Chapter 261 The Other Dark Hand That Runs Through the Entire Journey
Previously, the boxes that Song Zhen sent contained not only the corpses of officials who had died unjustly at the hands of Li Jing and whose bodies had not yet been found, but also the bodies of those who had died without ever being seen.
There's also the remains of Li Mu, whose body was previously reported to be missing.
And in order to orchestrate this entire grand scheme, he bribed and accepted bribes, bribing a list of officials.
Among them is irrefutable evidence that Song Zhen, through Yang An, the magistrate of Linyang County, went through a long and roundabout route to bribe the Grand Tutor's mansion.
The person who took the money was Su Wanying.
He sat in Li Jin's courtyard, looking at the two cats and a dog around the charcoal brazier with a slight surprise.
"I originally thought His Highness Prince Jing was..." He frowned, unsure of what words to use to describe this contrast.
But Li Jin skipped his question and placed the case file related to Su Wanying, which he had already prepared, on the rosewood table. He casually opened a page: "Su Wanying framed the former crown prince for treason, poisoned the concubines in the harem, obstructed the Six Doors from handling the case, and harbored a murderer."
After he finished speaking, he raised his eyebrows and looked at Song Zhen.
“Not only that,” Song Zhen said. “Do you remember the case of Chen Wen’s second son?”
Song Zhen picked up his teacup and cleared his throat: "The youngest daughter of the Chen family and her live-in husband, one is an uneducated good-for-nothing and the other is a gambling addict..." He paused, "Although they are unruly, they are far from being capable of murder and dismemberment."
Inside the room, the charcoal fire warmed the room. Song Zhen spoke slowly and deliberately: "I set up this whole game without personally intervening in any of the cases, and He Lin did the same."
"All the cases presented to the Prince were the culmination of years of planning, waiting for the right moment," he said. "The ones that actually happened were mostly forced upon us by the Crown Prince, or perhaps..."
He smiled slightly: "Or perhaps it's Su Wanying's personal instruction."
Li Jin narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Song Zhen, who did not seem to be joking.
"teaching?"
“Teaching.” Song Zhen nodded. “It was inevitable that something would happen to the Chen family.”
He looked at Li Jin and paused: "Your Highness Prince Jing should know the fundamental reason why Su Wanying was able to be used by the Crown Prince."
"In order to become Princess Jing, she was willing to give up everything, including her humanity."
Once she realized that the path through Li Jin was blocked, Su Wanying became obsessed with becoming the Princess Consort of Jing.
Li Jing and his mother, Consort Shu, saw her urgent desire and used it as bait to push her into an abyss of no return.
“There is only one situation in which becoming Princess Jing does not require His Highness Jing’s consent,” Song Zhen said, “that is, when it is a marriage decree.”
“If Li Mu were to ascend the throne, given the deep bond between you brothers, he would certainly not force a woman that a prince does not like onto you.”
But if Li Jing were to ascend the throne, everything would be different.
After receiving Consort Shu's verbal consent, Su Wanying became one of the Crown Prince's most loyal lackeys.
“As long as Li Jing tells her that this person will be detrimental to Prince Jing in the future, Su Wanying will not even care whether it is true or false. She will try every means to get rid of this person.”
I won't think about whether it's true or false, and I'll never have the chance to think about it again.
From the moment she boarded Li Jing and Consort Shu's pirate ship, she had no choice and no room to retreat.
“Chen Wen, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, is the best example,” Song Zhen said. “The Crown Prince used Chen Wen on the one hand, and on the other hand, he instilled in Su Wanying the idea that Chen Wen was the vanguard against Prince Jing.”
"He made Su Wanying increasingly anxious, to the point that she wished she could wipe out the entire Chen Wen family."
Sunlight streamed through the clouds, through the carved window, and fell on the booklet in Li Jin's hand.
He frowned, looking at the confirmed charges against Su Wanying in the booklet. After a long while, he asked indifferently, "Song Zhen, what role did you play in all of this?"
Song Zhen smiled elegantly: "I only pushed Su Wanying once."
“Tell her that the Chen family’s daughter has no money, but is extremely greedy.” He spoke slowly and deliberately, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him. “I told Su Wanying a story about buying low and selling high.”
In the story, besides the genuine businessmen, there is also a cunning and unscrupulous merchant.
"In the end, those who worked hard to make money ended up with nothing, while unscrupulous merchants made a fortune through deception."
Just as Song Zhen had predicted, Su Wanying told this story to the youngest daughter of the Chen family at a gathering of young ladies from prominent families.
The youngest daughter of the Chen family, who was lazy and loved to eat but dreamed of getting rich quick, took this story to heart and planted a seed of evil within her.
"After that, the Chen family's son-in-law lost terribly in my chess house. I took the opportunity to sell him some unsold bamboo mats and medicinal herbs, emphasizing that they were very cheap."
Song Zhen smiled faintly: "Then the seed sprouted."
After the snow melted outside, water dripped onto the stone steps.
Looking at Song Zhen's face, Li Jin frowned, not quite believing it.
As if sensing his skepticism, Song Zhen sighed, "The world is bustling with activity, all for profit. Not everyone has the same unwavering conviction as Your Highness. How many people have you seen over the years whose hearts have been blinded by money and whose souls have been distorted?"
He nodded and chuckled: "But then again, it was Su Wanying who truly taught them how to kill and dismember."
"Su Wanying went to great lengths to give the prince a case that would make him famous throughout the land." Song Zhen raised an eyebrow and said, "After she cheated at the chess club and made the Chen family's live-in son-in-law lose so much money that he was burdened with high-interest loans, she questioned him about why he didn't seize all of the Chen family's assets and gamble to his heart's content."
That day, Song Zhen leaned against the door and heard everything clearly.
After disguising herself, Su Wanying revealed her true colors and viciously threatened the Chen family's son-in-law.
She mocked Huang Liangping again and again, saying that he was so incompetent that he couldn't even get back his share of the business.
"If it were me, I would lure them to the Yanqing Gate late at night, stab them to death with a bunch of knives, cut off their heads and throw them into the ditch. Who could possibly find out who I am then!"
To Huang Liangping, who had lost all his wealth and dared not utter a word, these words were a beacon of hope for sudden riches.
“Besides, Su Wanying was also behind the child who died at the Imperial College, only her methods were more violent,” Song Zhen said. “That child had a hobby of collecting cups, so she deliberately placed a few cups that he shouldn’t have taken out.”
"After putting it in, the Grand Tutor will then incite the villain's jealousy and get rid of that so-called villainous father who is supposedly hindering His Highness Prince Jing."
The more Song Zhen spoke, the more chills ran down Li Jin's spine.
"She was kept in the dark from beginning to end by Li Jingyong's pretext of helping Prince Jing."
At this point, Song Zhen sighed, "Even the poisoning of Consort Xiao was because of a single sentence from Consort Shu."
He glared at Li Jin's ashen face: "Consort Shu said that if the Noble Consort hadn't died, she wouldn't have been able to overstep her bounds and betroth Su Wanying to Prince Jing. All her previous efforts would have been in vain."
The charcoal fire crackled as Song Zhen stirred the tea leaves that had been turned upside down in her teacup: "I tried to stop her."
But at that time, Su Wanying was blinded by the seemingly imminent victory.
He wouldn't listen to anything I said.
After a long silence, Li Jin glanced at Song Zhen's face and nodded, saying, "I understand."
He lowered his eyes and picked up the purse beside him: "Then I will do as you wish."
Li Jin said, "Lian Shui's assassinations are becoming increasingly rampant. If this drags on any longer, everyone's lives will be in danger."
But Song Zhen smiled faintly: "Not only Lian Shui, but also Su Wanying."
Li Jin was taken aback.
"The Shengde Pharmacy in the capital sold three catties of Gelsemium elegans the day before yesterday. The shopkeeper recognized the person who bought the medicine as Su Wanying."
He said, "A great disaster is bound to occur at the New Year's Eve palace banquet."
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