“Nonsense! How could Princess Shengping have killed her own mother?” the Empress Dowager said, her face livid.
The prison guard stammered, “I—I wouldn’t dare make such a thing up. Princess Shengping once saved my life, and I promised to do her a favor. Aunt Sun was always the one who contacted me before, but just now, Princess Shengping sent me a letter herself. She ordered me—ordered me to get rid of Commoner Chen!”
The prison guard’s words left everyone present holding their breath, unable to believe what they had heard.
Who didn’t know that Princess Shengping was only seven years old? Commoner Chen was her birth mother, yet the princess had actually been willing to kill her. Had she gone mad?
Several ministers exchanged glances.
The Empress Dowager’s face was filled with fury.
Sun Niujin stood there in a daze.
As for Chen Yunxiang, who was sprawled on the ground, she kept shaking her head and screaming at the prison guard, “You’re lying! How could my daughter want my life? Tell me! Were you sent by that bitch Cui Huaiyin?”
She glared hatefully at Cui Huaiyin with bloodshot eyes. “Cui Huaiyin! Was it you? I’m already in this state, yet you still refuse to let me go! You ruined me, and now you want to kill my daughter too! You’ll die a horrible death! Even as a ghost, I won’t let you off!”
“Impudent!” Dantai Ji’s face darkened as he looked at Chen Yunxiang, as though he were staring at a dead woman.
Wang Zhong hurriedly grabbed Chen Yunxiang and covered her mouth, scolding her harshly. “How dare you insult the Noble Consort! I think you’ve lived long enough!”
Chen Yunxiang seemed not to hear him. She stared fixedly at Cui Huaiyin, then turned toward the prison guard. Like an evil ghost crawling out of hell, she strained her voice and screamed, “Say something! Say it isn’t Yuer! Say it was someone else, someone else who wanted me dead! It wasn’t my Yuer!”
“Yuer is my daughter! She would never hurt me—she absolutely would never hurt me!”
The prison guard was frightened by her as well. He shrank back, then forced himself to say, “It was Princess Shengping! It was Princess Shengping who ordered me to keep watching you. She was the one who told me to kill you! If you don’t believe me, you can summon Princess Shengping and have her face me!”
“I don’t believe you! I don’t believe you! I don’t believe my daughter could hurt me!”
“Summon Princess Shengping,” the Emperor ordered.
“Yes! Summon Princess Shengping to the hall!” the eunuch called out.
The grand hall instantly fell silent. Everyone turned toward the entrance, waiting for the princess who might not truly be a princess—or who might even be guilty of matricide.
Before long, the elegantly dressed seven-year-old Princess Shengping stepped into Wenyu Pavilion.
Under the eyes of the assembled crowd, she respectfully bowed. “Shengping pays her respects to Grandmother Empress Dowager, Father Emperor, and Consort Cui.”
“Yuer, Yuer, my Yuer! You’ve finally come to see your mother! Your mother thinks of you and Chang’er day and night. Is Chang’er all right? You don’t know—someone just accused you of wanting to harm your mother! Hurry and tell them you didn’t. Tell them you would never hurt your mother.”
Chen Yunxiang gazed at Princess Shengping through a curtain of tears and spoke desperately.
Princess Shengping raised her tear-filled eyes and turned toward Chen Yunxiang. “Mother! Yuer has finally found you! How did you end up like this?”
Tears streaming down her face, Princess Shengping rose and ran over. Ignoring the filth on Chen Yunxiang’s body, she threw herself into her arms, like a child who had finally found the mother she thought she had lost.
Had nothing happened earlier, anyone who witnessed the scene would probably have been moved.
But at that moment, everyone in the hall was studying the eight-year-old Princess Shengping suspiciously.
Even the Empress Dowager spoke coldly. “Shengping! Do not forget your manners in front of everyone!”
Only then did Princess Shengping pull away from Chen Yunxiang through her tears. She knelt again and deliberately wiped her eyes, pretending to be strong.
“Shengping was wrong.”
The Empress Dowager frowned and pointed at the prison guard. “This man claims that you sent him to kill Commoner Chen. Do you admit it?”
Princess Shengping looked up, her face filled with disbelief. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shook her head vigorously. “That is my mother! How could I have ordered someone to kill her? Ever since Mother was stripped of her title, I have thought of her day and night. Why would I ever harm her?”
The prison guard cried, “Princess! It was clearly you who ordered me to get rid of Commoner Chen! You were the one who arranged for me to guard her!”
Princess Shengping wiped her tears and stared at the prison guard. “You’re lying! I would never hurt my mother. Am I insane? Why would I want to kill her?”
The Empress Dowager glared at the prison guard as well. “Do you have any evidence?”
The prison guard froze for a moment, then suddenly remembered something. He hurriedly pulled a slip of paper from inside his robes. “I do! I have evidence! This was written by Princess Shengping herself just now! She had someone deliver it to me!”
Wang Zhong quickly took the slip of paper and handed it to the Emperor.
Dantai Ji glanced at it. His expression became dark and unreadable as he stared at Shengping. “Shengping, these are unmistakably your handwriting.”
Princess Shengping shook her head furiously, tears still flowing. “No! Father, I could never kill Mother! Someone must have imitated my handwriting. Many people have seen me write before. It would not be difficult to copy it!”
The Empress Dowager took the paper and examined it carefully. The characters appeared to have been written in haste. There was only one line:
Get rid of Commoner Chen.
She was very familiar with that handwriting.
“Shengping, this is indeed your handwriting!”
Princess Shengping stared at her through her tears. “Grandmother Empress Dowager, even you don’t believe me? Shengping truly, truly could never kill Mother. She is my mother—how could Shengping kill her? I have never even met this prison guard, and I never wrote anything like this.”
“That’s right! Someone must be framing my daughter! My daughter would never kill me. She would never kill me!”
The prison guard grew frantic as well. He knocked his head against the floor and said, “I didn’t frame the princess! How would I dare frame a princess? Aunt Sun was always the one who contacted me before. I don’t know why it changed this time, but it was Princess Shengping who ordered me to kill her!”
Dantai Ji’s cold gaze swept across Princess Shengping’s tear-streaked face. “Bring Aunt Sun here!”
Wang Zhong replied, “Yes! This servant will fetch her at once!”
Princess Shengping was clearly beginning to panic. She straightened her back, glanced at Wang Zhong as he hurried away, and let her tears fall like rain.
Inside the hall, Princess Shengping was sobbing.
Chen Yunxiang was worried about her daughter and tried to comfort her.
The prison guard kept insisting that he had not lied, that he had acted entirely on Princess Shengping’s orders.
Sun Niujin was frightened out of his wits. Every now and then, he secretly glanced at Chen Yunxiang, then at Princess Shengping, as if trying to confirm something.
The Empress Dowager’s expression was grim, and the ministers all looked troubled.
Cui Huaiyin’s brows were tightly knit, her eyes filled with sorrow as she gazed at Chen Yunxiang.
The Grand Secretary in particular kept studying Princess Shengping, occasionally glancing at Sun Niujin as well.
Princess Fuxi lowered her head, seemingly lost in thought.
Before long, Aunt Sun was brought in.
Her entire body was covered in wounds, clearly the result of torture during interrogation.
She knelt on the floor, her face devoid of life.
The Chief Justice of the Dali Temple stepped forward to question her. Pointing at the prison guard, he asked, “Criminal Sun Liu, do you know this man?”
Aunt Sun casually glanced at the prison guard, then looked at the princess beside her. Her hands clenched into fists as she said, “It was me! I did everything. None of this has anything to do with the princess!”
Minister of the Dali Temple: “So you do know this person.”
Aunt Sun: “I do, I do! I was the one who ordered everything. The princess knew nothing. I deserve to die, I deserve to die!”
The Minister’s expression remained unchanged. “Then do you know that the princess ordered this person to kill Commoner Chen?”
“Yes, I—” Aunt Sun froze. She abruptly raised her head and glanced at the princess. “No, that’s impossible! The princess could never have killed Her Ladyship. It was me—everything was my doing. The princess is pure and kind. How could she kill her own mother?”
“Liuzhi!”
A trembling voice filled with disbelief suddenly rang out in the hall. It was Sun Niujin calling her name.
