Chapter 185
Chapter 185: Qiu Shi Dong Is Dead
Qiu Shi Dong died in the Duke of the Realm’s residence.
The Zheng Family immediately reported the matter to the authorities.
The coroner took the body away, and the Duke of the Realm told them exactly what had happened.
“He came to offer his services as a broker. When the matter failed, he was scared out of his wits. He seems to have been scared to death,” he said.
The people from the prefectural yamen did not dare make things hard for him.
The case was strange, and it also involved the Empress’s maiden home, so the Emperor issued a special order to hand it over to the Dali Court.
The Chief Justice of the Dali Court already had other cases in hand, and the Emperor was waiting for his reports. He was too busy for the moment, so he passed this case to Vice Minister Wang Tang Yao.
Wang Tang Yao worked very quickly. In just two days he wrote a memorial and reported the facts of the case.
Without a summons, he could not see the Emperor directly and would usually have to go through his superior officer.
However, after reading his memorial, the Emperor gave him special permission to enter the Imperial Study.
“It was poison. There was a silver needle inside Qiu Shi Dong’s body. It carried a deadly toxin that kills in less than a quarter of an hour. The poison attacked his heart, so he died quietly,” Wang Tang Yao said.
The Emperor read his report and said: “You believe that the poisoner is not one of the Duke of the Realm’s people, but that the killer still needs to be found?”
“Yes. This man died in the Duke of the Realm’s residence, and that only brought suspicion on the Duke. It did not benefit him at all. The hidden weapons technique used was very skilled. Ordinary people could not do this. Also, the first person to ask about buying Hot Spring Villa was not the Zheng Family,” Wang Tang Yao said.
“Ridiculous. Every word you wrote hints at Prince Yong and Prince Yong’s intended consort,” the Emperor said as he set the memorial down.
Yet his tone was not very harsh. “Do you have any proof?”
Wang Tang Yao knelt and knocked his head to the floor. He said: “Please forgive me, Your Majesty. This humble subject does not dare to hint at them. It is only that there is such a possibility.”
The Emperor frowned.
The Empress sent a palace maid to ask whether she could hear the details of the case.
It was another matter involving the Zheng Family, so the Empress was very concerned.
“The Empress has only just finished her prayers for blessings, and the Zheng Family is already acting so wildly, making mistake after mistake. I am not dead yet, and she is not the Empress Dowager yet!”
With this displeasure in his heart, the Emperor said coldly to the palace maid: “This is a murder case, not a family affair. Tell the Empress to rest. She does not need to worry about it.”
His tone was harsh.
Just now, when he was suspecting Prince Yong, his voice had been light, as if he was joking.
It was clear that he did not believe Wang Tang Yao’s guess, but his fear and resentment toward Empress Zheng were real.
Wang Tang Yao lowered his gaze and stared at the smooth gold bricks on the floor of the Imperial Study. He said nothing.
The palace maid, having been scolded, retreated in fear.
The Empress Dowager also summoned the Emperor to ask about the case.
The Emperor had already met alone with several officials who had handled it, including the coroner.
“…The man was indeed poisoned, and he did indeed die in the Zheng Family’s household. The Duke of the Realm reported it to the authorities at once. The coroner said he had not delayed, so it seems he was not trying to hide anything. He truly thought the man had been scared to death,” the Emperor said.
The Empress Dowager was very tired. “Why does the Zheng Family have so many problems lately?”
“This morning I received a petition from Uncle Prince Jiang,” the Emperor said. “He accused the Duke of the Realm of trying to seize a private property of Prince Jiang’s manor. When I first read the petition, I was confused, so I asked Minister Hu.
“Minister Hu said that Fourth Miss Zheng had been shouting that she wanted to buy Uncle Prince Jiang’s Hot Spring Villa. People have been saying she already bought it, but in fact she has not. From the look of it, Madam Zheng has been very forceful and is determined to get it, so Uncle Prince Jiang came to lodge a complaint.”
The Empress Dowager thought for a moment and then said to the Emperor: “Do not take your anger at these matters out on the Empress. She grew up in the Duke of Shen’s household, not at her real parents’ side. What happens in the Duke of the Realm’s household has nothing to do with her.”
“She is still my wife, and the Duke of the Realm is still her Father. The Censorate will be noisy for half a month over this. Imperial Mother, you feel sorry for her, but do you not feel sorry for your son?” the Emperor sighed.
“She is helpless too.”
“She has been too indulgent with the Duke of the Realm’s family,” the Emperor said. “When Zheng Xiao killed someone and shamed the Buddhist order, she should have begged me to strip the Duke of the Realm of his noble rank. Then we would not have all these later troubles.”
The Empress Dowager said nothing.
The Emperor’s hatred of the great clans had already reached the point of wishful thinking.
He could even throw this kind of blame onto the Empress.
“Jun’er, this is not fair to the Empress,” the Empress Dowager said earnestly. “You know she has always been careful and has put the Imperial Court first. She has never favored her maiden home. She suffers in her heart too.”
The Emperor’s anger faded.
One word, “Jun’er,” from his mother soothed all his irritation.
He had always known that his mother favored him. No matter when, his mother would firmly choose him and think for his sake.
The Empress truly could not be blamed.
Those words of his had only been anger vented on her.
“A broker died in the Duke of the Realm’s residence. It is not as if the tea in his household was poisoned. You do not need to ask too much. Let the Censorate scold the Duke of the Realm,” the Empress Dowager said again.
The Emperor nodded. “I will do as Imperial Mother says.”
Back in the Imperial Study, the Emperor sat alone and thought of how Wang Tang Yao had said that Luo Ning was the first one who wanted to buy Hot Spring Villa. That stirred Zheng Jia’er’s competitive heart so that she also wanted to buy it, and only then did they discover that the broker had died.
Whoever killed this broker was now a mystery.
The Emperor did not really believe Wang Tang Yao.
It was not necessarily Prince Yong. He had no reason to pick a fight with a broker. It would not be Prince Yong’s intended consort either. She and the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s household did not have that kind of ability.
Even so, the broker was indeed a sacrifice in the fight between Prince Yong’s future principal consort and secondary consort.
The Emperor’s marriage decree had been given for this very moment.
The result was good.
As he had expected, the principal consort and the secondary consorts each had their own backers. Before they even entered the manor, they were already fighting each other to the death. All the bothersome things happening now in the Duke of the Realm’s household would one day happen in Prince Yong’s manor.
The Emperor was very satisfied.
In that instant, the Empress Dowager must also have thought of this.
But she said nothing.
She did not say a single accusing word to the Emperor, telling him he should not have come up with such a bad idea and issued an imperial edict to assign four Highborn Ladies as secondary consorts to his brother, breaking the proper ranks of Enfeoffed Ladies in a prince’s manor.
Mother knew everything.
With her silent consent, she allowed the Emperor to do anything he wanted.
Thinking of this warmed the Emperor’s heart. The special love he had never received from his Father had all been made up by his Mother.
As long as she was partial to him like this, the Emperor was willing to listen to whatever his Mother said.
Since Mother told him not to blame the Empress, then so be it. He would not hold it against the Empress. Since Mother told him not to bother with the case, he would hand it to the Dali Court to close. As for the Duke of the Realm, the Censorate would scold him harshly. There was no need for the Emperor to waste his breath.
The Emperor was in a good mood.
Wang Tang Yao returned to the Marquis of Jian Ning’s manor and at once sent someone to invite the Marquis of Jian Ning.
“…Hand that adopted daughter to me,” Wang Tang Yao said. “I want to pry open her mouth. She must know some secret.”
The Marquis of Jian Ning was displeased. “No.”
“Qiu Shi Dong is already dead,” Wang Tang Yao said.
“The man Bai Yu Lin is not dead yet. That adopted daughter is his daughter. I still have use for her,” the Marquis of Jian Ning said.
“Brother, I have never interfered in your affairs. This time you must listen to me. I will not use heavy torture. I only want to scare her. I must know the truth,” Wang Tang Yao said. “If Qiu Shi Dong really had an affair with the Madam of the Marquis of Zhen Nan, she is the proof.”
“Do we even need to ask?” the Marquis of Jian Ning said with disdain. “Can you not see how alike they look?”
“It is not enough that we believe it. The Emperor and the Empress Dowager have to believe it,” Wang Tang Yao said.
The Marquis of Jian Ning said: “If the Emperor and the Empress Dowager do not want to believe it, they will treat the evidence before their eyes as if it were nothing.
“As for that adopted daughter, sending her into the palace is what benefits us the most. Once she wins favor, her pillow-side words will be enough to kill the Luo Family a hundred times over, including Prince Yong’s intended consort. You are too young. If you are too hasty, you cannot eat hot tofu.”