Chapter 104 The Truth of That Year
In the early morning, thin clouds moved slowly, unknowingly blocking most of the bright sun, and the light in the hall also dimmed.
Queen Xu stared at the handsome and gentle young man in front of her in a daze. Her legs felt like they were filled with lead and her soul seemed to be floating outside her body.
After a long silence, she heard her own hoarse and choked voice: "That baby girl... Where is that baby girl from back then?"
"I didn't strangle her, did I?" she murmured absentmindedly.
Even though she now knew that the baby girl was the daughter of Wei, whom she hated the most, she still hoped that she could survive.
Suffering from hysteria for many years, she could no longer even remember the appearance of the late emperor. She woke up countless times in the middle of the night because of the shrill cries of babies...
Su Jingyi sighed deeply and waved to Su Qinglan to step forward a few steps.
"Your Majesty, I was ordered by the late emperor to raise the princess, and I changed her name to Qinglan. This is Princess Changle, who was born to Concubine Shu."
One stone caused a thousand ripples, and both Empress Xu and Concubine Wei were stunned.
Especially Concubine Wei Shu, she frowned and looked confused.
It was clear that the child she gave birth to after ten months of pregnancy was the eldest prince of the emperor, the crown prince of the current dynasty. What nonsense is Su Jingyi talking about?
Su Qinglan took a few cautious steps forward, looking nervous, her hands tightly clenching her sleeves, her knuckles seemingly turning white from the exertion.
She had only just learned about her own life experience in the past few days, and she was still feeling a little awkward and uncomfortable.
She felt at a loss as she went from being the daughter of the governor's mansion to a princess of the royal family overnight.
Queen Xu slowly turned her head to look at Su Qinglan. After seeing her facial features clearly, she was stunned for a moment, then she sneered softly, tears filling her eyes.
In an instant, she felt an uncontrollable sadness and sorrow in her heart.
The late emperor made her suffer so much! Why did he do that?
Chang Ying, who was accompanying her, was worried that her madness might hurt someone, so she quickly signaled to several palace maids to support her.
Yang Manyan sighed softly.
There are nine handwritten letters from the late emperor to Su Jingyi, spanning a period of two years. Many truths of the past can be glimpsed between the lines.
With the indulgence and support of the previous emperor, the Xu family was extremely powerful during the Yongshun period, and was even known as "Xu Half the Dynasty".
But when the late emperor found that the words of his father-in-law and uncle in the court were far more useful than his imperial edicts, he panicked.
At first, the late emperor also longed for his first wife, Empress Xu, to give birth to an heir. However, after he unexpectedly favored Concubine Wei Shu, they both tested positive at the same time, and the late emperor began to hope that Empress Xu was pregnant with a princess.
To be on the safe side, he even had someone prepare a baby girl in advance so that she could be replaced immediately once Empress Xu gave birth to a prince.
As luck would have it, Empress Xu and Concubine Wei gave birth to a son and a daughter on the same day, so he ordered someone to swap the two children.
As the little princess grew up, her eyes and eyebrows looked somewhat similar to Concubine Wei Shufei. The late emperor was worried that the matter would be exposed, so he took advantage of Empress Xu's madness to strangle her daughter and announced that the princess had died. He then secretly sent her daughter to the Su family in Nanyuan.
In the end, the late emperor was still worried that his wife would be left alone in the future, so he left evidence...
The magnificent hall fell into deathly silence.
Concubine Wei Shu was still upset about what Su Jingyi had just said.
Even if the little princess was still alive, she was just a girl and could not shake the prince's position as crown prince, so she didn't care at all.
But how can it be said that Su Jingyi was her son?
"Master Su, did you make a mistake? I only have one son, the Crown Prince. How could Princess Changle be my daughter?"
Concubine Wei Shu asked with a smile as if casually, but there was a hint of contempt in her eyes when she looked at Su Jingyi.
Su Jingyi replied calmly, "I did not make a mistake. Your Highness the Crown Prince is the son of the Empress, and Princess Changle is the daughter of the Concubine Shu. This is absolutely true."
Concubine Wei Shu was so angry that she almost laughed, and even suspected that Su Jingyi had gone insane like Xu.
She turned her gaze towards Xiao Yan, pretending to be aggrieved and helpless, "Prince, please have a good talk with Lord Su. He may have remembered it wrongly."
But before Xiao Yan could open his mouth to explain, Empress Xu stuffed the secret decree of the late emperor into Concubine Wei Shu's hands.
"Look for yourself, Concubine Shu. We were all fooled by that cowardly late emperor!" Empress Xu cried and laughed at the same time, tears streaming down her face.
Upon hearing this, Concubine Wei Shu's heart sank.
She tried her best to calm her mind, unfolded the secret decree and read it quickly. In an instant, she felt cold all over.
A huge sense of absurdity enveloped her, but she still refused to believe it.
She raised her eyes to look at Su Qinglan again, but just this one look was like a basin of ice water pouring over her from head to toe.
The last time she saw Su Qinglan in the East Palace, she didn't pay close attention to her. Now, when she looks at her again, she finds that she looks more and more like herself.
"Impossible, impossible..." Concubine Wei Shu's face was as pale as paper, her knuckles tightly grasped the secret decree, and veins on the back of her hands were bulging.
How could she possibly give birth to a girl? How could she possibly...
If the prince was not her own, then what was the point of all her hard work over the years?
Concubine Wei Shu took a breath of shock, suddenly looked up, scanned everyone present, and finally stared at Yang Manyan.
"Yang! It must be you, the foxy woman! It was you who forged the secret decree to deliberately sow discord between me and the Crown Prince and his mother!"
She pointed at Yang Manyan and accused him with tears in her eyes, "It must be because I have been summoning Minghui to the palace so frequently recently that you are dissatisfied, so you want to find a way to get rid of me!"
Yang Manyan was stunned for a moment. She didn't expect that Concubine Wei would pick on her at this time.
The emperor, who was originally somewhat nonchalant, suddenly frowned and shouted angrily, "The secret decree was found in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Wei, are you questioning whether I forged the secret decree of the previous emperor?"
Concubine Wei Shu was startled when she heard this, her mind racing to think of how to excuse herself, but all she could hear was a sharp buzzing in her ears.
Xiao Yan also said in a deep voice: "Admiral Su has mentioned it just now. The secret decree was obtained in the presence of the emperor, his son, and the ministers of the cabinet. Why does the Concubine Shu have to involve Yang Shangyi?"
These words made Concubine Wei Shu feel like she had a thorn in her throat.
What kind of witchcraft did Yang use to bewitch the father and son of the royal family to such an extent that they both protected her in every possible way...
At this time, a young eunuch came in with his head lowered and said cautiously, "Your Majesty, the commander of the Jinyiwei wants to see you."
Hearing this, Yang Manyan's eyes moved slightly, and he quickly blinked at the man in the dragon robe sitting on the throne.
When their eyes met, the emperor raised his eyebrows and said calmly, "Send him in."
The young eunuch quickly withdrew after receiving the order. A moment later, the commander of the Jinyiwei, dressed in a scarlet flying fish uniform, strode into the hall.
The commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard bowed and then looked at Yang Shangyi who was standing on the east side of the throne, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself.
Yang Manyan nodded slightly at him.
A few days ago, she asked the emperor to assign a few Jinyiwei to her to serve.
After confirming that these people were trustworthy, she ordered an investigation into whether the love powder that was sprinkled on her in the imperial garden was related to the love incense that caused the previous emperor's sudden death.
A lot of key evidence has been found in the past few days.
With Yang Shangyi's instruction, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard stepped forward and presented the secret report to the imperial desk with both hands.
After reading the secret report, the emperor turned his eyes slightly to look at Yang Manyan, with a hint of indescribable complex emotions in his eyes.
Yang Manyan pursed her lips and met his gaze without dodging or avoiding.
Suddenly, there was a loud muffled thunder, and the sky outside the window suddenly became gloomy and gray.
Concubine Wei Shu's heart was beating like a drum, and an ominous premonition surged from the bottom of her heart.
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