Chapter 200: No Way to Defend Yourself
"How could such a coincidence happen?" Yu Fei sneered. "Just as there was a witness, the person died."
The Empress glanced at everyone and shouted, "Drag all the eunuchs around the Crown Prince away and pry open their mouths."
The prince's face changed, and he crawled a few steps towards the emperor. "Father, they framed me. These bastards teamed up to frame me. Father, they're trying to force a confession out of me!"
The emperor opened his mouth, but Concubine Yu clutched his arm tightly, crying, "Your Majesty, please investigate thoroughly and find out who is so audacious as to defile the palace, particularly with the crown prince and a newly granted marriage. This not only disregards palace rules, but also tramples upon your Majesty's dignity!"
"Today, the person behind this dared to attack the Crown Prince. Who knows if he will attack Your Majesty tomorrow?"
"Your Majesty, even for your own safety, you should thoroughly investigate this matter!" The Queen said at the right time.
The emperor's face was gloomy, and he finally said, "Okay, I'll leave this matter to you."
"Tell the palace ladies to keep their mouths shut. I don't want to hear any rumors."
"In one hour, I will know the truth."
"I obey your command." The Queen bowed and agreed.
The prince was about to speak when the empress said, "Your Majesty, why don't you go to the next room and fix it up first, so that it doesn't disturb the view? It's not a decent thing to do."
"You decide." The emperor just said this without even looking at the prince.
The Queen personally escorted the Crown Prince to the next door. With a sneer on his face, the Crown Prince stared at the Queen and said, "I should have known this long ago. If you were truly a living Buddha, how could you have secured your position as Queen?"
"I don't understand what the prince said." The queen said lightly.
The prince said coldly, "It's just a woman's trick. Do you think you can bring me down with these ghostly tricks?"
The Empress remained calm and said, "Don't worry, Prince. Black is black, and white is white. I have always been fair and just in managing the harem, and I will do the same today."
The prince closed his eyes and said coldly, "That's good."
As soon as the queen left, the prince walked to the door and shouted, "Someone come!"
The palace servant outside the door only whispered: "Your Highness, calm down and wait for the truth to come out."
"I won't go out. Go and call Xiao Yuanzi." said the prince.
The palace servant lowered his head and replied, "Your Highness, the eunuchs around you are all on trial now."
"Then send someone out of the palace to invite the Grand Tutor and Grand Master to come into the palace to see the Emperor."
"Your Highness, please don't make things difficult for me." The palace servant seemed respectful, but in fact he was unyielding. The prince had a gloomy face and kicked him, but the latter remained motionless despite being beaten and scolded.
After the prince vented his anger, he fell to the ground. Looking at the palace servants kneeling on the ground not far away but not obeying his orders at all, he realized that things might not be as simple as he thought.
There was silence in the hall next door. The emperor sat there with a gloomy face. Concubine Yu leaned on the palace maid with a pale face. Concubine Xu also said nothing, and the palace servants didn't even dare to breathe.
After a while, as the time until an hour was getting shorter and shorter, the emperor suddenly sighed and looked at Concubine Yu. "Linlang, I know you've been wronged, but the Crown Prince is still the Crown Prince. Although this matter is absurd, he cannot be made to pay with his life for a commoner woman. You have always been well-educated and sensible. You will surely understand my difficulties, right?"
Before Concubine Yu could speak, tears fell like pearls: "I know that compared to the Crown Prince, let alone Ying'er, I am just a worthless life."
"Look at you, why are you talking about this again!" The emperor couldn't help but frowned.
But thinking about how Fang Yu's first fiancée died tragically because of the prince, and he had to marry a dead person in the end, and now his second fiancée died in such a shameful and humiliating way.
Even the emperor felt that the prince had gone too far. Fang Yu was a low-key person, so why would the prince go out of his way to pick a fight with him? Or, was it actually Concubine Yu that the prince had been targeting?
A hint of mockery flashed in Concubine Xu's eyes, and she wasn't at all surprised by the emperor's words. His Majesty seemed to favor the Fourth Prince, but for the sake of the Crown Prince, he had made the court officials, the Empress, and even the mother and son give in over the years.
The emperor doesn't care whether their step-by-step concessions will lead them to fall directly into the abyss.
At this moment, the Queen Mother walked in from outside and whispered, "Your Majesty, there is a result."
"How is it?" the emperor looked at her and asked, "Is someone trying to frame the prince?"
It is not difficult to hear the emperor's bias in this statement. He always gets the answer he wants.
But this time, the Queen clearly didn't want to give him that satisfaction. She frowned and said, "Your Majesty, why don't you let the Imperial Concubine and the Jade Concubine go back and rest?"
"Empress, this matter now concerns Concubine Yu. The Crown Prince keeps saying that I framed him. We are both involved in this matter, so how can we go back and rest now?" Concubine Xu said.
Concubine Yu also wiped her tears and said, "Your Majesty, no matter what the truth is, I only hope that it will be made known to the world."
The emperor frowned, looked at the queen and said, "Forget it, go ahead."
The Queen sighed and said, "The eunuchs around His Royal Highness have already confessed. His Royal Highness indulges in sensual pleasures all year round and likes to use Hehuan Incense to enhance his pleasure. He even brought it with him when he attended the banquet today."
The emperor's expression changed, and he heard the queen continue, "Those eunuchs all said that His Highness praised the Huang family's daughter for her extraordinary beauty, saying she had a face that could captivate a whole country. It's a pity that she was paired with a nerd like Fang Yu. These despicable people are only good at flattering and always give in to His Highness, which may have led to tragedy in the end."
Before she finished speaking, Concubine Yu had already covered her face and started crying: "Ying'er, you died with such resentment..."
The emperor was also very disappointed in himself, but for some reason, he finally said: "This evil beast has been led astray by these lowly people. These people deserve to die!"
With just one sentence, the blame was put on the eunuch.
Concubine Xu's fingers trembled slightly. She didn't expect that after things had come to this, the emperor still wanted to protect the prince.
Concubine Yu collapsed completely, clutching her chest and crying, "Your Majesty, please help Ying'er and my brother."
Concubine Xu also said, "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is so bold and unscrupulous in the harem. He has no regard for Your Majesty in his heart. You can't let this go!"
"Come here, beat to death all the eunuchs in the prince's palace!" the emperor shouted coldly.
The Queen's eyes flickered slightly, and she said, "Your Majesty, before that, I have something to report."
The emperor frowned and looked at the queen, but the queen stared at him without avoiding him, and the emperor began to feel guilty.
The Queen smiled slightly and advised softly, "Although they are just palace maids, they are still hundreds of lives. Your Majesty should listen to this matter and then deal with it together."
The emperor pinched his brows, sighed and said, "When Zi Tong was still around, the harem was very quiet."
This was actually a scolding to the Queen Mother for not being able to manage the harem well, which led to such chaos in the harem.
The Queen's expression didn't change at all. She simply bowed and said, "After all these years, I am no longer as good as Sister Yuan Hou. It is my fault for failing in my duty. Your Majesty, please punish me."
Empress Yuan was the emperor's sweetheart. She was able to give birth to the eldest son, but several subsequent princes did not live past the age of three. The emperor still praised and protected her in every way, which shows how powerful she was.
If this person had not died early, there would probably be no Concubine Xu in the palace, and it would be a question whether the Fourth Prince and the Fifth Prince could survive. It's a pity that the Emperor only thinks of her well, and naturally a living person cannot compare to a dead person.
In terms of favor, Concubine Xu and the Fourth Prince were not as flattering as the Empress Yuan of that time. Concubine Xu's tricks were just something that the Empress Yuan was tired of, so even after her death, the Emperor still indulged the Crown Prince in every way.
The emperor frowned. Seeing the queen's indifferent expression, he felt angry, but he suppressed his anger and asked, "What else did those lowly servants do?"
The Empress' eyelids twitched slightly, and she uttered, "Your Majesty, Concubine Ru in the cold palace is already three months pregnant."
"Rupin?" Concubine Xu exclaimed in surprise, "She's been banished to the cold palace for two years, how could she still be pregnant? Could it be that she's having an affair with a guard?"
"Get out!" The emperor suddenly roared and smashed the inkstone on the table at Concubine Xu.
Concubine Xu was so frightened that she got up and fled without caring about her embarrassment.
Concubine Yu's eyes were also unfathomable, but she said at this moment: "Your Majesty, please allow me to take Ying'er away with me. She is already dead, and I don't want her to be so disgraceful after her death."
"Forget it, you can take it away." The emperor said gloomily.
As soon as Concubine Yu left, the emperor looked at the queen with eyes that looked like he wanted to eat her: "Say it again."
"Princess Ru is three months pregnant, and it's a boy." The queen said word by word, as if she was afraid that the emperor couldn't hear clearly.
The emperor squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "I asked you to investigate today's matter, why did you involve the cold palace?"
The Queen's eyes were filled with coldness, but her face wore a hint of grievance: "I didn't mean to do that either, but the Crown Prince's playmate couldn't bear the punishment and confessed many things, including the matter of Concubine Ru."
"Prince, Prince..." If the emperor still wanted to protect the prince after Huang Ying's death, then Concubine Ru was really stepping on the emperor's face. Although Concubine Ru was banished to the cold palace, she was still his concubine in name.
The emperor was furious and cursed, "How did you manage the harem? Such a shameful thing happened!"
The Empress said coldly, "Your Majesty, have you forgotten that you punished the Crown Prince before, and fearing that he would be wronged in the Eastern Palace, you asked me to hand over the Phoenix Seal to the Crown Princess and let her take charge of the harem?"
"The Crown Princess must be virtuous and have covered up for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, so she was able to conceal the truth for three months."
The emperor looked at her and saw sarcasm in the queen's eyes. He wanted to curse, but he felt a black screen in front of his eyes and fell to the ground. The last thing he heard was the queen's scream.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
