pappabearbooks Chapter 680: Confrontation in front of the palace
Chapter 680: Confrontation in front of the palace
Old Lady Liu slowly knelt down with the help of a cane.
"Your Majesty, I have a grievance that I am holding in my heart. Today I am willing to risk my life to ask Your Majesty to make a decision for me!"
The old emperor stared at Old Lady Liu expressionlessly.
"Old Lady, today is the wedding day of the Sixth Prince and Princess Zhaoyang. If there are any grievances, let's talk about it another day."
When Old Lady Liu raised her head, her face was covered with tears.
"It is today, this wedding day, that has brought back sad memories for me. My daughter passed away at a young age, and I, an old man, have to bear the loss of my daughter. I feel grief every time I think of this. I thought my daughter was unlucky and could not become the wife of the Marquis of Yong'an, but I just learned recently that there was another reason for my daughter's death!"
As soon as these words were spoken, there was a commotion in the hall, and everyone's eyes turned to Wei Xianzhi, the Marquis of Yong'an. The latter had an unclear expression and his eyes were fixed on Old Lady Liu.
Some of the guests were talking in low voices.
"It is said that the Marquis of Yong'an and the late Madam were childhood sweethearts and had a very close relationship. After the late Madam died during childbirth, he was grief-stricken and depressed for a long time. Is there some other hidden story behind this?"
"Old Lady Liu is the head of the Liu family. She was able to support the Liu family's huge business at a young age. She is a man of swift and decisive character. If her daughter's cause of death was not unknown, how could she choose to mention it in public on the day of the Sixth Prince's wedding?"
As the voices of criticism continued to rise, the eldest princess's face became extremely ugly.
She walked slowly to Old Lady Liu.
"Old Madam, today is the wedding day of the Sixth Prince and my daughter. Even if you have anything to say, you should wait until after today to bring it up. Isn't this behavior disrupting the wedding of the newlyweds?"
Old Lady Liu raised her head and stared at the eldest princess with sharp eyes.
"Because the eldest princess' daughter is getting married, I must seek justice for my daughter who died unjustly in public!"
After saying this, without waiting for the Grand Princess to speak, Old Madam Liu prostrated herself on the ground in the hall and said loudly, "I want to sue the Grand Princess Ronghua of our dynasty for taking human life lightly. She deliberately approached my daughter because she liked the Marquis of Yong'an. After gaining my daughter's trust, she secretly colluded with the imperial physicians of the Imperial Hospital and sent a large amount of supplements to the Marquis of Yong'an's mansion in the name of nourishment. Taking those supplements together will cause overnutrition and the fetus will grow too fast, leading to dystocia. During this period, she also bribed the maidservant who came with my daughter as a dowry and asked her to secretly add chronic poison to my daughter's food. Everything I said is true. I hope Your Majesty will understand!"
"The Grand Princess killed Liu? That's impossible, isn't it? After Liu died, the Grand Princess helped her take care of the infant Prince Wei when she was in her boudoir."
A woman whispered, "Who knows if it was done on purpose to show it to Marquis Yong'an? Back then, Marquis Yong'an was the most handsome man in the capital, and the whole of Bianjing knew that the princess had a crush on him."
"If what Old Lady Liu said is true, then the Princess is too cruel."
The Grand Princess was furious: "Anyone who dares to gossip again will be dragged out and beaten to death!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the scene fell into silence.
The old emperor spoke in a deep voice.
"Does Old Lady Liu have any evidence? Slandering the royal family is a capital crime!"
Old Lady Liu stood up and looked at the old emperor: "I have a witness. This person is my daughter's personal maid who betrayed her master for fame. This person is outside the palace."
"Oh? Bring the person in!"
"Yes!"
The guards brought a middle-aged woman in tattered clothes into the hall. The woman looked around timidly, and when her eyes fell on the Grand Princess, she showed obvious fear.
"Don't... don't kill me, please, Princess. I drugged Madam according to your wishes. I don't want to die, please have mercy on me."
The eldest princess glared at the other person with a gloomy face and shouted angrily: "Who dared to slander me, this crazy woman? Get her out immediately!"
Old Lady Liu snorted coldly: "Marquis Yong'an, come and take a good look. Do you still recognize this person?"
Marquis Yong'an walked forward with an unclear expression, stared at the crazy woman carefully, and immediately recognized her.
"Why don't you speak, Lord? Do you know her?"
Under the old lady's questioning, Marquis Yong'an looked at the eldest princess, and the eldest princess was also looking at him.
After a struggle in his heart, he closed his eyes.
"I don't know her."
Old Lady Liu laughed sarcastically for a while: "Good, very good, my daughter was really blind to marry a heartless person like you! She died because of you, and now you are trying to protect the murderer. Justice is clear, Marquis Yong'an, don't dream about Zhen'er when you sleep tonight!"
Marquis Yong'an suddenly felt as if his heart was hit hard by a hammer, and it was so depressing that it was difficult to breathe.
Wei Zhao strode to the front of the hall and bowed to the old emperor.
"Your Majesty, I heard from the servants in the palace that my mother's personal maid disappeared after her death. I was still young at the time and I don't know what she looked like, but her indenture was in my mother's dowry. I happened to bring it with me today. There are her fingerprints on it. We can confirm her identity by asking a professional coroner to verify it."
"Zhao'er!" Wei Xianzhi shouted anxiously.
Wei Zhao looked at Wei Xianzhi coldly: "Father, as a son, I cannot watch my mother die unjustly without relief!"
Wei Xianzhi suddenly felt as if his soul had been sucked out of him, his mind went blank, and he took a step back weakly.
If the princess admitted the maid's identity, she would be guilty, but if she did not admit it, she would be sorry for her deceased wife, and she would end up letting someone down.
"Someone, go to the Ministry of Justice and ask for the coroner."
The old emperor opened his mouth, and the Sixth Prince stepped forward hastily: "Father, today is my son's big day. It would be unlucky to ask for a coroner. Is it possible..."
The old emperor glared at him coldly and said, "This matter involves the reputation of the eldest princess, so we must investigate it thoroughly. If the Liu family has wronged the eldest princess, I will definitely punish them severely!"
The Sixth Prince frowned, and Wei Yang also looked displeased.
The Liu family's disturbance completely disrupted their plans. It seemed that the plan had to be carried out ahead of schedule.
The princess looked at Wei Zhao with a sharp gaze. It was true that a child born from someone else's belly should not be raised, even if he was brought up from the cradle. Now, for the sake of his biological mother whom he had never met, he chose to stab her in the back. If she had known that this kid was so ruthless, she should not have let him live!
It took the guards half an hour to go to the Ministry of Justice to bring people back and forth. During this time, no one in the hall dared to move. After all, it was a royal scandal and no one dared to talk about it loudly.
Yan Shu sat in the corner of the back row and took advantage of the break to eat something to fill his stomach. Soon, the departing guard came in with a coroner. He asked the woman to press her handprints on a piece of white paper and compared them with the handprints on the indenture. After just a moment's inspection, he said to the old emperor, "Your Majesty, these two handprints are indeed from the same person."
The old emperor looked at the eldest princess and Old Lady Liu.
"So this crazy woman is indeed Liu's personal maid? Princess, do you have anything else to say?"
The eldest princess was full of dissatisfaction: "Brother, you can see that this woman is not in her right mind. How can you take her words seriously? In my opinion, someone must have instigated her to say this in order to slander me!"
Old Lady Liu sneered: "Since the Grand Princess refuses to admit it, I have other evidence."
Under the Grand Princess's cold gaze, the old lady took out two account books from her sleeves.
"Your Majesty, one of these two account books is from the Imperial Hospital's medical consultation records. It records in detail which palace has taken what tonic medicine from the Imperial Hospital. The other one is the Yong'an Marquis's gift storage account book. There are detailed records in these two account books that on the thirteenth day of the autumn of the fourth year of Hongwu, the princess's personal maid went to the Imperial Hospital to get medicine. The one who prescribed the medicine at that time was the left imperial physician. The prescription in this account book was also written by the left imperial physician himself. As long as you check the left imperial physician's handwriting, you can know whether it is true or not."