After being forced into a marriage with a wealthy family, the virtuous wife caused a huge uproar.

"Xuan Wang is plotting against Master Zhao? What is his purpose?" Gu Ce had never really thought about this question.

There is no conflict of interest between Xuanwang and the Zhao family.

Rong Yingluo couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she had a feeling that things weren't that simple.

Gu Ce knew that Rong Yingluo wouldn't speak without reason, and after her reminder, he fell into deep thought.

Rong Yingluo also thought about it carefully.

"Do you think it could be related to your disappearance back then?"

"Do you think it could be related to my getting lost back then?"

The two spoke almost simultaneously, then looked at each other and laughed.

"You go first," Gu Ce gestured.

"There were two groups of people who assassinated the Prince of Bei that night. I suspect the second group was the Prince of Xuan's men."

The fourth prince lost both legs at the border years ago. It wasn't the enemy who did it, but one of their own. He investigated and the final result pointed to the crown prince.

Now it seems very likely that it wasn't the Crown Prince, but Prince Xuan who did it and framed the Crown Prince.

Judging from Consort Cao and the Crown Prince's attitudes toward the Fourth Prince, they did not take him seriously.

The purpose of keeping this prince of low status was, of course, to prove that the scarcity of princes in the harem was not the work of Consort Cao.

But a closer analysis reveals that the reason the emperor only had two sons was definitely due to human intervention, but it was done so secretly that it went undetected.

Let's look at the Crown Prince. He's twenty-five years old and has only two daughters. The Emperor has no grandsons yet.

The fourth prince is already crippled. If the crown prince is killed or crippled as well, there will be no one to inherit the throne, and the only option will be to adopt from among the imperial relatives.

The Emperor will surely choose a son of Prince Xuan.

Your disappearance back then was most likely caused by Prince Xuan, who is gradually pushing the Emperor toward his own goals.

That Chen woman was very likely a spy planted by Prince Xuan next to Master Zhao.

The purpose, of course, was to find out about the Zhao family, which was the Empress's maternal family.

The spy was unwilling to be kept outside forever and wanted to enter the inner circle, or rather, Prince Xuan wanted to know more about the Zhao family.

He needed to make sure the Second Prince really wouldn't return to the palace. The more Rong Yingluo spoke, the more she felt that it was exactly what she had thought.

Gu Ce's eyes grew brighter as he listened.

"Madam is truly intelligent, able to analyze the crux of the problem from these subtle clues."

"You're right, that's what I thought too. It seems I have to deal with not only the Crown Prince and Consort Cao, but also Prince Xuan." A sinister glint appeared in Gu Ce's eyes.

If things are as he thinks, then he should be even less eager to return to his ancestral home. Once he returns to the royal family, he will face an attack from both the Crown Prince and Prince Xuan.

One wrong move and you'll be shattered to pieces.

"Do you want to investigate?" Rong Yingluo wanted to know his plan.

"Investigate. But we must be very careful, or we might leave a trace and alert the enemy. To achieve his goals, Prince Xuan will surely eliminate the Crown Prince; I just need to wait."

"It seems your decision to prevent the Prince of Bei from standing up even after he has recovered was correct." Gu Ce felt that his current identity would better protect him.

"I think so too. Now that the Empress has hope, I will take good care of her health. As long as she stops being so anxious about her son, there should be no problem." Rong Yingluo was quite confident in her medical skills.

Sure enough, two days later, Zhao Erye was demoted from the capital by an imperial edict and sent to serve as the magistrate of a remote county.

Lord Zhao asked him to take that Chen woman with him, but the illegitimate son was left in the mansion.

Zhao Xing'er was punished by being confined to her home for a month and forced to copy the "Precepts for Women" one hundred times.

Two days later, Gu Ce secretly gave the information he had found about the Chen family to Lord Zhao.

Just as Gu Ce had predicted, Chen was indeed someone planted by Xuan Wang next to Master Zhao, and also someone who had leverage over Master Zhao. Whenever Master Zhao had a private meeting with Chen, he would tell her about anything that happened in the Zhao family.

Naturally, Lady Chen also knew everything about the Empress's affairs.

Although the Empress is seemingly immersed in her grief, she manages her people very well. Furthermore, the Emperor is devoted to her and consistently protects her. Prince Xuan has tried to place someone close to the Empress for many years, but has failed.

Once the Zhao family learned that Chen had ulterior motives, they quickly made a decision.

On the way away from the capital with Master Zhao, she died of a severe cold.

When the news reached him, his ten-year-old son cried sadly.

Fortunately, the child was still young, and since he was born into the Zhao family, the Zhao family accepted the child.

Once the Duchess's half-month confinement was over, she regained control of the household.

Rong Yingluo resumed the days of having to pay her respects to her.

The two have completely broken off relations. Madam Su no longer pretends to be a kind mother, and Rong Yingluo no longer pretends to be a dutiful daughter-in-law; they simply do what they are supposed to do.

Gu Xi could no longer get money from the Su family, and his cronies stopped hanging out with him.

Now that Gu Ce has more people under his command, managing Gu Xi will be a piece of cake.

Every day, Gu Xi was kept at home, either practicing martial arts or doing chores for him.

If Gu Xi misbehaved, Gu Ce would beat him up, and within just a few days, Gu Xi behaved himself.

As for Gu Qingya, ever since she told Rong Yingluo the truth at the Zhao family that day, and later learned that Princess Xiangyi was engaged to that playboy from the Liu family, she realized the power and influence of her elder brother and sister-in-law, and dared not be presumptuous in front of Rong Yingluo anymore.

What Rong Yingluo couldn't understand was why Su Shi hadn't asked her for the antidote, even though her hair was almost all gone.

However, Su was clever enough to wear a hairpin when she went out, so that people could not tell that she was wearing a hairpin.

Rong Yingluo really wanted to embarrass her in public, so she thought of a way to remove her hair ornament.

On this day, Rong Yingluo received a letter from Yuwen Zhang.

He said he had figured out what the bandits were like on Huangling Mountain and asked her if she wanted to come along and watch the excitement.

Rong Yingluo certainly wanted to go. But Gu Ce disagreed, saying that with her mediocre skills, she would only cause trouble.

Make her believe that the Prince of Beijun has that ability.

But she wouldn't listen to Gu Ce. She made up an excuse and told the old lady that she wanted to go back to her parents' home for a few days, and then left the Gu residence.

By the time Gu Ce received the news, she had already left the capital, which angered Gu Ce so much that he smashed the paperweight.

"You've really grown up wild, so disobedient. Someone come here."

Zhong Sheng entered: "Master."

"Go and summon Prince Li to me." Gu Ce's eyes were practically spitting fire.

Li Xuanye entered quickly.

"Your Highness, I need to leave the capital for about five days. You can decide on the memorials for these days yourself. If you are unsure, keep them in the capital. If it is urgent, you can consult with Lord Zhao. If that doesn't work, you can submit them directly to the Emperor." Gu Ce said in an urgent tone.

"What happened?" Li Xuanye asked, noticing his strange expression.

"It's nothing. My wife is just having fun, so I'm going out with her for a few days." Gu Ce certainly wouldn't tell the truth; if this kid knew, he'd definitely want to go too.

Li Xuanye didn't believe him at all, but his expression remained unchanged: "Fine, go ahead. I'll take care of your daily affairs."

As soon as Gu Ce left, he had someone investigate what had happened.

He received the news very quickly.

It turns out that the Prince of Beijun took the young Taoist priest away. That kid, he's got some tricks up his sleeve.

But Li Xuanye still remembered Rong Yingluo's instructions: the medicine she prepared to suppress the poison could only be taken a month later.

His current frail body is too weak to fight, so there's no point in him going. He had no choice but to find Pan Zhenming and have him take some men with him.

Gu Ce hurriedly chased after Yuwen Zhang, but still couldn't find Rong Yingluo.

"Prime Minister Gu, what brings you here?" Yuwen Zhang asked in surprise.