Chapter 269 The Buried Sins
Snowflakes were falling outside the hall, and the sounds of swords clashing could be faintly heard inside the Taiji Hall.
The Crown Prince stared coldly at Li Jin's face. After a long while, he took two steps back expressionlessly and sat back down at his desk.
This scene was witnessed by both Su Wanying and Consort Shu.
Li Yi, sitting on the dragon throne, rubbed his hands together, raised an eyebrow, and glanced at his two princes: "Have you finished the appetizers?"
He chuckled, turned his head to look at Consort Shu, who was standing there dumbfounded: "My dear consort, do you have anything to argue?"
Li Yi's words carried a hidden meaning: "If not, I will interrogate the eldest daughter of the Su family right now."
Consort Shu paused for a moment.
The crown prince was startled.
Whether he hands her over to the Ministry of Justice or the Court of Judicial Review, as long as Su Wanying can leave this palace, he can silence her forever on the way.
But if we were to proceed with the trial now...
The Crown Prince looked at Li Jin with a cold gaze: "What, Prince Jing is no longer asking for people on behalf of the Dali Temple?"
"Why should I meddle in the affairs of the Dali Temple?" he said, taking a sip of his drink, his words carrying a hidden meaning. "But His Highness the Crown Prince didn't even bring up the ancestral rules of New Year's Eve to exonerate her."
The prince's face turned pale and then flushed.
He knew that Li Jin was saying this to Su Wanying.
"Oh, so Your Highness is afraid of hiding something here." Li Jin smiled faintly, directly cutting off the Crown Prince's escape route.
At this moment, Crown Prince Li Jing is not unwilling to withdraw, nor is he unwilling to end the dangerous situation before him.
But he himself was like an ant on a hot pan, unable to take care of himself.
The order to kill Su Wanying was indeed given by him, and the person who carried it out was indeed his man.
Compared to the falling out between Su Wanying and Consort Shu in the palace, it would be much more troublesome if Lian Shui outside the palace were arrested.
Everyone in the court knew that Lian Shui was a genius martial artist who had grown up with him since childhood, and also the first suicide soldier who had signed a life-or-death pledge.
If he is really arrested, then no matter how Li Jing tries to defend himself afterward, it will be futile.
In the current situation, he is already extremely passive, and with Li Jin's relentless suppression, he can barely breathe.
All the struggles inside the palace are now futile. He must find a way to free Lian Shui outside the palace; that is the only way out.
He glared at Li Jin's smiling face, gritting his teeth.
But Li Jin, unhurriedly, took out a black chess piece from his pocket and fiddled with it in his hand for a moment.
The crown prince immediately understood.
No wonder that today, he has inexplicably gathered all the unfavorable factors and is trapped in the palace in such a strange way, unable to move.
That strategist who used the world as his chessboard, and the top merchant in the capital, was indeed a two-faced spy.
He felt a lump in his throat, and his nostrils trembled slightly.
I was so careful, but I never expected that I would end up being the fish on the chopping board.
Seeing the two people who were about to clash fall silent, Li Yi snorted coldly and said indifferently, "Su family's eldest daughter, have you thought this through? Frame the royal family, and you'll only face death."
In the back-and-forth struggle between the Crown Prince and Li Jin, Su Wanying had long lost her previous madness.
Her once lofty self-esteem has been completely shattered.
The entire Su family sat silently to one side, not uttering a single word.
The Crown Prince, who had done so much for her, was actually plotting how to take her out of the palace and how to kill her to silence her.
Sitting on the high platform, Consort Shu, whom she treated like her own mother, would give her the best gifts during festivals and would come to chat with her every now and then.
They said she was a madwoman, a resentful woman, and wanted to push her out and beat her to death.
Even if Su Wanying is still obsessed with Li Jin, she can no longer keep her eyes closed in the current situation.
She knew she had been abandoned.
They knew that going outside meant certain death.
She stood there quietly, looking at Li Yi with a self-deprecating smile, and said with a bitter laugh: "Wanying knows that she has been abandoned. She is like a stranger standing on a cliff. Either way, she will die. There is no need to frame her."
Her words were filled with sorrow. Standing in the middle, she straightened her clothes and, trying her best to look presentable, knelt before Li Yi.
"I, Su Wanying, am willing to truthfully report what I have done. I do not ask for the Emperor's mercy, but only for death."
Looking at Su Wanying in front of him, the Crown Prince crushed the small wine cup in his hand with a snap.
His palms were covered in blood, which immediately stained his pure white outer shirt.
Xu Weiyou was shocked: "Your Majesty, His Highness the Crown Prince..."
Li Yi interrupted him, saying, "No rush, the imperial physician is waiting here."
He chuckled: "New Year's Eve, seeing red, it's festive."
These two sentences contain a great deal of information.
Not only did the Crown Prince turn pale, but Xu Weiyou also froze in place.
This is hardly a New Year's Eve palace banquet, nor is it a thank-you banquet for the families of officials.
This was clearly a surprise attack, a trap set in advance!
"Is Consort Shu feeling unwell anywhere?" Li Yi turned his head, his eyes slightly narrowed. "How about this, have a few imperial physicians wait beside you, just in case something goes wrong."
Upon hearing this, Consort Shu staggered two steps and fell back into her seat.
At this moment, Su Wanying, who was kneeling on the ground, had lost all desire to live.
She knelt there, looking at everything that was happening around her, and felt that all these years had truly been a joke.
Having stabilized the situation, Li Jin, who had already drunk two cups of wine, finally stood up and straightened his clothes.
He stepped forward, solemnly and directly asked, "Su Wanying, I ask you, where were you and what were you doing in June of the 203rd year of the Great Wei Dynasty?"
All the officials in the hall were taken aback.
At the end of June in 203 AD, the former Crown Prince Li Mu was accused of treason and his entire family was exiled to the frontier. On the way, they were attacked by a group of bandits and died without a burial place.
Su Wanying straightened up, looked up at Li Yi, whose face was ashen, and pursed her lips to answer: "In early June, this sinner gave false testimony at the imperial palace, telling His Majesty the lie that the late Crown Prince Li Mu intended to rebel."
These words caused an uproar in the hall.
The officials sitting in the back row straightened up and craned their necks to look over.
Li Jin lowered his eyes: "Why did you deceive the emperor? Don't you know that deceiving the emperor is a capital offense?"
Su Wanying smiled slightly, her eyes welling up with tears.
She trembled, choked with sobs, and looked at Li Jin standing beside her: "I am a sinful woman. In order to gain a position by Prince Jing's side, I was bewitched by Consort Shu and committed such a terrible mistake."
On the high platform, seeing herself being dragged into the water, Consort Shu raised her hand: "You!"
Before she could finish speaking, she saw Li Yi beside her, holding a long sword that was still sheathed, pressed against the center of her throat.
Li Yi didn't even glance at her, and said indifferently, "What's the rush? Listen carefully."
Looking at Consort Shu, who still wanted to pin all the blame on herself even now, Su Wanying's eyes were full of pity.
She not only pitied Consort Shu, who treated her son as a pawn and a tool to be cultivated.
She felt pity for herself, whom she criticized as utterly worthless, and who had no other choice but to be betrothed to Prince Jing if she wanted to become his consort.
"At that time, the woman was deeply in love with Prince Jing, but she had very little interaction with him," Su Wanying said. "At the palace banquet that year, Wanying, who was troubled by love, attracted the attention of Consort Shu."
"The Empress said that someone as ugly as me, who is as ugly as a blade of grass and lacks all manners of knowledge and manners, is simply dreaming if he wants to stand next to Prince Jing."
At this point, Su Wanying's tears fell like beads from a broken string: "She said that if I didn't help her get the Second Prince on the throne, I would never be favored by Consort Xiao in my entire life, and I wouldn't even have the qualification to be a concubine."
Su Wanying choked up, her eyes misty as she gazed in the direction of Consort Shu.
"Your Majesty, was I really so ugly back then?" She burst into tears, her face streaked with sobs. "Could I have been uglier than I am now?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
