Chapter 140: Meeting the Ninth Prince

Thus, the group stopped speaking to the Fourth Prince and simply seized him, forcibly changing his clothes with those of the Third Prince.

They then knocked the Fourth Prince unconscious and left him inside the room. Immediately afterward, they walked out openly and without the slightest attempt at concealment.

When they had entered, the guards had seen Yan Heru and Qi Shengsheng, and had also seen the two of them come into contact with the Third Prince.

Even so, they had no way of knowing whether the pair had been sent by the Fourth Prince or had come to rescue the Third Prince.

So when the group now walked out in broad daylight, the guards naturally assumed that the people who had come to see the Third Prince earlier had been sent by the Fourth Prince, since they were leaving alongside him.

The guards paid them no attention and simply let them go.

They had not taken the Emperor with them because the Third Prince had told Yan Heru and Qi Shengsheng that the Emperor did not seem to be imprisoned there, but somewhere else.

And so they left, their next destination being the place where the Emperor was held.

The Third Prince, however, was not certain of the Emperor’s exact location. He had originally intended to question the Fourth Prince, but looking at the state he was in, there was no chance he would say anything.

“Uncle, can you tell me how the Fourth Prince took your military authority from you? And how did he manage to imprison the Emperor?”

On the way, Yan Heru could not help asking about the doubts troubling her.

The Third Prince let out a helpless sigh and replied, “It is a long story. The place where the Emperor is being held is still some distance away, so I may as well tell you along the way.”

He then recounted the entire course of events to the two of them.

In truth, the Third Prince and the Emperor should never have been captured by the Fourth Prince. It was all because the Fourth Prince had given them a pretext so deeply compelling that both of them had fallen for it.

That pretext was Yan Heru.

The Fourth Prince had told them that he had already found Yan Heru. If they wished to see her, they had to go to a certain place he named; otherwise, Yan Heru would be killed.

Although the Emperor cared deeply for his throne and empire, the guilt he had carried for so many years finally overcame him, and he could not resist going to see Yan Heru.

The Third Prince had already met his niece before, but the Fourth Prince had spoken with such certainty that he became deeply worried she might truly have been captured. He, too, was deceived by the Fourth Prince’s lie and went to that designated place.

As soon as the Third Prince and the Emperor arrived at the meeting place, the Fourth Prince seized them both and, without saying a word, had them imprisoned separately.

The only reason the Third Prince had learned anything about the Emperor was that the men escorting him had accidentally let something slip in conversation. Otherwise, he would have had no way of knowing what had become of the Emperor.

As for the military authority in the Third Prince’s hands, the Fourth Prince had taken it by imitating the Third Prince’s handwritten orders.

Without those forged orders, the Third Prince’s soldiers would never have obeyed the Fourth Prince. Even now, despite possessing the Third Prince’s written command, the soldiers remained deeply suspicious of him.

It was only because they were utterly loyal to the Third Prince that they did not dare disobey his orders.

That was all the Third Prince knew, and even part of that information had come from the men guarding him.

After Yan Heru finished recounting these events, she told the Third Prince what had happened afterward.

“After obtaining Uncle’s troops, the Fourth Prince’s first act was to start a war. For some reason, he immediately launched an attack against the Ninth Prince. He seemed terribly anxious to do so. Something about it feels wrong,” Yan Heru said.

The Third Prince grew pensive. Normally, if the Fourth Prince had acquired such a force, he should not have been in such a hurry. He ought to have gradually turned those soldiers into his own men.

Only then would the army truly belong to him. By rushing into war so quickly, he had no chance of making the soldiers genuinely submit to his command.

“This is strange. Under ordinary circumstances, the Fourth Prince would first reorganize the troops. Yet he launched an attack immediately…” The Third Prince suddenly fell silent.

Seeing this, Yan Heru and Qi Shengsheng stopped as well.

“What is it, Uncle?”

“I have a bad feeling… This is not good! The Fourth Prince wants to destroy my army!” Panic flashed across the Third Prince’s face.

Then he hurriedly continued, “The reason the Fourth Prince is rushing to start a war is that he wants to destroy my troops! And now that the Emperor has been imprisoned, the Empress must be the one governing the palace. The Fourth Prince is her son, so this must have been planned by the two of them together!

“They must be plotting something far greater!”

By the time he finished speaking, they had already reached the place where the Emperor was being held. But the people they found there were not the Fourth Prince’s men.

It was the Ninth Prince.

Yan Heru saw the man standing not far away with his back to her, and her heart began pounding uncontrollably. Gazing at the man she had missed so dearly, she slowly walked toward him.

As though sensing her presence, Shen Hezhi suddenly felt that something was wrong and turned around.

Then he saw Yan Heru—the woman he cherished above all else.

“Heru!”

Shen Hezhi immediately hurried toward her. Shen Yi, who had been standing beside him and speaking with him, froze at the sudden movement.

Only after turning his head slightly did he realize that the person their prince had been longing for day and night had finally appeared.

Shen Yi was overjoyed to see Yan Heru as well.

During the time Yan Heru had been away from Shen Hezhi, he had worked day and night as though determined to resolve every matter so that he and Yan Heru could leave everything behind and travel far away together.

No matter who tried to persuade Shen Hezhi to rest, it was useless.

“My prince… is it really you?” Yan Heru reached out and touched Shen Hezhi’s face. Even now, she could scarcely believe that the man holding her was truly Shen Hezhi.

“My prince!”

Yan Heru threw her arms around him and held him tightly.

Shen Hezhi embraced her just as fiercely. He gently patted her back and said, “It’s me, Heru. It’s really me. I missed you so much…”

When he spoke those final words, his voice was hoarse. It was clear that he had been struggling desperately to restrain his emotions.

Yan Heru had no doubt that if they had been somewhere private at that moment, Shen Hezhi would have wanted nothing more than to crush her into himself, until the two of them could never be separated again.

But Yan Heru knew even more clearly that Shen Hezhi could never bear to hurt her.