Chapter 20: Chapter 20: The Motive
His eyes were dark, cold and penetrating.
They carried a hint of emotion Ye Lingyue couldn’t fathom. Dislike? Pity? Anger?
However, the fact that the secondary princess’ funeral procession actually passed by their exile party would be the talk of other nobles in the Capital.
Considering its auspicious meaning, will they think that the spirit of Shen Wuqing was causing trouble for the Ye family by cursing them?
She frowned, feeling the matter wasn’t simple. Qin Ruichen wouldn’t have been unaware that the exile party was going to pass by this road, right?
Woah, this man is so insidious, she thought.
Ye Lingyue also happened to meet Shen Jinzhi’s eyes, who was sitting in a carriage. The latter was probably wondering what made her husband turn his head back.
"Don’t look," Ye Lingrui whispered and shielded her eyesight with his body.
Upon seeing the siblings’ noisy action, the imperial guards closest to them immediately scolded. "Be quiet, you two!"
They were worried the people from the Second Prince’s Mansion would find them too loud and punish them.
Ye Lingyue was still feeling weak and relied on her twin brother as support, occasionally gasping for breath. Gradually, she also calmed down.
An imperial guard still came up to them, determined to teach them a lesson. Just as he was about to grab Ye Lingyue’s hand roughly, Leng Hai stopped him.
"The girl is injured, let them be."
He had caught a glance at Ye Lingyue’s pale face. And... there was also a hint of blood on her nose and lips.
Ye Lingrui also noticed it. He took a handkerchief from his pocket, gently wiping the blood from her face. His expression was serious, his eyes glancing at the funeral procession with narrowed eyes.
As the funeral procession gradually disappeared into the distance, everyone could finally breathe again.
Previously, the atmosphere was so tense that they instinctively wanted to minimize their presence.
Ye Lingyue sent one last deep look at the direction of the funeral procession before her grip on Ye Lingrui’s arms weakened. She lost consciousness.
Shen Jingyi had just gotten out of the carriage when she saw Ye Lingyue’s swaying figure, and she hurriedly caught her daughter’s body. She easily lifted Ye Lingyue and brought her back into the carriage.
"We will stop here for a while. Go take care of your daughter," Leng Hai told them.
Shen Jingyi thanked him before she pulled her third son, telling him to check Ye Lingyue’s body.
"She’s been suffering from so much bad luck. Is there something wrong with her?" Ye Lanxi asked.
They all ignored him. Shen Jingyi already grabbed the handkerchief from Ye Lingrui’s hands and cleaned the blood from her daughter’s face.
After a while, Ye Lingyue’s nosebleed stopped; she also no longer vomited blood.
"The funeral procession..." Ye Zhiqiu opened his mouth. He had been incredibly quiet since this morning.
He glanced at the unconscious Ye Lingyue with an inscrutable look on his face. "... is not a good sign."
"Do you believe in such a thing?" Ye Lanxi snorted. "It must have been the Second Prince deliberately–"
Ye Zhiqiu hurriedly covered his younger brother’s mouth, secretly glancing at the twins from the third branch who seemed to be oblivious to everything.
He heaved a sigh of relief. Still, he sternly rebuked his second brother. "Lan’er, do not speak things carelessly. Remember, the walls have ears."
Not to mention, they were surrounded by a lot of imperial guards.
Ye Lanxi made a zipping motion. Still, he shrugged. "I am just speaking the truth. Eldest Brother, they have framed you. Don’t you feel resentful and unwilling at all?"
Then, he winced, his wounds felt a little painful.
However, his words were indeed like an arrow striking Ye Zhiqiu’s heart.
"Then, that poor Shen Wuqing. She also died in the process..."
Everyone fell silent after they heard his words. Ultimately, they still couldn’t do anything about it.
Ye Lingrui suddenly opened his mouth. "Eldest Brother, what’s the reason they used to frame you? It doesn’t make sense they suddenly believed it was you who did it..."
They all turned to Ye Zhiqiu.
He suddenly realized he hadn’t told them this. The usually dashing young official looked disheveled at this moment. He slowly explained.
"They believed some nonsense that I killed Shen Wuqing because I was afraid she would ruin the marriage between me and the third daughter of the Shen family." He shook his head, finding it ridiculous.
And yet... the Second Prince’s Mansion went as far as forging a few proofs, like the letters he exchanged with the third daughter of the Shen family.
The letter mentioned Shen Wuqing who started to target him. Qin Ruichen’s cold disregard frustrated her, so she went to go after him, her other cousin’s fiance.
It really painted her as such a bad woman.
"It’s a false rumor, right?" Ye Lanxi muttered.
Ye Zhiqiu nodded. "Shen Wuqing never approached me. She was completely devoted to the Second Prince."
However, there was also something else he didn’t mention. It was true that Shen Wuqing did bully his fiancee, Shen Yunjin.
Shen Wuqing had pushed her to the pond in the General Mansion or broken her jewellry. Ye Zhiqiu heard the first incident from Shen Yunjin’s personal maid while he witnessed the second incident himself.
After the yamen investigated it, some certain things on the letters were proved to be true, like the bullying incident on Shen Yunjin and Shen Wuqing’s gift to Ye Zhiqiu...
The gift was something he had never seen before until they pulled the item out of his robe, a sword tassel.
It indeed looked like something Shen Wuqing would treasure.
These things sealed his fate.
However, the speed at which they gathered this evidence definitely proved it was someone’s scheme.
Ye Lingyue had slowly regained her consciousness before she could open her eyes. She also happened to hear the discussion between the Ye siblings.
The next day, after Shen Wuqing’s funeral procession passed by the Capital’s road, news about her death spread.
"It’s the Ye family!" They passed by some kind of market, and people were pointing at them.
The Ye family members definitely didn’t expect what these people would do next...
