Chapter 987 Follow Up Clues and Track Down Madam Jiang
“Are you telling the truth?”
“Absolutely true. The two of them have made it a career to frame Princess Chen. From the very beginning, even before Princess Chen officially returned to her family, they took orders from the Madam of Marquis Xing and secretly dealt with Princess Chen. They planned to break Princess Chen and prevent her from returning to her family of origin!”
Ning Caixian knelt in the hall and accused w.a.n.g Shengxue and Ning Xueqing loudly.
Previously, when her mind was in a mess, she said it was Marquis Xing. Now, of course, she didn’t dare to speak ill of Marquis Xing anymore, so she could put the blame on the Madam of Marquis Xing.
“Big Sister, I know you want to marry my husband. You can’t bear to see us being together, but even if he chooses you now, the relations.h.i.+p between him and me will remain. Big Sister, are you really going to force me to die and give up the position to you? What’s the benefit for you?”
Ning Xueqing knelt beside her and looked at her with tears in her eyes.
At this time, her pathetic and weak appearance looked utterly different from the previous ferocious one when she crazily beat up Ning Caixian. As a poor woman whose husband had an affair with her sister, she said the right words and did the right thing. Her perfect performance won many people’s sympathy.
Ning Caixian, biting her lip hard, understood Ning Xueqing’s words. She hinted that it wouldn’t do any good to her if she spoke out the truth. Not only would she not get the pity from w.a.n.g Shengxue, but he would cordially detest her.
Ning Caixian would never make such a confession if it weren’t for this case. Because once she said it, it would cause a rupture in her relations.h.i.+p with w.a.n.g Shengxue.
There was no other way out for her. She had to reveal the truth as long as she could s.h.i.+ft the responsibility for this case to others.
Ning Xueqing didn’t know much about this matter, so she thought that she could persuade her elder sister in this way.
“Second Sister, you lied to me, and so did w.a.n.g Shengxue. You conned me out of all my resources and made me believe that he would marry me. But it was all just a trap set for me. In this case, please don’t ever repeat the lie before me!” Ning Caixian burst out crying.
She had given up the fancy idea of marrying w.a.n.g Shengxue. The only thing she would like to do was to get out of the prison of the Ministry of Justice. She turned to the two officers in the seats of honor and kowtowed a few times before she began to testify. “Your Honor, it was w.a.n.g Shengxue who put me up to ruin Childe Yan’s reputation and future. He asked me to pretend to be a woman in trouble so that I could get close to Childe Yan.”
“I don’t know what grievance he has with this Childe Yan. I only know that they had never met before because I was there when they met for the first time!”
“For the first time?” Qiu Yu, who happened to be one of the officers, asked coldly.
“Yes, it must be the first time they met. I could tell it from their expressions and actions when they first met,” Ning Caixian said with certainty.
“Since it was the first time that they saw each other and didn’t have any grudges, why would w.a.n.g Shengxue harm a person whom he had never met before?” Qiu Yu slammed his hand on the table and said sternly, “w.a.n.g Shengxue, answer it!”
It happened so fast that w.a.n.g Shengxue had no time to come up with any strategies to deal with the urgent situation. When they were taken to the court hall of the Ministry of Justice, Ning Caixian pointed out that he had been trying to do harm to Princess Chen and Yan Xi. Unlike before, she no longer treated him with tenderness and love.
“I… I… I’m jealous of Yan Xi, for Marquis Xing values him…” w.a.n.g Shengxue stammered.
“Since you’ve never seen him before, how do you know there’s such a man? You had been waiting for the chance to set up a trap for him since a long time ago. Don’t you remember that?” Qiu Yu pounded the table with his hands. “If you can’t explain everything clearly, you’ll be punished severely.”
“Yes… yes. I heard about him from Marquis Xing. He said that Yan Xi was going to come to the capital. Even before he entered the capital, Marquis Xing had already prepared a lot of decent things for him… I… though I’m Marquis Xing’s nephew, he treated Yan Xi, his friend’s son, much better. I… I was not convinced!”
w.a.n.g Shengxue composed himself, gritted his teeth secretly, and took out the words prepared in advance to deal with the trial.
In fact, he had learned these excuses before. But when he was asked to recite them, he didn’t pay much effort into completing the task. It was because he didn’t think there was a time to use them. To his great surprise, he had to use them after such a short period.
“It was all Ning Caixian’s fault.” Thinking of this, he gave Ning Caixian a murderous look. If he had known it earlier, he wouldn’t have been soft-hearted and would have chosen Ning Caixian to jump. When Ning Caixian became a corpse, he would not have to defend himself here.
“So, you are jealous of someone you’ve never seen before?” Qiu Yu asked in a cold voice.
“I… I must have been totally possessed by jealousy and couldn’t think straight. I just wanted… I just wanted to win over Marquis Xing. I…” As he said this, w.a.n.g Shengxue also kowtowed a few times, looking regretful.
“So, did he really do it out of jealousy?” Qiu Yu couldn’t make up his mind and looked at Wen Xichi beside him. It happened that Wen Xichi also came over, so Qiu Yu pulled him over to attend the trial. This case was in the charge of Qiu Yu.
Although he found it hard to believe w.a.n.g Shengxue’s explanation, it was not totally unreasonable. Even the Ministry of Justice had handled many similar cases. Some stubborn people were capable of doing something absurd with dogged determination.
“Ning Caixian, do you have any evidence to prove that they plotted against Princess Chen?” Wen Xichi looked at Ning Caixian with his calm eyes.
“I… I don’t have any…” Ning Caixian heard the question and said anxiously. Since she had broken up with w.a.n.g Shengxue and Ning Xueqing, she didn’t want them to get away with it. If they were safe and sound, she would have to suffer.
“Since there is no evidence, then you have committed the crime of false accusation. Coupled with the previous crime, I am afraid that you will have to accept a serious punishment. The maid is yours, and you were the one who left her in the restaurant. Both w.a.n.g Shengxue and you are ringleaders who could never get away with all of this. But if there is anyone put up bail for you, the results will be different!”
Wen Xichi said lightly, with his face still impa.s.sive. He looked neither anxious nor impatient as if he was just stating the facts.
Ning Caixian turned to look at Ning Xueqing, who was trying hard to hold back her hatred, and w.a.n.g Shengxue, who was glaring at her from time to time. She s.h.i.+vered all over. She was guilty while w.a.n.g Shengxue was under Marquis Xing’s protection. In the end, she would have to shoulder most of the responsibilities.
“Your Excellency, although I have no evidence, I know some of their previous plots. If no one told me anything about it, how could I know? At that time, I was no longer in the capital!” Ning Caixian gritted her teeth to tough it out. At this time, she could not retreat.
She was going to s.h.i.+ft as much blame as possible onto w.a.n.g Shengxue. By doing so, she would shoulder fewer responsibilities.
“Your Honor, I have a confession to make. The thing happened when Princess Chen returned to her original family. That day, a woman, wearing the same clothes as Princess Chen, had a date with w.a.n.g Shengxue. Then she jumped into the water, and swam far away so that no one could catch up with her. Her purpose was to make people misunderstand that Princess Chen was unchaste. If it were not for the sudden fire, the woman would wear this set of clothes and go to the courtyard where Princess Chen lived.”
“She arrived there at the most appropriate time that she chose. When Princess Chen was taking a bath, the clansmen of the Shao Family would reach Princess Chen’s courtyard by following the water trails left by the woman. Since the woman had the same clothes as Princess Chen, they would see the wet clothes there and deduce that it was Princess Chen dating w.a.n.g Shengxue. After all, before taking a bath, Princess Chen would have taken off all her clothes, which would be taken to wash in the basin. Even before her maid began to wash them, they would get wet. At that time, surrounded by people’s misunderstanding, Princess Chen couldn’t explain it away, and her reputation would be ruined!”
Before w.a.n.g Shengxue launched the manufactured incident, Ning Caixian had known something about it. Later on, w.a.n.g Shengxue shared the plot with her in detail. But it was just that w.a.n.g Shengxue couldn’t figure out why there would be a fire. It ruined the Madam of Marquis Xing’s elaborate scheme. They would have achieved the desired results if it hadn’t been for the fire.
It was a regrettable matter for w.a.n.g Shengxue. He couldn’t figure out why such a perfect plan would fail in the end.
And he had to take in Dong Xing, the maid who pretended to be Shao Wanru, and Ning Xueqing as his concubines.
“Your Honor, they have been plotting against Princess Chen. They wanted to ruin her reputation and kill her. On that occasion, nearly all the Shao family members were there. If w.a.n.g Shengxue’s conspiracy against Princess Chen succeeded, the Shao family would execute Princess Chen overnight. It would be too late for Rui’an Great Elder Princess to save her when she got the news!”
When they were pa.s.sionately in love, w.a.n.g Shengxue was willing to tell her everything. Therefore, her speech about w.a.n.g Shengxue’s dirty tricks sounded clear and logical. After that, she kowtowed a few times and said, “I was no longer in the capital back then. If w.a.n.g Shengxue didn’t tell me all of this in person, how could I know everything done by him so clearly? n.o.body but those involved in these inside stories knew the details I’ve told you.”
Although there were rumors outside, the details were not as clear as what Ning Caixian had told them.
Wen Xichi’s face set in grim lines. Never had this gentle and kind man revealed such a scowling expression, so Qiu Yu glanced at him in surprise.
“This matter involves Princess Chen and the Madam of Marquis Xing. So, bring the Madam over, and we’ll go to visit Princess Chen and see if it is the truth!” Wen Xichi said.
“Just because of what she said… we’re going to bring over the Madam of Marquis Xing?” Qiu Yu was stunned for a moment and didn’t understand. “The Madam of Marquis Xing is a n.o.ble Madam with a high status. Won’t it be too hasty to bring her here with just a few words from Ning Caixian?”
“Anything related to Princess Chen is not a trivial matter. Before Prince Chen was sent on a diplomatic mission, he broke Second Young Master Qu’s arm because of her!” Wen Xichi said lightly.
Hearing that, Qiu Yu felt a pain in his arm. Second Young Master Qu was an acquaintance living in a different social circle from him. Both of them were n.o.bilities with close connections with the emperor, so how could Qiu Yu not be familiar with him? Second Young Master Qu, as the legitimate grandson of Ruiping Great Elder Princess, his status was much higher than his.
“I couldn’t afford to offend Prince Chen!
“Prince Chen has been very good to Princess Chen!
“Prince Chen dares to aim at anyone who provokes him and Princess Chen!”
With several key points in his mind, Qiu Yu immediately knew what he should do next. He straightened himself up and nodded. “Okay, send for the Madam of Marquis Xing. As for Marquis Xing…”
“Of course, we have to inform Marquis Xing. As the husband of Madam of Marquis Xing, how could he know nothing about what his wife has been up to? Or are there any more inside stories? If something happens to Princess Chen, who will benefit most?” Wen Xichi reminded him.
“Then, let’s do it!” Qiu Yu’s eyes lit up, and he immediately understood the meaning of Wen Xichi’s words. If Marquis Xing really wanted to deal with Princess Chen, it would be a big case!
He didn’t expect such a trifle to involve a big case. The previous case was now a small matter, which could be put aside unsettled. At present, the most important thing was to investigate the case of framing Princess Chen.
“Go and bring the concubine from w.a.n.g Shengxue’s residence here. I’ll go to Prince Chen’s Mansion and meet Princess Chen to ask about this!” Wen Xichi said.