Chapter 127 Confession
When Dong Lingchuan arrived, he suddenly realized that the third floor of the Cang Shang Restaurant was empty, and his steps slowed down.
Stepping into the shadows, he saw the beautiful woman sitting by the window drinking tea, and facing her was the back of a handsome man. The tea aroma was thick, and the beauty's face seemed like a dream, making Dong Lingchuan feel dazed for a while.
"Hi, Your Highness..." Jiang Yuyan saw him coming and hurriedly stood up to salute. The man with his back to him also stood up and turned his head.
A strange man with an extremely outstanding appearance! Although he smiled faintly, Dong Lingchuan felt uneasy for no reason.
"Who is this?"
Shen Yi cupped his hands, "Your Highness may not know me, but I should have seen Your Highness eighteen years ago, when Your Highness was still a baby..."
Dong Lingchuan opened his eyes slightly and looked him up and down.
Shen Yi said: "Back then, I used the alias Shen Yi and lived in the Dayu Palace for a period of time."
Dong Lingchuan suddenly clenched his knuckles behind his back. Shen Yi, this name sounds so familiar...
Jiang Yuyan observed Dong Lingchuan's expression calmly and invited the two to take a seat.
The aroma of tea wafted from the table, and the three people had ethereal looks. If it weren't for the extremely serious matters they were going to discuss next, one would have thought it was a very wonderful meeting.
Although it was difficult, he had to speak up. Jiang Yuyan said in the curling tea smoke: "Your Highness, we already know that the Ninth Prince's death was not an accident."
A crack suddenly appeared on Dong Lingchuan's calm face. He didn't know how to reply for a moment and could only stare at her in a daze.
"It was Your Highness who did it, right?" Jiang Yuyan pointed out directly in a faint voice.
Dong Lingchuan's brows twisted into a "川" shape, and his breath seemed unstable, "He is my brother, why should I kill him..."
Jiang Yuyan didn't know what to say, "I also want to know why..."
Back then at the racecourse, all the young men were talented and full of vigor and vitality, and she had wanted to make friends with them.
"Why does the princess suspect me?" Dong Lingchuan looked cold, but the hand holding the teacup revealed the owner's unrest.
"Your Highness the Ninth Prince is an expert in martial arts and a frequent visitor to the battlefield. He is more alert than ordinary people. How could he not even know there was a fire?" Jiang Yuyan said.
"He was drunk and passed out..."
Jiang Yuyan shook her head.
Shen Yi added word by word: "Drunkenness and dreaming of death... That poison is drunkenness and dreaming of death..."
It was as if a thunder exploded in the air.
Dong Lingchuan's pupils shrank sharply, and his fingers trembled slightly, "You, you..." His mind was in a mess for a moment, and he didn't know how to respond. Yes, Mr. Li once mentioned that the owner of this poison was called Shen Yi!
The air pressure around Dong Lingchuan suddenly dropped, with a barely perceptible tremor.
Chen Yi was unaware and said, "This poison was given to Your Highness by Mr. Li, right? Your Highness may not know that this poison requires the Night Ghost Orchid of the Dayu Palace to be made, so when I made it that year, I only left one bottle for Mr. Li, and it has disappeared since then.
Your Highness thought that this poison was very clever. When you gave the Ninth Prince this drug that would make him die in a drunken dream, the guards seemed to accidentally reveal the good wine from Qianrifang. The Ninth Prince loved good wine and naturally wanted to taste it. Your Highness calculated the time and let him die silently in his drunken dream..."
Jiang Yuyan added, "Lord Zheng found that there were unburned snacks on the side of the candlestick, and there was a man-made hole in the window. It should be arranged by His Highness in advance, letting rats in to cause the secret room to catch fire. Perhaps if this plan fails, His Highness will find another way to start the fire. After all, His Highness will be dead by then."
Dong Lingchuan was no longer as gentle as before, his eyes were cold and stern, "Now that the princess knows, what should we do?"
Jiang Yuyan's mood was very complicated. On the one hand, she wanted to help Xie Yuan out of his predicament. Someone had to be held responsible for this matter, but it couldn't be the innocent Xie Yuan. On the other hand, she also sympathized with Dong Lingye, and at least had to ask him why.
"Why did your highness do this?"
Dong Lingchuan closed his eyes, opened them again, smiled bitterly and said, "Why? If I don't kill him, he will kill me!"
Jiang Yuyan was very surprised. "Why do you say that, Your Highness? I don't think Dong Lingye would ignore his brothers..."
Dong Lingchuan said painfully: "Am I like that bloodthirsty and murderous person?"
Jiang Yuyan looked sad and shook her head.
Dong Lingchuan lowered his head and said, "Thank you for wanting to cooperate with me in the first place..."
Jiang Yuyan was shocked for a moment and waited for him to continue.
"We were the ones who worked together to kill all the people at Luzhou Post Station and replaced the military intelligence of the northern border."
Jiang Yuyan ate another infuriating melon and looked at Shen Yi silently. Shen Yi signaled her with his eyes to stay calm.
"We originally wanted to delay the war so that we could negotiate with Emperor Otsuki and win Lingyan Lake. I'm sure you know better why Xie Yi did this."
Jiang Yuyan nodded. Her Fifth Prince and the General's Mansion were his political enemies.
"Before we arrived in the capital, we learned that the official who would receive us this time was His Royal Highness Prince Jing. Xie Yi instigated me to kill my ninth brother and frame Xie Yuan. He wanted to tie me and him together and help him get rid of his political enemies. He promised that if he inherited the throne in the future, he would offer Lingyan Lake to him."
"I didn't want to do that at the time!" Dong Lingchuan's eyes were filled with sorrow, his eyes slightly red, "He is my brother after all..."
Jiang Yuyan felt nervous and uncomfortable when she heard this.
"After I rejected Xie Yi, he secretly started to contact my ninth brother. I was suspicious and ordered people to follow him secretly... As expected, Xie Yi wanted to win over my ninth brother and tried to kill me and put the blame on King Jing... From then on, I couldn't rest day and night. They thought Princess Feng Ling was in love with me, and they even discussed letting my ninth brother put a love poison on Princess Feng Ling..."
Dong Lingchuan paused when he said this.
Jiang Yuyan was shocked. No wonder Feng Ling's temperament changed so much within two days after she came back. She said in a difficult tone: "So you think he has already started to act..."
Dong Lingchuan said: "No one can be a hero without ruthlessness. My ninth brother and I are one elder and one younger. I am the elder and he is favored. Sooner or later, we will have a quarrel and fight to the death... I just delayed what he was going to do to me..."
Jiang Yuyan's heart stagnated as she thought of the last time they met at Liuyun Manor.
It was morning light at that time, Dong Lingye looked at her nonchalantly with a smile in his eyes: "In the future, if I have nowhere to go, I will come to find you, you must take me in..."
Jiang Yuyan felt a pang in her heart, and sighed softly: "Although the Ninth Prince wants to seize the throne, he may not have the intention to kill you..."
Otherwise, why would he have imagined a scenario in which Dong Lingchuan would ascend the throne and expel him in the future?
Dong Lingchuan raised his head suddenly, "Impossible, impossible, my secret guards clearly heard it..."
Jiang Yuyan shook her head and repeated to Dong Lingchuan word for word what Dong Lingye had said to her in Liuyun Manor.
"Your Highness must have heard it wrong, or misunderstood it... Or perhaps, it is Your Highness's own vigilance against the Ninth Prince that is causing trouble..." Jiang Yuyan said in a deep voice.
Dong Lingchuan's mouth trembled slightly, his eyes were moist, his Adam's apple rolled, and he kept murmuring: "No, it's impossible..."
The teapot on the table had long since lost its heat, and the three people in the room were silent for a long time. Outside, the sky was frozen and the ground was closed, and the wind was slashing and the frost was fierce, but it was not as cold as the atmosphere in the room at this moment.
Dong Lingchuan seemed to be deeply shocked. After a long while, he said dejectedly: "Now that the princess knows about it, what should we do?"
Jiang Yuyan said, "I just want to ask for the Ninth Prince. Now that I see your situation, you should be regretting it, right?"
regret?
Dong Lingchuan lowered his eyes and looked at his hands, and suddenly a turbid tear fell, "I...was it my fault...I actually killed my own brother..."
Jiang Yuyan sighed, "Back then, we were riding horses and having fun at the racecourse. I felt that if there were no family and national affairs between us, we would have been close friends. But why did it come to this?"
Dong Lingchuan's heart was pounding and the pain was so unbearable that he could hardly speak.
After a long while, he finally calmed down, restrained his expression and said in a hoarse voice: "I will explain the situation to my father myself, and I will carry the coffin back to the country soon. Dayue can close the case."
Jiang Yuyan knew what Dong Lingchuan would face in this situation, and couldn't help but sigh deeply.
However, this matter is also closely related to the gratitude. He is so bold as to harm the country's war. Why not take this opportunity to trap him to death?
Moreover, she had complicated feelings towards Dong Lingchuan, but if she could save his life at this time, it might also be beneficial to the diplomatic relations between the two countries in the future.
"Since your Highness has already acknowledged his mistake, sacrificing his life now will not help. It would be better for you to be a wise ruler in the future, and apologize to the Ninth Prince in the underworld after death. He will then feel more at ease." Jiang Yuyan said patiently.
Dong Lingchuan said woodenly: "The princess is not going to report me, thinking that I still have a chance."
Jiang Yuyan said: "Someone has to be held responsible for this matter. Shouldn't Xie Yi, who instigated the two of you to kill each other, be held responsible?"
Dong Lingchuan looked cold and said, "That's right! He has the best of both worlds. If he hadn't fanned the flames, how could I have done such a wrong thing? I will never let him go!"
Jiang Yuyan asked, "Your Highness, do you have any evidence that Xie Yi colluded with you to assassinate the officials of the Luzhou Post Station, and instigated you to kill the Ninth Prince and frame King Jing?"
Dong Lingchuan said: "There is only a secret letter with unclear meaning and his token."
Jiang Yuyan thought for a moment and whispered, "As long as we have his handwriting, we can copy two secret letters and take his token to accuse him. With your Highness as a witness, the emperor will have to believe it even if he doesn't want to. Then..."
Jiang Yuyan felt guilty about Dong Ling's ambitions and could not make the truth public. She paused for a moment and said, "Then His Highness can blame it all on Xie Yi and say that Xie Yi was impatient and killed the Ninth Prince on his own initiative to frame Xie Yuan, the head of the posthouse."
Finally, Shen Yi asked again: "Are there any remnants of the dream of drunkenness and death?"
Dong Lingchuan nodded.
Shen Yi said: “Your Highness can hand it over to me, and this bottle of poison will appear in Xie Yi’s bedroom tomorrow night.”
When Dong Lingchuan left, he bowed to Jiang Yuyan solemnly and said, "I know that I have committed serious sins, but the princess is still willing to save me. I will definitely live up to the princess's expectations in the future."
Jiang Yuyan also returned the greeting.
Then the two of them watched Dong Lingchuan leave with heavy steps.
On the way back home, Jiang Yuyan sighed and lamented.
Shen Yi said: "Zheng Shaopu already knows the truth, how can you guarantee that he will close the case as you said?"
Jiang Yuyan glanced at him, "He still has his head in his hands, and the evidence is only in our hands. If you don't come forward to correct it, the case will not be closed. After seven days, his head will fall off. Moreover, if he reports the truth to the emperor, he will not get any good things from Dayu. The emperor asked him to investigate and give Dayu an explanation. How can he give an explanation like this?"
"Lord Zheng is a close minister of the emperor and does not participate in factional struggles. You are dragging him into the water by doing this. Besides, Lord Zheng is not a coward." Shen Yi frowned.
Jiang Yuyan lowered her eyes and said, "I'll go and tell her."
"It seems that you have also noticed that Lord Zheng treats you differently?" Shen Yi snorted coldly.
Jiang Yuyan tilted her face slightly. That night, the man's eyes were still vivid in her mind. Now that she has been in the sea of love, she is particularly sensitive to this matter. As Shen Yi said, she is indeed a little unkind...
That night, Jiang Yuyan slowly told Zheng Shaopu about the incident, emphasizing the role of gratitude and Dong Lingchuan's misunderstanding. She also implicitly told him the results of her discussion with Dong Lingchuan.
For some reason, in this negotiation, Jiang Yuyan mainly used emotions and benefits to induce, and did not have the heart to threaten.
Zheng Shaopu was as shrewd as a man, and listened to the whole thing without saying a word. He asked her to prepare the evidence and then asked her to leave.
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