Those matters were really weird but they couldn"t give up halfway because they felt afraid of the sudden loss of communication with their own spies.
However, they were too busy because of the preparation and they left this matter to Feng Yong Rui. The latter would be able to do something inside the palace when they were busy with the performance. Ah Man would become their messenger so that they also knew what happened inside the palace.
Feng Yong Rui went to the palace first and Ah Man was the one who would guide them to the palace. They would get inside the palace through the side door because they were merely lowly citizens. Qi Hao didn"t join the performance along with them because the official Di sons and daughters of officials had to join the banquet.
Thus, Qi Hao went inside the palace with Feng Yong Rui and they made up a reason for Xiao Fang that the latter was currently out of the Capital, so she couldn"t join in the festive.
Xiao Fang knew that she needed to be careful because of her face --- she was a carbon copy of Jiu Lan. She asked her father the day before whether it was the reason why he always told her to wear a veil and the latter said yes. She looked more and more like the Ce Fei when she grew up --- Feng Yong Rui had his own suspicion because of this. No one would be able to look alike with each other that much unless they had a blood relations.h.i.+p.
After all, his meeting with Xiao Fang was also quite weird. The baby Xiao Fang flew over to him out of nowhere ah~! Fortunately, despite being drunk, he was still sober and ablet to catch her in time...
Fortunately, he had met with the Ce Fei a few times previously when the latter hadn"t run away yet because he had been working with the Han Emperor ever since he was only a prince... Yes, he was his loyal subordinate from the beginning and this was the reason why he was angry that the Han Emperor wanted to get rid of him.
The Ce Fei was so beautiful and she exuded a certain elegance that made people attracted to her. In this essence, Yao Ling was more like her --- probably because the Ce Fei had brought her up. Even though the Ce Fei took the ident.i.ty as a peasant, she still couldn"t forget about her root.
"Then... what did you do after you had your suspicion, Father?" Xiao Fang asked curiously. It seemed like her father had already known this matter a long time ago because she had started to wear veil even before she started to become best friend with Han Xiang and go into the palace from time to time.
"It took a long time for me to investigate everything from all angle... Han Xiang was still there and took the role as a princess, so my suspicion was actually baseless --- the proof was only your face which needs to be hidden at all time. In the end, everything always left a trail no matter how small it was... I found out that you were being switched when you were a baby," Feng Yong Rui explained.
Even though Tao Gu Gu was smart, in the end, she was only a maidservant and there were a lot of loopholes that she didn"t think of. For example, her family wasn"t as tightlipped as her and this was only one of the few loopholes that he had found.
"Father! If you know about it, then what about the Han Emperor?! He must have known something too, right?" Xiao Fang asked, feeling horrified. She told him about Han Xiang"s guess that the Hen Emperor might have known who Xiao Fang really was.
Feng Yong Rui shook his head. "I can confirm that he doesn"t know about it... even until now. If Han Xiang told you that, it"s probably only a suspicion on the Han Emperor"s mind because I"m certain that he won"t be able to find any pieces of evidence. I destroyed everything back then once I found out about it..."
It was also lucky that Feng Yong Rui was one step ahead of the Han Emperor, otherwise, Xiao Fang would fall to the Emperor"s hand! After he destroyed the pieces of evidence and moved the eyewitnesses to a safer place at the Shu Kingdom, he heard that the Han Emperor was searching for them.
Xiao Fang looked at Feng Yong Rui gratefully. Without him, there was no her --- she was certain of that. All in all, her father was her lifesaver. She quickly hugged him and kissed his cheek, "Thank you, Father!"
Feng Yong Rui nodded and patted her back, comforting her.
"Father... Han Xiang has never told me... how could the Han Emperor find out that she wasn"t her real daughter?" Xiao Fang had been long wanted to ask about this ah~! Where was the Han Emperor"s suspicion coming from?
If Feng Yong Rui thought carefully, it was all coming from that wicked concubine. However, how could such a lowly concubine was able to find out such a deep secret? It took a long time for him --- a prime minister with a lot of resources to find out... what more a lowly concubine? He started to feel that this matter wasn"t that simple, maybe... there was someone behind her.
He didn"t feel that suspicious back then, because there was always a struggle at the inner yard of each prince. That was the reason why he didn"t investigate the matter deeply. Once he heard the news that the Han Emperor was looking for Tao Gu Gu"s family, he thought that something was fishy but didn"t dare to check --- just in case, the Han Emperor found out that he was connected to the disappearance of Tao Gu Gu"s family.
It would make the Han Emperor doubt him, thus, he stayed quiet.
"This... I also don"t know..." Feng Yong Rui admitted regretfully. "I only know that this matter has something to do with the wicked concubine because the Han Emperor mentioned it once in front of me..."
Xiao Fang was feeling slightly disappointed but this matter didn"t really have anything to do to her directly, so she wasn"t really that curious.
Feng Yong Rui warned her a lot of times not to let people see her real face in the palace. The palace was full of people who had seen the Ce Fei previously, so he was afraid that one of them would be able to tell that Xiao Fang was the Ce Fei"s daughter.
Especially if the Han Emperor saw her, he would certainly recognize her. After all, he claimed that the Ce Fei was the love of his life. Feng Yong Rui doubted that he would forget about the Ce Fei"s face. If previously the Han Emperor was only guessing her ident.i.ty, Xiao Fang believed that he would know for sure about it once he took a glance at her real face.
Even though it was merely Han Xiang"s guess, it would be better to be safe than sorry. The Han Emperor shouldn"t see her!
She patted her disguise a few times just to check whether it was still alright or not. Somehow, Xiao Fang felt nervous. Once they arrived at the palace, there was no turning back. She would gamble everything tonight...
Everything that happened tonight would depend on her luck and fate. She hardened herself for whatever that would come at her that night.
Xiao Fang squinted her eyes at the palace and thought resolutely inside her mind, "Han Emperor... I will be coming to ruin you!" She didn"t dare to call such a disgusting human being as Father!