The reason why Prince Linjiang was able to attend the banquet was because of Xu Anying's reputation as the Minister of War and now the de facto number one in the cabinet, and also because many of the things Xu Anying did pleased him.
But now, none of this means anything.
Xu Anying sighed, gave an order outside, turned around and looked at Old Lady Xu who was crying so hard that she didn't care about her manners, and said tiredly: "Do you think the matter outside is settled?"
Old Mrs. Xu looked at him in doubt. She realized something was wrong and looked at him with wide eyes, stuttering: "Didn't you say...didn't you say that you had caught the person?"
She still held onto a glimmer of hope, and said unwillingly, "Even if Wei An is the one who failed, the person pretending to be Li Lanfang outside will not betray us. The boss has said that he is looking for the people you gave him at the beginning... at the beginning. As long as he refuses to admit it, how can you frame the boss? You can talk about it again, and let that person say that he deliberately sneaked into our house to assassinate and cause trouble. Don't get involved with the military newspaper... At most, the Wei family will blame us, saying that the people in our inner house have bad intentions..."
At this point, Mrs. Xu's mind started to work quickly. She looked at Xu Anying and said with a flash of inspiration, "Also, even if Wei An and I had so many unpleasant things before... we can still find a way to explain it..."
She said hurriedly: "Just say that I didn't like Wei An in the first place, and I deliberately asked someone to lead her away, but I didn't want to lead her to the outer courtyard at all, but just wanted to lead her to make a fool of herself. Because Xiao San'er's courtyard is closest to the outer courtyard, so I said I was going there, but I wasn't actually going there..."
This made some sense. Old Madam Xu was unusually excited. She held his hand and said hurriedly, "Master, let's put it this way. By then, this matter will be just some dirty things in our inner house. The eldest brother will not be implicated. I am already so old. Even if they say that I deliberately teased a younger generation, the people of the Wei family will definitely not forgive me. That doesn't matter. Anyway, they will just say that I am mean. It is better than sacrificing the eldest brother's future!"
She spoke faster and faster, and Xu Anying didn't say anything.
Master Xu outside was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.
For some reason, something went wrong with the plan he had made with his mother and wife. The person pretending to be Li Lanfang was already waiting in the yard, holding the military report that could kill the Wei family, but Wei An did not show up as expected!
He put a lot of thought into designing this plan, and even found out everything about the people who followed Shen Chen. He also had a thorough understanding of Han Bo's tone of voice and his usual style of doing things.
Logically speaking, Wei An had no reason to be suspicious - how could an unmarried girl, hearing her fiancé making an appointment to meet her, and visiting such a chaotic place, have so many doubts
In addition, he dispelled all her doubts, arranged people, and did everything perfectly.
But Wei An didn’t come!
Not only did Wei An not come, there was no news from the inner house. The embarrassing thing was that things outside did not develop as he expected - the man was hiding well, and he must have heard the people in the inner house come to report the news before he took people to catch him.
But for some reason, Shen Chen received the news in advance and was the first to find that person.
In this way, everything is over, and it is simply impossible to frame Shen Chen and Wei An.
The worst thing was that the man fell into Shen Chen's hands, but Shen Chen didn't let him intervene at all. He reported to King Linjiang that he would hand the man over to Qin Dong for disposal.
Leave it to Don Qin!
That means it will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice for trial, which is not what he expected. Without Wei An, the whole plan would have failed halfway. Now that Shen Chen has discovered the person, the other half of the plan has failed again. Originally, he was planning to frame Shen Chen, saying that Shen Chen let him in and collaborated with Wei An to steal the military newspaper, but now Shen Chen is the first one to be arrested. How can he accuse Shen Chen again
Now Shen Chen was openly asking him for an explanation, but he had no idea what kind of explanation he should give. Shen Chen said that Wei An had sent a letter, saying that a maid wanted to lead her to the Third Young Master's courtyard, asking him why and who the maid was, and asked him to hand over the maid and send her to the Ministry of Justice for interrogation.
He couldn't answer a single word!
What is he going to say
Could he just say that he had plotted against Shen Chen but failed, which was why there were so many loopholes and he couldn't explain himself
Now King Linjiang will eat him alive!
He was sweating profusely and didn't dare to answer Shen Chen at all.
But Shen Chen just wouldn't let him go. After Madam Mei and Madam Ping'an Hou came out and said something to each other, Shen Chen smiled at him twice with a half-smile in his voice, then turned back to talk to Prince Linjiang in private.
He was terribly scared.
He had experienced how powerful Shen Chen was. When such a mistake happened today, he had realized that something was wrong. Looking at Shen Chen's attitude, and seeing that Wei An could actually predict the future and not be fooled even when they had clearly moved out the Hanbo, and instead turned the tables and dragged so many ladies to watch the fun, making a big deal out of it, he knew that Shen Chen and Wei An had probably seen through this matter a long time ago.
This is even more serious. Slandering the marquis and the princess is a serious matter.
Especially today, King Linjiang is present in person.
He had a severe headache, and when he saw Shen Chen turning around, he felt like his heart skipped a beat. He took a step back in panic.
Shen Chen was already laughing. He looked at him with a fake smile and said softly, "Master, what is going on here? We caught the gangster who replaced Li Lanfang here, but in the inner house over there, your maid tried to lure the princess here. This can't be just a coincidence, right? If it is really a coincidence, it seems too deliberate, don't you think?"
How could he answer this? Looking at Shen Chen, he was speechless for a moment, and after a while he forced a smile and tried to speak.
But before he could say anything, there was a commotion outside, and then everything died down. It was Xu Anying who came in.
As soon as Xu Anying came in, she did not go to see her son, but went to greet the King of Linjiang first: "Something happened inside. My wife is not feeling well. I have asked someone to invite the imperial physician, so I was delayed. I neglected the prince, please forgive me."
King Linjiang looked at him, then at Shen Chen, smiled and shook his head.
He is much calmer than his son. (To be continued)