Chapter 457 I would rather perish together with you than let anyone get involved!
After Xiao Yan left, someone carried Lu Chongyuan's body out.
Most criminals convicted of treason would have their bodies thrown into mass graves after being executed, left to be eaten by owl beasts. However, Lu Chongyuan's identity was different.
Emperor An never wanted to be criticized, and even if he had to be executed, he had to gain the reputation of being a "benevolent monarch forced to do so" and stand high in the end. So Canglang ordered people to put Lu Chongyuan's bones in a thin coffin and temporarily place it in the imperial prison, and then find a place to "bury" them after the other members of the Lu family were convicted.
Canglang asked people to take care of the prison and transfer the other members of the Lu family to the death row, while the coffin containing Lu Chongyuan was placed casually in a dark place.
Late at night, someone quietly opened the door and sneaked in. He opened the coffin, bent down and pressed the corpse for a while, and then checked the mouth, nose and body.
After confirming that he had indeed died of poisoning and had stopped breathing, the man closed the coffin again and left quietly.
…
When Xiao Yan got on the carriage, he saw Tang Ning leaning against the inner room, looking down at something in his hand.
Seeing him come in, she handed him something in her hand and said, "Brother, Lu Chongyuan wrote a confession. I didn't expect the Lu family to collude with Emperor An and do so many things. Each of these things is enough to ruin his reputation."
"With this in hand, once we quell Beiling's campaign against Emperor An and his son, we'll be able to put them to death..."
Tang Ning was stunned when someone grabbed his wrist. "Brother?"
Xiao Yan casually took the thing from her hand and threw it aside. He pulled her closer and looked her up and down: "Are you hurt? Did Lu Chongyuan hurt you?"
Tang Ning was stunned for a moment and then laughed: "He is in that state, how can he hurt me? Besides, Jinyun is always guarding me."
Seeing Xiao Yan frowning and looking under her skirt, she lowered her head and found that her cloak and skirt were stained with blood, and even her sleeves did not look clean.
Knowing that he had misunderstood, Tang Ning quickly comforted him softly: "I'm not injured. This is all Lu Chongyuan's blood. I accidentally stained it in the prison just now. I will change it when I get back."
"Are you really okay?"
"What can happen to me? Don't worry, brother. I'm fine."
Xiao Yan was relieved when he saw that she didn't seem to be lying. He touched her cold palm and held it in his palm for a moment. When her fingertips became warm, he picked up Lu Chongyuan's "confession" at Tang Ning's urging.
The bloodstained confession was written in a somewhat weak but concise manner. Perhaps because he truly hated Emperor An, Lu Chongyuan did not try to cover up for him at all.
Apart from the twenty years of disaster relief in the south that they had known about before, there was also how they later framed King Cheng and how they instigated the aristocratic families to join forces against the He family.
Almost all of the charges against the He family were framed, and the reason why Prince Li's temperament changed drastically was because he was drugged by Emperor An and the people from the aristocratic families.
That medicine can make people angry, damage their bones and make them weak.
Xiao Yan didn't find it strange to see these things. After all, he had seen his father's temperament change drastically. Later, after asking Madam Qin, he learned that there were indeed drugs that could make people do that.
But when Xiao Yan continued to read, his expression froze.
But I saw Lu Chongyuan writing.
"The Eastern Palace burned down, and the walls collapsed. Xie Tianyong feared the drugging would be exposed, so he tried to cover up any traces. However, the men he sent discovered something the size of a bullet stuck between the collapsed brick walls and the bed. The areas not burned by the fire were sealed with medicinal wax."
"Xie Tianyong ordered someone to take it out and hand it over to the Lu family doctor for examination. After reading ancient books, he learned that it was called Zuimeng Powder. Its effect can cause hallucinations, loss of sanity, and a state of madness."
"Xie Tianyong and I suspected this item was the work of the late emperor. We tested it a few times, and the late emperor was shocked. He tried to silence the witness but failed, and ended up hurting the witness himself. He was forced to stay on his sickbed, and Xie used this opportunity to gain the throne..."
Lu Chongyuan didn't write much, just a few sentences, but they made people feel cold.
Xiao Yan tightened his grip a little bit, and raised the corners of his mouth in a mocking manner.
"I just find it strange. When the late emperor forced my father to death and destroyed the He family, he should have been at his most proud."
"Before the incident at the Eastern Palace, he was in good health and had never shown any symptoms. How could he have passed away so suddenly after my father's death? It turns out that someone had something on him and put him in the hands of the Lu family and Xie Tianyong."
He brought disaster upon himself and even blamed his father for his serious illness. He only told outsiders that it was because the Crown Prince had committed treason and had no father or king, and he was so sad that he fell seriously ill. Even his subsequent death made his already notorious father bear the crime of being unfilial and unbrotherly by angering his biological father to death.
Drunken Dreams...
The last time the Eastern Palace was renovated was before the Crown Prince's wedding. To show his appreciation and love for the palace, the late Emperor personally ordered its reconstruction despite the Crown Prince's objections, more than doubling the size of the original palace. Even the carvings of dragons and phoenixes on the beams were personally designed by the late Emperor, who then ordered them to be carved and placed in the Crown Prince's bedroom.
When Xiao Yan was young, he heard his father mention this matter more than once. Even when his father later had a dispute with the late emperor and the two had different political views, and his father noticed that the late emperor was not as close to him as before, he would still tell the young Xiao Yan.
The late emperor cared about him and loved him like an ordinary father.
Xiao Yan squeezed the thing in his hand tightly, thinking of the past, and the veins on his neck bulged.
Tang Ning looked at the gloomy eyes of the person next to him and put his hand on his.
"Brother..."
There was a slight tear in Xiao Yan's eyes. He couldn't help but hold Tang Ning's hand and pull her into his arms, hugging her tightly with a tense voice.
"Father, he's not worth it."
He had the ability to destroy the previous emperor and to save himself. In the end, when he went mad and violent, he could have dragged the Wei Dynasty to be buried with him, but he didn't.
He could have survived, could have escaped the fire, could have escaped that ridiculous treason.
But he never took that step until his death.
Xiao Yan's eyes were filled with hostility as his body tensed up. He wished he could destroy everything he wanted to protect until his death!
Tang Ning's bones ached when he held her tightly, but she did not struggle. She just put her arms around him and stroked his back again and again.
Her voice was soft but firm.
"The late emperor resented the fact that the Crown Prince was favored by the Grand Ancestor and resented his popularity among the court officials and the people. Back then, the Crown Prince was like the rising sun and the bright moon, while the late emperor could only hide in the dark, timid and cowardly, like a rat."
"The late emperor could never compare to the crown prince. Even if he tried every possible means to destroy him, countless people in this world would still remember the crown prince. The late emperor spent his entire life in despicable and insignificant ways, only to have Xie Tianyong snatch the throne from him."
"No one in the Wei court will remember the late emperor. Even if they do, he's just the father of the Crown Prince. Brother, this is his retribution."
Tang Ning put her arm around his waist, and the firmness in her voice gradually calmed the hostility in Xiao Yan's body, and the madness of wanting to destroy everything in front of him at all costs also slowly faded away.
He relaxed his grip a little, and buried his head in Tang Ning's neck with red eyes.
"I will never be like my father, never!"
He would rather destroy everything that belongs to him than let anyone else get their hands on it!
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