

But he dared not gamble!

If the imperial court doesn't even give historians a chance to enter officialdom, how can we expect the imperial court to let historians off the hook?

The ruler in the court is said to be a benevolent monarch, but when he gets ruthless, he is more ruthless than anyone else!

He killed all the old ministers left behind by Emperor Xiaowu.

Could the friendship between the historians and Emperor Gao be greater than these crimes?

Shi Yi lowered his head and pondered for a long time, then gritted his teeth and said, "Father, I'm afraid we have no choice but to take a gamble this time!"

"Go to hell with your betting!"

Shi Wang angrily retorted, "Assassination of the Crown Prince? Do you think the court won't thoroughly investigate?"

Shi Yi shook his head slightly, a ruthless glint in his eyes. "It was all the Second Prince's doing. It has nothing to do with my Shi family!"

It's obvious without even thinking that the Second Prince wanted to assassinate the Crown Prince.

When the Crown Prince was assassinated, His Majesty's first suspect was the Second Prince!

This is currently the only area in the historian's favor.

The elder brother had also considered this point, which is why he decided to sacrifice his own life to prevent the court from suspecting the historians.

As long as the eldest brother's plan can proceed smoothly, they have a real chance of eliminating the crown prince!

As long as the Crown Prince and all those in the know around him are eliminated, the events in Nanping Mountain can be kept hidden!

He knew this was dangerous.

But at least they still have a chance to win!

Even something is better than sitting and waiting to die!

"You just want Big Brother dead!"

Shi Wang glared at Shi Yi, who was fanning the flames, and said, "As long as Big Brother dies, you can take his place..."

"I'd rather you were dead!"

Shi Yi interrupted Shi Wang, his eyes blazing with anger, "A hundred of you wouldn't be as useful as our eldest brother! But what good would it do us if you died?"

He did have that thought.

But it's only a little bit!

He was more focused on fighting for his life!

If the Shi family falls, does it still matter who the future head of the family is?

Shi Wang was furious and was about to speak again when Shi Dingyuan suddenly roared, "Shut up, all of you!"

Faced with Shi Dingyuan's menacing gaze, the two brothers exchanged an angry glance and fell silent.

After stopping the two brothers, Shi Dingyuan slowly closed his eyes, trying his best to remain calm.

But his constantly twitching cheeks betrayed his true feelings.

After a long while, Shi Dingyuan suddenly opened his eyes, a resolute look on his face: "The boss is right in the letter! We're going to die anyway, so we might as well fight to the death! We can't just sit here and wait to die!"

Let's gamble!

Let's take a gamble; there's still hope!

Not gambling is practically waiting to die!

Hearing his father's words, Shi Wang's body began to tremble uncontrollably, and he pointed at the two of them, stammering, "You...you..."

An endless fear kept assaulting Shi Wang, making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

I clearly don't know anything!

They want to gamble, so why drag themselves down with them?

"waste!"

Shi Dingyuan glared at Shi Wang, "What are you afraid of? Our Shi family's two thousand elite warriors aren't pushovers!"

"We've raised them for decades; it's time they did something for our historical family!"

"If we follow your older brother's plan, we have a very good chance of success!"

If Shi Zhen can successfully get the Crown Prince to accompany him with only a small number of men, their chances of success are very high!

He knew, of course, that the Crown Prince's personal guards were the elite of the elite.

But the historian's two thousand elite soldiers were no less formidable!

With three ninth-level experts and those assassins, as long as the Crown Prince doesn't have a grandmaster by his side to protect him, they definitely have a chance to fight!

Since we've reached a point of life and death, we have no choice but to go all out!

Whether you can win the gamble depends on fate...