Prince Qi watched this scene and secretly sneered. "Prince Dai thinks this will win him the Emperor's favor? But he has offended so many believers, offended who knew how many gods with divine powers and unknown backgrounds. How much trouble will that bring? Can Imperial favor and the Emperor's goodwill alone settle all that trouble? How naive!"
This was the greatest difference between laymen and experts.
Many people always believed that since they were working for the Emperor, if anything went wrong, the Emperor could always protect them—true, in most cases the Emperor could protect his ministers, but that also came at a price.
When the cunning hare died, the hunting hound was boiled; when the birds were gone, the good bow was put away. If one simply saw this as the Emperor tearing down the bridge after crossing the river, that was far too shallow. More often, public opinion could not be defied, and official opinion was even harder to defy. As for hunting hounds and fine bows that had provoked public outrage, if the Emperor did not pay the price to protect them, they would naturally be reduced to ashes.
Prince Shu thought the same. "Prince Dai doesn't really think that if he obediently follows orders, Father Emperor will turn around and support him, does he? Establishing a Crown Prince or Imperial Grandson may be a choice Father Emperor settled upon, but which of the forces pushing the succession struggle is unimportant? Even Father Emperor would not become enemies with too many factions for Prince Dai's sake."
Though forcing the Emperor to appoint an heir was clearly a road that led nowhere, the reverse was equally true.
Wanting to be named heir solely through the Emperor's favor was not very feasible either.
The former Prince Dai might still