Chapter 1267: Chapter 1267: Changxiao Returns
On this day of reunion of New Year’s Eve, Prince Min and the Imperial Concubine entered the palace after the banquet, and unexpectedly, the Emperor suddenly took action against Prince Min Mansion — something that shocked everyone.
The Prince Mansion was surrounded for nearly a month, always quiet, since Prince Min and the Imperial Concubine were specially pardoned to attend the palace banquet. This also meant that the unsealing was not far away, but the fact was that the Prince Min Mansion was raided, and Prince Min was directly sent to the Heavenly Prison in the palace.
And the charge was that Prince Min Mansion utilized the Longevity Festival to send gifts with the intent to harm the Emperor.
Prince Min cried injustice, several old ministers loyal to the former emperor also helped plead the case, indicating there was no proof, the Emperor should not arbitrarily dispose of the Prince.
Emperor Chu did not waste words with them and directly took the few old ministers to the No. 3 death cell, to see the physical changes of the "test subjects" and speak out the origins of the screen.
Sending gifts from the Prince Mansion, if not personally handled, would not be counted on Prince Min’s head. What is the reason for this? There is no master who personally handles everything, you say you were unaware, this excuse is somewhat flimsy, the Life-stealing Screen was sent by the Prince Mansion, there is no escape.
So Prince Min is not wronged.
The old ministers collectively lost their voices, having to change their narrative that such a conspiracy was too clumsy, full of loopholes, fearing that rebels were maliciously framing, intending to harm Great Qing, asking the Emperor to see it from the former emperor’s perspective, and to discern clearly, not to wrong Prince Min.
Emperor Chu then laughed in anger, thinking that these old ministers felt he had narrowly escaped a deadly catastrophe, expecting him to spare them gently, not considering how serious this matter was.
Father Emperor was biased, and his loyal old ministers too are all biased.
Even so, they can still defend Prince Min.
Indeed, seeing him without pleasing the eye!
Emperor Chu did not bother to deal with the matter of the Life-stealing Screen Stone but was instead busy meeting the future sons-in-law Cui Changxiao and Lu Ming, learning from Cui Changxiao about his encounters this past year.
"...I was incompetent, unable to protect that maid during the escape. According to what she said, Shang second young master, due to naturally weak health, rarely appeared in front of people, always staying at the Shang family’s hot spring estate to recuperate. Then suddenly at the age of six, all the people serving the second young master vanished, and she was just a fire-starting maid, seldom attending to the master, so she was sent away to marry early, not in that disappearing lineup."
This point, aligns with the intelligence.
"But that maid said, she had once witnessed Shang second young master practicing martial arts at midnight, his body unlike the rumored frail and weak, but very healthy, seeming to be about five or six years old."
Song Zhiyuan looked at Emperor Chu, the latter narrowed his eyes, fingering the jade ring on his thumb, saying, "Six years old?"
"Yes. Since then, it has always been that fragile appearance as rumored, untreated for a long time, and the Shang family seemed to accept this fact, even preparing the coffin and shroud early."
Emperor Chu said lazily, "This is interesting, a frail person, how could he practice martial arts?"
"That’s not all, I also found out that this Shang Pu is said to be born of Madam Shang, but in fact, it is not so, he was brought back during Madam Shang’s childbirth by the Family Head and raised as the legitimate son. A midwife secretly told her daughter-in-law that the real Shang young master had died in the womb."
Song Zhiyuan furrowed his brows, saying this, the identity of Shang Pu is really worth investigating.
But still, something feels off, why the change at six years old to become truly sickly? Or is it laying false trails?
Cui Changxiao then shared an important piece of information: "Emperor, Shang Pu must have problems, while I took that maid back to the capital, I was continually intercepted and killed by unknown individuals, suspecting the remnants of the old Xia Dynasty clique, the river bandits of the two rivers and even the Green Forest have always been colluding. Moreover, Emperor, I found that the deceased cabinet minister Ning was faking his death."
