Surprise! The villain is my brother, stay calm!

At this moment, the Fourth Prince, who was in Concubine Ru Qixiang Palace, shuddered inexplicably. It was the first time he felt uneasy since his rebirth.

"My son, are you okay? Did your father blame you?"

Sitting in the seat was a noble lady, wearing a turquoise palace dress, slender and graceful, with a beautiful face and extraordinary elegance.

Even though she is over 30, she looks younger because she has taken good care of herself.

This is Concubine Ru who has regained favor now.

The Fourth Prince shook his head: "Don't worry, mother. Father didn't blame me too much. I didn't do anything bad. Although things are a little different from what I imagined, fortunately they didn't deviate too much."

Lu Zhanyan was indeed difficult to deal with. Just when things were about to be accomplished, Lu Zhanxing ruined everything.

He secretly comforted himself that he was careless this time and he would not be so lucky next time.

"That's good, but... the second young lady of the Prime Minister's Mansion..." Ru Fei still felt that the second young lady was not pure and was somewhat resistant.

The Fourth Prince's face darkened. He still had some affection for Su Xianxin.

However, just this one incident did make him feel uncomfortable, but he couldn't blame Su Xianxin.

If anyone is to be blamed, blame the second prince for taking advantage of the situation. Thinking about how Lu Zhanyan supported the second prince to ascend the throne in the previous life, he will definitely not let him succeed this time and will definitely eliminate Lu Zhanyan, a great helper, from the Anguo Mansion.

"Mother, this has nothing to do with Xian Xin. The Prime Minister's Mansion is useful to me. You should be nicer to her."

The Duke Qing's Mansion, his maternal family, was established with the help of his mother, and is not as well-established as those aristocratic families. The Yang family in particular does not have many people with outstanding abilities, and most of them hold sinecure positions, so he needs help.

The Prime Minister's Mansion has the connections of the former Minister of Personnel, and half of the officials are Prime Minister Su's people, which is definitely a great help.

Concubine Ru also knew that the emperor helped her regain favor in order to compete for the position of crown prince. Her mother's family could not help much, so she naturally did not want to be a drag, so she nodded in agreement.

The Fourth Prince returned to his palace. The princes would move out of the palace after getting married. The Fourth Prince's mansion was already under construction, so he would move out of the palace as soon as he got married. It would be more convenient this way.

"Zhou Qian, send a message to Mu Qingli, asking him to find a way to damage Lu Zhanyan's reputation no matter what."

The personal eunuch Zhou Qian immediately responded.

Mu Qingli was sitting in the study outside the palace. She received the message from the Fourth Prince and couldn't help but sigh.

I don't know why the Fourth Prince is so obsessed with dealing with Lu Zhanyan. If Lu Zhanyan is plotted against, how could he just sit there and wait for death? He will naturally investigate the person who plotted against him in secret.

Now, the enemy is in the open and we are in the dark. Shouldn't the Fourth Prince stop and focus on eliminating suspicion?

How can they act so frequently? If it is discovered that the Fourth Prince is the man behind the scenes, then they will have to target him openly and push the Anguo Mansion directly to the camp of other princes. Wouldn't that be a loss?

"Sir, the twins have sent a message that there is no movement at the Anguo Mansion, but they have checked the old Duke's breath and found that he can only live for more than a month! The people in the Anguo Mansion are very vigilant, so we can't get any other information for the time being."

The man in black came to report.

Mu Qingli pondered for a moment and said, "I understand. Tell them to be careful."

After the subordinate in black left.

He wrote a reply asking the Fourth Prince to stay calm. He had heard that the Duke of Anguo would not have much time left and some of the court officials who were attached to the Duke of Anguo's Mansion would be leaderless. If His Highness extended an olive branch, he would surely be able to win over many officials.

By then, dealing with a mere sixth-rank Lu Zhanyan wouldn't be a piece of cake?

After writing the reply, Mu Qingli felt tired again. This Fourth Prince was really sick. At first, he thought that the Fourth Prince was quite intelligent, but sometimes he really wanted to pry open his head to see if he was a scapegoat. He was clearly a force that could be won over, but he had to push them away.

During Lu Zhanxing's illness, he had been recuperating at home, and several good friends came to visit him with gifts.

As Duke Anguo was unwell, they did not go to disturb him, but went to pay their respects to Luo, and then were taken to see Lu Zhanxing.

Luo actually did not approve of her "son" communicating with these young masters, for she was afraid that her identity would be exposed accidentally.

But her "son" insisted on having his own way, and as a mother she had no choice but to let him do what he wanted.

Lu Zhanxing was very happy to see her three good friends coming to visit her. After they sent her back to the Duke of Anguo's Mansion, they sent people to deliver gifts the next day, most of which were precious medicinal herbs such as ginseng.

In the study, Liu Xu served them tea and then quietly left.

Sun Qiming looked at Liu Xu's figure and winked at Lu Zhanxing: "Brother Lu, you are so lucky!"

Lu Zhanxing was speechless: "Sooner or later you will die in a woman's belly!"

"As the saying goes, if you die under the peony flowers, you will be a romantic ghost. Isn't life about enjoying life while it lasts?"

Sun Qiming retorted without caring at all.

This caused Lu Zhanxing to roll his eyes fiercely, and then he looked at Yu Wei: "Have you finished your work?"

"I heard from Brother Sun and the others that you were sick, so I took time out to see you." Yu Wei felt a little uncomfortable.

Sun Qiming snorted coldly: "Brother Lu, you don't know that Brother Yu really forgets his friends for the sake of beauty. He has been flirting with his cousin these days. If you hadn't said you were sick, he wouldn't have come out."

"Don't talk nonsense. I'm getting married the day after tomorrow. It's an important event in life, so I have to be busy, right?"

He didn't like his cousin very much either. She was very well-behaved and boring. These days, his parents insisted that he and his cousin develop a relationship before getting married, which annoyed him a lot.

Lu Zhanxing quickly smiled and congratulated him: "Yes, marriage is a big deal, so we should take it seriously."

"Brother Lu is still sensible. The day after tomorrow, you all have to come to my wedding."

All three of them agreed to this.

"By the way, after we left that day, what happened to the literary performance in the painting boat? Was the courtesan chosen?" Lu Zhanxing was very curious.

Lin Tao finally found an opportunity to speak: "We left together that day, so naturally we didn't see the literary gathering. However, the drowning incident happened, so the literary gathering was moved to the next day. A scholar named Tan Ling won the first prize and was recruited by the Fourth Prince."

Tan Ling?

Lu Zhanxing was stunned. Is there such a person? Why didn't she have any impression of him?

"Who is this person?"

"He was a poor scholar who heard that his family had fallen on hard times. He had no choice but to come to the capital to live with his relatives, but his relatives had already moved away. He happened to hear about a literary gathering and found out that it was free, so he went to participate.

This man was outstanding in literary talent, surpassing all other talented people, and was finally recruited by the Fourth Prince.

Lin Tao's tone was filled with envy: "What a lucky guy! If the literary gathering was held that night, he would have missed it. But he happened to encounter the literary gathering held by the painting boat the next day after he arrived in the capital. It really is fate and timing!"

Lu Zhanxing didn't expect such a change to happen.

She was very sure that there was no such person as Tan Ling, but because of her appearance, things had gone a little astray.

Doesn’t that mean the Fourth Prince has gained another “chess piece”?