Chapter 917: Prince Zhou Capitalized on Prince Yue"s Disasters
It ended up that Duke Yong"s Mansion stood trial in the imperial court. Inspectors impeached Duke Yong for his lax management and accused Countess Yong of coveting her sister-in-law"s and daughter-in-law"s dowries for a long time. As a Madam of an aristocratic family, what she did had disgraced her whole family!
Some of them even suggested that Duke Yong divorce his wife.
Some others said Countess Yong had no womanly virtues and proposed to send her to the temple and order her to pray for blessings for her family there for the rest of her life.
Some people reported that Countess Yong, in order to monopolize the shops of her daughter-in-law, made the latter have a miscarriage, and later gave her the medicine that would cause permanent infertility!
She was an unbelievably vicious woman…
Faced with the charge and indictments of their crimes, Di Rufeng couldn"t speak a word but kneel in the hall trembling all over!
The Emperor was furious that he smashed all the memorials on Di Rufeng. Then he ordered everyone not to discuss it for the time being but to focus on more important affairs.
The intense accusation finally subsided thanks to the Emperor"s words. The ministers and officials returned to their positions and reported their political affairs.
Chu Liuchen, lazy, sat on a wide chair and squinted at the scene in front of him, with his head resting on one of his hands. The chair he sat was still there, though he was in good health now.
Chu Liuyue stood in his position with a calm look, and Chu Liuzhou stood behind him with the same peaceful face. So no one could see from the two faces that they were actually enemies of each other, hoping that the other would die as soon as possible. Right at the moment, one was fl.u.s.tered in his heart while the other was secretly complacent.
Chu Qing looked quite excited. Although he did not know the specific details, he faintly felt that it would not be simple.
The officials reported their events one by one, and the Emperor handled them with a majestic look. Everyone seemed to turn a blind eye to Duke Yong, Di Rufeng, who was still kneeling in the hall.
The helpless and desolate situation scared Di Rufeng. He took a deep breath. Then he remembered what Prince Yue said yesterday and what his wife and son had promised before he went out today. They said they would coax Qin Yuru back with the promise of satisfying all her demands, no matter what they would be. So the whole thing would be suppressed.
"How is it going on outside the Palace? It will be great if it ends up here!"
Di Rufeng felt extremely anxious, his back soaked in cold sweats. The Emperor"s emotional violence almost took his consciousness and forced him to faint in the hall.
Finally, the meeting was over. The Emperor went to the Imperial Study, followed by the princes, and Di Rufeng who was dragged by a eunuch.
When they arrived at the Imperial Study, the eunuch let go of Di Rufeng, who immediately fell to his knees. He was trembling all over.
It was a critical moment for him. He had no idea what the consequence would be at all, so he was haunted by fear now. The longer he stayed, the more pressure he stood.
A guard presented a memorial to the Emperor as soon as the latter entered the Imperial Study.
Derong took the memorial and handed it to the Emperor respectfully. He read it and then showed a cold face. He sneered and said, "A fight between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law? How energetic Duke Yong"s Mansion is! They even started a fight between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in a yamen!"
"Your Majesty! I admit the loose family rules should be to blame for this!" Di Rufeng felt that he came alive. He swayed and almost collapsed to the ground, but he was excited in his heart. The Emperor"s guard had delivered the result of the investigation, which was good to him. It was going in the direction that he had wished.
"Can the loose family rules justify your family"s taking the yamen as their own house at will?" Chu Liuzhou sneered and questioned.
"Second Brother, it"s Duke Yong"s Mansion"s domestic affair. Duke Yong must be reluctant to see it happen. It is inevitable for a man to have an unethical wife!" Chu Liuyue seemed to be more tolerant.
Chu Liuchen sat on a chair and half-closed his eyes. His long eyelashes fluttered slightly. It was hard to tell whether he was asleep or awake.
"You are so kind, Eldest Brother! You rarely defended your officials like this in the past. You always took Father"s idea as the top priority!" Chu Liuzhou sneered.
"Second Brother, I will always obey Father! But this matter is indeed…" Chu Liuyue shook his head calmly as if he didn"t know what to say. It seemed that he didn"t want to argue against Chu Liuzhou, as he looked much calmer than the latter.
Falling into a disadvantage, Chu Liuzhou immediately became angry. Then he stepped forward and said, "Father, I have something to report!"
"What"s the matter?" the Emperor asked coldly.
"Father, there is another reason for the case of Duke Yong"s Mansion!" Chu Liuzhou said.
Di Rufeng swayed back and forth and almost fell over. He tried his best to calm himself down. "No matter how powerful Prince Zhou is, he can"t dig something out. Those girls are hidden in the houses outside the city. What"s more, they rarely showed up in front of people in the past. I didn"t investigate it on my own so I couldn"t expose myself. Prince Yue has warned me not to panic…"
"Father, I got the news yesterday. Please verify it!" Chu Liuzhou handed over a memorial. Derong took it and handed it to the Emperor.
The Emperor read it with a solemn face. After finis.h.i.+ng it, he showed a cold expression and suddenly threw the memorial at Chu Liuyue"s head.
Chu Liuyue was shocked, but he didn"t dare to avoid it. He suffered a blow that happened to hit him on the nose. He felt pain, and then tears came out of the corners of his eyes.
He hurriedly knelt without wiping away the tears. "Father!"
"Excellent! You have infiltrated your people into lots of areas, haven"t you?" the Emperor scolded in a fury, pointing at his nose.
"Father, I didn"t dare!" Chu Liuyue lowered his head and said in a hurry. He didn"t know what was wrong with his father. He couldn"t help feeling panic in his heart. He wondered what Chu Liuzhou had shown his father and why it made his father angry with him.
He raised his hand to wipe away the tears in the corners of his eyes and calmed himself down. But in a daze, he seemed to be confused about why the Emperor scolded him.
"You didn"t dare? Is there anything that you don"t dare to do? What good sons you are! I brought you up, but you have even become so ambitious!" the Emperor said with anger, pointing at both Chu Liuyue and Chu Liuzhou with his fingers.
"Father!" Chu Liuzhou was frightened and knelt.
However, Chu Liuchen was still indifferent to them. He only cast a casual glance at the two brothers and then continued to rest with his eyes closed. If other princes dared to be so disrespectful, the Emperor would have lost his temper. But it was Chu Liuchen. When the Emperor"s eyes swept over him, he did not blame Chu Liuchen at all. Instead, the Emperor suddenly remembered that later he needed to ask the imperial physician to feel pulses for Chu Liuchen.
"If you are tired, you can leave now, Prince Chen!" the Emperor said.
Chu Liuchen opened his eyes, sat up, and replied in a gentle voice, "No, I am not tired, Uncle the Emperor! I am not busy, so I want to listen to it!"
His reply infuriated Chu Liuyue and Chu Liuzhou so much. They might be tolerant of Chu Liuchen"s indifferent att.i.tude, but they couldn"t stand that he even saw them as jokes. They were princes but not clowns, so how could he be so contemptuous of them?
However, he was Chu Liuchen, so they had no choice but to swallow their anger.
As was expected, after hearing Chu Liuchen"s words, the Emperor nodded and no longer paid attention to him. He didn"t even blame Chu Liuchen for his frivolous att.i.tude in his words.
"Take a look at this!" the Emperor pointed at the memorial on the ground and said to Chu Liuyue angrily.
Chu Liuyue hastened to pick up the memorial and read it quickly. When he finished, he showed an angry and sad face. He looked up at Chu Liuzhou with deep sadness in his eyes and asked, "Second Brother, why… why do you think it has something to do with me? How… how could I…"
"Don"t you have anything to do with it?" the Emperor asked coldly.
"Father, I know nothing about it! How could I…" Chu Liuyue kowtowed to the Emperor and then raised his head with an extremely sad face.
Di Rufeng was so nervous that his lips trembled. He looked at Chu Liuyue in despair. He didn"t read the memorial, so he didn"t know what was on it. If the Emperor knew their crimes, he didn"t know what would happen to Prince Yue, but he knew that none of his family would get away with it. It had been very generous if only the t.i.tle was removed. They might be all sentenced to death!
"You don"t know?" the Emperor said coldly and pointed at Di Rufeng, "If you have nothing to do with his thing, why did you ask your people to connect with him? Was it because he gave you money to spend?"
"Father, I really don"t know why this person has contact with the supervisor of Duke Yong"s Mansion. Although he is the supervisor of my mansion, he only works in the outer court. He used to be a scholar who failed the exam and didn"t have the money to return home. I met him and appreciated his talent, so I employed him to be the supervisor of the outer court."
It was Supervisor Ji"s matter that Chu Liuzhou"s memorial was about. It claimed that some people witnessed that he, as a servant of Chu Liuyue, was sent to form gangs everywhere for the sake of spying on the masters of different mansions.
Supervisor Ji had a good relations.h.i.+p with not only Duke Yong but also a supervisor of Chu Liuzhou"s Mansion. Of course, apart from the two mansions, he also had contact with Marquis Xing"s Mansion! There was no denying that Supervisor Ji had a wide range of connections.
"Father, I didn"t know about this in the beginning. But after Duke Yong"s Mansion"s event got about, my supervisor told me that the supervisor of Eldest Brother"s mansion used to give him some money to show kindness. But he didn"t say what he wanted! I felt it strange, so I sent someone to investigate him. I didn"t expect to find out that Supervisor Ji also used to bribe Duke Yong with a large amount of money, and he did so more than once!" Chu Liuzhou said with anger.
Chu Liuzhou looked very angry. Anyone would show such a face when he was told that he had been set up by a brother in whom he had always believed. However, there had never been such a thing as mutual trust between Chu Liuzhou and Chu Liuyue. Even though they looked like brothers on the surface, they were eager to kill each other in secret. Therefore, the so-called betrayal didn"t exist at all.
"Father, I really didn"t know about it!" Chu Liuyue defended himself with the grievance.
"Father, I don"t think a small supervisor can have so much money. Besides, he has given more than one sum of money!" Chu Liuzhou was furious. "Eldest Brother, if you want to know about me, you can just ask me directly. Why do you bother paying others to keep an eye on my mansion? No wonder you always knew what happened in my mansion before anyone else did!"