Chapter 73 Be careful with your husband
"Tsk," Jing Ye sneered and said coldly, "So Princess Changle wants to kill her own husband just because of something found on a spy?"
Jiang Xue's blood was boiling in her chest. She tried to suppress her trembling body and asked, "How did you know?"
"Know what?" Jing Ye asked sarcastically, "Know that you and the other two actually worshipped heaven and earth and drank the wedding wine?"
"Xiao Qi has told me everything I should and shouldn't know," he said calmly, "When a person is about to die, he counts his attachments--"
"It is so sad to hear this. He died unwillingly, Princess Changle."
"Unwilling? Would my eldest brother, who was poisoned by him and Prince An, be willing to accept this?" Jiang Xue gritted her teeth, trying hard not to let the tears flow.
"Should I say the princess is stupid? Or is she vicious?" Jing Ye glanced at her coldly and said, "Prince An regards Xiao Qi as a thorn in his side, which is why he pushed him to your Ji State as a hostage. Do you think Xiao Qi doesn't know?"
"Prince An had his minions planted in the delegation, waiting for Xiao Qi to arrive at the border between Ji and Gan, and then had them poison his food and drink, in an attempt to create a situation where Ji was killing the grandson of the emperor of Gan. If Xiao Qi hadn't managed to force himself to leave Ji and reach Qingzhou before dying, do you think Ji and Gan would still be at peace?"
I see.
Did he die so miserably?
The poison on the clothes was her work, and the poison on the food was the work of his nominal father.
"So what?! The interests of the country are theirs. Will they let go of the opportunity to poison the crown prince?" Jiang Xue burst into tears. She tried to maintain her last bit of rationality and growled, "He has been lurking in Ji Palace for many years, making everyone think that he has already regarded us as family. Then what?"
"He tried every possible means to make the palace servants around him gain my trust, and after everything was ready, he used me as a chess piece to deliver the poisoned wine - I personally sent it out!"
"How do you know that the palace maid was instructed by him?" Jing Ye asked in a low voice.
"He knows all my preferences. The palace servants do everything according to my preferences. He knows that I like to eat ginger and jujube after meals, but he happens to be good at frying jujubes. He knows that I like to light Qingyun incense when practicing calligraphy, so he prepares incense in advance every day. He knows that I like to lie on the eaves to read, so he specially made a cushion for me--"
"Princess, do you think that only Xiao Qi knows these things?" Jing Ye sneered and said, "Your father, your mother, your second brother, your cousin, and anyone in your maternal family who loves you a little bit, who doesn't know?!"
"But they won't harm my eldest brother!!!" Jiang Xue roared.
"Really?" Jing Ye raised his eyebrows, his eyes full of sarcasm, and said, "Then Princess had better go to the temple to pray more often and pray that this matter will really be as you wish."
Jiang Xue stared at him fiercely and said word by word: "You are not allowed to slander my family."
"Whether it was the letter we found that day or the subsequent investigation, it all proved that Xiao Qi had been in contact with that eunuch!"
Seeing her like this, Jing Ye suddenly fell silent and was unwilling to say another word for a long time.
The eyes under his mask were cold and murderous, and Jiang Xue's face was not good either. The two of them sat in a stalemate for a while.
Jiang Xue seemed to be thinking about something, and suddenly said, "I'm sorry, I just want to know the whole story."
"The reason? I don't know." Jing Ye's eyes flashed with resentment, and he said coldly, "He told me that the princess also told him that he is your family."
Jiang Xue just pinched her palm hard, and there was no trace of blood on her face.
"You only know that your brother was killed by a spy from the Gan Kingdom, that the spy had a letter pointing to Xiao Qi, and that everything was ordered by Prince An of the Gan Kingdom—"
"Then has Princess ever thought about whether Xiao Qi, as a person, would be willing to help Prince An do this?"
Jiang Xue felt her heart beating faster and faster, as if something was pressing on her, making her body stiff and unable to move, and making it difficult for her to breathe.
Has she ever thought about it?
She does.
She once thought that all this was a false accusation - even though she could not find any reason why Prince An would frame his own son.
She rushed to Qian Ning's place, grabbed Xiao Qi's sleeve tightly, and begged him to defend herself in tears.
But Xiao Qi just said nothing.
He silently pulled Jiang Xue away and locked himself in the room without saying a word.
Jiang Yu was even more unconvinced than Jiang Xue that Xiao Qi would do such a thing. He rushed to Qian Ning's house and knocked on the door, asking Xiao Qi to come out.
Xiao Qi only responded with four words in silence, "The son pays the father's debt."
Later, the cause of death of the eldest brother became that he had a sudden illness and his blood did not return to his heart.
And he, Xiao Qi, soon left Ji Palace unharmed along with the envoy.
"If he was really wronged, why didn't he explain himself that day?" Jiang Xue pressed on, "If he was really wronged, why did the envoys from the country come to take him back soon after my eldest brother passed away?"
"So Princess, you still don't believe him."
"A letter?" Jiang Xue smiled, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her voice was almost a roar. "What letter? My eldest brother's life?!"
"I have only one thing to say to you, Princess," Jing Ye said, "If you make excuses, it may be because you feel guilty, but if you don't make excuses, it may be because there are truths and people you want to protect."
"This sentence," he tapped his fingers lightly on the table, as if he had made up his mind, "was said to me before he died."
Jiang Xue's eyes suddenly widened, and the scarlet eye sockets made her face look even paler.
Protect the truth, protect the people?
What is the truth and who is it that Xiao Qi refuses to tell?
But why should I believe Jingye’s words?
Jiang Xue suddenly woke up. Why was she so easily swayed by his emotions?
"Why should I trust you, Your Majesty?" Jiang Xue said, "Just based on your few words? You don't have any evidence or tokens in your hands. Haven't I suffered enough from the loss you caused to the country?"
Upon hearing this, Jing Ye sneered sarcastically.
He stood up and walked to the door, opened it, and said coldly to Jiang Xue: "Princess, you don't have to believe it. Anyway, Xiao Qi is not an important person to me, right?"
He stretched out his hand toward the door, pretending to see the guest off, and said, "Princess, please do as you please. You don't have to come to see me again in the future."
"I have already said everything I should say for him."
His tone was cold, as if hiding a lot of sorrow.
"I will never see you again."
Jiang Xue stood there in a daze, not moving.
She slowly said, "Okay."
Then he stood up and walked out the door.
When she passed by Jing Ye, she did not notice that the color of Jing Ye's eyes under the mask was unusually gloomy, and she just raised her foot to step over the threshold.
Jing Ye suddenly reached out and grabbed her.
Jiang Xue didn't expect to be pulled over so suddenly and forcefully. She staggered and fell straight onto Jing Ye.
Jing Ye's chest heaved, and the knuckles of his fingers that were holding Jiang Xue's arm were almost white with such force.
Jiang Xue bumped into his chest, and for a moment she felt that the breath was very familiar.
Before she could react, Jing Ye suddenly lowered his head and sniffed her hair.
Jiang Xue frowned and asked in surprise: "King Ruichong, what are you doing?!"
Jing Ye suddenly pushed her away with such force that Jiang Xue instantly hit the door frame.
She managed to hold on to the door and avoid falling to the ground.
"Warm and soft, this is what it feels like." Jing Ye chuckled and said sarcastically, "I wonder if that greasy-haired and powdered prince consort can hold the princess in his arms every day?"
When had Jiang Xue ever heard such explicit words?
She was instantly enraged, her face darkened, and she said, "Your Highness, this is Ji State, don't be too presumptuous."
She raised her leg to leave, but heard Jing Ye say something in a low voice.
"Princess, you better be careful with your own prince consort. He is not a good person."
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