"This is impossible!"

Xie Lanqing was the first to react. He stood up hastily and said, "How could I let my son be a killer? Your Majesty, please understand!"

"Hey," Pei Wenxuan smiled when he saw Xie Lanqing standing up, "Master Xie is in good health. Why are you standing up now?"

"You are joking, Prince Consort." Li Rong turned around and glanced at Pei Wenxuan. "Master Xie's injury was in his stomach, not his leg. How come he can't stand up? Master Xie, don't be impatient. Just listen to me slowly."

As Li Rong spoke, she lifted up the face of Lu Feibai with her fan and said to everyone, "Everyone, take a closer look. Are there any similarities between this young master and Mr. Xie?"

No one dared to speak. Li Ming looked around carefully and found that Xie Feibai's eyes were indeed the same as Xie Lanqing's.

When Xie Lanqing was young, he was also a famous handsome man in Huajing. Now he is old and he looks unrecognizable. But after Li Rong's reminder, everyone thought about Xie Lanqing's appearance when he was young, and looked carefully at Lu Feibai. For a moment, they were afraid to respond.

"Is that why Your Highness says that the killer and Minister Xie are father and son?"

Su Rongqing suddenly spoke, and Li Rong was a little surprised. She didn't expect Su Rongqing to interrupt at this time. She turned around and met Su Rongqing's gaze.

Su Rongqing's eyes were cold, and he seemed to be trying his best to restrain something. Those cold eyes were like a whirlpool, and seemed to hide all kinds of emotions. Li Rong couldn't help but pause on those eyes for a moment, until Pei Wenxuan coughed lightly, she reacted, smiled and said: "Of course it can't be just because of this. This matter started from the assassination of the prince consort more than half a month ago."

"That year, the son-in-law was assassinated. Su Ronghua, the deputy director of our department, had some conflicts with me. He questioned another deputy director of our department, Shangguan Da Ren, for torturing Chen Guang. So that day, I personally interrogated Chen Guang under the supervision of Deputy Director Su. After Chen Guang confessed, I received a threatening kite with the word "stop" written in cinnabar. That afternoon, someone assassinated the son-in-law. They injured the son-in-law, but there was no poison on the knife. It was obviously just to intimidate me. I was deeply disturbed, so I asked someone to investigate thoroughly."

Li Rong said this, and with a wave of her hand, Shangguan Ya came forward holding the kite she had received. She continued respectfully, "I have been ordered by Your Highness to thoroughly investigate this item and found that the cinnabar used on it came from Huimingxuan, a calligraphy and painting shop in Beijing that sells to the nobles. I have looked through Huimingxuan's accounts for the past six months and found that there are a total of 20 families left after the purchase, and the Xie family is one of them."

"But Lord Xie has nothing to do with this case," Li Rong continued, "so I didn't think about Lord Xie. These people obviously wanted me not to examine the things in my hands, especially Chen Guang, but justice and conscience made me put my life and death aside, and I could only grit my teeth and persevere. But as the days passed, I became more and more uneasy, so I decided to lure the snake out of its hole, deliberately traveled with the prince consort, let the news out, and then set an ambush at Butterfly Gorge, using myself as bait, and captured a group of killers alive, including this young man, Lu Feibai."

Li Rong stopped beside Lu Feibai, and everyone looked at Lu Feibai. Li Rong said calmly: "After investigation, it was found that Lu Feibai is the deputy leader of the Seven Stars Hall, the first killer organization in the martial arts world. The Seven Stars Hall has always been undefeated in the martial arts world, but in order to protect themselves and develop in the long run, they never attack the powerful. It is difficult for the Chen family to invite Lu Feibai here, so I began to suspect that there is someone behind the Chen family. At this time, I interrogated Lu Feibai and found something from him."

As she spoke, Li Rong squatted down and used her fan to press the corner of Lu Feibai's clothes. Lu Feibai quickly grabbed Li Rong's fan and shouted angrily, "What are you doing?!"

"Don't be impatient, Mr. Luo. Don't you want to know the truth?"

Feibai hesitated for a moment, and then he saw Li Rong put the fan inside her clothes, and then picked out a necklace from his neck: "Do you recognize this necklace?"

When the necklace was picked out, everyone had different expressions on their faces. Each family has its own symbolic object to identify its members, which is used to identify their identities in the event of an accident. Most of these objects are close-fitting and easy to carry. Some northern families use tattoos, while southern families often use jade pendants, necklaces and other objects.

Most of these items are family crests with names on them. Ordinary people are mostly not aware of these things, but the nobles have to specifically study the relationships between the various clans and are very clear about family crests.

At this moment, this ethereal magnolia carved from Kunshan white jade caught everyone's attention, and everyone couldn't help but look at it with surprise.

"Where did you steal this from?!" Xie Lanqing was a little panicked, "How did you get something like this?"

Lu Feibai said nothing, his face turned pale. Li Rong smiled and reached out to turn the jade pendant over, revealing the word "Qing" inside.

"Unfortunately, I have seen such a pendant on a sister of the Xie family, and I was attracted by this object. The Feibai is somewhat similar to the object of Lord Xie, and there is this jade pendant as evidence. In addition, the cinnabar is related to Lord Xie, so I have to think more. So I asked someone to check Xie Lanqing's life and past, and found that when Minister Xie was young, he also had a romantic past, and it was a big deal. It was said that Lord Xie fell in love with a woman from the martial arts world, but his family did not agree, and promised Minister Xie his current wife. On the day of the wedding, the woman from the martial arts world held a sharp sword, cut off Lord Xie's hair crown, and walked away."

"Then I looked up the time when the Seven Stars Hall was established. It was two years after this romantic past, which happened to be one year after Master Lu was born. So I pretended to know the location of the Seven Stars Hall and told Master Lu Feibai that the Seven Stars Hall was located within the Xie family. Master Lu was shocked, and I knew that I had guessed correctly."

Li Rong put down the chain, stood up, and looked at Xie Lanqing with a smile: "In this way, the Seven Stars Hall, which never gets involved in the affairs of the powerful, has a reason to take action. Because the head of the Seven Stars Hall is the Jianghu woman who fell in love with Lord Xie back then. I guess that what happened back then should be like this."

"When Master Xie was young, he fell in love with that Jianghu girl, but they were unable to be together due to family obstruction. The girl left when she became pregnant and gave birth to Lu Feibai. After getting married, Master Xie found the girl again, provided her with shelter, and helped her to establish the Seven Stars Hall. For various reasons, the hall master was unwilling to become Master Xie's concubine, and did not want her child to return to the Xie family, so she kept Lu Feibai and raised him in the Seven Stars Hall as a successor. And Master Xie agreed to this for some unknown reason."

"You're talking nonsense!" Xie Lanqing shouted angrily, and then hurriedly covered the wound. Li Rong tapped her palm with a small fan and said with a smile, "You'll know if I'm talking nonsense once you check it out. Someone, bring some clean water!"

Li Rong spoke loudly, and Xie Lanqing's expression immediately turned extremely ugly.

Li Feibai was stunned for a while, and then the servant came in with water. Li Rong turned to look at Xie Lanqing and said, "Minister Xie, you are the Minister of Justice. Let's try the blood test to prove our relationship."

Xie Lanqing didn't dare to say anything, staring at the bowl of water. Li Rong looked at Lu Feibai again: "Master Lu?"

Feibai was a little dazed. He looked up at Li Rong. Shangguan Ya sighed and said beside him, "She traveled thousands of miles to Huajing, got pregnant before marriage, and was tragically abandoned. On the wedding day, she cut off the groom's hair in anger. She has been alone for nearly 20 years. This is really pitiful and sad. As a child, don't you feel any sorrow for your mother?"

"Master Xie," Li Rong urged Xie Lanqing, "You are so hesitant, is it because it is inconvenient for you not to come over, or are you afraid?"

Xie Lanqing remained motionless with a frozen face. Lu Feibai suddenly stood up, walked to Li Rong, raised his hand and cut his finger with a sharp blade. Blood dripped into the bowl. He looked up at Xie Lanqing and said coldly, "Come here."

Xie Lanqing did not move. Lu Feibai looked at him coldly: "Minister Xie, come here."

When Xie Lanqing was called by Lu Feibai, he heard a warning in Lu Feibai's tone. His face was frozen, but he finally stood up. He walked to the table stiffly and stretched out his hand hesitantly. Seeing Xie Lanqing's hesitation, Lu Feibai simply grabbed him, raised his knife and slashed, cutting Xie Lanqing's finger while Xie Lanqing screamed, and pinched his finger to let the blood drip into the cup!

The two drops of blood diffused in the water, met, and then slowly merged.

Watching the blood drops merge together, Xie Lanqing said anxiously, "Impossible, someone is framing me, Your Majesty, I request another test, and then..."

"What else is there?"

Pei Wenxuan laughed, "Master Xie, do you think that this jade pendant is fake, Master Lu's eyes are fake, or the two drops of blood in the bowl are fake? Master Xie, you assassinated the princess first, and then you framed the princess by having an affair with her own son. Now you don't confess your guilt to seek forgiveness from His Majesty and His Highness, but you are still trying to defend yourself here. I want to know who gave you the courage to disregard His Majesty, the law, the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, and the righteousness of heaven and earth!"

"Pei Wenxuan, you are a liar!" Xie Lanqing shouted angrily, pointing at Pei Wenxuan, "It was you who instigated His Highness to do these messy things, and now you are colluding with assassins to bribe eunuchs to frame me. I have been an official for 30 years, working hard for the country and the king, but today I have to be framed by these two brats. I hope Your Majesty will see clearly!"

"Father," Li Rong knelt down as she listened to Xie Lanqing's words. She bent her back and kowtowed respectfully, "I, your son, apologize to you, Father."

"What crime are you asking for?"

"I know that I have been making trouble for you these days."

"I am now in charge of these two cases, which involve many noble families, including the Xie family, which has two death row prisoners. Your Majesty must have been under tremendous pressure to allow your son to take on these cases. Your son should also be prepared to put his life at risk when investigating these cases. Your son has thought countless times that it might be better for your son not to investigate this matter. After all, your son is just a girl. If you stay at home to take care of your husband and children, be loved by your father and husband, and live a stable and wealthy life, it will be better for both your son and your father."

"But I can't bear it. I can't bear to see the Qin family being wronged. I can't bear to see the foundation of the country, such as military pay, being corroded by termites, so I still stand up. As a princess, I am supported by the people of the world. I can't just wear brocade clothes and ignore the people who support me. This road is difficult. I am afraid that my father will bear too much pressure, so I have not reported the various difficulties I encountered."

Li Rong said with a hoarse voice: "Thank you, sir, for being a loyal minister and doing a lot of good things for the court. I shouldn't have been so deadlocked with him even if he made things difficult for me. But I..."

Li Rong choked up as he spoke, "I really have no other choice. I can sacrifice my life, but my husband is innocent. Today, I do not ask for punishment for Lord Xie's assassination and framing. I just hope that you gentlemen can make a decision for my husband. There should be an explanation for the assassination of my husband... It's okay to bully me, after all, I was the one who provoked Lord Xie, but what about my husband?"

As Li Rong spoke the latter part, she burst into tears, as if she had really been forced into a desperate situation.

"Your Highness," Xie Lanqing panicked after hearing this, and said anxiously, "You are a princess. It is natural for you to investigate the Qin case and the military pay case for the sake of the country and the people. How dare I, an old minister, make things difficult for you, let alone assassinate and frame you for this."

"Did she frame you?"

Li Ming suddenly shouted loudly. He looked at Li Rong kneeling on the ground and apologizing in a hoarse voice. The feeling of powerlessness that he had been oppressed by these old ministers for more than ten years suddenly surged up. He was angry, and he remembered Xie Lanqing's words that Li Rong had colluded with the eunuchs, and the white magnolia hairpin on Hua Le's head. He suddenly felt that Li Rong was not bullied by Li Rong, but Xie Lanqing who pressed him to the ground and stepped on him.

"She is a princess," Li Ming raised his hand and pointed at Li Rong, "She is my eldest daughter, the legitimate daughter of the empress! You have repeatedly accused her of framing you and plotting against you. How could a child under 19 years old like you, a veteran who has been in the court for more than 30 years?!"

"Your Majesty, please calm down." Xie Lanqing knelt on the ground and said anxiously, "Your Majesty, there are too many misunderstandings in this matter."

"Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding? You are bullying me, but I dare not do anything to you! Forget about today's lack of evidence. I have tolerated your anger. Now that the evidence is solid, if you have any misunderstandings, go to the prison and explain them clearly! Come on," Li Ming shouted, "drag him away and send him to the Yu Shitai to be handed over to Pei Wenxuan for trial!"

"Your Majesty..." Dali Temple Minister Jiang Zheng said hastily, "Pei Wenxuan is the princess's consort..."

"What? When you guys are doing things, you don't need to mention who the relative is, but when I'm doing things, I have to avoid suspicion? Then let Pei Wenxuan judge!"

Li Ming said angrily: "Whoever dares to say another word today will be dragged away for trial!"

Hearing this, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Pei Wenxuan stood up and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, please calm down. It is certainly inappropriate for me to be the judge of this matter. Let's hand it back to the Ministry of Justice."

"Hand him back to the Ministry of Justice?" Li Ming sneered, "Who in the Ministry of Justice dares to try him?"

"I would like to recommend someone." Pei Wenxuan spoke calmly. Li Ming listened to Pei Wenxuan and said slowly, "You tell me."

"The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice is Pei Liming. He is my cousin. He is a man of integrity and uprightness. He has been handling cases in the Ministry of Justice for many years and is familiar with criminal law. I recommend Vice Minister Pei to investigate this case."

Li Ming remained silent, and he glanced at Su Rongqing subconsciously.

Logically speaking, Su Rongqing, as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, is much more suitable to investigate this case than Pei Liming. However, if the case is sent back to the Ministry of Justice and Pei Wenxuan's relatives are not allowed to handle it, he is afraid that Xie Lanqing's case will be left unresolved again.

But it seemed unreasonable to let Pei Liming handle the case directly, fearing that the Su family would have objections. Li Ming was hesitating when he saw Su Rongqing stand up and said respectfully: "I second the proposal. I also think that Minister Pei is the most suitable candidate now."