125: Fan Ruoruo's rage! Where is her brother?

Chapter 125: Fan Ruoruo's Fury! Where Did Her Own Brother Go? (13)

In Prince Li Chengze's manor.

The Eldest Princess burst in like a madwoman.

At this stage, most people believed Li Yunrui and the Crown Prince were allies.

Not many knew about Li Yunrui's support for the Second Prince.

But now, with Li Yunrui's outburst, many people would likely find out.

Seeing Li Yunrui angrily storm directly into the study, the Second Prince was stunned.

"Xie Bi'an, Fan Wujiu, tell everyone irrelevant to back off and not approach without orders!"

Xie Bi'an took the order and left, and Li Yunrui also settled down behind Li Chengze's desk.

"Aunt, why are you here? You're supposed to be confined for a year!"

"And... we agreed you'd pretend to support the Crown Prince..."

Li Chengze almost gritted his teeth, reminding Li Yunrui in a low voice.

Li Yunrui let out a mocking sneer. Pretend to support? Truly support?

You two good-for-nothings don't deserve my support!

Her strongest support was only for her Emperor brother; as for the Crown Prince and the Second Prince, she actually held them firmly in her grasp.

No matter who succeeded to the throne in the future, it would not shake Li Yunrui's immense power!

But now, she felt the cruel betrayal of her Emperor brother!

"Li Chengze! Shut up!"

Hearing Li Yunrui's almost hysterical roar, the Second Prince shrank his neck in fear.

He knew Li Yunrui was eccentric, but when they cooperated, she didn't often act mad.

"I want Fan Xian dead!"

Li Yunrui swept all of Li Chengze's stationery onto the floor, then roared again at Li Chengze across the desk.

From the moment she entered, Li Chengze knew why Li Yunrui had come.

As a prince who grew up in the palace, he was well aware of the events surrounding Ye Qingmei back then.

"Aunt... calm down!"

Li Yunrui seemed to suddenly regain her composure, but her tone was chillingly unsettling.

"Ye Qingmei's son must die!"

Li Chengze was very worried about Li Yunrui's state, because their cooperation was currently led by Li Yunrui.

Li Yunrui had cultivated her influence for many years, and her resources were far richer than Li Chengze's.

If Li Yunrui forced him to do something, he would probably find it very difficult to resist!

"Aunt, you should know that since this matter has been made public, His Majesty will not allow anyone to kill him!"

Emperor Qing indeed would not allow anyone to kill Fan Xian, not only because Fan Xian was his illegitimate son.

Most importantly, Fan Xian held the secrets of the Qing Temple in his mind!

Li Yunrui's anger flared even more at the mention of "His Majesty"!

"But this is what His Majesty owes me!"

"For so many years, whatever His Majesty needed, I gave him!"

"The things he found inconvenient to do, I did! The people he found inconvenient to investigate, I helped him investigate! The people he found inconvenient to kill, I killed!"

"Do you know! It was me!

It was I, Li Yunrui, not anyone else! Not Ye Qingmei!"

Li Chengze painfully clutched his hair, lowering his body very low, and also suppressing his voice very low.

"Aunt, watch your words... watch your words!"

But Li Yunrui was already completely enraged, and tears streamed down her face in an instant.

"I, Li Yunrui, have wholeheartedly served my Emperor brother!"

"But, I offered him roses, what did he offer me!"

"For all these years, which matter did I not handle according to His Majesty's wishes!"

"But not this time! No matter what His Majesty thinks, I must kill Fan Xian!"

Seeing Li Yunrui disregard all familial ties, Li Chengze immediately had a headache.

"Aunt, but Fan Xian is just an illegitimate son, he poses no threat to me."

"It's still uncertain who will control the Imperial Treasury, but His Majesty will definitely make him in charge of the Supervisory Council.

Such a person, I should strive for his support!"

At this moment, Li Yunrui said, weeping and laughing, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"You had a hand in the Niulan Street assassination!"

"You want to win over Fan Xian, do you think that's possible?"

The Niulan Street assassination was originally instigated by Li Yunrui, but she was so shrewd that she immediately played both sides, roping in both the Crown Prince and the Second Prince.

Now that she wanted to deal with Fan Xian, of course she had to get Li Chengze, who had a deeper level of cooperation, on her side.

As for the Crown Prince's side, the Empress would not let Fan Xian off either!

"Second Prince, listen carefully! Smuggling with enemy nations, you and I did it together!"

"Those ten thousand private soldiers, you and I raised them together!"

"Your so-called partisans in court, I helped you establish them by spending money from the Imperial Treasury!"

"Li Chengze! If you help Fan Xian, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

Hearing these words, Li Chengze couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat!

Cooperating with the emotionally stable Eldest Princess was truly too dangerous.

But the resources in this aunt's hands were truly too tempting.

Over the years, the two had not had major disagreements, but today their ideas were completely at odds.

Li Chengze clenched his jaw, biting his nails, his expression deeply anxious.

Li Yunrui spoke sternly again, "Second Prince! Give your aunt an answer!"

Li Chengze was helpless, "Aunt, now that Fan Xian's identity is exposed, as many people want to kill him as want to protect him!"

"You directly defied an imperial decree and rushed here to me, wouldn't Father and Chen Pingping have made preparations?"

"Are Chen Pingping's Black Knights, Father's Tiger Guards, and the Inner Court's masters just decorations?"

Li Yunrui stared into Li Chengze's eyes and said, "What I want is your attitude!"

Thinking of Li Yunrui's words just now, Li Chengze felt he had no choice.

"Since that's the case, then Fan Xian can only be this prince's enemy!"

Li Yunrui patted Li Chengze's shoulder and said, "Very good, your aunt just needed to hear that from you."

"With the two of us, after Fan Xian returns to the capital, every step will be fraught with danger!"

"Your aunt is thinking of you, not letting you confront the Black Knights and Tiger Guards head-on. The assassination on his way back to the capital, your aunt will handle it."

Li Chengze was somewhat bewildered by Li Yunrui's irrationality.

"But aunt, why do something that you know cannot succeed?"

Li Yunrui had already turned and walked to the door. She looked back and said fiercely, "I want Fan Xian to know that the capital does not welcome him! The Qing Kingdom's imperial family does not welcome him!"

Imperial Study.

Eunuch Hou scurried along, informing Emperor Qing about The Eldest Princess's visit to the Second Prince's manor.

Although he was The Eldest Princess's man, he still had to do his job.

Emperor Qing showed no surprise upon hearing this. "You may withdraw! Have Hong Sixiang come over, and then summon Chen Pingping!"

After Eunuch Hou left, Emperor Qing muttered to himself, "Ever since Wu Zhu appeared at the Qing Temple to save Fan Xian, I knew someone would guess Fan Xian's identity."

"This was bound to happen sooner or later; an early public revelation is not necessarily a bad thing.

I want to see who stands on my side, and who is secretly plotting against me!"

Soon, Hong Sixiang appeared gracefully. "Your Majesty, this old servant has arrived."

Emperor Qing said, "Send ten Inner Court masters, clearly identifying themselves, to personally protect Fan Xian!"

Hong Sixiang took the order and left. Half an hour later, Chen Pingping also arrived before the Emperor.

"Old fellow, did Fan Jian make things difficult for you?"

Chen Pingping chuckled, "He scolded me for an hour, insisting that I arrest people and suppress the news."

"This old minister thought, without Your Majesty's decree, why not just make it public?"

"This old minister has already dispatched five hundred Black Knights to the border overnight, to ensure Fan Xian's safety."

"However, at a time like this, any normal person would know how unwise it is to assassinate Fan Xian."

Emperor Qing snorted coldly, "You're right, but there are precisely abnormal people in this world!"

Chen Pingping, of course, knew Emperor Qing was referring to Li Yunrui.

"Five hundred Black Knights are enough to withstand her forces. I believe she is merely making a show of force and won't deploy her trump card."

Emperor Qing drew his bow and nocked an arrow, saying coldly, "What an irrational madwoman!"

Chen Pingping was pushed out of the Imperial Study, his hands unconsciously touching the armrests of his wheelchair, which contained a shotgun.

In his heart, the surfacing of this news likewise left him far from calm.

"Fan Jian scolded for an hour; from his actions over the years, Xiao Yezi's death should have nothing to do with him."

"That year when Xiao Yezi died tragically, the Empress and Empress Dowager's maternal clans were eliminated by our own hands, but there must have been masterminds behind it."

"Now it seems all of this was His Majesty's doing, and he had a reason to kill Xiao Yezi!"

Chen Pingping, outwardly calm as a still well, now felt a surge of hatred deep within his heart.

"The night Xiao Yezi died, I, Fan Jian, and Li Zhi, Prince Jing were not in the capital, and Wu Zhu was not by her side!"

"She had just given birth, just brought Fan Xian into the world. At that time, how lonely and desperate she must have been!"

"My Emperor, this old servant will make you endure Xiao Yezi's loneliness a thousand, a hundred thousand times over!"

"All those surnamed Li in this palace deserve to die!

You deserve to kill each other, deserve to commit incest and moral decay, deserve to have your entire family wiped out!"

Fan Manor.

Fan Jian had berated Chen Pingping for a long time at the Supervisory Council, but ultimately failed to get Chen Pingping to help suppress the news.

When he returned to the Fan Manor, dejected, he found Fan Ruoruo waiting for him in the main hall.

Fan Ruoruo, usually so well-behaved, had a somewhat cold expression, and Liu Ruyu and Fan Sizhe beside her were also silent with fear.

"Ruo Ruo, what's wrong?"

Fan Ruoruo frowned and got straight to the point, "Father, where is my own older brother?"

Hearing this, Fan Jian's heart immediately seized up!

That year, to protect the child of Ye Qingmei and Emperor Qing, Fan Jian exchanged his own newborn eldest son for Fan Xian.

His eldest son, who would have been the eldest son of the main branch of the Fan Manor, thus died in the Taiping 別苑.

"Ruo Ruo, haven't I told you many times?"

"Your older brother was in poor health and died young not long after birth. Your father consulted many famous doctors, but the medicine had no effect!"

Tears suddenly welled up in Fan Ruoruo's eyes. "Then, what about my mother?

Why did she become depressed and ill, and pass away not long after giving birth to me!"

Fan Jian said with some anger, "Ruo Ruo! What exactly are you trying to say!"

"Your elder brother died young, so your mother became depressed and ill. Is there a problem with that?"

Fan Ruoruo clearly didn't believe this explanation. "With your financial resources, if the medicine truly had no effect and you gave her full medical attention, why would she have lost the will to live?"

As she spoke, she took out a tattered book from her bosom.

"On the flyleaf of this book, it records the important dates from when you, His Majesty, Director Chen, and Prince Jing met Ye Qingmei until her death!"

"The fifteenth day of the third month in the fifty-seventh year of the Qing Kingdom era was the day Ye Qingmei was murdered, and also the day my elder brother passed away!"

A flicker of panic crossed Fan Jian's eyes, and he snatched the book away.

The information he had casually recorded back then had actually been found by Fan Ruoruo. This girl couldn't have been dwelling on her mother's death all this time, could she?

Fan Jian said with a laugh, "Ruo Ruo, that's just a coincidence, of course. You're just too smart and overthinking things."

Fan Ruoruo sneered, "After Eldest Brother passed away, what were you and Mother arguing about intermittently? Do you really think no servants heard?"

"Whose life did you exchange for the innocent Eldest Brother's!"

Hearing Fan Ruoruo's words, Fan Jian felt even more agitated.

He wasn't as ruthless as Emperor Qing and Chen Pingping; he hadn't silenced the servants who might have overheard a few words.

Fan Ruoruo continued, "Ever since Fan Xian came to the capital, I've been wondering why you treated him better than me and Sizhe!"

"Is it simply because he's an illegitimate son and you feel some debt to him?"

"Until now, with the news spreading that Fan Xian is the son of Ye Qingmei and His Majesty, I've finally connected all the clues!"

"To curry favor with His Majesty, you actually sacrificed the life of your own son to save the son of His Majesty and Ye Qingmei!"

Although Fan Ruoruo guessed Fan Jian's motive incorrectly, her conclusion was not wrong.

In this timeline, because Fan Ruoruo did not grow up with Fan Xian, she spent a lot of effort investigating her mother's cause of death.

As a smart person with a strong memory, once she set her mind to it, she would surely find clues over so many years.

"On the evening of the fifteenth day of the third month in the fifty-seventh year of the Qing Kingdom era, the child killed with Ye Qingmei... was not her son, but my elder brother, my mother's son!"

"Father, your eyes only saw your Emperor brother, and you completely forgot my mother, forgot my elder brother!"

"But I haven't forgotten!"

When Fan Ruoruo said this, Fan Jian completely exploded in rage!

"Shut up! This has nothing to do with His Majesty!"

"Xiao Yezi's son cannot die!"

Hearing Fan Jian's words, Fan Ruoruo was stunned, and Liu Ruyu and Fan Sizhe were also shocked!

Fan Jian exchanged his own son for Fan Xian, not for His Majesty, but out of admiration for Ye Qingmei?

How profound must that admiration be to do something so incredible!

Fan Ruoruo said tearfully, "Ye Qingmei's son cannot die?

But my mother's son can die? My mother can die?"

These words struck Fan Jian's sore spot; the deaths of his eldest son and his wife were entirely his doing.

"Ruo Ruo! You... you're being insolent!"

Fan Ruoruo wiped her tears and said, "Don't worry, no one will be insolent to you again! I'm going back to my maternal grandparents' house!"

Fan Ruoruo left home in a huff, and Liu Ruyu quietly led Fan Sizhe away, afraid of further angering Fan Jian.

As they walked away, Fan Sizhe suddenly said seriously, "Mother, I'll take you back to your maternal grandparents' house!"

Liu Ruyu said in surprise, "Why are you causing trouble? Ruo Ruo will come back once she calms down."

Fan Sizhe said with deep distress, "Mother, you still don't understand!"

"Father can even sacrifice his own son for Ye Qingmei's son!"

"Then aren't I in great danger? If Fan Xian and I both fall into the river, Fan Jian will definitely save Fan Xian!"

Liu Ruyu slapped Fan Sizhe on the forehead, "Don't you know how to swim? What nonsense are you talking about!"

Fan Sizhe covered his head and said, "I'm just giving an example, but the principle is still the same!"

"Mother, think about it carefully, isn't that the truth!"