无翼乌工口里番无色无摭挡

She put down the bowl, leaned back in her chair satisfied, and said, “In this life, if you can’t eat to your heart’s content and enjoy delicious food, much of the pleasure of living is lost.”

Li Hongyuan said, “Now you can tell me.”

“You’re such a buzzkill.”

Jiang Ning stood up, “I’m going for a walk to help digest.”

“Are you going to tell me or not?” Li Hongyuan’s patience was reaching its limit.

“Why are you so stupid, can’t you figure it out yourself, do I have to say it?”

“You—!” The anger flashed on Li Hongyuan’s face.

Jiang Ning immediately backed down: “What I mean is, the Crown Prince has a lot on his plate and is very busy. Leave the thinking to someone idle like me.”

Li Hongyuan could tell the implied meaning in her words.

He snorted, not bothering to argue with her.

No matter how eccentric and lazy this woman’s temperament was, it was undeniable that she was very smart.

So smart that if she weren’t a woman, Li Hongyuan would have wanted to bring her under his command and let her be his military advisor.

Unfortunately, this woman was very good at annoying people.

And her temperament was unpredictable.

Jiang Ning had no idea what Li Hongyuan was pondering at this moment.

She sat back down, “Is Mu Jian important to your Highness?”

“A person who has been with you for ten years, do you think he is important or not? He’s important in terms of emotional dependence. But it’s not so important that I can’t do without him.”

“Your Highness is telling the truth this time.” Jiang Ning smiled, “You just said that Mu Jian is a person without weaknesses. So, what did the person behind him use to make him betray you, his Master?”

Li Hongyuan didn’t speak.

“Does that mean that Mu Jian actually has weaknesses, but you just don’t know it?”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Then it’s very contradictory. Unless—” Jiang Ning deliberately paused until Li Hongyuan couldn’t help but stare at her, and then she laughed, “Unless, from the very beginning, Mu Jian’s real master wasn’t you, Crown Prince.”

Li Hongyuan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Jiang Ning continued, “In this way, it wouldn’t be contradictory. Mu Jian didn’t betray you at all; he was just loyal to his real master.”

Li Hongyuan was silent for a long time before he slowly said, “He is a child of my concubine mother’s relatives, and he entered the palace at the age of ten to follow me. According to what you’re saying, he pledged allegiance to someone else when he was just a few years old? Do you even believe that?”

“I do. Once you’ve eliminated all the impossibilities, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

“Fine, assuming what you said is true, how do you prove it?”

“Just like Mu Jian is important to your Highness, he must be even more important to that person behind the scenes. What do you think, your Highness?”

“Maybe.”

“Knowing that Mu Jian is missing, your Highness came to me to find him. What about that person? Will they be worried?”

“Are you trying to lure the snake out of the hole?”

“Ah, yes. Talking to a smart person doesn’t take much effort at all.” Jiang Ning clapped her hands, “Your Highness is so smart!”

“…”

Li Hongyuan sighed.

He found that the number of times he sighed in front of Jiang Ning was more than all the times he sighed in the past twenty years.

“All this is based on your speculation.” Li Hongyuan had to break her beautiful fantasy, “The other party is a merciless person. What makes you think that they will easily expose themselves for Mu Jian? If Mu Jian is just a pawn to them, they may not care about his life or death at all?”