Chapter 296 The Truth Comes to Light
Wen Wanqin ignored those looks that were either frightened, inquiring, or questioning, and solemnly bowed to the emperor again before speaking to break the silence in the hall.
"Your Majesty, I accidentally learned that the deposed Empress Xie had secretly replaced Empress Dowager Xie with someone else, confusing the royal bloodline. It took me half a month to investigate from various sources. Now, the truth is revealed, with witnesses and evidence."
As soon as the six words "confuse the royal family bloodline" came out, an uncontrollable cry of surprise and gasps instantly aroused!
"Wen Xiurong! Stop slandering me!"
Yan Shishu was the first to stand up and refuted her loudly in shock and anger.
"Who ordered you to slander the Queen?! You are framing the Queen Mother and confusing the royal bloodline. You are committing a heinous crime punishable by the death of all nine generations of your clan!"
"Imperial sister!" Yan Shixu's sharp eyes instantly fixed on Yan Shishu's face, and the emperor's majesty carried an unquestionable sense of oppression.
"Whether Xie is innocent or not, I will make the final judgment. Silence! If you dare to disturb the Imperial presence again, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
Yan Shishu felt a chill in her heart from that gaze, her lips trembled a few times, and she finally fell silent.
Yan Shixu's gaze fell on Xie Zhenrong's face.
"Xie." His voice was not loud, but it instantly suppressed all the gasps in the hall.
"What do you have to say about what Wen Xiurong said?"
Xie Zhenrong felt a chill running from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, and all the blood in his body seemed to have frozen.
She looked into the emperor's eyes, which were bottomless and no longer had any warmth.
All luck and plans are crumbling at this moment.
But when fear reaches its extreme, it will give rise to a kind of madness of giving up everything.
She pointed at Wen Wanqin and let out a shrill, distorted laugh.
"Ha! Hahahaha! Confusion of the royal bloodline? Your Majesty! Do you believe it? Do you believe this bitch's slander?"
Her eyes swept over Wen Wanqin with resentment.
Wen Wanqin stood straight, motionless as a mountain.
Xie Zhenrong turned his head suddenly and stared at the emperor.
There was twisted possession, deep hatred, and an almost crazy obsession in those eyes.
Her voice rose to a piercing pitch, and every word sounded like she was shouting with all her might:
"What a joke! What a joke! Are you all blind? Xing Zhi's face! Xing Zhi's eyes! Xing Zhi's nose! Where on him is there no trace of me? Where on him is there no royal blood?! He! Is my own son! His Majesty's legitimate prince! The future emperor of Dayan! No one can take him away! No one can change that! Hahahaha——"
Her wild laughter echoed in the hall, and the makeup she had carefully applied in the cold palace could not hide the distortion and hideousness of her face.
It makes one's scalp tingle.
"Yeah?"
Yan Shixu slowly stood up, and his tall figure walked down the imperial steps step by step with supreme pressure.
But he did not go to the crazy Xie Zhenrong, but went to Xie's fourth wife Liu Ziling who was lying on the ground and shaking.
Zhang Sicheng immediately stepped forward, lifted Liu Ziling's head, and forced her to face the emperor.
"Thank you, Mrs. Liu." Yan Shixu's voice was not loud, but every word hit Liu Ziling's heart like a heavy hammer.
"I'll ask you only once: where were you when the Queen gave birth? What were you doing? Whose child is Xing Zhi? And whose son is the baby you're raising at home? Look at me and tell me!"
“Woo…”
Liu Ziling was already frightened out of her wits, and the emperor's pressure almost crushed her last bit of will to resist.
But for the sake of her son, she bit her lips until they bled and refused to speak.
Yan Shixu didn't insist on asking her.
He withdrew his gaze and turned to Wen Wanqin, his voice surprisingly calm.
"You tell the story."
Wen Wanqin replied, her voice steady and clear, as if she were reading out the final conviction file from the Ministry of Justice:
"The first piece of evidence is that the dragon offspring Xie was pregnant with last year, but she wasn't born full term. On the day her brother, Fourth Master Xie Zhenbao, was stripped of his title as Crown Prince, Xie herself lost her temper and misbehaved, causing the heir to die in her womb! Doctor Luo, who treated her back then, and Xie's personal maid, Luoxia, are irrefutable evidence of this!"
Her eyes suddenly swept over the two people who were shaking in the corner.
Luoxia and Doctor Luo felt as if their spines were hit by an invisible whip, and their whole bodies trembled violently.
When her name was called, Luoxia crawled forward two steps almost using both her hands and feet.
His forehead pressed firmly against the icy golden brick floor, making a "dong dong" sound. His voice was filled with the fear of dying and the desperate cry:
"Your Majesty! I deserve death! I deserve death a thousand times! Last year... Fourth Young Master Xie was stripped of his title as Crown Prince. The Empress... she pleaded for mercy to no avail. Returning to Fengyi Palace, she flew into a rage and ordered me... ordered me to vent my anger as usual. I prepared a basket full of pears and stomped them around the palace like crazy... the pear juice splattered everywhere, leaving a mess on the floor... Unexpectedly, as the Empress turned to rest on her couch, she accidentally stepped on a pear core... and fell heavily... and immediately came to light. By the time Imperial Physician Luo arrived, the heir... the heir had already... had died in the womb! Your Majesty, please understand! Every word I say is true! I beg Your Majesty to spare my life."
She doesn't want to die... She wants to leave the palace, she really doesn't want to die...
Luoxia's forehead was broken, and blood mixed with tears dyed the gold brick red.
Doctor Luo also burst into tears and kowtowed to the ground.
"Your Majesty! I, a sinner... I, a sinner, deserve death! The Empress threatened the lives of my entire family, forcing me and others to conceal the truth about my miscarriage... She also forced me to falsify my pulse, creating the illusion that the fetus was still alive and only needed rest, deceiving Your Majesty! I, a sinner... I, a sinner, have been bewitched. I beg Your Majesty to have mercy! I beg Your Majesty to have mercy!"
He was incoherent, and regret and fear almost overwhelmed him.
Every word Luoxia and Doctor Luo said was like a thousand-pound hammer hitting the hearts of everyone present.
Did someone cause miscarriage by stepping on a pear out of anger?
This... is totally unheard of! So stupid!
Wen Li'er, who was sitting behind a rosewood screen inlaid with various treasures, was also speechless after hearing this.
She naturally knew that Xie Zhenrong stepping on the pear was an allusion to stepping on her and trampling on her.
But... because of this, she actually "stomped" the royal heir in her belly to death...
This stupidity is really absurd!
At this moment, Yan Shishu was completely dumbfounded.
Her eyes widened in disbelief, as if it was the first day she met this friend she had grown up with.
What did she hear? The child in Zhen Rong's belly... was already gone?
Who was that Xing Zhi...her most beloved nephew Xing Zhi...?
She turned her head stiffly, looking at Xie Zhenrong who was kneeling on the ground in surprise and confusion, her lips trembling, but she couldn't ask a single word.
Wen Wanqin ignored the shocked and terrified looks of the crowd and continued:
"The second piece of evidence is that after losing the fetus, Xie, in a desperate attempt to protect her position as empress, took a risk. Together with her biological mother, Rongguogong's wife Chen, and her younger brother Xie Zhenbao, they set their sights on her younger brother's wife, Liu Ziling, who was pregnant at the same time and due around the same time!"
Liu Ziling, who was named, let out a short whimper, buried her face deeply, and dared not look at anyone.
Xie Zhenbao's face was ashen, and a pool of yellow liquid flowed from under his kneeling legs.
Wen Wanqin continued, "Liu Ziling was initially reluctant to give up her own child, but the promise of wealth and glory ultimately persuaded her to accept the arrangement. Her mother, Zhang, also became involved, taking care of her daughter's delivery and keeping it a secret."
Zhang met her husband's angry gaze, which seemed to make him want to kill her. Her body went limp and she collapsed to the ground.
Wen Wanqin turned her gaze to the pale-faced Lady Chen of the Duke of Rong, and her voice became even colder:
"Everything is planned, just waiting for the right time."
"It so happened that the Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager left the palace to go to the Huguo Temple to pray for the prosperity of Dayan. The day before the two holy men returned to the palace, the chief envoy of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory observed the celestial phenomena at night and reported that a brilliant purple light burst forth from the side of the Purple Star in the Tianshi Wall, like a dragon circling the nine heavens, its radiance was magnificent, and all the stars were guarding it, a sign of 'the arrival of a sage, and the coming of purple air from the east.'"
"Xie and her accomplices knew they couldn't miss this opportunity! On the day the Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager returned, the palace was busy preparing to welcome them, and the security was inevitably lax. Xie took advantage of this opportunity and feigned a 'cold shock' to induce 'premature labor'. In reality, she had ordered her trusted confidant Luo Zhao to leave the palace that very day to deliver labor-inducing drugs to Liu Ziling!"
"Liu Ziling, accompanied by her mother, Zhang, went into labor early and secretly, giving birth to a baby boy in a dowry compound owned by Zhang."
"Ms. Zhang thoroughly understood the entire process of Concubine Dowager Duan's swapping of Prince Wu and Prince Yu, and specifically learned the technique of pressing the baby's acupoints."
"As soon as the baby landed, Zhang pressed on its acupuncture points. After the baby fell asleep, Zhang followed the pre-planned route and handed the child to Rongguogong's wife, Chen, who had been waiting for a long time."
"To conceal her whereabouts, Chen placed the baby in a specially made double-layer food box."
"The lower layer was covered with a soft and warm quilt, where the baby was placed; the upper layer was filled with nourishing food to prepare for the interrogation when entering the palace."
"The food box had hidden air holes on the side to ensure the baby's breathing. Chen, claiming she was 'worried about her daughter's premature birth, brought nourishing food to the palace to visit her,' used her status as a Duke's wife and the palace's confusion over Xie's 'premature birth' as an excuse to board a carriage and head straight to the palace."
"The guards at the palace gate saw that it was the wife of Duke Rong, and upon hearing that the Queen had given birth prematurely, and that Chen looked anxious, holding a food box stamped with the palace seal, they only did a brief inspection before letting her in."
"After entering the palace, Chen didn't go directly to Fengyi Palace, where the Empress resided. Instead, she was met by a maid sent by Xie, as planned. She avoided the main palace grounds and went around to a corner gate at the rear of Fengyi Palace. By then, Madam Zhuang and others had already prepared Fengyi Palace, creating the illusion of a busy delivery room and Xie struggling to give birth."
"After Madam Zhuang got the food box, she quickly took the baby out, washed him with warm water, and wrapped him in the bright yellow swaddling clothes that had been prepared long ago."
"She pressed the baby's pulse to wake him up, and when he started crying, he became the second prince."
"Ms. Xie took the medicine that Doctor Luo had prescribed to create the symptoms of postpartum weakness and lay on the delivery bed, pretending to have given birth."
"As for Madam Xie, she pretended not to have given birth yet, and twenty days later she 'gave birth' to a baby boy. This boy was from a farming family outside the capital, and Zhang personally bought him for a large sum of money."
Wen Wanqin's narration was clear and cold, completely exposing last year's conspiracy of replacing the prince with a cat under the sun.
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