The Prime Minister's mind buzzed, exploding in his head.
Send his eldest son to a male brothel? How could that be?
But if Gu Yanchen truly escalated the matter to the Emperor, his future would be ruined just the same.
"Your Highness, harming others by a thousand will damage yourself by eight hundred. Why must you insist on a fight to the death? If this matter reaches the Emperor, my son will indeed be punished. But what good will the Princess Consort gain? The royal family has no place for a defiled wife."
"That is not for Prime Minister to worry about."
"Your Highness."
The Prime Minister tried to persuade further, but Gu Yanchen waved his hand, making it clear he wouldn't listen. "Don't try to fool this Prince with useless compensation. This Prince lacks nothing in money. Nor am I interested in exchanging my wife for a career. You have these two options. Choose."
"Your Highness's actions, what place do they leave the law in?"
Gu Yanchen was amused to the point of anger. "Didn't you say you wanted to settle this privately? Now you object to this Prince disregarding the laws of the court?"
The Prime Minister, in the wrong, gritted his teeth. "This whole affair was my rebellious daughter's idea. My son merely lent a hand. If you must vent your anger, then punish her."
Sacrifice the pawn to save the king. For his son, he had no choice but to sacrifice his daughter.
After all, this mess was her fault to begin with.
"Your daughter? Which one? Does she have a grudge against my wife?" Gu Yanchen didn't quite understand at first.
"It's not much of a grudge, really. She simply admired Your Highness immensely. In a moment of foolishness, she committed such an atrocious act against the Princess Consort. How about this: as long as the Princess Consort can vent her anger, I am willing to send her to your manor to serve as a maid, to attend to the Princess Consort for a lifetime." The Prime Minister forced himself to explain. The more he spoke, the more he felt it was a good idea. It would appease Prince Rui's anger, establish a connection between his family and Prince Rui, and also fulfill Young Miss Siyue's wishes. It was simply killing three birds with one stone.
Unfortunately, Gu Yanchen wasn't buying it. He was so amused he laughed outright. "She harmed my wife, and I'm supposed to bring her into my manor to be an eyesore? Fine. You'd better decisively send her to a brothel. For the sake of your Prime Minister's reputation, this Prince will permit you to send her to another province."
"Your Highness, why must you be so heartless? With my little daughter in your manor, wouldn't that be a tie between us?"
Was this a move to pledge allegiance?
Gu Yanchen scoffed inwardly. The people maneuvering in the capital were indeed old foxes. If he had even the slightest ambition for that position, he would find it difficult to refuse such a condition.
After all, the Prime Minister was a cabinet minister, and no ambitious prince could afford to dismiss such support.
"Prime Minister, your calculations are so astute. If you had pursued commerce back then, you would likely be a man of immense wealth by now. Unfortunately, this Prince has no interest in that position." He glanced at the Prime Minister with a half-smile, dusting off nonexistent dust from his robes. "Zhao Ming, see the guest out."
The Prime Minister's hands clenched into fists.
How many years had it been since anyone dared to be so disrespectful to him? Just wait. Just wait until he achieved merit by serving the Emperor, and the first thing he would advise is to get rid of him.
Gu Yanchen paid no mind to his thoughts, only finding the noble ladies of the capital truly disgusting.
Merely out of admiration for him, they could resort to such vile means against his wife. He was fortunate he had stood firm and refused to take a concubine; otherwise, wouldn't that be akin to releasing several venomous snakes into his own backyard?
Lu Nianfu wasn't as surprised.
Having witnessed such intrigues within the inner courts in her past life, she had always known that while women's methods might be considered underhanded, they were often far more ruthless than men's.
The path to succession was paved with mountains of corpses and seas of blood. While the struggles of the women in the inner courts might not draw blood, they were nonetheless utterly sickening.
Gu Yanchen continued to muse, "Actually, all I have is the confession of that lowly servant. It's impossible to convict Zhao Yonghe. I was originally planning to find other flaws in him. I didn't expect the Prime Minister to be so impatient, coming here so quickly and revealing everything."
A person like this could hold a steady position in the cabinet. Was his father the Emperor foolish?
"Innocent until proven guilty. However, Yanchen, in the Emperor's heart, once someone is deemed morally corrupt, Zhao Yonghe's official career is at its end. The Prime Minister naturally wouldn't bear that."
His son and daughter, it was quite easy to choose, wasn't it?
Gu Yanchen's thoughts took a few turns. He wondered, weren't such foolish ministers easier to control? Honestly, among the officials highly regarded by his father, there were very few truly intelligent ones. It was the officials of the third and fourth ranks, each one capable of handling affairs independently.
Of course, this was not something he needed to tell his wife.
The next day, news spread from the Prime Minister's manor: the eldest daughter, Zhao Siyue, had fallen gravely ill and was sent to a rural estate. Gu Yanchen sent people to monitor her being taken to a brothel in a town three hundred miles away, and then personally oversaw her first transaction before returning to the capital to report.
Three days later, Zhao Yonghe was released without charge.
The Prime Minister's wife wailed and cried to her son, but it could not bring back her daughter. She could only transfer all her hatred to Lu Nianfu.
"Son, you must, you absolutely must avenge your sister."
The Prime Minister grunted. "If you want your son to die faster, then by all means, let him go."