"Uncle, if you arrest someone without even investigating the whole story, wouldn't that do even greater harm to our Empire's prestige?"
Hearing someone speak up for him, Ma Hongjun could not help looking closely.
The girl was young, looking only thirteen or fourteen, with neat, short white hair. Although her clothes looked light and cool, they still gave her a dignified, proper appearance. Her bearing resembled Ning Rongrong's; she clearly came from nobility.
But she was more delicate, like a little bird raised in a greenhouse, making people want to protect her.
And now, this girl stood in front of Ma Hongjun, looking very much as though they would have to arrest her before they could arrest him.
At her words, the middle-aged man frowned. "Xue Ke, you've been at the Moonlight Pavilion for a few weeks now, haven't you? Is this place teaching you to turn your elbow outward and side with outsiders?"
The man Xue Ke called uncle was, naturally, Prince Xue Xing. At that moment, Prince Xue Xing also found himself in a difficult position. It should have been a simple matter of arresting someone and taking him back, but Xue Ke's intervention had changed things.
Xue Ke and the Crown Prince shared the same mother, the empress, while Xue Beng and the second and third princes, who had died of illness, were born to the imperial consort. That brought court struggles into the picture.
Still, the outcome of that court struggle was already quite obvious. The imperial consort had been dead for several years, and the second and third princes, who could have competed for the throne, had also passed away one after another, leaving the Crown Prince Faction unrivaled.
Even so, matters within the court were to be settled within the court. Now that Xue