I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 170 This rebellious son is really hiding his incompetence!

The wine jar was opened and the aroma of wine filled the air.

"This wine..."

Liu Che frowned, and the strong smell of alcohol irritated his nostrils.

There were countless fine wines in the palace, but even he, the emperor, had to admit that such a strong smell of alcohol was completely beyond his cognition.

"Bring me a wine-pot."

Liu Che always had a strong desire to explore such new things, so he immediately ordered Li Guangli to take a wine jar from the props, poured a cup and held it in his hand to observe.

The wine is clear, like sweet spring water, without a trace of impurities.

Calling this kind of wine "immortal wine" is indeed very convincing to fool people. If he had not known the truth about Liu Ju's "immortality", he would probably have been fooled by this wine.

After calming himself down, Liu Che looked at Li Guangli again:
"You just said that this wine was brewed by Liu Ju. Have you ever tasted it?"

"In reply to your Majesty, I need to cooperate with your Highness in performing magic tricks. I should be the first person to see this 'immortal wine' and one of the first people to taste this 'immortal wine'. Therefore, your Highness forced me to swear a poisonous oath."

Li Guangli bowed.

"He also forced you to swear an oath. What oath?"

Liu Che suddenly became interested again. How superstitious was this rebellious son in oaths?

"Your Highness has ordered me to swear not to reveal the secrets of these tricks to anyone, otherwise it will bring disaster to my family."

As Li Guangli answered, he thought to himself, Why did Your Majesty say "also"? Is there anyone else who has the same experience as me?
"Then why did you tell me?"

Liu Che asked again.

"In my heart, when the emperor asks me questions, I have to answer, and I dare not not answer, otherwise I would be deceiving the emperor."

Li Guangli asked, why do you say "again"?

Liu Che laughed and handed over the glass of wine:

"You are a wise man. In that case, I will give you this cup of wine."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the gift!"

How could Li Guangli not understand what Liu Che meant? He immediately took the glass of wine with both hands, tilted his head back and drank it all in front of Liu Che.

To be honest, he really doesn't like this wine.

The taste is really too spicy and very easy to get drunk. The only thing worth mentioning is probably the wonderful warm current produced after the wine enters the throat, right?
However, some people praised this thing highly, such as Sima Qian, who even asked him for it privately several times.

Li Guangli naturally did not give it. This was the prince's property, and Sima Qian did not even have an official position now. He knew clearly what was more important.

What's more, in his heart, Liu Ju was no longer just the crown prince.

He was also the guide who gave him a new life. Without the prince's guidance, how could he find the direction in life!
Seeing Li Guangli drinking the wine happily, Liu Che calmly put the wine jar aside and continued:

"There is one more thing. I saw in the memorial sent back by Huo Guang that Liu Ju once went to Gongsun Qing's ancestral home to exorcise evil spirits for him, and even beat the evil spirit to death on a piece of white silk. How much do you know about this?"

"Your Majesty, I was not involved in this matter and I really don't know the secrets."

Li Guangli answered seriously, but halfway through his words, he hesitated a little.
"But I heard from several generals who participated in this matter that even if the 'immortal arts' displayed by His Highness in Donglai County City were all tricks, it is still difficult to explain this matter."

"They saw with their own eyes that the hemp rope could not be burned by fire, and witnessed with their own eyes that His Highness slapped a piece of white silk in Gongsun Qing's ancestral home, leaving a bloody handprint."

"Your Highness did not try to hide anything at that time. He did it right in front of them."

"So it's definitely not a trick..."

When Li Guangli said this, he really had no bad intentions.

He had just entered the palace and knew little about Liu Che. He had not thought about the natural contradiction between imperial power and immortal power. At this moment, he was just telling the truth, and his purpose was only to raise Liu Ju's value in Liu Che's heart.

After all, on the way back, he could clearly feel the worry emanating from Huo Guang and others.

Although he did not fully understand what they were worried about, he guessed that some of Liu Ju's actions on this trip might cause dissatisfaction from Emperor Liu Che.

Therefore, he always thought about how to help Liu Ju to repay Liu Ju's kindness in saving his life.

the most important is.

Even if Liu Ju's "immortality" was fake, he firmly believed in his heart that Liu Ju possessed extraordinary skills.

He didn't know about other things, but he remembered clearly what happened to Gongsun Jingsheng. This time, Liu Ju only took a glance at him and chose him to be the host from hundreds of candidates. This made him feel real happiness and discover the talent hidden in his blood. This could not be a coincidence!

"..."

Hearing this, Liu Che fell silent again, and his heart, which had just calmed down not long ago, was immediately tense again.

Could it be that this rebellious son had already noticed my thoughts and worries, and therefore deliberately staged the "countryside tour" drama in an attempt to hide his incompetence in front of me?
This possibility is not impossible!

So, what is the purpose of this rebellious son doing this?

In order to continue staying in the mortal world without breaking off relations with me?
He became an immortal but did not ascend to heaven, instead he deliberately hid his incompetence and stayed in the mortal world. Could it be that he had some unfulfilled wish?

If so, how should I treat him?
Since he is deliberately hiding his incompetence, he should not have the intention to compete with me for power. Otherwise, this rebellious son could have completely disobeyed my imperial edict and stayed in Qi to recruit followers to fight against me. Returning to Chang'an would have been like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth.

Since this rebellious son has no intention of competing with me for power, do I not need to expose him, lest both sides be unable to step down?
On the contrary. Since this rebellious son still has unfulfilled wishes, should I pretend to be ignorant and try my best to go along with him and help him fulfill his wish as soon as possible, so that he will leave on his own and my father and I can avoid conflict?

Even in this process, I can subtly extract some magic from him and use him to solve some difficult government affairs for me...

Yes!

I should have thought of it earlier that this rebellious son could be used!
Although he always leads me nowhere and even goes backwards, he has indeed solved many important problems for me, and in ways that neither I nor anyone else in the world could have imagined!

The river flooded, the southern border was conquered, the Western Qiang was destroyed... I have used him many times without knowing it!

Now thinking back, this rebellious son has been hiding his incompetence since then. He has never had any intention of breaking off relations with me... I had clearly mentioned these things to Wei Qing and Wei Zifu some time ago. Why didn't they realize it then? Even after learning that Liu Ju's immortality was fake, I regretted telling them so much?

The only problem now is that I still don’t know what his wish is?
But I can't ask about this in person.

I can only follow his intentions and test them bit by bit, no matter whether it is true or false, or his unfulfilled wish...

Thinking about this, Liu Che gradually opened up a new perspective and immediately shouted to the outside of the palace:
"Su Wen, call Huo Guang and Gongsun Qing in!"

"promise!"

After a while.

Huo Guang, feeling anxious, and Gongsun Qing, looking as pale as death, entered the Greenhouse Hall to pay their respects.

Huo Guang had never expected that after he returned, Liu Che would summon Li Guangli alone first. After all, even though Li Guangli had served as a host for Liu Ju, he was still just a minor character.

Therefore, no "ideological work" was done on Li Guangli in private to prevent him from speaking nonsense in front of Liu Che.

To the point that he now had no idea what Li Guangli had just said to Liu Che, and had no idea what kind of problems he would face next or how to deal with them.

Gongsun Qing had already seen his own end.

He was guilty of deceiving the emperor. Moreover, he had already heard about Emperor Liu Che's "burning books and drowning alchemists". He knew that Liu Che was so cruel to the alchemists and wizards in the palace, so he would naturally show no mercy to a liareller who openly deceived the emperor.

Now he only hopes that Liu Che will let him die quickly.

Be it beheading, cutting in half, or throwing into the streets, it's all fine, as long as it's not like what Liu Ju did to Xu Shenxian in Donglai, where he was "cut into pieces with a thousand cuts."

Of course, if he could avoid annihilation of his clan, he would die with a smile on his face...

then.

They heard Liu Che say in a serious tone:

"Huo Guang, a gag order is issued to the Qimen warriors and Jianzhang cavalrymen who are on this trip. No one is allowed to discuss the details of this trip with Liu Bei to occupy Donglai and wait for the gods in any occasion. Not a single word is allowed. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Wei Chen understands!"

Huo Guang's heart trembled.

In fact, he only understood half of it and could not fully grasp the profound meaning of Liu Che's edict.

What are you going to do to Liu Ju next?

But he didn't dare to say it, let alone ask.

"Gongsun Qing!"

Liu Che looked at Gongsun Qing, who had the words "rumor thug" tattooed on his right cheek, and his eyes immediately became much colder.

"The guilty minister is here..."

Gongsun Qing's body trembled, his legs softened uncontrollably, and he fell to the ground with a plop.

"Demoted to slavery, returned to Bowang Garden!"

Liu Che snorted coldly and turned to Huo Guang and said,

"Huo Guang, you will personally escort Gongsun Qing to Bowang Garden later."

"promise……"

Hearing this, Huo Guang suddenly felt overwhelmed.

This doesn't seem to be Liu Che's style, right?
If it were in the past, anyone who dared to deceive the emperor, especially someone like Gongsun Qing, would never be able to survive, and would not even be given the chance to pay money to redeem his sins. The reason their entire family was not executed was because Emperor Liu Che happened to be in a good mood.

But this time he was just demoted to slavery?
Also, what does it mean to be sent to Bowang Garden as a slave?
Is this a test for Liu Ju?

Liu Che would naturally not give any explanation to Huo Guang. Would he tell him that he just guessed that Liu Ju might have other uses for sparing Gongsun Qing's life, and therefore gave Liu Ju face?
impossible!
He is the emperor, he can't give face to anyone!

"And you."

Liu Che looked at Li Guangli again.
"Li Qing'er is pregnant. She has been missing you these days. Please go and tell her that she is safe so that she can rest assured and take care of the baby in the palace. If she can give birth to a prince for me, I will record your merit for the Li family."

"Your Majesty, this matter... Yes!"

When Li Guangli heard the news, he was stunned at first, then immediately became excited and almost lost his manners and spoke too much.

"..."

Huo Guang glanced at Li Guangli quietly, with a strange look in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)