Chapter 111: Interrogating Crimes (3)

Chapter 111: Interrogation of Crimes (3)

"If you want to frame someone, you can always find a reason!" Consort Dowager Ying, having just lost face, waved her sleeve angrily. "That letter in your hand is not made of Snow Cedar paper, bears no seal of my son, and the handwriting is not his! This so-called second crime is pure nonsense!"

Xie Chengyi: "Consort Mother is right. This letter was definitely not written by me!"

Consort Dowager Ying composed herself and decided to take the initiative: "If we're talking about him taking in Qin Yuanshan's two sons, the Second Prince is at most guilty of misconduct and a lapse in virtue. But the charge of human trafficking that Lord Shen has leveled at him is meant to kill my son! I've got to wonder whether Lord Shen has someone behind him instructing him to ensure Chengyi's death!"

As she spoke, Consort Dowager Ying cast a meaningful glance at Xie Nai.

"Xie Chengyi knows what he has done. I have no time to bother with a good-for-nothing." Xie Nai sneered, his voice as cold as ice.

"Xie Nai, you are too arrogant!" Anyone would be enraged to hear their own son called a good-for-nothing, and Consort Dowager Ying was no exception.

However, Consort Dowager Ying's fury seemed as light as dust to Xie Nai, who didn't even deign to give them a glance. It was Shen Fuqing who stepped in to "mediate."

"'If you blame yourself more and others less, people won't resent you.' Surely you know that saying, so please don't interrupt with irrelevant matters. Let us stick to the main business."

Having said that, Shen Fuqing pointed to a certain official from the Court of Judicial Review and said, "Present the letters the Prince of Lingnan brought back from the Zhaoxiu Tower in Nanzhou."

As his words fell, an official immediately brought forward the relevant letters and the register of personnel contacts from Zhaoxiu Tower that Xun Xi had recorded.

Shen Fuqing casually opened a letter for comparison, and this time the handwriting matched.

"Your Ladyship, look! The handwriting is exactly the same!"

Shen Fuqing feigned astonishment, but Xie Chengyi naturally wouldn't admit it. "I did not write that. Shen Fuqing, don't slander me."

"There is a young eunuch by the Second Prince's side whom he values highly—the one whose arm was shot through by the Prince of Lingnan's arrow last time at the Miao residence. That writing is his. He hurt his left hand last time. Lord Shen can send someone to arrest him for a confrontation." Qin Chaole, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly spoke up.

"Qin Chaole, you backstabbing brat!" Xie Chengyi wished he could tear Qin Chaole apart right then and there.

"Go and arrest him." But Shen Fuqing didn't care about Xie Chengyi's anger. He waved his hand, and Shadow Guards immediately went out to make the arrest. Since Consort Dowager Ying and her trusted nanny were both here, there was no fear of them pulling any tricks in secret.

"It will take some time to apprehend him. In the meantime, let us meet the witnesses in the Nanzhou trafficking case."

Shen Fuqing's expression was too calm, and Xie Chengyi suddenly felt a bad premonition.

"Summon Li Xiaohu and Zuo Mengmeng." The next second, the witnesses Shen Fuqing called indeed confirmed Xie Chengyi's suspicions.

Li Xiaohu and Zuo Mengmeng had been hiding among the crowd. When they heard Shen Fuqing call them, Li Xiaohu quickly pulled Zuo Mengmeng out and knelt in the center of the room.

When Consort Dowager Ying saw Li Xiaohu and Zuo Mengmeng, she suddenly glared fiercely at Xie Chengyi. "Didn't you say they were your maidservants? How are they witnesses?"

Seeing that Consort Dowager Ying seemed unaware of Li Xiaohu and Zuo Mengmeng's identities, Shen Fuqing kindly enlightened her. "Your Ladyship, you are unaware. These two are not bought maidservants but were trafficked from Nanzhou and Wuyuan County by the Second Prince.

After they arrived in the capital, the Second Prince used 'Charming Spring' to control them, keeping them bound to him while tempting them with silk, gold, and silver. Though wealth dazzles the eyes, these two young ladies have never changed their true hearts. They've been pretending to go along with the Second Prince all along, waiting for this day when justice prevails and the villain is brought to heel."

"Thank you, Lord Shen, for rescuing us common women from the fire and water." Li Xiaohu knelt on the ground, her eyes swollen from crying.

Qin Jiao felt sorrowful at the sight. Poor girls, trafficked to the capital thousands of li from home, tormented by that love drug, their parents dead from searching for them, while they had to play along with their enemy and smile at him.

"We're willing to testify. We were trafficked by the Second Prince's men, Yun Niang and Xun Xi, stationed at the Zhaoxiu Tower in Nanzhou. There is still residual poison of 'Charming Spring' in our bodies. If the esteemed officials do not believe it, simply summon a physician to verify."

Li Xiaohu spoke resolutely. Beside her, Zuo Mengmeng hung her head and responded in a voice barely a whisper, "Yes, Li Xiaohu is right. It was all the Second Prince's coercion."

The room fell into dead silence again. Then Miao Mao's voice rang out: "No need to summon a physician. I personally gave them the 'Charming Spring' drug, as well as Qin Chaole's. I can testify that what they say is true."

"I have seen them many times at the Miao residence," Qin Chaole frequently interjected and testified, seemingly determined to have Xie Chengyi convicted.

Qin Jiao quietly watched this unfold, his fingers subtly rubbing a thumb-sized porcelain bottle.

It was the bottle Li Xiaohu had secretly slipped to him when she bumped into him on the way to Consort Dowager Ying's villa. Qin Jiao had later opened it and found the antidote for "Charming Spring," identical to the one Military Doctor Hou had given him.

Qin Jiao guessed that Li Xiaohu must have overheard Xie Chengyi's plan to secretly abduct him and had stolen the antidote for him.

Qin Jiao had not done much to help Li Xiaohu before, yet she was willing to risk her safety for him. So Shen Fuqing's words about "true hearts never changing" were indeed apt.

Just as Qin Jiao was marveling at this, the Shadow Guards sent to arrest the eunuch returned.

"Lord Shen, the young eunuch by the Second Prince has been captured!"

Shen Fuqing glanced at the trembling young eunuch and said coldly, "Bring him in and prepare a brush and ink."

Solving a case is like irrigating a cracked dry field: as long as the water flows, success is assured. In this series of cases initiated by the Second Prince, the various pieces of evidence were like the "water" irrigating the dry field. Once the "water" reached its proper place, the full picture of the case would come together.

The captured young eunuch quickly wrote a few lines. Although fear made his writing somewhat shaky, upon comparison, the handwriting matched the letters Xun Xi had kept.

Shen Fuqing handed the eunuch's newly written characters, along with the secret letters seized from Xie Chengyi's study and the letters Xie Nai had brought back from Nanzhou, to Consort Dowager Ying. "Your Ladyship, please take a look. If no objections, I'll move on to the Second Prince's third crime: intentional murder at the Court of Judicial Review."

After Shen Fuqing finished, Consort Dowager Ying did not explode in rage. Instead, Xie Chengyi finally lost control. "Nonsense! Utter nonsense! I want to see Xie Xuanran! I want to see Xie Xuanran!"

As if possessed, Xie Chengyi wildly swung his walking stick, his eyes bloodshot, as if they might soon shed tears of blood.

"I am the Second Prince! My mother is the most honored Noble Consort Dowager in the palace! My uncle is the National Father! Who do you lowlifes think you are to try me?"

Some officials from the Second Prince's faction tried to restrain Xie Chengyi, but he beat them off with his cane. "And you ungrateful bastards! I fed you, clothed you, and you dare betray me!"

Xie Chengyi cursed Qin Chaole, Li Xiaohu, and Zuo Mengmeng, and finally tried to strike them with his stick.

"Your Highness, Mengmeng never betrayed..."

Zuo Mengmeng opened her mouth to speak, but Xie Chengyi's stick had already come down.

"Mengmeng, get out of the way!" At the last second, Li Xiaohu shoved Zuo Mengmeng out of the way and also pulled Qin Chaole away.

"Chengyi, what are you doing? Stop immediately!" Consort Dowager Ying freaked out and tried to grab Xie Chengyi, but Shen Fuqing couldn't stand anyone being crazier than him.

"Men, tie up the Second Prince and gag him!"

As his words fell, several Shadow Guards stepped forward and quickly took down the raving Xie Chengyi.

"How dare you! Insolent!"

Consort Dowager Ying saw that a Shadow Guard was indeed about to stuff a cloth into Xie Chengyi's mouth. She couldn't stay seated, ran over, and slapped the guard across the face. "How dare you disrespect the prince! I'll have your whole clan wiped out!"

Shen Fuqing also stood up, walked over to Consort Dowager Ying, and said, "Your Ladyship, look at the Second Prince now. If you let him keep talking, are you sure he won't say something treasonous?" He pointed to the Shadow Guard who'd been slapped. "I'm afraid it won't be his family killed, but Your Ladyship incriminated by the Second Prince."

"You..."

Before Consort Dowager Ying could rebut, Xie Chengyi on the ground started convulsing. Like a crab just yanked out of water, his long arms and legs thrashed wildly, white foam pouring from his mouth.

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