Where did you hang the princess?!

Chu Lu held his forehead, feeling on the verge of a breakdown.

Initially, seeing the Prince Consort deploy troops for an ambush and then attempt a surprise attack, Chu Lu thought he'd encountered a brute from a male-oriented novel within a female fiction setting. He hadn't expected this turn of events.

"Cuihua taught you this method, didn't she?" Chu Lu asked.

After all, this method had the same strong, peculiar flavor as falsely accusing an Imperial Consort with a Winnowing Basket, attacking the Emperor with the Imperial Sword, or using the Imperial Decree Tablet to save one's life.

The Prince Consort merely snorted, "Does that matter? The important thing is when you'll commit suicide?"

"I'm saying," Chu Lu sighed. Similar incidents kept happening, making him unable to even get angry anymore.

"Have you considered that I'm the Emperor? I can change the rules as I please," Chu Lu said. "Whether the Nine Generations of Kin include me is just a matter of my word. Even if you want to argue that ancestral laws cannot be changed, I can take a step back and issue a decree for divorce, or disown my sister. That way, you'll have no relation to our royal family, and the punishment of exterminating the Nine Generations of Kin won't reach me."

The Prince Consort froze, then turned deathly pale, stammering, "No! You can't do that!"

"Why?"

"That, this... No! It's just not allowed!" the Prince Consort shouted desperately.

"Sigh." Chu Lu stood up, no longer wanting to speak with this fool. He instructed his subordinates, "Take them and interrogate them under severe torture. I only need to know three things. One, where is Cuihua now? Two, what is their relationship with Cuihua? Three, where did her army come from? Report to me after you're done."

"As you command!"

Chu Lu left the main hall and found a side room to rest.

He felt a bit exhausted.

Yes, the continuous travel hadn't tired him, nor had fighting enemies at night, but the recent conversation had worn him out.

It was truly uncomfortable to have so much to vent but be unable to.

Chu Lu opened the Chat Group, wanting to vent to his fellow group members. However, after glancing at the chat logs, he fell into silence.

Xu Liniang: "Chu Lu is currently interrogating the Prince Consort. The Prince Consort will most likely die suddenly... Wow! There's even a method like that!"

Hua Honglian: "What method? Tell us quickly."

Luo Qingdie: "There's no way to stop Chu Lu, is there?"

Zhu Shanlin: "Even the Imperial Decree Tablet couldn't stop him. The Prince Consort can't say she's pregnant with your child, can she?"

Liu Ruyue: "Spoiler alert dog!"

Xu Liniang: "The Prince Consort used words to provoke Chu Lu into issuing a punishment of exterminating the Nine Generations of Kin, and Chu Lu is also within the Nine Generations of Kin. Now Chu Lu is in a difficult position, unable to kill or not kill!"

Hua Honglian: "Eh? Wait, that's right! They are related."

Luo Qingdie: "It can be like this!?"

Zhu Shanlin: "What a brilliant tactic! They actually found a loophole."

Liu Ruyue: "Terrifying."

Xu Liniang: "Oh dear, it's a pity it didn't work. Chu Lu still had the upper hand. He said he would sever their relationship through divorce or disownment, so they wouldn't be within the Nine Generations of Kin."

Hua Honglian: "Amazing!"

Luo Qingdie: "I knew it, he definitely couldn't stop Chu Lu."

Zhu Shanlin: "A battle of masters, what a feast for the eyes!"

Liu Ruyue: "It was worth dying for!"

Chu Lu: "..."

He silently closed the Chat Group, thinking he was truly exhausted to have considered venting to this group of clowns.

"Honestly, there should be some decent people in the female fiction section, right?" Chu Lu muttered to himself. "It would be nice if a few showed up."

Chu Lu considered himself generous; this kind of suffering shouldn't be endured alone.

Two hours later, the interrogation at the Prince Consort's mansion finally concluded.

Under severe torture, how could the pampered Prince Consort endure it? They spilled all the inside information like pouring beans.

After the soldiers compiled the confessions, they came to report.

While listening to the report, Chu Lu's expression was initially calm, but it gradually changed, from confusion to surprise, and then to bewilderment.

The confession answered the three questions Chu Lu had posed earlier, albeit in a way he had never anticipated.

Everything began in the Prince Consort's childhood. When the Prince Consort was lost in the mountains as a child, he met a little girl. They encouraged each other and found their way out of the mountains, forming a deep bond. The Prince Consort also gave the little girl a family heirloom jade pendant, but later, for some reason, the little girl suddenly disappeared.

Afterward, the Prince Consort grew up, participated in the imperial examinations, was chosen by the Princess, and they got married. They lived in harmony, and their lives should have continued like that.

But one day, Cuihua suddenly appeared and brought Jiang Xuening to the Prince Consort, saying she was the little girl from back then. The Prince Consort was overjoyed and took Jiang Xuening as a concubine. However, this aroused the Princess's jealousy and triggered a wave of internal strife.

Jiang Xuening cried and complained. In a fit of rage, the Prince Consort had the Princess exposed to the sun at the city gate for ten days.

When Chu Lu heard this, he almost fell off his seat.

He asked several times, and only when the soldier repeatedly assured him he wasn't joking did he grudgingly continue listening.

The story that followed was even more absurd.

The Princess couldn't endure it and died from being sunburnt. Only then did the Prince Consort panic. At this point, Cuihua reappeared, stating that the Princess's death couldn't be hidden forever, and if the Emperor found out, she would surely die. Faced with this situation, the Prince Consort had no choice but to rebel.

Cuihua also stated that she could help the Prince Consort recruit soldiers. So, the Prince Consort braced himself and agreed.

This was the origin of the Prince Consort's forces.

Then came the twist.

All of this was actually a setup.

Jiang Xuening wasn't the little girl from back then; she was a spy from the Miecchi Kingdom, currently at war with Dayan.

That's right, it was at this very moment that Chu Lu learned Dayan was at war.

Marquis Zhenbei was leading five hundred thousand troops to defend against foreign invaders and hold the border.

Focused on power, Chu Lu deliberately asked Xu Liniang for details while continuing to listen to the report.

Jiang Xuening was a spy, so the troops Cuihua had recruited were naturally also from the Miecchi Kingdom.

It turned out Cuihua had already been involved with the Miecchi Kingdom and intended to use the Prince Consort to establish forces within Dayan. When the time came, they could cooperate from the inside and outside, dealing a severe blow to Dayan.

Incidentally, the Prince Consort's true "white moonlight" was precisely the Princess.

It was said that when the servants of the Prince Consort's estate went to collect the Princess's body, they found the family heirloom jade pendant on her. Greed struck them, and one of them secretly kept it.

Because the truth was too convoluted, the soldiers, to be safe, cross-examined each other and verified their accounts.

The verification confirmed everything, but it accidentally shattered the Prince Consort's mental state.

Upon learning the truth, she became hysterical, endlessly shouting that Jiang Xuening must pay with her life.

Chu Lu: "..."

"Um, I need to go take a look," Chu Lu said after a pause. "Don't misunderstand, I'm not doubting you. I just... I just need to go see."

The soldier looked understanding.