"Your Majesty, I will certainly be fair and impartial, and will never favor one side," Zhou Zhizhi said to the Empress and the princes.
"Your Excellency, Imperial Censor Zhou, please take a look." The eldest prince spoke first, taking out a drawing. The drawing depicted two jade pendants, the patterns of which clearly represented the jade pendants signifying the prince's status.
“I examined these two jade pendants all night and discovered some differences.”
"One of these jade pendants is genuine, with smooth texture and the jade material warms up to the touch. The other one is a fake. Although the material is also top-quality Hetian jade, there are slight differences in the carving of the dragon's eyes. When carving the dragon on this sample, the dragon's eyes were carved three-tenths of the way to the left."
The eldest prince carefully explained the differences between the two jade pendants to everyone.
"And someone with such superb skills, who also has this habit when carving dragons, must be someone whose name everyone knows."
The eldest prince paused for a moment, then uttered the name.
"That was Li Jue, the renowned craftsman who was famous in the capital three years ago."
The Imperial Censor nodded in agreement, saying, "I've heard about this as well. Li Jue was a master carver, so it wouldn't be difficult for him to replicate this jade pendant. But he died three years ago. Could it be related to this matter?"
The eldest prince continued, following the censor's lead, "That's right, Li Jue's death here is suspicious, and I already have some evidence."
The eldest prince instructed the guards at the door, "Summon the witnesses."
A moment later, a man dressed in coarse blue clothes appeared at the door and walked timidly to the front of the hall, accompanied by guards.
"This humble commoner, Laifu, greets all esteemed officials." The man knelt down with a thud and began to bow.
"Laifu, tell the officials everything you know," the eldest prince commanded him.
"Yes." Lai Fu received the order and repeated to everyone what he had said to the eldest prince yesterday.
“I am Li Jue’s apprentice. I have been his disciple for more than five years. My master died suddenly three years ago. It was not because he contracted a strange disease that people say he died, but because someone poisoned him!” Lai Fu said firmly, his words powerful.
"Then do you know who poisoned him? And what was the purpose?" the eldest prince asked.
"I understand."
"The one who poisoned my master was none other than the Third Prince."
No sooner had Lai Fu finished speaking than the Empress impatiently interjected, "How dare you! Do you know that slandering a prince is a capital offense!"
"I swear on my life that I am not lying," Laifu said, looking up at the Empress.
"At that time, the Third Prince's men came to the master craftsman and asked him to carve a jade pendant according to the design he had given them. The master craftsman knew that this was a jade pendant symbolizing the prince's status and that commoners could not carve it privately, so he refused."
"But the Third Prince was not giving up, so he threatened my father with my master's wife's life. With no other choice, my master had to agree to the Third Prince's demands."
"But after the jade pendant was carved, the Third Prince killed the master to silence him in order to ensure the absolute secrecy of the matter. The master's wife also died from excessive grief." Lai Fu became more and more upset as he spoke, and his voice was tinged with sobs.
"For so many years I have had no way to seek revenge and have been lying low in the capital until today. Only now do I have the opportunity to tell the whole truth. Your Excellencies can see that everything I have said is true."
"Even commoners are subject to the same law! I beg you, sirs, to uphold justice for this humble subject!" Lai Fu kowtowed repeatedly to the ground, making a thud. His head was already bleeding, but he did not stop.
The Third Prince remained silent throughout, his eyes fixed on Xiao Xiyou with a vicious and sinister gaze.
Although he didn't force Li Jue to make the jade pendant, he still had to swallow this bitter pill. Although Lai Fu gave the wrong reason, Li Jue did know too much because he worked for him, and thus had to die.
He instructed Li Jue to prevent the issuance of a general's order that would allow him to mobilize one-third of General Li Yuanlong's army.
“Your words alone are not enough; what evidence do you have?” Zhou Zhizhi, who had been watching the show from the sidelines, said.
"Yes." He quickly produced the evidence he had prepared beforehand: a broken ring.
"This ring was given to me by my master in his twilight years. He risked his life to pry it off the person who killed him."
Zhou Zhizhi took the ring, examined it carefully, and then showed it to the Imperial Censor for his inspection. They found nothing amiss.
"This is just an ordinary ring. How can you prove that he is related to the Third Prince?" the Imperial Censor asked.
"The materials used in this ring are indeed ordinary, but its exquisite carving technique makes it priceless. This is because it is the work of my master, Li Jue, and because the carving is complex and difficult to replicate, there is only one in the world. This ring was auctioned off to the Third Prince's steward at an auction a few years ago," Lai Fu explained to the Censor.
"There are many people at that auction who can testify to this."
“Then I can reasonably suspect that the owner of this ring is either the Third Prince or his steward.” Lai Fu’s voice was firm, and he did not seem to be lying.
The Third Prince was somewhat anxious when he saw that his useless steward had left behind such evidence without explaining it to him.
"This jade pendant was indeed made by Li Jue at my request." The Third Prince admitted the crime, choosing the lesser of two evils. He feared that if he did not admit it, further investigation would uncover even bigger problems.
"Does Third Brother admit that you were the one who established the army?" The First Prince immediately began to ask once he had achieved his goal.
"Yes, but what I've formed isn't an army, but a guard. In recent days, the Xiongnu on the border have been eyeing us covetously, and the palace guards are relatively weak. I'm training a guard to protect the safety of the Forbidden City." The Third Prince lowered his eyes, his emotions unreadable, and spoke calmly.
"But as this matter escalated, I was afraid that my father would misunderstand me, so I hurriedly tried to shift the blame to my second brother."
Although the eldest prince maintained a composed expression on the surface, he was actually laughing hysterically inside.
"Guards, take the Third Prince to the Heavenly Prison and execute him in the autumn!" The First Prince impatiently shouted out these words, which he had practiced a thousand times over.
"Your Highness, you mustn't!" Eunuch Cao immediately stopped the Third Prince after he finished speaking. "Although the Third Prince is guilty, he has not committed a serious crime. Considering his good intentions, his crime does not warrant death."
"Perhaps we should inform His Majesty before making a decision, Your Highness? What is your opinion?"
Although Xiao Dongyang was displeased, he could do nothing about it because Eunuch Cao invoked the Emperor's name to suppress him.
"We'll do as Eunuch Cao says," the eldest prince replied to Eunuch Cao with a forced smile, though his eyes were already flashing with anger.
However, he also knew that it was impossible to kill the Third Prince over such a trivial matter, but he could deter him from vying for the throne in the future.
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