Chapter 664: Suspicion (2)
He Sanlang hugged his lovely wife in his embrace. His warm palm unconsciously landed back on Chu Lian’s abdomen. As if afraid that his touch would harm the fragile life growing within, he didn’t dare to rest his palm fully on her abdomen and instead, simply stroked the sides softly.
Chu Lian didn’t feel that anything was wrong with He Changdi’s actions or the importance he was placing on their unborn child.
It wasn’t just him after all, even she treasured their child very much. That little unformed bean was going to be their legacy on this earth. There was nothing cuter than creating a new life, what more a life that they had created together.
A thought came to Chu Lian suddenly, and she wriggled around in He Changdi’s embrace, “What were you discussing with Uncle Miao just now?”
He Changdi looked down at her without any visible emotions in his expression, although it looked slightly stiff, “Uncle Miao passed down some things to take note of during the pregnancy.”
Chu Lian was a little touched by this gesture. Normally, most doctors or physicians wouldn’t know much about taking care of a pregnant woman unless they specialised in gynecology. However, Great Doctor Miao was the exception, and he had even specially passed down that knowledge to He Changdi.
“Once my pregnancy is stable, let’s prepare a gift for Uncle Miao?”
He Changdi nodded seriously.
What Chu Lian didn’t know was that Uncle Miao had only called He Changdi out to warn him repeatedly not to sleep with Chu Lian in the first trimester of her pregnancy!
He had also warned He Changdi to control himself. The rest of the information about pregnancy had only been told to him as an aside…
The couple rested on the chaise together for a while.
Chu Lian spoke up softly, “He Changdi, why didn’t you tell me about those things earlier?”
He Changdi stiffened up. The arm he had placed under Chu Lian’s neck moved to help her tuck in some stray strands of hair.
“You know about it all?” He Changdi’s voice was reminiscent of the tolling of an ancient set of bells, able to make one immersed in its sound.
Chu Lian spoke rather unhappily, “It was Sister Hui who specially came to tell me about it.”
That loose-mouthed woman…
He Changdi remained silent without speaking.
It was only Chu Lian used her elbow to jab his sturdy chest that He Sanlang reluctantly spoke up, “Lian’er, I didn’t want you to worry for me. It was Prince Jin and I who miscalculated this time.”
Chu Lian suddenly fought out of his embrace and sat up. She turned around to glare at him with disbelief, “You… The two of you really developed your own silver mine?”
She seemed like a fluffed up kitten hissing angrily at an opponent, not at all threatening and very cute. He Sanlang couldn’t resist pinching one of her soft and smooth cheeks.
A corner of his mouth curled up, giving him a devilish flair that made Chu Lian’s heart skip a bit.
“Don’t you know about everything already?”
Chu Lian gulped audibly.
She slapped his chest, “What the hell were you thinking?! How could you dare to do such a thing?! You’re lucky His Majesty didn’t blame you for it!”
He Changdi harrumphed inwardly. Even if they didn’t do it, there would have been someone else who did!
It was Xiao Bojian who had used that private silver mine to get to where he did in his previous lifetime!
The silver mine was in the north, not too far from the mountain where Chu Lian had fallen. It was the Tuhun spies who first found it. Although he had known of this vaguely in his past, he hadn’t had the details of its location, nor had he known that this had something to do with the Tuhuns.
It wasn’t until this lifetime that he had gone to investigate further and gotten all the details. That was when he had found out that the Tuhuns wanted to steal the silver mine for themselves!
Xiao Bojian had likely been in cahoots with the Tuhuns even in his past life.
It was also there was Tuhun interference that he and Prince Jin hadn’t suffered any consequences on the surface even after this matter had been reported to the emperor. To the rest of the world, they had cleared out all the Tuhun spies and secured the silver mine for their empire.
However, it was a different matter altogether in private. The emperor’s opinion of them had likely sunk to the lowest! How could the emperor not lay blame on them?
Just from the spring hunt alone, they could see that the emperor had purposely suppressed Prince Jin from shining too much and had intentionally shown favour to Sixth Prince instead.
Sixth Prince was only fifteen this year, yet the emperor had actually given him permission to join in court.
Those with discerning eyes could tell that the crown prince had been locked up and was only an empty shell. The ones who had the ability to fight for the throne were Fourth Prince and Sixth Prince.
However, back when they had discovered the silver mine, the only ones with them had been their trusted subordinates. They had even placed a group of loyal assassins sworn to the death there. Going by common sense, the existence of the silver mine should never have leaked out. How had this news somehow made it up to the emperor too?
He had been investigating along with Fourth Prince’s men these few days, but none of the subordinates seemed suspicious. He had known of the silver mine thanks to his previous memories, then…
Could there be someone else who was the same as him?
He Changdi’s pupils dilated as a dangerous light shone from them.
Each suspicious incident seemed to be connected by an invisible line.
Meeting Xiao Bojian in Suzhou, Chu Lian getting kidnapped, the messy things that had happened when they had returned to the Jing’an Estate, Chu Lian almost getting trapped at Miss Yuan’s coming-of-age… There had been so many strange events that had never happened in his previous life. Adding on to that the secret of the silver mine leaking…
Unless… there was really someone else who had experienced the same lifetime he had!!
He Changdi suppressed his turbulent emotions and took in a deep breath, shoving all his terrifying guesses to the bottom of his heart.
“What’s done is done, we can’t cry over spilled milk.” He Sanlang’s voice was cold and calm.
Chu Lian sighed. That was true. Things had already come to this point. She didn’t think that He Changdi and Prince Jin developing a mine on their own was that major of a crime.
Even if they hadn’t done it, someone else would have. If the silver mine had landed in the hands of someone sinister, then the situation might be even more dangerous.
This was a selfish world. While there weren’t any obvious factions in the war for the throne, since He Changdi was close to Prince Jin, and if Prince Jin wanted to vie for the throne, He Sanlang had no choice but to be dragged into Prince Jin’s faction.
