678 Murky Waters (5)
Shen Miao pushed Xie Jingxing hard and sat up. Xie Jingxing smiled and placed his hands behind his head. “Are you sick?”
“You’re sick.” Shen Miao took a deep breath and said, “Prince Rui, can you leave now? I’m also an unmarried girl. If others see us together, I won’t be able to get married.”
Xie Jingxing frowned and said, “Don’t you want to be the empress? How can ordinary people marry you?” Seeing that Shen Miao was about to flare up again, Xie Jingxing sat up and grabbed the tiger and threw it into his arms. He glanced at Shen Miao and said with a smile, “How about I do something to celebrate your victory?”
Shen Miao was stunned and subconsciously looked at Xie Jingxing. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t like Fu Xiuyi. He annoys me.” Xie Jingxing said casually, “Although we can’t deal with him together.” He winked at Shen Miao frivolously. “It’s not a bad idea to hit him when he’s down.”
…
Just as Shen Miao had expected, when Fu Xiuyi, who could remain unflappable under all circumstances, heard that Shen Yue was sent to prison, he couldn’t help but turn pale.
“How did Shen Yue end up with Huangfu Hao?” he asked his servant.
“I heard that back then, Second Miss Shen didn’t want to marry the young master of the Wang family, so she let Third Miss of the Shen family marry in her place. Later, after the matter was exposed, Second Miss Shen ran away, but somehow, she got involved with the crown prince of the State of Qin and became his concubine…”
“Enough!” Fu Xiuyi interrupted the servant and pressed his forehead. He said hatefully, “This group of people from the Shen family!” Ever since he got entangled with the Shen family, nothing had gone smoothly for him. A few days ago, when Shen Wan came to pledge loyalty to him, he gave Shen Wan a difficult task. He did not expect Shen Wan to screw it up before he even started. Fu Xiuyi had finally found a way to extract himself from the mess and was prepared to push the blame to Shen Wan to make Emperor Wen Hui trust him again. Unexpectedly, at this critical moment, Huangfu Hao was also pulled in.
On the surface, it looked like it was about Shen Yue, but in fact, it was related to the relationship between Ming Qi and the State of Qin. Everyone knew that the State of Qin and Ming Qi were about to form an alliance. Among the nine princes, whoever was closer to Huangfu Hao was the thorn in Emperor Wen Hui’s side. Emperor Wen Hui naturally did not want his sons to be close to Huangfu Hao. Emperor Wen Hui hoped that in the eyes of the State of Qin, he was the emperor and the ruler of the dynasty. At such a sensitive time, what would Emperor Wen Hui think when Shen Yue was found living with Huangfu Hao? Could Shen Yue be a chess piece Shen Wan used to win over Huangfu Hao. If so, that would be a catastrophe for Fu Xiuyi because Shen Wan was working for him.
At this moment, Fu Xiuyi and Huangfu Hao were really tangled together.
The more Fu Xiuyi thought about it, the more he felt a headache coming on. Even though he had always been scheming, he did not know what to do at this moment. After all, he did not know that Shen Yue and Shen Dongling had swapped marriages, nor did he know that Huangfu Hao had taken Shen Yue as his concubine.
“This is too coincidental.” A trace of ruthlessness appeared on Fu Xiuyi’s cold face. “Someone must be plotting behind the curtain. They’re obviously targeting me. What if the ultimate goal of sending Shen Wan to prison is to send me to prison?”
A young aide asked carefully, “Your Highness, what do you plan to do next?”
“My father is already suspicious of me. If I take the initiative to defend myself, it will backfire.” Fu Xiuyi said, “I can only wait and see. However, the first thing I have to figure out is who is plotting against me.”
“Maybe it’s Prince Zhou or Prince Xuan?”
“That’s impossible.” Fu Xiuyi denied flatly. “I know what these two are capable of. If Father finds out that they are playing nasty tricks behind his back, they’ll be finished. It’s not a risk worth taking for them.”