Chapter 57 Shameless Song Family
Everyone in the hall, who had been stunned by Song Jinxiu's previous "theft", opened their mouths in astonishment when they heard Gu Helian's words.
"You're talking nonsense!" Prince Cheng could no longer maintain his composure. "Gu Helian, stop slandering me!"
"slander?"
Gu Helian said sarcastically, "You think that you can make everyone keep their mouths shut by sending a few useless people to Anzhou, relying on your status as a prince to bully others? You want them to do something, but you are too stingy to even offer a little money to keep their mouths shut."
"Although the Anzhou prefect is afraid of your power and dares not say that you are colluding with the Duke of Song's mansion, there are many eyes on the Anzhou government office. Do you think everyone is afraid of you?"
"Mu Feng."
Gu Helian called out, and the taciturn follower standing behind him came forward with a brocade box in his hand. He opened it in front of everyone. Inside the brocade box lay a thick stack of paper pages.
"These are the confessions the family master had people fetch at the Anzhou government office. They clearly describe how people in Prince Cheng's mansion blackmailed the Anzhou prefect, forging Song Shulan's expulsion from the government, and how they changed her biological mother's name to Xu, confusing her with the refugees who were sent to Anzhou by the second master of the Song family after the Wuzhou flood seventeen years ago. They fabricated the illusion that the two had known each other for a long time and had a fleeting romance during the flood."
Mu Feng walked straight to Princess Cheng holding the brocade box, and Princess Cheng reached out to take it.
Prince Cheng quickly reached out to pull her: "Yue Niang, Gu Helian has bad intentions, don't trust him..."
Princess Cheng dodged him.
"Niang Yue..." Prince Cheng's face was pale, and he looked at Princess Cheng with pleading eyes.
Gu Helian saw Princess Cheng holding something with an unpleasant expression, and folded her hands with a mocking look:
"Why, Prince Cheng, are you afraid that your lies will be exposed, or are you afraid that your abuse of power and bullying will be discovered? Rong Yue, if you don't dare to look, then forget it. After all, you are a couple with deep love, so it doesn't matter if Xie Tianyu lies to you."
"Shut up!"
Princess Cheng turned her head and shouted in a low voice.
She shook off Prince Cheng's hand expressionlessly and took out the things in the brocade box directly. After seeing the testimonies with different handwritings on the paper, her expression became extremely ugly.
She silently handed the thing in her hand to Tang Ning beside her. After Song Tang Ning had finished reading it, she looked up at King Cheng.
"Uncle, is this what you call helping me?"
Gu Helian stepped on the doorstep in front of the flower hall. "He helped you? He helped you to ruin your father's reputation after his death, helped you to let Song Hong's bastard kill you, helped the eldest branch of the Song family to bully you, an orphan without a father or a mother. Maybe after you die, all the things your parents left behind will be owned by that concubine's daughter and become the eldest branch of the Song family?"
His face was gentle and kind, but his words were so fierce that they could peel the skin off King Cheng's face and throw it to the ground.
"Song Shulan was originally from Suyun Town, Yanghua. Her mother's surname was Xu. Her maternal grandfather, Xu Chunrong, was the Deputy Envoy of the Left Guards under the Crown Prince Li twenty years ago. At that time, the Crown Prince Li went crazy and attempted treason, but failed. He burned down the Forbidden Palace and died. All the officials in the Eastern Palace were implicated and the entire Xu family was executed. However, her daughter, Xu Zhen, luckily survived and was hidden in a remote place by the then-young Song Hong."
"The two had a childhood friendship, but how could the daughter of a traitor enter the Duke's mansion? Song Hong married the daughter of the Zou family and kept Xu Zhen in the suburbs of the capital as a concubine. While he and his wife in the mansion gave birth to their eldest son, Song Jinxiu, he also indulged in a tender and affectionate relationship with his childhood sweetheart."
Madam Song clutched her palms tightly, her face pale.
She only knew that Song Shulan was the romantic debt left by Song Hong in his early years. She thought that it was really as Song Hong said, that he was confused and had an affair with someone and left a handle in the hands of others, so he had no choice but to keep Song Shulan in the mansion.
But she never imagined that Song Hong actually had a childhood sweetheart. Even when he married her and was loving and affectionate with her as a good husband, he actually had a childhood sweetheart and a mistress.
No wonder Song Hong protected Song Shulan in every possible way. No wonder he could have found an excuse to keep her in the mansion, but he insisted on stuffing her into the second house to give Song Shulan a legitimate identity.
But it turned out that she was the girl he once loved...
Madam Song staggered and fell into the chair with a thud, her face red and tears streaming down her face.
Those who deceive others will always be deceived. She helped the Song family deceive Song Tangning, but she herself became a trapped person.
Song Jinxiu was on the verge of collapse, and he could only hear a roar in his ears: "You said... Song Shulan is my father's daughter?"
"You don't know?" Gu Helian raised an eyebrow, "Then why are you stealing for her?"
Song Jinxiu's face was pale, he didn't know.
My father and grandmother have always said that Song Shulan is my second uncle's daughter, and that she is the poor child left over from his fleeting romance.
That night, he drank too much because he was ostracized in Hanlin. Song Shulan cried to him and told him that her father and others wanted to send her away. She said that Song Tangning was still worried about her identity. She said that she had overheard the conversation between her father and grandmother and knew that Tangning actually suspected her identity and asked King Cheng to go to Anzhou to investigate.
Song Shulan was already surrounded by controversy, and after her widowed mother passed away, there was nothing to prove her background except that letter.
She cried and said that Tang Ning was extremely cruel, that she must want to harm her, and that if Tang Ning found an excuse to let Prince Cheng tell others that there were doubts about her background, then she would be completely ruined.
She cried pitifully and said that if she had the token from her second uncle, she would be able to protect herself even if Tang Ning really wanted to harm her.
When Song Jinxiu knew what Song Shulan wanted, he had a big fight with her, but in the end he softened his heart when he saw her tears.
He knew that the relics left by his second uncle and second aunt were all in Shi'an Garden, and that Tang Ning had not opened those boxes for many years for fear of being saddened by the scene. He secretly took away the bamboo-patterned pendant. His hands were shaking due to being drunk, but he kept comforting himself.
He just wanted Tang Ning to stop making trouble and wanted the Song family to live in peace.
He just wanted Tang Ning and Shu Lan to reconcile and stop being hostile to each other.
But he never imagined that Song Shulan was actually Song Hong's daughter.
"How is it possible..." Song Jinxiu's eyes were full of disbelief. He raised his bloodshot eyes and hissed, "You lied to me!"
"Why would I lie to you? Many people here should know about the Xu family's affairs. As for Song Shulan's identity, your mother should know something about it."
Song Jinxiu looked at Madam Song with tears streaming down her face, and felt a splitting headache. His mind seemed to explode, but Gu Helian continued.
"Back then, Song Hong enjoyed the blessing of having many wives and had Xu Zhen stay in the capital. They even had a son, just one month younger than you, but the child was born with a congenital deficiency and died before his first birthday."
"After the Xu family incident was over, Song Hong, probably thinking no one cared, boldly brought Xu Zhen back to the capital. However, he was discovered by the court officials. Old Duke Song took great pains to suppress the matter, but Song Hong was forced to send Xu Zhen out of the capital. Old Madam Song was worried that Xu Zhen would one day bring trouble to Song Hong if he lived, so she wanted to kill him. Unexpectedly, Xu Zhen escaped and his whereabouts have been unknown since then."
Gu Helian's voice was slow and sarcastic:
"Over half a year ago, a woman claiming to be of the Song family came to Song Tan. She claimed her mother's name was Xu Zhen, and before she died, she mentioned that she was the daughter of the Duke of Song. She also left a letter asking her to go to the capital to recognize her relatives."
"Knowing what happened, Song Tan had no choice but to bring her back to the capital. However, Xu Zhen was a descendant of a traitor, and the entire Xu family was executed by the late emperor. If anyone knew that Song Hong had taken in the traitor's daughter and had a daughter with her, not only would his future be ruined, but the Duke of Song's mansion would also be branded as a traitor. However, he couldn't bear to part with his childhood sweetheart's bloodline, and the letter in Song Shulan's hands was too deadly. So he could only turn his attention to the deceased Song Xi."
He looked up at Song Tangning, who was wearing a veil beside Princess Cheng, with a hint of pity and anger in his eyes.
"He covered up Song Shulan's identity, claiming her mother's surname was Li. He said it was a debt of love your father had incurred, and he blamed it on your father."
"The Song family is full of slander. They took advantage of your parents' early death and no one defended you. You were young and unaware of the past. They forced Song Hong's daughter into the Song family's second branch, pretending she was their bloodline. Not only did they raise her as a concubine, they also allowed her to bully and humiliate you, nearly killing you."
"Tang Ning, your father has never been involved with other women. He only has your mother in his heart, and he has never betrayed Sister Rong."
Song Tangning's eyes suddenly turned red, and everyone in the hall was stunned by Gu Helian's words.
Song Shulan turned out to be Song Hong's daughter, and her mother was the daughter of a traitor who sided with the Crown Prince!
The Song family is so brave. Song Hong is simply crazy. He doesn't want to live anymore!
The crowd was quiet for a moment, then an uproar broke out. Song Jinxiu's head was buzzing, and he was shaky and unable to stand steadily.
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