In the struggle against the Emperor, Prince Nolan and Serena had done all they could. Now, all that remained was to wait—wait for the Emperor to indulge himself until he completely ruined his own health.
During this period, faced with the Emperor’s aggressive stance, Prince Nolan retreated, giving way at every turn and never contesting the Emperor’s words. Whatever the Emperor said, Nolan agreed.
To outsiders, it looked as if Prince Nolan had been defeated, unable to withstand the Emperor’s attacks. But William Wang Jinling, Grand Preceptor to the Eighth Prince, saw the truth clearly.
The higher the Emperor climbed now, the harder he would fall later. If Prince Nolan truly hadn’t done anything, he wouldn’t have become Grand Preceptor to the Eighth Prince, Imperial Noble Consort Helena Hsieh wouldn’t have survived the Hsieh clan’s purge, and the Hsieh family’s assets wouldn’t have ended up in the Eighth Prince’s hands.
Right now, the Emperor might seem to be basking in unlimited glory, but in truth, he was just doing all the dirty work for Prince Nolan. The more aggressively the Emperor suppressed his opponents, the more grateful those people would be to Prince Nolan when he granted amnesty and the Emperor abdicated.
Seeing the Emperor’s radiant face and triumphant demeanor, William Wang Jinling couldn’t help but secretly shed a tear of sympathy for him: to have a younger brother like Nolan Dongling was truly the Emperor’s misfortune.
On the third day after the Emperor’s recovery, Dr. Marcus Guile and the Valley Master bid farewell to the Emperor. He graciously agreed, but sent a squad to ‘escort’ the Valley Master and Dr. Guile back to Jiangnan, delivering rewards to both the Valley Master and the Prince of Jiangnan.
Just as Prince Nolan had predicted, the very first day the Emperor attended morning court, he issued an edict to confiscate the Hsieh family’s property, blaming them for the edict that drove the Prince of Jiangnan to his death. To appease the Prince of Jiangnan, the Emperor generously sent dozens of carts of treasures south as compensation.
Of course, those familiar with the real story knew that the Emperor was only giving out rewards on the surface. In truth, he was using this as an excuse to plant agents beside the Valley Master and Dr. Marcus Guile, even sending people into Jiangnan itself.
Regarding the Prince of Jiangnan and Prince Qing’s defiance of the imperial decree, the Emperor never spoke of it publicly, but was clearly displeased. Even if the decree was issued out of necessity, it was still an imperial order. Not only did the Prince of Jiangnan and Prince Qing refuse to obey, they even resisted by force.
For an emperor, this is outright provocation—something no ruler can tolerate. If the Prince of Jiangnan and Prince Colin can defy one imperial decree, they’ll do it again whenever an edict goes against them.
To prevent this kind of defiance, the Emperor must send his own people into the Jiangnan region—at the very least, he can’t let the Prince of Jiangnan act as a local tyrant.
Ninth Royal Uncle Nolan sees right through the Emperor’s intentions. As long as the Emperor doesn’t cross his bottom line, Nolan couldn’t care less what the Emperor does—no matter how many moves he makes, it won’t change anything.
Lately, Nolan has been investigating the street attack on Serena, but with so many factions interfering, his people have struggled just to gather a few scraps of evidence.
When Nolan glanced at the report from his subordinates, a cold smile flickered in his eyes. Serena shivered and asked, "What is it? Did you find out who ordered the hit?"
"We did. See for yourself." Nolan handed the evidence to Serena. She looked confused, but when she opened the file, she instantly shook her head. "No way…"
"Exactly. He has no motive to kill you. If someone was willing to pay such a steep price, they’d go after me instead." That’s why Nolan had scoffed when he saw the evidence.
The trail had been cut off and the evidence tampered with—the intelligence they’d gathered was all wrong.
Serena quickly nodded in agreement. "Killing me wouldn’t benefit him at all. But if he killed you, he might actually get somewhere. There’s no way he’d spend so much just to take me out."
"Right. He can’t be the mastermind—the real culprit is hiding deep. There’s no point investigating further; we’re only being led astray." Nolan tossed the so-called evidence onto the table.
Serena thought for a moment, then simply nodded. She agreed with Nolan—spending so much effort only to chase the wrong enemy was a waste.
Nolan’s decision to drop the investigation left many people feeling uneasy and exposed.
Outside the city, an elderly handler in plain clothes listened to his subordinate’s report, sighed softly, and said in a low voice, "Erase all traces. Tell the young master to leave the Capital at once—I may not be able to protect him much longer."
The subordinate was startled, but nodded quickly.
The old handler stood up and gazed toward the Capital for a long time before shuffling back inside. With trembling hands, he wrote 'failure' on a slip of paper, tied it to a pigeon’s leg, and sent the bird flying.
Afterward, the old man sat in a daze for hours. When night fell, he lit a candle—and soon, the house caught fire…
The hut was in a desolate area outside the city, with no neighbors nearby—no one came to fight the blaze.
It was midnight before a group of black-clad men arrived at the hut and realized it had burned down. Seeing the ashes and the charred corpse, regret flickered in their eyes—they were too late.
"Let’s go." The leader turned his horse around. Half an hour later, the group returned to the city, settled their men, and headed straight for Ninth Royal Uncle’s estate.
"He’s dead." The leader pulled off his mask, revealing himself as Felix Fuller—the so-called con-man priest in Dorian’s eyes.
"The trail’s gone cold?" Nolan lifted his gaze to Felix. Felix bowed his head and answered softly, "Yes."
Nolan didn’t blame him—he simply nodded. "That’s the end of it. No more digging."
"But…" Felix tried to protest, but Nolan cut him off. "No buts. Even if we keep searching, we’ll never find the real culprit. There’s no point."
"Understood." Felix thought about all their failed leads and could only bow his head and accept it.
Whether they searched openly or in secret, every clue pointed to Prince Jason. But neither Nolan nor Felix believed he was behind it.
Think about it: would Prince Jason really risk so much, even exposing his own men in the army, just to kill Serena? The grudge isn’t nearly that deep. If he wanted Nolan dead, that would make sense.
With nothing useful uncovered, and Nolan clearly refusing to pursue it, Felix had no choice but to let go—even though he desperately wanted to find the truth.
Neither of them had time to chase a mystery that might never be solved.
Felix gave Nolan a quick update on palace affairs, then slipped away into the night.
Not long after Felix left, Nolan changed into travel clothes and headed for the secret chamber at Sutton Manor.
"Ninth Royal Uncle, what brings you here?" Vincent Su looked up from a pile of documents, surprised to see Nolan.
Nolan’s been busy lately—so why would he have time to visit?
"Help me check on Liancastle’s movements." Nolan sat across from Vincent and casually picked up a report—it happened to be a message from Liancastle requesting more silver.
Hmph…
Liancastle’s expenses have been huge lately.
"Check on Liancastle? Is something wrong with those people?" Vincent’s pupils contracted, a flash of worry in his eyes.
Liancastle is basically Nolan’s main base. Too many people there know his secrets—if anything goes wrong, it’ll be serious trouble. Very serious trouble…