Chapter 833 Someone's Behind It All
Jiang Fenghua returned to the carriage after leaving the Fourth Prince's residence. She felt as if a pair of eyes were watching her from behind. She lifted the curtain and looked around, but there was nothing unusual.
She still felt lingering fear when she thought about Zhang Yurou's death.
Even though Lu Xuefei had seen countless cases, no one had ever died in front of her before. It was only after a moment that she realized, "If someone had tried to kill us just now, or if someone had tried to assassinate Her Majesty, wouldn't we be the ones who died?"
Hongxiu then learned that the Empress and Miss Lu had just gone through a life-or-death ordeal. "It's good that Your Majesty is alright. Your Majesty and Miss Lu's faces are so pale. What did you go through inside? Is the Fourth Princess really dead? How did she die? I've been guarding outside the whole time, but I didn't see any assassins go in, nor did I hear any fighting. What exactly happened?"
Jiang Fenghua explained, "The other party didn't want to kill me, or they didn't want to kill me because they thought I was useful. Who killed Zhang Yurou? I didn't see it clearly at the time. I just felt a cold wind and Zhang Yurou's neck was cut off with a steel wire. As for when the assassin entered the Fourth Prince's mansion, we don't know. Or maybe there was no assassin at all. It was the Fourth Prince who orchestrated it. But does the Fourth Prince know martial arts?"
She thought of Bai Yuhan; if there was something fishy about the Bai family…
She knew she had amnesia, and that she had once done business with Lin Yu in the martial arts world under the alias of Young Master Ruan.
The only thing Bai Yuhan didn't know was that she had memories of her past life. Back then, Su Tingwan dreamed of her past life, and Ji Chen even reincarnated into the corpse of the Hu prince. They all knew about their past lives, although they died before they had a chance to tell anyone.
However, Su Tingwan told Consort Su and Su Xuan about this, and Xie Ling'er also disappeared. Now Xie Ling'er is the only one who knows the truth.
Her maids and Lin Yu knew, and Granny Wang knew, but Granny Wang was already dead. She didn't tell anyone about it, and in the end, even Xie Shang found out.
Jiang Fenghua had a feeling that the person behind this was targeting her, but she didn't know what their purpose was.
"Your Highness, where should we go now? To the Jiang residence or straight back to the palace?" Hongxiu said again, "Let's go straight back to the palace. It's too dangerous outside. We shouldn't have shaken off the guards when we left the Jiang residence. If anything happens to Your Highness, I could never atone for my sins..."
She hoped that Aoxue could quickly pull herself together and protect the Empress's safety.
“Go to the Jingzhao Prefecture to watch Zhang Anyu preside over the trial.” Jiang Fenghua couldn’t hide; hiding was useless. “Xie Yang reported Zhang Yurou’s death to the authorities immediately. He acted very quickly this time.”
Jiang Fenghua knew very little about Xie Yang's rebellion in her previous life; she only knew that he failed and that the news was widely circulated.
She said, "Xuefei, let's analyze the case."
“Okay.” After listening to the Fourth Princess’s accusations, Lu Xuefei said directly, “I think the Fourth Prince is the one with the problem. If the Fourth Princess continues to live, she will be a witness to accusing the Fourth Prince of abusing and killing Shu Xue. The Emperor has only placed the Fourth Prince under house arrest and has not punished him, but his stain can never be erased.”
Actually, I think the Fourth Prince is very clever! He knew to report it to the authorities immediately, which cleared him of suspicion.
Jiang Fenghua said, "If Xie Yang had known all along that we had entered the Fourth Prince's Mansion and met with Zhang Yurou... he could have sent someone to kill Zhang Yurou and then framed me, but the murderer gave us time to escape."
"That's the strange thing. What was their purpose in letting us leave the Fourth Prince's residence safely if they were just trying to scare the Empress?" Lu Xuefei was also confused. If the Fourth Prince had killed someone, would he still consider not killing the Empress?
"Based on our deduction, if the Fourth Prince had killed someone and wanted to frame the Empress, then that was indeed the best opportunity."
"Xuefei has always had a question in her mind," Lu Xuefei said, not daring to speak carelessly.
Jiang Fenghua knew what she was wondering about. "I also guessed that the Emperor probably already knew about what the Fourth Princess Consort said. He also knew that the Fourth Prince was ill and couldn't control himself. Why didn't he make a fuss? It must be for the sake of the royal family's reputation!" Could it be that Xie Shang wanted to kill Zhang Yurou to silence her? If it was someone sent by Xie Shang, of course he wouldn't hurt her.
Anyway, she didn't believe that Xie Yang and Xie Shang developed feelings for each other because they didn't have fatherly or motherly love when they were young.
Xie Shang is not that kind of person. In his previous life, he was cold and ruthless towards women, and even more so towards men. All the princes of the Xie family were very wicked and ended up in bad ways.
Lu Xuefei didn't want to think that way either, but the Fourth Princess Consort's words were so detailed and convincing, and besides, she knew that many young masters from wealthy and noble families also had a penchant for homosexuality.
She said, "I will accompany Your Majesty to see what is going on."
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Their carriage stopped in front of the Jingzhao Prefecture. When they arrived, she realized that she wasn't the only one there; Lord Tang from the Ministry of Justice and Madam Zhang were also there. Madam Zhang was crying incessantly after learning that her daughter had been murdered.
Unfortunately, Zhang Anyu also brought Madam Wang, who was from the Fourth Prince's residence, to the yamen. This made things quite lively.
Jiang Fenghua said, "I didn't expect Zhang Anyu to act so quickly, with so many people arriving. The Jingzhao Prefecture is going to be in turmoil tonight. But since there's no murderer, who will Zhang Anyu interrogate?"
She added, "Hongxiu, when you sent someone to inform Madam Shu, you didn't give anything away, did you?"
"Your Majesty, rest assured, they are all unfamiliar faces." Hongxiu would certainly not let Madam Shu know that it was the Empress who sent someone to inform her to cause a scene at the Fourth Prince's residence.
Even if they were to investigate, the investigation wouldn't reach them.
The Fourth Prince and Consort Chang were confined to their residence by the Emperor, so they were definitely not allowed to leave. However, the steward of the Fourth Prince's residence represented the Fourth Prince's family at the government office.
The two women below the court were arguing fiercely, even coming to blows. The presiding judge slammed his gavel down: "Who are you below the court? What is the matter causing this disturbance? State your names."
Madam Zhang cried out, "There are suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the Fourth Princess. There are soldiers stationed at the gate of the Fourth Prince's mansion. How could an assassin have entered from there to kill the Fourth Princess? It must be someone in the mansion who wanted to harm my daughter."
Madam Shu, however, felt a sense of satisfaction. "My daughter was murdered by the Fourth Princess Consort. She died such a tragic death! Humph! Retribution has finally come to her. Heaven has opened its eyes. Xue'er, you can rest in peace now."
Because of these few words, Madam Zhang was so angry that she wanted to vomit blood: "You poisonous woman, I'm going to kill you. You killed the Fourth Princess Consort. It must have been you. You will die a horrible death."
Madam Zhang was so angry she lost her mind. When Zhang Yurou died, Madam Wang was cursing in front of the Fourth Prince's mansion!
"Which eye of yours saw me kill Zhang Yurou? It was clearly the heavens that opened their eyes and brought her retribution. It's not that she didn't get her comeuppance, it's just that the time hadn't come yet. Thank you, heavens, and thank you, Your Majesty the Empress."
Jiang Fenghua listened from the shadows, feeling utterly exasperated. Even if she wanted Zhang Yurou dead, she wouldn't get her hands dirty by doing it herself. Besides, she wasn't going to kill Zhang Yurou.
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