"Hmm?" Sure enough, the question came from the other side through Fourth Master's breath.
“Now that Princess Qing’an is of marriageable age, it might be uncomfortable to keep her in the palace any longer. Besides, the Fifth Prince and his wife will need her to take care of them in the future. Why don’t we let her return to the Fifth Prince’s residence to await her marriage?” Lanqin said.
Fourth Master immediately sensed something amiss and asked, "From what you've said, is there something wrong with Qing'an?"
After all, they had been together for over twenty years. Lanqin understood the Fourth Prince, and the Fourth Prince understood Lanqin just as well. Lanqin sighed inwardly. After all, Qing'an had indeed betrayed Changchun Palace. It would be a lie to say that she didn't mind at all. But since she had chosen to forgive him, she might as well go all the way.
As I said before, Lanqin wanted to do as many good deeds as possible while she still had the ability, as a way of accumulating merit for her children.
Lanqin cleared her throat and said to the Fourth Prince, "Qing'an did nothing. I was just worried that if we simply released the Fifth Prince and detained Qing'an, it would give him some bad ideas and an opportunity. If Your Majesty releases the Fifth Prince and lets Qing'an go back to serve you, then the Fifth Prince will be convinced. Only in this way can we win over a member of the imperial clan like the Fifth Prince."
Lanqin thought that since she couldn't bear to punish Qing'an, she might as well let her go and they would never see each other again. That would be a relief and a good thing.
Fourth Master knew that Lanqin was doing all this for his own sake, so he agreed.
Not long after Lanqin left, the Fourth Prince issued an imperial edict releasing the Fifth Prince. A eunuch then came to announce the edict. Although the Fifth Prince's life was spared, he was stripped of his title of Prince and demoted to a commoner. However, he was not exiled but allowed to return to his residence.
Fifth Prince changed into clean clothes and went back to his residence in the carriage that had come to fetch him. However, when he arrived at the residence, Fifth Prince's wife did not come out to greet him; instead, it was Consort Jiang who came to meet him. Madam Mei and Qing'an were also waiting at the gate. Fifth Prince, who had just returned from prison, did not know that Qing'an had returned and was quite surprised to see her waiting at the gate.
Seeing this, Madam Jiang immediately explained, "Qing'an was able to return this time thanks to the grace of Consort Xi of Changchun Palace, which allowed Qing'an to return to the mansion to await marriage. Master, let's go inside first." With that, Madam Jiang welcomed the Fifth Master inside.
As Fifth Master entered the house, he pondered what Fourth Master was up to this time, letting him return to the manor so easily. Although he was suspicious, he could tell from Fourth Master's actions that Fourth Master didn't seem to want to kill him, especially since he had let Qing'an return.
As for the eldest son of the He family, since no evidence was found that he conspired with Fucha Argon other than raising grain prices, he was not deemed worthy of execution. Furthermore, Hongzhou pleaded with the Fourth Master, and thus he was spared. However, while he was spared the death penalty, he could not escape punishment. The eldest son of the He family was still whipped and fined 100,000 taels of silver.
Although the eldest son of the He family was beaten so badly that his buttocks were bruised and he was groaning in pain, the He family patriarch and matriarch were overjoyed. Upon hearing the news, the He family patriarch and matriarch immediately sent someone to deliver 100,000 taels of silver to the Dali Temple before finally bringing the eldest son back home.
Fucha Argon was not so lucky; in addition to his beheading, the Fucha family was also implicated.
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