In his extreme anger, He Yunze kowtowed three times, the crisp sound like a hammer blow to Song Ruoan's heart, sending a shiver down her spine.

She hurriedly stood in front of He Yunze, trying to stop him: "Husband... calm down, calm down! How can you swear by our ancestors..."

He Yunze was wronged and felt aggrieved. His chest heaved as he said, "You don't understand at all, Ruo'an. You don't understand what's going on."

Song Ruoan's hands were trembling with nervousness, and her voice gradually became high-pitched:

"Actually, it might not have been my sister who did it. We're all family. We should just ask His Majesty for forgiveness. If this causes a scene at the birthday banquet and His Majesty blames us, the reputation of the Marquis of Anding will be ruined. There's no benefit in that!"

He Yunze sneered: "I'm sure, I'm sure it was Song Xizhi who did it. She hates me, that's why she did these things."

"The truth will soon come out. Once the truth is found, my innocence will be restored, and His Highness Prince Yu's innocence will be restored! Only by finding out the truth can the Marquis of Anding's mansion be cleared of all wrongdoing."

He Yunze grew angrier as he spoke, and kowtowed three more times with a loud thud, until he was completely dizzy from the impact.

"Your Majesty, I know that today's matter is of utmost importance, but things have come to this point. I swear on my life and my official position that I only wish Your Majesty will thoroughly investigate and clear my name!"

Although he didn't know about the lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay, or how Song Xizhi had found another skilled craftsman, Song Xizhi couldn't possibly escape responsibility for the vase!

The situation was so complicated that everyone was a little confused.

After listening for so long and feeling He Yunze's resolute attitude, some people believed his words and shifted their suspicions to Song Xizhi.

However, since it was the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet, it would probably take a lot of effort to investigate immediately as he wished.

Emperor Guangqi remained silent, only gazing silently in the direction of the Empress Dowager.

The Empress Dowager nodded. "In that case, let's investigate. I don't want to wrong any innocent person at my birthday banquet."

Upon hearing this, He Yunze was deeply moved and hurriedly bowed to the Empress Dowager to express his gratitude: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your mercy in sparing me from an unjust accusation."

Upon hearing this, Prince Ning, who was sitting to the side, finally reacted. He took a sip of tea and smiled as he spoke:

"Your Majesty, I do have some thoughts on this. When I discovered that the birthday gift was broken, I immediately summoned Minister He of the Ministry of Rites and his two subordinate officials to inquire about the situation."

"When I asked about this matter, Lord He seemed to know nothing, but the two officials in charge suddenly looked at each other and their eyes seemed a little strange."

Upon hearing this, He Yunze felt a buzzing in his ears, and in an instant, he realized: "So it was the two of them!"

Song Ruoan also trembled all over, and her face turned pale.

He Yunze was oblivious to the commotion around him. His voice was filled with gritted teeth: "It must be that my two clerks were bribed to commit such a heinous act."

No wonder he still messed up despite being so careful; it turns out that this despicable Song Xizhi bribed them with money!

Song Ruoan grabbed him, trembling all over, her teeth chattering. She pleaded almost desperately as she spoke to He Yunce:

"My lord, I'm not feeling well, I feel so awful... Can we stop the examination? Can you please save me first..."

He Yunze stood ramrod straight, his eyes now gleaming with a sinister light: "Ruo'an, I'm also in pain. It's naturally painful to suffer an injustice... but it doesn't matter, as long as we are exonerated, we won't feel pain anymore."

As they spoke, the palace soldiers brought He Yunze's two chief clerks to the main hall.

The two were brought before the Emperor and Empress Dowager without any warning, and they were so frightened that they trembled all over.

The two exchanged a glance, then looked at He Yunce with pleading eyes.

He Yunze felt their gazes and glared back fiercely, his eyes almost spitting fire.

The two clerks were clearly taken aback by He Yunce's attitude and quickly looked in Song Ruoan's direction.

Song Ruoan didn't dare to look up, and didn't even glance at them.

The emperor's questioning voice came from in front of them: "The damage to Master Yuanhui's calligraphy is the responsibility of the Ministry of Rites. You are the people who directly handled the birthday gifts. Could it be that you were instructed by someone to deliberately damage the birthday gifts?"

No sooner had the emperor finished speaking than Prince Ning's cool voice rang out: "Today is the Empress Dowager's birthday, and the Buddha himself has come to pay his respects. If you confess and are treated leniently, you will only be dismissed from your posts and investigated."

“But if one were to shield the true culprit in front of the Emperor, that would be a crime of deceiving the Emperor… If one of us were to have a kind heart and confess in the present moment, the other would be executed along with their entire family.”

Upon hearing this, the two clerks turned ashen-green and, without a second thought, began to speak, vying to answer:

"Yes... Lord He... Lord He instructed me to do it..."

"How dare I disobey my superior's orders? This humble subject did not know that it was the calligraphy of Master Yuanhui, nor did I know that it would cause such a catastrophic disaster. I beg Your Majesty's forgiveness, I beg Your Majesty's forgiveness!"

The two spoke up one after the other, but what they said caused an uproar in the audience.

Everyone stared wide-eyed at He Yunze, even the Empress Dowager looked surprised.

He Yunze's pupils dilated sharply, his eyes filled with astonishment and disbelief. He quickly turned his head to glare at the two registrars, his hands clenching unconsciously, his chest already blazing with rage.

"False accusation! This is a false accusation! If I had done it all, I would not have sworn an oath with my life! I would not have asked His Majesty to investigate the truth!"

Upon hearing this, the two clerks looked extremely surprised. One of them sneered, "Lord He, are you trying to kick us while we're down? You have the guts to make us do it, but not the guts to admit it?"

He Yunze gritted his teeth so hard they creaked, and the veins on his neck bulged: "Do it? When did I ever tell you to do it?"

The two pointed in Song Ruoan's direction at the same time and spoke almost in unison:

"It was her, it was Madam He! You sent Madam He to find us and asked us to break the congratulatory gift that Song Xizhi sent. We didn't know that the vase was so important, so we had no choice but to do as she said!"

The two clerks, while scrambling and crawling, pleaded with the Empress Dowager: "Your Majesty, please have mercy! We were just following Madam He's orders; we knew nothing about it!"

He Yunze's breath caught in his throat for a moment. When he mechanically turned his head and looked at Song Ruoan's pale face, even the blood in his body seemed to stop flowing for a second.

My mind went completely blank at that moment.