Furthermore, after so many years, he harbored doubts about the Empress Dowager's act of saving people back then and dared not fully believe it anymore.

Xie Jingyan's gaze returned to the imperial edict in his hand. "Why did Minister Xu let me know about the existence of this imperial edict?"

The Minister of Justice hesitated, as if he wanted to speak.

Xie Jingyan said, "I want to hear the truth."

The Minister of Justice said, “Back then, when the Empress Dowager asked me to save someone, I didn’t think much of it and just assumed that the Empress Dowager was kind-hearted. But after the case of the Prince of Yanping, I have a feeling that the Empress Dowager’s act of saving people may not be as simple as I thought.”

He handled both cases, and the Empress Dowager was involved in both.

One matter concerned the Emperor's reputation, and the other was that Du Chengxu, the heir of the Duke of Du, attempted to assault the heir of the Prince of Yanping, but fell into the water and died from his injuries.

In the eyes of the Ministry of Justice, Du Chengxu's case was an accident, incomparable to, or even comparable to, Consort Chen's case.

Consort Chen trampled on the Emperor's dignity, but the Empress Dowager, mindful of Grand Tutor Yan's contributions to the court, spared a bloodline of the Yan family.

The Crown Prince of Yanping was the only son of the Prince of Yanping. He did not intend to kill the Empress Dowager's grandson, yet the Empress Dowager wanted to put him to death.

Xie Jingyan used his pardon to save the heir of the Prince of Yanping, but the Empress Dowager still forced the Emperor to demote the Prince of Yanping's family to commoners. She was aggressive and showed no mercy whatsoever.

The Minister of Justice had served in the Ministry of Justice for more than a decade and had handled countless cases. Based on his intuition for solving cases, he knew that the Empress Dowager's request for him to protect the Yan family bloodline must have been extraordinary.

The Emperor ordered him to stand in the Hall of State Affairs and request that Prince Ling be made Crown Prince.

He has already been categorized as part of Prince Ling's camp by the Emperor and all the civil and military officials.

From now on, the honor, disgrace, and even the lives of the Minister of Justice's family will be tied to Prince Ling.

If Consort Chen's case cannot be overturned, Prince Ling's chances of being made crown prince are slim. The Empress Dowager's unusual behavior back then was most likely related to Consort Chen's case.

There are some things that even though he is the Minister of Justice, he cannot easily investigate and can only tell Prince Ling.

But since we can't tell them directly, we have to do it indirectly.

The Prince of Ling really did come and search his study, but the Minister of Justice hadn't expected that he would want to see him after seeing the imperial edict.

However, considering that Prince Ling disregarded the Emperor's orders in front of the Crown Prince of Xiliang and the Second Prince of Donglie, let alone wanting to see him in his study, he could easily walk out of the study with the Empress Dowager's imperial edict.