Rejected Beauty Practices the Villain Play-Chapter 866 - 842: Sadness
Mr. Li was stumped by the question, and Mr. Gu, the Minister of Honglu Temple, was also red-eyed with anger and said furiously, "The Sannan people are treacherous, causing the deaths of three hundred brothers of the Ningzhou Iron Cavalry and General Fang. Although we resent the Sannan people, the common people are innocent and have been incited. Ningzhou has strict laws against attacking defenseless civilians, so we can only let them besiege us. After the Prince woke up, he sent Han Ziqi and Princess X out of the palace, asking Han Ziqi to quell the turmoil in Mudan City. This only slightly alleviated the situation, but the Sannan people had already fabricated all kinds of scandals and spread them across the land. We cannot address each one, and people only hear what they want to hear. Who cares about the truth? It’s a pity for the Prince and the Great General, who exhausted their minds and efforts, yet were humiliated by Sannan. The human heart is indeed treacherous."
Mr. Gu, Lin Xiao, and Zhang Boxin all knew that Xie Jue and Fang Chuning might not be entirely innocent, but during the court meeting, they had to maintain a unified stance, even if they hadn’t communicated beforehand.
The court officials were outraged, unanimously condemning the Sannan people for their outrageous lies and distortions, aiming to drag Xie Jue down with them, which was a heinous thought.
"The Sannan people are truly vile and malicious, coming up with such sinister schemes—despicable!" Dugu Jing said indignantly. "General Fang and the Prince are completely innocent, yet they are slandered so falsely—it’s intolerable!"
Xie Xun, "..."
If a decisive conclusion could be reached, it would be good!
Fortunately, Second Brother didn’t attend the court today. If he had, and admitted that he and Fang Chuning were indeed involved, it would have been hard for him to back down. Now that Second Brother is not here, the matter is easier to handle.
Lin Helin, most attuned to the emperor’s intentions, said, "Your Majesty, since these are rumors, we, the ministers, will do our utmost to make the truth known to the world, to restore the Prince and General Fang’s names. The delegation braved life and death for the peace between the two nations, surviving against all odds in Sannan. They are heroes of Beining and cannot suffer such baseless slander."
Xie Xun and the court officials knew that the rumors had spread too far to be effectively clarified. Xie Jue’s reputation had been ruined overnight, and the people had already accepted the rumors as fact. Any attempt to clarify now would only be seen as the powerful trying to turn black into white. Sannan had been defeated and had agreed to peace talks, so they had no choice but to cooperate with the court to restore Xie Jue’s name. The truth had long been buried. People would think this was merely a facade for the royal family’s shame.
Yet despite this, they had to proceed, regardless of whether the public doubted or believed them. They could only do their best to quell the rumors.
It was indeed a matter concerning the royal family’s reputation.
The royal family could not allow such a scandal to be known.
Xie Xun thought that if they clarified matters now, and in the future, Xie Jue indeed had something with Fang Chuning, it would truly disgrace the court. However, with Fang Chuning dead, what he feared should not come to pass. Xie Xun felt a deeper pity for Xie Jue, thinking that Second Brother must have been willing to bear the burden of slander and rumors just to let Fang Chuning live well!
"It must be so. The truth of the Sannan turmoil must be revealed to all!" Xie Xun said with a cold face, "Han Ziqi will also pay the price for this matter."
He now deeply hated the Sannan people.
The Marshal said gravely, "I know that the rumors have been spreading for months, and those who do not know the truth have been gloating and gossiping behind our backs. Tunan and three hundred iron cavalry died in Sannan, and even though they received honors for it, they were still insulted. I am deeply pained. Now the delegation has laid out the truth here. If I hear anyone defame my son’s name again, don’t blame me for turning my back on them!"
The Marshal specifically wanted a truth revealed before the peace talks, to restore Fang Chuning’s name. He would not allow Fang Chuning to be entangled in such scandals, even in death.
The court officials who had once gossiped about Fang Chuning looked embarrassed. Zhang Boju’s eyes reddened, feeling an inexplicable sorrow. Unlike others, he roughly knew that things between Fang Chuning and Xie Jue weren’t so innocent.
Fang Chuning was too special to Xie Jue—special enough to raise suspicions long ago. Still, he dared not think further. When younger, he had joked that if Xie were the second young lady of the Marquis Mansion, Fang Chuning would’ve been betrothed to her long ago. Unfortunately, Xie was the Second Young Master, and their childhood affection couldn’t blossom into a love story. Now, his brother died in Sannan, and his affections were buried underground, never to be known. His love was engulfed by death, never to be revealed. The Fang family wished to preserve Fang Chuning’s reputation, so Xie Jue could say nothing more and could only accept this outcome.
For some reason, he felt a pang of sadness!
After this was settled, Xie Jue entrusted all matters of the peace talks with Sannan to the cabinet, with Lin Helin leading the effort. The negotiations were mostly concluded, with Han Ziqi’s agreement, leaving only a few details. Xie Xun had long wanted to send people to occupy Sannan. In the future, Sannan would become the territory of Beining, which could be considered a somewhat happy occasion.
Now, Xie Xun was only worried about when his brother could emerge from the shadow!
