Chapter 501: Chapter 248: Questioning the Plot

Watching Yun Wanqing set everything up properly but never once mention the question he cared about most, Yun Wanye finally couldn’t hold back and pressed her.

Yun Wanqing frowned, sighing with a troubled look on her face.

[Sigh, sorry, Second Brother, I accidentally forgot about this matter.]

[According to the plot, the one who sells Father out is Prime Minister Han.]

[The explanation given is that he feared Father’s fame would rise even higher after his victory, and because of what happened with Elder Sister he bore a grudge against the Emperor, believing Father to be a threat to the realm. So he took it upon himself to "share the ruler’s burdens" by getting rid of Father.]

[Thus, when Father recaptured the lost city and was preparing to launch a counterattack, he colluded with others to betray him, causing Father’s operation to fail and ending with Father becoming a prisoner of Beidi.]

[Not long after, he himself was exposed and denounced by all the officials on charges of murdering a colleague and committing treason by colluding with the enemy. In the end, his house was raided and his clan exterminated...]

Hearing this, a strange feeling rose in Yun Wanye’s heart.

He lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, then looked to Yun Wanqing and said, "Little Sister, do you think there’s something wrong with the plot?"

Before, whenever Little Sister recounted the plot, she would just start telling it straight. This was the first time she’d prefaced it with "according to the plot."

When something goes against the norm, there’s always something off. He immediately and keenly sensed that something wasn’t right.

[You really do understand me, Second Brother.] 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

[That’s right, I do indeed feel this part of the plot is off.]

Strangely enough, Yun Wanqing had always believed in the plot with absolute conviction, but with this particular matter, she kept feeling there was something more to it.

[Big Brother, Second Brother, that Prime Han came from humble origins. Clawing his way up to where he is now was no easy feat.]

[Father has no old grudge or new hatred with him. On the contrary, back when his power was waning, Father helped him more than once.]

[Do you really think he would, for the sake of Mo Yuanhao, a ruler who only just took the throne, be willing to stake the lives of his entire clan, as well as the Prime Minister’s seat he bled and sweated for all these years to secure, to commit treason and collude with the enemy like that?]

What he would lose was not just the lives of his whole clan and the fruits of so many years of struggle. More importantly, there was his reputation.

Scholars value their reputation above all. Whether it’s treason and colluding with the enemy or murdering loyal subjects, either crime is enough to stink for ten thousand years.

"What Little Sister said is not without reason. ’For the sake of the realm’ and ’treason and colluding with the enemy’ are two terms that are completely contradictory. Having them appear on the same person is indeed bizarre."

If he’s already committed treason, how can it still be "for the sake of the realm"?

And if his heart is truly set on the realm, why would he commit treason and collude with the enemy? There are clearly better options.

Yun Wanchen frowned and followed up.

Just like Yun Wanqing, after everything that had happened recently, he too had absolute faith in the plot.

If Yun Wanqing hadn’t been the first to question it, he wouldn’t even have considered whether it was reasonable—he would have just accepted and obeyed blindly.

"Exactly!"

Yun Wanye nodded. "As for this Prime Han, he is a cautious man, best at weighing pros and cons when things happen. He is not some stubbornly loyal fool..."

"He can’t be considered incorruptibly upright, but he’s definitely not a treacherous villain either. To be honest, if the plot hadn’t named him, I wouldn’t really believe he’d commit such heinous crimes that would disgrace his name for generations, for the sake of a new ruler."

Yun Wanye actually didn’t know Prime Minister Han that well. But as the prime minister of a nation, the man’s reputation was simply too great.

Yun Zheng would occasionally mention some things about Prime Minister Han in front of him, and so he had a general impression.

For example, as colleagues for so many years, Prime Minister Han and Su Jian’s faction fought in Court like fire and water, like life and death, but he never once resorted to secret dirty tricks against Yun Zheng.

Another example: Prime Minister Han loved power as much as his own life, but he loved his son even more, treating his only son like the apple of his eye...

When Yun Zheng spoke of this man, his tone could not hide his appreciation. The Prime Minister Han in his mouth was absolutely not some treacherous villain or a foolishly loyal idiot.

What’s more, if he wanted to eliminate Father, as the prime minister of a country, he had countless ways to do it. He didn’t have to risk everything by choosing the most dangerous path.

Treason and colluding with the enemy is a crime that wipes out nine clans.

"Nine clans" might not sound like much at first, but in reality, besides your own family, there are your maternal grandfather’s entire clan, your maternal grandmother’s maiden family’s entire clan, your married aunts’ whole households, your father-in-law’s entire clan, your mother-in-law’s maiden family’s entire clan, as well as the households of all your married paternal aunts, sisters, and daughters, and so on...

So many people that their heads could stack up for several li. Even if you don’t think of yourself, you have to think of all your blood relatives. Who would do something like this just for a new ruler?

Prime Han only loves power; he’s not an idiot.

The more Yun Wanye thought about it, the more wrong it seemed. Given how authoritative the plot was, he hadn’t dared harbor even the slightest doubt before, so he never thought deeply about it.

But now that Yun Wanqing had opened this can of worms, he couldn’t stop. All kinds of thoughts rushed out, jostling to the front.

"Little Sister, in the plot, how exactly did Prime Han betray Father? And how did he slip up and get found out?"

He looked at Yun Wanqing and earnestly raised a few questions.

[According to the plot, Prime Minister Han was exposed because he was reported by a trusted subordinate, but the whole thing is glossed over from start to finish, never described in detail. That’s why I suspect there’s something wrong with the plot.]

[Think about it, Second Brother—treason and colluding with the enemy, murdering loyal subjects—how serious is that?]

[Prime Minister Han was able to climb from a poor scholar’s background to the seat of prime minister. That alone proves he’s cautious enough. If he really did something like this, would he leave living witnesses and evidence lying around, just waiting to be used to betray him?]

[If he were really that incompetent, he never would’ve been able to carve a path through the ranks of civil and military officials to sit in the prime minister’s chair.]

[More importantly, once this matter ended in such a muddled way, the timeline jumped straight to five years later. I went from one and a half years old to over six in an instant, then went with Seventh Uncle to deliver a wave of heads.]

[Nothing at all is mentioned about those five years in between, aside from the female lead giving birth to three genius babies. Isn’t that incredibly suspicious?]

[Only heaven knows what exactly happened during those years, so even if there’s a reversal in Prime Minister Han’s case, it’s not impossible.]

In the original plot, not long after Yun Zheng died, the story went into a "gloss over everything" mode. Other than the male and female leads’ affairs, everything else was skimmed past in one sentence, including Prime Minister Han’s house being raided and clan exterminated.

The scene then cut to the youngest Little Prince being held by his wet nurse, basking in the sun in the Imperial Palace.

The eldest Prince had a face that greatly resembled Mo Yuanhao’s. At such a young age his intellect was already almost demonic, showing astonishing political talent, and he was the pride of the Emperor and Empress.

Mo Yuanhao ignored the objections of the officials and kept the boy by his side every day, even taking him to Court. By the time he was three, he was already bringing him in to listen at Court sessions, trying to groom him early as his successor.

Besides these two Princes, there was also a Little Princess, second in rank, who did not love pretty dresses but loved armor and weapons. She trained diligently with the Great General Pei Yu and the Marquis Xie Xingxuan.

The male and female leads’ three kids appeared one after another, followed by the sweet and happy daily life of the five-member family for several days. Only after that did the camera cut to Yun Zhan’s side.

By then, Yun Zhan had already become a full-blown rebel, holding troops in his own hands. The forces under him had grown quite formidable, causing constant headaches for the male lead.