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Chapter 648: A Complicated Affair

The fifth prince laughed gaily. "Haha, very well! What I have the most of in this world is money. Very well—I\'ll acquire my strength by accumulating as much treasure as I can!"

The Wang clan head continued, "Fifth prince, if there\'s nothing else, I\'ll be leaving now. If I spend too long talking with you, I might rouse the other princes\' suspicions."

The fifth prince bowed toward him. "Farewell, clan head Wang."

The Wang clan head bowed and turned to leave. After strolling well away from the fifth prince, he turned to the sky. "Third prince, I understand very well not to put all my eggs in one basket."

Zhang Lie recounted the entire sordid tale to the ninth prince, who began to laugh in earnest. "Amazing, amazing! I bet the fifth prince and the Wang clan head didn\'t expect to be overheard at all."

"What\'s your perspective on the matter?"

The ninth prince poured himself a cup of tea. "I wouldn\'t have believed it if not for what you\'d witnessed—the fifth prince and the Wang clan conspiring against the third, and I, the unwilling sacrifice. The Wang clan is bold indeed to try to claim two princes with its nefarious plots!"

"They don\'t seem to care about any retaliation from your part at all."

The ninth prince chuckled bitterly. "You wound me, Master."

But it was the truth, after all. Compared to the Wang clan, the ninth prince had almost no authority at all.

Zhang Lie sighed. "I hadn\'t expected the Wang clan to betray the third prince. Indeed, Heijie Niu\'s information was incomplete."

The ninth prince thought for a moment. "I don\'t understand why the Wang clan head would want to break off that alliance.

The Wang clan head\'s sister is the mother of the third prince, so the Wang clan head is the third prince\'s uncle. They\'re bound by blood—there\'s no reason for the Wang clan head to defect unless something has gone seriously wrong. What could that reason be?"

The third prince\'s status and authority was growing by the day, and the fifth prince paled in comparison. The third prince wasn\'t the most impressive among the princes, but he was at least ahead of the fifth through eighth princes.

Why would the Wang clan give up such a promising candidate?

Zhang Lie rolled his eyes. "Related by blood? All you princes are related by blood, too—and that hasn\'t stopped any of you from trying to kill the others."

The ninth prince nodded, sighing. "Indeed so, Master."

His mood was rapidly sinking; indeed, it was too naive for him to be thinking that blood relations meant much amidst the royalty.

"To understand the relationship between the third prince and the Wang clan head, we can proceed in two directions," Zhang Lie advised.

"Which two directions?"

Zhang Lie stuck up a finger. "For one, we can ask those around him."

"Who?"

"The crown prince!"

"The crown prince?

Zhang Lie nodded. "He\'s responsible for the investigation into your assassination attempt, so in some sense you have a partnership with him. I think he would be happy to answer your questions on this front."

"And the second direction of approach, Master?"

"You."

"Me?"

Zhang Lie folded his arms. "Don\'t you think it strange?"

"Do you mean to suggest that I might have an important clue in my hands, Master?"

"Indeed!"

Zhang Lie replied. "Why would the fifth prince want to kill you, the ninth prince? It would take considerable effort to do so considering your status, and it would cause significant trouble that could well be traced back to him. So why? Why would the fifth prince want to kill you? Could you be able to threaten him somehow?"

The ninth prince replied, "Doesn\'t he just want to make use of me to tether himself firmly to the Wang clan and to remove the third prince from the equation?"

Both of them could point to the other and implicate them in the assassination of the ninth prince, which would prevent either of them from betraying each other.

The ninth prince continued his cool analysis. "The Wang clan head and the fifth prince are devious and malicious, and they naturally know how to control each other."

Zhang Lie shook his head. "You\'re still too naive. They don\'t want to tether themselves to each other—they want to tether the other person to themselves and simultaneously have the ability to walk away freely without the other party\'s knowledge."

The ninth prince frowned. "You mean that both the Wang clan head and the fifth prince think that they can get away with my assassination scot-free?"

"It\'s certainly possible. Who knows? The fifth prince, working with the Qian clan, might be able to take down the Wang clan and the third prince—or the Wang clan may be trying to take down the fifth prince instead."

"No one can say for certain, and you\'re playing against people who are far more experienced in this game of courtly intrigue than you are."

The ninth prince nodded.

Zhang Lie scrutinized the ninth prince carefully. "If they wanted to tether each other to themselves, it would be better to focus on a smaller incident ather than the assassination of the prince.

From my perspective, the fact that they\'re willing to take that risk means that you know something crucial to their claims to the throne."

Zhang Lie\'s words left the ninth prince deep in thought. Did he really know something like that?

Zhang Lie continued firmly, "You surely know something that would deal the fifth prince and the Wang clan a severe blow."

The ninth prince continued thinking. What might that be? What did he know?

"Think carefully. Even the smallest of details might unravel the bigger picture—is there anything exceptional that you might have done?"

The ninth prince frowned. "But I haven\'t interacted with the Wang clan and the fifth prince at all recently..."

Given his position in the palace, none of his brothers were willing to talk to him, nor were any of the major clans of the capital willing to sponsor him."

Zhang Lie continued, "Not at all? Even an off-hand remark might make all the difference."

The ninth prince slowly shook his head. There was simply nothing he could think of, no secret that had been revealed to him, no errant conversation.

Zhang Lie let out a long sigh. It looked as though they wouldn\'t be able to make any progress on this front, then...