Chapter 56: Each with His Own Words
The queen didn't say anything, but just silently glanced at the palace maid who had just spoken.
The palace maid knelt on the ground and said, "In reply to the emperor, Liu Qingyin originally wanted to frame Princess Jiayi, but due to a strange combination of circumstances, the people she arranged for made a mistake in the wine and drink, and accidentally caused His Royal Highness Prince Yu to drink the problematic wine."
Emperor Qinglong's face turned ashen.
With just one word of coincidence, he wanted to let Liu Qingyin take the blame in front of him.
Even if the Queen's men wanted to protect Prince Yu, they shouldn't treat him like a fool.
This argument is full of loopholes. As an emperor, does he look like a fool?
Emperor Qinglong moved, wanting to open his mouth to cover up the lie for the person arranged by the Queen. After all, Prince Yu was his biological son, and he couldn't let everyone in the world know that Prince Yu was homosexual. Therefore, what happened today must have been someone framing Prince Yu.
Liu Qingyin's face turned pale. Before he could speak, she kowtowed and said in a shrill voice, "Your Majesty, even if this humble servant is truly ruthless and wants to attack Princess Jiayi, it's not something I can control for people like Young Master Zhao!"
She only seized on one point to defend herself, "Your Majesty, when I think about it carefully, I was fortunate enough to enter the palace because of the grace of the Empress."
"But I don't know whether the Queen has also extended this grace to others, so how can I predict the future and plan ahead?"
"Besides, I only received the invitation two days before entering the palace. How could I have painstakingly planned all this in just two days?"
If she had the chance, she wouldn't mind repeating the same thing on Su Tan.
But this is the palace.
The rules are strict and the personnel are complex.
Even if she wanted to bribe someone to do something for her, how much money would she have to spend?
"How dare you!" the maid from before immediately retorted, glaring at Liu Qingyin. "Are you implying that it was the Empress who gave you the opportunity to harm others? Who gave you the courage to attack the Empress?"
At this point, if Liu Qingyin still doesn't realize that she entered the palace today just to be a scapegoat, then her life would have been in vain.
But even though she knew it, she really didn't dare to tear off the queen's mask openly.
Liu Qingyin almost vomited blood, and her lips were almost bitten through by herself. Her nails were tightly digging into the gaps between the floor tiles, and her eyes were bloodshot.
"Your Highness dare not!"
"Your Majesty has simply been deceived. You have never really understood me, so it's only natural that you would misunderstand me."
Before the Queen could open her mouth to attack, Liu Qingyin spoke first, "Your Majesty, even if I were lucky enough to bribe the palace servants and drug Princess Jiayi's wine, how did I bring these five people into the palace?"
At this time, Song Tingchen, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up: "Your Majesty, the number of people you brought into the Zhenbei General's Mansion today is all recorded."
"Qingyin doesn't have the ability to do such a thing. This is a fabricated charge, and the Zhenbei General's Mansion will never acknowledge it."
Emperor Qinglong frowned and his gaze fell on Su Tan. "County Princess Jiayi, you are the victim involved in this. I want to know what you think."
Su Tan paused. Liu Qingyin was naturally wronged. It was not because Liu Qingyin was kind-hearted, but because the other party did not have the ability to do so.
Her eyes passed over Liu Qingyin and fell on the kneeling Zhao Yu and others.
"Your Majesty, I am also confused right now. However, there is one thing I do not understand. What is wrong with Second Young Master Zhao? Why did he immediately become convinced that his current situation was my fault the moment he saw me?"
She would not make excuses for Liu Qingyin.
Regardless of whether Liu Qingyin was wronged or not, it had nothing to do with her. She didn't have the intention to be a pushover who repaid evil with kindness.
As for today's incident, whether Liu Qingyin is innocent or not is not something Emperor Qinglong needs to consider.
They just need to come up with a suitable person to be the scapegoat to quell Prince Yu's groundless speculation.
As for whether Liu Qingyin can escape, it depends on her own ability.
The experience of family feuds in the past gave Liu Qingyin an extremely quick reaction ability. She kowtowed almost subconsciously and raised her voice, "Your Majesty, I know what's going on!"
The Queen's eyebrows twitched fiercely, "How can you speak nonsense in front of the Emperor? Someone, stop her mouth and drag her out!"
"Wait." Emperor Qinglong raised his hand to stop the maid who wanted to drag Liu Qingyin away. His eyes fell on Liu Qingyin, "Go on."
Liu Qingyin's voice tinged with tears, "In fact, all of this is simply what Second Young Master Zhao brought upon himself!"
"Why is it that whenever something happens to him, he points his finger at Princess Jiayi and calls her a vicious woman? I guess it's because he was the one who planned this vicious plot against Princess Jiayi!"
Zhao Yu's eyes were instantly filled with resentment.
He did it, but he would never admit it.
If he admitted it, his life would be over.
The entire Zhao family will be implicated by him.
"Bitch! You're talking nonsense!"
"To exonerate yourself, you've put the blame on me. Your Majesty, she's simply spreading lies to deceive the people. You can't believe her!"
"Am I spreading rumors to confuse the people?" Liu Qingyin glared at him, gritting her teeth and saying, "Except for the other princes and you, Second Young Master Zhao, who else has the ability to quietly place this group of people in the palace?"
"This is my first time entering the palace today. To be frank, I don't even know where the palace gate opens. I'm afraid I'll forget it after going around in circles."
"How did you know about such a secluded palace?"
"I'm afraid only those who are very familiar with the Imperial Palace can know this!"
How she could bypass the inspections of so many guards, how to avoid the palace maids and eunuchs on the road, and the patrolling guards, all required rich experience.
It would take at least this much for a woman who just entered the palace to attend a banquet, unless someone opened her third eye.
"But Young Master Zhao is different. He has been in the palace for a long time. I'm afraid that after a long time, he will know everything about the palace."
"Your Majesty, I suspect these individuals were originally prepared by Young Master Zhao Yu for Princess Jiayi."
"Unexpectedly, today, Princess Jiayi was summoned by the Crown Princess. Zhao Yu was afraid that the matter would be exposed, so he had to go there in person and ask those people to leave first. However, in order to make things worse, he lit a magic incense in the hall, and ended up getting himself involved."
"As for—"
Liu Qingyin paused. Until today, no matter what, she could not avoid the fact that Prince Yu was implicated.
"As for Prince Yu, I think he wasn't implicated for no reason. Rather, Zhao Yu wanted to drag His Highness Prince Yu into this as well."
Prince Yu rolled his eyes and immediately said, "Yes!"
"Today, I was bumped into by someone for no reason, and the tea in that person's hand spilled all over me. However, I am always stubborn and I don't want to trouble my subordinates, let alone my mother. So I just want to find a quiet place and change my clothes."
"But now that I think about it, maybe the fact that I was splashed with tea wasn't an accident at all!"
Lu Zhiheng watched the show with a raised brow, then sighed, "My royal brother is truly pitiful, to have suffered such an unfortunate misfortune."
The Queen saw that it was more reasonable to say that it was Zhao Yu's doing than to put all the blame on Liu Qingyin, so she immediately changed the subject.
"Zhao Yu, what else do you have to say now!"
Zhao Yu's eyes were bloodshot and he almost vomited blood. It was true that he did it, but he had never thought of involving Prince Yu from the beginning to the end. After all, those people were enough to make Su Tan suffer.
"No!" Zhao Yu refused to admit it. "Liu Qingyin pushed everything onto me in order to exonerate herself. But Princess Jiayi and I have no grudges against each other. Why would she do such a cruel thing to her?"
"Okay, let's take a step back and say that even if all this is true, Liu Qingyin has never offended me, so why would I choose her to take the blame?"
Liu Qingyin was waiting for this sentence from him.
She immediately cried, "How can you have no grudges against Princess Jiayi?"
"You like Brother Song. Princess Jiayi is Brother Song's ex-wife and Xiaoxiao's biological mother. You're afraid that Brother Song and Princess Jiayi will renew their marriage. As for me, it's even simpler. You think I have other intentions towards Brother Song and want to use this opportunity to kick me away from him!"
"What a great way to kill two birds with one stone! If your plan succeeds today, wouldn't Princess Jiayi and I both be dead without a burial place?"
Zhao Yu's face turned pale.
Liu Qingyin seized the opportunity and immediately said, "Your Majesty, I just heard from Princess Jiayi that the Zhao family's backyard is piled high with corpses. I think he wants to harm Princess Jiayi not just out of jealousy."
"Moreover, he is afraid! He is afraid that once the truth is revealed, his entire Zhao family will be ruined. So today, no matter what, he will send Princess Jiayi to hell!"
All that came before was just a prelude.
This sentence really hit Zhao Yu's vital point.
Zhao Yu cursed Liu Qingyin and Su Tan as bitches.
He looked at Song Tingchen for help again.
"Brother Song, you believe me!"
"I have never done such a thing!"
"You know what kind of person I am. I would never make a move on Su Tan. I don't like men! I clearly told you before that I want to marry Liu Qingyin. If I liked men, would I have done such a fuss?"
Liu Qingyin's eyebrows jumped violently.
If she had heard before that Zhao Yu wanted to marry her, she would definitely feel a little proud.
After all, Zhao Yu was born into a prominent family. Although his family was large, his parents were not as easy to fool as Old Lady Song.
Since she came from a humble background, she would certainly suffer some grievances if she married him.
But if she really can't win over Song Tingchen, marrying Zhao Yu might not be a bad idea.
But at the moment, Liu Qingyin only felt a chill down her spine, and was very glad that Zhao Yu was caught sleeping with those men today.
Otherwise, she doesn't know what kind of hell she would have to live.
Song Tingchen frowned, his mood was complicated, and no one could tell what he was thinking at the moment.
Liu Qingyin immediately said, "Brother Song, don't believe him!"
"He just thought I was helpless and hard to control, but he really is gay, so I can only hold my nose and accept it. Besides, he's even more pretentious in front of you. If I really married him and told you his dirty thoughts, you wouldn't believe it!"
"Brother Tingchen!" Zhao Yu interrupted Liu Qingyin, his eyes bloodshot, and asked in a trembling voice, "Could it be that you really believe in Liu Qingyin and not me?"
Song Tingchen's eyebrows seemed to be covered with layers of frost and snow.
He finally set his sights on Su Tan.
"Do you have anything to say?"
Su Tan didn't say anything, but Lu Zhiheng waved his folding fan, snorted softly, and spoke slowly: "General Song, just because someone else farted twice, you start to doubt your own wife. Oh, I forgot, Princess Jiayi and you have been divorced for three years."
"You take anyone's fart as a golden rule, but you never believe what Lady Jiayi says. If someone drops two drops of horse urine, you think all their grievances are caused by Lady Jiayi."
Lu Zhiheng's eyes were full of sarcasm, and the look he gave Song Tingchen was filled with endless mockery.
It was as if Song Tingchen was the biggest fool in the world.
He sneered and glanced at Song Tingchen. "Are you going to say today, 'Su Tan, was all of this planned by you? I didn't know you were so malicious?' If you really want to say that, I advise you to shut up as soon as possible."
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