Chapter 449 Thorough Investigation of the Truth (Third Update)
Since Prince Ning refused to speak, the emperor had no choice but to send someone to the Eastern Palace to summon the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince woke up shortly after Gu Jiao left. He didn't say anything, just stared blankly at the top of the tent.
"It's you, isn't it? You really came back...you came back to find me."
Why aren't you saying anything? Are you angry with me?
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"...I just realized that the person in my heart has always been you. I regret not marrying you."
"Don't like anyone else, don't like her, she's not good enough for you."
"It's so nice to see you like this. Don't ever leave me again."
"Let's never separate again, okay? Let's live a good life together from now on, okay?"
The Crown Prince wanted to remove Wen Linlang's voice from his mind, but found that he couldn't do it no matter what.
Those words echoed in his mind again and again, like a knife piercing his heart.
The Crown Princess knelt by the bed, her arms resting on the edge of the bed as she looked at him.
This pose would be especially intimate and affectionate when emotions are running high, but at this moment, it is a sign that she is lowering her stance.
Ever since she married the Crown Prince, she has been pampered and cared for. The Crown Prince never allowed her to suffer in the slightest. He would worry about whether the ground was cold, whether her knees were tired, or whether her arms were sore...
She has been kneeling and prostrate by the bedside for almost half an hour now, and the Crown Prince has not said a word.
"Your Highness." She finally couldn't help but speak. She grasped his cold, numb hand and pleaded, "Believe me, I was framed. It was Gu Jiao who drugged me... that's why I said those nonsense things."
In her relationship with the Crown Prince, it seemed that the Crown Prince was the most powerful, but in reality, she always held the initiative. The Crown Prince listened to her and could always be easily coaxed by her.
However, the crown prince did not react in time this time.
He was like a puppet whose soul had been drained, staring blankly at the top of the tent.
“Your Highness…” The Crown Princess raised her hand and stroked his cheek. He used to love to hold her hand on his face and call her Linlang with a smile.
Some things you think you'll never lose.
What is lost is thought to be easily regained.
The Crown Princess couldn't believe deep down that the Crown Prince was no longer paying attention to her.
"Your Highness," she grasped the Crown Prince's hand again and said, "I really did have someone drug me. I was on my way to buy you some pastries. Do you remember Qinghezhai? Your Highness loves Qinghezhai's pastries, especially their lotus-scented pastries..."
The Crown Prince didn't actually like lotus-scented pastries. It was the first pastry he ate when he first met Wen Linlang that entered his heart along with her.
From the age of thirteen to now, a full ten years have passed. His innocent liking for her has transformed into a deep and tender love. The only constant is that this person has always been in his heart and has taken on an increasingly important place.
The Crown Prince once felt that he would give his life even if Wen Linlang wanted it.
From the very first day he married her, he could sense that she didn't love him, so he often felt insecure. But he never gave up. He firmly believed that as long as he treated her well, one day she would give him her heart.
But unexpectedly, she gave it to Prince Ning, but not to him!
The Crown Princess choked back tears, saying, "Your Highness, please believe me, I was really drugged! I don't even know what I'm saying... We grew up together, don't you know what kind of person I am?"
Yes, we grew up together, so we know each other very well.
Intelligent and resourceful, how could Prince Ning have gotten so close to her if she hadn't deliberately indulged him?
What chilled the Crown Prince's heart wasn't her heartfelt words—those could indeed be attributed to being drugged or something—but rather the way Prince Ning held her hand gently and said he would handle the aftermath. That was what truly pierced his heart!
"Does Your Highness suspect me of my relationship with Prince Ning? Yes, I did have some dealings with Prince Ning, but I was forced into it... I have no maternal family to support me, no power or influence, and all I can rely on is Your Highness's affection, yet he actually used Your Highness to blackmail me..." The Crown Princess's tears fell in a steady stream, each drop landing on the Crown Prince's cold hand. "He said he would kill Your Highness, and kill me..."
The Crown Prince's Adam's apple bobbed, and he finally spoke weakly, "In your heart, is it Aheng... or Prince Ning?"
The Crown Princess froze abruptly.
When Eunuch Wei came to the Eastern Palace to summon the Crown Prince, the Crown Prince turned over and said, "I don't want to see anyone."
The usually weak Crown Prince actually dared to defy the Emperor's decree after being injured. Eunuch Wei didn't know whether to be happy for the Crown Prince or not.
Such a big thing happened, and it couldn't be kept secret from Kunning Palace and Yongshou Palace. Empress Xiao was worried about her son, so she came to the East Palace first.
Empress Xiao said, "Eunuch Wei, please tell His Majesty that the Crown Prince is too badly injured to get out of bed. I will ask the Crown Prince about this later and then go to Huaqing Palace to explain the situation to His Majesty in person."
That's all we can do.
Eunuch Wei glanced regretfully at the Crown Prince, who seemed to have lost his soul, sighed inwardly, and returned to Huaqing Palace.
Empress Xiao tucked the blanket around the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince probably didn't want Empress Xiao to see his disheveled state. He felt very ashamed, heartbroken, and wronged.
He kept his head completely buried, always facing inwards.
"Your Majesty, I..." The Crown Princess was about to speak when Empress Xiao raised her hand, indicating that she did not need to say anything.
Empress Xiao went to the study in the East Palace and said solemnly, "Bring the palace servants who serve the Crown Prince and Crown Princess here!"
Chunying and eight other palace maids were brought over and knelt on the ground in a dark mass.
Before Empress Xiao could ask anything else, her first words were: "Use torture!"
Eunuch Su raised his whisk and went to fetch the clamps. Together with several maids and eunuchs from Kunning Palace, he clamped all eight people together.
Of the eight people, Chunying was the one who knew the most. Although the others did not participate in anything, people inevitably leave clues when they do something. By piecing together the information, they actually managed to gather quite a bit of news.
For example, the Crown Princess often left the palace alone.
For example, the Crown Prince heard today that the Crown Princess had gone missing, and it was Chunying who reported this to him.
Empress Xiao's cold gaze fell on Chunying's face, and Chunying trembled, falling to the ground and shivering: "Empress... Empress..."
Empress Xiao had plenty of ways to get a palace maid to talk. How could the daughter of the Xiao family be any good? Just look at Marquis Xuanping; that guy's heart is black. How could his sister be any white?
Empress Xiao gave Eunuch Su a look, and Eunuch Su understood, dragging Chunying away.
Chunying confessed everything in less than fifteen minutes in Su Gonggong's hands.
The Crown Princess and Prince Ning had an affair.
Chunying was bribed by Prince Ning.
This incident was orchestrated by the hostage from Chen State, and Chunying has been bribed by him again.
Chunying's original words weren't so concise; she was so frightened that she was rambling incoherently. But how could Eunuch Su, who had served the Empress for so many years, not have any skills?
He extracted all the key points that needed to be refined.
Empress Xiao said, "So, this whole thing was orchestrated by the hostage from Chen, but the relationship between the Crown Princess and Prince Ning is real?"
Eunuch Su secretly gave a thumbs up. As expected of the Empress, her summary was even more insightful than his!
Empress Xiao's gaze was icy cold, but she did not lose her mind due to anger; she remained a dignified and elegant empress.
She calmly asked, "I'm wondering why the hostage prince of Chen did this? What benefit does it bring him?"
Does exposing royal scandals bring shame to the royal family?
That's too easy.
It wouldn't be strange for an ordinary person to do this, but Yuan Tang is a prince of the Chen Kingdom, and what he wants is certainly not more than humiliating the royal family.
In the long run, pretending to be unaware and allowing Prince Ning to grow stronger, as well as allowing him to maintain his relationship with the Crown Princess, would have truly pushed the Zhao Kingdom's royal family into dire straits.
"It seems like revenge. Does Prince Ning have a grudge against him?" Empress Xiao immediately grasped the key point. "Go and invite the sixth prince of Chen to the East Palace."
Eunuch Su: "Yes!"
Yuan Tang arrived very quickly.
He saw Empress Xiao on a chair in the reception hall.
Marquis Xuanping was the most beautiful man in Zhao Kingdom... uh, no, the most handsome man, so his younger sister was naturally no less beautiful.
To be fair, Empress Xiao was less handsome than her brother.
So why is it that a man is so good-looking?
Yuan Tang touched the folding fan, cupped his hands to Empress Xiao, and smiled, "Yuan Tang greets Empress Xiao."
Empress Xiao looked at Yuan Tang with a calm expression: "There's no need for formalities. You've planned so many things just to see me, haven't you? You have a grudge against Prince Ning, and I also want to get rid of Prince Ning. Just say what you want to say."
"Well..." Yuan Tang touched the bridge of her nose, smiled, and said, "Your frankness makes me a little unsure how to begin. Actually, there's nothing special about it. It's just that the affair between Prince Ning and the Crown Princess was discovered by Princess Rui and one of her friends. Prince Ning wanted to kill me to take the blame, and I almost died at the hands of his assassins. I couldn't swallow this insult, so I used a little trick to expose their relationship to the Crown Prince and His Majesty. I have no intention of being enemies with Empress Xiao. If I have offended you in any way, please forgive me, Empress Xiao."
He made no mention of Gu Jiao's involvement in the whole incident, and addressed her as "a friend of Princess Rui" in an even more distant way. Naturally, he also didn't mention Liu Yisheng's severed finger.
Empress Xiao looked at him with an air of authority without anger and said, "Whether your words are true or not, I will investigate myself."
Yuan Tang smiled and said, "Please go ahead, Empress Xiao."
Yuan Tang wasn't afraid of her investigating; she was only afraid that she wouldn't investigate.
"Your Majesty," Su Gonggong whispered, asking for her instructions after Yuan Tang left.
The affair between Wen Linlang and Prince Ning had a significant impact on Empress Xiao. Although she appeared calm on the surface, her heart was in turmoil.
Her brother had taught her since childhood that she should not panic in the face of adversity. She was Xiao Ji's sister, and she had to be stronger than most women.
Empress Xiao closed her eyes, exhaled a long breath, and said, "Princess Consort Xuanrui."
I have a cold, my head is all muddled, and typing is very difficult.
Seeing comments like "no more monthly votes if there aren't more updates" makes me feel I have to say something.
There were a lot of things going on at home this month, and in the days leading up to the big update, I only slept four or five hours a day, squeezing out bits of time to write.
I pushed through my backlog of chapters under pressure from the editor's daily quota of 8,000 words.
I thought I was made of steel, but I got a fever the day after I finished writing this super long post.
Keeping drafts in reserve is really bad for your health; it requires staying up late and overdrawing your physical and mental energy.
Some readers may not understand and regard frequent updates as a normal occurrence, or a state that authors can easily produce.
No.
The cost is high.
I don't want to drain the pond to catch all the fish.
This is a story I like. Let's keep it going, I'll write it slowly, and you can read it slowly too.
(End of this chapter)
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