Two girls from the Charity Hall were working as prostitutes at the Yunlai Inn in the capital when they were tortured by traveling merchants, resulting in one death and the other injury.
The traveling merchant, seeking thrills and wanting to try something new on the windowsill, accidentally fell headfirst from the third floor and died instantly.
On the same day, the body of a boy was also found at an inn called Shibapu outside the city. After investigation by the authorities, it was confirmed that the boy was a beggar adopted by the Charity Hall and had also been abused to death.
These two inns were mainly for traveling merchants and wandering travelers to stay at.
Especially in Shibapu, no registration is required for check-in, and there is still a considerable flow of people every day.
So much so that after the boy's body was discovered, the innkeeper only remembered that the room had been occupied by a middle-aged man with a full beard and carrying a large machete.
The innkeeper did not know when the boy went to Shibapu or when the bearded man left.
However, the surviving girl at Yunlai Inn cried out to the government for help, saying that she and her sisters, along with the boy who died at Shibapu, were all forced into prostitution by the Charity Hall, and that the traveling merchant and the bearded man were all patrons contacted by the Charity Hall.
The crowd was outraged.
The news that the charity was forcing young children into prostitution was like a thunderclap breaking through the clouds, instantly shaking the world for miles around.
Within an hour of the emperor learning the news, memorials impeaching Ye Zhen poured onto his desk like snowflakes.
Some people criticize Ye Zhen for being hypocritical, using charity as a pretext to instruct innocent girls to commit despicable acts to make money. They say that the children he adopted in southern Jiangsu might be doing the same thing.
Some say that Ye Zhen is already a widow, and now that her morals have been exposed, she is unworthy to be the Crown Princess. They request His Majesty to cancel the engagement between the Crown Prince and Ye Zhen.
Some people also brought up the fact that Ye Zhen had brought misfortune to both her own and her husband's families, saying that she harmed both her own and her husband's families, was vicious, had no compassion, and could not possibly do good deeds sincerely.
There were even hindsight critics who said that Ye Zhen's act of having the powerful and influential people express their gratitude revealed her greed and lack of compassion. They claimed that building the charity hall was just a pretext for her to amass wealth, and that it even implicated the Empress in the matter.
Outside the charity hall, many people gathered outside, demanding an explanation from Ye Zhen.
Some relatives of the elderly and widowed also filed complaints with the government, demanding that the charity return the elderly and children and provide them with compensation.
They tearfully insisted that Ye Zhen was not sincere towards the people of the charity hall and must have been secretly harming them.
Even outside the residence of the Marquis of Zhongyong, there were people causing trouble.
Cui Yihuan and Cai Yueya were furious and wanted nothing more than to grab sticks and confront those people.
But Prince Ning stopped him.
Today, Xie Tingzhou gave Helian Qing a day off to rest. Prince Ning came to the Marquis's residence to visit him and happened to stumble upon this incident.
He hurriedly sent the steward of the Marquis's residence to the military camp to invite the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery, and instructed Helian Qing to keep an eye on Cui Yihuan and Cai Yueya to prevent them from acting impulsively. He himself went to the Charity Hall to gather information.
Outside the charity hall, two corpses lay, and the injured girl knelt beside them.
The girl's clothes were torn beyond recognition. Although she tried her best to cover them up, the mottled marks on her body were still visible. She hugged her arms and cried, "Princess, I don't want to entertain guests anymore."
Those guests were all violent and eccentric, and their methods of tormenting people were endless. I was afraid I would die if I stayed at the charity hall any longer. I would rather go back to begging..."
"That's too much. Even brothel madams aren't this harsh."
Among the onlookers, someone shouted angrily, "At least brothels clearly display signs saying what they do."
This charity claims to take in poor children, but they actually want to profit from them. They're two-faced and utterly despicable.
"Such a young child, so pitiful. I heard that the boy's intestines were coming out. How can there be such a vicious person in this world?"
"That's right. I heard that the traveling merchants and江湖客 (jianghu travelers) who stay at those two inns have some special fetishes. Those who fall into their hands are either dead or crippled. Even the madams of brothels are reluctant to let their daughters come to their inns."
I never imagined that Princess Zhaoning, seemingly kind, would be worse than a brothel madam. If such a person were to become the mother of the nation, what chance would we common people have?
...
When Ye Zhen arrived, all he heard were these increasingly loud and angry condemnations and curses.
She walked to the two corpses, lifted the white sheet to look at the faces of the two children, their faces bruised and swollen, their original appearances unrecognizable.
He then looked at the girl and said, "The charity has never made children work as prostitutes. Can you tell me who told you this?"
Upon seeing that it was Ye Zhen, the girl seemed terrified and kept kowtowing, pleading, "Please, Princess, spare my life! Please, Princess, spare my life!"
Ye Zhen looked her over. Although she was injured, her face was intact and she was very beautiful.
“I remember you. Your name is Lu Xiaocao. You are ten years old. You came here from another place with your younger sister to escape famine. For the past six months, you have been begging near the City God Temple.”
Her younger sister, Lu Xiaohua, was a girl who was abused to death by itinerant merchants.
When the two sisters were admitted to the charity, Ye Zhen was not present, but whenever new people came in, relevant information would be sent to Ye Zhen for review.
Ye Zhen would go and take a look when she had time, because Lu Xiaocao was beautiful and she had a deep impression of her.
At the same time, she had someone investigate. In this day and age, pretty girls are easily targeted by human traffickers, but Lu Xiaocao was unharmed, which inevitably aroused her suspicion. However, her subordinates confirmed that the Lu sisters had indeed been begging at the City God Temple for the past six months, and other beggars could also confirm this.
However, Lu Xiaocao had been deliberately darkening her face and messing up her hair to make her appearance unrecognizable.
It's understandable that a young woman might deliberately distort her appearance for safety reasons, so Ye Zhen dismissed her doubts.
But today, Ye Zhen has rekindled his doubts.
The two sisters fell into the hands of a traveling merchant. One was beaten beyond recognition, while the other remained unharmed. Of their two patrons, one died and the other escaped, and everything seemed suspicious.
The Charity Hall was managed by her and Granny Su. Ye Zhen had trusted people under her command, and Granny Su was the Empress's confidante. Unless she was a spy infiltrating the Empress's inner circle, she would never have ruined the Charity Hall's reputation like this.
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