Phi-Fic Chapter 151 seems more like someone who wants to reap the benefits without lifting a finger.
Chapter 151 seems more like someone who wants to reap the benefits without lifting a finger.
In the end, Yu Sheng rushed over upon hearing the news and comforted Li Yi by applying medicine like a child, which barely stopped the two-meter-tall muscular man from wailing. Instead, he buried his head in Yu Sheng's chest and sobbed, tears streaming down his face.
Lin Shiming, who was half deaf and had been ignored for a long time, was so angry that he almost ground his teeth to powder.
"So what if he got hit by a door? A grown man, crying like a three-year-old! It's been almost an hour, isn't he afraid of crying himself into a dried-up corpse?"
Lin Shihe, who was sitting on a stone bench drinking tea and watching the play, chuckled and replied, "You can't be jealous of other couples' affection just because your own crown prince isn't here."
???
"What nonsense are you talking about? Shut up! I'm still angry!"
Well, if this frizzy little brother keeps teasing me, he might bite.
Lin Shihe put down his teacup, stood up, straightened his clothes, and slowly walked over to Li Yi and Yu Sheng, who were still crying and trying to comfort each other.
Yu Sheng was still trying to coax him, but the faint blue veins on his forehead showed that his patience was about to run out. "...Alright, stop crying...Are you spoiled? If you cry again, you're all out of here for the next few days and don't come back. You've made me lose face!"
Li Yi stopped crying in a second.
"Is he calmed down?" Lin Shihe, who had watched the whole thing from behind, asked with a smile. "If he's calmed down, have someone prepare more water for him and find a handkerchief to soothe his eyes."
"Then, while you're applying eye cream, tell him what important thing he had that made him rush over."
*
Although Li Yi is described as "soft-hearted," he has always been a cautious and conscientious person. His hurried arrival today must mean he has some new discovery to report.
When it came to serious matters, the people in the courtyard stopped dwelling on the "symphony version" of the little episode. At Lin Shihe's signal, Yu Sheng helped Li Yi, who had a big bump on his head, into the study along with Lin Shiming, the culprit.
Yu Sheng and Li Yi were instructed by Lin Shihe to sit on either side of the desk, while Lin Shihe himself habitually sat in the main seat behind the desk.
As for Lin Shiming, who was still full of resentment and a little guilty, he picked a chair far away and sat down, trying very hard to isolate the other three people in the room.
However, his isolated efforts failed halfway through and were ineffective.
"Your Highness." Li Yi bowed respectfully, and a huge red envelope on his forehead immediately caught Lin Shiming's eye. The purplish-red color made Lin Shiming guiltily look away.
"explain."
"We received intelligence today that someone is trying to disrupt communications between the capital and the Tingyun Army garrisons in various locations."
“This is exactly what we expected.” Lin Shihe tapped his fingers lightly on the table. “Judging by the time, it should be time for Prince Ping to begin his preparations.”
The Lin family's 100,000-strong Thundercloud Army is loyal only to the Emperor, which will be the biggest obstacle to Prince Ping's rebellion and seizure of power.
In the past, the Tingyun Army would have enough troops stationed at the West Camp not far from the capital, so that they could be mobilized at any time to protect the royal family.
In recent years, in order to ensure the smooth progress of abolishing the rule of "ruling the country with filial piety" and replacing it with "ruling the country with law", Emperor Longyun has successively used various pretexts to disperse some of the Tingyun Army to various places to control the situation, leaving insufficient troops to guard the important capital area.
If something happens in the capital, the fastest troops that can arrive will take at least two days. However, the Yizhou garrison could march here and capture the capital in no more than two days.
It was precisely because King Ping saw this gap that he conceived the idea of joining forces with the garrison commander of Yizhou to launch a rebellion.
The ancestral rule of both the Tingyun Army and the Lin family is to be loyal to the person on the throne. Only if Prince Ping can rightfully become emperor before the arrival of the Tingyun Army can the success be considered complete.
If he wants to succeed, the only way is to use the pretext of "purging the emperor's inner circle" to quickly eliminate Emperor Longyun, the crown prince, the imperial grandson, and others. At that time, without a leader, everything will have to be decided by the Empress Dowager, who holds the highest position in terms of etiquette.
With the Empress Dowager's decree, Prince Ping's ascension to the throne was a natural and lawful decision. Even if the Tingyun Army arrived at this point, the die was cast. What happened next would be entirely up to the new emperor.
This is precisely why Prince Ping endured his displeasure to cooperate with the Empress Dowager; he needed someone who could legitimize his ascension to the throne.
Therefore, Prince Ping had to make arrangements in advance to prevent the Tingyun Army from entering the capital to defend the emperor, in case he failed to capture the capital within two days or the Tingyun Army advanced quickly and arrived in the capital before he ascended the throne.
This was all within Emperor Longyun's expectations, so Lin Shihe and Lin Shiming were not surprised.
“This is not unexpected. I had already made arrangements for how to proceed.” Lin Shihe frowned and spoke softly, “So you came here specifically today because you have made a new discovery?”
Li Yi, with a serious expression, cupped his hands and replied, "That's right."
"Does Your Highness the Crown Princess still remember that Miss Tang Ruyin from back then?"
Tang Ruyin? Lin Shiming recalled for a moment; it was a somewhat familiar name.
"She's the one who participated in the Sixth Prince's selection of a consort but was framed, and then His Majesty allowed her to establish her own female household."
"Oh, I remember now!" Lin Shiming suddenly realized, "Didn't it say later that she had taken in quite a few male lovers and was living a good life?"
“That’s right,” Li Yi replied. “It was Miss Tang who secretly sent a message today, saying that one of her male favorites leaked the information to her in order to win her favor.”
"That male concubine was newly bought from the opera troupe. He claimed that he had overheard a master from the south who had hired their opera troupe saying that he should follow orders and lead the Tingyun Army at the right time. Therefore, he guessed that there would be trouble soon, so he told Miss Tang and advised her to prepare in advance to protect herself, thus gaining Miss Tang's trust and favor."
"Since we knew there would be obstacles, we didn't know who would secretly lead the way, so we immediately went to investigate, but we haven't heard anything yet."
As Li Yi's voice faded, the study fell silent.
After a few breaths, Lin Shihe spoke slowly and deliberately: "If this is true, then it must not be the work of Prince Ping."
"Acting on orders" indicates someone is behind it; "leading the way for the Tingyun Army" suggests that the person behind it is definitely not a subordinate of King Ping. As for the phrase "neither too early nor too late" and "at the right time"...
“They seem more like people who want to reap the benefits without lifting a finger,” Lin Shihe declared decisively.
"We just don't know what this person's purpose is. Does 'the right time' mean while His Majesty and the Crown Prince are still alive, or after Prince Ping has committed murder and before he ascends the throne?"
Who else in the capital would do such a thing?
With so many clues pointing to it, Lin Shihe was momentarily at a loss as to which direction to take.
"Is someone trying to gain credit for saving the emperor, or is it a foreign spy plotting to throw our dynasty into chaos, or perhaps he is also involved in the struggle for the throne?"
Besides Prince Ping, the only other qualified candidate to participate in the struggle for the throne is... the Sixth Prince.
"But neither the sixth prince's mother nor his wife had any powerful figures in their families."
It seems that the Sixth Prince has no chance to handle this matter.
Just when things had reached a stalemate, Lin Shiming's clear voice suddenly rang out.
"Go and investigate the two palace maids in charge of personnel matters in the Sixth Prince's residence."