The fact that Consort De was in such a hurry to silence her shows that she already knew Ye Jingchen suspected her.
Ye Jingchen only learned about these rumors today, and apart from analyzing them for the kids in the Wenhua Hall, he didn't tell anyone about his suspicions.
In other words, only these little brats knew that he had someone he suspected.
Of all these youngsters, only Ye Jingming would reveal anything to Consort De.
Ye Jingming is only seven years old this year. An ordinary seven-year-old child, like Yun Shu, is only thinking about eating, drinking and having fun. But Ye Jingming is obviously different from Yun Shu.
He clearly had a lot on his mind, yet he remained calm and didn't reveal a thing.
Whether he revealed it intentionally or unintentionally, Ye Jingchen had no way of knowing, but Ye Jingchen guessed that he might not have been completely unaware of Consort De's actions.
Consort De was his mother, so his actions were understandable.
However, seven years old is the age when one can know good and evil and right and wrong. Consort De is too ruthless and unscrupulous. Ye Jingchen is worried that Ye Jingming will be influenced by her.
It seems that moral education for the young kids is urgently needed.
Besides this, there's another thing Ye Jingshu was right about.
Sure enough, many people in the court today impeached him, saying that he had harmed his own brothers.
The emperor immediately flew into a rage, berated all the ministers who had impeached him, and demoted or flogged the ringleaders.
To make an example of them, the emperor had those people flogged right there in the Golden Palace, in front of all his officials.
Ye Jingchen imagined the scene of blood and flesh flying everywhere, and suddenly felt a little moved.
He was very grateful that he had entered this body and had such a father who unconditionally trusted and protected him.
He would never betray the emperor's trust. He would keep a close watch on him, safeguard the people's hearts and hopes for him, and strive to make him a wise ruler who would be remembered throughout history.
"Go see those palace servants; we need to put their minds at ease," Ye Jingchen said to Chenxi.
Those people are now imprisoned in the same place. Although they have just escaped death, there is no trace of relief on their faces, only a deathly stillness.
Ye Jingchen knew why they were so determined to die.
Although they escaped death, their families remained under the control of Consort De.
Back then, after Ye Jingchen gave the two palace servants who caused the original owner to drown to Ji Wushuang as a token of his sincerity, the two palace servants committed suicide in Weiyang Palace that very night.
Ye Jingchen specifically ordered his secret guards to investigate and discovered that Consort De was threatening their family members' lives.
Just in case, Ye Jingchen also had his secret guards investigate the backgrounds of the remaining palace servants in the Eastern Palace. They learned that their situations were all the same: important people were being controlled by Consort De.
In Consort De's eyes, they were nothing more than a few insignificant pawns, and the power they used to monitor their families was not strong. It would be easy to rescue their families.
To make it easier to control them, Consort De chose people whose families lived in the capital as pawns. This also made things easier for Ye Jingchen. While he had Chenxi keep a close eye on these people, he had already ordered his secret guards to leave the palace to rescue the families of these palace servants.
He didn't mind speculating about Consort De with the utmost malice, and he always liked to plan ahead and leave no room for error in his actions.
Even if it turns out that Consort De was not responsible for this incident, rescuing the families of these palace servants would still be beneficial, as it would allow him to turn these palace servants against him and make them work for him.
As he had predicted, when he came to see the palace servants, the secret guards who had gone out to rescue people had returned to report and brought him a token that would convince the palace servants.
After seeing them, Ye Jingchen didn't waste any words and directly showed them the token.
"Tomorrow, I will have someone take you to see the Emperor. As long as you explain in detail what you have done for Consort De over the years, all your past misdeeds will be forgiven, and I will allow you to leave the palace and reunite with your families," Ye Jingchen told them.
These people had no other choice.
Ye Jingchen handed them over to Lin Xun, instructing Lin Xun to take them to see the emperor before the morning court session the next day.
As for the credit for finding these people, it can only be attributed to Lin Xun.
His bodyguards are theoretically only under his command, and their primary purpose is to protect his safety.
If we tell the emperor that these things were discovered by the secret guards, it would be tantamount to telling the emperor that he was in charge of everything.
The emperor might be pleased with this, but there's also a small chance he'll become wary. Ye Jingchen doesn't want to gamble with people's hearts.
The sooner the rumors are quelled, the better. The emperor publicly tortured his officials in court today. Who knows how those with ulterior motives will slander him behind his back? If it is proven sooner that those who were beaten deserved it, the damage to the emperor's reputation can be mitigated sooner.
Despite what happened today, before dinner, Ye Jingchen still had Ye Jinghe serve Lin Xun the tea ceremony to formally accept Ye Jinghe as his disciple. They also agreed on a time for daily martial arts practice.
Given that Ye Jinghe has to attend classes from 5:45 AM to 5:00 PM, and the time for learning kung fu is set for 5:45 AM, it means that Ye Jinghe will have to get up half an hour earlier every day starting tomorrow.
A four-year-old child gets up at 4:30 every morning, practices martial arts at 5:00, and does morning exercises at 6:00. How can the word "miserable" even begin to describe it?
However, Ye Jingchen and Lin Xun had already set a time, and neither of them gave Ye Jingchen any chance to interrupt.
The next day, Ye Jingchen specifically instructed Fangfei to wake him up fifteen minutes earlier so he could watch Ye Jinghe practice martial arts.
Lin Xun was going to see the emperor today with the source of the rumors, so he left early, leaving Ye Jing to practice horse stance with him.
Ye Jingchen didn't disturb Ye Jinghe, but just watched from afar. Although Ye Jinghe's legs were trembling, he was still gritting his teeth and persevering.
He was still so young and thin. Although his stance wasn't perfect, his perseverance impressed Ye Jingchen.
Although he has the soul of a thirty-year-old adult in his body, when it comes to the ability to endure hardship and the tenacity to stick to something, he is not as good as Ye Jinghe, and may even be inferior to Ye Jingyu.
Seeing Xiao Jinghe's hard work, he felt ashamed.
Ye Jingchen felt conflicted.
He knew, of course, that having martial arts skills would make him safer, given his position.
But practicing martial arts is really tough, and getting up early is even tougher.
If he had followed Xie Chang'an and Ye Jinghe in their schemes since childhood, he would certainly have had more skills to protect himself later in life, but his childhood would have been far too miserable.
His life now is many times more miserable than before. The reason he can persevere is entirely due to his own self-deception, dangling the future of a wealthy and idle person on his own.
He was really afraid that if he kept suffering, he would get used to it, which would be too terrible!
The truth that the ancients gleaned from the tea ceremony, "bitter before sweet," is truly difficult to judge.
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