Chapter 291 Request (one more)
Zi Ye led his people and followed the city guards to guard the city gate all night. No one left the city except King Rui'an.
Woke up early, the city gate opened on time, and Ziye sent someone to ask Zhou Gu for instructions.
After hearing the report, Zhou Gu learned that Su Rong and Ye Guixue had not returned all night, so he sent a message to him that he could come back, but arranged for someone to watch at the gate of the city to see if anyone came out of the city today.
Zi Ye got a message, arranged for a few people, and went back to the Duke Protector's Mansion by himself.
The emperor came forward early and was woken up by someone. When he woke up, he saw that the person serving him was not Yu An. Remembering that Yu An was still imprisoned and waiting to be dealt with, he rubbed his brows and asked, "What happened last night?"
The **** named Dewang who was temporarily promoted to serve the emperor said quickly, "Return to Your Majesty, nothing happened last night."
The emperor nodded, and someone served the early court.
The second prince Yan Lin was not held accountable by the emperor, and he still appeared obediently in the morning court today. In fact, he wanted to complain about his illness and not go to the court. He didn't want the emperor to see him, think of him, be implicated, and send him to the Imperial Forest Army to confine him in the mansion.
But the staff suggested to him that at this time, he should not be vain, and stand upright in the morning court, so as not to cause something to involve him, and he could not defend himself in court.
Yan Lin thinks about it too, so he can only bite the bullet and go to the morning court.
He originally thought that besides Crown Prince Yan Huisheng, he was the only one who came to the court today. After all, among the four princes who were eligible to go to court, the eldest prince was confined in the mansion, and the fourth prince was about to be settled because of concubine Li's involvement. Although there was no imperial edict to deal with him, he no longer dared to go to court. But unexpectedly, he saw the Fourth Prince Yan Shen in the morning.
Moreover, there was no trace of panic on Yan Shen's face.
Yan Lin was extremely surprised.
The emperor arrived at the morning court on time, glanced at the courtiers standing below, and half of them complained of illness. It was obvious that they were all from the First Prince's faction and some timid people, for fear of implicating themselves.
The emperor snorted coldly in his heart, and glanced over Yan Lin. Yan Lin felt his heart tighten and his scalp was a little numb, but the emperor quickly looked away, and his eyes fell on Yan Shen. Thinking of what happened to Concubine Li and what happened in the palace yesterday, his face suddenly sank.
Yan Shen clenched his hands in his sleeves vigorously, as if to cheer himself up, staring at the emperor's heavy eyes on him, he walked out of the line with difficulty, knelt on the ground, and said word by word: "Father, Concubine Li was wronged. I request to continue the thorough investigation, and I will be righteous for Concubine Li. I am also willing to die to prove Concubine Li's innocence."
As soon as he said this, the hall was in an uproar.
The emperor was also surprised. He didn't expect Yan Shen to make this matter clear in the court hall, and he said it so relentlessly, that he even said the words of the deceased to prove the innocence of Concubine Li? The emperor looked at Yan Shen with a gloomy expression for a moment, wondering and uncertain.
Yan Shen lowered his head, and still said: "Father, please be the master. The case of Empress Li is full of doubts. Last night, King Rui'an went out of Beijing to investigate the case at the Great Buddha Temple, and it is also because it is related to Empress Li's case. Therefore, I ask Father to not make a conclusion on this case for the time being. Wait for King Rui'an to find out the truth before making a conclusion."
The emperor looked at the courtiers upon hearing the words, "King Rui'an went out of Beijing to investigate the case again last night?"
The courtiers replied in twos and threes: "Return to Your Majesty, that's right."
The emperor looked at Prince Yan and echoed, "I was in the palace yesterday, didn't I check it out? Why did King Rui'an leave Beijing at night again?"
Yan Echo cupped his hands, "Going back to my father, King Rui'an has discovered doubts, and I still have doubts about the case of Concubine Li."
The emperor nodded when he heard the words, and said to Yan Shen: "Get up! I'm sure."
Yan Shen stood up and returned to the queue.
Yan Lin was startled. He looked at Yan Shen, then at the emperor, and then at Crown Prince Yan Echo. He seemed to understand something. Annoyed, why did Yan Huisheng help Yan Shen? Recently, King Rui'an got closer to the East Palace and Duke Huguo's Mansion, and King Rui'an went to the Great Buddha Temple to investigate the case, specifying that it was the East Palace.
Do you think he is not involved deeply enough and want to drag him into the water too?
The emperor naturally didn't know about it, and he said "Oh?", "Why?"
Yan Lin shook his head, "I don't know why, I have to ask the people in the Protector's Mansion?"
Today is not the Grand Court Meeting. No one is standing in the court hall in the Duke Huguo’s Mansion. The three grandsons of the old Duke Huguo are in the army. One young grandson has not yet entered the court and is waiting to be released. The old Huguogong himself will only go to the court at the Great Court Meeting. Therefore, when the emperor wanted to ask people in the Duke Huguo’s mansion, he couldn’t find anyone.
He could only look at Prince Yan echoing.
Yan echoed and cupped his hands, "Return to father, Miss Su Qi and Young Master Ye Er went out of Beijing to go to the Great Buddha Temple last night. Aunt Sheng An was worried about the safety of the two of them, and she didn't want to disturb father and emperor in the middle of the night so that she would not sleep well, so she informed my son, and the master sent someone to guard the gate of the city with the city defenders, in case someone in Beijing followed them out, which would be harmful to them."
When the emperor heard that Su Rong and Ye Guixue were worried about the safety of these two people, his face suddenly softened, "What are the two of them going out of the city to go to the Great Buddha Temple late at night?"
Yan echoed and replied, "Miss Su Qi rescued her aunt and mother during the day, but at night she found something suspicious, so she went to the Great Buddha Temple."
The emperor nodded.
Yan Lin said: "In this case, why did you let King Rui'an out of the city later?"
Yan echoed and glanced at Yan Lin, "Prince Rui'an is going to investigate this case, and he was going out of the city, but Miss Su Qi and Master Ye Er went first."
Yan Lin was blocked, speechless.
The emperor waved his hand, "Okay, Concubine Li's case has a lot to do with it, involving several major cases, Princess Sheng'an should be cautious."
Yan Lin was speechless, thinking that his father had really changed. If in the past, he heard that Princess Sheng An actually used a token, and sent people to guard the city gate with the soldiers guarding the city gate in the middle of the night. The appointment was made to suspect that the Duke of the Protectorate had any intention of threatening the imperial power. Now it would be better, and the matter would be over easily with just a few words from the crown prince.
Although Yan Lin was dissatisfied, he had no reason to go back.
The emperor waved his hand, "Go on! There is a play."
The emperor was actually a little dissatisfied in his heart, thinking that the Huguo Mansion and Aunt Sheng'an began to ignore him as the emperor again, but it was indeed a mistake for him to drain all the money from the treasury, so let's not care about it for the time being.
Su Xingze returned late from Duke Huguo's mansion yesterday, and it was a coincidence that when he returned to the mansion, Su Rong had already gone to the East Palace. When he woke up in the morning, he realized that he hadn't returned to the mansion all night. After asking Mrs. Shen, he learned that she somehow found Ye Guixue and left the city last night. Su Xing didn't know what happened. He thought that Jingzhong was not good. What his sister did was not like in the small place in Jiangning County. If he didn't keep an eye on her all the time, it would be difficult for him to know what she was doing in the first place.
Su Xing went to the Duke Protector's Mansion to seek Zhou Gu as usual.
Zhou Gu saw him coming, put down the scroll, and asked Su Xing: "Brother Su, do you know what she went out of the city with Ye Guixue last night?"
Su Xing was surprised, "You don't know either?"
Zhou Gu looked at his expression, shook his head, "I don't know."
Su Xing also shook his head at him, "I don't know. When I went back last night, she was not in the mansion, and I didn't see her. But I heard from Aunt Shen that she should have decided to leave from the East Palace temporarily, otherwise she would have informed Aunt Shen when she left yesterday."
Zhou Gumo was silent, "Shouldn't you be going to Nanchu?"
Su Xing immediately shook his head, "No, she said that she won't leave Daliang if she didn't help the prince break the situation, didn't see the prince's status is stable, didn't wait for me to announce the list, and didn't see the sisters make a marriage."
Zhou Gu nodded, breathed a sigh of relief, and muttered, "She still has a lot to do."
Su Xing speculated: "My sister should have found some clues, so she left Beijing in a hurry last night. She probably went to investigate something. She left in a hurry, so she didn't inform Aunt Shen and me."
"It should be related to several cases." Zhou Gu nodded, "My injury is really slow to heal. Otherwise, I don't have to stay in the house obediently and cannot go out."
Su Xing patted him on the shoulder, "It's a big deal for you to heal your injuries."
(end of this chapter)