The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 329: conspiracy
Chapter 329 Plot
Unexpectedly, not only was the matter messed up by Lu Yuanpeng, but he was also beaten up. Lin Xinan was so angry that he extorted a sum of money from Lu Xiangfu. But at noon on April 2nd, someone broke into their house quietly and suffocated Lin Xinan to death by posting a promotion card.
The man promised her a large sum of money and taught her to lie that she was illiterate. She first went to the students of the Imperial College to write a petition, and then went to the government to sue Lu Xiang’s family. Then she cried to the students of the Imperial College about the officials protecting each other and encouraged the students to accompany her to beat the drum to file a complaint.
Taking the opportunity to bring it up again, it was because Lin Xin’an reprimanded the Princess Zhenguo for her atrocities of burning and killing surrendered prisoners in Fanque Tower that Lu Yuanpeng beat Lin Xin’an to death. The cause of this crime was that the Princess Zhenguo burned and killed surrendered prisoners. This atrocity was intolerable by heaven and earth, and she was not worthy of being a princess.
If Lin Xin’an’s mother disobeyed, she would be dead.
Her son was dead, and she didn’t want to die, so she agreed, just to give herself a chance to survive.
When the Grand Princess and Bai Qingyan were analyzing the matter in detail, she told the Grand Princess that the wife of Wen Zhenkang, the chief examiner of this imperial examination, had stayed in the Zuo Xiang Mansion for a long time.
This matter was already known to everyone, and the Grand Princess naturally knew about it: “Now there are rumors in the capital city, all saying that Wen Zhenkang’s wife and the left prime minister Li Mao had an affair. Wen Zhenkang’s wife is famous for her hot temper, but she kept her composure and did not curse the rumormongers. Either her purpose of going to see the left prime minister Li Mao cannot be made public, or this matter is true…”
She looked at the eldest princess, who was sitting under the glass lamp, fiddling with her Buddhist beads, and asked, “What do you think, Grandmother?”
The eldest princess continued to fiddle with her Buddhist beads, and a smile appeared in the corners of her wrinkled eyes: “Ah Bao, are you pretending to be confused with your grandmother?”
“Madame Jiang, bring the things over here.”
The eldest princess said something to Nanny Jiang who was standing outside the screen, placed the agarwood Buddhist beads in her hand on the small table, picked up the teacup and took a sip.
Soon, Nanny Jiang came in holding a black lacquered box and handed it to Bai Qingyan with a smile.
The eldest princess then put down the teacup with one hand, picked up the Buddhist beads, and said calmly: “Wen Zhenkang’s wife is indeed a divorced and remarried woman, but few people know that her previous husband… is the brother-in-law of the counselor in the Second Prince’s mansion.”
Bai Qingyan reached out to take the black lacquer box, and before opening it, he asked, “So, Wen Zhenkang’s wife has leverage over Li Mao, and is she related to the Second Prince?”
The Grand Princess never doubted her granddaughter’s intelligence. She nodded and said, “I think the letter that Wen Zhenkang’s wife is holding in her hand should be the one missing from the box.”
The eldest princess’s eyes fell on the embroidery of a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix on the screen. Under the warm light, the phoenix’s eyes, embroidered with silver thread, sparkled. She squinted her eyes and said, “If Wen Zhenkang’s wife is a smart person, she will definitely give this letter to Li Mao and tell him…she only wants to save her husband’s life, otherwise someone will hand over all the remaining letters to the Dali Temple.”
She listened to her grandmother’s slow voice and opened the box. Inside were letters between Li Mao and the second prince.
She sat quietly under the lamp and read it hastily, her pupils shrank slightly. The second prince raised an army to rebel… and it was actually Li Mao’s doing.
Li Mao is a hero who protects the emperor…
The eldest princess spoke slowly, “When the second prince’s rebellion failed and he was trapped in Wude Gate, Li Mao noticed something was wrong and was afraid that he would be implicated, so he immediately went to the Weiwei Mansion and pledged the lives of his entire family to ask the Weiwei to dispatch the imperial guards to rescue the emperor! While the imperial guards were fighting the soldiers led by the second prince, he quietly led a team of men and horses to the second prince’s mansion.”
“That night, the pregnant Second Prince’s wife hanged herself. After daybreak, no one in the Second Prince’s mansion was left alive. According to Li Mao… the people in the Second Prince’s mansion swore to fight to the death and finally fought to the death. He had no choice but to shoot arrows to quell the rebellion and handed over the confidential letters found in the Second Prince’s mansion, which implicated nearly half of the court officials.” The eldest princess paused while turning the Buddhist beads and retracted her distant gaze. “Later, Li Mao rose rapidly to power, and no one in the capital dared to mention the Second Prince anymore.”
Bai Qingyan closed the black lacquer box before finishing reading the letters, lowered his eyes, and lightly tapped the black lacquer box with his fingers.
If this is the case, then Li Mao was the biggest winner in the previous life.
He instigated the Second Prince to rebel, but when the Second Prince failed, he was not implicated but instead rose to prominence.
Later, he joined forces with King Liang and took control of the entire court, secretly inciting King Liang to rebel.
This Li Mao is really interesting…
He holds the highest position as the Left Prime Minister, yet he is still not satisfied. What is he planning?
Since the Bai family has such a big handle on Li Mao, then… let Li Mao stay in the position of Left Prime Minister for a while longer. It is better for a person who holds the handle to sit in the position of Left Prime Minister than to have someone who is not familiar with him sit in this position.
At the same time, Lu Jin was kneeling under the lamp, sorting out the imperial examination cheating case and the case of Lin Xin’an’s death on the desk.
As Lu Jin was sorting, he suddenly took out a blank piece of paper and wrote down the time and reason of the conflict between Lin Xinan and Lu Yuanpeng in Fanque Tower, the time of Lin Xinan’s death, and the time when Lin Xinan’s mother beat the drum to report the incident.
It also highlighted Lin Xinan’s remarks at Fanque Tower and the remarks made by the person behind the scenes who ordered Lin Xinan’s mother to report the incident, criticizing Princess Zhenguo for her cruelty.
Thinking that Lin Xinan’s mother beat the drum to report the case on the same day as the candidate Xue Renyi beat the drum to report the case for cheating in the imperial examination, he also listed the time when the drum was beaten for cheating in the imperial examination.
In a flash, a bold idea came into Lu Jin’s mind.
He picked up his pen and linked Lin Xin’an’s death to the imperial examination fraud case.
The trial of Lin Xinan’s case was over. It seemed that the case was targeted at Princess Zhenguo, but why didn’t the people behind Lin Xinan make a big deal out of it and get rid of Lin Xinan right after Lu Yuanpeng beat him?
Why did he have to wait until Xue Renyi beat the drum to report the incident, and then coincide with the imperial examination cheating case? It was too much of a coincidence…
Before the imperial examination cheating case occurred, there was the murder case of Prime Minister Lu’s young grandson. Both the court and the people paid attention to this case!
But if it happens together with the imperial examination cheating case, it will inevitably reduce the attention paid to this case, which is unreasonable.
The only explanation is that the person behind the scenes intended to kill two birds with one stone, reducing the attention to the imperial examination cheating case while ruining the reputation of Princess Zhenguo, or even better, to seize her title.
Looking across the entire metropolis, who… would hate the Princess Zhenguo so much, and want to cover up the imperial examination cheating case so much?
Lu Jin narrowed his eyes, remembering that on April 6th, his wife and daughter came back from a polo match and gossiped about how the wife of Wen Zhenkang, the chief examiner of the imperial examination, stayed in the Zuo Xiangfu for a long time.
My dears, I will update once in the early morning. The other two updates will be posted at noon! Mercury is really retrograde recently… There are too many things going on at home. I’m sorry…