"Are you stupid?" Ye Haoxuan knocked on her head, "A murderer getting killed deserves it. Do you expect me to waste effort to clear his name?"

"But didn’t he know about your sister?"

"The other’s intentions, I don’t want to know anymore. Whether he tells or not, it doesn’t matter. Some people’s true colors will show sooner or later." Ye Haoxuan thought, with the Situ Family’s arrangement, it was certainly no good.

If it were something good, given the Empress’s character, she would have already come running to the Ye Family to appeal for understanding, and to make the Ye Family support His Highness the Crown Prince.

"But don’t you think it’s strange?"

"What?"

"From what you said, Liu Cheng is a prized student of the Situ Residence. If he did this, it must be instigated by the Situ Residence. But the Situ Residence is the Empress’s maternal family, and the Empress’s son is the Crown Prince. Situ Residence surely stands with the Empress; shouldn’t they try to win you over for the Crown Prince? Why would they offend you?"

Ye Haoxuan laughed at her words, "You think too much."

"Isn’t it so?"

"Some things you don’t understand." Ye Haoxuan sighed, the Empress wants to win over the Ye Family, but as the main backers of the Crown Prince, they don’t want someone to challenge their position. They’d rather weaken the Ye Family’s influence so the Ye Family loses sway with the Emperor.

If they can take the Ye Family’s power for themselves, all the better, like Ye Haoyang’s military authority.

In doing so, they won’t lose their leading position with the Crown Prince. When the Crown Prince ascends the throne, they’ll be his only reliance, leading to a boundless future for the Situ family. Furthermore, without influence, other princes won’t court the Ye Family, so the possibility of the Ye Family supporting another prince won’t exist.

He could even guess why the Situ Family arranged for Huang Manli to approach them.

After the parents’ painful loss of Yueyue, the appearance of someone similar in front of them could very likely make the parents spoil Huang Manli as a substitute for Yueyue.

By then, Huang Manli could come and go freely in the Ye Residence, and whatever the Situ Family wants to achieve through Huang Manli would be too easy.

"Alright, I don’t understand." Li Luru held her chin, blinking, "But being schemed against like this and doing nothing, don’t you feel it’s a loss?"

Ye Haoxuan chuckled, "Do I look like someone who takes losses?"

The offenses Liu Cheng committed, he didn’t even need to say much. Just reporting the events from Heng River to Jingzhou about why he was investigating Liu Cheng, the Emperor would naturally make a conclusion.

And even if the Emperor does nothing, he has his plans. In any case, the mastermind won’t come out well.

"Oh!"

"You care a lot about me?" Seeing her frowning, Ye Haoxuan moved a bit closer to her.

"Who..." Li Luru instinctively wanted to refute, but meeting his smiling eyes, she changed her words, "Well, we’ve gone through hardships together, we can count as friends, right? Isn’t it normal to care about friends?"

"Is that all?"

"Of course!" Li Luru nodded affirmatively.

Ye Haoxuan smiled faintly, saying nothing, just looking at her until her face turned red and her heart beat like a drum, then he sat upright.

Seeing he didn’t press further, Li Luru breathed a sigh of relief, silently cursing herself for being so useless, what was she feeling guilty about?

"Xiaobai is leading us north?" Ye Haoxuan saw the flying bird from inside the carriage and was puzzled. Could it be that he came from the north, and there were still other places he hadn’t checked?