Prince Lian was furious. He blew his beard and glared. "How dare you talk to this prince like this! Do you believe this prince won't report you to the Minister of the Supreme Court?"
"Your Highness is welcome to do so. If you're not afraid that we'll expose all the things you've done, then we're not afraid of whatever else you might do."
Hearing this, Prince Lian raised his eyebrows. A sense of foreboding crept over him.
"What kind of leverage could you possibly have against this prince? All our previous meetings were held directly in the teahouse."
"What if we've known from the very beginning that Your Highness has colluded with the envoy?"
This piece of news was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, hitting Prince Lian hard.
He had thought that his actions were well - concealed. He never expected that there would be a slip in his perfect plan, and these two people would discover his secret.
"This is just a misunderstanding. This prince has nothing to do with the envoy."
As he spoke, a hint of coldness flashed in his eyes. He was already thinking about how to deal with these two people who knew the inside story.
However, these two were old hands in the officialdom. How could they not see his thoughts?
"Your Highness, don't even think about doing anything to us. Now the Empress Dowager has entrusted us with the matter of this rumor. If you push us too far, we might as well all perish together. Moreover, we have a lot of evidence against Your Highness. Just the fact that you never corresponded with us in writing allows us to get out of this easily. But you've corresponded with the envoy more than once."
Prince Lian had been in the officialdom for so many years that it had been a long time since anyone dared to threaten him. The last person who threatened him now had tall grass on his grave.
He frowned and looked at the two men, his tone clearly threatening.
"Tell me, what exactly do you want?"
"It's very simple. We've heard that Your Highness has two very valuable antiques. But Your Highness never seems to know how to cherish them. We're different. We've been fond of antiques for many years and know how to protect them."
These two were really audacious. They dared to set their sights on his antiques right from the start. They weren't afraid that they would choke on them instead of being able to enjoy them.
"Such important items, this prince will surely not hand them over to you easily. Besides, you've already gone back on your words and threatened this prince. How can this prince be sure that you won't bite back after getting the items?"
His concerns were not unfounded. The two men thought for a while and finally made a concession.
"Well, we actually have some of your letters in our hands. We'll exchange them for the antiques. One thing for another. This should be fair, right?"
It did sound good. Prince Lian did some quick mental calculations and soon agreed.
This scene of the two parties reaching an agreement was seen by someone not far away.
"Your Majesty, should we continue to follow them?"
"No. Send someone to protect those two officials. I'm sure someone will soon make a move. Our prince won't let them live for long."
"Yes."
...
Night fell quickly. When no one was paying attention, a large number of dark figures suddenly appeared in the mansions of the two officials.
The shadow guards crouching on the trees looked at the dark figures and helplessly rubbed their foreheads. "Why does His Majesty always guess correctly? It seems we'll have a task tonight again."
Several shadow guards shuttled through the darkness. Before long, many people were lying in the courtyard.
When the two officials heard the noise and came out, they were startled to see so many people lying haphazardly in the courtyard.
"What on earth is going on?"
When the official came out, there were still some dark figures not yet cleared from the courtyard. Those figures rushed towards him excitedly when they saw him. If the shadow guards hadn't reacted quickly, he might have ended up lying there too.
The shadow guard pushed the official away and said in a rather bad tone.
"If you don't want to die, get in quickly. We'll call you out when we've taken care of this."
Perhaps for the sake of his own life, the official didn't argue too much. He turned around and closed the door tightly. Outside, it was in a complete mess again, and the sound of fighting occasionally reached the official's ears. He curled up under the quilt.
When there was a knock on the door, he was startled and almost jumped out of his skin. It was his concubine beside him who quickly calmed down and opened the door.
The official regained his composure, coughed twice, and walked to the door.
"May I ask who you are? Why did you suddenly appear here and protect me?"
Hearing this, the shadow guard didn't intend to reveal his identity.
"Don't worry. We'll stay here to protect you. But you don't need to ask about our identities. There are some things you're not supposed to know. You just need to stay here safely."
Hearing this, the official had no choice but to give up other thoughts and asked about the identities of those dark figures.
"Why don't you go and take a look for yourself?"
The shadow guard was really blunt. The official had no choice but to go and check himself.
However, as soon as he got close to those people, a dark figure who was still barely alive suddenly launched a sneak attack.
Fortunately, the shadow guard reacted faster and didn't give the dark figure a chance to succeed.
Seeing that the dark figure on the ground no longer moved, the official let out a long sigh of relief and slumped to the ground.
He trembled as he lifted the mask of the dark figure. A familiar face came into view.
"Isn't this the guard beside His Highness?"
He clearly remembered that this guard always accompanied Prince Lian on various occasions. Even when the prince entered the palace, he would wait outside.
He trembled as he put down his hand. It seemed that he understood something in his mind.
What had happened during the day, and Prince Lian valued those two antiques so much. Even if he was threatened, he surely wouldn't hand them over easily. So this was all a trap he had set.
He never intended to hand the items over to himself and his companion.
After the official figured it out, he gasped and his face turned gloomy.
"I never thought he would really try to kill me. It seems he doesn't intend to get his things back."
The shadow guard watched the official's changing expression without saying a word.
His Majesty had only sent him here to protect the official's safety and had given no other instructions. As for what the official wanted to do, he wouldn't stop him.
At this moment, the official who had figured everything out stood up from the ground and told his servants to clean up all the corpses.
He turned to look at the shadow guard following him. "Sir, would you accompany me out? I have something very important to do, and I may encounter danger."