When Prince Su and the Fourth Prince appeared together, He Yan's attention was originally focused on the Fourth Prince.

The reason was simple. This elegant and graceful Fourth Prince was the mastermind behind the scheme involving Xie Ming and the Second Prince.

Actually, he didn't really have any grudge against Xie Ming. His main goal was just to frame the Second Prince. By exposing the shameful incident of the Second Prince sleeping with Xie Ming, he wanted to make the Xinyuan Marquis Mansion become enemies with the Second Prince and make Emperor Wen Xiao despise him.

The animosity between the Fourth Prince and the Second Prince was quite complicated. The Fourth Prince's hostility towards the Second Prince not only stemmed from the competition for the crown prince position among the princes, but also involved a lot of personal grudges, revolving around an important person - Xu Lingge, the eldest son of a concubine of the Minister of Rites.

This person was not only the Second Prince's first lover in this life, but also someone the Fourth Prince currently held dear to his heart.

The entanglement between Xu Lingge and the Second Prince was a twisted fate. Xu Lingge was the Second Prince's study companion. The two had an extremely close relationship since childhood.

When they reached the age of sexual awakening, the Second Prince discovered he was also interested in men. As Xu Lingge grew up to have an increasingly feminine appearance, the relationship between the two slowly started to become inappropriate. Eventually, in a situation where Xu Lingge was half-pushed and half-consenting, they ended up in bed together.

But the Second Prince was a very fickle person by nature. Although Xu Lingge had a very delicate appearance, just the type he liked most, and they had a deep childhood friendship, it still couldn't stop his restless heart that had just awakened to sensual desires. He quickly couldn't resist finding a second, then a third lover.

Among the Second Prince's many bad habits was not only promiscuity, but also a tendency to quickly tire of the old and crave the new. He had rolled around in a heap of beauties for so long that he had long lost interest in Xu Lingge.

When Xu Lingge made a fuss about him having other people by his side, he very indifferently gave Xu Lingge the cold shoulder for a while. In the end, it was Xu Lingge who took the initiative to reconcile before they reluctantly made up.

Although Xu Lingge harbored some resentment towards the Second Prince's heartlessness, he couldn't bear to completely fall out with the Second Prince. His birth mother had passed away early and his stepmother didn't treat him well. Although the Xu family was prominent and his stepmother wouldn't overtly mistreat him, that neglectful attitude still made him feel like a transparent person in the Xu Mansion.

He gradually developed a sensitive and love-starved personality. It wasn't until he was sent to the Second Prince's side to be a study companion that he obtained a bit of emotional solace in his interactions with the Second Prince. Don't be fooled by how deviant the Second Prince was now - as a child he was a model good boy who treated Xu Lingge, his study companion, exceptionally well.

To Xu Lingge, the Second Prince was a rare person who had given him warmth. Even if this person wasn't as good as before, he still couldn't let go.

Xu Lingge, harboring this conflicted mentality, on one hand was tormented by the endless stream of new people appearing by the Second Prince's side, while on the other hand, couldn't bear to leave because of their past memories together and the tenderness the Second Prince would occasionally show.

Sometimes when the Second Prince missed his taste, he would summon him to the mansion to fool around a couple times. Other times when he forgot about him, he would give him the cold shoulder. Xu Lingge would then take the initiative to ingratiate himself. The two had another falling out in the middle because of the Second Prince's marriage, but still couldn't end this strange relationship.

These matters should have just been emotional entanglements between the Second Prince and Xu Lingge. One was willing to beat and the other was willing to be beaten, so there wasn't much to comment on. Xu Lingge especially had no connection whatsoever to the Fourth Prince. The two basically had no interactions at present.

But it couldn't be helped that the Fourth Prince had been reborn.

Originally, in the previous life, Xu Lingge and the Second Prince had been entangled for nearly ten years. Only after the feelings between the two had been completely worn down did he finally break it off with the Second Prince. After some twists and turns, he served as a minor official for a few years before finally joining the Fourth Prince's camp and becoming an ordinary advisor.

Later, in this battle for the crown prince position, the Fourth Prince was backstabbed by the Seventh Prince and framed with the crimes of embezzling a million taels of silver and colluding with enemy states. These two offenses carried extremely heavy penalties in the laws of the Wen Dynasty. So not long after the Fourth Prince was imprisoned, he was sentenced to be beheaded after autumn.

The Fourth Prince was unwilling to accept this, but it had happened so suddenly and the evidence was too conclusive, making it extremely difficult to overturn the case.

Moreover, even his princess consort's clan was implicated, wiping out more than half of his power base in the capital in one fell swoop. The advisors under his command were either arrested or the remaining ones who escaped unscathed scattered in all directions, not daring to get involved with his case anymore. Past good friends also chose to lay low one after another, not daring to be associated with him.

He fell into a state of isolated helplessness, only able to wait for death in prison in despair.

Unexpectedly, he still gained a sliver of hope in the end, because Xu Lingge exhausted all his connections and went through untold hardships to rescue him from prison.

Originally, the Fourth Prince didn't pay much attention to this advisor Xu Lingge. He had so many advisors in his prince's mansion that even he couldn't recognize them all. There were only a few who were truly close confidants.

Xu Lingge merely had a bit of minor talent. At the time, he had recruited this person just to annoy his Second Royal Brother, not taking it to heart at all. Who would have thought that in the end, while his trusted aides all chose to save themselves, only this advisor who had never gained his trust risked his life to rescue him from prison. Truly the workings of fate were unfathomable.

However, although the Fourth Prince had narrowly escaped from prison, when he fled to the outskirts of the capital, he was secretly captured by the Seventh Prince's men and executed on the spot. In the end, he still couldn't escape death.

As for Xu Lingge's ultimate fate, he actually wasn't clear about it. But based on what the Seventh Prince's men had let slip before his death, that the authorities had already found out it was Xu Lingge who had acted behind the scenes, presumably his end wouldn't be much better than his own.

When the Fourth Prince died, his last thought was that if there was a chance in the next life, he would definitely repay Xu Lingge for this life-saving grace.

Perhaps one of the deities in the heavens happened to hear his innermost wish. So after the Fourth Prince lost consciousness, he opened his eyes again in the Second Prince's mansion ten years ago. And his first intention after being reborn was to pull Xu Lingge to his side from the Second Prince's side as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, at this time Xu Lingge still had deep feelings for the Second Prince. Even though his fickle promiscuity had deeply wounded his heart, he still had no intention of leaving him for the time being. Without using some special means, there was no way to separate the two.

So the Fourth Prince carefully considered and planned, then schemed for the Second Prince to sleep with Xie Ming.

The only legitimate son of the Xinyuan Marquis was taken by the Second Prince, which was undoubtedly a hard slap in the face of the entire Xinyuan Marquis Mansion. It also made Emperor Wen Xiao lose face in front of the Xinyuan Marquis, who had always been loyal to him.

Moreover, after Xie Ming's incident, his mental state had been unstable, and the Marchioness of Xinyuan had almost cried her eyes blind. Seeing that the only seedling of the Xinyuan Marquis family was about to be ruined, Emperor Wen felt guilty.

Not only did he allocate a large amount of compensation to the Xinyuan Marquis Mansion, but he also punished the Second Prince repeatedly. He stripped the Second Prince of all his official positions, personally beat him half to death, and grounded him for a whole year.

At this point, the Second Prince was completely finished.

The Fourth Prince's arrangement was flawless, and no one suspected that he was the one who had made the move. After all, everyone in the capital knew that the Second Prince had long coveted the legitimate son of the Xinyuan Marquis Mansion. Even the Second Prince himself felt afterwards that he had been reckless due to being drunk and unable to control himself, leading to this muddled affair.

When the news spread that the Second Prince had been punished like a dog by Emperor Wen Xiao for his audacity in sleeping with the legitimate son of the Xinyuan Marquis, the Second Prince directly became the laughingstock of the entire capital. There were quite a few playful young masters in the capital, but what the Second Prince did was too outrageous!

Xu Lingge still cared about his reputation, and he could not accept what the Second Prince had done this time. So, before long, he sadly threw himself into the arms of the Fourth Prince, who had deliberately shown goodwill. Later, with the help of the intelligence from his previous life, the Fourth Prince successfully defeated all his brothers and became the Crown Prince.

After Emperor Wen Xiao passed away due to illness, he ascended to the throne. Xu Lingge had always been by his side and eventually became a hugely popular confidant of the Emperor. Although he had no official title, the ministers in the court knew very well that he was the one the Emperor valued the most as his bedmate.

As for Xie Ming, who had suffered a great misfortune for no reason... he was not in their concern.

The Fourth Prince, having experienced all kinds of things in his previous life, had a heart that was not soft to begin with and had become even more cold and hard. In this life, he gave almost all his tenderness to Xu Lingge alone and would not feel the slightest guilt for using Xie Ming and ruining his life. As for Xu Lingge, he was completely unaware of the truth of the matter and naturally had no thoughts about it.

So now, when He Yan saw the Fourth Prince and thought about how this person was planning to set a trap for him, he really wanted to smash his dog head.

However, before he could even start to get restless, he was frightened by Prince Su and forgot about the Fourth Prince.

He Yan ended up getting on Prince Su's carriage after all.

There was only one reason: he dared not refuse.

He was acutely aware that in this era, human rights were determined by status. Even if his mental strength alone could handle a hundred Prince Sus, he still had family. If he dared to do anything to Prince Su, in a serious case, the entire Xinyuan Marquis Mansion would likely be implicated. So, if he wanted to live in this era, he absolutely could not act willfully according to his own wishes.

However, fortunately, his status here was not low either. As the only legitimate son of the Xinyuan Marquis, with his elder sister entering the palace and being granted the title of Noble Consort, even the princes in the palace had to give him some face.

Except for a star of misfortune like Prince Su, who was renowned throughout the capital, had a noble identity, and could not be judged by common sense, he did not have to worry about being bullied in front of others.

Of course, now he still had to hold back this breath with a calm and even temper.

It was just unknown what Prince Su's intention was. What did it mean to send him home for no reason?

There was always a feeling that it was not very good.

The two sat facing each other in the carriage, and the atmosphere was very stagnant. Prince Su was taciturn, and He Yan also remained silent on the principle that the more he spoke, the more likely he was to make mistakes. The carriage compartment was not small, so the two were not sitting very close.

But Prince Su was much taller than him and had a strong build. With a fierce look on his face, just sitting in the same space would make one feel a kind of oppressive presence that could not be ignored. Moreover, that person would also sweep his fierce eyes over him from time to time. He Yan felt like the days were passing like years.

The two sat in silence for a long time like this, when Prince Su suddenly broke the silence first and asked in a rough voice, "You—how old are you this year?"

He Yan cautiously replied, "I just passed my eighteenth birthday."

Prince Su fell silent for a moment and continued to ask, "Have you taken a wife?"

He Yan continued to answer obediently, "No, I haven't."

Prince Su was silent for even longer: "Do you have any concubines or maids?"

Why was this person asking even such questions? They were not family elders and were not familiar with each other at all!

He Yan almost choked on his own saliva: "...No." Xie "Narcissus" Ming, who only loved himself and judged by appearance, had always felt that there was not a single woman in the world who was worthy of him. Of course, neither were men.

The atmosphere became silent again.

At this moment, the carriage suddenly swayed, and He Yan's body swayed with it. Prince Su, who was originally sitting quite far away, immediately moved to his side and reached out to hold his shoulders.

He Yan had already been secretly on guard and immediately dodged that big hand with agility, shrinking into the corner of the compartment. After meeting Prince Su's gaze, his heart turned cold.

He could be sure that he had not seen wrong. In those dark eyes, besides the fierceness, there was also an undisguised greed.

It was over. This star of misfortune had probably been infected by the Second Prince and had some terrible thoughts about him.

Author's Note:

Gong: The Most Fierce in the Century.jpg

Shou: Alert.jpg

I found that cliffhangers can be addictive... _(:з」∠)_