"Shut up! You are not allowed to speak such foul language in front of the Queen Mother!" The nanny shouted, and then someone covered Wu Yan's mouth.
The nanny looked at the others and asked, "Did you know that Lin Jinghan was captured by the bandit Wu Yan?"
Everyone was silent for a while, no one dared to say anything.
"Just tell the Queen Mother what you know truthfully, and she will reward you," the nanny tempted.
People are always greedy. Knowing that they would not be punished for speaking out and that there would be rewards, the "eyewitness" was the first to stand up and said with a solemn oath:
"That day, bandits entered the city and kidnapped this girl. I saw it with my own eyes."
Immediately, the people around him echoed his words, and some even described the situation of that day in detail. Of course, they deliberately concealed the fact that they did not help the man.
Lin Jinghan sneered inwardly—when the bandits had kidnapped people, none of them had uttered a single murmur. Now, for the Queen Mother's reward, they were all vying for the top spot, racking their brains to perform well, fearing that their reward would be less than others. Their courage had been completely used to attack weak women when they were down. They were timid when they encountered evil people, truly bullying the good and fearing the evil.
Several neighbors also took the initiative, exaggerating what they knew and suspected. What's more, seeing that the Queen Mother and the Nanny were happy about this, some even boldly spread Lin Jinghan's past in an extremely unpleasant way! They threw every dirty water they could on Lin Jinghan - calling her a vixen, a seducer, and a slut, and the more they said, the more disgusting it became!
"That's enough!" Mammy shouted, unwilling to listen to those dirty things anymore. She looked at Lin Jinghan with disdain, "Lin Jinghan, do you have anything else to say?"
Lin Jinghan cleaned her ears to prevent the dirty words she had just heard from her. She slowly straightened her clothes and spoke slowly:
"Uncle Li, Aunt Li, and Grandma Wang, we've been neighbors for years. You should know Jinghan best. Similarly, Jinghan believes she knows a thing or two about you. I don't know when your hearts became so filthy. How could you fabricate such filthy stories so vividly? Could it be that you've done these things before?"
"Bah! It's obviously you, shameless person. Not only did you seduce the third son of landlord Wang, you also seduced the bandits, bringing shame to our village." Among all the dirty words, Aunt Li spoke the most. When she heard Lin Jinghan ridiculing them in return, the wildness of the rural women was aroused. She put her hands on her hips and started to curse, completely disregarding the occasion.
"This princess is upright and honest. I have never done the things you mentioned. As for the bandit Wu Yan, I made it very clear at the beginning. Although I was captured by Wu Yan, I was rescued by the official. I have nothing to do with Wu Yan." Lin Jinghan paused and glanced at these so-called witnesses. They were sacred and inviolable.
"This princess married the Prince of Jingnan with a virginity, and has never done anything to disgrace the Prince of Jingnan's mansion! How can I allow you to slander me!"
What? This girl is the princess? The neighbors were terrified. Slandering the princess? Will they be beheaded? Aunt Li was the first to faint from fright, and the others followed suit.
At this point, these witnesses were no longer useful. The Queen Mother waved her hand, signaling for them to be taken away. Now that she had a hold on a woman's most cherished reputation, it was time to threaten Lin Jinghan into doing her bidding and poisoning Prince Jingnan!
"Lin Jinghan, you are my first wife. Prince Jingnan is wearing my old shoes. I cheated on the prince. Hahaha!" Wu Yan suddenly spat out the thing stuffing his mouth and laughed like a madman. The eunuch was shocked and quickly blocked his mouth again and dragged him out.
"Wait!" Lin Jinghan suddenly spoke up, pointing at the group of "witnesses." "These people are accusing me, the princess. They can't leave here until this matter is explained clearly! They must give me an explanation!"
If they were allowed to leave like this, then these things would be hard to explain. By then, who knows how bad things would be spread about her past. Once the rumors spread, Sikong Zhan would be unable to suppress them!
"Princess Jingnan, you have done something that has damaged the reputation of the royal family, and you still dare to ask for an explanation!" the nanny scolded.
"What are you saying, Ma'am? I am innocent and have never brought shame to the royal family." Lin Jinghan did not give in.
"The evidence is irrefutable, you have no right to quibble!" Nanny continued to put pressure on him.
"Heh—you're referring to them as the ironclad evidence?" Lin Jinghan casually pointed at the witnesses and taunted, "I'm a royal princess, and a few commoners and a bandit fabricated slanderous accusations and thought they were going to convict me? You're really taking this too far!"
"Take him away." The Queen Mother achieved her goal and didn't give Lin Jinghan a chance to defend herself. Lin Jinghan knew that it was useless to try to persuade him. Besides, it was unknown when Sikong Zhan, who could help him, would arrive. So she did not try to stop the eunuch from taking the man away.
There were no more outsiders in the Cining Palace, and the Queen Mother's majesty was even greater. "Princess Jingnan, you are the princess who insulted the reputation of our royal family. Do you know what will happen to you?"
"I don't know." Lin Jinghan frowned.
"Divorced, completely removed from the royal family, and killed with a three-foot white silk or a cup of poisoned wine." said the nanny.
"I didn't do those things. The prince will believe me." Lin Jinghan looked unwilling to give up.
"Even if Prince Jingnan believes you, it won't change your fate, because the world won't believe you," the Queen Mother said. "Your prince can't save you. Now, only I can save you. As long as you are willing to cooperate with me, no one will know what happened today."
Lin Jinghan seemed persuaded and asked tentatively, "How does the Queen Mother need Jinghan to cooperate?"
The nanny stepped forward and handed a bottle of medicine to Lin Jinghan.
Seeing Lin Jinghan took the medicine bottle, the Queen Mother said with satisfaction:
"Princess Jingnan, as long as you give this poison to Prince Jingnan, I promise that no one else will know about what happened today, and those people will never speak again. If you want to avenge your mother, you can also let Wu Yan deal with it yourself. After that, I promise you a bright future."
Did the Queen Mother think she was easy to fool? If poisoning the Prince of Jingnan was so easy, they would have done it themselves. Why bother threatening her to do it? Besides, she was the Princess of Jingnan! If the Prince of Jingnan died, she would be buried with him. Would she have to ask the King of Hell for her future?
"But, the rules of Prince Jingnan's Mansion..." Lin Jinghan bit her lip, very worried.
The Queen Mother guessed Lin Jinghan's concerns and said, "Don't worry, before Prince Jingnan dies, I will make the decision to allow you to divorce peacefully. I won't let you be buried with him."
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