The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 516: another picture
Chapter 516: Other Agenda
The housekeeper said that now in brothels, restaurants and taverns, everyone is talking about this letter. At this rate, the hottest topic of conversation in the capital tomorrow will probably be this letter from the Left Prime Minister Li Mao.
In order to gain the trust of the Second Prince, Li Mao humbled himself and even stated in the letter that the Second Prince was the most outstanding among the Emperor’s sons and would ascend the throne in the future, and he was willing to follow the Second Prince without hesitation.
Li Mao now looked at the contents of the letter and slapped himself in anger.
Seeing the white-robed counselor come in and bow, Li Mao hurriedly said, “Sir, there is no need to be polite. I believe you have heard about it on the way here. Now this letter has spread all over the capital. Maybe someone will ask Your Majesty to investigate this matter during the morning court tomorrow!”
The white-robed strategist took the letter from Li Mao, sat down opposite Li Mao, and listened to what Li Mao said while reading it carefully.
“It was indeed rash to attack Xiang Shuoyang this time!” Li Mao gritted his teeth.
As soon as Li Mao finished speaking, Li Mingrui lifted his skirt and walked in, bowing to Li Mao: “Father!”
Sitting under the lamp, Li Mao had a gloomy look with a bit of fatigue: “Do you know?”
“Got it!” Li Mingrui also sat down opposite Li Mao, took the letter from the white-clothed strategist, read the contents of the letter carefully, stroked the paper with his fingers, and sniffed the smell of ink on it.
The counselor in white raised his head and looked at Li Mao: “This should also be a warning from the Princess Zhenguo, my lord… The Princess Zhenguo is telling us that she does hold a letter in her hand, asking us to be more obedient and not to push her too far! Otherwise… The Princess Zhenguo would not have chosen a letter that leaves room for maneuver like this!”
Li Mao frowned: “Now…what should we do?”
“Someone will surely attack the Left Prime Minister at the morning court today, so it would be better for him… to go and confess to His Majesty in advance! After all, when the Second Prince plotted treason, the Left Prime Minister was a meritorious minister who protected the Emperor!” said the white-robed strategist.
“Father, this letter is now widely circulated. The capital city will surely be a hot topic tomorrow. Who can’t see that someone did this deliberately?” Li Mingrui raised his head, his dark eyes reflecting the flickering light of fire, and said to Li Mao seriously, “I think that father should deny… do not admit that this letter came from your hand! I ask Your Majesty to strictly investigate the person who framed father…”
“Isn’t it obvious that this was done by the Princess Zhenguo? If your father wants to cry out for injustice, please ask the Emperor to investigate thoroughly… If the investigation leads to the Princess Zhenguo, the Princess Zhenguo will hand over all the letters…”
Li Mao was annoyed and tried to interrupt his son, but he stopped talking halfway and looked at his son.
The emperor was already very wary of the Bai family. It would have been fine if Bai Qingyan had handed the letter directly to the emperor first, but if Bai Qingyan waited until the emperor found out before handing the letter over, the emperor would also suspect that the Bai family had ulterior motives. Li Mao looked at Bai Qingyan’s style of doing things and thought she would not be so stupid.
This method would hurt the enemy by 10,000 but hurt yourself by 8,000. It wasn’t an emergency, so she wouldn’t use it.
Bai Qingyan’s purpose was to warn him to behave himself. If one really wanted to deal with him, he could just hand the letter to the prince, and he wouldn’t have to get himself into trouble.
“Father forgot that you and His Majesty had said that you had become His Majesty’s disciple after noticing something strange about the Second Prince. You wanted to find out what the Second Prince was up to, but you didn’t expect that the Second Prince was going to force the palace to rebel. It was just that Father had only been his disciple for a short time, and when he found out about this, it was too late to inform His Majesty and make preparations!”
“Of course I remember. What I’m afraid of is not this letter… but the other letters! This letter can only prove that I was once a disciple of the Second Prince, but the Second Prince plotted treason…” Li Mao gritted his teeth and didn’t say anything else.
The Second Prince plotted treason back then, but Li Mao pushed him to take this step. He remembered it clearly from the letters they exchanged. What he was afraid of were the letters in Bai Qingyan’s hands.
Li Mingrui placed the letter in his hand on the wooden table and pushed it in front of Li Mao: “The Princess Zhenguo chose this letter because… she didn’t want to kill my father. Otherwise, the letter that was widely spread in the capital should not be this one! Father, you are too nervous because of my brother’s broken leg last time…”
Li Mingrui understood that his father was afraid of Princess Zhenguo and was becoming impatient.
“Father, think about it. How precious is paper? Ordinary noble families mostly use paper for sending messages. Only aristocratic families with deep cultural heritage use more paper.” Li Mingruo tapped the paper with his finger. “So the source of this paper and ink are relatively easy to check. Princess Zhenguo will not make such a mistake! Maybe Princess Zhenguo wants to use our Zuo Xiangfu to get rid of someone.”
Li Mao narrowed his eyes in thought, and after a long while he said, “Mingrui, send another person to catch up with Ziyuan… Let Ziyuan apologize to Princess Zhenguo and make peace with her, and also tell Princess Zhenguo that our Li Mansion will do our best to resolve the letter issue. If it cannot be resolved, we can only deny it in the court to protect ourselves and ask Princess Zhenguo for some understanding. If Princess Zhenguo has any instructions in the future, our Zuo Xiang Mansion will do our best.”
In this way, the Left Prime Minister’s Mansion can be said to have boarded the prince’s ship.
“Mingrui understands!” Li Mingrui stood up and did it immediately.
Although Li Mingrui suggested that Li Mao protest his injustice at the morning court, Li Mao still felt it was inappropriate. He should meet the emperor early tomorrow morning before the morning court to explain the letter clearly and remind the emperor that someone was making a big fuss about the letter and seemed to have other intentions.
If the emperor asked him to protest his injustice, he would do so; if the emperor asked him to admit his guilt, he would admit it.
Li Mao calmed down and figured it out. Nothing mattered, except that he must not let the emperor become suspicious of him.
·
After the fact that Prince Liang was refining elixirs was exposed and the Emperor ordered him to be confined to his mansion, he withdrew the patrol camp and secret guards, allowing the servants of Prince Liang’s mansion to come and go freely.
When King Liang heard that the letters between Li Mao and his second brother had been copied and spread, becoming known to everyone in the capital, he broke into a cold sweat for Li Mao.
After all, the people that Prince Liang could use were all those left behind by his second brother, and Li Mao was the most powerful one among them.
Moreover, if it were not for the overt and covert help of Li Mao’s son Li Mingrui in Yanwo, who figured out that his father had summoned the woman who claimed to have the elixir of life to the palace for questioning because she was interested in immortality and longevity, he would not have been able to find the immortal master who refined the elixir in time to win his father’s favor.
The current King of Liang thinks highly of Li Mingrui. Although Li Mingrui is not as important as Du Zhiwei in his heart, King of Liang has no useful counselors around him and can only rely on Li Mingrui. In his heart, he is a little wary of Li Mingrui who is too smart.
Therefore, when Bai Jinxiu’s people successfully delivered the letter to King Liang in the name of the Ninth Prince of Dayan, saying that they were doing King Liang a favor and asking him to subdue the Left Prime Minister Li Mao, King Liang was actually relieved.
Second update! Keep rolling around and asking for monthly tickets!