Before Ling Shumo could finish her words, Xiao Guijun, who had just arrived, knelt down before the emperor with a plop. "Your Majesty, even if Shujiao is a worthless person, she wouldn't dare to murder you. This wooden sign must have been forged by someone else. Shujiao has been framed..."
The emperor raised his hand and slapped Xiao Guijun in the face. "Framed? Xiao Guijun, how dare you say that? When Ling Shujiao arranged for someone to assassinate my princess at the Lingyin Taoist Temple, you knelt in front of the imperial study and refused to get up. You explained to me that Ling Shujiao was framed. What happened? In the end, with all the evidence, even Ling Shujiao couldn't utter a word to refute it. You just said 'framed' so casually, are you planning to let this matter go?"
Consort Xiao crawled on her knees a few steps to the Emperor's front, weeping bitterly, "Ling Shujiao is infatuated with Consort Lu of the Eastern Palace. She coveted her own sister's man, and in a fit of rage, she wanted to have someone kill Your Highness. I admit she's a worthless person. But even if she had the guts to do something like murdering Your Majesty. Shujiao has admired Your Majesty as a mother since she was a child. She has no reason to risk her life by murdering Your Majesty."
Ling Shumo spat out another mouthful of blood. "Everyone in the court knows that among all the sisters, I am the closest to my eldest sister. I treat my eldest sister with all my heart. Before the incident at Lingyin Taoist Temple, I couldn't imagine why my eldest sister would kill me, her own sister."
Ling Shumo cried even more miserably than Xiao Guijun. "The Queen Mother locked my elder sister up in the clan residence. That was all my elder sister's fault. She didn't know how to reflect on herself. She hated the Queen Mother because of it and wanted to murder her. She is worse than an animal."
Xiao Guijun was so angry that his whole body was shaking.
His daughter had indeed lost her mind during the Lingyin Taoist Temple incident, but even if Ling Shujiao had ten times the courage, she would never commit such a thing as matricide. Although there was no evidence at the moment, he could confirm that this assassination in the palace was all staged and directed by Ling Shumo.
Xiao Guijun pleaded again, but the emperor refused to listen. "You've been pleading for that evil creature Ling Shujiao every day. I was thinking of keeping her in prison for a few more days. If she truly repented, I'd release her from the clan residence. But now it seems that lifelong confinement is too easy for her. I will now give her a white silk ribbon and let her die in apology."
The emperor refused to even glance at Xiao Guijun. Two attendants held Xiao Guijun's left and right arms respectively and tried to drag her out of the imperial study.
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