Fu Zhen nodded. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

He knocked on the carriage wall, and the carriage drove away into the distance.

After leaving the palace that day, the two of them immediately gathered everyone to begin their search within the capital city. With many people, there was great strength, and what’s more, the area to be searched was not particularly large. In less than two days, several clues coincidentally pointed towards the Yi Family in the Sanyang Alley.

Initially, Yi Yun did not hold a significant position at the Chamberlain’s Office, and fortunately so, as it allowed him to retain his official status, even though his rank was demoted several times, sending him to the Ministry of Imperial Stables.

By rights, he was supposed to settle down quietly, but recently, he had been quite restless. Ever since King Yan’s identity was exposed, public opinion surged in the capital, and Yi Yun had rallied several officials with whom he was on friendly terms, dispatching people to the emperor’s ancestral home without informing anyone, to select candidates who could appear in the palace as the emperor’s distant relatives.

With this move, everyone knew what Yi was plotting. There were no relatives worth contacting for the emperor anymore; those who could be remotely related had already received rewards back in the day and were archived in the Ancestral Affairs Office.

In other words, those not recorded at the time were just barely related in name.

Now, there was no one in the Ancestral Affairs Office who could serve as a backup candidate for the Crown Prince. Anyone the Yi Family found, besides sharing the same surname, had no real connection to the emperor!

And the person they chose was to be pushed into the palace to become the emperor—at least, that was their plan. If their plan succeeded, it would be like elevating this person immediately. The Yi Family would undoubtedly become the Monarch’s right-hand aides. Wouldn’t this path to prominence be more convenient than holding a position in the Chamberlain’s Office?

However, while the plan sounded quite absurd, if Yang Yi did not exist, and the emperor genuinely faced a succession crisis, then there might actually be some possibility of success in this crazy idea! As the emperor, with no other option, surely he would prefer his empire to fall into the hands of someone with the same surname!

The Yi Family actually possessed such means, this background needed to be investigated, but upon doing so, they indeed found some entanglement...

...

Chen Song returned to the mansion at dusk, directly finding Yang Yi sitting inside the veranda, admiring the scroll he had purchased that day.

"Master, we’ve found it," Chen Song approached him, "Yi Yun’s father initially rebelled alongside Guo Su, the leader of the Jiangling uprising. Later, after submitting to the Zhou Army, Yi’s father’s military achievements gradually surpassed Guo Su’s, so upon the establishment of the nation, he was also granted the title of a Second Rank General.

"At the time, His Majesty empathized with the difficulty the soldiers faced in long campaigns, hence he made a special concession that any family at Second Rank or above could paint their gates in red for three generations.

"Yi’s father passed away over ten years ago, and Yi Yun, being of the second generation, their family still has a red gate."

"I recall the generals who rebelled alongside Guo Su," Yang Yi paused momentarily, "Was his father called Yi Pingyang?"

"Exactly! It was Yi Pingyang! When we left the Zhou army, Guo Su’s people hadn’t been with the Zhou Army for long, I thought the Master wouldn’t remember."

Yang Yi set down the scroll he was holding and asked, "Did you find out about the background of the two people who bought the paintings?"

"I did!" Chen Song bowed, "One of them is Yi Yun’s cousin, likely his uncle’s son. The other is the Yi family’s steward.

"Given that the Yi family was once of Second Rank generals, although Yi Yun has been demoted, the honor he inherited from his father remains influential, and recently they’ve been preparing to congratulate the Empress on her birthday.

"The two of them went to buy paintings with the intention to cater to the Empress’s tastes as a gift."

"So, they intend to send them into the palace?"

Yang Yi straightened up, his hands pressing against the table’s edge, "What is their recent ’acquisition’? And why use this acquisition to curry favor in the palace?"

"Master," Chen Song suddenly glanced at him, "The Yi Family recently sent people to the emperor’s ancestral home, and brought back two young men with the surname Yang."

Yang Yi froze abruptly, "What do you mean?"

Chen Song further explained, "These two young men, although related to the emperor by over a dozen generations, are educated, youthful, only fifteen or sixteen, and reportedly have a pair of eyes that somewhat resemble the emperor’s.

"The Yi Family wishes to use the Empress’s birthday celebration as an opportunity to bring these two young men into the palace to pay respects to the emperor and the Empress."