The Road

"Li Yunqing said he's already set out."

"I know."

"Hm? How did you know?"

"The troops in his hands were loaned to him by me for free. Where do you think I found out?"

"Whoa, the Underground Palace remnants can already form an army?"

"No. I'm the Crown Prince of the Prime Minister's Mansion now—couldn't the troops I loaned him be the Black Scale Army?"

"Listen to yourself. You're not drinking this time?"

"I've quit for now."

"What kind of quitting is 'for now'?"

"I'm annoyed. The more I drink, the more annoyed I get, so I quit."

"Looks like you're in much the same state. Being Crown Prince isn't easy, especially in the Prime Minister's Estate your father built."

The powerful and wealthy never lacked villas and estates amid magnificent scenery. Upon a sheer cliff where not a bird flew across a thousand mountains, a residence overlooking a sea of forest was embedded into the rock.

Within it, two people sat facing each other on a red sandalwood terrace.

The woman wore crimson, dashing and breathtakingly beautiful.

The man wore black robes, handsome in a languid, carefree way.

Xu Yuan glanced at the flock of cranes soaring through the clouds and forest sea, smacked his lips, and shot back irritably:

"Originally, you should have been just like me. My father said that during the Northern Hunt, your father laid his cards on the table with him. Back then, he'd planned to pass the position on to you."

Li Qingyan rolled her eyes at the man across from her and said casually:

"But he changed his mind in the end, so this princess is free and easy now."

Xu Yuan snorted coldly.

"As long as your father isn't thoroughly dead, the position of heir apparent can always change."

At that,