Let us turn back time by a quarter of an hour, to the moment when the Shang Family suddenly erupted in explosions and fire.
Before this, Shang Xuanwen had already split his forces once, sending Golden Guard Commander Chen Zaiyuan and his men to put out the fire at the armory while he led others into the palace to inspect the situation. Now that something had happened to the Shang Family, Shang Xuanwen chose to return there first after a brief hesitation. Besides him, the prime minister, many others would rush to the palace to protect the emperor, but the Shang Family had only him, its patriarch, to protect it.
But he did not take the shortest route back. If the first fire at the armory had been meant to cause chaos, and the second fire at the palace had been intended to assassinate the imperial family, then the third fire at the Shang residence could only have been meant for him. The enemy needed him to grow anxious, needed him to become enraged, needed him to lose his composure. He absolutely could not give them what they wanted.
The road that could get him back to the Shang residence fastest was very likely rigged with traps. Rushing in recklessly would be the same as voluntarily stepping onto a battlefield the enemy had prepared long in advance. So he could not hurry now. Instead, he had to be slow, steady, and travel along the main road, letting everyone know that the Grand Liang prime minister was returning to his residence!
Shang Xuanwen had always liked concealing his identity and manipulating people, but that did not mean he was a schemer lurking in the darkness. He was the prime minister of a nation. Why should he bother with all those schemes,