Empress Dowager Zhao turned to her younger son with a teasing smile. "Look at you—so easily jealous. If you get stabbed like your elder brother did, I'll focus all my care on you too."
They shared a light laugh, but after a moment, the air shifted. The Empress Dowager's smile faded as she finally brought up the real matter at hand.
"Did you manage to find out who ordered the assassination attack?" she asked, her gaze sharp.
Xiang Long Wei's expression turned cold. "No. I lost consciousness while fighting them. The location was too far from the capital, and there were no resources there to preserve the bodies or investigate further."
Prince Fengyuan leaned forward, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Brother, after you and that woman jumped into the river, where did you end up?"
"We landed in an unfamiliar mountain region," Xiang Long Wei replied. "If it weren't for the two women I brought back, we might not have survived."
