"... You!" Li Taoqi couldn't imagine that Li Qishen could say such a thing. He was so angry that his face turned pale and red. "You have no shame!"
"Evidence." Li Qishen was still not angry, and looked at Li Taoqi calmly, "To slander and defame someone with such a charge is shameless, isn't it?"
Normally, Li Taoqi would have thought twice about Li Qishen's attitude, but when it came to the Crown Princess, his anger for not being able to save Concubine Xiao rushed up, and he was so angry that he just wanted to skin Li Qishen alive. As a king and a minister, he couldn't get angry at Li Chengjing back then, but now the young man in front of him was bearing the added anger.
Li Zhuoqi took a deep breath: "Peach branch."
“…Yes.” Taozhi knew it was time for her to speak. She had repeated it countless times in front of the Crown Princess. But facing those eyes that looked like they were made of gold, she didn’t dare to speak for a moment. After a moment of silence, she said with a trembling voice, “I struggled at that time and tore the gold thread off the Seventh Prince’s outer robe… In addition, when the Seventh Prince insulted me, I saw that he had a birthmark on his body.”
Li Qishen glanced at Taozhi and said nothing.
"We have all the evidence, what else do you have to say?" Li Taoqi thought he was guilty and felt disappointed. "Ah Shen, I think I treated you well and fulfilled my responsibilities as your brother. You are young and energetic, so you may find it difficult to control your emotions, but you can't..."
"Brother, what do you want?" Li Qishen suddenly spoke.
"... apologize, and swear that you will never go near the East Palace again in this life. Taozhi... If you are willing, take her into the palace as a concubine, otherwise pay her." Li Taoqi didn't really want Li Qishen to die, otherwise he wouldn't have brought only the Crown Princess and Taozhi and secretly told only Li Chengjing, but he had already promised the Crown Princess at that time, so he had to look at Aye for help, "Aye will decide the rest."
Li Chengjin finally found an opportunity to show off his skills. He coughed and said, "Ah Shen, Aye never thought you would do such a thing. Since you are young, I will spare your life. Do you have anything else to say?"
"Yes." Li Qishen's expression remained unchanged. "If I didn't do it, and it was the Crown Princess and this maid who slandered me, then what?"
"As a woman, what she wants in life is to be innocent." The Crown Princess was sure of victory. She looked at Li Qishen with resentment, then looked at Li Zhuoqi, "Why are you throwing dirty water on me and Taozhi?"
Li Qishen didn't want to pay attention to her and looked at Li Zhuoqi: "I just want to ask this question. What if I didn't do it?"
"Then what do you want?" Li Taoqi was angry.
"I killed her." Li Qishen spoke silently, deliberately slowing down the movement of his lips so that Li Taoqi could read it out, "Skinned her, bones removed, and bones pulverized into ashes."
Li Zhuoqi's pupils shrank, but Li Qishen turned his head away and looked down at Taozhi who was still kneeling on the ground. "Just now, this maid said that she tore the gold thread from my outer robe and saw the birthmark on my body. Now, please ask Aye to be a witness and let her tell me what birthmark I have."
"Tell me." Li Chengjin felt that he was struggling to death. "Tell him, let him hear what it is."
"Yes. I saw a birthmark on your chest." Taozhi raised her hand and drew a big circle under her shoulder, extending to her chest. "It's right here... about this size, and red."
"Now that I've said it." Li Taoqi frowned, "How else do you want to quibble?"
"Ah Shen?" Li Chengjing also looked at him.
Li Qishen did not look at his father and brother. His sight drifted to the Crown Princess a little further away. He was very calm, his expression was normal, but his eyebrows were cold, like the mountains after a heavy snowfall.
The Crown Princess shuddered inexplicably, but then changed her mind and remained calm, staring back: "Seventh Prince, do you want to say anything else?"
"Please open your eyes and look," Li Qishen raised his hand, put his fingertips on the collar, and pulled it open a little bit, "Do I have a birthmark on my body?"
The collar was open, just to the position that Taozhi had pointed out, revealing the boy's still thin body. Li Qishen's skin color was like Murong Feique's, paler than the Han people, with fair skin, prominent collarbones, and an exposed chest that looked like a jade carving. There was no birthmark to be seen, let alone a bright red one.
“…Impossible!” The Crown Princess’ pupils shrank and she staggered a few steps. “Impossible! How did you remove the birthmark?”
Taozhi was also shocked, her eyes widened, her lips trembling, and she couldn't say a word.
"No, I don't have any birthmarks on my body. It's impossible to remove them. Let's not talk about whether there is such a way. Even if I really have one, can I predict it and remove it in advance?" Li Qishen gathered up his outer robe. "I guess this maid heard fake news from somewhere and used it as evidence to slander me."
"... No, it's not..." Taozhi panicked, "That day, that day I clearly saw that the Seventh Prince had a birthmark on his body, it was real, it was real..."
How could she know that Li Qishen had a rash? The lights in the palace were not bright enough that night, so she could not see it. She could only repeat it over and over again. But Taozhi and the Crown Princess had already insisted that Li Qishen had a birthmark, and they saw it with their own eyes. Now the birthmark was missing, and she was completely panicked, her mind was in a mess, and she actually cried out loud.
The Crown Princess was not so bad, and quickly presented other evidence: "What about the gold thread? Was it hooked from your outer robe?"
Knowing that Li Qishen had no birthmark on his chest, Li Chengjin sided with his son, but he didn't want to say that he was wrong, so he coughed and said, "A Shen, how do you explain this?"
"You'll have to ask the Crown Princess." Li Qishen smiled, "The Crown Princess did send this maid to my palace that day to deliver ginseng. But the maid didn't leave. She insisted that she had received orders from my brother and the Crown Princess to teach me about human affairs. The eunuch in my palace can testify to this. I didn't want to, so she came forward and pulled me away. I think she pulled it off at that time."
Li Zhuoqi was stunned and looked at the Crown Princess in surprise: "When did I say this order?"
The Crown Princess was speechless and could only shake her head: "Your Highness, I am the same, the same..."
"Now that things have come to this, I would like to ask, what exactly is the grudge between me and the Crown Princess? A few years ago, I had a miscarriage and was accused of practicing the art of aversion. My brother loves his wife so much that he led people to search the Qingsi Palace in the middle of the night. Now he has teamed up with the maid to fabricate evidence and accuse me of such a serious crime." Li Qishen did not let her continue to say "also", "You can always find a pretext to accuse someone. Do I really have a way out in the palace?"
"People say that an elder sister-in-law is like a mother. My mother passed away early, but I didn't expect that the Crown Princess hated me so much." He paused and looked at Li Taoqi, "First, she slandered me time and again, and I am unworthy of being a sister-in-law. Then she used this method to alienate me from my brother, and she did not hesitate to bring shame to my brother. I think the Crown Princess is no less than a tiger and wolf. She has lived in vain in the world!"
"A Shen..." Li Taoqi was also panicking, not caring about the Crown Princess, "You..."
"I remember that when the princes and princesses in the palace were born, the midwives would wash their bodies. If there were birthmarks, they would be recorded to avoid confusion in the future." Li Qishen calmed down after his temper, and said quietly, "For fifteen years, I was in the Daming Palace with my father and brother, but they didn't even know if I had a birthmark on my body."
He had never expected anything from these two people. To be honest, it wasn't a pity, but he just thought it was funny. His innocence was proven. Li Qishen was too lazy to stay in the same room with these people, so he turned around and walked away, heading towards Xuanyuan Hall.
The cold wind blew, the gray clouds broke apart, and suddenly fine snow began to float, falling on his hair and face, and on his thick eyelashes. The young man walked forward step by step, facing the wind and snow, pursing his lips tightly.
Behind him, Li Chengjing in the Purple Palace was so angry that he felt that he had lost all face. He threw a teacup in front of Li Taoqi and said, "Who are you? Who is Ah Shen? You are a prince, but you came up with this method to slander your brother! His mother is a Xianbei. How can she take your position? Why are you so intolerant of him? Are you going to follow the example of the previous dynasty and kill him and then your father?!"
"...Father, please forgive me!" Li Taoqi didn't dare to respond. He knelt straight down and said, "It's my fault this time. I was really angry at the time and believed the slander. That's why..."
He turned his head and saw that the Crown Princess was annoyed, "Why don't you kneel down!"
“Your Majesty, please forgive me!” The Crown Princess quickly knelt down. At this point, Taozhi was the scapegoat. “Your Majesty, please understand. It was this maid who told the truth! I didn’t know the truth either. I was deceived by the treacherous person. That’s why I… hurt His Majesty.”
Taozhi was shocked, and quickly knelt forward, kowtowed twice: "Your Majesty, please understand, please understand... I was also forced! I was forced..."
The Crown Princess was afraid that Tao Zhi would tell the truth, so she ignored the rules of a noble lady and stepped forward to slap Tao Zhi, causing her to fall crookedly to the ground. Two red marks quickly appeared on her face. She gritted her teeth and said, "Don't even think about talking nonsense and accusing anyone again! I think you seduced the Seventh Prince, and you came to me with bad intentions to slander the Seventh Prince. I believed you, but you did this to me!"
Taozhi was beaten to tears, and was afraid that the Crown Princess would beat her again, so she crawled towards the Crown Prince sobbing. The Crown Princess would not let Taozhi get close to her husband, so she grabbed her hair and pulled out a bunch of it, causing Taozhi to scream in pain like a chicken being slaughtered.
There was chaos below the table. Li Chengjing was sitting on the table, his ears buzzing and his head starting to ache. He felt that everything in front of him was unpleasant to the eyes and he wanted to smash ten or eight more sets of teacups.
The emperors above him, except for the Empress who was not allowed to enter the Xuanyuan Palace, were all wise rulers, and were highly praised in history books. As for him, Li Chengjing was taught by four Taifu since he was a child, all of whom were great scholars who always mentioned the previous dynasty. What Li Chengjing wanted to do most in his life was to prove that he was better than his ancestors.
However, he is now facing external and internal troubles. The court officials are blind and always think that he is not as good as his father and grandfather. They complain every time they submit a memorial. The only two sons in the family are fighting with each other, and the Crown Princess is beating a maid like a country woman.
These voices mixed together, as if reminding him repeatedly—
—You are not as good as your father! Not as good as your grandfather! Not as good as any emperor!
"That's enough!" Li Chengjin slapped the armrest hard.
The three people sitting below shuddered all over, and dared not move for a moment, just standing still obediently, which looked quite funny.
"This maid slandered the prince, so she should be beaten to death. The Crown Princess believed the slander, so she should be beaten with 30 sticks and confined to her house for half a year." Li Chengjing stood up and took a last look at Li Taoqi, "You should also reflect on this!"
The author has something to say: I have added more chapters. I really don’t have any more.jpg
Well, from now on until the very end of the story, the Crown Princess will probably not appear (.
But she really went offline, or later... Changsheng's words will come true. He is a revenge ghost full of resentment, but he is not capable enough for now (.) Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated me with nutrient solution~
Thanks to the little angel who threw the [grenade]: 1 for Shifangxiao;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:
Edogawa Magical Tornado Boy, Taiping Youxiang, Wuwangjing 10 bottles; Junzixia 3 bottles; Ganlu, Nanmoyuanzhi 2 bottles; Ningyuan, Shangshan 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!