Chu Xinian was keenly aware of the gazes beside him. He looked over and saw the prince staring at him. He raised his eyebrows slightly, smiled at the prince, then slowly withdrew his hand and put it into his sleeve.
The prince was surprised and doubtful when he saw that he dared to smile at him. He thought that this pretty boy was quite arrogant. He glanced at Xie Jingyuan inconspicuously and asked in a low voice, "You are keeping a lover behind Chu Xinian's back? Does he know?"
Xie Jingyuan frowned upon hearing this, and then realized that the prince had obviously misunderstood something. He glanced at Chu Xinian beside him, and then snorted with a half-smile: "What does it have to do with you?"
The prince seemed to have caught something, and he spoke with more confidence: "Xie Jingyuan, you'd better be polite to me. Believe it or not, I will tell Chu Xinian right now."
Xie Jingyuan curled his lips and said deliberately: "Even if he knows, so what? I want to raise as many as I want, so I can raise as many as I want. Does he dare to say no?"
Chu Xinian paused when he heard this, and the curve of his lips stiffened.
The prince didn't expect Xie Jingyuan to have such a hobby. He said, "I thought you were a loyal and affectionate person, but I didn't expect you to have those shady habits. You better be careful. Chu Xinian has a bad heart. Be careful that he will punish you."
Chu Xinian didn't know for a moment whether the prince was scolding him or praising him. He flicked his fingertips lightly, not knowing what to do with Xie Jingyuan's "bold words". After a long while, he chuckled.
Well, I’ll go back home and pack up.
Before they had knelt for a moment, Emperor Yan summoned them into the palace. Chu Xinian could not enter, so he whispered to Xie Jingyuan, "Whatever the emperor says later, just respond."
If nothing unexpected happened, the Emperor of Yan should want the Crown Prince to govern the country, but he was afraid that Xie Jingyuan would rebel, so he wanted to take the opportunity to make him hand over his military power.
Xie Jingyuan nodded, stood up and went into the palace with the prince. The heavy door slowly closed, isolating the scene inside.
Chu Xinian disguised himself as a servant and waited outside. He flicked his fingertips unconsciously and began to plan the layout of the whole thing.
Emperor Yan is now seriously ill and has not much time left. Before he dies, he should follow the rule of primogeniture established by his ancestors and pass the throne to the crown prince.
The power of King Chang and King Ping is weak and can be ignored.
The only troublesome one was the King of Jin, the only one among the kings who had military connections. Although the exorcism had largely destroyed his chances of succession, as long as he still had the military strength in his hands, he still had the power to fight back.
The troops guarding the capital were divided into three camps. Wude Camp and Pingxiang Camp were Xie Jingyuan's direct troops, so even if the Yan Emperor ordered him to hand over the military token, it would not matter, as these two camps were still under his control.
Xuanhu Camp has the largest number of troops, led by General Chang Zongping. He has a daughter who married into the Jin Palace a few days ago and is now the Jin Prince's concubine. Whether openly or secretly, the Chang family has long been a party of the Jin Prince.
If the Prince of Jin wanted to rebel, Chang Zongping's Xuanhu Camp would be his greatest help.
Chu Xinian repeatedly calculated the direction of the matter, not wanting to make any mistakes. After all, personal experience is not like writing on paper, which can be done with a pen. If there is any mistake, human lives will be lost.
Even if the Prince of Jin rebelled, it would not cause any trouble.
Because the imperial guards under Zhou Wenchen's command, together with Xie Jingyuan's Wude Camp and Pingxiang Camp, were far more powerful than the Xuanhu Camp under the command of the Prince of Jin.
But what they were afraid of was that after the Prince of Jin rebelled, Xie Jingyuan and Zhou Wenchen worked together to suppress the rebellion, but afterwards the Emperor of Yan would get rid of Xie Jingyuan.
Although Chu Xinian had only met the Emperor of Yan once, it was not difficult to infer from various signs that the Emperor of Yan was very afraid of Xie Jingyuan, or rather, he was afraid of someone with the surname Xie controlling the military power.
Especially since Xie Jingyuan was born with a rebellious nature, he didn't look like an honest person.
Chu Xinian waited outside for an unknown amount of time. When it was dark, everyone filed out of the palace, but the crown prince was nowhere to be seen. Xie Jingyuan walked out of the palace and saw Chu Xinian standing by the fence. He walked straight over and said solemnly, "As you expected, the emperor took back the military power on the grounds of my illness."
Chu Xinian walked out of the palace with him: "It's as expected, no problem, where is the prince?"
Xie Jingyuan shook his head: "The emperor left the prince behind to take care of his illness. It seems that he has something to say to him."
This is not a good idea. I don’t know what the Emperor of Yan is planning.
But Chu Xinian thought again, the Emperor of Yan asked the Crown Prince to take care of him, could it be that he wanted him to inherit the throne? After all, the King of Jin was now imprisoned in the palace, and the King of Chang and the King of Ping wanted to visit him in the palace, but they were all rejected by the Emperor of Yan. Only the Crown Prince was treated specially.
"General, please come with me to a place." Chu Xinian suddenly spoke.
Xie Jingyuan's eyelids twitched when he heard him say this: "Where do you want to go now?"
Xuan Yeping is now imprisoned in the Sky Prison, who else can Chu Xinian trick
Chu Xinian only said four words slowly: "Quyang Houfu."
Night had fallen, and the full moon was rising. The towering roof of the Taiji Hall was only a black silhouette. The immortal on the beast looked up to the east, and in the distance were endless city streets.
A four-horse carriage rolled over the bluestone ground, the wheels creaking, and finally stopped in front of the Quyang Marquis's residence. However, there was a lot of noise inside the carriage, as if someone was fighting, and muffled noises were heard from time to time, and no one got out for a long time.
"This general said he would not go, and that means he would not go."
Xie Jingyuan thought that if he went to Quyanghou Mansion, he would meet Chu Xinian's parents. For some reason, he felt a little strange. He opened the curtain, frowned, and ordered Jiuyong who was riding in front of him: "Return to the general's mansion!"
Jiuyong pulled the reins upon hearing this and immediately ordered everyone to stop. Just as he was about to turn around and go back, he heard Chu Xinian's calm voice suddenly coming from the carriage: "Stop here, don't move."
Everyone looked at each other in confusion when they heard this, wondering what was going on.
Jiuyong thought for a moment and decided to listen to Xie Jingyuan. He was about to ride back home when he saw Yunque, who was sitting on the shaft of the cart, suddenly jump down and whispered, "Since you are here, why are you leaving? It won't be a problem to go in and sit down. Why bother to come all the way here for nothing?"
She grew up in the Quyang Marquis Mansion. She hadn't been back for a long time and missed her sisters in the mansion.
Jiuyong paused when he heard this, and looked down at Yunque, but he could only see the dark top of the girl's hair. He frowned, and for some reason, he stopped moving unconsciously.
At the same time, Chu Xinian was coaxing Xie Jingyuan in the carriage: "General, what are you afraid of? You dare to charge into the midst of thousands of troops, so why are you afraid of a mere marquis's mansion? An ugly daughter-in-law must eventually meet her parents-in-law."
Xie Jingyuan glanced at him and said, "Who are you calling ugly?"
This is the time to pay attention to your image.
Chu Xinian grabbed his hand and pulled him out: "Whoever dares not get off the car, I will say something to him."
Xie Jingyuan couldn't hit him or push him, so he was dragged off the carriage. He was proud of his status and didn't want to let the servants watch the fun, so he coughed twice with a cold face, and everyone immediately turned their backs.
Chu Xinian pulled Xie Jingyuan and whispered, "Let's go into the mansion."
Xie Jingyuan's feet seemed to be rooted to the ground, and he couldn't move. He unconsciously touched the mask on his face, lowered his eyes and asked, "Why did you come back for no reason? What do you want to do?"
Chu Xinian did not hide it from him. He looked at the plaque of Quyang Marquis's Mansion and said meaningfully, "Of course I am here to talk to my brother about the past."
He needed a helping hand. This helping hand could not only push the King of Jin to rebel, but also make the King of Jin and Zhou Wenchen lose both. And this person was none other than Chu Jiaoping.
Upon hearing this, Xie Jingyuan couldn't help but fall into deep thought. Just as he was distracted, he was pulled into the mansion by Chu Xinian.
The gatekeeper of the Quyang Marquis's mansion was dozing off, his head nodding. He suddenly woke up and saw a group of people parked outside the mansion gate. He was shocked. He looked again and found that the people were Chu Xinian and Xie Jingyuan, and he immediately went in to report.
Xie Jingyuan was quick to stop him and asked without emotion, "Have your Lord and Madam gone to bed?"
The servant met this legendary killer, and his legs trembled. He stammered, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, General... The Marquis' wife has finished her dinner and has gone to bed..."
Xie Jingyuan thought that this was exactly what he wanted, so he changed his attitude of refusing to take a step and went straight in: "Then there is no need to inform them, so as not to disturb them."
Chu Xinian glanced at his back and smiled, pretending to be unaware of Xie Jingyuan's thoughts. He asked casually, "Where's your brother? Have you rested yet?"
The servant said, "Second Master, the eldest master is in his room and probably hasn't gone to bed yet."
Chu Xinian nodded and gave him a silver reward: "Got it, remember, don't be lazy when you are on duty in the future."
Chu Jiaoping always went to bed late. He had too many things to think about and too many things to take into account. Especially, too many things had happened recently. The Crown Prince raised money, the Emperor of Yan was seriously ill, and the King of Jin was imprisoned. All of these things seemed to be inextricably linked.
He couldn't sleep late at night, and he was fiddling with the chess game at the table, but he still had no idea. The light of a lamp reflected his figure on the window, with the edges blurred.
Chu Xinian knocked gently on the door outside: "Brother."
Chu Jiaoping finally came back to his senses after hearing this. He stood up with some doubt and walked to the door. He pushed the door open and saw Chu Xinian standing in front of the steps. He was stunned for a moment: "Second brother, when did you come back?"
Chu Xinian said, "I just came back. We haven't seen each other for a long time. Why don't we have a cup of tea together?"
Chu Jiaoping looked at his brother who had changed his temperament drastically, and there was always an indescribable strange feeling in his heart. He slowly stepped back and made way: "It's getting late and the dew is heavy. If you have anything to say, come in and talk."
Chu Xinian nodded and went inside, and the carved wooden door was gently closed.
Xie Jingyuan hid on the roof, wanting to hear what they were talking about, so he lifted a tile and leaned his head to listen. Anyway, the Chu brothers were not very good at martial arts, so they couldn't find him.
The sound of two people talking below could be heard faintly.
"Brother, who do you think among the kings can take on this important task if the world changes its ruler?"
Needless to say, it must be Chu Xinian's voice.
Chu Jiaoping was speechless and suddenly fell into a long silence. If it were in the past, he would have said it was the King of Jin without hesitation, but now, he couldn't be sure.
He looked at Chu Xinian with a complicated look: "What do you think?"
Chu Xinian did not answer directly: "It doesn't matter who succeeds to the throne, whether he is stupid or foolish, what I care about is whether the new emperor has a forgiving heart."
He picked up the teapot and slowly poured a cup of tea for Chu Jiaoping. However, before the tea was full, he heard the other party suddenly ask, "Have you surrendered to the prince?"
As soon as these words came out, it was like a thunderclap. Chu Xinian paused and subconsciously looked at Chu Jiaoping, only to see that he was staring at him with a sharp gaze.
"… "
Chu Xinian slowly put down the teapot without saying anything. After a moment, he smiled and asked, "How did you guess that, brother?"
Chu Jiaoping's chest rose and fell for a moment: "If you hadn't come today, I naturally wouldn't have guessed it, but now that you're here, if I still can't guess it, wouldn't that be stupid?"