Chapter 85 Interrogation (Part 1)

After the fifth prince entered the palace, the emperor did not see him immediately, but ordered him to be temporarily placed in a side hall under the strict guard of the imperial guards, which was tantamount to house arrest.

Subsequently, the emperor summoned Lou Jin for a private audience.

Inside the room, the father and son talked for nearly an hour, but no one knows exactly what they discussed.

When Lou Jin came out of the inner room, he was still clutching the gold medal tightly in his hand. Ye Xunyang stepped forward and asked him in a low voice.

Lou Jin glanced at him, shook his head slightly, indicating that this was not the place to talk, and said in a deep voice, "Come out with me."

Lou Jin did not follow the normal procedures of the Ministry of Justice, but directly ordered Wang Quan to be brought out and taken to the palace where the virtuous concubine was placed under house arrest.

Ye Xunyang followed beside him, his brows furrowing more and more as he looked at the heavily guarded surroundings.

Wang Quan was escorted into the main hall of Jingsi Garden, while the faint sound of a woman weeping could be heard from next door.

Ye Xunyang finally couldn't hold back any longer. He grabbed Lou Jin's sleeve outside the hall, lowered his voice, and spoke with disbelief and worry.

"Your Highness, to interrogate a prisoner without authorization and bring him into the palace is an overreach of authority. If the censors find out, they will impeach you..."

Lou Jin stopped and patted Ye Xunyang's hand, signaling him to calm down.

"Xunyang, don't worry." Lou Jin's voice was low, but it carried an undeniable calmness.

"I have a gold medal in my hand, so I can do whatever I want now."

Looking at Lou Jin's expression, Ye Xunyang felt that he didn't recognize him anymore. Although Lou Jin used to be efficient, he at least had a plan for doing things. But now... something was wrong. What exactly did the Emperor talk to him about?

But now, he could only suppress his doubts: "Your Highness, please be careful in everything you do."

"I know." Lou Jin smiled slightly, turned around and walked into the main hall of Jing Si Yuan.

The hall was empty and dilapidated, with only a few simple tables and chairs.

Wang Quan was tied to a pillar in the hall, looking emaciated with empty eyes, as if he had resigned himself to his fate.

Just a wall away, the Empress's suppressed, intermittent sobs could be heard clearly, like the whispers of a ghost, constantly assaulting one's eardrums and mind.

Lou Jin sat down in front of Wang Quan, not in a hurry to ask questions, but quietly listened to the crying from next door.

The crying was like a key, gradually prying open Wang Quan's lifeless heart. His empty eyes began to focus, his body trembled slightly, and his lips quivered.

"Listen...it's Yilan..." he murmured to himself, tears streaming down his face, "She's crying...she's scared..."

Lou Jin then slowly spoke, his voice not loud, but with a strange penetrating power: "Wang Quan, did you hear that? The woman you risked your entire life, betrayed your master, and committed countless crimes to protect is now right next door."

"She lost her position, her son, her freedom, and can only weep in the cold palace. And you, too, are about to be beheaded. Do you... have any regrets?"

“Regret? Hahaha…” Wang Quan let out a bitter laugh that was extremely tragic.

“What’s the use of regret? My whole life… is a joke! I did everything for her, but she never had me in her heart! Only power, only her son! No… that wasn’t even her son, but her bastard child with that treacherous king!”

The crying next door seemed to pause for a moment, then became even more piercing, as if they could hear the conversation on this side.

Wang Quan finally collapsed to the ground and began to recount the first thing he did back then.

"Back then, Feng Bao was able to poison the Empress in Kunning Palace because I helped him with the servants. That's how he had the opportunity to tamper with the Empress's incense..."

"After Her Majesty the Empress passed away, I was assigned to Your Highness's residence because of my competence and loyalty. In fact, it was Consort Xian who arranged it."

He raised his head, his cloudy eyes looking at Lou Jin: "Your Highness, I know you didn't fully trust me at first. That's why you were assassinated five years ago."

Lou Jin recalled that he could have killed the assassin with one sword, but Wang Quan suddenly rushed out to block the blow, which instead injured Wang Quan. From then on, he gradually began to trust Wang Quan.

"That was me. I bribed a death row inmate to save your life, just so you would think I was reliable and lower your guard..."

Wang Quan continued to confess that the things he had passed on over the years included, but were not limited to, the officials who came and went from the Jinwang Mansion, Lou Jin's travels, and the information he had privately gathered.

Lou Jin listened patiently, grasped one key point, and asked in a deep voice, "When you pass on these messages, are you delivering them directly to Consort Xian or to the Fifth Prince, Lou Yi?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Quan gave a strange smile and shook his head: "Lou Yi? No... never."

"Consort Xian told me that if His Highness Prince Yi knew about my lowly status, it would make him lose face and feel embarrassed. Therefore, she never allowed me to get close to him."

"All my messages were sent to Consort Xian, and in between... in between, Feng Bao was used for communication and handover... But after Your Highness went out that night, I could no longer contact him. I thought it was Consort Xian doing it on purpose, so I waited patiently, until..."

He only communicated with Consort Xian through a single channel, and Lou Yi knew nothing about this.

This information made Lou Jin's gaze sharpen.

This means that, in Lou Yi's mind, he may not know about the existence of Wang Quan, the traitor, and may not even be fully aware of the many shady dealings his mother and Prince An were doing behind the scenes.

Or is this still a firewall deliberately set up by Consort Xian and Prince An so that Lou Yi can distance himself from some of the blame when things happen?

Wang Quan continued, “Until I overheard that Your Highness had obtained evidence against Lou Yi, I… I panicked and feared for Lou Yi's safety, so I risked everything and used my last extremely dangerous secret agent to urgently send the message to the palace. Then I heard that Your Highness's secret guards had been killed…”

Lou Jin noticed the time discrepancy in Wang Quan's confession and continued to press, "You said that Feng Bao stopped contacting you afterward, and you thought it was Consort Xian's doing. Why do you think that?"

“Last year, when Consort Xian was framed and fell into a coma, I was unable to contact Feng Bao during that time, so I did not send out the news that Your Highness’s health had improved and that you had left the capital.”

Lou Jin finally understood that Wang Quan, who seemed clever, was actually muddle-headed. No wonder he had left the capital without any problems. If he had told Lou Yi, things probably wouldn't have gone so smoothly.

"Later, after some time, I heard that Consort Xian's condition had improved, but Feng Bao never contacted me again. I thought that after she recovered, she felt that I was useless, or that she wanted to sever ties, so she cut off contact. Actually, at that time, I vaguely felt that her relationship with Prince An was unusual."

"I harbored resentment, but I was afraid of being exposed. Furthermore, many things happened in the Prince's residence afterward, so I didn't report it further until I learned..."

Lou Jin continued, "I have learned that I intend to deliver Lou Yi's evidence to the yamen."

"yes."

Therefore, according to Wang Quan's account, before Lou Jin fell seriously ill, he had been sending messages outwards. However, at that time, Lou Yi was weak and Prince An was still in his fiefdom and had not returned, so it did not cause much harm to Lou Jin at that time.

After Lou Jin fell seriously ill, the Prince's mansion became deserted. The study was guarded by secret guards, and Wang Quan only knew a few of those guards active in the mansion. So, he basically had nothing to do and could just wait for Lou Jin to die.

"Then why didn't you take any further action when you saw me recovering day by day?" Lou Jin asked, somewhat puzzled. "For example, by informing your master and trying to poison me further?"

Wang Quan looked up at Lou Jin, his eyes filled with tears: "This old servant, although I have disloyal thoughts, to be honest, there were a few moments when I truly regarded Your Highness as my child. When Your Highness first fell seriously ill, I dared not sleep at night. It was the first time I knew what it felt like to harm someone with my own hands."

"Seeing the prince recover, besides not being able to contact Feng Bao, I also have some selfish motives."

After hearing Wang Quan's words, Lou Jin fell silent for a moment. He hadn't expected Wang Quan to think this way. Perhaps it was to make excuses because of his resentment at the time, or perhaps he wanted to gain his pity so that he could be sentenced less severely.

Lou Jin didn't answer his question, but instead asked about something else: "Do you know about Shadow Serpent?"

"All I know is that Prince An and Consort Xian secretly established an organization, which may be this Shadow Serpent. Feng Bao holds a significant position in it; he was sent by Prince An to Consort Xian."

"I don't know anything else. After all, my mission is only within the King Jin's mansion."

His words revealed a sense of humility and helplessness at being excluded from the inner circle.

Although he was an important inside man for Consort Xian, in the vast network of conspiracies, he was still just a pawn confined to a fixed position, unable to see the whole picture.

The cries of the virtuous concubine next door gradually turned into sharp curses, seemingly a rebuttal, or perhaps a final, desperate struggle.

Lou Jin said nothing more, walked out of Jing Si Yuan, and said to the officials waiting outside, "Has everything been recorded clearly?"

"Your Highness, not a single word was missed."

"Take him away and keep a close watch on him," Lou Jin ordered the guards, his voice icy.