novelraw Chapter 688 - 677: The Cuckolded Prince
Chapter 688 - 677: The Cuckolded Prince
"You want Hong Ying to serve you?" Ye Qiu suddenly spoke up.
"Exactly." The young master glared sternly, and then upon seeing Ye Qiu’s true face, he froze and said with a lecherous gaze, "I don’t need Miss Hong Ying. If you serve me personally, that’ll do just fine."
"How dare you!" Little Lu shouted angrily upon hearing this, and his mother’s face turned ashen.
"How dare I? Isn’t it just for silver? I have plenty of it." The young master, obviously quite wealthy, took out a handful of silver notes and waved them in the air, "Is this enough?"
Ye Qiu sneered: "You want me to serve you? Besides silver, you’ll probably need to stake your life. Someone, seize him and take him to the Capital Governor, and let’s see what kind of crime it is to defile a Prince of the current dynasty."
The young master saw Ye Qiu revealing his identity, and as a few guards came over from next door, he became panicked and blurted out, "Just because you say you’re a Prince? Which Prince would come to a place like this?"
"True or false, you’ll know once we get to the Capital Governor. Take him away," Ye Qiu said sternly.
"Let go, let go of me, who knows where you are taking me?" The young master had several guards with him, and they quickly entangled with Ye Qiu’s men.
Ye Qiu, with his keen eyes, noticed that the two new servants exchanged glances as the scuffle began, and then both hid their hands in their sleeves, from where a glint of cold light flickered. With so many people around, only he noticed this.
Unfortunately for them, they were not as fast as Ye Qiu. As they were about to act, Ye Qiu pretended to panic and knocked over a table. The tea sets on the table shattered at the very moment, and the pieces of porcelain just happened to slice the hands they were holding the hidden weapons with.
"What’s that? Little Lu, someone is trying to assassinate me!" he cried out in alarm.
An assassination attempt on a Prince of the current dynasty quickly caused Fengyue Building to be surrounded by the Capital Governor’s and the Ministry of Justice’s men. The wealthy young master who caused the disturbance earlier was now so frightened that he wet his pants.
Although he knew that the young master had been used, Ye Qiu had no intention of letting him off. Daring to offer his service, he needed to be able to pay with his life!
The news of Ye Qiu’s assassination attempt quickly spread throughout the capital, and even Consort Hui in the palace heard about it.
"Who would be so bold? And what is his motive?" Consort Hui asked, her gaze profound.
"This slave dares to make a bold guess," said the senior palace maid beside her.
"What guess? Let’s hear it."
"The timing of the Fifth Prince’s assassination attempt is too coincidental, occurring right after the Emperor granted the marriage. My Lady, do you think someone can’t stand the fact that you are drawing the Fifth Prince to your side?"
Consort Hui frowned: "But if the Fifth Prince dies, those things would also fall into Lin Jingxian’s hands, the Crown Prince wouldn’t be able to get them, would he?"
"But what if Lin Jingxian is actually the Crown Prince’s person?"
Consort Hui suddenly turned back to look at the senior palace maid: "What do you know?"
"This is also a guess of this slave, it is said that the Fifth Princess Consort had a cherished person before she got married. Everyone thought her cherished one was the Fifth Prince, but if it was truly the Fifth Prince, would she stay at the suburban manor for three years without returning? And My Lady, think about it, during the three years that the Fifth Princess Consort stayed at the suburban manor, didn’t the Crown Prince frequently leave the capital?"
Consort Hui really started to think carefully, and with that, her suspicions grew stronger. The suburb had only a few hot spring manors and a hunting ground, yet the Crown Prince went there once every month or two. Could it be that every time he really went hunting?
"So, you are saying that the assassination attempt on Fifth Prince was the work of the Crown Prince?"
"This is also a guess of your servant. However, the man who argued with the Fifth Prince was just an ordinary rich young master. How could he have the resources to train a Hidden Guard? Those two died as soon as they entered the Heavenly Prison."
"Then what should we do? The Fifth Prince is outside the palace; even if something happens to him, we’re helpless to assist!" Consort Hui was anxious. If indeed the Crown Prince and Lin Jingxian succeeded, what would become of her?
"Lady, please don’t worry. After all, the Fifth Prince is a Prince, and he will certainly be more vigilant after this assassination attempt. Why don’t we wait and see? The New Year is coming soon. What if we catch the Crown Prince and the Fifth Princess Consort red-handed then?"
"But this is inside the palace. Wouldn’t they be particularly cautious?"
"It’s precisely because it’s inside the palace that they won’t be as alert as usual. Even if we can’t catch them, we wouldn’t lose anything, would we?"
"You make sense." Consort Hui nodded her head and then patted the hand of the palace maid, saying, "Thank goodness for you, I can handle my affairs in the palace so conveniently."
The palace maid knelt down, gratefully saying, "If it weren’t for Lady’s help back then, my worthless brother would have been gone long ago. It is your servant’s duty to do anything for Lady."
However, after the palace maid returned to her own room, she secretly passed a note out of the window. The note made its way around and eventually ended up in the Empress’s Changxin Palace.
Ye Qiu’s assassination attempt enraged Emperor Xingwu. No matter how irresponsible Ye Qiu was, he was still his son. Who would dare to be so bold? He issued a death order to the Minister of the Ministry of Justice and the Capital Governor to find out the truth within ten days, or they would meet with their heads.
The Minister of the Ministry of Justice was the father of the Eldest Prince’s Princess Consort, and the Capital Governor was the father of the Tenth Prince’s Princess Consort. This case seemed simple, but was actually intricate and complex, and most crucially, the two key figures had committed suicide. Ten days’ time—wasn’t this blatantly oppressing the two Princes?
However, these two servants looked like they had been trained. There wouldn’t be many with such Death Guards.
But the further they investigated, the colder the sweat on their backs grew. No matter how they looked at it, they couldn’t extricate the Crown Prince from the case.
The two of them were in a state of consternation, but on the last day of the deadline, they still presented all the evidence they had found.
Looking at the two memorials, Emperor Xingwu’s face grew darker and darker, then he furiously threw the memorials onto the faces of the kneeling men: "Is this the perfunctory rubbish you found to placate me?"
"Your humble official dares not be perfunctory to Your Majesty." Their heads thudded heavily on the ground, and then they mourned silently for themselves, fearing this predicament was insurmountable.
As expected, Emperor Xingwu exploded with anger: "Bring in the guards, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice and the Capital Governor are inept in their duties; strip them of their positions and throw them into the great prison immediately."
The two did not beg for mercy but declared loudly: "Please discern the truth, Your Majesty, we have been true to our conscience."
After the two were taken away, Emperor Xingwu remained silent, looking at the memorials on the ground, before eventually ordering someone to pick them up.
The next day, the young aristocrat who insulted Ye Qiu and his family were sentenced to death for the crime of plotting to murder a current Prince. But anyone with clear eyes knew that although he was guilty, the crime wasn’t that.
Otherwise, why would both the Minister of the Ministry of Justice and the Capital Governor, who investigated the case, be stripped of their positions and locked in the great prison without anyone being allowed to visit? There was definitely a trick here, and the person behind it was not someone simple, moreover, it was someone protected by the Emperor himself.
There are not many who fit this criterion. Who could it be? Who wants the Fifth Prince dead so badly?