Chapter 144: Impeachment, Alliance

"That's right! As long as Su Luoluo's backer falls, she will no longer be able to serve as evidence," Shen Lingge was stopped just as he was about to reach the door. After hearing the emperor's uncle's plan, he quickly walked back to Shen Yu.

He said, "I will ask my secret guards to investigate right away. The position of Minister of Rites is the easiest to accept bribes and cut corners. I don't believe that he has been clean all his life."

A month later, the eldest prince impeached the Minister of Rites at the morning court for accepting bribes and cutting corners on the things needed for sacrifices at previous years' sacrificial ceremonies.

The Minister of Rites knelt down on the spot and claimed that he was wronged.

"Lord Su, it's a little too late for you to cry out for injustice," Shen Lingge rolled his eyes at Lord Su who knelt down sleekly, and turned to Zhong Anhe and said, "Father, I have evidence here."

Shen Lingge took out a stack of papers from his sleeve.

Shen Lingge wrote very clearly about everything the Minister of Rites did, and it was submitted to Emperor Zhaohe by Eunuch Chen.

Emperor Showa was furious after reading it. Everyone knelt down and sentenced the Minister of Rites on the spot, "Drag the Minister of Rites away and throw him into the prison of the Ministry of Justice."

"It's unjust, Your Majesty!" The Minister of Rites shouted that he was unjust, but he had already been dragged away by the palace guards, and his voice gradually disappeared in the court.

"The Chief Justice of Dali Temple." Emperor Showa looked around at the kneeling crowd.

"I am here!"

The Chief Justice of Dali Temple stood up swiftly from the crowd.

"Investigate the corruption of the Minister of Rites within three days. If the investigation is accurate, the Minister of Rites will be dismissed and beheaded after the Spring Examination. All males in his family over fifteen years old will be beheaded together with him. Males under fifteen years old will be exiled a thousand miles away. Girls over sixteen years old will be sent to the military camp, and girls under sixteen years old will be sent to the Jiaofang Bureau."

That night, Concubine Shu knelt outside Emperor Showa's Xuanzheng Hall and begged bitterly.

Emperor Showa knew that his son would not wrongly accuse a second-rank minister in the court for no reason, and he was already 80% sure that the Minister of Rites was corrupt and committed abuse of power.

Now, hearing the crying sounds outside the palace, Emperor Showa felt upset and angry. He was annoyed and implicated, so he directly ordered to demote Concubine Shu to Concubine Su. Considering that she had served him for many years, he would not blame her if the affairs of the Su family were verified to be true.

Three days later, the truth about Minister Su was uncovered, and the entire Su family was convicted. The men were exiled, beheaded, and the women were made slaves for life.

In March, the season of spring when flowers are in full bloom, envoys from Zhongjin arrived at the imperial city of Yue Kingdom. On that day, the news that the eldest prince Shen Lingge was going to Zhongjin to study (as a hostage) spread.

On the day Yu Chengyan heard the news, he understood that this was the time that Miss Xu had told him about. The next day, he packed his bags, said goodbye to his wife and children, and went to the imperial city.

The emperor of Mobei Kingdom has just ascended the throne. He has no children and all his adult brothers have been killed by him. Perhaps the only one who can go to Zhongjin is the eldest princess who lives far away in Yue Kingdom. It was not a hostage no matter where she was. On the same day, the emperor of Mobei Kingdom sent a letter, asking Jirimutu to escort the eldest princess to Zhongjin.

The Yunsheng Kingdom sent its least favored son to Zhongjin.

Because Xu Zhao had told Chen Yu to escort Qinghe to Zhongjin, Chen Yu took the initiative to volunteer to escort the eldest prince in the court.

Only with the company of the martial arts master Shen Yu did Emperor Zhaohe feel at ease to let his only son go to Zhongjin.

Xu Zhao would never know what Shen Yu and Shen Lingge did for her after she left.

After she came out of the bathroom, she changed into her pajamas and lay back down in bed. Perhaps because she had overworked her brain, she fell asleep soon after.

When I woke up again, it was bright daylight.

Xu Zhao was recalling what she was going to do today. For her, it had been several months since she filmed the variety show, and she almost forgot about going antique hunting today.

After washing and dressing up, changing into his own casual clothes, Xu Zhao took the ancient costume provided by the program crew that he had changed yesterday and went to the dressing room.

She didn't have her own makeup artist, but luckily the program crew provided the makeup, which saved her a lot of trouble.

It's still early, but the staff of the program team have basically all gotten up.

When I arrived at the dressing room, I happened to run into Qiao Zhijing who was putting on makeup.

"Brother Qiao, good morning!"

Qiao Zhijing opened his sleepy eyes and yawned, "Good morning." After that, he closed his eyes again and let the makeup artist use his skills on his face.

Seeing his appearance, Xu Zhao did not disturb him and sat aside waiting for his makeup to be put on.

After Qiao Zhijing finished work last night, he was about to join the crew to film, so he spent three hours reading the script last night and was only able to skim through it.

Last night, even her dreams were about the contents of the script, which resulted in Qiao Zhijing not sleeping well. As she had to shoot today, she got up early to put on makeup.

Having been an actor for many years, Qiao Zhijing is now very good at self-regulation. After taking a short nap, he felt that he had regained a lot of energy and was not as sleepy as at the beginning.

Qiao Zhijing opened his eyes and saw Xu Zhao putting on makeup. He decided to take advantage of his early start and said, "Zhao Zhao, let's form a team of two for the shoot."

The director team did not stipulate that people could not work in pairs, nor did they stipulate who would be in a group with whom. If one wanted to cooperate with Xu Zhao, one naturally had to strike first.

Xu Zhao was currently drawing lip liner with her mouth slightly open. The makeup artist was applying the paint to her lips bit by bit, and she couldn't move her mouth at all.

It wasn't until the lip makeup was finished that Xu Zhao had a chance to answer, "Of course there is no problem. I'm looking forward to working with Brother Qiao."

For today's filming, if I remember correctly, the director team gave each guest 500 yuan to buy antiques.

When buying antiques in antique streets, it is easy to be fooled by the shop owners. An antique that is just the simplest modern handicraft will become an antique in the eyes of ordinary people after the shop owners or stall owners give it a fantastic story.

With five hundred bucks, unless you really find a bargain, you can probably only buy some crude imitations.

If you are proficient in this, you can find some antiques in the antique street.

Xu Zhao had never learned how to appraise treasures and had no idea how to look at them. Today's activity might really depend on luck, but this had to be discussed with Qiao Zhijing in advance.

"Brother Qiao, I know nothing about treasure appraisal, so we will each buy our own when the time comes."

Qiao Zhijing felt a little disappointed after hearing that Xu Zhao didn't know how to appraise treasures. He thought Xu Zhao knew at least a little, but he didn't expect that he knew nothing at all.

But he still said, "It's okay. For laymen like us, if it weren't for the arrangement of the program team, I'm afraid we would basically never step into the antique street in our lifetime. Then it will all depend on luck. But you have to help me with some references and don't be fooled by the stories told by those stall owners."

"Okay, I'll try my best."

At about nine o'clock in the morning, six guests gathered at the hotel entrance, boarded the bus prepared by the program team, and drove to the largest and most famous antique street in City A.