Wan Xueying didn't say much, knowing that it was useless to say empty words at this time. She could only watch over Shen Yu quietly and wait for the result.
Shen Yu had already sent Shunzi back to the capital to inquire. It would probably not take long for him to find out what had happened at the Duke of Ping's Mansion, but by then the exile team would have already set out again.
"Is it true what you said the other day that the Duke's Mansion would be confiscated and demoted to commoners?" After a while, Shen Yu suddenly spoke.
"That's just a guess, I can't guarantee it." Honestly, she had no idea where those guesses came from. They seemed accurate, but intervention could change the outcome. It was more like a hint, a hint at how things might develop.
"I hope it's accurate." At least everyone in the Duke's Mansion can save their lives.
"Don't think too much. The Duke's Mansion will be fine." Wan Xueying finally gave some dry advice.
"I hope so."
Before the exile team set off again, the team escorting the Third Prince arrived at Shili Pavilion. Ning Tai immediately led his men to the carriage and greeted Ning Ze with a smile.
Otherwise, why would he be a prince?
Even though others implicated in the same case would be exiled on foot to the northern border, Ning Ze, the main culprit, was transported by carriage to the imperial ancestral mausoleum. Even his escort was the Imperial Guard, led by an old acquaintance of Wan Xueying's, the Imperial Guard's deputy commander, Pei Xuanqing. To the uninitiated, one might have assumed he was on an incognito tour, with no awareness of his exile.
"Royal brother, please put away your hypocritical face. Isn't it all your fault that I've fallen into this situation?" Ning Ze didn't want to pretend to be a brother in front of outsiders. Without even getting out of the carriage, he retorted bluntly through the window.
Ning Tai didn't seem to mind. He smiled, lowered his voice, and said, "I didn't want to see you off, but I'm in this position and have to show it to my father and the ministers." He added, "If it were you, you would do the same thing."
Ning Ze sneered, "I'm not like you, saying one thing to your face and another behind your back. I'm even less like you, setting up traps that are full of loopholes!"
"The victors are the kings and the losers are the bandits. What's the point of saying that now?"
"But don't forget, things change over time. Who can guarantee that you won't be the next person to end up like me?"
"Just take care of yourself. Don't worry about my affairs, Third Prince." If he wasn't acting for others, why would he talk about these useless things? Finally, he said: "Take care, Third Prince! I will take good care of Concubine Xian for you!"
Because the third prince was convicted, Concubine Xian was banished to the cold palace and became an abandoned concubine. His words were tantamount to threatening Ning Ze.
Ning Ze gritted his teeth and said angrily, "You'd better not disturb my mother, or I will never let you go!"
"Who doesn't know how to make harsh words? Let's wait and see."
The two brothers parted on bad terms, but Pei Xuanqing approached Shen Yu and asked, "Are you waiting for someone from the Duke's Mansion?"
"Yes!" Shen Yu did not hide it, but he was even more convinced that something had happened in the Duke Ping's Mansion, and it was a big deal.
"But you are lucky. You escaped a disaster."
"If you have anything to say, just say it." Shen Yu was quite impatient.
"If you really want to know, why don't you act in a begging manner? Let me put it this way, among these people, no one knows the inside story of the case of Duke Ping's Mansion better than me." Pei Xuanqing said with a hint of pride. He was not as arrogant as he was when he raided Bo's house last time, and he kept calling himself "this official".
In fact, he was very familiar with Shen Yu, but one served the emperor and the other was the third prince's tutor, so they shouldn't get too close.
Now, the huge gap in status between an official and a prisoner has made people less cautious than before. Back then, they not only had to be wary of each other, but also had to be wary of being seen and over-interpreted by outsiders.
Shen Yu certainly couldn't bring himself to ask him for help, so Wan Xueying, who was standing by, had no choice but to say, "If Master Pei knows the inside story, why not tell us something?"
"You guys?" Pei Xuanqing raised his eyebrows slightly. Why are these two people becoming more and more involved after their divorce?
"Yes! Not only Shen Yu, I also want to know." Wan Xueying knew what Pei Xuanqing meant, but there was nothing wrong with her answer.
"Okay, for Miss Wan Er's sake, I'll tell you the truth about this matter. More than 200 people in the Duke Ping's mansion have been sent to the Sky Prison to await the emperor's decision." Needless to say, the property was confiscated.
"Heavenly Prison?" This was truly explosive news, and he was quite direct in his words. Wan Xueying's eyes widened. "What kind of serious crime warrants being sent there?" Was her guess wrong? This was so quickly refuted.
"I think Shen Yu should know very well." Pei Xuanqing gave Shen Yu a look.
"How should I know?" Shen Yu muttered unnaturally. His head was buzzing and he couldn't accept the fact that all the people in the Duke's Mansion were sent to the Sky Prison for a while.
"It seems I need to give you a hint or two before you're willing to tell me."
"Try to give him some hints." Shen Yu realized that if he didn't follow Pei Xuanqing's words, Pei Xuanqing wouldn't reveal the truth for a while. This man had always worked for the emperor, and perhaps he had asked him to do so at the emperor's behest. So he prepared himself and responded carefully.
"Two years ago, the Duke Ping's Mansion wanted to expand the ancestral tomb in Huaiyuan County. Why did they only expand it a little bit and then stop?" Pei Xuanqing asked with interest.
"Because the Yin-Yang master said that further expansion will destroy the feng shui there." This was the excuse that the Duke's Mansion had thought of early on, and Shen Yu did not hesitate at all.
"Really?" Pei Xuanqing's lips curled up slightly. "I remember asking a yin-yang master to calculate all this before breaking ground. Why do you say it will destroy the feng shui after we've already started?"
"This...actually, it's because something bad happened." Seeing Wan Xueying staring at him curiously, Shen Yu pretended to hesitate before making up his mind. "While expanding the ancestral tomb, several workers fell into a deep pit and died. Everyone thought it was unlucky, so after consulting a Feng Shui master, they stopped the expansion."
Wan Xueying nodded, "I see!" People who can make up such excuses are suitable for writing storybooks, especially suspense and thriller types.
Pei Xuanqing glanced at Wan Xueying and curled his lips, "Only a fool would believe such nonsense."
"Are you saying I'm stupid?" Wan Xueying narrowed her eyes and warned him of the danger.
Pei Xuanqing, who didn't feel any deterrence, smiled and said, "Do you really believe it?" It was obvious that Wan Xueying was cooperating with Shen Yu to fool him.
"After all this talk, you still haven't explained why those people from the Duke of Ping's Mansion were thrown into the Sky Prison?" Wan Xueying brought the topic back. But from what she heard, it seemed like it had something to do with digging a pit. Could it be that the Duke of Ping's Mansion had a mine?
Pei Xuanqing then continued in a stern voice, "Shen Yu! Do you think the Duke of Ping's Mansion has concealed such a serious matter from the Emperor? Do you think the Emperor will forgive them so easily?"
He continued, "I've already told you that you're lucky, because if this matter were proven true, it would be a heinous crime punishable by the extermination of all nine generations of your clan! And you just happened to have been expelled from your clan before this. I even suspect that Duke Ping had planned this expulsion all along!"
The author has something to say:
It is tentatively scheduled to enter V next week, and there will be 10,000 updates on the same day, and the updates will be slowed down in the next two days.
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