“There are letters exchanged between the Grand Heir and Zhang Tianshi.” He wasn’t the least bit flustered. Looking carefully, there was even some amusement in his eyes: “There is also His Highness’s seal.” He raised his head, surveyed the circle of people in the hall, then looked again at the back of Zhou Weizhao in the distance whose expression couldn’t be clearly seen. His voice was resonant: “Moreover, both the Grand Heir and the Grand Heir Consort have residences near the Temple of the Yellow Immortal. Inside the residences are secret chambers—they once received Jiangxi Governor Yang Yunyong and Imperial Guard Commander Lai Chenglong there.”

Kong Shun’s eyes were piercing. Kneeling on the ground, his hands even trembled slightly from excessive excitement, but there wasn’t a trace of panic on his face—only a smile full of mockery: “None of these can be faked. There are also Cuiting and Mingtai beside His Highness, who once followed His Highness’s orders…”

Before he could finish speaking, Empress Dowager Lu grabbed the teacup beside her and swiftly threw it at him, striking Old Kong’s temple so that a trickle of blood slowly seeped out, trickling down bit by bit along with the tea leaves.

Liang Tong shrieked and jumped up, quite unwilling to submit, craning his neck to look at Empress Dowager Lu with righteous indignation and a cold laugh: “Is Your Majesty now angry from shame?!” He didn’t give Empress Dowager Lu a chance to refute, nor could he see how Empress Dowager Lu trembled with anger. In his eyes and heart, he only felt that such a person who had lost all virtue and moral conduct was truly unfit to be the sovereign of their Great Zhou. Therefore, he finally stopped even pretending, looking straight ahead and cupping his hands: “Now we have testimony, we have witnesses as well. Surely Your Majesty the Empress Dowager should believe the truth now? This is how things are—why must Your Majesty still insist on refusing to believe it?”

Feng Yinglong, who had been kneeling on the ground without moving all this time, had knelt so long that he didn’t even feel the slightest pain in his feet. Kneeling ramrod straight, he really couldn’t understand what was happening. Old Kong was the Lu family’s confidant—how could he turn himself in? The more he thought about it, the more he felt this matter was wrong. Now, with Old Kong appearing in this Taiji Hall, he felt things were even more wrong.

It wasn’t just him who felt things were wrong—in fact, all the civil and military officials in the entire Taiji Hall were in an uproar, feeling completely bewildered, utterly unable to understand how things had suddenly taken such a sharp turn for the worse to reach this point.

But the facts were already present. What Liang Tong said also made sense. They fell silent for a moment, all looking toward Chief Grand Secretary Chang, waiting to see what the highly respected Chief Grand Secretary would say.

Chief Grand Secretary Chang didn’t even glance at Old Kong on the ground. He stroked his beard and bowed deeply toward the head of the hall: “This old subject believes Lord Liang speaks reasonably. Now both witness testimony and physical evidence are present…”

Now it was time to close the net. Take Old Kong and the others away for further interrogation, and the mastermind behind it all would probably emerge. He was just hesitating about how to gloss over the matter of the acting emperor for now—otherwise, if they really selected an acting emperor, wouldn’t it be awkward later between the acting emperor and Zhou Weizhao? Moreover, His Majesty wasn’t actually dead. When there was an acting emperor, what would His Majesty say then?

But before he could finish speaking, Empress Dowager Lu had already stood up with a flick of her sleeves, pointing at Old Kong kneeling on the ground, who was now rendered speechless by everyone’s comments, and said sternly: “What do you mean ‘both witness testimony and physical evidence are present’?!”

Empress Dowager Lu raised her eyebrows and laughed coldly, looking at Old Kong with utter contempt, then turned her gaze to the civil and military officials: “What kind of witness is he? According to what he says, the Grand Heir entrusted all these terrible deeds to him, at the very least not hiding them from him. He should have known early on what the Grand Heir was planning to do, but what did he do?!”

Empress Dowager Lu angrily interrupted Liang Tong’s attempt to speak: “He neither actively reported it nor advised the Grand Heir against it. Instead, he waited until after the incident to act like a Monday morning quarterback. This kind of person…”

Old Kong didn’t feel ashamed at all. He raised his eyes to look at Empress Dowager Lu: “This subordinate did speak of it…”

Empress Dowager Lu mercilessly interrupted his words: “He is a household servant of the Lu family. The Lu family has always treated his family well. Even after they later gave him to the Grand Heir, the Grand Heir’s good treatment of him is there for all to see—promoting him all the way to become Chief Bodyguard of the Eastern Palace. But he betrays his master and forgets kindness like this. Do you all believe the words of such a person?!”

Liang Tong instinctively felt Empress Dowager Lu was being unreasonable: “Your Majesty, what are you talking about?! Right now we’re discussing the matter of the Grand Heir plotting to harm His Majesty!” He composed himself with a solemn expression, truly feeling that Empress Dowager Lu was somewhat irrational and disregarding the bigger picture: “At this point, what’s the use of talking about this person’s character?! Right now, the most crucial thing is to pacify the hearts of the people throughout the realm, to give the common people under heaven an explanation!”

Chief Grand Secretary Chang also raised his hand and coughed, looking toward Empress Dowager Lu: “Your Majesty…”

He knew how filled with righteous indignation Empress Dowager Lu was right now. In fact, when he saw that the one making the accusation was Old Kong, he too had been shocked. It was just that his thoughts went even deeper—Old Kong was someone from the Lu family, after all…

Old Kong also lived up to expectations by starting to kowtow fiercely: “This subordinate previously devoted great effort to advising the Grand Heir, but the Grand Heir was single-mindedly listening to the bewitchment of Zhang Tianshi and others, wanting to murder His Majesty to cover up the fact that he framed Prince Gong. Therefore, he was willful and obstinate, completely refusing to listen to advice. This subordinate was even monitored—I was truly willing but powerless…”

The lies grew more and more outrageous. Empress Dowager Lu was so angry that her body truly trembled violently. Her face flushed bright red as she spat at him: “You’re lying!”

Whether it was lies or not didn’t matter anymore. The thoughts of all the civil and military officials were no different from Liang Tong’s. Who cared how much more of the imperial family’s dirty laundry they planned to expose? They didn’t care about that. They only cared about the common people in Xibei, only cared that if this scandal continued endlessly, it would affect the hearts of people throughout the realm, would disappoint and dishearten those garrison commanders at the borders. This farce had dragged on until now—simply endless. Who had time to care about the imperial family’s dirty laundry?!

Right now they couldn’t even cover it up in time. The imperial family had caused such a scandal—did the Empress Dowager think this was something glorious?

They could bear it no longer and knelt down in unison. At this point, who cared about who was wronged or not wronged, innocent or not innocent? Having reached this stage, regardless of what the truth of the matter actually was, first imprisoning the Grand Heir and waiting for future disposition was the most proper thing to do. All other matters had to take a back seat.

Empress Dowager Lu froze in place, feeling that this scene was even more terrifying than when Prince Tai had attacked the palace back then. Yet at this very moment, she couldn’t even flee…

She remained frozen for a long time. Just as she was about to speak, a young eunuch outside suddenly stumbled running in and knelt on the ground: “Your Majesty, Your Highness—Zhang Tianshi says he has a way to cure His Majesty’s poison!”

Cure the poison?! The great hall, which had just been clamorous, fell silent once again. Everyone looked at that young eunuch in disbelief, all suspecting they had heard wrong.