Chapter 161
Everyone was stunned by Xia Xiazi's sudden revelation. Their expressions were blank, their thoughts were in chaos, and they couldn't find a clue to their ideas. They could only subconsciously look at their leader—the expressionless Xue Jin'an.
Xue Jin'an was deep in thought; he did not think his judgment was wrong.
Even though there are many people in this world who look alike, and some strangers have such similar facial features that even the code life form can't help but want to open God's database to see if there are too few templates, the probability of it being a coincidence that they look so similar, even copying each other's light-colored pupils, and that their identities match is less than 1%.
And there's another crucial point to remember: this is a fictional world. In reality, logic is unnecessary, and plot developments are often so absurd they leave readers bewildered. But fictional developments require logical support; too many unfounded coincidences will be perceived by readers as the author being far-fetched and forcibly creating sensationalism.
Therefore, the various coincidences in a novel often indicate that there is a hidden plot behind them.
In conclusion, the possibility that the Crown Prince of Ping and Prince An have different identities is almost 100%.
Substituting the known conditions above and combining them with relevant clues in the database, Xue Jin'an drew two conclusions: First, Consort Hui is the long-lost daughter of the Gu Doctor Zhang Jinghua, and the Gu Doctor entered the palace back then to treat Consort Hui and prolong her life; Second, the identities of Prince An and Prince Ping's heirs were switched from the beginning, and the only possible person to do so was the late Emperor.
To date, the official explanation for Consort Hui's pregnancy has been a miscarriage, followed by physical weakness and emotional distress, ultimately leading to her death less than two years later. While other matters might be fabricated, Consort Hui's illness also involved the Empress Dowager, whose personality would not allow her to be deceived. Therefore, Consort Hui's weakness is highly likely genuine.
Consort Hui was essentially powerless, and the Empress Dowager wouldn't allow her to do anything. Consort Hui had a weak foundation in the palace, and her inner circle of supporters was practically nonexistent. She was just a parasitic vine clinging to the late Emperor, capable of at most whispering in his ear. Therefore, the Empress Dowager didn't take her seriously at all, and all her methods were aimed at the late Emperor. By controlling the late Emperor, Consort Hui couldn't cause any trouble.
After much thought, the only person who could have secretly carried out the "substitution of the crown prince" without the Empress Dowager's knowledge and even made Prince Ping, who was a prince at the time, willingly become his adoptive father was the late Emperor.
As for why the late emperor did this even if it meant smuggling out the royal bloodline, perhaps he felt that the child's existence was a hindrance to Consort Hui, or perhaps he felt that the Empress Dowager, who was in a fit of anger at the time, would never leave behind this "bastard child."
After all, Consort Hui's two sons had committed the heinous crime of rebellion, which could lead to the extermination of nine generations of their family. The Empress Dowager was the one in charge of this case. Even if she spared Consort Hui and her children out of consideration for the royal bloodline, she would certainly try to control them.
Everyone understands the principle of eliminating the root of the problem. Even if the Empress Dowager is not a bloodthirsty person, she would not allow a prince who has a grudge against her to live freely, nor would she give him the opportunity to grow his wings and show his talent.
Xue Jin'an could think of many reasons, but he was not the late emperor and did not know him very well. All his guesses lacked supporting data and were therefore less credible. Perhaps only when the late emperor was resurrected could the answer be revealed.
But that's not important. The result is what it is. What Xue Jin'an really wants to know now is who knows about the switch of identities between the Prince Ping's heir and the Prince An, and who took advantage of this.
As the unfortunate person who raised his father's son, Prince Ping must have known about the Crown Prince's identity. Based on his previous contact with the Crown Prince and the various rumors surrounding him, the Crown Prince himself is 87% sure he knows about this. He even said that he took his mother's surname, Zhang. Although Zhang is a common surname, with Zhang Jinghua here, it's hard not to think a bit more.
So, what about the emperor? Does the emperor currently in this position know about this? Or could it be that he is deliberately using this matter to mislead Prince An?
Xue Jin'an inexplicably pinpointed the emperor, feeling that all of this was related to him. It's no wonder Xue Jin'an thought this way, as the emperor's performance was so poor that it defied all logic.
If he was truly so incompetent back then, the Empress Dowager would never have pushed him to the throne. And if he was really as incompetent as he appeared, how could the Empress Dowager have remained secluded in the Cining Palace for so many years without hearing a word of it?
If the above speculation is true, then the emperor's various acts of indulgence so far are quite intriguing. Rather than indulgence, they seem more like recklessness, a reckless and fearless indulgence.
But why? Why mislead Prince An into believing he was the son of Consort Hui, mislead him into coveting the throne, and allow him to plant his own people in the harem, creating chaos within it, while simultaneously showing extraordinary tolerance towards the court officials... Why all of this?
Xue Jin'an always felt that a very important link was missing, making it impossible to connect the emperor's behavior logic.
Thinking of this, Xue Jin'an couldn't help but frown.
Xia Zi, who had been holding her breath and waiting for Xue Jin'an's reaction, suddenly panicked.
Xia Zi blurted out the imperial decree of succession in a fit of anger and impulsiveness. He regretted it as soon as he said it, but since the words were already out, hiding it would be suicide. He might as well take advantage of the situation and tell the whole story, and maybe he could still save his life.
However, the shocked expression that Xia Xiazi had anticipated did not appear on Xue Jin'an's face.
Upon hearing this, Xue Jin'an raised an eyebrow, his eyes revealing an expression that "the answer is slightly different from his guess." Xia Xiazi's heart immediately skipped a beat, and the words Xuan Shiyi had warned her a few days ago uncontrollably popped into her mind: "Don't wait until it's no longer worth saying some things."
So it's too late for him to say it, his information is no longer of any value...? Xia Zi was extremely uneasy, but dared not show it on her face, holding her breath and waiting for Xue Jin'an's reaction.
Unexpectedly, the other party started thinking on the spot. In a short time, he seemed to have thought of something. His brows suddenly furrowed, and his dark eyes looked cold and unsettling.
Xue Jin'an felt the gaze and looked up. The disdain and annoyance he felt for the emperor had not yet dissipated in his eyes, and Xia Xiazi saw it clearly.
Xiazi panicked immediately and blurted out, "No, don't kill me! I'm not lying, really! Everything I said is true! I have evidence!"
"Hmm?" Xue Jin'an's gaze, which was about to drift away, returned to him, and casually turned the Little X teacher she had just summoned back on.
Because he was too mischievous, many of his privileges were suspended, and he hasn't been able to communicate with anyone other than the "Emperor of Vegetables" for a long time. Teacher X, who is eager to get some updates: ??
Teacher X was furious and started digging into Xue Jin'an's database in frustration.
Xue Jin'an ignored him, but stared at Xia Zi with his dark eyes, silently putting pressure on him.
No matter how sturdy a wooden barrel is, once it has a hole, it can no longer hold water, and with a little force, it may even break.
Xiazi gritted her teeth and, before Xuan Shiyi could launch another attack, confessed the matter.
“It was Prince Ping. Prince Ping himself told us about Prince An’s background,” Xiazi said.
The emperor was now the prime suspect. Xue Jin'an thought this, but his face remained expressionless.
Xiazi thought that what she revealed was not enough to convince him. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath to suppress his surging emotions, and finally reopened the last wound, "This is what my brother told me himself before he could speak. He heard it with his own ears."
Xia Zi put a lot of effort into calming his voice, but he didn't know that when he said words like "in person" or "in person's ear," he would subconsciously clench his back teeth, and the tense muscles in his cheeks would reveal his suppressed emotions.
Not to mention Xue Jin'an, even Xuan Shiyi, who was standing behind Xia Xiazi and couldn't see his full expression, could tell. But before he could think about it, he heard Xue Jin'an's confident voice, "Your brother can neither speak nor hear now."
"!" Xia Zi suddenly looked up, a flash of shock in his eyes, quickly replaced by surging emotions. He clenched his teeth, trying to control his voice and prevent his anger and resentment from being too ferocious. "That's not all."
"He can't see, can't hear, can't speak, can't lift anything, can't walk... The only thing he's still somewhat useful is his brain. At least he hasn't completely gone mad yet, but I guess it's not far off." Xia Zi described her brother's miserable condition.
When the massacre of his family occurred, Xia Xiazi was fortunate enough to be wandering outside and was spared from torture. However, he was not so lucky. Because he was wandering around the world without a fixed abode, the murderer could not catch him without effort. So, he deliberately spread the news of the massacre to lure him out and made him witness the horrific torture of his brother.
Even Xuan Shiyi, who had seen much of the world, couldn't help but frown upon hearing this: "He was tortured?"
Xiazi said, "It's a miracle that we survived."
If it weren't for capturing him alive, my brother might not be alive now and would have already reunited with our parents.
"Actually, this is for the best." Amidst the incredulous expressions of the others, Xia Xiazi curled her lips without any expression and said, "When my brother was sober, he felt very guilty, thinking that he had brought the wolf into the house and caused all of this. He was heartbroken and wanted to die. Later, he was given a poison, and his mind gradually became impaired, so he stopped trying to die."
Xia Zi still vividly remembers those days. In fact, after learning the truth, he also resented his brother. At first, he felt a sense of pleasure when he saw his brother's suffering. However, his brother was his only family member, and the hatred that could not be avenged was too heavy for him to bear alone. He needed someone to suffer with him so that he could barely be a normal person.
Later, perhaps because they had spent more time relying on each other, or perhaps because time had passed, the hatred suppressed in their hearts gradually faded and the brotherly affection resurfaced, and they began to be close brothers again.
"Perhaps death would be a relief for him, but I want to live." So he has to keep living.
Xiazi thought to herself: "He really is just as my father said, a willful, selfish, and useless brat."
Shouquan couldn't bear to listen anymore. His face showed reluctance, and his eyes reddened. He sighed, "It's hard for you to endure working for your enemy with such deep hatred."
Clearly, the Xia family was silenced because his elder brother knew something he shouldn't have.
“Even Xie Hongying, this young lady from the Marquis’s mansion, can’t do anything. What am I supposed to do? What can I possibly do?” Xiazi paused. “Oh, I forgot. Xie Hongying is in cahoots with Prince An. They’re in the same boat.”
Xiaxiazi's hatred for Consort Zhuang had reached its peak, surpassing even that of the mastermind, Prince An—which is understandable, as people always dislike hypocrites more than genuine villains, and in Xiaxiazi's mind, Consort Zhuang was a hypocrite who was two-faced.
After Xiaxia finished speaking, seeing that Xue Jin'an still had no expression, she couldn't help but ask, "Do you believe what I said?"
Xue Jin'an remained noncommittal, only asking him, "What else do you know? Tell me all of that."
Xue Jin'an had only said it casually, but Xia Xiazi hesitated, realizing that there was still something he hadn't told her.
"Behave yourself!" Xuan Shiyi immediately grabbed Xia Xiazi's arm and twisted it, forcing him to tilt his head back and expose his facial expression. He lowered his voice and said, "Now that things have come to this, everything that should and shouldn't have been said has been said. You have no way out. Don't be reckless. I don't want to collect your corpse."
"You only have this one chance to live," Xuan Shiyi emphasized.
Xuan Shiyi thought Xia Xiazi was still clueless, but in reality, Xia Xiazi was just unsure whether she should say it or not.
However, given the current situation, if he wants to survive, he has to say whatever he should or shouldn't say.
Xia Zi quickly explained, "There is something, but I don't mean to hide it. I'm just not sure if it's true or not. I heard from the martial arts experts in the Prince An's mansion that they didn't come to rely on the Prince An, but on the personal disciples of the Gu Divine Doctor Zhang Jinghua. Most of them have received favors from the Gu Divine Doctor."
Although the Gu Doctor killed more people than he saved, he had lived for so many years, and even if he only saved one person a year, it would still be a double digit.
Xue Jin'an was not surprised that those martial arts figures had a connection with Zhang Jinghua, but he was more surprised that the legendary disciple was confirmed at this time.
"Who is Zhang Jinghua's disciple?" Xue Jin'an asked without much hope.
Xia Zi shook his head as expected, "I don't know. Many of those people in the martial arts world don't know either. Most of them even think that relying on a disciple is a myth. The truth is that one should rely on a descendant. I guess only the first people who came here, like the One-Knife Hero, know about this."
As a member of the Xia family, even if Xia Zi joined Prince An's service, his status was destined not to be high. It was common for him to serve tea and water and bow and scrape, so much so that many people in the mansion treated him as a servant. However, being a servant also had its advantages. At least others were not wary of him and assumed that he must be a confidant of Prince An because he could serve them so closely.
After hearing this news, Xia Xiazi had considered investigating, but before he could, Prince An suddenly went crazy, saying that he was very good at serving tea and water and that the palace was short of a spy, so he wanted to send him into the palace and let him think it over.
Xia Zi initially disagreed, but then life suddenly became exceptionally difficult. The impoverished man was in a daze. Prince An took advantage of the situation and offered him a sum of money, asking if he was willing to do something. He nodded without hesitation, and that's how things turned out.
Thinking of all this, his hatred for Prince An instantly surpassed his hatred for Xie Hongying, becoming the strongest among them.
Xue Jin'an waited a while longer, and when he found that Xia Zi had nothing more to say, he nodded: "The information you provided is very useful."
Xuan Shiyi understood and pulled the person away. Xia Xiazi was confused for a moment and was about to struggle when Xuan Shiyi covered her mouth. "You've barely survived, don't ruin your life again. It's better to live a miserable life than to die. Maybe you can even see your enemy's miserable state, which can be considered revenge."
While it's hard to say for sure, Xuan Shiyi knew for certain that since Prince An had already registered his name with the Seventh Prince, his future was already set.
Indeed, Xue Jin'an had just blacklisted Prince An, intending to eliminate him together with the emperor after figuring things out.
Xue Jin'an integrated the information he had just received and conducted another meticulous analysis, circling the special place name "Weiyang Palace".
Xia Xiazi said that Consort Zhuang's goal was Weiyang Palace, which Xue Jin'an believed, but he didn't quite believe that she wanted to become empress and obtain the so-called imperial decree to pass on the throne.
Putting aside the fact that Consort Zhuang was not the type the emperor liked at all, she did not receive much favor after entering the palace, nor did she make any moves to curry favor. She usually taught the Fourth Princess in her own palace and got along quite well with the other women in the harem. The only person she tried to influence was the Empress Dowager.
Rather than competing with Consort Min, she seemed more like she was trying to curry favor with the Empress Dowager.
Given the current relationship between the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, Consort Zhuang cannot become Empress by following the Empress Dowager's path. With the two Empress Zhongs serving as examples, even though Consort Zhuang is not related to her by blood, the Empress Dowager will not exert any effort to secure the Empress's position.
Moreover, the path to becoming empress is too long. Consort Min already had a somewhat ambiguous cooperative relationship with Prince An, so why bring in Consort Zhuang as well? This move is far too convoluted.
Furthermore, anyone who believes in an imperial edict of succession is a fool. If the emperor is not mentally unstable, he would burn the edict immediately if he saw that the name on it wasn't his, and kill everyone connected to it. How could he possibly allow the rumor of the edict of succession to become widely known? —This word is a bit of an exaggeration, but considering what Xia Xiazi said, the number of people in the Prince An's residence who know about the edict of succession is at least on one hand, which immediately raises suspicion.
Even if the imperial edict of succession was genuine, the emperor was foolish enough not to burn it and instead left it in Weiyang Palace for all to choose from. Whether the edict would still be of any use now depended on the emperor's mood. This was a true case of "using the sword of the previous dynasty to execute the officials of the current dynasty."
Xue Jin'an was more inclined to believe that there was indeed something in Weiyang Palace that couldn't be easily eliminated and could only be left there. In this way, there was a new and more convincing explanation for why the emperor sealed off Weiyang Palace.
In fact, the original owner of this body died in Weiyang Palace in the original story, and Chen Jieyu, the sister of Lu Yaoguang, the female protagonist of the original novel and the mother of the tenth prince, also died in Weiyang Palace.
In addition, the two had one thing in common: their deaths were both left unsolved, with no results found.
This also means that Xue Jin'an's previous guess has a new direction: the one who hated the original owner for torturing him to death may not be the prince, but someone who is related to the secret of Weiyang Palace.
Prince An, Imperial Noble Consort Min... and the Emperor.
Xue Jin'an tapped his finger lightly, seemingly lost in thought.
He wanted to continue the analysis, but unfortunately there was not enough data, so he had to put it aside. But it didn't matter. Others were hidden too deeply to be discovered, and Zhang Jinghua had been out of the public eye for many years. But wasn't there another guy who was openly connected to both Zhang Jinghua and Prince An?
—His birth mother was suspected to be from the southern border region and was very close to the heir of Prince An. His nominal maternal grandfather had contact with Zhang Jinghua on the orders of the late emperor…
Crown Prince Xue Luowen, it's you I've decided on.
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