The Dramatic Crown Princess Wants to Poison Me!

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Reason

In the royal family, establishing the heir and prioritizing the legitimate and the eldest, even if the Crown Prince is wise and his position secure, when the day comes for the Crown Prince to ascend the throne, as long as Huangfu Hongyi is not utterly useless and universally despised, the position of heir will not fall to him!

Moreover, now?

The current circumstances within the court and the Emperor’s attitude were observed keenly by Huangfu Yuxuan.

Though just at the age of maturity, he was exceptionally shrewd, and from a young age, understood how to cultivate his own influence.

The reason for his departure from the Capital this time also had a cause.

A hundred years ago, Anping Taoist, the State Preceptor of Nanxia Country, was anything but peaceful. He attempted to harm the sovereign and support a puppet emperor to control the court. His plot was exposed, and he died a brutal death by dismemberment. Since then, Nanxia no longer appointed a State Preceptor.

However, they established the Astronomical Observatory.

The Director of the Astronomical Bureau is only a Fourth Rank official, far lower in status and influence than the State Preceptor.

This generation’s Director of the Astronomical Bureau, Gongyang Puyu, by chance, acquired a lost fragment of the Stargazing Method. It is said that this method is extremely magical, capable of predicting an individual’s future through their appearance, observing the country’s fate through celestial phenomena, and determining fortune and misfortune through divination.

In his early years, Gongyang Puyu once met Huangfu Yuxuan and believed him to be a person with great fortune and wealth and paid much attention to him.

Through several instances of probing, Huangfu Yuxuan also felt that Gongyang Puyu, unlike his predecessors, had some genuine abilities and deliberately befriended him.

For Gongyang Puyu’s full assistance, Huangfu Yuxuan promised: if the day he ascends to the throne comes, Gongyang Puyu’s contribution as a dragon handler will be rewarded by making him the State Preceptor!

Becoming the State Preceptor was Gongyang Puyu’s greatest wish in life, so he regarded Huangfu Yuxuan as his future master and worked diligently.

Two months ago, on the current Holy Emperor’s sixty-fifth birthday, a decree was issued for the Imperial Grandsons to return to the Capital to celebrate.

The apparent meaning of this decree was that the various Princes were allotted land and should not move lightly, and since this birthday was not a major one, only the grandchildren were summoned back to the Capital to allow the Emperor a few days of familial joy with his grandchildren around him.

But after calculating with Huangfu Yuxuan, Gongyang Puyu guessed that the Emperor’s intentions might not be as they seemed.

This was clearly not about summoning grandchildren to enjoy family happiness but was evidently seeing that the Crown Prince was disappointing, and so was the Crown Prince’s eldest son, while Prince Zhuang, Prince Zhou, and Prince Li, among other Princes, were either intelligent and capable, or brave and decisive, or shrewd and adept... all far superior to the Crown Prince and could serve as heirs.

Now it was just about seeing which Imperial Grandson stood out the most, so that Nanxia could at least prosper for two more generations.

Since he was young, Huangfu Yuxuan harbored great ambitions. Although the Emperor’s thoughts couldn’t be clearly understood, they had to be guarded against. After their discussion, Gongyang Puyu gazed at the stars and conducted divination every night and indeed discovered something unusual.

The Crown Prince’s star of heirship was dim, teetering on the edge, while the stars of the various Princes showed signs of rekindling, surrounding the heir star with an ever more imposing posture, suggesting a seeming intimidation.

And among the constellations bearing the fortune, originally positioned in the Capital, Gongyang Puyu determined it to belong to Huangfu Yuxuan. But now, this star had dimmed significantly, while there were two stars seemingly on par with it, and two more were slightly brighter than the rest.

The heir star was weak, and the fortune star was not on the heir star, which was already abnormal. If it were on Huangfu Yuxuan, nothing would be alarming, as he was the Crown Prince’s son. But now with this fortune star weakened, doesn’t it imply that the Crown Prince’s faction’s power has diminished greatly? Can the position of the Eastern Palace still be secured?

This constellation is unprecedentedly chaotic!

However, Gongyang Puyu remarked that this was both a bad and a good phenomenon.

The bad part is that the Crown Prince is incompetent, and the Emperor is extremely dissatisfied with him, truly considering a change in heir and is currently assessing which among the Princes is more suitable.

The good part, however, lies in the chaos of the constellation, indicating the Emperor’s mind is not yet made up, and anyone could have the opportunity if they can recognize the chance and strategize just a step ahead.

If the Emperor’s mind were made up, it would be truly irreversible!

But this is merely a glimmer of hope amid misfortune, and the situation is decidedly unfavorable for Huangfu Yuxuan.

This made Huangfu Yuxuan extremely anxious, as all of his ambitions and dreams depended upon the stability of the Crown Prince’s position. If the Crown Prince’s position were shaken, the effort and energy he had to put in would be immeasurable.

The Crown Prince was overly inactive, and if he were merely mediocre, it might have sufficed, but not accounting for his previous misdeeds, merely within this year, his endeavors to build a Separate Courtyard with grand construction, pompous extravagance, and forcibly occupying lands have caused public resentment and outrage.

This is not something a Crown Prince should do!

However, a month ago, Ningzhou was hit by a flood, and the court needed to dispatch someone for disaster relief. Coincidentally, the Ministry of Revenue was well-funded this time, so as long as those in charge were slightly competent, the relief work could be executed admirably.

The Crown Prince was already in the negatives in the Emperor’s heart, and Huangfu Yuxuan saw this as an opportunity for the Crown Prince to rebuild his image in the Emperor’s mind. After much persuading, he finally got the Crown Prince to agree to volunteer for the disaster relief mission.

The Crown Prince’s initiative pleased the Emperor as well.

But these efforts were clearly not enough to secure his position.

The threats needed to be eliminated as well.

Among the stars observed by Gongyang Puyu, the star bearing fortune was not yet mature; if it were eliminated, it could be done once and for all.

And the people who were siphoning the heir star’s fortune, after constant star-gazing and geomancy, led Huangfu Yuxuan to secretly inspect the Imperial Family Jade Scroll, acquiring their birthdates, and using the fragment of the Stargazing Method to investigate and calculate, ultimately discovering Huangfu Hongzhi, the seventh son of Prince Zhuang; Huangfu Jinglun, the third son of Prince Li; and Huangfu Taihe, the youngest son of Prince Lu, as those dividing Huangfu Yuxuan’s fortune. This matched the previous star observations.

Coincidentally, at the Emperor’s birthday, these individuals had all entered the Capital for the celebrations.

After residing in the Capital for a month, they returned to their respective fathers’ fiefs.

Prince Cheng’s Heir, Huangfu Jingchen, was not in Gongyang Puyu’s calculations, yet during that month’s stay in the Capital, all the Imperial Grandsons appeared before the Capital’s populace, showcasing their strengths and weaknesses for all to see.

This Prince Cheng’s Heir appeared dignified and pure, with a sublime and exquisite persona, both learned and martial, intelligent, kind, and notably handsome, akin to an immortal descended from heaven.

Humble but not to be taken lightly, noble yet retaining elegance, embodying both the grandeur and clarity of an Imperial Grandson and the unbridled spirit of youth!

Yunzhou was far from the Capital; the last time Huangfu Jingchen visited the Capital, he was only ten, a mere child then, leaving no strong impression. But this time, he had transformed remarkably.

The boy had grown!

Although only in the Capital for a month, most courtiers who saw him couldn’t help but praise him: This young man is extraordinary!

Reportedly, after a conversation with him, Mr. Gu Hanmo, the First Rank Grand Scholar and Dean of Wenbo Academy, voluntarily offered to accept him as a student.

This Mr. Gu, not only the foremost Confucian scholar in Nanxia, but also a world-renowned great scholar, his favor and attention can change someone’s life, let alone the fact that this person is an Imperial Grandson?

Huangfu Jingchen did not become Mr. Gu’s student, but he attracted considerable caution from Huangfu Yuxuan.

So, even though this individual was not in Gongyang Puyu’s calculations, Huangfu Yuxuan still included him on the list.