Chapter 125: The Quarrel
Shu Wan and his group entered the palace.
As soon as the carriage arrived at the palace gate, the sound of the funeral dragon bell was heard from the palace!
Emperor Chi Yan is dead!
Upon hearing the bell, whether it was the guards guarding the palace gate or the eunuchs and palace maids passing by, they all knelt down with sorrowful eyes and buried their heads deeply into the ground.
It is unknown how much sincerity there is in it.
Shu Wan and Rong Chen looked at each other in bewilderment. Did Emperor Chi Yan die just like that?
Shu Wan felt a little sad about the death of Chi Yan Emperor. To her, Chi Yan Emperor deserved to die. What she regretted was the loss of a life. A person who was still alive yesterday received news of his death today. This feeling was a little hard to describe.
But what surprised her the most was that after hearing the news of Emperor Chi Yan's death, Yu Wenyan's face did not show much sadness. He pursed his lips and entered the palace without saying a word.
When Shu Wan and the others arrived, the hall was already filled with crying.
The queen's eyes were a little red, but she didn't cry in the end.
After seeing Shu Wan, she avoided his gaze.
Seeing this, Shu Wan almost understood.
"What did your Majesty eat today? Who did he come into contact with?" Yu Wenyan asked first. Seeing the poisoning was so blatant, he couldn't help but suspect the Queen and her son.
"The food for breakfast has been tested by the imperial physician and found to be non-toxic. When the meal was served, the eunuchs accompanying Your Majesty tested it one by one with silver needles and found to be non-toxic. So the problem is not with the diet!" The queen answered him patiently.
"Then arrest all the people who have come into contact with my father today and interrogate them one by one. We will eventually catch the real culprit! No one can be let go!" Yu Wenyan's eyes turned cold. Now that Emperor Chi Yan is dead, his plan has been completely disrupted.
"What does Prince Li mean by this?" the Queen asked coldly, "Are you going to arrest me as well?"
"Empress, you were by his side before my father passed away today, so we cannot completely rule out your suspicion!" Yuwen Yan put on a respectful look, "I am doing this for the sake of your reputation. Your Majesty has a clear conscience and is naturally not afraid of investigation!" Anyway, Emperor Chi Yan is dead and the prince has not been deposed yet, so if he wants to ascend the throne, there will inevitably be a lot of fighting. If he takes the initiative to attack now and can take the opportunity to accuse the queen of this crime, it will save him a lot of trouble later.
"What do you mean?" The queen was furious. "Are you suspecting that I was the one who poisoned the late emperor? Yuwen Yan, you are so brave!" Although she did nothing wrong in this matter, how could she admit it? If she showed even a little bit of cowardice, what awaited her would be an abyss of no return!
"I didn't say that. I just wanted to investigate the matter thoroughly, but the Queen has repeatedly stopped me. Why did the Queen do this?" He didn't even want to pretend to be polite anymore.
"If you keep slandering me, I can directly order you to be buried with the late emperor!" The biggest threat to the Queen now is Yuwen Yan. As long as Yuwen Yan is eliminated, they and their son will rest assured.
"Empress!" Shu Wan interrupted at the right time, "The late emperor was poisoned to death, this matter must be thoroughly investigated, but the most important thing now is that the country cannot be without a ruler for a day, now we have to let the prince ascend the throne to appease the hearts of court officials and people of the world!" Now that the prince has not been deposed, she wants to see how Yuwen Yan will jump around.
"Princess Shuyin is right. Now only the crown prince can inherit the throne and appease the people's hearts and thoroughly investigate the poisoning of the late emperor!" The queen nodded, indicating that Shu Wan was right.
"This is a matter of our Chiyan Kingdom, Princess Shuyin doesn't have to worry!" Yuwen Yan said with a sinister face, "How can an outsider interfere in the state affairs of our Chiyan Kingdom?" The Queen and Shu Wan are in cahoots, how could he let these two people agree to decide this matter.
"The prince is the heir apparent appointed by the late emperor, and it is popular expectation that he inherits the throne!" Shu Wan didn't care. "Could it be that Prince Li has any other opinions? Or does Prince Li think that the decision made by the late emperor is inappropriate?" The prince is now legitimate, and Yuwen Yan can only argue with reason.
"Why did Prince Li repeatedly prevent the Crown Prince from ascending the throne? Does Prince Li want to rebel?" The Queen took the opportunity to provoke Yuwen Yan, hoping that he would say something outrageous. In this way, she could deal with him with justification.
"Heh." Yuwen Yan was not angered. "Why should I stop the prince from ascending the throne? Because my father has never thought of letting him inherit the throne!" There was no need for him to hide it anymore.
"How dare you!" Upon hearing this, the queen was furious, with some panic in her eyes. "The late emperor never deposed the crown prince, so how can he not want the crown prince to ascend the throne? It is obvious that what you said is nonsense! You are so lawless and you are committing treason. If you are not punished today, I am afraid that the late emperor will not be able to rest in peace in his nine springs! Come, take down the traitor Prince Li!" The queen now only wanted to capture Yuwen Yan and kill him to prevent future troubles.
"Who dares to act rashly?" Yuwen Yan roared, "I have the last emperor's will in my hand. Who dares to act rashly? Come on!"
After Yuwen Yan revealed that he had the imperial edict in his hand, everyone from the empress and civil and military officials to the palace maids and eunuchs were shocked.
Will?
How come they haven't heard of it before?
"Hmph!" The Queen reacted quickly, "What will? You must have forged it!"
"Why is the Queen feeling guilty?" Yuwen Yan was confident of victory. What if he was the Crown Prince? As long as he had a will in his hand, all these vast lands would be his.
"In my opinion, you are the one who should feel guilty!" The Queen did not back down. "I want to see what tricks you can play!"
Soon, Yuwen Yan sent someone to fetch the so-called last will of the late emperor from the plaque above the door of the imperial study.
It was indeed written by Emperor Chi Yan himself, and the jade seal was used as evidence. This will was most likely true.
The above content is also very simple.
The prince has a gentle personality, but he is also cowardly. Although he is kind-hearted, he attaches great importance to personal relationships. He is afraid that he cannot handle the heavy responsibility, so he is made King of Qin and King Li is allowed to inherit the throne.
When the will was released, everyone was shocked.
"Impossible!" The Queen was particularly excited and was the first to refute, "This is not true, this must be the will that you tampered with privately!"
"It's clearly written in black and white, why would the Queen have any doubts? This was written by our father himself and sealed with the imperial seal!" Yuwen Yan said sarcastically.
"Your Highness Prince Li may have forgotten what happened yesterday!" Shu Wan said with a smile, "If you are willing, how difficult is it to forge a will?" Yesterday's events were still vivid in Yu Wenyan's mind, so how could he not know what Shu Wan meant! "Why would I forge a will?" Yu Wenyan retorted, "Besides, my father's will can be placed behind the plaque in the imperial study, and I only know the contents today?" He said with reason and evidence.
"Then may I ask Your Highness Prince Li, how did the late emperor know that he was going to be poisoned and die when he was in good health? How did he know that he was going to be poisoned and die? And then he left such a sloppy will in such an emergency?" Shu Wan asked slowly, "Could it be that the late emperor had the ability to predict the future? Otherwise, this doesn't make sense. If he really had the ability to predict the future, why didn't he avoid this disaster? If he didn't know that he was doomed, even if he wanted to depose the crown prince, he should have announced it in front of all the civil and military officials to stop the people from talking, instead of leaving such a will that would affect the relationship between you two brothers, and at the same time put you, Prince Li, in the spotlight, making people wonder if you did something treasonous?"
"This...how could I know what my father meant?" Yu Wenyan was choked and had to quickly excuse himself by saying he didn't know.
"Besides, someone framed the prince's bloodline yesterday, and the real culprit has not been found yet. Today, the late emperor died of mysterious poisoning. Prince Li also happened to know that the late emperor left such a will. All of this cannot be explained away by the word coincidence!" Shu Wan's logic is very strong and his sentences are clear and transparent, leaving Yuwen Yan unable to find any words to refute.
"Princess Shuyin, what does this mean?" Yu Wenyan was a little confused by Shu Wan. The more he spoke, the more mistakes he made, so he decided to jump out of this circle and ask Shu Wan directly.
"You'll have to ask His Royal Highness Prince Li about this." Shu Wan said with a fake smile, "It would be fine if someone else brought this will out today, but it happened to be in His Royal Highness Prince Li's hands. All of this makes people suspect that His Royal Highness Prince Li has ulterior motives. Speaking of the death of the previous emperor by poisoning, Prince Li said that the Queen is a suspect, but in my opinion, it is obviously Prince Li who has a harder time proving your innocence."
"Nonsense!" Yu Wenyan looked at Shu Wan angrily, "Princess Shuyin is really sharp-tongued!"
"Thank you for the compliment, Prince Li!" Shu Wan pretended not to hear his sarcasm, but instead took it as a compliment. "However, Prince Li, you should first find a way to prove that it was not you who designed to frame the Queen and the Prince, but failed, and was discovered by the late Emperor. So you became angry and poisoned the late Emperor to death, and then forged this edict to seize power and usurp the throne!" Every word Shu Wan said was heart-wrenching.
"Don't go too far, or I'll punish you for slander!" Yu Wenyan was also somewhat impressed by Shu Wan's logic.
But one thing has to be admitted.
Shu Wan was really right. What happened yesterday was indeed planned by him, and this will was indeed forged by him.
He did indeed poison the Red Flame Emperor! But the poison that caused the Red Flame Emperor to suddenly die was not given by him.
He used a chronic poison! Over time, the Red Flame Emperor would look extremely healthy, but all his internal organs would be damaged.
In fact, Yuwen Yan has always known how his mother died!
He saw it with his own eyes!
His mother, Concubine Mei, was an ordinary woman among the common people. Emperor Chi Yan once secretly left the palace for a private visit and met his mother by chance. He fell deeply in love with her and brought her back to the palace to make her his concubine.
Later, Concubine Mei was framed and accused of being a spy from another country, lurking beside Emperor Chi Yan in order to obtain intelligence, and to find an opportunity to poison Emperor Chi Yan. The suspicious Emperor Chi Yan killed Concubine Mei after he thought he had a lot of evidence.
At that time, Yuwen Yan had just turned eight.
He was hiding in the dark at the time and saw everything.
From then on, he became well-behaved and tried his best to please Emperor Chi Yan, so that he could avenge Concubine Mei one day.
Later, Emperor Chi Yan realized that he had wronged Concubine Mei and felt extremely guilty. He took that guilt out on Yuwen Yan and doted on him.
Moreover, he also considered passing the throne to Yuwen Yan.
Unfortunately, Yuwen Yan, who saw him kill his own mother with his own eyes, was not moved at all. He was full of hatred for him, and took advantage of his favor and guilt little by little to kill him.
"Why is Prince Li so angry and humiliated?" At this time, the queen looked at him proudly, "Princess Shuyin only said that Prince Li is a suspect. Prince Li does not need to be so anxious. Unless, Prince Li was caught in the act by Princess Shuyin, so he was angry and wanted to kill people to silence them? Does Prince Li treat me and the civil and military officials as if they don't exist?" Her eyes were wide open, as if Yuwen Yan had been convicted.
"So, the Queen is going to disobey the late Emperor's will and force the Prince of Qin to the throne?" No matter what happens today, he must ascend the throne.
"Oh, where did you get the will?" The Queen seemed to have heard a huge joke. "A will that can be forged at any time and anywhere, you told me that it was left by the late emperor? This is too ridiculous. The crown prince's position as the heir to the throne is known to everyone in the world. The crown prince's succession is what the people want and what everyone expects. What qualifications do you have to question it!"
"The late emperor left behind a written edict in black and white, but the queen actually lied with her eyes open. In my opinion, you are the traitors who are plotting to usurp the throne!" Yuwen Yan raised his voice to refute.
…
Yuwen Yan and the Queen did not come to any conclusion in the end.
The ministers in the court were also arguing fiercely. Those who supported Yuwen Yan felt that since the late emperor had left a will, they should obey the order and let Prince Li inherit the throne, and find a rich fiefdom for the prince to garrison.
Those who support the prince feel that the edict in Prince Li's hand came from an odd place, and since the previous emperor died of poisoning, the so-called edict is not credible at all.
After all the arguing, no one came to any conclusion. Instead, these court officials who usually looked gentle and polite became red-faced and angry, and they were about to roll up their sleeves and fight.
In the end, we had no choice but to put the matter aside for the time being.
It remains to be discussed whether the Crown Prince or Prince Li will inherit the throne.
The queen invited Shu Wan to walk with her, and Shu Wan agreed.
"Shu Wan, no matter what, I still have to thank you!" The queen did not hide anything, "If you hadn't told me, I would still be kept in the dark until today!" The smile on the queen's face was a little sad, which was the emotion that only comes after being deceived and hurt by the one you love.
"You're welcome. I told you, I'm not just doing this for you!" Shu Wan smiled, "Except for Yuwen Yan, I don't care who becomes the emperor."
(End of this chapter)
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