In the Fourth Prince's mansion, it is the concubine who is currently in charge of the miscellaneous affairs. Now that the Emperor has suddenly arrived, naturally only she is qualified to come out to welcome him.
The Fourth Prince didn't even glance at her, and led the Emperor to the inner courtyard. "Father, I am investigating the Crown Prince's main hall. Then let's go to my main room and take a look."
The emperor walked in without saying a word, as if walking with the gait of a dragon or a tiger.
The group arrived at the Fourth Prince's main room in a grand procession. Several lanterns were hung under the eaves, and the light shone into the room through the transparent glass windows. The places in the room that were not illuminated by the lights were pitch black.
The Fourth Prince frowned, somewhat displeased: "Why aren't the lights on?"
The concubine stood behind the Fourth Prince and hurriedly replied, "I just lit the lamp myself. Normally, the light is on even when no one is in the room. I don't know when it went out."
The concubine looked at the Fourth Prince's face and said, "Your Majesty and Your Highness, please wait a moment. I will go in and light the lamp."
The concubine carefully stepped past the Fourth Prince, opened the door, took out a tinder, and lit a candle in the light from the window.
Almost in an instant, all the lights in the room suddenly lit up, scaring the concubine so much that she screamed, and the tinderbox fell to the ground, rolled a few times and went out.
The people outside the door suddenly felt a bright light in front of their eyes and could not help but close their eyes. When they opened their eyes, they saw a golden scene in front of them.
Opposite the door was a dragon robe, spread out on a hanger. Embroidered with gold thread was a five-clawed golden dragon, looking majestic and solemn.
The Fourth Prince's pupils shrank and his whole body suddenly turned cold.
The emperor looked at the fourth prince with a sullen face: "What's going on?"
The Fourth Prince's mind raced, his face blank. "I, I don't know. Shouldn't this dragon robe be in the East Palace?"
After saying this, as if he had just realized something, the Fourth Prince knelt down and defended himself: "Something that should have been in the East Palace is now in my son's house. Father! I am wronged!"
Lu Linglong poked her head out from the crowd and stood on tiptoe to peek into the room. "Yeah, this thing should be in the East Palace, so why is it in the Fourth Prince's Mansion? This doesn't make sense."
Li Zhaoyi's hands and feet were numb, and she opened her mouth several times but couldn't say a word. How could she do things like this?
The Fourth Prince was still trying to defend himself: "Father! Lu Cainu supervised the delivery of this item to the Eastern Palace, yet it now appears in my residence. This is definitely a frame-up! I beg you, Father, to investigate!"
Xie Qing lazily admired the Fourth Prince's forced composure and said calmly, "Fourth brother, you're talking as if I were framing you. I'm already the Crown Prince, what good is there in framing you?"
Of course, the Fourth Prince could not say that he coveted the position of the Crown Prince and wanted to get rid of the Crown Prince as soon as possible, so the Crown Prince was his mortal enemy, and the Crown Prince naturally wanted him dead!
His mind raced, trying to find a suitable excuse to get away with it.
Lu Linglong's mouth was quicker than his brain: "Of course you're jealous of your brother! You brought him here, Crown Prince, so of course you can't stand your brother being better than you and are afraid he'll steal your throne, so you want to frame him! Your actions are truly despicable!"
Xie Qing turned to look at Lu Linglong and asked in confusion: "Am I jealous?"
Following Xie Qing's line of sight, everyone's eyes fell on Lu Linglong.
Lu Linglong felt that the highlight of her life was right now!
She put her hands on her hips and said confidently, "Why can't you be jealous? Jealousy is human nature. I'm even jealous of my former sister-in-law, the Crown Princess. Just admit it, you are jealous!"
Xie Qing was too lazy to deal with this unreasonable person. He looked at the emperor and said, "Father, I beg you to find out how this dragon robe appeared in the Fourth Prince's mansion."
"Need I ask? Of course it's you who framed me!" The Fourth Prince had already sorted out his thoughts and put the blame on Xie Qing for everything: "You sent the fifth prince to the funeral, and the sixth prince is now missing! My mother was demoted, and my wife was imprisoned! It's all your fault!"
"Now you've deliberately let others see this dragon robe, leading me to search your Eastern Palace, just so you can search my Prince's Residence! You're blatantly framing me in front of my father! You want to kill me!"
Li Zhaoyi had regained her voice by now, and she rushed forward, kneeling beside the Fourth Prince, saying, "Your Majesty! The Fourth Prince has been wronged! Please investigate!"
"Your Majesty, please investigate!"
Lord Wu and others also came forward and knelt down to make a request.
The newly-minted scholars looked at the number of courtiers kneeling beside the Fourth Prince, then looked at each other, and resolutely shrank to the side, trying to reduce their presence.
"The Fourth Prince is very skilled at framing someone."
A voice sounded from inside the room. Everyone looked sideways and saw a woman in plain clothes coming out from behind the curtain.
If this isn't the imprisoned Fourth Prince's consort Shen Suxin, then who is she?
Not only was she dressed in plain clothes, her hair was also casually tied up, her face was not made up, and she did not wear any jewelry. She looked very plain.
The Fourth Prince's Consort Shen Suxin walked to the front and kowtowed deeply: "Your servant, Shen Suxin, pays homage to His Majesty."
The emperor looked her over and spoke slowly, "I have only had your title of Imperial Consort stripped. You are the Fourth Prince's wife, so why do you call yourself that?"
Shen Suxin fell to the ground and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, I beg you to allow me to divorce the Fourth Prince amicably, or you can divorce me. You can write down the seven grounds for divorce at will. As long as I can escape from this horrible cage of the Fourth Prince's mansion, I will have no complaints!"
Lord Shen had no idea what she was up to, let alone why she brought it up in such a situation. He quickly stepped out of the crowd and pulled her to her feet, "What kind of occasion is this? How dare you say such things now? How will His Majesty view us? Seeing the Fourth Prince in trouble, are you so eager to distance yourself from him? Don't worry, His Majesty will investigate the matter of the dragon robe thoroughly! He won't implicate our Shen family!"
Shen Suxin turned to look at her father, her heart filled with sadness. Ever since she was imprisoned, no one from her mother's family had come to visit her, nor had they spoken a single word to her. Now that she wanted to cut ties with the Fourth Prince, he actually wanted to keep her trapped in this cage?
"Father, in your eyes, my defeat by the Shen family is more important than that? Do you know how serious the crime of treason is? Yes, your Shen family is a meritorious family, and a dragon robe is not enough to implicate the Shen family, but I, your daughter, will die because of it."
Shen Suxin laughed heartily as she spoke, pointing at the Fourth Prince and saying, "But father! Do you know what he did? Are you still thinking about the Shen family's reputation? Do you know that he made more than just this one dragon robe! Every single one of them! Is enough to implicate your Shen family!"
The Fourth Prince’s expression changed drastically, he grabbed Shen Suxin’s arm and glared at her: “What nonsense are you talking about!”
Shen Suxin stared at the furious Fourth Prince without any fear, but her smile became brighter: "Am I talking nonsense? I have been married to you for so many years, and I know everything you have done. It happens that everyone is here today, do you want me to tell you in detail?"
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