Chapter 439: Conviction

　　Actually, he was displeased to do this.

　　Chu Liuyue was his only disciple. He couldn’t even dote on her properly, so how could he question her? But if he did not, he couldn’t give Emperor Jiawen an explanation.

　　After much thinking, it’s best if I do it. Elder Ye coughed. “Girl, where… were you last night?”

　　Chu Liuyue blinked. “Of course, I was at home. If not, where else could I be?”

　　Elder Ye carefully scrutinized her expression. I’ve always known that Chu Liuyue is stronger than what she has portrayed. At the very least, she is better than me at refining medicine.

　　He knew very clearly that this girl had many secrets, but he didn’t want to suspect her because of that.

　　“You should know that there was a fire in the palace yesterday, right?”

　　Chu Liuyue nodded and smiled. “Mentor, it’s hard not to know about such a big fire.”

　　Elder Ye thought it through and finally decided to ask directly, “Did you have anything to do with yesterday’s incident?”

　　Chu Liuyue blinked. “What are you referring to?”

　　Elder Ye stared at her closely, but after a moment, he finally slapped his thighs. “I knew Situ Xingchen did it on purpose! Say, what’s going on? Why does she want to drag you down?!”

　　Chu Liuyue: “…”

　　Even though I know Elder Ye is biased toward me, he is too straightforward… Chu Liuyue coughed softly. “It’s a long story…”

　　“Summarize it!” I still have to rush back and discuss this with Emperor Jiawen!

　　“Oh.” Chu Liuyue shrugged. “She thinks that I stole her man.”

　　“…” Elder Ye’s expression instantly became strange, and he couldn’t express himself. “Rong Xiu?”

　　Chu Liuyue nodded. Situ Xingchen personally told me yesterday. How can it be wrong?

　　Elder Ye suddenly took a step back and sized Chu Liuyue up.

　　“Mentor, what are you looking at?” asked Chu Liuyue curiously.

　　Elder Ye suddenly laughed. “No wonder! No wonder! It’s because of this that Situ Xingchen keeps trying to drag you down!”

　　Chu Liuyue’s eyes twitched. For some reason, he sounds pleased…

　　“Okay, I know! Cultivate properly at home! You don’t have to care about anything else!” said Elder Ye as he was about to turn around and leave.

　　Suddenly, he turned back and asked, “Oh, right. Did Mu Qinghe say when he’s going to leave?”

　　Chu Liuyue’s gaze changed, but she quickly suppressed it and shook her head slightly. “He hasn’t, but… it should be soon.”

　　Mu Qinghe gained nothing from the imperial mausoleum trip, so he wouldn’t stay here for long.

　　Elder Ye nodded, and he looked very solemn as he reminded her, “It’s a great opportunity to be able to go to the Tianling Dynasty. You must cherish this chance, but…”

　　Elder Ye hesitated for a while and decided to swallow his remaining words. “If you’re leaving, remember to tell me in advance.”

　　Chu Liuyue nodded.

　　…

　　Today was the last day of the Empress’s funeral. Everything was prepared adequately, but the sudden fire in Blessing Palace made everyone panic.

　　Even though Emperor Jiawen was mourning, he finally decided to simplify the Empress’s funeral.

　　In the end, they just followed a concubine’s routine.

　　As Emperor Jiawen missed her too much, he collapsed and couldn’t attend the Empress’s burial.

　　Rong Jin was heavily impacted and had fallen sick, so he couldn’t even go out of Crown Prince Mansion. Oh, now that the plaque had been removed, it was no longer Crown Prince Mansion.

　　Thus, only Prince Ping—Rong Qi—and Rong Zhen went in the end. But out of these two people, one of them was a playful child that didn’t have any power, and the other had a broken pearl of essence and was essentially a good-for-nothing.

　　Added up, they didn’t have much presence.

　　Only a few people came from the Si family.

　　The Empress’s entire funeral was extremely simple and miserable as it rushed to begin and rushed to end.

　　At this point, everyone could tell what Emperor Jiawen meant.

　　As the Empress and the entire country’s mother, she should be given a grand funeral befitting of her status after her death. However, this ceremony wasn’t even befitting of a lowly concubine.

　　If the Empress didn’t do something to enrage His Majesty when she was alive, how could she end up in this state after her death?

　　All sorts of rumors went around the city, but they all eventually died quietly. Not long later, the crowd forgot about the Empress’s death and started to discuss something else.

　　The Crown Prince position was empty, so His Majesty definitely had to choose a new Crown Prince from the existing pool of princes.

　　Emperor Jiawen had quite a few sons, but not many of them were suitable to be the Crown Prince.

　　After much discussion, they eventually realized that the best choice was the Third Prince, Rong Jiu. In terms of capabilities, he had entered the Northwest Army and went to war for many years, earning many accolades.

　　In terms of age, he was in his prime, and he was the second prince after Rong Jin.

　　Other than his rather lowly background, he didn’t have any weaknesses.

　　Almost everyone was certain that Rong Jiu would become the new Crown Prince.

　　However, Rong Jiu was not so positive at this point. This was because he had been grounded in his residence for days.

　　The Empress’s funeral was already over, but his father still didn’t let him out, causing Rong Jiu to worry.

　　At this point, he suddenly heard that his father had summoned Rong Jin into the palace.

　　It seemed like the two of them had talked for quite some time in the imperial study.

　　The longer Rong Jiu waited, the more uneasy he felt.

　　Finally, someone came from the palace—The Empress was killed by the Third Prince. From today onward, he will be locked in jail and await his punishment!