There was only silence that filled this room after Yue Lan said this.
After a long time, Lin Fan finally asked, “What can we do right now?”
Yue Lan thought about it before saying with a sigh, “There’s nothing that we can do other than accepting this promotion to a city. After all, it’s not like we can go against the royal family.”
Lin Fan knitted his brows as he gave a nod, but he didn’t say anything else.
After another long silence, he finally asked, “What is the current situation with the Mu Royal Family?”
Everyone was surprised to hear this since they had still been on the topic of being made a city, that included Yue Lan who didn’t think that Lin Fan would ask this question. However, she quickly revealed a look of admiration.
There had been a reason for why she had been giving them the information slowly.
She had wanted to slowly give them information and lead them to the conclusion that she wanted them to reach. That was why she had been speaking slowly instead of concisely like she would have normally done.
But since Lin Fan had asked this question, it meant that he had already reached the conclusion that she wanted.
So there was no need for her to hesitate anymore.
Yue Lan looked at Lin Fan and said, “The situation isn’t good. It’s said that the emperor is on his sickbed and will be leaving this world soon.”
As soon as she said this, all of them revealed shocked looks once again. However, this time, the shocked looks quickly turned to confused looks since they couldn’t understand how this was related to them.
The only one that had a slightly different expression was Mu Bao Bao who had a strange trace of worry in her eyes.
Lin Fan however had a serious look on his face when he heard this.
He knitted his brows deep in thought after hearing this, not saying a word.
Eventually, Ming Xin and Tian Tian also realized something and couldn’t help knitting their brows in thought.
Tian Tian had her connections in the Mercenary Guild and Ming Xin was a very smart person, so they were able to figure out a few things just based on these clues.
Out of the ones that were still confused, Lala finally couldn’t take it anymore and said, “What does this mean?”
Lin Fan was pulled out of his thoughts by this and he opened his mouth to speak, but only stopped himself to give a sigh.
Finally after a long time, he said with another sigh, “If the ruler dies, what happens next?”
Lala was confused when she heard this, but after thinking for a bit, she said in a hesitant voice, “Succession…race…”
When she said the second word, the expression on her face suddenly changed into a look of understanding as she understood what they had all realized. At the same time, all of the other girls also realized this, except for Duanmu Ming Yue who just sat there with a confused look on her face since she didn’t know that much about the Mu Empire that she lived in.
That was right, that was the conclusion that Yue Lan wanted everyone to draw.
It was a succession race and it was the second prince who was giving them this promotion to a city.
It was clear that the second prince was looking to build his power before the succession race started and he had turned his eyes onto this town.
While they didn’t know exactly what had drawn the second prince to their town, they knew that the second prince had set his eyes on their town. What was placed in front of them were two options now.
They could either accept the promotion to a city or they could reject this promotion and remain a town.
But of course, this wasn’t the real choice that they were facing.
It was impossible for them to reject this since this was a matter that was done publicly through the royal family. So if they rejected this promotion, they would be spitting on the face of the royal family and would be crushed immediately.
The royal family wouldn’t even have to make a move as there would be plenty who would do it for them just so they could get closer to the royal family.
The real choice that they were facing was which prince to support.
If they accepted the recommendation of the second prince, they would be placed in the second prince’s faction.
If they chose not to fall under the second prince, they would have to fall under one of the other princes that were joining the power struggle. Of course, they would be another can of worms completely…
There was no option for them to remain neutral after becoming a city too.
After all, once the second prince pulled them into the succession war, there was no way for them to back out.
Even if they were to declare that they were a neutral city, no one would believe them.
There was the recommendation of the second prince there, so they would always have the stigma of the second prince on them and there would be no other prince willing to trust them to remain neutral.
In fact, this was the worst decision that they could make since it would mean being besieged by multiple princes instead of just one.
As for leaving them alone, that was impossible since each city was a very powerful asset.
Cities had a certain amount of influence in the empire and there wasn’t a single city that could be ignored after all.
Only those that had enough influence like the ducal family would be able to declare their neutrality, all others would be forced to pick a prince.
But of course, all of the ducal families were supporting a prince since they were ambitious people in the first place.
Now that there was this problem placed in front of him, Lin Fan realized why Yue Lan called it a “problem”.
After another long period of silence, Lin Fan looked at Yue Lan and asked, “What should we do?”
Yue Lan was surprised to hear Lin Fan ask this, but she could tell from his eyes that he had already seen through her.
Since she had brought this up, she of course had already thought of a solution.
It wasn’t the best solution, but she had thought of one after being informed of the arrival of the envoy.
When Lin Fan said this, everyone suddenly turned to look at Yue Lan with expectant eyes.
Even if Yue Lan didn’t have the strongest cultivation, they all acknowledged her other abilities since they had seen how much she had done for the town and the Royal Style business.
Yue Lan looked at them and said, “We’ll pretend to side with the second prince and then we’ll observe the situation.”
Everyone couldn’t help knitting their brows when they heard this seemingly simple solution. This didn’t seem like the way that Yue Lan normally operated since it was just too simple!
But the ones that were smarter narrowed their eyes to look at her.
They knew that this wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
Lin Fan asked, “Why the second prince?”
Yue Lan took out a sheet of paper from the side and placed it in front of them.
They looked down and found that it was a detailed diagram of the various princes and the people that were under them.
Yue Lan pointed at the second prince and said, “The second prince is the laziest prince of them all. While it’s unknown how he found our town, it could be considered lucky that it was the second prince who made the first move. The second prince has many different vassals under him, but most of them are actually fence sitters who are just waiting to observe the situation. We can become one of those fence sitters.”
Lin Fan couldn’t help deeply knitting his brows when he heard this before asking, “If the second prince is this incompetent, how could he think of making a move like this with our town?”
Yue Lan gave a sigh and said, “I was surprised to hear that it was the second prince who was related to the messenger, but I figured that it’s someone under him who is trying to make an impression that found our town in the first place.”
Lin Fan knitted his brows even more as he asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Yue Lan explained, “The second prince is someone who likes to gather as many people as he can under him without care of their actual loyalty. He is someone who believes that more people means more influence without caring about their actual power. So someone under him must have suggested our town to him, which is why there’s the current situation.”
Lin Fan’s expression changed a few times as he couldn’t believe that there would be someone this stupid. But in the end, he just gave a sigh without saying anything else.
After another silence, he said, “Alright, we’ll follow this…”
But before he could finish, Ming Xin suddenly said, “I don’t think we should choose the second prince.”
Everyone looked at Ming Xin with surprised looks.
Ming Xin saw all of this, but she ignored all of it and looked at Yue Lan to say, “The second prince might seem like the best choice, but it’s actually better to choose the fourth prince.”
Yue Lan knitted her brows, but she didn’t immediately reject this suggestion as she asked, “Why?”
Ming Xin replied, “There’s a hidden danger with the second prince.”
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