Chapter 428 - 428The fourth princess raised an eyebrow in satisfaction when she heard this. She met the empress"s gaze in the air, and after exchanging a few glances, they moved away without a trace.
President Zhang"s words were like a stone that caused a thousand ripples.
Everyone was shocked!
The Emperor became even more furious after hearing that, he wanted to pull Wei Yuanwei down from the ground and beat him to death.
"Men, drag this woman down and put her in prison!" The Empress"s hand pointed straight in the direction of Wei Yuanwei.
The people standing by Wei Yuanwei"s side immediately pretended to be birds of a feather, afraid that the Emperor"s finger would point at them and cause them to be imprisoned as well.
Even though the emperor was pointing at it in such a way, Wei Yuanwei"s expression was still calm. Not a single ripple could be seen in his eyes as he looked at the painting in front of his, his spoken words saying, "Your majesty, this picture of the east slope is indeed real, but what this humble woman saw just now was indeed fake."
"Wei Yuanwei, you really are unyielding. Even at this point, you still want to go all out and refuse to admit it?" (TL: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU) When the Queen heard this, her eyes slightly slanted and a light as sharp as a knife shot towards Wei Yuanwei.
Wei Yuanwei"s expression changed slightly as she walked in front of the painting and read through it again. Her red lips moved slightly, as if a demonic and poisonous poppy flower had bloomed at the corner of her mouth. "Your Majesty, Empress, since you already know my true ident.i.ty, then you should know of my lowly status. In fact, I have never even heard of the name "Grandmaster Jiang Liang" before! "
"Wei Yuanwei, I always thought you were a clever and obedient child, but now it seems that you aren"t? At this point, don"t you know that a wise man is wise? He was even thinking of ways to justify himself? If I were you, I would definitely beg the emperor to forgive you! " The empress lifted the corner of her bright red lips, revealing a pair of silver teeth.
"Drag him out for This Emperor!" the Emperor said again.
Before the eunuchs from both sides could come up, Wei Yuanwei said straightforwardly: "Your majesty, if you want to kill me, there is no need to be hasty. Moreover, today is New Year"s Eve, tomorrow is New Year"s Eve, so it is not suitable for you to see blood.
Tomorrow is the New Year, even if he wanted to kill Wei Yuanwei he would have to wait for another year.
"Alright, I"d like to see what tricks you can still pull!"
The Empress and Fourth Princess looked at Wei Yuanwei as if she was a chopping block on top of a cushion.
Zhong Lixian looked at Wei Yuanwei, and seeing her calm expression, she knew that Wei Yuanwei had the confidence to clear him of her crimes.
"Your Majesty, since I don"t understand painting, why is it that I can be so sure that the painting is fake?" Wei Yuanwei looked at the Emperor and the rest and asked.
At this moment, everyone fell into deep thought.
"Wei Yuanwei, although your ident.i.ty cannot be exposed, you have grown up in the Prime Minister"s Estate, so you should naturally come into contact with many paintings, right?" The Fourth Princess answered sharply, afraid that Wei Yuanwei would use this as an excuse.
"Fourth Princess, if you don"t believe me, you can go to the Eastern Chu Kingdom and ask around, or perhaps you can ask this concubine who has recognized me, how did I manage to survive in the Prime Minister"s Estate? "And where does he live?!" Wei Yuanwei looked at the concubine who had just stepped out to identify her. No matter how she looked at her, she had no impression of her.
For someone as proud and arrogant as Wei Guanshu, all of them were powerful n.o.bles. To be invited by Wei Guanshu as a guest at her home, her status would naturally not be low.
Furthermore, a person who had long married into the Xiling as her concubine naturally did not have a high position.
This kind of person, Wei Guanshu did not even put him in her eyes!
Conspiracy, it was all a conspiracy. Ever since she entered the Ten Thousand Flowers House to appraise that painting, the Conspiracy of Conspiracy had begun to open its web for her. Step by step, it pulled her into a quagmire, causing her to sink deeper and deeper into her quagmire … "Pmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm …"
When the concubine saw Wei Yuanwei looking at her, she immediately lowered her head in guilt.
Zhong Lixian took a deep glance at Wei Yuanwei. At this time, she should be extremely unwilling to talk about the past and her childhood, which she hadn"t paid any attention to in the Prime Minister"s Estate.
"Imperial Father and Mother, this son is willing to use his own life to guarantee that Wei Yuanwei, who was living in the Prime Minister"s Residence at that time, did not come into contact with any paintings or literature!"
"This w.a.n.gfei doesn"t care if Wei Yuanwei knows or not about paintings, or if she will appraise them, my map of the east slope has disappeared. Furthermore, I found it in the crown prince"s palace!" The Fourth Princess didn"t care about anything else and didn"t want to continue wasting time with Wei Yuanwei.
"Then how do you know if this painting belongs to the crown prince? Maybe the real item has always been kept by the Crown Prince, because the Crown Prince told me then that the portrait I saw was fake! " Wei Yuanwei"s gaze slightly contracted as he spoke with absolute certainty.
When Zhong Lixian heard this, her expression hesitated for a moment, as if she was struggling something. In the end, she walked in front of Wei Yuanwei and said to the Empress, "Royal father, mother, it was indeed as Wei Yuanwei said. This son was worried that Wei Yuanwei"s ident.i.ty would be exposed, so she told Wei Yuanwei that the painting was fake.
Hearing this, the empress put down her hands on her knees and clenched them tightly. Her face remained calm as she said, "String"er, are you trying to bully the king because of this woman?"
Zhong Lixian immediately knelt down, her words became even more a.s.sured: "This son does not dare, but everything I say is true!"
"I never knew that you, Yin"er, had the desire to collect paintings!" How could the empress not be angry?
In order to scheme with Wei Yuanwei, she had brought out the real east slope map that she had been hiding for a long time, and had the Eunuch Li secretly place it in the crown prince palace. However, Zhong Lixian insisted that the map was his.
"If Imperial Mother doesn"t believe me, you can send someone to the main hall of the crown prince"s palace. There is a secret pa.s.sage below the main hall, and it is filled with paintings and antiques that I have collected over the years!" Zhong Lixian had invested a lot this time.
The reason why he had been able to gather all those antiques was because he wanted to find information on the underworld clans. He never thought that it would be useful at this time.
The empress"s armoured hands suddenly rested on the arms of the seat and she clenched them tightly.
The more the emperor listened, the more confused he became. Originally, if he found the painting he would be able to punish Wei Yuanwei for her death sentence, but halfway through it, Zhong Lixian suddenly appeared out of nowhere and said that the painting was his own.