NCCnovel Chapter 187 The Duchess Who Says One Thing but Does Another
Chapter 187 The Duchess Who Says One Thing but Does Another
As she spoke these words, Lady Anguo walked quickly toward Cuijinxuan.
The old woman following behind her was terrified.
This is terrible! The lady is so angry, the young lady will definitely get a scolding.
If she had known, she would have kept it a secret for the girl.
The Duchess of Anguo kept muttering "What kind of behavior is this?" all the way, but as soon as she entered Cuijinxuan, her eyes were fixed on the playing cards in Yu Wan's hand, looking eager to try her hand at them.
The maids didn't see her until the Duchess of Anguo approached, and they rose in a panic to pay their respects.
"This servant greets Madam!"
Yu Wan then noticed the Duchess of Anguo, put down the cards in her hand, and said with an awkward smile, "Mother, what brings you here?"
Lady Anguo kept her eyes glued to the mahjong table, but scolded, "You child, you're becoming more and more unruly, playing mahjong with a whole courtyard of maids. What kind of behavior is this?"
The maids were so frightened by these words that their faces turned pale, and they all lowered their heads, not daring to get up.
Yu Wan stared at the Duchess of Anguo for a while, then walked over with a smile and took her hand.
"Mother, please don't be so fierce, you're scaring them."
"Why don't you play with us, Mother?"
Lady Anguo subconsciously said, "This is improper... Don't let it corrupt the atmosphere of the entire household!"
As they talked, their bodies unconsciously moved closer to the card table, and the curiosity in their eyes was impossible to hide.
Seeing this, Yu Wan's eyes flashed with a sly glint. She deliberately explained the rules slowly, "Mom, you see, a straight is a sequence of numbers, like one, two, three. A pair is two identical cards. It's very simple."
As he spoke, he demonstrated how to arrange the cards a few times.
Lady Anguo's face immediately lit up with an eager look. She said, "Hmph, what's so difficult about that?" as she reached out and picked up the cards, trying to arrange them.
The body is very honest.
Seeing this, the maids all suppressed their laughter and dared not utter a sound.
The Duchess noticed the maids' strange behavior and coughed lightly, "What are you all laughing about? Hurry up and sit down, we're one short for mahjong."
The maids immediately pushed and shoved each other to sit down.
The Duchess continued fiddling with the cards in her hands, muttering, "I'm just checking out what's so special about this game, so you won't get your head spinning from these things."
But his hand movements became increasingly skilled, clearly indicating that he was already immersed in the process.
Before long, the excited voice of the Duchess of Anguo could be heard in the courtyard.
"A perfect pair! It's blown!... Hahaha, I won!"
As a result, Yu Wan was confined to her quarters for less than half a day, and Cui Jin Xuan became the liveliest place in the Duke's mansion.
……
That evening, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review presented the evidence related to the corruption case to the Emperor.
Emperor Wenjing was furious and immediately summoned all the princes and officials of the third rank and above to the palace.
Prince Chen entered the imperial study, where the lights illuminated the fury on Emperor Wenjing's face. Since Emperor Wenjing had neglected his duties, the officials had not seen such anger on his face for a long time.
Prince Xuan stood behind Prince Qi, his hands hidden in his sleeves, his brows furrowed with barely concealed panic.
Su Mu sent men to surround the Dali Temple like an iron barrel, but his men couldn't find out any information.
He only received the news when Su Mu entered the palace.
He originally thought that Su Mu would need more time to find out some solid evidence, but he did not expect that Su Mu would enter the palace to meet the emperor in just a few hours.
In such a short time, he could only destroy and cover up some things in the mansion that should not exist, so as to avoid other more serious matters being implicated in the cheating case.
The cheating case wasn't considered a serious matter; no matter how angry the emperor was, he would at most punish the man by confining him to his quarters to reflect on his actions.
Compared to other things, this matter doesn't seem so serious.
Thinking of this, Prince Xuan felt at ease.
"Greetings to Your Majesty/Father."
"Rise, all of you." Emperor Wenjing glanced at the crowd below, his gaze settling on Prince Xuan, and said in a deep voice, "Prince Xuan, what do you want to say to me?"
Prince Xuan was startled, but he remained calm and stepped forward respectfully, saying, "Father, I do not know what you are referring to?"
Emperor Wenjing raised his eyes, his deep gaze carrying an invisible pressure. "You don't know?"
"Your people have been loitering outside the Dali Temple all day. Tell me, do you know what happened?"
A chill ran down the back of Prince Xuan.
He had clearly sent someone from the manor, someone unfamiliar with him, to inquire about his disappearance. How could his father know so clearly?
More importantly, the Emperor had clearly neglected his duties, yet he was still so well-informed.
Amidst the crowd, Prince Chen lowered his gaze slightly.
This is why, even though the Emperor was clearly a useless and incompetent ruler, none of his ambitious brothers dared to reveal their wolfish ambitions in front of him.
Emperor Wenjing was far from being as mediocre and harmless as he appeared on the surface.
Even though he had neglected his duties for many years, his spies were still everywhere in the court and the palace, and he was fully aware of everything that happened in the court and the palace.
Prince Xuan hurriedly knelt down again and kowtowed, saying, "Father, I am innocent! I heard that there was something unusual happening at the Dali Temple today. I was just worried that someone was disrupting the court, so I sent someone to investigate. I had no other intentions."
Emperor Wenjing chuckled lightly, appearing somewhat harmless, "Is that so, Minister of the Court of Judicial Review?"
Su Mu was called upon, and stepped forward from the crowd, bowing respectfully as he said, "Your Majesty, I have found some evidence in the case of cheating in the imperial examinations."
Emperor Wenjing gave a cold "hmm," his gaze sweeping over the princes and high-ranking officials in the hall. "Continue."
“Your Majesty, during my investigation, I discovered that the main official involved in the fraud case was Zhang Gong, a Hanlin Academy Reader. After I apprehended Zhang Gong, I obtained a list from him, and all the people on the list were involved in this fraud.”
The Hanlin Academy had strict checks, so to secretly switch the exam papers of two candidates would require the cooperation of many people.
"I have arrested and interrogated all six people on the list. They were all bribed, did not know each other, and were only responsible for completing their assigned tasks."
"Zhang Gonglai will be the one to make the final confirmation that the exam papers have been switched."
Upon hearing this, Prince Xuan broke out in a cold sweat.
He didn't expect Su Mu to approach Zhang Gong so quickly, nor did he expect that Zhang Gong, this good-for-nothing, would still go to a brothel and spout nonsense at this critical juncture, even though he had warned him to keep a low profile.
In his anger, Prince Xuan felt nothing but resentment.
If it weren't for his third brother telling him to wait and see, he would have killed Zhang Gong long ago, and wouldn't have let him cause so much trouble!
Thinking this way, he couldn't help but feel some resentment.
Su Mu continued, "Last night, my general Zhang Gong was imprisoned in the Dali Temple's dark prison. At midnight last night, a group of men in black set fire to the dark prison, intending to kill Zhang Gong to silence him."
“Zhang Gong was just a minor official in the Hanlin Academy. When he was arrested, the minister suspected that there were others behind him, so he ordered people to be on guard.”
“Last night, all those men in black were captured alive by me.”
Su Mu glanced at Prince Xuan discreetly before saying, "Your Majesty, after my investigation, these men in black are not ordinary guards, but specially trained assassins."