32 Chapter 32
◎Does mother agree?◎
When Miss Wei Er returned to the courtyard in the West Garden where guests were received, the seats at the tables were almost all occupied.
Although Old Grandpa Wei has retired, he was once a pillar of the court. Naturally, the Wei family still has forces following him in the court. Moreover, he has a son who is the Minister of Justice and a grandson with a bright future. Therefore, not only the Queen Mother Wei, but even the emperor sent people to send congratulatory gifts.
Since the Emperor and the Empress Dowager were so attentive, the ministers under them naturally did not dare to slack off and came with gifts one after another. As a result, there were about thirty banquet tables in this huge West Garden. Men and women were separated by several screens, and each had about ten tables.
Miss Wei Er walked around the crowd, greeting the female guests with a smile while heading towards her brother.
Seeing that there was no one behind her, Wei Ming asked, "Where is the princess? Didn't I ask you to take care of her?"
"Brother, I'll tell you about this after the banquet." Miss Wei said. She felt a little guilty. Although she didn't think she was wrong, she still felt guilty towards her brother.
Wei Ming guessed that something might be wrong, his face darkened slightly, and he asked, "What happened?"
Miss Wei Er had no choice but to briefly tell the princess about the incident of accidentally eating the longevity fruit. Wei Ming was shocked after hearing it and asked quickly, "Is it serious?"
Miss Wei replied, "She should be fine. I have just sent someone to find the palace doctor, and he should be here by now."
Wei Ming instinctively wanted to leave, but today was his grandfather's birthday, so how could he leave? Holding on to his filial piety, he had no choice but to stay, feeling uneasy.
**
After a quick journey and changing his clothes halfway, Wei Che finally returned to the banquet room before it started.
He had just sat down when Old Man Wei raised his glass and started to speak. All he said was thank you all for coming to celebrate his birthday. Wei Che didn't listen carefully.
Now that he and Xu Qinghe have found Meng Chen's secret letter, they have physical evidence. The next step is to find witnesses.
When the crime was first blamed on the Xie family, he knew nothing about it and had already suffered the disaster of being wiped out. Later, he returned to Beijing to inquire about the details.
In the 25th year of Yongshun, Cen Liangping, a doctor of the Ministry of Water Resources who was sent from Kyoto to the southern border to inspect water conservancy projects, said that he had personally seen the prince of Nanyi Kingdom entering and leaving the southern border military camp during his inspection of the southern border.
At that time, the King of Nan'an and his wife had died in battle for half a year. In the days when the court had not yet sent a suitable general to lead the Southern Border Army, Xie Huaiyuan, the highest-ranking general in the Southern Border Army, temporarily took over the position of commander-in-chief.
Since Xie Huaiyuan has now become the biggest beneficiary, people in the capital have taken the opportunity to suspect that Xie Huaiyuan is the traitor.
Later, Meng Chen, the deputy general under Xie Huaiyuan, took the initiative to go to Kyoto to meet the emperor. He claimed that half a year ago, when Cen Liangping went south to inspect water conservancy, the commander-in-chief Xie Huaiyuan had sent him to contact the prince of Nanyi Kingdom many times.
He claimed that the great thing had been accomplished and asked the Kingdom of Nanyi to fulfill its promise and help him become the new King of Nannan.
In addition, Meng Chen also said that Xie Huaiyuan had secretly exchanged letters with the prince of Nanyi Kingdom a year before the King of Nannan and his wife died in battle.
The two sides reached a conspiracy, and Xie Huaiyuan provided false military intelligence to lure the King of Nan'an and his wife to lead troops to encircle and suppress the army of Nanyi Kingdom, while Nanyi Kingdom encircled them in return.
After that, the Nanyi Kingdom needed to help Xie Huaiyuan control the Southern Border Army, and Xie Huaiyuan provided the Nanyi Kingdom’s army with the Southern Border Army’s bow and crossbow manufacturing technology to help it improve its military strength.
In this way, using Meng Chen, Cen Liangping, and the prince of Nanyi Kingdom who later came to Beijing specifically to testify as witnesses, and the handwritten letter from Xie Huaiyuan provided by Meng Chen as physical evidence, Xie Huaiyuan was convicted of treason, and the entire Xie family was executed without trial.
Now the physical evidence against Meng Chen has been obtained, but Meng Chen is no longer with us, so we can only target the former witnesses Cen Liangping and the prince of Nanyi Kingdom.
Between these two people, Cen Liangping, who has become the Minister of Works, is naturally easier to control.
After Old Master Wei finished his speech, the guests began to toast each other again.
Wei Che picked up a glass of wine and drank it all, looking across through the screen.
Xu Qinghe held the secret letter in his hand, so at least he could let Lin Xiao verify whether it was the secret letter written by Meng Chen himself.
Although there were officials from the imperial party who came to congratulate the banquet, they were only a minority after all. For example, Wei Che's former friends did not come to the banquet, and even his fourth brother did not come. The wife of the Duke of Fuguo only brought him along.
Wei Che was bored at the banquet alone. He drank and thought about how to pry something out of Cen Liangping's mouth. He kept doing this until the banquet was over.
He returned to the side of the Lady of the Imperial Household, yawned deliberately to show his sleepiness, and asked lazily, "Mother, why did you bring me to the Wei family's banquet? You might as well let me go to the restaurant for a drink. This Wei family wine is really tasteless, what's the difference between it and drinking water?"
The wife of the Duke of Fuguo glared at him and asked, "Did I bring you here just to have some wine?"
Wei Che spread his hands innocently, "What else? Could it be that you are here to see the girl?"
He spoke so arrogantly, how could he be the eldest son of the Duke's Mansion?
The wife of the Duke of Fuguo was extremely angry. If they were not still in the Wei family's territory at that time, she would have asked someone to find a stick to beat him to death!
"Look at the girls, all you do every day is look at girls and drink wine, right? Don't you look at Wei Ming, who is about to enter the official career at such a young age? Look at how he handles banquets with ease. We both have the surname Wei, so why is there such a big gap between you and him?!"
"Hey, mother, you can't say that." Wei Che stretched out his index finger, shook it in front of the wife of the Duke of Fuguo, and said seriously:
"My last name is Wei, and his is Wei. These two characters are the same, but they sound the same. We have different bloodlines. If we were to truly excel in the same area, what would happen? If that's the case, how could Mother expect me to be like him?"
The wife of the Duke of Fuguo snorted coldly: "Just make excuses for your incompetence! Wait until your father comes back and let him deal with you!"
"...Father is coming back?" If he comes back, it must mean that the war in the southern border is about to end.
After the battle, the prince of Nanyi Kingdom might come to Beijing to pay tribute soon, but I don’t know if the one who comes will be the same one as before.
The wife of the Prince of Fuguo nodded and said "hmm" unhappily, then added: "I came to the banquet today for you!"
"For me?" Wei Che asked with a smile, "Could it be that you really want me to see the girl?"
The Duke of Fuguo glanced at him and said nothing.
This is the default.
Now it was Wei Che's turn to be stunned. Showing the girl to him, could it be...
Then, as expected, the wife of the Duke of Fuguo said, "Don't you want to marry Princess Qinghe? Your father will definitely not agree. Why don't you let me meet the princess first to see her character and then see what your plans will be in the future."
Wei Che was pleasantly surprised and asked, "Does mother agree?"
"Whether I agree or not is another matter. I didn't agree to your offer." She paused and said regretfully:
"It's a pity that I only caught a glimpse of the princess today in the flower hall. It was just a hazy silhouette. Because the second daughter of the Wei family was always by her side, I couldn't get close to her. I wanted to wait until the banquet started to get a closer look, but who would have thought that she didn't show up at all."
"Didn't show up?"
How come she didn't show up?
They left the tea room almost at the same time, and at her speed she should have been able to sit down and eat. Even if she couldn't, given the Queen Mother Wei's usual harsh criticism of her, she would definitely not be absent.
What is happening now?
He frowned and thought carefully, and became quiet for a while, which made the wife of the Duke of Fuguo feel a little surprised.
Did his son really like that princess so much? He actually quieted down at the mere mention of her name, and seemed to have become somewhat calmer.
Who knows, maybe Princess Qinghe is really an opportunity. If marrying the princess can make her son settle down, not to mention building a career, but just inheriting the family business peacefully, she will be satisfied.
Although she had never met the princess up close, she had already developed a favorable impression of her.
**
In the guest room, Miss Wei Er had already hurried over to see Xu Qinghe.
"How is the princess? What did the court doctor say?"
After Xu Qinghe took those longevity fruits, his throat was really swollen and sore that he couldn't speak, so Nanzhi answered on his behalf.
Nanzhi said, "Second Miss, the palace doctor has prescribed medicine for the princess. As long as she doesn't scratch the rash, it won't leave scars. She'll take a few more doses of medicine and rest for a few days, and she'll be fine."
Miss Wei Er breathed a sigh of relief, and Wei Ming, who was standing in the dark outside the door, finally put his heart back into his stomach.
He didn't know that there were things Xu Qinghe couldn't eat, otherwise he would never let that thing appear at the banquet.
When Wei Ming heard his sister say that she had a rash due to eating and couldn't speak, he was really worried and wanted to go see her immediately.
But she had just confessed her feelings to him, and he really couldn't get along with her as if nothing had happened for the time being. Now he could only hide outside the door to find out about her situation.
After Miss Wei said a few more words of concern, it was getting dark, and Xu Qinghe had to return to the palace before the palace gate was locked.
She put on the veil hat specially prepared by Miss Wei Er and was helped by Nanzhi into the carriage.
The moment the curtain was lowered, she saw Wei Ming's tall figure in the crowd through the curtain.
Xu Qinghe pursed her lips, pretending not to see anything, and said goodbye to Miss Wei and several female members of the Wei family.
After today, Wei Ming would probably understand her thoughts and would no longer mention their so-called marriage to his family. She would finally no longer have to be bound by the Wei family.
Although Xu Qinghe was unable to formally attend the birthday banquet today, she at least delivered the empress dowager's gift, and the entire banquet was not interrupted because of this. The empress dowager Wei did not punish her, but only asked Nanny Zhang to say a few words of concern and then let her go back to her bedroom.
As soon as they arrived at the room, Xu Qinghe sent everyone out, leaving only Nanzhi. The two of them unfolded the letter in her arms and read it carefully.
During his five years in Beijing, Xu Qinghe had already roughly learned what happened that year.
When the Xie family was convicted, the witnesses included Cen Liangping, Meng Chen, and the prince of Nanyi Kingdom. The physical evidence was a letter of treason submitted by Meng Chen, which was said to be written by General Xie himself.
In this letter, Meng Chen mentioned that he had to give false testimony because his sister was kidnapped. Not only was his confession false, but even the so-called letter of treason was false.
Just a few words can prove that the disaster suffered by General Xie was unprovoked.
But they never pointed out who was the real mastermind behind the incident.
Only at the end did he mention that it was a scarred, short man who ordered him to do this.
Apart from that, he knew nothing.
Xu Qinghe finished reading the letter, but his brows were still furrowed.
How many men with scars are there in this world? How can we find them in such a vast sea of people?
At night, she asked Nanzhi to find another excuse to call Lin Xiao in and show her the secret letter from Meng Chen.
"Take a look and see if you can tell whether this letter was written by your brother?" Nanzhi said.
Lin Xiao held the secret letter tightly in his hand and read it from beginning to end. His eyes were wet when he read the last part.
She rested her gaze on the words "my sister Xiaoxiao" for a long time, and finally raised her head and choked up, "Princess, this is exactly what my brother wrote!"
Everyone else thought her name was Lin Xiao, but they didn't know that this name was given to her by her brother.
She and her brother are half-brothers. Her mother first remarried her father with her brother, and then gave birth to her.
Because her father disliked her for being a girl, he didn't even give her a name. Just because she was so small when she was born, he simply called her Lin Xiao.
After her father died, her brother thought the name was not good, so he decided to change it to Lin Xiao.
"Xiao means sensible. I hope our Xiaoxiao can become a good girl who understands reason in the future."
In this world, only her brother still remembers her original name.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
