An Lingrong's Rebirth: Red

The Ninth Prince's hundred-day banquet ended amidst undercurrents. Ling Rong was very concerned about the Queen's situation. She did not go to bed immediately after the banquet, but sent people to keep an eye on the situation in Jingren Palace.

After the banquet, the queen did not return to Jingren Palace immediately, but took the third and fourth princes to the emperor's Yangxin Palace.

After staying in the Yangxin Palace for nearly an hour, the three of them left together. The Queen was concerned that the princes were not prepared, so she took the two princes back to the Jingren Palace first.

I heard that the three of them were talking and laughing along the way, and they seemed to be in a very harmonious relationship. Even Xiao Chizi said that the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince were like the Queen's own children.

In this way, the two princes have made a choice, which is to compete to become the legitimate son of the Queen Mother in order to seek the position of crown prince.

But no one knows better than Lingrong who the Queen will choose. As long as the Third Prince is around, the Queen will be as overwhelmed as Concubine Qi and will only make one choice.

"But the Third Prince is indeed not as good as the Fourth Prince. The Queen must have other thoughts in mind, so she is willing to let the Fourth Prince live in Jingren Palace as well."

"Your guess is not without reason, but the poisoning of the two princes must have been the work of the Queen.

The two princes must have been panicking, so they hurriedly sought the protection of the Queen.

As long as someone extends an olive branch to them, they are very likely to switch to someone else’s camp.”

Lingrong's guess was correct. On the second day after the Fourth Prince entered the palace, Concubine Jing went to visit him. She prepared a lot of clothes for him, as well as some fine study supplies, which made the Fourth Prince very happy. He had a smug smile on his face for the whole afternoon.

Hong Zhou saw it all and was furious. He even stopped listening to what the tutor was teaching him and spent the whole afternoon thinking about how to deal with Hong Li.

Of course, the Third Prince also looked down on Hongli for being like this, but now he knew that he could not defeat Hongli, so he could only give in and endure, and let Hongli make sarcastic remarks with a smile on his face.

But Hongli also knew that his favor from the Empress and Concubine Jing would surely arouse the jealousy of his two brothers, so after a brief moment of pride, he quickly put on a look of loss.

His biological mother of lowly status became his best protector at this time. He sighed and talked about the emperor's disgust towards his biological mother and himself. The lost and painful expression made Hong Zhou, who loved to go crazy and do ridiculous things, unable to tell the truth from the false.

In fact, it is normal that he cannot tell the truth from the false. After all, this state of mind is indeed real. Even if the emperor comes, there is no sign of him lying.

The only thing that was false was his true inner thoughts. His pride outweighed his sadness. He said such words at this time and place just to paralyze the Third Prince and the Fifth Prince.

Unexpectedly, the two brothers were so gullible that they believed the Fourth Prince. Hong Zhou even comforted him that a good man should have ambitions and that his mother's humble status would not change his status as a prince.

He also said that he would be able to make a career after leaving the palace and setting up his own office.

"Fifth brother, don't say such things carelessly," Hongli shook his head, as if he was really thinking about Hongzhou, "In the future, we will serve wherever the emperor needs us.

As for the rest...we can't think about it, and we shouldn't think about it."

"What you said is quite interesting," Hong Zhou was furious when he heard his good intentions being misinterpreted in this way, "My original intention was to comfort you that the future is bright, but you thought I had other intentions.

If Huang Ama hears this, both you and I will lose our heads. We might as well just hand over the throne to our third brother!"

"Fifth brother!" Hongli suppressed the joy in his heart. He deliberately raised his voice so that the Third Prince and the other servants could hear clearly, "You are just a prince, how can you arbitrarily interfere in matters concerning the throne?

Long live the Emperor! You are being so ostentatious and showing disrespect to the Emperor."

Seeing the eyes of the people around him drifting over, Hong Zhou also felt a little flustered. He glared at the Fourth Prince and said, "Fourth Brother is really capable. I wanted to comfort you, but you misinterpreted it like this.

I won't be able to hold my head up high in front of the Emperor in the future."

"Since you know that such thoughts are not good, you should restrain yourself." Hongli didn't care how the Fifth Prince answered. He spoke his mind and put the hat of competing for the throne on the Fifth Prince's head even harder, "Even if you are my brother, I can't allow you to covet the position of the emperor.

Third brother is the eldest son of the emperor, and he has never had such a rebellious idea. How could you... ah..."

Hongli sighed deeply and looked at the Third Prince, "Third Brother, please help me persuade Fifth Brother. It's ok for him to behave ridiculously on weekdays, but we must not watch him jump into this pit of treason."

Hongshi originally wanted to watch from the sidelines, but was dragged into the battle by the Fourth Prince's words. He gritted his teeth and looked at the two of them, stammering his lips, and couldn't utter a word for a long time.

During dinner, the emperor heard what the princes talked about, but unexpectedly he did not get angry. He just called Hongzhou to the Yangxin Palace, and asked Su Peisheng to grind the ink himself and help Hongzhou copy "Chun Qiu Fan Lu".

"Follow the Three Principles and Five Disciplines, and understand the Eight Beginnings."

Hong Zhou repeated this sentence over and over in his mind. He knew very well that the Emperor believed what the Fourth Prince said and was sure that he had the intention of seizing the throne.

So when he was copying Chun Qiu Fan Lu, he attached the words "the ruler is the leader of the ministers, the father is the leader of the sons, and the husband is the leader of the wife" from Li Wei Han Wen Jia at the end.

He wanted to show his loyalty to the emperor and his fear of him, but Hong Zhou was not sure whether he could be forgiven.

For five consecutive days, Hong Zhou spent all his time in the Yangxin Palace. No one knew what he was doing there. Even when Ling Rong sent Xiao Chizi to ask him in person, she did not get the answer she wanted.

This made Ling Rong feel suspicious. The prince's affairs were kept secret, and it seemed that someone had intentionally ordered that no useful information be released.

The only thing Lingrong knew was that the three princes had a conflict in the prince's residence on the second day of the Hundred Days Banquet.

"Why did they quarrel? Why did the Emperor punish the Fifth Prince? We don't know anything about this. We really don't know how to help him."

"My lord, I will go find Xiao Xiazi to find out more."

"If even the Fifth Prince himself doesn't dare to say it, there's no need to embarrass Xiao Xiazi." Ling Rong had some vague guesses in her mind, but still held a glimmer of hope, "Since we can't get any information, we can only trust the Fifth Prince. He can handle it himself."

"But isn't it too passive to just sit there and wait for death, Madam?"

"There's nothing we can do about it."

There is no way to do anything without news. It would be better for me to focus my attention on the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince and find out whether the poisoning is related to the Queen.

"Have you found out what happened in the Old Summer Palace?"

"Eunuch Su did tell me something," Zhaoshui's thoughts changed quickly. She didn't continue to dwell on the Fifth Prince's matter. "The source of the poison has not been found out yet, but the person who poisoned it has been found out. It was the maidservant beside the Fourth Prince."

“But there is one strange thing. If the nanny beside the Fourth Prince poisoned something, she would definitely put it in the Fourth Prince’s favorite dish, so as to ensure the poisoning would be successful.

But the final result was that the Third Prince was more poisoned and almost lost his life, while the Fourth Prince was only slightly poisoned and recovered much faster than the Third Prince. "

"Your Majesty, what you mean is that the Fourth Prince knew in advance that someone had poisoned him?" Zhaoshui frowned, unable to figure out the reason for a moment. "But if the Fourth Prince knew, why would he drink the poisoned soup?"

"How come you can't figure it out now?" Ling Rong rubbed her forehead. The fainting feeling caused by insufficient blood and qi was still there, making it difficult for her to speak. "Fourth Prince is taking advantage of the situation and taking this opportunity to get rid of Third Prince.

He himself was poisoned, but it was just to get rid of suspicion. After all, who would have thought that the murderer was the victim? "

"This trick almost let the Fourth Prince succeed." Zhaoshui suddenly realized, "Madam, since you have seen it, does it mean that the Emperor also..."

"The Emperor knows more than us. He must know what I can guess."

"Your Majesty knows, why does he want the Third and Fourth Princes to live together in Jingren Palace? This is too dangerous."

"It has always been difficult for us to guess the emperor's intentions. Perhaps he wants to protect both sons at the same time, so he asked the queen to restrain them."

Zhaoshui was still a little puzzled. The Empress was planning to kill the Fourth Prince, so how could she obey the Emperor's wishes and instead want to save the Fourth Prince?

"If the Fourth Prince goes to Jingren Palace, it would be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth. Your Majesty, does the Emperor really want to protect the Fourth Prince?"

"If something really happens to the Fourth Prince in Jingren Palace, the Empress's position as Queen will definitely not be preserved," Ling Rong drank tea, barely feeling that her spirit had recovered a little. She smiled and said, "To protect the Fourth Prince or to save his life, this is the choice the Emperor gave the Empress."

"This... is it possible that a couple would scheme like this?"

"There is never a lack of calculations in this harem. Whether it is a couple or sisters, they cannot escape the desires in their hearts."

Including me.

"Then, Madam, how should we arrange things next?"

"The next thing is very simple. We must do whatever it takes to kill the Fourth Prince."

Ling Rong let out a long sigh. She stroked her scattered hair and inexplicably found a white hair among it.

Zhaoshui, who was quick-eyed, immediately stepped forward to comb Lingrong's hair, pretending to accidentally remove the white hair.

Ling Rong didn't really care. She was still very young and far from being old and ugly. "It seems that I have spent too much energy recently. Even my hair is not happy with me."

"Yes, Your Majesty should rest more." Zhaoshui's fingers shuttled through Lingrong's hair, massaging the acupuncture points on the top of her head. "We still have a lot of time, Your Majesty should relax occasionally."

"Although I have a lot of time, many things are difficult to accomplish. For example, Fourth Prince, I really don't have any good solutions for the moment."

"My queen, is there any way to ask the queen to take action?"

Ling Rong shook her head and sighed, "It's almost impossible. Even if the previous dynasty's persuasion to the emperor worked and the Third Prince was restored to his status as the eldest son, the Queen would not be eager to take action against the Fourth Prince.

Her ambition would be too obvious and the emperor would definitely not spare her life.

Therefore, as long as there are still voices from the previous dynasty pleading for the Third Prince, the Queen will definitely not touch the Fourth Prince.

The previous dynasty’s plan was already halfway through, and it was impossible to stop it, let alone ask the ministers to change their minds.”

Zhaoshui didn't understand what happened in the previous dynasty, so he could only nod and agree, "The Queen's methods are so clever, no wonder the Queen has to take the trouble to think of some roundabout ways."

"If you want to harm the Fourth Prince, you must first reach into the Jingren Palace or the Prince's Residence. One of these two places is controlled by people sent by the Emperor, and the other is the territory of the Empress.

It’s hard to bribe anyone, unless... Su Peisheng is willing to help us.”

"But...Eunuch Su is someone close to the emperor. Is he really willing to help us murder the emperor's offspring?"

"If he likes Cui Jinxi enough, it is indeed possible."

Ling Rong felt comfortable with Zhao Shui massaging her acupuncture points, and even her tone of voice became much softer. "Isn't Cui Jinxi pretending to have an epidemic now? Why not let her really get the disease and make Su Peisheng anxious as well?"

But if she acted directly like this, the threat would be too obvious. Ling Rong was worried that Su Peisheng would become desperate and bite her back.

The best way is to make Su Peisheng owe him a favor. If the favor from the Willow Leaf Hexin Scented Sachet is not enough, he can only give it a try by risking Cui Jinxi's life.

Plague is a good solution. In the previous life, Ling Rong caused Zhen Yuandao to be infected with plague, but due to bad luck, Wen Shichu saved Zhen Yuandao's life.

I just don’t know if her luck will be better in this life and that Zhaoshui will be able to save Cui Jinxi’s life.

In this way, a favor would be owed, and Su Peisheng would most likely help and take the Fourth Prince's life.

“My lady, I have always felt that it is better to threaten Eunuch Su directly than to threaten him through Cui Jinxi.

If he himself were seriously ill and only the Empress's medicine could cure him, he would do anything to save his life."

"You are indeed right, but I want to ask you, do you have a way to cure the plague?"

Hearing the word plague, Zhaoshui's hands paused for a moment and she shook her head, "My lady, with my current medical skills, there is no way to deal with the plague."

"I don't know if Imperial Doctor He or Imperial Doctor Wei has any solution. You can ask them indirectly tomorrow. It would be best if you can get a prescription."

Zhaoshui guessed what Lingrong wanted to do and agreed very quickly, "Your Majesty, do you want me to be the one who saves Cui Jinxi and Eunuch Su's lives?"

"The eunuchs and maids in the palace are not qualified to ask the imperial physician for diagnosis. If they are sick, you can cure them and save them. It would be a timely relief."