Chapter 330 The dust has settled, but the words are laced with venom.
Ji Qingwu gave Prince Yong a deep look. After all, he was a prince who could rest easy. How could he know the bitterness and helplessness of women in this world?
She lowered her eyes; it was best to investigate these matters discreetly to avoid causing further harm to some of the girls.
Ji Qingwu casually picked up a stack of papers, waved them around, and said, "The Prime Minister must know what's here. Your correspondence with Yuwen Tianqing is all here. Do you have anything else to say?"
Su Fengyue could not hide the desolation on his face and did not make any more futile excuses.
"Since I dared to take such a risky move, I was prepared for the possibility of being exposed. Since ancient times, the victor is king and the loser is villain. I have nothing to say."
In the end, Su Fengyue decided to save face and face life and death with equanimity.
Ji Qingwu felt that his reaction was too calm and fearless, and she was not very satisfied.
She picked up the scroll beside her and untied the moon-white ribbon.
"I've just found something interesting, so I'd like to share it with you all."
Su Fengyue knew what it was; his beard twitched, and his hands, clasped at his sides, trembled as he tried his best to endure it.
The scroll was unfurled, and Ji Qingwu held the top mahogany scroll head, allowing everyone to see the painting clearly.
The woman in the portrait has an elegant appearance and her eyebrows and eyes are like the moon.
But what's rare is those eyes; they aren't the azure blue of a lake, but a grayish-blue, giving them an extremely melancholic and sorrowful look that's unforgettable at first sight.
Ji Qingwu had seen such eyes before.
Just as her finger was about to touch the eyes in the portrait, Su Fengyue's face instantly turned sinister.
He could no longer feign fearlessness and roared, "Put down this painting! You have no right to touch it!"
Zhao Mingyan took a step toward the center of the room, blocking Ji Qingwu's figure and thus isolating Su Fengyue's murderous gaze.
The emperor's eyes were icy cold, and Su Fengyue dared not make any rash moves when he looked into them.
The eyes in the painting are so distinctive that Prince Yong asked, "Is this woman from Xijin?"
Ji Qingwu nodded and said, "She is Yuwen Tianqing's mother, Gao Zhaoyue."
At this point, everyone already knows the reason why Su Fengyue would collude with the enemy and rebel.
Upon seeing the portrait, Ji Qingwu understood that all the crescent moon totems were based on this person's name. Even the name of Su Xiang's daughter, Daiyue, meant to be a substitute for Gao Zhaoyue.
None of the family letters that Su Fengyue wrote were actually sent out.
Because there was no one to receive the letter.
Gao Zhaoyue passed away more than a decade ago.
But Su Fengyue still gave up his years of painstaking efforts for the sake of this woman's remaining bloodline, all to support her son Yuwen Tianqing's ascension to the throne.
Ji Qingwu found the whole thing quite ironic.
Su Fengyue has a morbid fondness for Yuwen Tianqing's mother, while also wantonly trampling on other women.
Prince Yong scoffed and said, "Yuwen Tianqing's mother was not favored in Xijin and died of illness a long time ago. I don't know when she had any dealings with Prime Minister Su, or whether she was willing to be remembered by someone like you."
Zhao Minghong's words were like poison.
"If Gao Zhaoyue knew that you had been keeping her portrait all this time, she would feel disgusted and vomit in the afterlife, and regret ever looking at you, you old thing who is not even as good as a ghost, when she was alive."
Provoked by these words, Su Fengyue charged towards Ji Qingwu like a madman, ignoring everything else, even Shang Rong beside him couldn't react in time.
He yelled, "Give me the painting!"
But he didn't even touch Ji Qingwu's clothes before Zhao Mingyan kicked him to the ground.
Su Fengyue fell heavily to the ground, his body hunched over in pain, coughing up blood. He was still staring at Ji Qingwu's hand.
"Give me back the painting..."
Ji Qingwu neatly put the portrait away without even looking up to see his miserable state.
"Your Excellency, you will never see this person and this painting again in your lifetime."
*
Outside the mansion gate, a thousand elite soldiers had already surrounded it.
Upon receiving the signal, Duan Mingfeng led his Black-Clad Guards out of Zhaoyang Palace overnight and rushed to the Prime Minister's residence.
The city was under curfew that night, and they traveled freely without hindrance, but they encountered the carriage of Princess Yong near the Su residence.
The black-clad guards stopped the carriage, and Duan Mingfeng rode forward, saying in a respectful tone, "Your Highness, please return to the palace and do not come out again tonight."
The chilling voice sent a shiver down Tao Wanyin's spine as she sat in the sedan chair, and she lifted the curtain.
"Lord Duan, the Prince has gone to Prime Minister Su's place. I'll wait for him at the door. I won't do anything."
After returning from the Song family, Tao Wanyin felt uneasy no matter what she did.
During this time, she and Prince Yong continued to sleep separately. She was pregnant and slept soundly, but tonight, she tossed and turned in bed at Jinmo Residence, unable to fall asleep.
In the middle of the night, she sat up and recited a Buddhist scripture, but she still couldn't find peace. She made up her mind to go to the front yard to find Prince Yong, but Chang Lu told her that he had gone out of the mansion alone and had gone to the Prime Minister's mansion.
Tao Wanyin's heart sank heavily, and she suddenly felt a pang of heart palpitation.
The more she thought about it, the more panicked she became. She immediately asked Chang Lu to arrange for a carriage to leave the mansion, but she was stopped just before they reached the gate of the Prime Minister's residence.
By the moonlight, Tao Wanyin peeked out and looked at the road in front of the carriage, and saw that the black-clad guards had already surrounded the Prime Minister's residence like an iron barrel.
Her voice trembled slightly: "Lord Duan, has something happened to the Prince?"
Duan Mingfeng didn't know what was happening inside either; there might be a fierce battle.
With a gloomy face, he said, "Please have the Princess's carriage return to the residence as soon as possible, so as not to affect the work of the Imperial City Guard."
The two guards in black obeyed and blocked the carriage, preventing it from going any further.
A short flute note rang out. Duan Mingfeng listened carefully, and a relaxed smile finally appeared on his lips. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that his hard work over the past few days had not been in vain.
Without a second thought, Tao Wanyin got out of the car and ran inside, clutching the hem of her skirt.
She didn't know what the flute melody meant, but to her ears it sounded like a death knell.
Without Duan Mingfeng's order, the black-clad guards stopped intercepting Princess Yong.
Tao Wanyin didn't dare to run too fast, jogging while protecting her lower abdomen, her forehead and nose covered in sweat from tension and fear.
She entered the Su residence without any problems.
The elite troops have entered the mansion, and the entire courtyard is lit up.
Tao Wanyin grabbed someone and asked anxiously, "Have you seen Prince Yong?"
The man, unaware of her identity, shook his head and ran away.
Tao Wanyin walked further inside without stopping. When she got close to the front hall, she saw someone being dragged out of the house.
She couldn't tell who the person was by their appearance, but the deep purple official robe with the crane pattern embroidered on the back...
It is Prime Minister Su.
She stood at the bottom of the steps and saw a pair of court boots with gold trim and a coiled dragon kick the crane hard.
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