Chapter 181
The Emperor glanced at Empress Zhang’s disgruntled face, thinking about Yu’s close relationship with the Empress Dowager, he still nodded. Duanfei immediately threw the scriptures into the furnace and burned them.
Completed all the ceremonies, the royal family, in accordance with the customary rest, will depart to not far away from the palace to stay and rest.
Although the palace is not often, but the flowers and trees here are well cared for, a summer lush, and much cooler than the capital comfortable.
After a long day of labor, the emperor held a family banquet at Jiuzhou Terrace. At the time of national mourning, no dance and music, but the long and solemn funeral ceremony, really will be every participant tortured exhaustion, and even the grief are gradually dissolved by this exhaustion, all are a great sense of relief.
As a result, the atmosphere of this first proper banquet after the Empress Dowager’s death was quite relaxed.
Wen Zhongqing sat next to Mr. and Mrs. Yu and quietly said, “Originally, it was agreed that when Xiangzhi gave birth to her child, she would be sent to the mountains for a refreshing retreat. However, on the day of delivery, her mother-in-law suddenly died, and she was so sad that she went home to mourn. Immediately after that, the empress dowager died, my father, mother and I have been in the palace to observe the spirit, send the funeral, the children at home can not leave her to take care of, so for the time being, still left her in the eldest princess residence ……”
Rong Xiangshi knew what he meant, said, “Third brother-in-law, how to place her is your decision, no need to explain anything to us. If she can change her ways, then it’s just a matter of time. If she makes any mistakes in the future, you have to know that the first one to be implicated is you and your children, as well as your parents. It’s good that you know in your own heart.”
Wen Zhongqing nodded heavily, “Many thanks Fourth Sister, I will restrain her.”
At the end of the banquet, a group of dessert delivery palace men entered the hall, one of them traveled to the steps in front of the Emperor’s case, suddenly kneeled down and shouted, “Emperor, help!”
Duan Fei was startled, and immediately signaled the feather guards to go down and surround the person, and when he saw the person clearly, Duan Fei was a little embarrassed, and turned back to ask the emperor how to deal with it.
The woman was under the lamplight, sweating profusely and looking flustered.
The emperor reacted for a moment before saying, “Zou? Whose life do you want me to save?”
She had blossomed quite a bit compared to twenty years ago. Although the emperor on her but a night of dew, and no real love, these years also put her secluded in the palace, but in the end is the birth of the emperor’s son has merit, even if there is no name and no points, but also instructed people to serve well, do not worry about food and clothing. She also indeed peaceful for twenty years.
“Your Majesty, save the slave girl’s life! Someone is trying to silence me!” Zou almost begged.
“Who dares to kill someone in the palace?”
Zou cried, “Just now, a man in black entered my house and wanted to kill me! Said for the sake of His Highness the Knight King ……”
“What?” When King Li heard this, his head went wide. He hadn’t seen his birth mother for ten years, and although he recognized her, his love was very shallow. At this moment, when he heard the words against him, he immediately retorted, “Father, my son really doesn’t know about this. How could my son dare to do something as inhuman as killing his biological mother?”
“What do you mean, if I am not the biological mother, you dare to kill?”
Zou single-handedly brought up this child, and learning that he wanted his own life, he was furious and shook out the truth regardless. These words caused the entire seat to clamor.
The Seventh Imperial Uncle was busy saying, “Zou, these kinds of words are not for jerks to say.”
Zou cried and confessed to the Emperor, “Your Majesty, the slave girl has sinned! Not taking care of the child, the third prince died before he was old enough. The slave girl had no choice but to find a farmer’s child to replace him. I thought that if the child was successful in the future, it would allow me to live a few days of good life, who knows that somehow this matter has leaked out. For the sake of his own glory, in order to conceal his birth, he is going to come to kill to silence. I beg Your Majesty to spare my life!”
When these words came out, everyone was shocked and stared at King Knight. Regarding the rumors of King Li’s birth, the crowd had heard about it and did not dare to believe it. However, if Zou had said this, then nine times out of ten it was true.
King Li’s face was pale, and next to him, Consort Li was even more terrified.
If King Li wasn’t a prince, then wouldn’t she be married to the son of a worthless village woman for the rest of her life? What was the Zhang family’s operation for so many years for? She looked up to her aunt for help, but Empress Zhang was even more flustered than she was.
In the silence of the hall, King Li quickly walked to the center of the hall and knelt down, loudly defending himself, “Father, I absolutely did not do such a thing! It is someone who is trying to frame my son!”
This sentence made Empress Zhang completely deflate. At this moment, his defense was actually that he didn’t send anyone to silence him, and surprisingly, he wasn’t defending his own birth, clearly knowing about it already and hiding it from her!
But his words did have a few points of truth.
“Is that so?” The Emperor asked, “Then who is framing you?”
Zhou Xianhan wasn’t sure who it was, and just turned back to look at his brothers.
“It’s you, or you! Or is it a few of you in collusion!”
Facing the majestic gaze cast over by the emperor, King Qing said, “Third brother, you’re crazy!”
King Diao’s youthful exuberance said, “What kind of words are these? Third brother, for such a great offense, you need real evidence!”
Zhou Xian Yang was much calmer, “Brother Li Wang, if you are in trouble yourself, don’t drag us down. It’s only then that we can help you find the truth.”
“You would kindly help me?” King Li had already lost his mind a bit.
Zhou Xian Yang stood up, “Father, my son feels that the one who exterminated Zou today will definitely not be King Li.”
“How so?”
“If what Zou said is true, she herself committed the capital offense of deceiving the king, if she didn’t encounter a danger to her life today, she would definitely keep her mouth shut, she still expects the King of Li to give her glory and wealth in the future, so there is no need for the King of Li to provoke her. Even if brother Li Wang is really worried about the incident and wants to kill her to silence her, he should not have chosen today, when father and royal clansmen are there to do it, not to mention reporting his name, and also released the living, which is clearly using Zou to reveal the Li Wang’s life.”
“That’s right,” King Li had long since heard the rumors of his birth, and had also been secretly searching for that old couple. And Zou’s accident at this moment was equal to not fighting, he wasn’t that stupid. He just didn’t expect that he would one day need Zhou Xian Yang to speak for him. Seeing that the emperor also found his words reasonable, King Li immediately said, “Zou, since someone silenced you, how did you run to the Nine Continents Terrace unharmed?
“It was my slave girl, she blocked the knife for me ……”
“It was my minister’s men who saved Zou.” At this moment, the Penal Precepts Division’s Honorable Envoy Zeng Gong strides into the hall, bowing and saying, “His Majesty ordered me to investigate the rumors in the capital, so I thought that if this matter was true, Zou’s life might be difficult to protect, so I placed two female envoys from the Penal Precepts Division to protect Zou.”
Those two female ambassadors followed into the hall and recounted today’s events, which basically matched what Zou said.
Zeng Gong told them to stand down, and reported to the emperor: “I have ascertained this matter, found the couple who claimed to be the Li Wang’s biological father and mother, and brought them over on a fast horse. Does the emperor wish to summon them?”
Hearing this, the Seventh Imperial Uncle immediately got up and wanted to retire. He didn’t want to witness this royal scandal.
The Emperor, however, did not allow a person to leave.
That old couple, for the first time in their lives, walked into such a splendid hall and faced the supreme king for the first time, but they had no interest in it. They just stared at the king standing in the hall, silently shedding tears.
There was no need to say any words. The similar looks of father and son said it all.
Wen Zhongqing whispered, “Heavens, he actually really isn’t a prince ……”
The Seventh Imperial Uncle sighed and carefully observed the Emperor’s complexion.
King Li held his head and hid from the astonished gazes of the crowd, unwilling to meet and recognize his parents.
Zeng Gong said in a loud voice: ”Your Majesty, this old couple happened to meet the King of Li drinking in a restaurant, and saw that his appearance was very similar to a child who had been abducted by an abductor, so they asked someone to write a letter to the royal family in the hope of recognizing each other, and after a few words, their deaths would be at peace. This is from their letters, the person who sent the letter slowly leaked. By the time I found out about them, they had already gone to the appointment. When they arrived at the appointed place, His Majesty did not show up, but only a team of secret guards came to chase them. The couple was almost killed, but fortunately, I brought enough men with me to save them. Now King Knight’s life has been ascertained. The palace man who helped Zou buy the child, has also been brought.”
King Yun couldn’t help but ask, “Then where is my real third brother?”
“The corpse of the third prince is buried on a small hill outside the palace.”
The Emperor looked at Zeng Gong and exclaimed, “Good, you have done well.” And then asked, “Hsien Han, what else do you have to say?”
If he didn’t know about it, it would be fine, but the fact that he sent someone to kill his biological father and mother was not only against human decency, it was also an attempt to deceive the emperor and cover up his birth.
Zhou Xianhan knew that he had no way out and said angrily to the old couple, “What are you looking for me for? Who told you to come to me! Didn’t you already have two more? Why are you still looking for me?”
“Ah Gui, we’ve been looking for you for twenty years ……” the old woman finally couldn’t help but cry and howl, “Did you give birth to your younger siblings and not want you anymore? Still looking for ah …… my waifu …… the flesh that fell off my body …… I’m so afraid you’ll be bullied and beaten… …”
Zhou Xianhan said angrily, “If it weren’t for you guys being nosy, I’d be doing just fine right now! It’s you guys who lost me and now you’re here to spoil my good deed! You’re just here to collect a debt!”
Hearing this, the old man rushed up and literally punched King Li’s head, “I’ll kill you heartless thing …… I’ll kill you ……”
The emperor was furious, copied a silver wine pot from the table case, and smashed it towards King Li. The crowd was busy saying, “Emperor rest his anger.”
Duan Fei led the feather guards to separate the people in the hall.
The emperor sat on the dragon seat, angry heart violently undulating, pinching the brow, can not believe that they have raised so many years, raised such a disregard for human law and discipline of the son, immediately issued a decree, deprived of the title of the king of the Li, will be abolished for the common people of Zhou Xianhan, the Li Wang House slaves are all sold.
Li Wangfei heard kneeling in the temple, crying to the emperor and queen for help: “aunt, aunt father. This matter I do not know ah, my life, are ruined by this liar!”
The Empress also let out her voice and cried, “My concubine has raised such a thing for all these years! Concubine and Rao’er are so wronged!”
In order to appease them, the Emperor issued another oracle: “The female members of the Li Wangfu family, if they are willing to follow Zhou Xianhan, then it’s just a matter of time. Those who do not want to, will return home on their own from now on.”
Zhang Yao heard, immediately bowed to the ground to thank you. What Li Wangfei, Queen, she did not dare to think. As long as the Marquis of Yongan is around, she will always be the Marquis’ daughter, and she will have a lifetime of wealth and prosperity.
Zhou Xianhan listened to the two Zhang Clan daughters cry miserably, watched as they quickly removed themselves from their relationship, and let loose a big laugh in the hall: ”This is my good mother and good Wangfei ah. You Zhang family members, you really are all the same, full of nothing but calculations and no sincerity at all.”
After saying that, he looked at the Emperor, “Father, I have nothing to say about my son’s stolen riches and wealth that came to an end in one day. However, the Zhang family is not a good thing either! The Western Qin assassin who assassinated King Yu in Jing Yi Yuan was authorized by Marquis Zhang Huai of Yong An to be met by Eddie Xie, the Governor of Gyeonggi Water Transportation under his former command. There’s also Yu Xiangyi, who was also sent to the capital by the Zhang family, and was originally intended to be used to frame the fourth brother! Zhang Huai said, “If we don’t bring down Yu Wang, it will always be a disaster!”