Lu Ming knelt down again and waited for King Chen to ask questions.
King Chen glanced at Lu Ming on the ground and suddenly lost interest in asking questions. He waved his hand and said, "Go down first and let Wei Gang come in."
Lu Ming's heart sank. He knew that the prince did not believe him.
"Yes, I understand." Lu Ming stood up, bowed and exited the study.
Wei Gang, who was standing at the door, immediately entered the study, bowed to King Chen and stood where Lu Ming was standing just now.
King Chen turned his attention to Xu Huazhen and said, "Sir, let's continue!"
Xu Huazhen nodded, but his mind was blank and he didn't know how to continue.
Although he has been in the prince's palace for three years, he does not have many opportunities to get close to the prince because he is not good at speaking.
Counting it all, is this the fourth or fifth time he has entered this study? He can't remember clearly.
Lu Ming is the person close to the prince. I heard that he has been with the prince for fifteen or six years.
If someone spends fifteen or six years with him day and night, he will be more than a relative even if he is not a relative.
But as for the prince, I will punish you as long as I want to punish you. It is true that accompanying you is like accompanying a tiger!
While Xu Huazhen sympathized with Lu Ming, he was also worried about his own future.
In the future, if he gets into trouble and the prince punishes him with ten army sticks, will he survive?
Xu Huazhen is a person who thinks a lot. In a moment, he has already judged himself by others and thought a lot.
When King Chen saw Xu Huazhen looking at him dully, his brows furrowed slightly, and he felt a little dissatisfied.
Zhou Jiawei looked at King Chen, then at Xu Huazhen. Seeing that Xu Huazhen was in a daze, he knew that this man was wandering again.
After working together for several years, Zhou Jiawei knew Xu Huazhen somewhat.
The Zhou family was afraid that Xu Huazhen would offend King Chen, so he hurriedly took over the words, "Normally, Prince Shi and Mr. Ning are brothers. It is reasonable for Mr. Ning to be injured and Prince Shi to come over to visit."
Zhou Jiawei's words brought Xu Huazhen back to his senses.
Xu Huazhen said, "Mr. Zhou is right, and I thought so too before I went down.
Prince Shi and Mr. Ning are brothers and sisters, but Mr. Ning is injured, so it is normal for Prince Shi to come over to visit him.
It’s just that I don’t understand. In the short time since Prince Shi returned to the city, he went to Mingyuan four times. Even if his own brother is ill, there are very few people who care about him like this, right?”
King Chen took a deep look at Xu Huazhen and thought to himself, this person is really attentive.
Zhou Jiawei nodded, "Mr. Xu's analysis is reasonable. This matter is indeed intriguing..."
King Chen glanced at Zhou Jiawei and interrupted him, "Don't make unnecessary speculations."
After saying that, King Chen turned his attention to Wei Gang and ordered: "Go and find out who Shi Shizi has met these two days? By the way, find out who Ning Yu was injured by?"
Wei Gang bowed down and left the room to give instructions.
King Chen continued: "Based on the current situation, let's see, what is the most advantageous way for us to go next?"
Xu Huazhen said: "Look, it is not appropriate to rush forward rashly now. Your Majesty should calm down and hide your strength and bide your time."
Wait for the opportunity, and if you don't make a move, that's it. Once you make a move, it will be fatal with one strike. Only in this way can the prince have a chance of winning."
Zhou Jiawei agreed with Xu Huazhen's statement and said: "Liu Jiu's incident has disrupted the prince's plan. We must quickly find ways to eliminate these negative effects.
According to our previous plan, the prince planned to promote Liu Jijiu to the Ministry of Rites and take over the position of Minister of Rites.
Now that something happened to Liu Jijiu, what is the prince's plan? The position of Minister of Rites is very important to the prince.
Your Majesty will have to make up his mind early on who will be promoted to the Ministry of Etiquette next."
King Chen thought for a while and said: "What you two said makes sense. I know this matter well. You two should go back and rest first. If anything happens, I will tell you two more."
Zhou Jiawei and Xu Huazhen stood up and left.
After Zhou and Xu retreated, King Chen walked to the bookcase, raised his hand and took out a booklet from the bookcase. This was a directory of the fourth-rank civil servants in Beijing.
King Chen walked to the desk and sat down, opened the directory and looked at it carefully.
After half an hour, Wei Gang came in and said, "Your Majesty!"
King Chen looked up at Wei Gang and asked, "Have you found out?"
Wei Gang leaned forward and responded: "Go back to your lord, Nanshan said that Prince Shi has set up defenses around Mingyuan, and our people cannot get close.
I only know that Prince Shi went to Mingyuan, but I can't find out who Prince Shi met in Mingyuan.
Mr. Ning was injured at Qinggangpo. There were two groups of people who assassinated Mr. Ning. One was from Prime Minister Liu’s Mansion, and the other was from Duke Chengguo’s Mansion.”
"What? Two groups of people? People from the prime minister's office, people recognized by the country?" King Chen repeated.
King Chen frowned. He couldn't understand how the people from these two mansions got involved.
Why did the Prime Minister target Ning Yu? How did Ning Yu offend Duke Chengguo?
Is there anything in this that he doesn't know?
King Chen closed the book in his hand and looked at Wei Gang with questions in his mind, waiting for him to continue.
Wei Gang leaned forward and said, "Yes! The person who assassinated Second Master Ning is recognized by the Prime Minister's Office and Chengguo.
If he hadn't met Princess Changle and his entourage who were going to Baoen Temple for a blessing ceremony that day, Mr. Ning's life would have been decided."
King Chen leaned back, holding his chin with his hand and lost in thought.
In this way, what happened at the Imperial College was Shi Jingyang's fault.
The purpose is to avenge Ning Yu!
Wei Gang then said: "Your Majesty, there is one more thing."
King Chen looked at Wei Gang and said, "What's the matter?"
Wei Gang said: "The night before last, Prince Shi stayed for a while outside the Chengguo Palace.
Just the night before, there were two snakes, two green bamboo leaves, and two scorpions on the bed of the old lady of the Chengguo Palace.
The Duke's wife was bitten by a snake, and the Duke's mansion invited Doctor Liu, who was good at poison medicine, to come to the house to diagnose and treat Mrs. Cui.
In addition, there are two red-headed centipedes on Duke Chengguo’s bed.”
King Chen was a little unbelievable that Duke Chengguo was Shi Jingyang’s maternal family.
The Duke's wife is his grandmother, and Duke Cheng is his grandfather. How dare he attack these two people?
Wei Gang paused for a moment, then continued: "Gong Chengguo went to the East Palace yesterday, and then Pei Dongliu took the guards to the Duke Chengguo's Mansion. Before that, Prince Shi was responsible for the defense of the Duke Chengguo's Mansion."
Oh, Duke Chengguo guessed that Shi Jingyang was responsible for the snake and scorpion incident?
Wait, put the snake and scorpion on Mrs. Cui's bed, and put the half-red-headed centipede on Chengguo Gong's bed.
Snake-hearted and scorpion-hearted, he is worthy of being Shi Jingyang!
King Chen said: "I understand, you can go down."
Wei Gang leaned forward and stepped back. Before he could reach the door, King Chen said, "Send Mr. Zhou and Mr. Xu to come over."
Wei Gang leaned forward and said, "Yes, I understand."
After a while, Zhou Jiawei and Xu Huazhen came to the study and paid tribute to King Chen.
King Chen pointed to the chair and said, "Sit down."
King Chen briefly told Zhou and Xu about Ning Yu's injury.
After hearing this, Zhou Jiawei said: "Could it be that the collapse of the Imperial College building was Prince Shi's response?"