Huh? The Tyrant Cries After My Inner Thoughts Were Exposed!-Chapter 133: The Truth of His Origins Will Be Exposed Sooner or Later
This morning’s court meeting frightened Prince Jing greatly, so much so that his steps leaving the Golden Hall were unsteady.
Back at the Prince Mansion, the Princess Consort was about to complain that their eldest son had not come to greet her for several days, and their second son had moved out of the mansion. But before she could say much, she saw her husband down two cups of tea with a look of having narrowly escaped disaster, and she asked in confusion, "What happened?"
Prince Jing said, "Today the Imperial Censor advised to decree a thorough investigation into the major case files of the Ministry of Justice from the past few decades, intending to reform the Ministry..."
Princess Jing froze and immediately thought of the biggest treason case in the past decades, her face turned pale, "Doesn’t that mean even the records of the Pei Family back then..."
The deed back then was not handled very beautifully, and if the records were dug up, there might be some discrepancies discovered.
Prince Jing waved his hand, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, "His Majesty rejected the censor’s advice, this matter likely won’t be brought up again."
However, Princess Jing was still afraid; that was a charge of treason, and if someone found evidence of the Prince Mansion secretly harboring a traitor, the whole family would end up in a dungeon.
"We should never have raised this child back then; we should have sent him far away, so even if someone noticed, they wouldn’t suspect us!"
As a result, the child was kept nearby and raised right here in the Capital City,
and sometimes when she looked at the child, growing more and more like the late General Pei of those days, she couldn’t help but be alarmed, fearing others might notice something.
Prince Jing could not bear to hear her say such things, "Hang’er is the child you bore over ten months, what can others suspect?"
He looked at the Princess Consort with displeasure in his eyes, wondering why she was getting muddier-minded with age, saying such suspicious things.
The Princess Consort choked on her words.
Even if pretending is realistic, falsehood can never become truth. Song Qianhang’s lineage will eventually be revealed, and how could the Emperor, who detested the Dingbei Army’s general and the Second Prince back then, let it go?
She grabbed her husband’s arm, "Why doesn’t the Prince fight for it?"
The Emperor has no heirs yet, so eventually, he would choose from the Imperial Family. As for closeness, among the several Princes, who could be closer than Prince Jing to the Emperor?
Prince Jing apparently understood his wife’s words, furrowing his brows, "How could you have such an idea?"
His wife had never concerned herself with matters of the court, nor had she ever asked about them. So what happened today?
The Princess Consort’s expression flickered, "I just feel that the Prince and His Majesty are blood brothers, in what way are we not nobler than Prince Han?"
"If the Prince could obtain the position of Crown Prince, there would be no fear of the matter of adopting that child being exposed in the future."
Prince Jing was not surprised that the Princess Consort had this idea; the strange thing was that a woman who had never paid attention to court matters suddenly had these thoughts...
Thinking of that eldest son who had the same thought, Prince Jing pursed his lips tightly, staring at his wife for a long time, "What did Qianfan say to you?"
Perhaps it was the eldest son who said something to the Princess Consort; otherwise, how could she think about these matters and even mention Prince Han?
The Princess Consort was obviously a bit flustered, "What could Fan’er say to me? The Prince is overthinking it."
"I just feel that instead of bowing and scraping under others, always so anxious, it’s better to control the power ourselves. By then, whatever the Prince wants to do with Qianhang can be decided with just a word."
Prince Jing pondered, knowing his wife was more or less influenced by the eldest son, though her words were not without reason.
"Do not mention these words in front of others."
"I understand, I only say them in front of you."
...
Two days later, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Minister Ren, took over the Ministry of Justice smoothly. Duke Ping invited Marquis Ping and the newly appointed Minister of Justice Dou Yan to the mansion.
Dou Yan repeatedly expressed gratitude to Duke Ping, "This time, many thanks to Lord Duke Xie for speaking well of me before His Majesty, I am deeply grateful."
Duke Ping waved his hand, "We are all colleagues; there’s no need to thank me. Moreover, on that day’s court, the person who truly assisted the Vice Minister was not me."
Marquis Ping looked at him, hearing the words as a polite remark, but in reality, it was pushing Su Juan forward in front of Dou Yan.
Minister Dou smiled, "That day, thanks to the Vice Director of the Ministry of Revenue, otherwise, if the Ministry of Justice had truly been reformed, I might not have been able to sit in this position of the Minister."
As he spoke, he looked at Duke Ping, "I heard that this person is the Lord Duke’s adopted daughter; I wonder if you could introduce her to me sometime?"
Duke Ping nodded with a smile, "She is currently residing at the mansion; I will definitely arrange for an introduction with Minister Dou later."
"Then I will be waiting."
While watching the two talk, Marquis Ping was actually thinking about another matter, "The reaction of Prince Jing in the court that day was quite strange. Logically, if Prince Han wanted to continue controlling the Ministry of Justice, he would inevitably use the opportunity of reforming the Ministry to promote his people. This move would also benefit Prince Jing in cultivating his own people, yet he unusually opposed the censor’s suggestion to reform the Ministry of Justice."
Duke Ping also found it strange that day but did not pay much attention to it.
Minister Dou of the Ministry of Justice took a couple of sips of wine, "Actually, after I went back that day, I also found it strange. So, I looked through some records related to His Highness Prince Jing. In the past decade, Prince Jing has rarely meddled in any cases, but in earlier years there were quite a few. What puzzled me was..."
He looked around, made sure there were no outsiders, lowered his voice, and said, "When the Second Prince rebelled back then, and the Pei Family, with General Pei at the helm, was implicated, it was the Empress who ordered Prince Jing to assist. I was working at Dali Temple at the time and remembered very clearly that Lady Pei gave birth to twins in prison back then, but the case records only documented one son..."
"The registered baby was already executed, so where did the other one go?"
Duke Ping exchanged a glance with Marquis Ping. Back then, this case was assisted by Prince Jing. Everyone knew about the friendship between Prince Jing and General Pei at that time. Moreover, there were a lot of connections between Lady Pei and Princess Jing, so if Prince Jing secretly saved this child...
Minister Dou harbored a suspicion but found it inappropriate to voice it.
He only spoke halfway, trusting that even if he didn’t say the rest, the two in front of him would be able to guess some of it.
Just when the Pei Family incident occurred, the news spread that Princess Jing was pregnant, and shortly thereafter, she gave birth to the second son. The timing was just a few days apart, really too coincidental.
Upon reflection, the Song Er who appeared at His Majesty’s birthday banquet back then, indeed did not resemble Prince Jing and Princess Jing, but instead bore a closer resemblance to the late General Pei of the Dingbei Army.
Duke Ping’s eyes darkened, "Back then, the Pei Family suffered catastrophe. We absolutely did not believe that General Pei, such a loyal minister, could conspire with the Second Prince in rebellion. However, at that time, I was at the border and unable to speak a fair word for General Pei. If His Highness Prince Jing truly saved the Pei family’s orphan in such a critical moment, then for such integrity, we should admire him."
Minister Dou sighed, "But if this matter were to be known by others, I’m afraid Prince Jing’s Mansion would face calamity."
Secretly harboring the remnants of traitors is a grave crime.
Duke Ping said in a deep voice, "Minister Dou, this matter is after all our speculation; we should just pretend we never noticed anything." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Marquis Ping also agreed with Duke Ping’s words; now that everything has passed, why bring it up again.
Even though this is a big handle against Prince Jing’s Mansion, it also involves the Pei Family back then... so it’s better to leave it be.
Minister Dou also understood the rationale, "I understand, today’s matter will be kept silent in my heart."
