Chapter 508
Xie Boli was unable to walk, so he hired someone to push him here on a cart. His miserable appearance made people express sympathy for him.
Although Xie Boli had done something unkind before, that was before Han Miao entered the Fifth Prince's mansion. Besides, it takes two to tango, and it was not just Xie Boli's fault. Moreover, he was a scholar after all. If the Fifth Prince had his legs broken, where would the scholars be placed?
The petition was delivered to the old emperor. No one knew how he felt, but several of his brothers fanned the flames. Finally, the emperor ordered the Dali Temple to try the case. The news spread like wildfire in the capital, and there were many other princes behind it. The Fifth Prince's reputation among scholars plummeted rapidly.
The Fifth Prince's humiliation of Xie Boli represented his attitude towards scholars, that is, scholars were despised in the eyes of the Fifth Prince, which aroused public anger.
What the Fifth Prince sent people to do was not only seen by Jing Lie, but also by other princes who were hostile to him. Xie Boli was a pawn they found to deal with the Fifth Prince, and with them fanning the flames behind the scenes, the case was not difficult to try. Soon, several managers and servants of the Fifth Prince's Mansion were arrested by the Dali Temple, and the Fifth Prince was again confined to his house and fined.
Although the anger of the scholars has subsided a little, their impression of the Fifth Prince has not changed at all. The culprits who broke Xie Boli's legs have been arrested and will not have a good end, but who can't see that the mastermind behind this is the Fifth Prince himself? But because he is a prince, he can only be treated lightly. It is impossible for the Fifth Prince to be severely punished like those servants.
The scholars outside were not very satisfied, but the Fifth Prince himself was even more dissatisfied. There was no need to investigate to know that this matter was caused by his brothers. He did not think there was anything wrong in breaking Xie Boli's legs. Who made him covet his concubine? If Han Miao was not still useful to him, he would have dealt with Han Miao as well.
The Fifth Prince was furious. Concubine Han, who had just managed to win back the Fifth Prince's heart, was in big trouble. The Fifth Prince could not be angry with the scholars outside and his father, but he was really rude to the culprit. Not only could Han Miao not leave the house, she could not even leave her own yard. The Fifth Prince punished her by making her copy the female precepts.
Han Miao was also vomiting terribly, and hated Xie Boli to the core. She regretted in her heart that she had kept Xie Boli hanging. Who knew that Xie Boli was such a useless person, with even his legs broken by the Fifth Prince. How could he have a chance to rise again in the future? He was completely disabled, but she actually offended the Fifth Prince for such a person. Isn't that disgusting?
Liu Yiyi didn't have the slightest sympathy for this. It was all Han Miao's own fault. She really thought she was the girl of destiny and everyone who saw her would fall in love with her to death. Now that Han Miao couldn't come out, the business of the shop opposite that was competing with her declined rapidly. This made Liu Yiyi very satisfied.
That day, Yuan Jing and Jing Lie rode out of the city to inspect the workshops outside and stayed in a farm for a few days. A few miles out of the city, they met a simple horse-drawn carriage. Yuan Jing let out a "whoosh" and the horse under him slowed down.
The coachman thought he had met a distinguished person, so he drove the carriage to the side of the road. Unexpectedly, the distinguished person continued to walk slowly, playing with the whip in his hand, but looking at the carriage with a smile in his eyes. The coachman suddenly realized that the distinguished person must know Master Xie in the carriage.
"Thank you, young master..." the coachman reminded the people in the carriage.
The curtains of the carriage were drawn open, and the person looking outside was none other than Xie Boli, who had just filed a complaint to the emperor and tricked the Fifth Prince. He was now much more relaxed than before. Someone behind the scenes had instigated him to file the complaint, and of course he would get his benefits. This time he took the silver and hurriedly left the capital. It was obvious that the Fifth Prince would not let him off easily as long as he was not dead, and he had thoroughly offended the Fifth Prince this time.
When Xie Boli saw the people on horses outside, his expression froze for a moment. Just as he was about to lower the curtains, Yuan Jing stopped him with a horsewhip.
"Why? Are you so reluctant to see me?"
Xie Boli no longer had any ambition. Facing Zeng Yuanjing, whom he looked down upon in the past, he only felt inferiority and regret. He once thought that if he had been with Zeng Yuanjing and not thought about that woman, he would not have ended up like this. His legs would still be fine, and he would not have offended the Fifth Prince for nothing. He would have been able to pass the next exam and have a bright future. But now everything was ruined because of a woman.
He used to think Han Miao was a good woman, the ideal woman he had always dreamed of, but the look of disdain in Han Miao's eyes that day and the fact that she couldn't wait to have him driven away woke him up from his dream. How could this woman be a kind and gentle woman? She was mean and mean, and how was she different from those mean women? He was blind and was deceived by this woman's false appearance.
Xie Boli stammered, "Are you doing well? I am sorry for you."
Yuan Jing sneered. Xie Boli's apology was worthless to him. He said with a playful smile: "Xie Boli, aren't you curious about why I can live well until now? Shouldn't I have died of the poison long ago?"
Xie Boli suddenly raised his head and looked at Yuan Jing, his pupils suddenly shrank. He had kept this matter extremely secret, thinking that no one knew about it. Moreover, Yuan Jing was alive and well later, so he thought that the poison could not take effect immediately. Later, when the news came out that the fourth young master Zeng had been poisoned in front of His Majesty, people thought that he was poisoned in the mansion of the Earl of Yongyi, so he naturally accepted this statement and thought that the matter would never be known to anyone again and it would completely become a secret known only to him.
But Xie Boli was surprised that Yuan Jing would mention this matter at this moment.
Yuan Jing sneered: "Did you think that if you did it secretly, no one would know? What a pity, I, the victim, know my own physical condition best. I almost died of poison as you, Master Xie, wished. This is what a scholar would do."
"You...you..." Xie Boli wanted to deny and refute, but at this moment he realized that the person in front of him was no longer the Fourth Young Master Zeng whom he could fool around with as he pleased.
"I am leaving the city today to see Master Xie off. Thank you for giving me the poison. I am thinking about when I should return the favor. Master Xie, please remember to keep it. A Lie, let's go!"
"drive!"
The two horses rode away side by side. Before leaving, the person on one of the horses turned around and gave Xie Boli a cold look, which made Xie Boli feel as if he had fallen into a cold pond, and he felt cold to the core.
Xie Boli hugged his body tightly and urged the driver: "Hurry up, go faster."
The driver was hired, not Xie Boli's servant. He didn't expect to hear such inside information. He originally felt sympathy for Xie Boli, whose legs were broken and his future was ruined, but he didn't expect that this guy was not a good guy either. He had also heard of the Fourth Young Master Zeng, a quite miserable young master, but he didn't expect that even Xie Boli, a scholar, would poison the Fourth Young Master Zeng. His respect for his identity as a scholar was completely extinguished, and only contempt remained.
What a scholar, he is nothing but a heartless person. Of course, in order to earn money, he still honestly sent Xie Boli to his destination, but he scolded Xie Boli severely in private with his friends.
Xie Boli moved to many places before he settled down with his mother, and they settled in a remote small county. In other places, he would meet the Fifth Prince's people, who would not try to harm him, but would make things difficult for him and make it difficult for him to gain a foothold.
Not only that, he would have a nightmare every once in a while. In the dream, he was poisoned and then rolled on the ground in pain. He wanted to call for help but couldn't. The intense pain made him despair until he took his last breath. After waking up, the despair and fatal pain were still fresh in his memory, making Xie Boli thinner day by day.
Such torture will only end with death.
Yuan Jingcai did not poison Xie Boli, but he engraved the pain his original body felt when the poison took effect into Xie Boli's soul, allowing him to taste the pain from time to time. This is what Xie Boli owed his original body.
Yuan Jing and Jing Lie were having a great time at the manor. Thinking about the chaotic situation in the capital, they were too lazy to go back to the capital, so they simply stayed at the manor. It was also convenient to go to the workshop here, and the shopkeepers of the cloth shops in the capital had already been trained and could stand on their own.
The only ones who were dissatisfied were Li Yan and his friends. If they wanted to play with Yuan Jing, they had to go out of the capital. Fortunately, the three of them now had things to do and did not have as much free time as before. The club they were going to build was also in the suburbs of Beijing, so they often went out of the city and occasionally came to Yuan Jing's farm to stay for a night or two.
Although they were not in the capital, no matter how big or small the events in the capital went, they could hear them. Not only did Li Yan and a few others tip off people, but Prince Shun's people were also in the hands of Jing Lie. So every few days, they would hear that an official from the prince's party had his official hat stripped off, or that a prince had been scolded by the emperor.
Less than a month later, the eldest prince, who was out of the city on official business, was carried back to the palace. On the way, they encountered a landslide. The eldest prince was unable to escape and one of his legs was hit by a falling rock, causing an uproar in the whole city.
It is said that when the eldest prince was carried back, he was covered in blood and unconscious. The emperor was furious and ordered a thorough investigation to find out whether it was an accident or man-made.
For court officials, the eldest prince had a crippled leg, which meant he had no hope of becoming emperor. Among several adult princes competing for the throne, the eldest prince was the first to withdraw.
The officials from the eldest brother's faction were the most intolerable. They tried their best to bite their opponents to death. In the end, it was found out that several princes, including the fifth prince who was under house arrest, were involved. The old emperor was so angry that he vomited blood on the spot and his body deteriorated rapidly.
"The eldest prince is older than his younger brothers, so compared to his other brothers, in the eyes of those princes, the eldest prince is the biggest threat, so they must work together to bring him down first." Jing Lie watched the whole process. He did not intervene, but he did not try to stop it either. He acted as a perfect bystander.
"The fifth prince provided the gunpowder?" Yuan Jing guessed.
Jing Lie nodded: "Yes, without the help of gunpowder, the landslide would not be so smooth."
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