Chapter 264 Second Update
The news of Zheng Nianru’s departure from the palace was not widely known, and everything was conducted with great discretion. Yet such subtlety could not fool the watchful eyes of the prominent aristocratic families—the Shiping Aristocratic Clan was the first to receive the news.
Nanmen Yuyan was slightly taken aback. Was this the Crown Prince’s strategy?
Although the Shiping Aristocratic Clan did not show off its power, it possessed something that other families couldn’t match—the control of all sorts of intelligence. Public and private networks intertwined in complex patterns but corroborated each other. In the past, all of this was in Lady Zou’s hands, but since she had come to the Zheng Capital, Lady Zou had been intentionally or unintentionally revealing these details to her only legitimate daughter, Nanmen Yuyan.
"Mother, what exactly does Prince Duan have..." This was what Nanmen Yuyan couldn’t figure out. Information about Prince Duan was the only missing piece in all intelligence strands, as if he genuinely had no connections at all.
But the Shiping Aristocratic Clan didn’t believe that, and neither did Lady Zou. Given the Crown Prince’s respect for Prince Duan and the efforts of Noble Consort Wen’s Fourth Prince and the Wen Family’s Wen Zan to curry favor with Princess Chao Ren, it was clear that Prince Duan was not a simple man, not a leisurely prince without any power.
"Should we—" Nanmen Yuyan began, knowing there were forces they dared not touch, and information they dared not delve into, like the Crown Prince’s Hidden Guard and the Wen Family’s Loyalists. Each of these forces was formidable, and Nanmen Yuyan’s most reasonable speculation was that Prince Duan also had such a group in his hands, comparable in strength to those of the Crown Prince and Noble Consort Wen.
"Yuyan, you must understand that your future role will be that of the Crown Princess Consort and later, the mother of the nation. You need to see the bigger picture and not always focus on minute details. A mere Commandery Princess like Chao Ren cannot influence Nanzheng at all, nor will she affect your position as the Crown Princess Consort. Instead, we should pay more attention to Princess Helin and the Tang Family of Wuxing—they’ve been almost living at Xingqing Hall these past few days, and their intentions are quite transparent."
Now that the Zong Sheng Residence had lost hope, the best options left were few, and these two households, due to their delays over the Zong Sheng matter, had missed several good opportunities to form alliances with other aristocratic families.
Nanmen Yuyan nodded shyly upon hearing this.