Chapter 320 You Killed Him
Just when Gao Lian was being executed by Zhao Du'an in the painting.
Outside the Ministry of Justice prison, a carriage escorted by imperial guards on horseback holding torches drove out of the palace and stopped outside the eerie building.
Mo Chou lifted the curtain of the carriage, stepped down, and without any hesitation, led a group of people behind her into the prison.
"Miss Mo?!" Several officials who had been urgently assigned to the prison to oversee affairs due to Wang Chusheng's sudden death were shocked and came out to greet him. "Why did you come here? Does His Majesty have any instructions?"
Mo Chou was too lazy to pay attention to them. The female official had a murderous look on her face and said in a cold voice, "I want to interrogate Gao Lian."
"This..." The assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice present was stunned.
"Interrogate him alone. Take me to his cell and no outsiders are allowed to approach." Mo Chou ignored the other party's reaction and continued.
The Minister of Justice immediately said, "Please, I will personally take the young lady there. Don't worry, she is under good care."
Mo Chou glanced at him and said, "I said, no outsiders are allowed to get close."
The expression of the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice froze, but Mo Chou ignored this important figure and directly asked the jailer to lead the way, and then led a group of imperial guards to rush into the prison.
"Your Excellency, Minister, is Mo Zhaorong going to..." A person in charge nearby was nervous and uneasy. A witness had died tonight, and they were afraid that His Majesty would punish them.
"Don't worry, don't ask! Just do your job!" The Minister of Justice scolded, staring at the latter: "If you don't want to die."
Beads of sweat instantly broke out on the forehead of the head of the Ministry of Justice.
The former waved his hand to drive away the officials who had gathered, turned his head and took a deep look at the prison, his expression solemn, and he let out a deep breath.
Outsiders don't know, but he knows clearly that after the Xuanmen coup, the empress cleaned out the rebels in the palace, and this unknown female official was involved in many deaths.
…
"Mo Zhaorong, the person is in front, being held in solitary confinement." Inside the prison, the jailer smiled flatteringly and led a group of people through the corridor.
Pointing to a cell door in front, he said, "This is it."
Then, he opened his voice and shouted: "Offending the official Gao Lian? Why don't you quickly welcome the Heavenly Official!"
Silence.
Mo Chou felt uneasy and walked over quickly. The imperial guards behind her pushed the jailer to the side and gathered at the door, illuminated by torches.
In the cell, Gao Lian was sitting cross-legged with his back to everyone like a monk, his head lowered, motionless.
“Something’s wrong!”
Mo Chou's eyes narrowed: "Open the door!"
Next to him, a guard drew his sword and cut the cell chain, stepped in, and pushed with the back of his sword.
As soon as he was touched, Gao Lian's body fell limp to the ground. His expression was serene and he died very peacefully, with no signs of injury.
"Dead!" The imperial guard sniffed his breath and said in horror.
Mo Chou was stunned, a look of surprise appeared on her cold face.
"There are words on the ground!"
As torches filled the cell, Mo Chou looked in the direction of the sound and saw a short confession written in blood on the ground in front of the corpse.
Mo Chou stared at the scene in a daze, her expression becoming extremely strange.
Is it okay if she's already dead before she even starts? Who got there first?
"Leave half of the men to seal off the scene, and the rest follow me out!" Mo Chou suddenly gave the order, turned around and hurried out.
…
…
"That's fine. You don't have to send me home. Just leave me here."
Two blocks away from the Ministry of Justice, on a quiet street.
Jin Jian pulled Zhao Duan and gently floated to the ground in an "invisible" state.
"Oh." The young priestess was an obedient person who preferred to be lazy. She was very happy to hear that she didn't have to take the trouble to send people back.
"Don't you want to send me back?" Zhao Duan saw her excitement and asked softly.
"Yeah!" Jin Jian nodded vigorously. The girl was very frank and honest, and said confidently, "It's tiring to lead a group of people."
As he spoke, he let out a long breath, pretending to be tired, to make his point more convincing.
Then she stared at him with her big, expectant eyes, blinking - thanks to the crystal glasses, she evolved from Jin Jian with "dull eyes" to Jin Jian with "speaking eyes".
For example, at this moment, there seemed to be two big words written in my eyes:
Bill, please!
"..." Zhao Duan sighed, took out a silver note from his sleeve and stuffed it over to the latter. The latter then smiled, lowered his head happily, and carefully put the silver note into his purse.
"I tell you, this money is not given for free. You have to learn to forget what happened tonight and not tell anyone, okay?" Zhao Duan warned.
Jin Jian put away the banknotes and looked up blankly: "What happened tonight?"
"...Very good, let's go back."
"oh."
Jin Jian turned into a bunch of starlight and disappeared.
Zhao Duan was the only one left on the deserted street. He shook his head. After cooperating with Jin Jian so many times, he could say that he was very happy and relieved.
Although this girl looks confused, she is actually very smart and a reliable teammate.
"call……"
Exhaling, Zhao Duan walked on the quiet and deserted street, turned his head and looked back in the direction of the Ministry of Justice Prison, recalling the scene of Gao Lian's death in his mind.
"Does this count as putting my knowledge into practice?" He used complaints to ease the heaviness after killing someone, and walked towards the imperial yamen in front.
He planned to stay overnight at the yamen on the pretext of gathering information, but just after walking out for a quarter of an hour and reaching a crossroads, he suddenly stopped.
At the crossroads under the moonlight, there was a familiar carriage with the emblem of the imperial palace parked.
Next to the car were several guards holding torches, who seemed to be waiting for him.
The car curtain was lifted, and with the excellent night vision of the Divine Chapter Realm, he clearly saw the face of Big Ice Tuozi that said "It's you after all".
Inside the car.
When the thick curtains were lowered, Zhao Duan clearly heard the imperial guards and even the coachman near the carriage all tacitly move away, leaving a sufficient distance and guarding the surrounding intersections.
He looked across and saw Mo Chou lighting a small lamp inside the car and putting away the flint.
The orange-yellow halo spread out, illuminating the faces of the two people.
"Why are you here?"
The two of them said this in unison.
Then they looked at each other and fell silent.
Zhao Duan chuckled and made a gesture of invitation, ladies first.
Mo Chou looked at him coldly and said, "Don't tell me that I heard the news of Wang Chusheng's death and went to the imperial court to check on the situation."
Zhao Duan was horrified: "Zhao Rong is extremely intelligent. I admire her immensely."
Mo Chou sneered, as if to say, "Do you think I'm stupid?" "You only rely on your two legs to get to the government office?"
Energy conservation and emission reduction are not good, right? Does riding a horse not consume fodder? Zhao Duan was not convinced and retorted: "Miss Mo left the palace so late, instead of going to the Ministry of Justice to check on the situation, she stopped me. Are you going to take me to the palace to sleep with you?"
Mr. Zhao accurately grasps the weaknesses of different people and is used to taking advantage of them. For example, he would use dirty jokes to make the princess retreat step by step.
The mention of the Empress at this moment immediately broke Mo Chou's composure. She frowned and said, "I just came from the Ministry of Justice's prison. Gao Lian is dead. You must have killed him, right?"
Zhao Duan remained silent.
She actually agreed... Mo Chou was stunned. Even though she had guessed it, she couldn't help but widen her eyes at this moment: "How dare you?!"
How dare you?!
Zhao Duan smiled and said, "As a minister, isn't it my duty to share His Majesty's worries? A wise minister should get things done without His Majesty even asking."
He said with a hint of sarcasm: "Mo Zhaorong left the palace at night, isn't it to kill people and silence them?"
Mo Chou was stunned for a moment, anger rising on her face: "What nonsense are you talking about? How could I?"
"No?" Zhao Duan sneered. "If that's not the case, then it's strange. How did you happen to see Gao Lian die right after? What a coincidence. Besides, your acting is a bit poor. When people's true feelings are exposed, they often use anger to cover it up. Your expression has already revealed it."
Mo Chou, whose thoughts had been successfully tricked, took a deep breath. Knowing that she had never gotten the upper hand in their many previous encounters, she chose not to argue with him. Instead, she said with a stern face, "How could you..."
"How would I know? Or, why would I think so?"
Zhao Duan sighed softly, leaned back on the soft cushions in the carriage, and said softly:
"Because Your Majesty needs Gao Lian to die, wasn't that obvious from the beginning?
When Chen Hong and I were traveling, I once heard him say that throughout the dynasties, whenever an imperial envoy was sent out to investigate a case, his primary task was not to investigate the case, but to first understand the emperor's thoughts.
For example, during the time of the previous emperor, there was a case of cheating in the imperial examinations. The previous emperor sent four waves of imperial envoys to investigate the case, which took over a year. Why? It wasn't because the investigation was difficult, but because the previous emperor was not satisfied with the conclusions of the first three waves of people...
Haha, I've strayed off topic. Anyway, when Censor Chen told me this, I understood he was hinting that Your Majesty needed a major case to serve as a warning to others, as the saying goes, "One strike is enough to prevent a hundred blows..."
The most difficult issue in implementing the new policies was the interests of the families represented by the Jiangnan gentry, and Gao Lian, as expected, became the target of this game."
He said helplessly, "So, when I arrived at Taicang Prefecture, I mobilized troops with great fanfare and pretended to conduct a thorough investigation. I don't know whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that Gao Lian was the backer behind the scenes. If he wasn't, it would be my turn to worry about who to blame for this serious crime.
If it were the late emperor, he would probably bring him back to the capital and either convict him directly or pretend that nothing happened, but the situation Your Majesty faces is more complicated.
Your Majesty needs to be a magnanimous and wise ruler to win the hearts of the people and defeat the accusation of the rebels that you have gained power through unfair means. Therefore, she cannot act arbitrarily and can only go through a joint trial by the three courts."
Zhao Duan's face was expressionless: "But obviously, some people don't want Your Majesty to be a wise ruler."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
