Chapter 21 Prison Visit
"Pfft! Don't curse your mother! She'll live a hundred years!" Liu Shanzhen slapped Li Jiying's hand and said angrily, "The emperor is dead, and I'm in mourning for the nation. Didn't you hear the funeral bell yesterday? It tolled forty-nine times! And... and your brother? I heard he offended Queen Chi and is dead too."
Li Jiying immediately breathed a sigh of relief, as if her mother was alright. Then she realized that the emperor had passed away, and Li Xianyou was also dead? She was stunned.
She heard from Cao that the emperor had always been in poor health. If he had died suddenly, there would be some clues, but what about Li Xianyou?
Hadn't he always been in high spirits, very much loved by the Crown Prince? How could he suddenly offend Queen Chi and ruin himself?
Moreover, he is the eldest grandson of the prime minister. Queen Chi would not execute him even if she was angry. Doesn't she have any scruples at all?
The more Li Jiying thought about it, the more surprised she became. "What happened?"
She asked Liu Shanzhen, but Liu Shanzhen was just an old maid, so who else could she ask?
Liu Shanzhen sighed deeply, his brows knitted tightly together. "Sister Ying, you don't know. I'm no longer in the Li residence. How could I know this?"
"What? Who dares to kick you out?" Li Jiying was shocked.
Liu Shanzhen explained, "A few days ago, my aunt had a quarrel with my master over you. Everyone in the mansion saw it, and my master felt humiliated. In a rage, he confined my aunt and kicked all of us servants out of the mansion..."
Before she could finish, Li Jiying raised her eyebrows and cursed, "Why does someone surnamed Li treat my mother like this?"
Liu Shanzhen's face was filled with sorrow. Wasn't she resentful? She had been driven out of the master's family at such an old age, and now she had to live with her own children, only to be scorned, both openly and covertly.
She was about to say something more when she heard hurried footsteps in the corridor. The jailer came running over in a hurry, "Hurry up, hurry up, the warden is here."
Liu Shanzhen looked panicked. He hadn't even said a few words yet!
He hurriedly grasped Li Jiying's hand tightly, staring at her with tearful eyes, as if he wanted to see her enough, his voice choked with sobs: "Sister Ying, you must take good care of yourself!"
Seeing that Liu Shanzhen was still nagging, the jailer grabbed her arm and dragged her out. "Old woman, I advise you to hurry up. If you waste my time again and run into the prison officer, don't blame me for breaking your legs!"
Liu Shanzhen was dragged around by the jailer and confessed his crime in a hurry. He did not dare to delay any longer and followed the jailer tremblingly along the passage towards the gate.
Just then, there was the sound of boots outside the door, followed by the prison officer's flattering voice:
"Sir, Madam Li lives in the innermost cell. Every day, she is given whatever she wants. She is not treated unfairly at all."
The jailer panicked and hurriedly pushed Liu Shanzhen to the side passage, "Quick, get out this way!"
The two of them had just left through the small path, and the next moment, the prison officer led Li Xiaoci in through the gate of the prison.
————
After the hour of Xu at night, candles were still burning in the duty room of the Ministry of Rites.
The window was open, but there was not a breath of wind. The insects in the summer night were chirping particularly loudly, which was annoying.
Minister of Rites Liu Yu and the left and right vice ministers were all sitting on chairs, looking at Li Mian, who had a sullen face, with serious expressions.
Li Mian was reading the memorial that was sent to the palace but was rejected.
Finally, he raised his head, threw the memorial on the table, and looked at Liu Yu, "Empress Chi is not satisfied with this memorial, what do you want to do?"
Liu Yu had no choice but to speak up. "I think we should change the clause about asking the Crown Prince to preside over the funeral. Empress Chi is the new emperor's adoptive mother, and having her read the will is not considered disrespectful if you look closely. If it continues like this, it will be my Ministry of Rites' fault for not doing its job well."
Li Mian's voice was icy: "So, Queen Chi wants to become regent on behalf of the new emperor, and you agree with that?"
Liu Yu lowered his head, his tone helpless: "But now the Crown Prince claims illness and cannot come out, everything is decided by Queen Chi. Prime Minister Li asked me, what can I do?"
Li Mian's face was sullen. "She is using the emperor to control the officials!"
When he thought of Zhao Chun's timid appearance, he became angry. Unfortunately, he was the emperor's only son, and he couldn't find a second person to replace the crown prince at this time.
However, no matter what, Queen Chi cannot be allowed to preside over the state funeral or hold memorial services at the ancestral temple. According to ancestral rules, these are things that only the new monarch can do!
Li Mian said in a deep voice, "Tomorrow I will go to the palace to see Empress Chi. Since the Crown Prince is ill, please ask Duke Cao to preside over the state funeral. He is Taizu's cousin and saved the late Emperor's life at the Battle of the Huai River. He is qualified to act on behalf of the new Emperor."
Liu Yu was stunned. "What if Queen Chi still disagrees?"
Li Mian stared at him, a cold light flashing in his eyes, "Officials from six ministries have jointly submitted a memorial, she has to agree even if she doesn't agree!"
Queen Chi is still too young to fight with him. Even if the crown prince is gone, he, Li Mian, will still have the final say on all matters in the court!
He picked up the memorial again and threw it on the table. "Rewrite it, have the officials from the six ministries sign it, and send it to the palace tomorrow morning."
After saying that, he walked around the table and strode out.
In the duty room, Liu Yu looked at the left and right assistant ministers and said, "Just write according to Prime Minister Li's wishes."
After a moment of silence, the Right Assistant Minister stood up, walked to the desk, and started writing a memorial.
Suddenly, a breeze blew into the room, the candlelight swayed, and the three shadows reflected on the window pane also swayed.
They didn't know that just outside the window, in a corner where no one cared, a pair of dark eyes were watching all this quietly.
The man turned and left only when the room fell silent.
His tall body was as agile as a cheetah. He slightly arched his spine, leaped lightly, and disappeared into the darkness like lightning.
————
Li Jiying paced back and forth in the cell, feeling extremely anxious.
Since her last trial, when the Minister of Justice Zhu Fangfang sentenced her to parade through the streets and lingchi, no one has visited her since.
There is none in the Cao family’s mansion, nor in the Li family’s.
She had been looking forward to seeing her mother again, and was extremely happy to see Liu Shanzhen coming, but what she got was the news that her mother was under house arrest.
But Liu Shanzhen left without explaining clearly, which made her feel very upset. She wanted to fly out immediately and go to the Li family to take a look in person.
Unfortunately, she couldn't escape from this prison, and no one would come to rescue her. It was just a pipe dream to want to get out.
Because the people who wanted her dead were Duke Cao's Mansion and Prime Minister Li's family. They were extremely powerful. How many people in the world dared to go against them?
Wait, there is one!
Li Jiying's eyes suddenly lit up. Wasn't Queen Chi, who killed Li Xianyou, the one who dared to challenge the Li family?
Although Liu Shanzhen didn't tell her much information, it was enough for her to deduce the whole picture of the matter.
Now that the emperor is gone and the crown prince who succeeds him is young and ignorant, the power of the court is likely to fall into the hands of Queen Chi.
As far as she could remember, she had only seen Queen Chi once at the palace banquet during the New Year's Day last year. The lights were bright and the wine was clinking, so she couldn't see what Queen Chi looked like. She just felt that she was imposing and not easy to mess with.
However, no matter how ruthless Queen Chi was, she was a woman and had no support in the court, so it would probably not be easy for her to accomplish anything.
If she were Queen Chi, what would she do? Of course, she would suppress those officials who opposed her!
Li Mian, the chief of the court and the leader of all officials, was the first person to be eliminated.
However, Li Xiang has many followers and a high reputation, so it is definitely not possible to come in openly. We can only clip his wings first.
So, Queen Chi took the lead in killing Li Xianyou!
What is more likely is that Queen Chi misled everyone, making them believe that this was just an impulsive act on her part.
However, in all dynasties, whenever a new emperor came to power, there would be a major purge of the court forces. But this time, the new emperor was a woman named Queen Chi.
Could it be that Lee Sang-gyu's party, out of arrogance, simply didn't realize that the purge had already begun?
If the Li family does not take advantage of this opportunity to retreat, it is very likely that they will end up like monkeys scattering when the tree falls.
Should I remind them? After all, she is also the daughter of the Li family. Maybe they will spare her life because she is still useful.
Thinking of this, Li Jiying burst out laughing.
The Li family wishes she were dead, but she's still trying to curry their favor. Is she crazy?
Instead of reminding them, it would be better to cooperate directly with Queen Chi. If she could get the help of this noble lady, perhaps she would not have to suffer the punishment of slow slicing.
The question is, why would Queen Chi risk offending Duke Cao's Mansion to help her?
Unless, she has greater value than this.
Li Jiying frowned and fell into deep thought. Just at this moment, a shadow fell over her. She looked up and found Li Xiaoci wearing a plain white mourning dress, standing outside the prison door, looking at her with complicated eyes.
Behind him followed a servant, who also had a white cloth tied around his waist and held a food box in his hand.
Li Jiying was shocked. Could he be here to serve her her last meal?
She took a few steps back, looked at Li Xiaoci warily, and asked coldly, "What are you doing here? Are you trying to persuade me to commit suicide to preserve the reputation of your Li family?"
Li Xiaoci's face changed slightly, and it was obvious that he wanted to get angry, but for some reason he held it back and said slowly, "Ji Ying, I came to see you."
Then he raised his hand and said, "Open the door." The prison officer immediately stepped forward and unlocked the door.
Seeing Li Xiaoci walking into the cell with a gentle demeanor, Li Jiying's heart suddenly began to beat fast. Ever since she entered the prison, this man's attitude towards her has never been nice. Why did he become so kind today?
She said she came to see her. Did she take the wrong medicine? Something must be wrong when things are out of the ordinary. Could it be that something happened to her mother?
Thinking of her mother being confined without even a servant, she immediately became furious and said angrily, "I don't want to see you. I only want to see my mother. Why don't you let her come to see me?"
Li Xiaoci's face darkened. "You're so rude! That's your aunt! Don't you even bother to call out to Dad when you see him? If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have kept you with her. You've developed such a bad temper."
"Dad?" Li Jiying looked at his pretending to be serious face and couldn't help but sneered.
If it were in the past, seeing Li Xiaoci caring about her like this, she might be happy for a few days, but now, she just felt disgusted.
Once upon a time, like many other children in the world, she had great respect for her silent and serious father, and even thought about marrying a powerful man like her father in the future.
However, when she really married into Duke Cao's mansion, she realized how naive and ridiculous this idea was.
——Don’t think that just because your grandfather is the prime minister and your father is a minister, you can come here and enjoy yourself. I tell you, once you enter our Xiao family, you have to abide by our rules!
It turned out that this was the Xiao family, and she was just an outsider with the surname Li. If they hadn't told her, she really wouldn't have known.
When she thought that from now on, she would have to endure her temper and grievances, recognize a stranger as her mother, and then recognize a stranger as her father, and then live her whole life with these fake relatives who had no feelings for her, she felt that life was extremely bleak.
She began to miss the days when she was a daughter at home, how relaxing and comfortable that was.
Why can't she stay in the Li family and stay with her mother like Li Xianyou?
When she returned home, she was bullied by her mother-in-law with rules and her husband ignored her coldly. When she rolled down the stairs and had a miscarriage... She returned home crying countless times, wanting to leave the Xiao family and return to the Li family.
But they just looked at her coldly, some even with smiles on their faces, as if they were looking at some bizarre sight.
"How hypocritical! Which woman hasn't gone through this?"
"Recover your health as soon as possible. Giving birth to a son for the Xiao family is the most important thing. Don't come home for no reason in the future. You are already married."
Only A'niang held her in her arms and scolded the Xiao family. But as a concubine, what could she do with little influence? In the end, she had no choice but to bear the sadness and send her back to the Xiao family.
Why do all women in the world have such a hard time? Like falling flowers, like catkins, drifting on the water, carried away by the wind, never finding a place to settle down.
Was Li Jiying going to become one of these thousands of miserable women? She was unwilling and unwilling to succumb to such a fate.
She tried hard to think of the cause of all this, but she couldn't figure it out.
Until one day, she read the story of "exchanging children for food" in history books and was suddenly awakened.
Isn’t this “exchanging women for slaves”?
Because they were born not as their mother's daughters but as their father's slaves.
This realization made Li Jiying's heart spasm with pain. He leaned over the table and laughed wildly, until tears streamed down his face.
It was that night that her husband Xiao Shen died.
They said that she had killed him, and even Li Xiaoci did not ask why. He immediately sent someone to bring her a cup of poisoned wine, asking her to die and atone for her sins.
When she looked at the cup of poisoned wine, she didn't feel sad at all, but instead she felt enlightened.
Yes, that's right!
Her father would certainly do it, they all would do it.
However, she did not want to do as they wished, to die obediently, without any struggle, and quietly, and finally turn into a pile of bones that no one recognized, with no one even caring about her name.
She smashed the wine glass, tore the white silk, cursed them all, and was eventually taken to the prison - a dark place without sunlight.
Li Jiying looked at the man in front of her. Wasn't it him who sent her in and sentenced her to death by slicing?
In the end, she still had to follow the rules and call him dad? She wanted to tear his face apart!
But thinking of his mother who was under house arrest, he finally held back his anger and just sneered coldly, "That's right! Father is better at following the rules than me. He upholds all the moral principles of father-son, ruler-ruler, and subject-subject, yet he threw his biological mother, who had carried him for ten months, aside and ignored her. He accepted that noble stepmother as his mother. Anyone can be a father, anyone can be a mother. I can't do that!"
"Li Jiying—!" Li Xiaoci's face turned pale with anger, and he immediately raised his hand to slap her. "Don't think I won't hit you just because you're married!"
Li Jiying couldn't help laughing in her heart. She was already in jail for killing her husband, and he was still emphasizing to her that she was married?
Doesn't that mean that she has given the right to dispose of her to her husband's family? Doesn't that mean that he, as her biological father, can't dispose of her in a difficult position?
Li Jiying raised her neck and squinted at him. "Who did I marry? You sold me to the Xiao family as a slave! Beat me to death if you dare. Please, be ruthless and save me the pain of being tortured to death!"
Li Xiaoci was shocked. Li Jiying's expression at this moment was exactly the same as Liu Ruiyun's.
Thinking of the nightmares that had disturbed him every night in the past few days, he felt a chill down his spine. That woman would never be at peace even after her death!
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