Only after the others had left, leaving just the two of them in the room, did Gui Junxi draw a roll of paper from his sleeve and hand it over. This was his true purpose in coming: to discuss this matter with Prince Lu.
"Your Highness, what matters now is not investigating who was behind it, but Shuntian Prefecture's latest report. Please take a look."
Prince Lu took the roll of paper without much thought. He had assumed that, however serious it was, it could only concern a problem with his own bloodline, perhaps even implicating his consort. But when he unrolled it, the gravity of its contents far exceeded anything he had imagined. His whole body began to tremble as he read.
"So that's it! That vile slave, that vile slave! He dared slander my mother! He deserves death-his property should be confiscated and his entire clan exterminated!" So this was the root of the sudden decree stripping him of his princely title!
"That vile slave was mad enough to claim my mother only conceived me after going to offer incense!"
Everything he had failed to understand before now became clear!
How could trouble in his inner household alone have enraged his imperial father so much that he stripped him of his princely title and reduced him to a commoner? It turned out his father suspected that he was not his son at all!
This insult defiled not only his mother but him as well. It left him as sickened and furious as if he had swallowed maggots!
Prince Lu ground his teeth, then suddenly tore viciously at the paper, ripping it to shreds in a few pulls. He kicked over the table in front of him, but even that failed to vent his hatred. He roared, **"I'll kill