At that moment, Minister Lin was hit in the eye by a book thrown down by the emperor, but he dared not cry out. He simply picked up the book and kowtowed repeatedly.

"Your Majesty, please calm down! There must be some misunderstanding!"

As he spoke, Minister Lin picked up the booklet on the ground and glanced at it. He was immediately trembling with fear. This booklet was the evidence that Minister Sun had collected back then, showing their crimes of buying and selling official positions.

He had always wanted to find this booklet, but Minister Sun had hidden it too well. That night, he killed Minister Sun's entire family in front of him, but he didn't utter a single word. He never expected that this booklet would fall into Ning Zixuan's hands.

At this moment, Prince Jing was also completely bewildered, but seeing his father-in-law being reported to the Emperor by his own son still made him feel somewhat ashamed. So he glared at Ning Zixuan and scolded:

"Zixuan, what are you doing here? Go back to the manor at once!"

Ning Zixuan looked at Prince Jing and sighed.

“Father, what I am doing today is to seek justice for the people, for those innocent students who failed the exam, and for the more than one hundred people in the Sun family who died. I am not fooling around.”

When Prince Jing saw that Ning Zixuan dared to contradict him in public, he immediately flew into a rage, stepped forward, and slapped Ning Zixuan hard across the face.

"What nonsense are you spouting? What did the Lin family do to offend you that you're treating them like this?"

Ning Zixuan looked at Prince Jing in disbelief, and Ning Huaizhi, seeing this, quickly stepped forward and took Prince Jing's hand.

"Your Highness, please don't be anxious. Let's hear what the Crown Prince has to say first. I'm sure he wouldn't dare to cause trouble in front of the Emperor."

When Prince Jing saw that it was Ning Huaizhi who had come to stop him, he couldn't very well refuse him. So he glared fiercely at Ning Zixuan and said in a low voice:

"Just wait and see how I deal with you when I get back!"

Seeing this, the emperor rubbed his temples and said in a deep voice:

“Prince Jing, the Crown Prince is not young anymore. He is capable of distinguishing right from wrong. You don’t need to worry about him. What he did today is a good thing to clean up the court. Don’t stop him.”

Seeing that the emperor had spoken, Prince Jing could only nod helplessly and then retreated to the side with Ning Huaizhi.

Ning Zixuan bowed to the emperor before speaking:

"Your Majesty, I would like to invite my witness into the palace."

The emperor waved his hand.

"Let him in."

Then, Qiu Yue, with red-rimmed eyes, followed a eunuch into the main hall. As soon as she entered, she knelt down directly before the emperor.

"I am Qiuyue, the daughter of Minister Sun. I witnessed the massacre of the Sun family."

Upon hearing that the Sun family still had an orphan surviving, the emperor was quite excited and said:

"You are Minister Sun's daughter? Quickly raise your head and let me see you!"

Qiu Yue slightly raised her head to look at the emperor, who looked at her for a while and then sighed:

"So alike, so alike! Those eyebrows and eyes are just like Minister Sun's. I really didn't expect that the Sun family would still have descendants. Good, good! Heaven has eyes and didn't let your Sun family be wiped out!"

As he spoke, the emperor sighed and looked at Qiuyue.

"How...how did you survive?"

When Qiuyue recalled that night, she felt a constant throbbing pain in her heart, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

"That day, my father hid me in the dog hole at home and specifically told me not to come out no matter what noise I heard. So I stayed in the dog hole all night and witnessed their murderous act!"

Akizuki continued, sobbing:

"It wasn't until dawn, when those ruthless killers took my father's head and left the Sun residence, that I crawled out of the dog hole."

As she spoke, Qiuyue took out a handkerchief to wipe away her tears, and looked at the emperor.

"Before my father died, he entrusted the book to me, but I was too weak-willed. I was too young to withstand such a tragedy, and from that day on, I became a mentally challenged madwoman. I lived in the Sun family for more than ten years, until..."

Qiu Yue glanced at Ning Huaizhi, who was standing not far away, and continued:

"It wasn't until General Ning and Madam Jiang found me in the mansion that day that Madam Jiang saw that I was alive and couldn't bear to see me die, so she secretly cured my madness. That's how I remembered what happened that night."

As she spoke, Qiuyue glanced at the booklet in the emperor's hand and smiled faintly.

"Father, you can rest in peace now. Today, I have finally handed over this book recording the crimes of the demon Lin to the Emperor. I have fulfilled your dying wish, and I can die without regret!"

After saying that, Qiuyue suddenly stood up and ran towards the pillar next to her.

Fortunately, Ning Huaizhi was not far from her. He quickly stepped forward and stopped Qiu Yue, saying in a deep voice:

"Qiuyue, don't do anything foolish. The Emperor is here now and will surely give your Sun family justice. Madam saved you, not so that you could come to the palace to die!"

Upon hearing Ning Huaizhi's words, Qiu Yue's legs went weak and she knelt down.

"Thank you so much, General and Madam, for saving my life. I, Qiuyue, will never be able to repay you in this lifetime!"

Ning Huai stepped forward to help Qiu Yue up and whispered:

"If you truly want to repay us, then live well."

Just now, Qiuyue thought of the way her family died that night, and she had no desire to live anymore. The only reason she had been able to hold on until now was to see the book handed over to the emperor with her own eyes. Now that her wish had been fulfilled, Qiuyue thought of going down to be with her deceased parents.

But Ning Huaizhi's words reminded Qiu Yue of Jiang Yuwei's always smiling face, the way Xia Yue helped her clean and tidy the house, and the warmth of Aunt Zhou and the others treating her like their own daughter...

Thinking about all this, Qiuyue suddenly lost the thought of dying, and now she felt that living might not be so unbearable.

So, with tears in her eyes, Qiu Yue smiled and nodded at Ning Huaizhi.

"Thank you, General. Qiuyue understands."

Seeing that Qiu Yue seemed to have calmed down and given up her suicidal thoughts, Ning Huaizhi nodded to her, took a few steps back, and stood aside.

The emperor, sitting above, was startled by the sight. He thought that the only descendant of the Sun family was going to die in his palace today. Fortunately, Ning Huaizhi stopped her, otherwise the emperor would have felt guilty.

The emperor then nodded approvingly to Ning Huaizhi, and then looked at Qiu Yue and said:

"Minister Sun was indeed wronged back then. Now, tell me what you want, and I will grant it to you."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Yue glanced hatefully at Minister Lin, who was kneeling and trembling on the ground, before kneeling directly before the Emperor.

"Your Majesty, I only wish that Minister Lin also experiences the agony of his entire family being wiped out! That would be fair to my relatives who died unjustly!"