“Your Highness! Are you still protecting him?! He’s trying to harm you like this?!” After Tong Ji finished speaking, as if remembering something, he hurriedly turned to kowtow to the Emperor: “Your Majesty! It must be Gao Sheng harming our Highness! He used to be…”
“Tong Ji, shut your mouth!”
The usually cowardly Prince Liang’s stern voice carried an overwhelming, dark, sinister aura and fury, startling people’s hearts. Even the Emperor sitting high above was shocked.
Bai Qingyan looked at Prince Liang and sneered coldly in her heart. Prince Liang had always performed his cowardly and incompetent act to perfection, with skill more penetrating than the opera performers at West Garden in the southern part of the city. She hadn’t expected he would also have such moments of losing composure.
“Your Highness?!” Tong Ji was also frightened by Prince Liang’s sudden burst of strength, his tears frozen in his eye sockets.
In just an instant, the violent aura around Prince Liang dissipated as if it had never appeared, and he crawled on his knees toward the Emperor: “Father Emperor! Father Emperor, how timid your son is – surely Father Emperor knows better than anyone?! Even if you gave your son ten thousand courage, your son would not dare collude with enemy nations! Your son only wanted to save Brother Prince Xin! I beseech Father Emperor to see clearly!”
Bai Qingyan raised her eyebrows slightly, though she wasn’t too surprised.
Prince Liang had originally openly sided with Prince Xin’s faction. Thus, pushing all of this onto Prince Xin wouldn’t be impossible, after all… whether with Qin Dezhao or Liu Huanzhang, he had given orders and conducted affairs using Prince Xin’s name.
She bowed respectfully to the Emperor: “Your Majesty, since Prince Liang has already admitted this is his handwriting, may Grandmother and this subject’s daughter examine the contents of Prince Liang’s letter?”
Upon hearing Bai Qingyan’s voice, the Emperor felt irritated in his heart and casually threw the letter over.
The white paper fluttered down to the ground. She wasn’t annoyed, bent down to pick up the letter, briefly scanned it, then presented it to the Grand Princess, so that the Grand Princess could know how Prince Liang had schemed to bring the Bai family to ruin.
The Emperor, who had just been momentarily shocked by his son’s imposing manner, repeatedly pondered Prince Liang’s words. Thinking of the word “son” in his speech, his heart ultimately felt paternal affection. Even though extremely angry, he only slammed his palm on the table and roared: “You bastard! What have you done? Tell the truth!”
“Father Emperor knows that Brother Prince Xin is the legitimate son, so your son has always been close to Brother Prince Xin. These years, thanks to Brother Prince Xin’s care! After Brother Prince Xin was demoted to commoner status by Father Emperor, your son was extremely anxious! Just at this time, an advisor from Brother Prince Xin’s mansion approached your son!”
Prince Liang wiped his snot and tears with his sleeve: “Brother Prince Xin’s advisor found your son… begging your son to save brother’s life. Previously, your son had told his brother about liking… liking the Bai family’s eldest miss, and about corresponding with the maid beside the Bai family’s eldest miss. I don’t know how this advisor knew about it, but he… gave your son this idea to save his brother!”
“At first, your son also felt this wasn’t proper!” Prince Liang said this while carefully glancing toward the Grand Princess’s direction, his voice weakening: “That advisor said… Duke Zhenguo is dead, but his brother is still alive; saving his brother is urgent! Otherwise, the place of exile is bitter and cold, and brother, having grown up pampered, surely couldn’t endure it! Father Emperor… that’s your son’s blood brother! He’s the Father Emperor’s most valued legitimate son! No matter what, your son wanted to save his brother’s life! So only then… did I comply!”
The Emperor’s hand gripping the chair armrest gradually loosened some strength. If it was… to save Prince Xin, the Emperor felt it was understandable: “Where is that advisor?!”
“Reporting to Father Emperor… that advisor told your son that after meeting Qin Dezhao, he would leave the capital, but…” Prince Liang seemed to think of something extremely frightening, his body trembling: “But later, Qin Dezhao died, and that advisor also disappeared. Your son… your son was truly terrified!”
Prince Liang’s tears and snot flowed together, making him look like a timid and incompetent vermin.
This Prince Liang, pretending to be foolish and confused, was simply trying to push everything onto Prince Xin’s head. Specifically involving Qin Dezhao… was even pushing the grain supply case that Lu Jin was currently investigating onto Prince Xin, instead of cleaning himself of all involvement.
“What about Liu Huanzhang?!” The Emperor pointed at Gao Sheng and Tian Weijun: “These two came from your Prince Liang’s mansion! This letter was written by you!”
“Liu Huanzhang, being in the capital, was also told by that advisor from Brother Prince Xin’s mansion to your son. That advisor had your son send people to watch over Liu Huanzhang. Before he left, he instructed your son that after confirming those letters were placed in Duke Zhenguo’s study, to have someone bring Liu Huanzhang to beat the drum at the Court of Judicial Review, accusing Duke Zhenguo of treason. This way, the brother could be extracted from the entire affair. Only then did your son have Gao Sheng watch over Liu Huanzhang.”
Prince Liang carefully lifted his eyes to glance at the Emperor’s grim expression, then fearfully lowered his head again: “Originally, your son planned that after the letters were placed in Duke Zhenguo’s mansion, I would bring Liu Huanzhang to see Father Emperor, then plead for the Bai family before Father Emperor. After all, all the young men of Duke Zhenguo’s family were already dead, and the Father Emperor had always been benevolent and surely wouldn’t take the lives of the Bai family’s widows. I… I could also save brother.”
“Until today, when these letters were read aloud by the Bai family’s fourth miss, your son knew the matter couldn’t be resolved quietly and could only make it bigger… to save Brother Prince Xin. Father Emperor… your son only wanted to save his brother!” Prince Liang said while looking toward the Grand Princess, crying very sorrowfully like a child: “Great-aunt grandmother, the Bai family’s young men are dead, and the dead cannot return to life. Do you really… want my brother to also pay with his life? We… are one family!”
The Emperor’s hand gripping the chair armrest trembled slightly. Although… this son of his was stupid and cowardly, he ultimately had a pure heart, only wanting to save his own brother. What was there to blame him for?!
The Grand Princess pressed her lips tightly together. After a long while, she slowly spoke, her voice filled with an old woman’s exhaustion: “Your Highness, imperial family matters… how can they only consider family reasoning? Even the Son of Heaven breaking the law faces the same punishment as commoners, moreover… listening to Your Highness’s words just now, it seems Prince Xin also has connections to this grain supply matter?”
Speaking to this point, the Grand Princess choked up and cried aloud: “My seventeenth-ranked little grandson was disemboweled by enemy troops… his belly full of mud and tree roots. If there had been grain supplies, why would he need to die so miserably?! To seize military merit… forcing Bai Weiting to lead troops into battle, this old woman can still understand Prince Xin’s desire to establish achievements! But cutting off the army’s grain supplies – what was this for? Could it be this was also to steal credit, so he wanted to harm our soldiers?”
The Grand Princess shook the letter in her hand: “This old woman has another question. In Your Highness’s letter, it states… if Liu Huanzhang refuses to comply or intends to use the entire matter of cooperation with Your Highness as leverage, Your Highness must have the entire Liu family join Liu Huanzhang in the underworld! What did Liu Huanzhang cooperate with Your Highness on?”