Little did he know that most people in the imperial palace connected to the princes' factions had been secretly dealt with. Even Consort Xue, the emperor's most beloved consort, had made her allegiance clear overnight and put all her improper ambitions to rest.
The Eleventh Prince had also requested fewer audiences. With changes this sweeping, everyone in the palace understood what was happening and kept it firmly in mind, constantly reminding themselves not to listen to, ask about, or say anything they shouldn't.
As for the Empress, her involvement in the affair had been relatively minor, so she had been sent to Nanli Temple for secluded cultivation. On the surface, she was praying for the emperor's blessings, but many knew that she would have suffered far worse had she remained in the palace. Sending her away was merely the Crown Prince's way of taking their past into account.
He had shown her a little mercy, that was all.
Rumors in Capital City gradually multiplied. The most widespread was that the current Crown Prince's supposed madness had been a fabrication, with explicit claims that the fugitive Fourth Prince had spread those false rumors.
This made the common people despise the Fourth Prince all the more. The Crown Prince was the Chosen One selected by the Divine Dragon himself-how could there possibly be anything wrong with him? Besides, the soldiers had all spread accounts of his heroic battle against the enemy that day, turning them into glowing praise. And what had the Fourth Prince been doing at the time?
Hiding in Capital City!
With such an obvious contrast, the common people weren't fools.
So whenever someone spread malicious false rumors about the current Crown Prince, the common people would snap back on the spot, "You bastards! Have you got nothing better to