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Chapter 675 One after another
Faced with this question, Lin Kun hesitated slightly, glanced at Chang Yu, and then said, "Before the incident, the young master did indeed have some disputes with the prince."

After the death of the renowned physician, the prince was deeply affected and became somewhat depressed. The heir and several other young masters were worried about the prince's health and wanted to find another famous doctor to treat him, but the prince refused.

Then the prince suddenly made a decision, saying that when he was sick before, some of the medicinal materials he needed were not easy to find in Lan, which caused a lot of inconvenience. Therefore, he should let the people below plant more medicinal materials, especially rare ones.

After these words, some people began to use the prince's name to secretly seize the people's land. Regardless of whether it was originally used to grow flowers, dyes, or grains, it was all converted to grow medicinal herbs, the kind that were rare but which ordinary people might never have the chance to use in their lifetime.

About a year later, the prince sent people to fence off land to grow rare and precious spices, saying that these were the favorites of nobles in the capital. If he could not win the favor of the nobles, he would not be able to bring peace to Lan.

At this time, due to the large-scale planting of medicinal herbs, food was already in short supply in Lan Di. In addition, the harvest that year was already bad, and famine began to appear in various places. It would be inappropriate for the prince to want people to plant some precious spices at this time.

Therefore, the Crown Prince was the first to stand up and persuade him to stop, and the Second Prince and the Third Prince expressed the same sentiment.

However, despite the resolute attitude and reasoned arguments of the Crown Prince and his two sons, they were still unable to persuade the Prince, and this incident left a slight rift between them.

Just a few months later, the planting of precious spices indeed aroused public resentment. In order to quell the public grievances and solve the problem of people not having enough to eat, the Crown Prince was involved in an accident not long after.

Within six months of his service, the other young masters also passed away one after another…

Lin Kun knew what Lu Qing meant by asking him earlier, so he paused, his expression slightly puzzled: "Although the saying 'even tigers don't eat their cubs' isn't always true, even so, it might be more reasonable to say that the Crown Prince, the Second Young Master, and the Third Young Master would be considered..."

But... but what about the young master? He was still young when the accident happened, and he had never been involved in the affairs of Lan Di. Doesn't that seem a bit illogical?"

"As far as I know, His Majesty was unaware of the unexpected death of the Crown Prince of Landi. Landi has never submitted a memorial to the court to report on this matter, nor has it ever requested the court to appoint a new Crown Prince."

"After your heir's accident, the other young masters shouldn't all be mediocre, so that Prince Lan couldn't make a choice among them, right?" Lu Qing raised another question.

When asked this, Lin Kun remembered something else: "After the Crown Prince's accident, someone did ask Your Highness to report the matter to the court and then let the Second Prince take over the Crown Prince's position."

However, the prince ignored them and instead privately summoned the three sons to his study. He told them that now that their eldest brother was no longer alive, they all had a chance to compete for the title of heir apparent, but only the most outstanding son would have the opportunity to obtain it.

The young master was young at the time, and the other two young masters also had no intention of competing with their brothers, so the prince's private talks with them did not affect the relationship between the brothers.

We all initially thought the young masters were kind and respectful to each other, and wouldn't vie for the position of heir. We assumed the prince would then petition the court to make the second young master the heir. But then... all three young masters subsequently met with misfortune...

The Crown Princess was also wary and suggested taking the young master back to her parents' home for a while. The Prince readily agreed without any hesitation. Previously, we were deeply troubled by the Crown Prince's accident, feeling that with his skills, he shouldn't have encountered such an unfortunate situation. We also found it unbelievable that he would go hunting and riding in the midst of his busy schedule. After learning that the Crown Princess wanted to take the young master on a long trip back to her parents' home, we felt even more uneasy.

So we steeled ourselves, made preparations in advance, and sneaked out to lie in wait. Sure enough, we discovered that someone disguised as a bandit attacked the Crown Princess's convoy on the way.

Unfortunately, those people were full of murderous intent. Despite our best efforts, we were still unable to save the Crown Princess and could only take the young master and hide in the deep mountains.

From that moment on, we could never return to the Prince's Mansion. We have been working hard to protect the young master as he grew up, waiting for the right opportunity, and we have been waiting for more than ten years, until now..."

Recalling the past, Lin Kun couldn't help but feel a deep sadness, his heart filled with sorrow.

After listening for so long, Zhu Yu became more and more convinced of her guess. She glanced at Lu Qing and saw that Lu Qing was also looking at her.

Lu Qing could tell from Zhu Yu's eyes that she had something to say, so he nodded to her: "Please speak freely, Chief Secretary Yu."

Lin Kun and the others had been secretly guessing Zhu Yu's identity, but Lu Qing's words this time have revealed the truth to them.

“I would like to ask this Brother Lin,” Zhu Yu began, subtly changing his form of address. Since Lin Kun had already been quite frank, it wouldn’t hurt to try and build a closer relationship between them. “When you were a guard at the Prince Lan’s residence, you must have had quite a bit of prestige, right?”

Lin Kun didn't deny it, nor did he show any resistance to Zhu Yu's change of address. He nodded and said, "Back then, I was the head guard in the Prince's mansion. But that was just a job given to me by the Prince. On weekdays, my duties and those of my brothers were the same, and there was no difference between us."

"You brought so many brothers with you when you escaped. That number isn't a lot, but it's not a small number either. Wouldn't that have affected the defenses of the Prince Lan's mansion and left it vulnerable?"

"That's not the case. After the divine physician died, the prince suddenly became very worried about his safety for some reason, so he recruited soldiers and expanded the number of guards inside and outside the palace several times over."

There were many people there whom we were not familiar with or even knew, so before leaving, to be on the safe side, we only secretly contacted brothers we knew well.

Even after we left, given the number of guards inside and outside the mansion at the time, there would be no shortage of manpower.

Lin Kun was somewhat puzzled, wondering why Yu Changshi, who served the Imperial Censor, was so interested in these matters.

Zhu Yu was not surprised to hear him say that, and then asked, "After you went into hiding, did the Prince of Lan post notices and conduct a large-scale search to arrest you? Especially Brother Lin, were your portraits drawn and posted everywhere to arrest you?"