In just a short ti, Xie Yun felt like he had experienced great highs and lows, his feelings incredibly complicated.
"What exactly is going on? If the Prince isn’t dead, why is the whole city in mourning? Do you have so new strategic plan?"
Rong Shuo looked eagerly at Rong Heng as he placed Rong Shuo’s wine cup in front of Xie Yun, complaining in an aggrieved tone:
"When I was a Prince, it was okay that there was no drinking in the army. But now I’m no longer a Prince and back to being myself again, yet still, I can’t drink."
Rong Heng sneered, "Go ahead and drink. After you finish a cup, you can beco yourself, and King Yan will praise you for having a good body."
Rong Shuo: "..."
Gu Lan: ...Sotis she really doubted that Rong Heng was also like a character from a novel.
She patted Xie Yun’s shoulder, explaining: "This matter is complicated. You just need to know that Rong Shuo is now just an ordinary guard by your side. Tomorrow, he will go with you back to the Capital City."
"Back to the Capital? The Prince’s false death is to... return to the Capital?"
Xie Yun was still puzzled.
"Prince... On my way here, I learned that when you were first injured, you had already handed over the border army to Lan. During these days, Lan has established authority, repelled the Wei Army, and earned the trust of the soldiers. Even if the Prince wants to relinquish power and return to the Capital, whether by claiming severe injury or old ailnt, or no reason at all to resign, it would still be a reason.
But I don’t understand, why did you have to die."
What Xie Yun was talking about was what Rong Shuo had planned before; he originally didn’t want to fake his death, only wishing to leave behind his power and return to the Capital as a carefree Prince.
Rong Shuo said, "Because I realized that if I beca useless, soone would want dead. Since they want dead so badly, then I might as well be dead."
Xie Yun’s ink-like, long eyes narrowed slightly, questioning in puzzlent: "Wasn’t it Wei Country that arranged the assassination against you?"
"Vice Minister Xie, rushing here with your well-inford resources, you must already know what happened on the city wall four days ago," Rong Shuo said. "You’re a smart man, so you should be able to guess that those who wanted to kill are not from Wei Country."
Xie Yun recalled the intelligence he heard on the way, muttering in a low voice:
"That day, when the Prince was severely injured but recovered, he announced in front of all the soldiers of the border army that Gu Lan would continue to lead the army with the sa status as the Prince, and others were not to defy..."
A flash of insight ca to him, and he looked up to find Rong Shuo’s lips curved in a sorrowful yet relieved smile.
"I understand now, if the assassins were from Wei Country, they would have wished for the Prince’s death and chaos in the Southern Border. How would they have allowed the Prince to settle all ’final affairs’ before striking?"
Seeing that Xie Yun had figured it out up to this point, Rong Heng then said:
"It was Su Xinyu who wanted to kill him."
Xie Yun was suddenly startled. He hadn’t thought that this would be connected to the Empress Dowager.
Rong Heng and Gu Lan still had no idea where Consort Jia had offended the Empress Dowager, killing the Consort wasn’t satisfactory; she also wanted to assassinate Rong Shuo.
In the family letter written by Consort Jia to Rong Shuo, not a single word ntioned the Empress Dowager, nor did it allude to her own imminent demise. Every word was full of a mother’s love and wishes for her child.
Yet even so, the Empress Dowager still wanted to kill Rong Shuo.
Rong Shuo’s eyes turned slightly red, then he calmly picked up a piece of food from the small hotpot and said with a smile:
"Young Brother Gu, your hotpot is really spicy."
On that day, there were a total of nineteen archers, and although they all committed suicide, they were neither refugees blending in nor were they from Wei Country; they were registered soldiers of Yan Country.
Among them, three individuals had so distant family connections with the Su Family.
They didn’t even need this evidence.
Rong Shuo rembered his own soldiers, just like he knew Su Yi was a person of the Xiao Family.
He had known for a long ti that these archers, who shot him with deadly arrows, were planted by the Su Family.
The Su Family represented the Pri Minister and the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and they indirectly represented the Emperor.
He had once tacitly allowed various factions to insert their people into the army, but he had never thought that one day, they would kill him.
It was at that mont that Rong Shuo understood.
As it turned out, he had been lying to himself all this ti.
As the brother of the Emperor, as the "mother’s" son of the Empress Dowager, they had never treated him as a brother or a son.
He thought that by protecting the country, fighting on the battlefield, his wife, children, and mother would be treated well. But what did he get in exchange for this ti and ti again?
It was Rong Yunhao being arranged to have the Capital City’s foremost prodigal as a companion; if the companion wasn’t Young Brother Gu, perhaps Yunhao would have also beco that little prodigal;
It was Baoyi’s wish to join the military being opposed by the court and public, as if she beca the enemy of the world;
It was his return to the Capital, only to et his wife and children a few tis, even missing his daughter’s coming-of-age ceremony;
It was his mother Consort being confined in the palace, unable to et him for a long ti!
The mother Consort worked diligently all her life, neither fighting nor grabbing, clearly a Consort, clearly the birth mother of Yan’s only Prince, yet living like a servant!
Now, the mother Consort was to be hard by the Empress Dowager—
He was just their knife, and once dulled, he would be discarded at will.
Gu Lan put a piece of at in her mouth and said:
"Those assassins, before they died, shouted ’Long live Great Wei’ to fra Wei Country. And Prince Rui is dead, a matter of public spectacle, so this can only be pinned on Wei Country."
A touch of desolation arose in Xie Yun’s heart.
Prince Rui of Dayan,
didn’t die on the battlefield,
nor did he die at the hands of enemies,
but was,
"murdered" by those he was loyal to.
If this matter got out, how many border soldiers would be disheartened!
"So—"
Gu Lan said, "So, Big Brother indeed got shot that day, but those two arrows, I deliberately shot them at him."
She feared that Rong Shuo would truly die, so the arrow hit one arm and grazed one leg.
At that ti, Rong Shuo perhaps truly didn’t want to live anymore; with wounds upon wounds, his anger surged, holding his chest, he coughed blood and collapsed.
Rong Shuo smiled with sorrow yet calmly: "Young Brother Gu and Wu gave another chance, another way to live... I’m dead, what does this world have to do with , everything is handed over to you now."
Xie Yun took a deep breath to calm his heart and then asked:
"Even General Tang Zhan doesn’t know about this matter, why tell ?"
Rong Shuo took out a letter, saying:
"Since I’m already dead, then soone must go and ask the Emperor to enfeoff Wu as a Prince on my behalf, and this letter contains evidence of Su Xinyu and the Su Family conspiring to harm and the Consort, including ddling in the Southern Border army affairs. This is the last letter of Prince Rui of Dayan."
Xie Yun countered: "Old Pri Minister Su is Jingqi’s ntor. Jingqi grew up in the Su Family, why would he impeach the Su Family for the Prince?"
Gu Lan replied: "Then why have you been searching for evidence against the Su Family all these years?"
Xie Yun’s expression stiffened: "How did you know?"
Gu Lan thought, of course, it’s because she had read the original novel.
In the original novel, after Empress Dowager Su was exiled from the palace, Xie Yun collaborated with Rong Heng to present evidence of the Su Family interfering in military matters, subsequently being promoted.
Xie Yun had always been inexplicably valued by Rong Jing, Gu Lan guessed, perhaps because the Xie Family was gone, and he had no family ties.
Outwardly a disciple of Pri Minister Su, he was actually a neutral person. Entrusting this matter to him, Rong Jing wouldn’t suspect everything was prearranged.
Xie Yun sighed:
"Old Pri Minister Su is Jingqi’s ntor. Jingqi grew up in the Su Family; he is most suitable for impeaching him on behalf of Lan."
Gu Lan moved the fourth chair from the corner of the mourning hall for Xie Yun to sit down:
"All set."
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