Chapter 151 Surfaced

Zhao Helin's eyes suddenly narrowed and he stared at Cheng Maoming closely.

Cheng Maoming didn't look at him and said to Emperor Tai'an, "Whether it was Zhao Helin who ordered Yang Wu, Your Majesty will know once you ask."

After a brief silence, Emperor Tai'an asked, "Where is the person?"

"It's in Jinlin Guard."

"Bring the person here."

What followed was a suffocating wait. Zhao Helin was sweating profusely and had to raise his sleeves to wipe the sweat off his face from time to time.

Emperor Tai'an flipped through the memorials on the dragon table with an expressionless face. In the room where you could hear a pin drop, only the faint sound of flipping papers could be heard.

After an unknown amount of time, Yang Wu was finally brought before Emperor Tai'an.

Emperor Tai'an casually threw the memorial onto the table and looked gravely at the person kneeling on the ground and trembling.

"Look up."

As this majestic voice sounded, Yang Wu slowly raised his head.

This is a man in his thirties, with a square face, thick eyebrows, and a very handsome appearance, but his overly flickering eyes make him look frivolous.

Emperor Tai'an did not like to frown.

Yang Wu, a street vagrant, never thought that he would see the emperor one day. He was immediately frightened and stunned.

"I, your humble servant, greet the Emperor..."

"Why did you hire someone to kill someone?" Emperor Tai'an asked in a deep voice.

Yang Wu couldn't resist the methods of Jinlin Guard, let alone in front of the king of a country.

At this moment, he had no intention of concealing anything in his mind, and he blurted out without hesitation: "It was Master Zhao who asked me to do this!"

"Yang Wu, stop talking nonsense!" Although he had prepared for the worst, Zhao Helin was still furious when he saw Yang Wu sell him out so easily.

Yang Wu looked at Zhao Helin and said blankly, "Master Zhao is here too..."

It turned out that he was too nervous and didn't even notice that Zhao Helin was there.

Emperor Tai'an gave Zhao Helin a cold look. Zhao Helin didn't dare to say a word. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead one after another, as if they had been fished out of the water.

"What did he tell you?"

Yang Wu spoke honestly, and finally took out the silver he had profited from it: "I am not doing this for the money. I am afraid that if I don't obey Master Zhao, Master Zhao will cause trouble for me. I beg the emperor to spare my life!"

He kowtowed so hard that the ground rang loudly.

The eunuch Liu Chuan who was standing beside Emperor Tai'an felt very distressed and thought to himself that the gold brick was broken. How could this bastard afford to compensate for it?

"That's enough, take him away."

As soon as Emperor Tai'an gave the order, Yang Wu was dragged away immediately.

Emperor Tai'an looked at Zhao Helin.

The kneeling Zhao Helin's body tilted and he collapsed on the ground like a puddle of mud: "Your servant deserves to die—"

"You deserve to die, but I still want to know why you did this."

Zhao Helin lowered his head and fell silent.

Should I tell the emperor that he is the prince?

The emperor would surely be furious.

Emperor Tai'an sneered, "Zhao Helin, do you think Cheng Maoming didn't tell me? I'm just giving you a chance to see whether you choose to bear the consequences yourself or harm the lives of your entire clan."

Cheng Maoming, who was kneeling silently, was secretly shocked after hearing this.

The Emperor was a master at using tricks to trick people. He had just tricked him, and now it was Zhao Helin's turn. He had been prepared to dodge it, but Zhao Helin, under great pressure, might not have been so quick-witted.

Just as Cheng Maoming expected, Zhao Helin's defenses had already been broken because Yang Wu confessed without hesitation. Hearing what Emperor Tai'an said, he was immediately terrified: "I confess, I confess, it was the eunuch Wang who was beside the crown prince who told me to do this!"

"What did you say?" Emperor Tai'an's hand trembled, knocking over the teacup beside him, but he didn't care that the flowing tea soaked the memorial.

Zhao Helin then realized that he was being tricked and suddenly looked at Cheng Maoming.

Cheng Maoming didn't react much on the surface, but there was a smile in his eyes.

Zhao Helin's heart fell straight down and fell into the ice cave.

It's over, everything is over!

Cheng Maoming had already found out that it was related to the prince, but he didn't dare to say it out loud. Unfortunately, he was unable to think it through and was tricked by the emperor!

Zhao Helin looked at Emperor Tai'an in despair, with only one thought in his mind: How could a dignified emperor do this?

Emperor Tai'an strode up to Zhao Helin and asked word by word, "Did someone close to the Crown Prince ask you to do this?"

Zhao Helin didn't dare to answer and almost buried his head in the ground.

"Speak!" Emperor Tai'an kicked him over, his voice as cold and hard as a knife, "Otherwise I will kill all your clans!"

Zhao Helin scrambled to his feet and knelt down again, crying, "Yes..."

Emperor Tai'an took a deep breath to calm his stormy mood and looked at Cheng Maoming who was kneeling on the other side.

Cheng Maoming lowered his head even lower.

"What else did you find out?"

Cheng Maoming hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, I have only found out that Zhao Helin ordered Yang Wu to hire someone to kill someone, but I haven't found out why Zhao Helin did this."

A resentful look shot over, and Cheng Maoming accepted it calmly.

The defeated general can't make any waves no matter how hard he struggles.

"Anything else?" Emperor Tai'an's voice was calm, yet it was so oppressive that it made people breathless.

Cheng Maoming struggled for a moment before honestly saying, "We've also found out the origins of two prisoners. One is called Wang Hu, and the other is called Zhang Shan. They're both soldiers from the same squadron in the Xuanwu Battalion."

Emperor Tai'an was very suspicious and cautious, and he only used trustworthy people in key areas. When he heard this, the first person he thought of was his brother-in-law Dou Qisheng.

Zhao Helin admitted that it was Wang Gui, who was close to the prince, who asked him to kill to silence the witnesses. Cheng Maoming also found out that the two criminals were soldiers under the command of the prince's uncle. At this point, there was no doubt that the kidnapping of Miss Lin was planned by the prince.

This bastard!

If it weren't for the presence of his ministers, Emperor Tai'an would have wanted to jump up and down and curse for an hour, and then go to the East Palace to slap the prince's face.

But now he has to clean up the mess made by the prince.

After a pause, Emperor Tai'an spoke, "Zhao Helin, as the deputy commander of the Jinlin Guard, knowingly broke the law. Dissatisfied with the Prince of Wei's choice of concubine, he ordered the kidnapping of the would-be Princess of Wei and murdered her to silence her. His crime is unforgivable! Considering your many years of service to the court, I will spare your family from being implicated and grant you a cup of poisoned wine."

Zhao Helin collapsed to the ground, crying out in gratitude: "I thank you for your grace..."

Soon two guards came over and dragged Zhao Helin away like a dead dog.

The palace suddenly became deserted. Apart from the palace maids who even controlled their breathing, there were only Emperor Tai'an and Cheng Maoming, the emperor and his minister.

"Cheng Qing." Emperor Tai'an spoke.

Cheng Maoming's scalp tightened, and he quickly responded: "I'm here."

"Thank you for your hard work in investigating the case these days."

"It is my honor to share the emperor's worries. I only regret that I did not do it well."

"Cheng Qing has done a great job. It was you who found out that Zhao Helin was a traitorous official."

Such praise did not make Cheng Maoming feel relieved, but instead put him under a lot of pressure.

"Let's do a thorough investigation at Xuanwu Camp to see if there's any connection between those two prisoners and Zhao Helin."

Cheng Maoming's heart sank.

The emperor's intention was obviously to cover up for the prince.