I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 515 Unexpected answer!
At the same time, An Yu was secretly observing Liu Ju's expression.

Although he was confident that Liu Ju, who was born in Chang'an, was unaware of the toxicity of pufferfish and was using covert tactics, it was still a risky move after all, and his heart inevitably beat faster than usual at this moment.

However, An Yu was not blindly confident, as can be seen from the performance of Huo Guang, who also grew up in Chang'an.

In fact, many people had seen pufferfish before, and their performances were not much different from Huo Guang's.

"Wizard An Yu, can you please let me take a closer look?"

Liu Ju's expression did not fluctuate at all, he just said with a smile on his face.

"The things in this water are dirty and smelly. I'm afraid that it will dirty your Highness's hands."

Just looking at Liu Ju's reaction at this moment, An Yu felt completely at ease. While secretly laughing in his heart, he lowered his head and advised in a submissive manner.

"It doesn't matter. These are the things I love most in my life."

Liu Ju stretched out his hand.

Seeing this, An Yu did not try to persuade him anymore. He just said "yes" and presented the round puffer fish to Liu Ju with both hands.

After Liu Ju took it, he weighed it in his hand, and as if he suddenly felt like playing, he raised his foot and used it as a shoe brush. While brushing his boots, he turned his head and said to Huo Guang:
"Cousin, look at this thing, you can use it to clean your shoes."

"..."

Huo Guang and An Yu saw this and thought that Liu Ju was extremely childish. For a moment they didn't know what to say.

But the next moment.

"Snapped!"

Liu Ju raised his other hand like lightning, grasped An Yu's chin tightly, and forced his mouth open. His voice also became low.
"Or, it can be used to kill people!"

As he spoke, Liu Ju suddenly exerted force with the hand that was holding the puffer fish.

"呲-"

The water that the puffer fish sucked into its stomach was squeezed out instantly. At first, it was clear water, but soon bright red blood flowed out.

"???"

Huo Guang was naturally shocked.

He had no idea what Liu Ju was doing, nor could he understand what Liu Ju was saying, let alone why Liu Ju suddenly became so moody.

What about the promised test?

What about the promise of not alerting the enemy?
How come it's suddenly completely different from what I expected...

"!!!"

An Yu's face was filled with horror.

The hand that Liu Ju was holding on to his chin was like an iron clamp, leaving him with no power to resist and his mouth open uncontrollably.

The scene where he almost crushes the puffer fish is so cruel and bloody that it makes people shudder with fear.

Most importantly, Liu Ju seems to know the secret of pufferfish...

How can this be?

He was born and raised in Chang'an. Even though he had visited the Nanyue Kingdom once a few years ago, he only stayed in Panyu, the capital of the Nanyue Kingdom, for a short period of time.

What's more, Huo Guang went with them that time.

Even Huo Guang, a minister who served the emperor at his beck and call and did everything himself, did not know the secret of puffer fish. How could Liu Ju, the high-ranking crown prince, know it?
"Drip... drip..."

For a moment, the only sound in the room was the sound of blood squeezed out of the puffer fish flowing through Liu Ju's fingers.

"Wizard An Yu, do you plan to redeem yourself by doing meritorious service in exchange for a chance to live, or do you want me to squeeze all the blood out of this fish and feed it to you drop by drop?"

Liu Ju grinned, revealing his white teeth, and his murderous eyes were frightening.

Prince Li...

An Yu couldn't help but think of the "nickname" that Liu Ju had been given before he went to the Western Regions. At this moment, the value of this "nickname" was still increasing.

And Liu Ju's words were enough to make him understand that Liu Ju had fully understood the secret of the pufferfish!
Although it is unclear how Liu Ju knew this secret, once this secret is exposed, it will indicate that the situation is already over and he will only be doomed.

"Dai, Dai...Zhui Ni...Gou!"

At this moment, An Yu was so frightened that he had completely lost all hope. He nodded hurriedly, making muffled sounds that could be vaguely heard as him saying "make amends for my crime".

In fact, he is not so clear about the distribution of pufferfish toxins.

Previously, the poisoning was done by taking out the puffer fish's internal organs, crushing them and mixing them into the food.

The same principle applies to Liu Ju, who was holding the puffer fish like squeezing juice and squeezing out everything he could to feed him. It would be a sure death for him.

"If I had known that Wizard An Yu was so reasonable, wouldn't I have been more gentle?"

After hearing this, Liu Ju finally let go of An Yu and threw the pufferfish, which he had already squeezed half of its life away, back into the tank. While wiping his hands on An Yu, he smiled warmly like a Sichuan opera face-changing, and said,

"Come on, come on, let's sit down and talk slowly."

"In fact, I also know that Wizard An Yu came from the Kingdom of Nanyue. He has no grudge against Huo Xian in the past or in the present. He has no reason to poison him. He must have been bewitched and coerced into getting involved."

"As the saying goes, every wrong has its perpetrator and every debt has its creditor."

"As long as Wizard An Yu helps me find the mastermind behind this, this matter will be over. I will protect you in front of my father. Although you can't continue to serve my father, as the saying goes, it's better to live a miserable life than to die. With your ability, you can still live a comfortable life in another place. Isn't it a good ending?"

"Cough! Cough!"

An Yu coughed violently and finally managed to catch his breath. He didn't dare to sit down in front of Liu Ju. He just trembled all over and his face turned pale.

"Yes, yes, Your Highness is right... ahem... that's right."

"This……"

Although Huo Guang did not fully understand what was going on at this moment, he finally managed to figure out some clues.

It turns out that what happened in the past two days is really related to this wizard from the Kingdom of Nanyue!

Combined with Liu Ju's previous words and An Yu's fear of the strange fish, it is not difficult to think that this fish contains a deadly poison... But how did Liu Ju see that at a glance? Is this something that can be easily seen?
At this moment.

In Huo Guang's eyes, Liu Ju was undoubtedly more mysterious than An Yu and the whole story, and made him more curious.

They were both human beings, but he lived a few years longer than Liu Ju and had more frequent interactions with Liu Che and court ministers. Why was there such a huge gap between them?
But of course he wouldn't know.

The appearance of pufferfish was also an unexpected surprise for Liu Ju.

He had to admit that he had thought things were a little complicated before and did not expect the truth to be so simple.

He had previously privately tried to win over Li Xiushan, and today he brought Huo Guang to see An Yu with great fanfare. All of these were done under the assumption that it would be difficult to find out the real cause of death of the palace maid. He used factional struggles to obtain more useful information, and at the same time alienated An Yu from the person behind the scenes, forcing the enemy to reveal his true colors.

And now I see pufferfish.

Naturally, this saved Liu Ju a lot of effort, and there was no need to plan for Li Xiushan's local scholar Ganqi anymore. Now he only needed to use An Yu to fully investigate the person behind the scenes. ...

"You mean... the person who ordered you to do this is Qi's Prime Minister Bu Shi?"

When he heard this name, Liu Ju immediately frowned again, feeling very surprised.

This answer was indeed beyond Liu Ju's expectations.

If this matter is directly related to Bu Shi, then as Bu Shi's master, regardless of whether King Qi Liu Hong is involved or not, it is likely that even if he has a thousand mouths, it will be difficult to clear the suspicion.

Liu Ju even had some doubts whether An Yu was making random accusations in order to confuse him and put him in a dilemma in order to protect the real person behind the scenes.

Liu Ju would never believe that Liu Hong would do such a thing.

He had a deep affection for this delicate-looking younger brother since childhood.

Later, he was recalled to the capital by Emperor Wu of Han, and he obeyed Liu Ju's orders. Liu Ju also used him several times to make him cooperate with him to fool Emperor Wu of Han.

Later, Liu Ju performed surgery to save his life. Logically, the brotherhood between the two of them naturally deepened...

The most important thing is that Liu Ju could not figure out any reason why Liu Hong did this.

If, as he had just thought, the purpose was to alienate the relationship between Liu Che and the prince, Liu Hong himself was a prince, and doing so would not do him any good.

And if it was as Huo Guang had thought before, it was to prevent Liu Che from successfully borrowing his life span.

This also seems completely irrational.

Because if it was for this purpose, he should definitely order An Yu to take action before the birthday ceremony was held, rather than waiting until after the ceremony was completed.

Moreover, although this longevity ceremony was presented to Liu Che by An Yu, according to An Yu's statement, even Bu Shi knew about this matter in advance and gave some support... If this matter was related to Liu Hong, wouldn't it be purely nonsense?
and so.

Is this just Bu's personal behavior?

What is the purpose of Kebushi doing this?

In history, Bu Shi actively responded to Liu Che's policy and donated his family wealth to help the border areas to build his career. Therefore, he served as the magistrate of Gaoshi, the magistrate of Chenggao, the Taifu of King Qi, and finally was appointed as the Prime Minister of Qi.

Later, when the Emperor was conquering the Kingdom of Nanyue, he wrote a letter to the Emperor asking for permission to lead his son into the army. Although Emperor Liu Che did not send him to lead troops to fight, he made him an example, granted him the title of Guannei Hou, and appointed him as the Imperial Censor, one of the Three Dukes.

However, it didn't take long for him to arouse the dissatisfaction of Emperor Liu Che because of his opposition to the state-run salt and iron industry and the tax on silk. He was eventually dismissed from office and given a nominal position, and ended up living a life of mediocrity.

The appearance of Liu Ju in this life changed a lot of history and wars, but also made him lose the opportunity to be promoted. He always stayed beside King Liu Hong of Qi as the Junior Tutor and Prime Minister until now.

Whether it is the Bu Shi in history or the Bu Shi in this life.

He doesn't look like an ambitious or scheming person, and he is not capable of doing such a big thing, at least not on the surface.

Besides, he had met Bu Shi before, and it seemed that this old man was quite loyal to Liu Hong...

"..."

Not only Liu Ju was surprised, but even Huo Guang who was standing beside him couldn't help but look surprised and suspicious.

Obviously, he couldn't understand the logic of this matter at all.

"Do you have any evidence?"

Liu Ju pondered for a moment and then asked again.

"Bu Shi once exchanged several secret letters with me. Although I was ordered to burn them after reading them, I secretly kept them just in case. Now I have hidden them in my private residence in Chang'an."

An Yu hurriedly said with certainty.

His expression didn't seem like he was lying, and this kind of physical evidence couldn't be conjured out of thin air by just touching his lips, unless this was a huge conspiracy that had been planned for a long time...

"in addition."

After saying this, An Yu seemed to be worried that Liu Ju might not believe him, so he continued to add,
"Among the people who came with Your Majesty to perform Fengshan this time, there must be people hiding in the dark who are cooperating with this matter. Although I do not know the identities of these people, I have received secret hints and orders."

As he spoke, An Yu stood up and walked towards the wooden box in the corner. Then he took out a few small pieces of silk that were hidden deep inside a pile of clothes in the box.

"These prompts and orders all appeared in the lower room without my noticing."

An Yu carefully presented the strips of cloth to Liu Ju, frowning and saying with some worry,
"I also realized it later."

"Now that I have finished my work, Your Highness has come to me openly. Regardless of whether Your Highness has discovered my mistake today, the people hiding in the dark have probably been alarmed. In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, I am afraid they will wait for an opportunity to kill me like they did to the two cooks."

"I have now decided to redeem myself from my crime and am willing to serve Your Highness. I beg Your Highness to protect me!"

Liu Ju took the small strips of silk and carefully examined the contents on them.

The words on it are very brief, and their meanings are difficult to understand even for people who don't know the inside story, such as "three quarters of the hour, Beiyuan Ding three", "The time has come", "Don't worry, just do as usual", etc.

It is obvious that during the Fengshan ceremony, someone had been secretly monitoring everything that happened around Liu Che and An Yu, and providing timely guidance to ensure that the plan went smoothly.

At the same time, the handwriting is also very sloppy and messy, as if the writing style was deliberately changed to prevent someone from tracing the identity based on the handwriting.

"Your brain has become more active now. Fortunately, it's not too late to realize it."

After briefly looking at these small pieces of silk, Liu Ju grinned again.

"But these evidences don't seem to be enough. Where is your private residence in Chang'an, and where is the secret letter hidden?"

"It is in a courtyard in the middle of Sanmoju on Xiangshi Street. The plaque on the door reads 'Xieyuan'. These secret letters are hidden in a wooden box one foot under the bricks in the northeast corner of the backyard storehouse."

An Yu quickly said with an apologetic smile.

"Think about it carefully. Do you have anything else to add?"

Liu Ju nodded and asked again.

"No more, not a single bit left. How dare I hide anything now?"

An Yu hurriedly bowed to express his opinion.

"In that case..."

Liu Ju stood up and walked towards the fish tank where the pufferfish was kept, smiling at Huo Guang.

"Cousin, An Yu didn't say anything just now, and you didn't hear anything either. We came in not long ago, and before we had time to question him carefully, we found out that he had already taken fish poison in advance, and he died soon after."

"As for the matter of Qi Xiang Bu Shi, I will handle it myself. There is no need to alarm my father for the time being."

"?!"

Upon hearing this, Huo Guang froze in place, not moving at all. His expression was indescribably complicated, but his heart was beating uncontrollably.

It was clear enough what this cousin of the Crown Prince was going to do next.

Moreover, he could tell that Liu Ju was not discussing with him, but giving him an unquestionable notice!

(End of this chapter)