The Devious First-Daughter

Inside the hall, the high and mighty Emperor looked coldly at Physician Xu as the latter knelt. “He’s really injured, and at a risky place at that? He nearly lost his life?”

“Yes, that’s the case. I took care to examine it myself. The wound is close to his chest. If it were anywhere lower, Prince Yi might not be able to regain consciousness so easily.”

Physician Xu trusted in his medical skills, so he was able to speak with certainty.

“Is there really nothing odd about Prince Yi’s Manor?” the Emperor asked, frowning. It seemed that he could stop suspecting Ao Chenyi of directing the assassination himself.

“No,” Physician Xu said, but added upon second thought, “But… something seems off about Princess Yi.”

The Emperor didn’t expect Physician Xu to bring up Princess Yi. He was momentarily stunned, but soon asked, “What’s off about Princess Yi?”

“Prince Yi was unconscious when I was treating him, but I noticed fresh teeth marks on his hand. The bite must have been severe. It was obvious that someone used a lot of force in biting him, and that person was likely a woman. And the only one who could approach Prince Yi in the room at that moment was Princess Yi.”

Physician Xu said. That was what confounded him at the time, so he shared his confusion with the Emperor.

“You meant that Princess Yi bit Prince Yi? While he was unconscious, at that?” the Emperor said, swiftly grasping the key point.

“But when I entered the room, Princess Yi was wiping her tears nonstop as if she was truly saddened. But I noticed that her eyes were red from all the tugging she did, but no tears fell from them. Even if she was crying, she was wiping her eyes far too often!”

If Princess Yi was wiping her eyes without crying, she must not be actually sad. Under what circumstances would a woman put up such a pretense when her husband was so badly injured? The Emperor leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes. This was a strange situation instead. It wasn’t something a woman with an injured husband would do.

Unless she was faking her sadness and putting on a show for others.

“Afterward, I took out the herbs that Your Majesty bestowed to Prince Yi. It was the Prince’s guard that took them. Princess Yi seemed unable to interrupt the entire time, even though it was as though she was the one who let the guard handle the matter.” Physician Xu couldn’t understand why Princess Yi, with all of her power and authority, seemed afraid of the guard.

The guard might not be ordinary, for he was the chief guard, but so what? The real mistress of the manor was Princess Yi. Moreover, the guard also stopped her from approaching Prince Yi. It was truly odd.

He voiced out all of his suspicions and confusions, which made the Emperor frown and fall deep into thought.

Unlike Physician Xu, he was sensitive to such things. The first thing he concluded was that Prince Yi and Princess Yi didn’t have a good relationship. That wasn’t unexpected. It was said that Ao Chenyi abandoned both his princess and consort on his wedding night and visited his dear concubine instead. It was a slap to both women’s faces.

No woman would be happy to encounter such a thing so shortly after marrying her husband.

And it was a complete accident that the current Princess Yi got her position. It was more accurate to say that Commandery Princess Xianyun was too much of a fool to cause such a situation. Looking at the situation now, the new Princess Yi not only had no feelings for Prince Yi but hated him too.

This conclusion could be drawn from her hard bite on the injured Ao Chenyi’s hand.

It seemed that Prince Yi’s Manor wasn’t as indestructible as he thought. He had been worried about finding a replacement for Xianyun, who proved to be useless, and wanted to plant more spies in Prince Yi’s Manor. However, it seemed that Ao Chenyi’s biggest danger was right beside him. This was perfect.

That woman would prove to be a good chess piece. If he used her well at the most critical point, he might just be able to kill Ao Chenyi and turn the situation around in the end.

The Emperor had always been wary of Ao Chenyi. Even his methods in ascending the throne were disgraceful. To get the throne, he had promised the late Emperor that he would pass the throne to Ao Chenyi and that he wouldn’t go back on his word. If he did, he would suffer the punishment of God.

More importantly, there was more than one old minister who heard the late Emperor’s will. These people were loyal to the late Emperor, so he was unable to do anything to Ao Chenyi first, unless Ao Chenyi committed treason. Not only that, there must be conclusive evidence of his wrongdoing. Until then, he must never touch Ao Chenyi.

Of course, it would be best if someone killed Ao Chenyi.

Unfortunately for him, Ao Chenyi had always been skilled and his guards were even more outstanding. Most of the hidden, secret, and trained guards that he sent didn’t return. Almost all of them would die in Ao Chenyi’s hands. It made him feel like there wasn’t any point in sending assassins after Ao Chenyi.

It made him quite regretful. He should have sent people to deal with Ao Chenyi when he first ascended the throne. Ao Chenyi was still young and lacked power then. However, at that time, he had a more urgent enemy, the Empress Dowager.

He owed a lot to that woman for being able to ascend the throne. She wanted to turn him into a puppet emperor. But how could he accept this? Thus, in his first few years as the Emperor, he turned all his focus on fighting the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager eventually died, leading to the decline of the Lord Peace’s Manor. Their battle ended with his victory.

But it was only then that he discovered that Ao Chenyi had already gathered enough power that he couldn’t just do whatever he wanted to him…

For as long as Ao Chenyi was alive, he wouldn’t be able to pass his throne to his son. Recently, he was feeling more tired than ever.

Physician Xu continued to kneel respectfully inside the quiet hall until a eunuch’s voice broke the silence. “Your Majesty, Physician Qin is back!”

The Emperor opened his tired eyes to look at the floor below him and said emotionlessly, “Let him come in.” Those two had left the palace together, but the one who should have died survived and the fate of the one who should live was unknown. He was quite worried. Compared to Ao Mingwan, Ao Mingyu felt more like an emperor. Ao Mingyu, at the very least, was crueler than Ao Mingwan. However, he knew very well that out of them all, Ao Chenyi was the one most suited for the throne.

But, Ao Chenyi wasn’t his son but a target that he must eliminate.

Physician Qin was the imperial physician that was dispatched to Prince Xiang’s Manor. He entered the hall, trembling, and knelt loudly. “Your Majesty, Prince Xiang is in danger!”

His words caused the Emperor’s eyes to widen and turn red.

Two princes were injured in an assassination attempt at the gate of the palace at the same time. Most importantly, one of the victims was Prince Yi. The news shocked the entire court, Ministry of Justice, imperial guards, and hidden guards of each aristocratic family, who set out to investigate the assassination attempt. The Emperor, determined to capture and punish the perpetrators, also issued a death order.

Prince Yi was injured and unconscious!

Prince Xiang was injured and unconscious!

The two of them weren’t ordinary princes, but the most promising candidates to be the next Emperor. Now, both were nearly assassinated. Was it Prince Fu’s doing? After all, Prince Fu was the biggest benefactor of Prince Yi and Prince Xiang’s deaths. He would become the only candidate for the throne.

No one expected that Prince Fu, who always seemed to keep the lowest profile, would be the trickiest of them all. He was able to take down two of his most powerful opponents in one fell swoop.

However, most people didn’t believe that it was his doing because he didn’t seem like such a capable person. Assassinations of Prince Yi would happen from time to time, but those assassins would all be slain. It was like the incident at the palace the last time; everyone involved in the assassination ended up dying.

Therefore, the one trying to assassinate Prince Yi must be someone even more powerful. That left the Emperor as the only viable suspect. Most ministers were well aware of the Emperor’s intentions. They knew the Emperor was unwilling to pass the throne to Prince Yi. Could this be the Emperor’s attempt to assassinate Prince Yi, while Prince Xiang was just a casualty?

No one knew where such a rumor came from, but quite a lot of people believed in it. The biggest factor was Prince Yi’s reputation as the King of Hell; he wasn’t someone who could be easily assassinated. And after much deliberation, people believed that the only one capable of killing him was the Emperor.

To quell the rumor, the Emperor worked even harder to trace the assassins. He even refuted the suggestion to strip Ao Chenyi’s authority while he recovered from his injury. If he allowed this to happen, the rumor would immediately be verified. The veteran ministers, who had always been watching him with bated breath, would also balk and protest.

And if Ao Chenyi suspected that it was his doing, thereby forcing the former into acting against him, his gain wouldn’t be worth the loss.

After all, his troops weren’t as good as Ao Chenyi’s troops. Ao Chenyi’s troops were bestowed by the late Emperor. He felt quite useless as the emperor. He wanted others to think that Ao Chenyi was rebelling but Ao Chenyi’s actual treason would be his nightmare. He didn’t know who would emerge the victor in that scenario.

Thus, even if Ao Chenyi was injured, he still retained his authority. By comparison, Prince Xiang’s injury was so bad that he was still unconscious. The palace continued to send herbs and medicine to Prince Yi’s Manor and Prince Xiang’s Manor nonstop so that people would know that the Emperor was truly worried about their injuries.

Inside the study of Prince Xiang’s Manor, Xia Yuhang was so worried that he was pacing in the room. The assassination attempt on Ao Mingyu was so sudden that he couldn’t immediately think of what to do next. And what made him most nervous was Ning Ziyan. When he visited her, she had been unwilling to bear all the responsibilities alone.

No matter what he said, no matter how he persuaded her, Ning Ziyan was firm in her decision. When he visited her again, she refused to see him. This was completely different from his expectation.

How could that woman be so resolute? He should be discussing his next step with Ao Mingyu, but at this critical point, Ao Mingyu had an accident and fell into a coma. How could he not be anxious? He even felt as though he had fallen into a trap.

He gritted his teeth and stopped pacing. This wouldn’t do. He couldn’t allow himself to be captured…