"Are you saying that my son, Xue Qinghe, Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, intends to rebel against me?" Xue Ye looked at Ge Long, who was kneeling on one knee. "It is not that I am unwilling to believe you, but I truly cannot find a reason. A few decades from now, will the Heaven Dou Empire not still be handed over to him, the Crown Prince?"
"I do not wish to believe it either!"
"I cannot understand it either!"
"But those rebels I killed all made the same claim!"
"Please reconsider, Your Majesty!"
Ge Long remained kneeling.
His sincere attitude gave Xue Ye much to think about.
It also spared him the fatal disaster that might otherwise have befallen him.
But Xue Ye saw things differently.
"Ge Long, tell me—if a thief stole something from another person, would he publicize it so everyone knew?" With a single question, Xue Ye led Ge Long's thoughts astray. Before Ge Long could fully work through the logic, Xue Ye's conclusion brought the matter to an absurd close. "I have four sons. My eldest is wise and capable; my second and third sons were frail and died young; my fourth son is unlikely to amount to much. Yet my imperial brother thinks highly of my fourth son. If I were him, I would certainly use Qinghe's rebellion as an excuse to lead troops into the palace, purge the traitors around the ruler, and support my fourth son's ascension to the throne..."
"Your Majesty..." Ge Long stared in stunned disbelief. "You mean this was not the Crown Prince's doing, but a scheme devised by Fourth Prince Xue Beng and Prince Xue Xing?"
"What else could it be?" Qian Renxue's disguise had been too flawless over the years. Xue Ye had never once