Don't Ask Where People Go After Time Travel

Chapter 1700 Secretly
Fang Zilan turned to look at the figure under the pillar, "How long is Your Highness going to hide?"

"I'm not hiding." Li Qiyou stepped out, his expression inscrutable.

"If it's not hiding, then what is it?" Fang Zilan raised an eyebrow. "Could it be self-blame?"

As if his secret had been exposed, Li Qiyou's face turned pale and then red, and he opened his mouth but no sound came out.

“Your Highness, what the Dugu family did can be seen as for your royal ambitions,” Fang Zilan said calmly. “But Dugu Linxiu is different, and the Fu Congnan she chose is even more different.”

As she spoke, her expression turned somewhat cold. "Not everyone in the world lives for you."

“That’s not what I meant.” Li Qiyou shook his head, his expression darkening slightly. “I just feel…”

"What do you think?" Fang Zilan interrupted Li Qiyou without any politeness, but he was not annoyed. "I am just a pretext for their ambitions."

His voice was very soft, but Fang Zilan heard it clearly, "Your Highness is right. It's true that you are their pretext for doing whatever they want, but their ambition..."

She paused deliberately for a moment, "Is it really only them who have it?"

Li Qiyou's expression froze, and Fang Zilan continued, "To borrow a phrase Princess Dejia often uses, she is the most noble princess in the entire capital. And you are the most noble prince in the entire capital, second only to the emperor. It's not surprising that you have ambitions, is it?"

She stared intently at Li Qiyou, stepped forward, and whispered in his ear in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Does Your Highness intend to deny it?"

Li Qiyou subconsciously took a step back, widening the distance between them. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

"Your Highness need not answer me," Fang Zilan smiled slightly. "As long as you have the answer in your heart, that's enough."

"I don't deny it," Li Qiyou said frankly. "Lady Crown Prince, what are your ambitions?"

"How does Your Highness know that I also have ambitions?" Fang Zilan's smile faded, and Li Qiyou's hand, hidden in his sleeve, clenched into a fist. "If you have no ambitions, why do you stir up trouble between Dajing and Miluo, manipulating events?"

Fang Zilan pursed her lips, her expression sharpening. "Does Your Highness think I'm manipulative?"

Before she could finish speaking, Li Qiyou sensed something was wrong. However, before he could say anything, she said, "Which case in the court right now wasn't caused by those in high positions manipulating events at will? I and the Fang family were implicated and had no choice but to be caught up in it. Yet Your Highness still thinks I'm the one who manipulates events?"

She became more and more agitated as she spoke, and at the end she couldn't help but cough a few times. Li Qiyou wanted to check on her condition, but she brushed him aside.

"I..." Li Qiyou hesitated, but Fang Zilan pressed on, "May I ask Your Highness, if I weren't here today, would none of this have happened?"

"I don't know." Li Qiyou shook his head, his eyes showing obvious confusion.

"I am here only for fairness." Fang Zilan's face was frosty. "If Your Highness can step forward to take charge of the situation, restore fairness to everyone, and reveal the truth to the world, I will immediately accompany the Crown Prince to the capital as a hostage. Your Highness, can you do it?"

Fang Zilan shook her head. "I find this matter suspicious. No matter who you look at it from, a rebellion has no chance of succeeding. Given this, what benefit does Wei Changtai gain besides risking his own life and dragging the Wei family down with him?" Everyone present was a military officer, and even if they weren't directly under the Wei family's control, they were all closely connected to the Ministry of War, which was under the Wei family's control. Therefore, few people considered the possibility of dragging the Wei family down with them. Now that Fang Zilan had directly exposed their suspicions, they all involuntarily looked at Li Shengxuan.

Li Shengxuan seemed to be deep in thought. "What are your thoughts, everyone? Feel free to share your opinions."

For a moment, no one spoke. After a while, Xiahou Zhang stepped forward and said, "The Wei clan has produced such a rebellious person, so it's inevitable that they will be implicated. At the very least, it's due to oversight. However, the members of the Wei clan are all different. The Duke of Wei will bear the brunt, but as for the others..."

He didn't finish his sentence. Fang Zilan's heart skipped a beat. Given Li Shengxuan's temperament, aside from the main culprits and accomplices, those implicated wouldn't be punished too severely, even if they were. It wasn't impossible that Wei Yi might use this opportunity to suppress Wei Ang and vie for the position of family head.

"Lord Xiahou, you are mistaken." Huangfu Xin said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "This time, Wei Changtai's rebellion was bound to fail, but if Duke Wei had not discovered it in time, there might have been a disaster. Even if Duke Wei was negligent, his merits and demerits can offset each other."

Upon hearing this, everyone's gaze fell on Huangfu Xin, as if no one expected him to stand up and speak for Wei Mao.

“General Huangfu’s words are reasonable, but merits and demerits, rewards and punishments are always decided by His Majesty. You must not overstep your bounds,” Fang Zilan said lightly, but Huangfu Xin remained unmoved. “Does Lord Fang think it is the Duke of Wei’s fault?”

Fang Zilan frowned slightly. "General Huangfu, what makes you say that?"

"I've heard that someone from Lord Fang's household is involved in this," Huangfu Xin said calmly. "I thought Lord Fang wanted to pin the blame on the Duke of Wei in order to exonerate that person."

Fang Zilan took a deep breath, but before she could say anything, a general beside her asked suspiciously, "So, someone from Lord Fang's household was involved?"

"Yes." Huangfu Xin nodded and said, "Shangguan Min from Lord Fang's residence has also gone to the camp in the suburbs of the capital."

Fang Zilan clenched her fists, completely suspecting Huangfuxin. Before he spoke, no one knew Shangguan Min was at the camp outside the capital; how did he know?
The situation remains unclear, but Huangfu Xin's intervention suggests he's also involved. However, his actions are far too deliberate—deliberately bringing up Shangguan Min, deliberately pointing the finger at her, and intentionally arousing her suspicion…

Fang Zilan felt her doubts growing. Why did Huangfu Xin have to get involved in this mess? He could have simply kept quiet and distanced himself from Huangfu Lin and the entire Huangfu family.

"Shangguan Min? Shouldn't he be in the northern border?" "Yes, why would Shangguan Min be at the camp outside the capital?"...

As expected, the entire palace was instantly filled with discussions. The crowd, upon hearing the news, was like boiling water that nearly overflowed.

"Silence!" Xiahou Zhang suddenly raised his voice, forcibly silencing everyone. "What kind of behavior is this, making such a racket?"

The crowd quieted down, but they still looked at each other, their eyes still meeting.

Li Shengxuan remained calm, staring intently at Fang Zilan, and asked, "Is what Huangfuxin said true?"

"I don't know," Fang Zilan said frankly. "I trust Shangguan Min. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe he would be involved in a rebellion."

“You know Shangguan Min’s identity better than anyone else,” Li Shengxuan pressed. “If he was indeed involved, what are your intentions?”

“If Shangguan Min was indeed involved, I will kill him with my own hands.” Fang Zilan said coldly, word by word, “Then I will come to apologize to His Majesty.”