Hearing this, Xie Yanlai instinctively looked around. Chu Zhao definitely hadn’t told anyone else this. Chu Lan was her uncle, yet he had colluded with Prince Zhongshan and even harbored murderous intent. Even though Chu Zhao had saved the Young Highness, the Chu family couldn’t avoid being criticized by others.
This was a very troublesome matter that absolutely could not be known by outsiders.
But then he frowned—if she wasn’t telling others, why tell him! He didn’t want to know! What did this have to do with him!
“Enough, stop talking,” he raised his hand to stop her, looking at Chu Zhao. “Since you know these are His Majesty’s troops, you should also know that His Majesty is doing this out of desperation. Things done out of desperation are never good things. You’d best not look for trouble.”
He slightly turned sideways, looking past the pillar at the child eating heartily at the desk.
“What will the world think of becoming the Crown Princess to a six-year-old Crown Prince?”
The common people would think it absurd; court officials would think it was a power play.
“Do you think this is some glorious affair?”
This was certainly not a glorious affair. Never mind a child—in circumstances where princes killed each other and the nation was in turmoil, even becoming the Crown Princess of an adult Crown Prince wouldn’t earn her any favorable opinions from the world. Back then, she had been foolish, not knowing this, with no one to warn her like this. She looked at Xie Yanlai and smiled: “Thank you for thinking of me.”
Was this wretched girl incapable of understanding? Who was thinking of her? Xie Yanlai frowned: “I’m thinking of myself.”
Chu Zhao laughed: “So you won’t have to call me Aunt?”
Xie Yanlai looked at her coldly.
Chu Zhao wasn’t afraid of his cold expression. What was there to fear? She had even seen him with a knife ready to kill her. She cleared her throat lightly: “Xie Yanlai, it’s not that His Majesty insists on bestowing this marriage on me.”
She raised her eyes to look at the young man before her.
“It’s that I coerced His Majesty into bestowing this marriage to me.”
Xie Yanlai’s expression froze. Actually—
Was it surprising? But also not really surprising.
He looked at the girl before him, just like seeing that A’Fu he had met at the relay station—a pitiful little girl who was actually the mastermind behind it all.
“Because of those troops?” he said.
These were the same words as before, but saying them now, the meaning was different.
Chu Zhao said softly, “Yes, and no. I said before, these are His Majesty’s troops. If His Majesty is gone, they will cease to exist. To control them, His Majesty must exist, so the Young Highness must ascend the throne.”
It wasn’t anything remarkable for the Imperial Grandson to ascend; it should be natural and proper.
Xie Yanlai looked at Chu Zhao without speaking. He understood her meaning.
Chu Zhao also looked at him: “For the Young Highness to sit firmly in this position, for my father and me to withdraw unscathed, I must become the Crown Princess.”
Xie Yanlai smiled slightly, took a step back, and raised his hands in salute to her: “Miss Chu is thoroughly thoughtful, brave and resourceful. I admire you. I was overthinking.”
He was angry and embarrassed again, putting on this polite appearance. Chu Zhao smiled, looking at him: “His Majesty will announce this matter soon, but I’m telling you first to avoid startling you.”
Xie Yanlai scoffed: “What does this have to do with me? What would startle me? Miss Chu is overthinking.”
Chu Zhao said, “I’m not overthinking. I just wanted to tell you.”
The girl looked at him, her large bright eyes earnest in expression.
Xie Yanlai took another step back.
That word “wanted” was strangely frightening.