Chapter 71 Coincidences always seem to happen unexpectedly with Prince Ning.
Qi Jingxuan remained silent. Xu Jinyu offered a few words of advice but didn't know what to say, and the room fell silent.
Finally, Gao Zheng broke the silence, saying, "Yesterday I went back to the Dali Temple and looked through some old case files related to the He family, and found that his family is actually still involved in the Liu Yuan case from back then."
"It's unclear whether they were truly not deeply involved, or whether they covered it up well afterward, but they weren't implicated much, and it was only mentioned briefly in the case file."
The Liu Yuan case was handled by Gao Pei and his son, with Shen Yan also contributing significantly. As a result, Gao Pei was recalled to the capital by the emperor, finally getting the opportunity to join the Hanlin Academy, which he had always longed for. Shen Yan also took this opportunity to eliminate the superiors who had been suppressing Shen Mingshan for years, and the family's life improved considerably from then on.
The Liu Yuan case implicated the Yingzhou Guard Commander in embezzling military funds and reselling military supplies and equipment, which enraged the emperor. Under strict investigation, countless officials and nobles were dismissed and stripped of their titles, and the repercussions still linger in the court today.
The fact that the Ho family was able to escape unscathed from such a major case means either they genuinely didn't get involved much, or they found a way to extricate themselves from the situation.
Qi Jingxuan frowned, wondering what this had to do with what they were talking about, but Xu Jinyu quickly figured it out.
“Consort Hui is not favored in the palace. Although the He family has some influence in the court, it is declining year by year and is not enough to escape unscathed when His Majesty is furious. If the He family is really closely related to this case, they must have used some connections to help them make a big deal out of a small deal and a small deal out of a big deal.”
“At the time, the person in charge of supervising this case was Prince Ning. No matter whose path they took, they would all have to get past Prince Ning in the end. If that’s the case, the He family should have already been very close to Prince Ning back then.”
"But now... Consort Hui is dead, the He family has split up, yet not a single person has gone to seek refuge with Prince Ning, which is truly strange."
Shen Yan didn't know much about court affairs, and had no way of checking the Dali Temple files. She could only learn about the follow-up of old cases from their conversations.
Upon hearing that Prince Ning had overseen the case, she frowned: "Why was Prince Ning in charge? I remember it was supposed to be a joint trial by the three judicial departments. Shouldn't it have been overseen by the heads of the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Court of Judicial Review?"
Although she was in Yingzhou at the time, she had heard that the emperor had requested the three judicial departments to jointly try the case, so why was it ultimately supervised by Prince Ning?
Xu Jinyu explained, "It is indeed true that the three departments will conduct a joint trial, but because the Liu Yuan case involves a wide range of people, some of whom are also involved in the three departments, His Majesty was afraid that the heads of the various departments would be biased. So His Majesty selected one of the princes to assist in the investigation and supervision. Although it is called assisting in the investigation, all the case files will eventually pass through his hands and be submitted to His Majesty by him."
"Since the He family appeared in the final file, it means that they were not able to completely erase their traces earlier. Since they were not able to erase them, and it was only mentioned briefly, then either it was really nothing serious, or Prince Ning let them off the hook."
After he finished speaking, seeing the hesitation on Shen Yan's face, he pressed her for an answer: "Miss Shen, do you feel there's something amiss?"
Shen Yan frowned slightly and slowly shook her head: "It's not that there's anything wrong with it, it's just that... it's too coincidental."
Xu Jinyu suddenly realized and smiled, "You don't need to worry about that. His Majesty originally intended to give this task to the Crown Prince, but an official from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was involved. The Crown Prince took the initiative to avoid suspicion and gave it to Prince Ning. It wasn't that he asked for it."
Shen Yan shook her head again: "I'm not saying it's too coincidental that Prince Ning is in charge of this case, but..."
She didn't know how to explain her thoughts for a moment. After sorting out her thoughts, she dipped her finger in some tea and tapped it on the table: "This is Lin Si. He was killed by Consort Hui, and Consort Hui was a member of the He family."
As she spoke, she pointed to two dots side by side, representing Consort Hui and the He family respectively. Then she started a new line and pointed to another dot: "This is the day when the Prince and I had an accident at the Spring Banquet of the Marquis of Cheng'an's residence. Later, the Prince remembered that he had heard someone having an affair in the Imperial Garden at a palace banquet in January this year. A handkerchief was left behind at the scene, and the handkerchief... later appeared in the hands of the Third Princess."
As she finished speaking, three more water stains appeared on the table, representing the spring banquet of the Marquis of Cheng'an's residence, the palace banquet in the first month of the lunar calendar, and the Third Princess Qi Yunying.
Finally, she connected the two rows of dotted water stains together to draw two lines, one ending downwards and the other upwards, eventually converging at a single point.
Her finger circled heavily around this point: "The Third Princess is Prince Ning's sister, and the He family has some unclear and ambiguous relationship with Prince Ning. No matter how much we investigate... it seems we always run into Prince Ning unexpectedly."
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