The fourth prince stared at Xiao Yan: "Does mother really know?"
Xiao Yan frowned: "Do you doubt me?"
After Tang Ning met the Fourth Prince, she vaguely knew what her brother was going to show her today. She said, "Brother, there is no need to lie to His Highness. A month ago, the Queen gave me a phoenix hairpin and helped me with the Lu family's affairs. The Queen has also taken good care of me over the years. I begged my brother not to spread the news for the time being."
"Prince Cheng had an affair with a woman from the Lu family and exchanged my aunt's child. My brother told the Queen about this in order to ask her to find a way to sever her ties with the Lu family as soon as possible. Otherwise, once this matter is known, the Lu family's reputation will be ruined, and the Queen's reputation will also be implicated. Even Your Highness..."
She frowned slightly, her face full of confusion: "But why didn't the Queen tell His Highness?"
Seeing that his little girl had made the Fourth Prince's face even paler with just a few words, Xiao Yan's suspicion in his eyes turned into anger. The corners of his eyes slightly raised for a moment, a hint of a subtle smile flashed across their faces, and then he looked at the Fourth Prince.
"I deceived Your Majesty to repay a favor and secretly warned the Queen so that you could get away early, but who knew..." Xiao Yan pretended to be unhappy: "The Lu family has offended many people, and I can't suppress the news. Today, someone who knows the news sent it to the palace, and also said that Your Highness went to the Lu family yesterday. Your Majesty was furious."
The Fourth Prince stood there with an extremely ugly look on his face. His mother had never mentioned this to him.
After the Lu family got into trouble, he wanted to cut off contact with the Lu family, but his mother said that the Lu family had more than that, and that his grandfather Lu Chongyuan had always been resourceful, and he might still have a way to turn things around, so he should not rush to draw a line with the Lu family.
He followed his mother's wishes and interacted with the Lu family as usual, except that he did not interfere with his uncle Lu Zhao's imprisonment and the grain tax case. But who would have known that the Lu family had such a huge scandal? He had clearly just entered the palace the day before, and had seen his mother and talked to her about the Lu family, but his mother did not tell him a single word.
Why did the Queen Mother hide it from him?
Why didn't she cut ties with the Lu family as soon as possible and not mention it to him at all, so that he would now anger his father? !
Xiao Yan looked at the change in the expression on the Fourth Prince's face, frowned and said, "You should know His Majesty's temper. The Queen was really confused this time. If it weren't for the fact that she had protected Tang Ning before, I would never have interceded for you in front of the Emperor."
Hope appeared in the eyes of the Fourth Prince: "Superintendent Xiao asked for mercy for me and my mother?"
Xiao Yan's face was not good. "I have said that Tang Ning owes the Queen a favor. The Lu family's affairs have nothing to do with you. His Majesty is angry because he thinks you knew about it but covered up for Prince Cheng and the Lu family. I have told His Majesty that Your Highness is definitely not that kind of person, and the Queen will not tolerate such a shameless woman from the Lu family."
"Then the emperor..." The fourth prince asked hopefully, "What did the emperor say?"
"Your Majesty naturally doesn't believe it. Your Highness has the blood of the Lu family flowing in his veins, and Your Majesty always feels that Your Highness will favor the Lu family. I persuaded Your Majesty in every possible way, and only then did Your Majesty temporarily believe the Fourth Prince. However, Your Majesty proposed to hand over the matter of Prince Cheng and the Lu family to the Fourth Prince for investigation."
The fourth prince was stunned: "Let me check?"
Xiao Yan's expression turned cold: "Why, Your Highness doesn't want to?"
His eyebrows suddenly turned fierce, as if he was impatient: "This governor has tried his best to deal with you. It is not easy to ask His Majesty to consider the father-son relationship and give you the opportunity to investigate the Lu family in person. If Your Highness is unwilling, then this governor will report to His Majesty now..."
"No!" The Fourth Prince hurriedly said, "It's not that I don't want to, but I have never intervened in Prince Cheng's case, and I have no idea that he had an affair with the Lu family. Now that the matter has been handed over to me, I really don't know where to start."
Seeing that he was not unwilling, Xiao Yan's face relaxed a little: "Since she is a member of the Lu family and can act as a matchmaker between Prince Cheng and the people of the Ministry of War, this person must have a high status in the Lu family. Your Highness often goes in and out of the Lu family, so he should know more about the talents of the Lu family than I do."
"I can let you meet with Prince Cheng and ask him some questions. As for the Lu family, it will be up to you, Your Highness."
Seeing the Fourth Prince's hesitation, Xiao Yan said, "Your Highness should know how much His Majesty hates the Lu family. It is not easy for him to hand this matter over to Your Highness for investigation. If he had not still cared about the father-son relationship, this case would have been in front of everyone in the court by now."
"It's not that I can't investigate this matter. As long as I bring the Black Armored Guards to search the Lu family and interrogate the women of the Lu family, it won't be difficult to find the woman who had an affair with Prince Chen. But then the reputation of Your Highness and the Queen will be ruined, and some people in the court will not miss the opportunity to add insult to injury."
Tang Ning looked at the changing expression of the Fourth Prince and helped him to take the strong medicine: "Just now in the outer room, I saw the Second Prince and His Highness had a conflict, and the people that the Second Prince protected seemed to have mentioned His Highness's situation in the court."
"Although I don't understand the affairs of the court, I also know that the emperor's mind is hard to predict. Your Highness has the blood of the Lu family, but you are also the grandson of the emperor."
"If you don't want a future and are willing to live a mediocre life, you can naturally ignore this matter and let my brother take over the investigation. But if Your Highness still wants to have a future, do you want to lose the favor of His Majesty for a family that is destined to be ruined?"
Her voice was slow and soft, yet it pierced the Fourth Prince's heart.
The Fourth Prince naturally understood what she meant. If the Lu family was at its peak, he would certainly not care about other things. With the support of the aristocratic families, even if his father did not like it, he would have to consider the hidden dangers of the aristocratic families if he wanted to establish a crown prince. But now the Lu family is not as strong as before, and there are rifts within the aristocratic families and they are "torn apart". If he wants the throne and wants to become the crown prince, he must not lose his father's heart.
His father taught him to do this, obviously wanting to test whether he had any selfish motives towards the Lu family.
If he could do a good job and find out who was colluding with Prince Cheng, his father would certainly be very pleased, and he would also be able to gain a reputation for being fair and selfless.
But the Lu family...
The Fourth Prince hesitated, because that was his maternal family. If he investigated the matter personally and brought disgrace to the Lu family, then there would be no room for reconciliation between him and the Lu family.
He would also completely lose the support of the Lu family, and he did not trust Xiao Yan.
Seeing that he was hesitant, Xiao Yan said directly: "No matter what your Highness chooses, I have brought your Majesty's words to you. Your Highness, please think about it yourself."
"Master Xiao..."
The Fourth Prince originally wanted to say a few more words to Xiao Yan, taking advantage of the rare opportunity when Xiao Yan took the initiative to "show goodwill" to see if he could win him over. Unfortunately, after that layer of warm skin was shed.
Governor Xiao became as unapproachable as before and unceremoniously served tea to "send the guest away".
"This Governor and Tang Ning have an appointment here, so we will not send the Fourth Prince off."