Oh my god, I became the vicious stepmother of four villains

"No, you have been in the military camp and have no chance to meet the Third Prince. But it is not ruled out that people around the Third Prince know you. To be on the safe side, you should try not to appear in front of the Third Prince in the future." Lu Ziren did not dare to say anything definite and asked Chen Yi to be careful.

Chen Yi nodded after hearing what Lu Ziren said. He had managed to save his life with great difficulty, and he had not yet avenged the prince and his brothers. It would not be worth it for him to die now.

Xia Yingying has already prepared things for Lu Ziren, and he will leave early tomorrow morning.

Because they had to get up early the next day, Lu Ziren and Xia Yingying went to bed early.

At midnight, a strange sound suddenly came from outside the house. Lu Ziren suddenly woke up and heard Xia Yingying's steady breathing in his ears.

Afraid of waking up Xia Yingying, Lu Ziren lifted the quilt gently, covered Xia Yingying with the quilt, and then frowned and appeared in the yard in a flash. The person in the yard did not hide, but bathed in the cold moonlight generously, and the person's face was clearly revealed.

This is exactly the person in Jingjing’s painting—the third prince.

The third prince was dressed in fluttering white clothes, like a ghost walking out of a painting. He stood in the yard, seemingly waiting for something.

Lu Ziren came out from the darkness and saluted the Third Prince.

"Your humble servant greets His Royal Highness the Third Prince. I wonder what brings you to my humble abode so late at night?"

"General Lu, this is not the capital, there is no need to be polite. If I hadn't gone through this for my brother the Crown Prince, I wouldn't have known that you, Lu Ziren, had committed the crime of deceiving the emperor."

The third prince spoke softly, but the last few words made Lu Ziren's hair stand on end.

Lu Ziren frowned. Deceiving the emperor is a great crime. Now that it has been exposed by the third prince, he is not so scared.

"Don't worry, Third Prince. I will confess my crime to His Majesty after I return to the capital."

"Haha, General Lu, I was just joking with you. I didn't expect that General Lu, who has thousands of troops under his command, would actually settle down in such a small county town. This really makes me a little confused. I don't know if my second sister will do something crazy if she knows that General Lu rejected her because of a country girl."

When Lu Ziren heard the third prince mention Princess Anping, his face instantly darkened.

"Even the royal family must abide by the criminal law. A royal princess who forcibly seizes another man's husband must also be punished. Does the Third Prince want the princess to test the law with her own body?"

"Yes, General Lu is right."

The third prince never leaves the capital, but he basically stands on the side of the crown prince. Lu Ziren has not joined the power of any prince in the court, so the crown prince and the sixth prince have been sending people to win him over.

This time the Sixth Prince came to him and kept talking about these things that were of no importance to him. What did he want?

He will not take sides. Now the emperor is in good health and can still hold his ground in the court.

Since ancient times, the struggle for royal power has been an extremely dangerous matter. If you are not careful, you may lose the lives of your entire family.

He had his own choices and was always careful to keep a distance from the princes and court officials. He never expressed any opinions on party and political affairs. Many times, when others or the emperor asked him about his opinions, he would pretend to be stupid. This also helped him to prevent some open and secret struggles, but it did not mean that no one was actively trying to win him over in private.

The emperor has many princes, and the most powerful ones in the court are the crown prince and the sixth prince.

Although the position of Crown Prince is in the hands of the eldest prince, the emperor still shares the important responsibilities of the court with the Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince. Thus, a situation of two forces, the Crown Prince's Party and the Sixth Prince's Party, running parallel in the court was formed.

The Third Prince must have come to him this time because of the issue of taking sides, but Lu Ziren still pretended to be confused.

"I really don't understand why the Third Prince wants to see me. If there is nothing wrong, please leave my house. I will get off the carriage tomorrow and go to the capital to apologize to the emperor."

This is an eviction order.

The Sixth Prince smiled slightly, "Well, General Lu is indeed the God of War. He is not moved by poverty and cannot be subdued by might. When I return to the capital this time, I will definitely tell my second sister that General Lu has married and has four children. But as far as I know, none of your children are born by your wife. They look familiar. If the Emperor knew that General Lu was pretending to obey him but secretly disobeyed him, I'm afraid there would be bloodshed for thousands of miles."

When Lu Ziren heard the third prince mention Xia Yingying and the children, a murderous look suddenly appeared on his face.

One of the most important reasons why Lu Ziren did not bring Xia Yingying to the capital was Princess Anping's entanglement. The children's faces were slowly growing bigger, and there were so many eyes in the capital. Who knows what accidents might have happened, which would put their entire family in a dead end.

Secondly, there are too many enemies in the capital, and many people want him dead in the hope of seizing military power.

For Lu Ziren, Xia Yingying and the children are safer here.

When Lu Ziren heard the Third Prince say this, he became panicked.

If the Third Prince told Princess Anping that Xia Yingying and the children might still have a chance of survival, Princess Anping would not kill innocent people. But the Emperor is different. He holds the power of life and death, and they will definitely not have a good ending.

Lu Ziren was already confused, but he remained calm on his face, clenching his fists, "What on earth does the Third Prince want me to do?"

"General Lu, don't be angry, just calm down. I came to General Lu today to discuss something important. I'm sure General Lu already knows what's going on."

Seeing that Lu Ziren was getting a little impatient, the Third Prince went straight to the point and spoke to Lu Ziren.

"The Third Prince is disappointed. I am only loyal to His Majesty."

Lu Ziren once again emphasized his position word by word.

"I know General Lu is loyal to His Majesty, but right now this matter only concerns General Lu."

Lu Ziren frowned and waited for the Third Prince to finish his words.

"I came to see you today to ask you when you will return to Beijing. I just happened to go with you."

Lu Ziren raised his eyebrows when he heard this, obviously not believing that the Third Prince just wanted to go back to Beijing with him.

According to Lu Ziren's inference, the Third Prince came here to find Tang Qingye. There must be something big that prompted the Third Prince to come to find Tang Qingye.

Tang Qingye just arrived at the academy yesterday.

When Lu Ziren sent the children to the academy today, Tang Qingye was not in a good state today. The visible fatigue and frown showed that he was worried about something. This showed that there were no big figures in the county, and Tang Qingye was not the kind of person who would look for trouble. The only big figure who appeared recently was the third prince.

Obviously, the third prince said something to Tang Qingye.

According to intelligence reports from the capital, the Sixth Prince has been biting the Crown Prince very hard for a while now. The Crown Prince is overwhelmed with worry and wants to ask his teacher for help.

Tang Qingye left the capital to retire and return home. The most important reason was that he had to retire and return home. One of Tang Qingye's famous disciples was involved in a serial murder case of young girls.

The disciple involved in the case kept crying out for innocence, but the result of the investigation by the Dali Temple was that the disciple had indeed killed those girls. As a teacher in the Imperial College and the tutor of the eldest prince, Tang Qingye was at the center of the storm. In order to prevent the reputation of the prince from being implicated by Tang Qingye, he took the initiative to resign and return home.

Tang Qingye is not only the prince's teacher, but also his students in the court account for nearly half of the court officials. He is the leader of the prince's party. Before, when Tang Qingye was with the prince, the prince always won the contest with the sixth prince beautifully. But now, Tang Qingye is not in the capital, and the prince was punished by the emperor for a small mistake. There was a rumor in the capital that the emperor wanted to depose the prince, so the prince could not sit still and asked the third prince to come to Tang Qingye for help. "Please vote"