On the day of Minor Cold, heavy snow fell, but the Prince Jin's Mansion was filled with joy.
Princess Kangren's marriage was arranged, not to a noble family, but to a fine and noble family in the city.
The man was chosen after being selected by Princess Kangren, who then made the decision. Prince Jin then sent people to thoroughly investigate the man's family.
Even the fact that the boy wet the bed because he drank an extra bowl of soup when he was three years old was discovered.
When Jiang Changning heard about this, he stroked his forehead and sighed, "This is too thorough an investigation."
Even for his niece, the Prince of Jin conducted such a thorough investigation. If it was a daughter, Jiang Changning felt that the Prince of Jin might not investigate the man's three generations, but his ancestors for eighteen generations.
Prince Jin was good to his niece, and Jiang Changning was also good to her. After Princess Kang Ren came of age, he began to teach her how to manage the household, teaching her in every detail, which benefited Princess Kang Ren a lot.
Although Princess Kangren has no father or mother, she has the title of princess and a high status. She also has the support of the Prince of Jin's Mansion, so no one would make a fuss about her being an orphan.
In addition, she is not only well-read, but also proficient in playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. She is also good at housekeeping. In the marriage market, she is quite favored by those noble ladies.
Now that the marriage was settled, the concubine was relieved and wiped her tears and said, "Thank you for your trouble. This marriage is very good. Kang Ren will have someone to rely on for the rest of his life. When I am a hundred years old, I will not be afraid to meet your father and elder brother."
"Mother, please stop saying such things on such a happy day. Please take a look at the dowry list and see if I have made any mistakes or missed any part of it." Jiang Changning hurriedly tried to distract her with other things.
"You are always meticulous in your work, so there will be no mistakes or omissions." The concubine is now more and more satisfied with Jiang Changning.
Having said that, the concubine still took the gift list.
There was a thick stack of gift lists. Jiang Changning gave all of Qiao's dowry to Princess Kang Ren, and also took out 50,000 taels of silver to buy a dowry for Princess Kang Ren.
Jiang Changning was generous in his work, which made the concubine, who was born in a noble family and was particular about appearances and reputation, very happy. "This jade mountain son who gave birth to a son is the best as a dowry."
"It was specially carved. Would your mother like to take a look at it?" Jiang Changning asked with a smile.
"I won't look at it. It will be too late to look at it when the dowry is carried in." The concubine was afraid that such a large item might get bumped and damaged when carried in and out. That would be bad.
Just as the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were looking at the gift list, Princess Kang Ren was meeting a maid sent by the Qiao family.
The old woman first said that Old Madam Qiao missed Princess Kangren, then she stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Princess, my master found out that your mother was murdered."
"My mother was pushed off the bridge and drowned in the water." Princess Kang Ren saw it with her own eyes and did not believe her words.
"Princess, there were many people on Qingshui Bridge during the Lantern Festival, but why was your mother the one who was pushed off?"
Princess Kangren said calmly: "It wasn't just my mother who fell into the water, there were two other people as well."
"Three people fell into the water, but the other two were fine. Why did your mother drown? Princess, there must be a conspiracy here."
Princess Kangren frowned, "What's the conspiracy?"
"Princess, who benefits the most after Concubine Dao gets into trouble?" the old woman tempted her.
Princess Kangren's face darkened. "What exactly do you want to say?"
"Princess, you are the only flesh and blood of Concubine Dao, you must seek justice for Concubine Dao!"
"Seeking justice?" Princess Kang Ren snorted coldly, "From whom?"
The old woman took another step forward and said, "The one who murdered your mother must be the current Princess Jin, Jiang. Ouch."
Before she could finish her words, Princess Kang Ren kicked her away. "You want to sow discord between me and my aunt, so that the Qiao family can come and suck my blood, right?"
"Princess, you can't misunderstand the old lady and the master like this. They are your closest relatives."
After driving the old woman away, Princess Kang Ren continued to look at her account book. She did not believe a word the old woman said.
She knew very well how her aunt had treated her over the years, and her aunt was kind-hearted, so how could she possibly murder her mother
The Qiao family said that the aunt took action against the mother for the power of household affairs, which is even more ridiculous.
My aunt is very lazy and doesn't want to manage the household at all. First it was my cousin, and now it's her. My aunt has completely given up the power of managing the household.
The Qiao family's eye drops were not successful, and Princess Kang Ren did not mention this to Jiang Changning.
However, Princess Kang Ren became even less close to the Qiao family, and she deliberately reduced the amount of the New Year gift she sent to the Qiao family by three points.
A few days later, Prince Qing suddenly attacked Prince Jin at the morning court, saying, "He bribed the yamen runners to replace the death row prisoner with a seriously ill person, causing this person to go unpunished for a long time and disregard the laws of the Qin Dynasty."
"I have never done anything against the law. King Qing is slandering me." King Jin stepped out and said.
"Your Majesty, I have solid evidence. Two years ago, Zhuang Jike of the Zhuang family was sentenced to be executed in the autumn, but he was replaced by someone else. He changed his name in Hangzhou and remarried and had children."
Prince Qing presented the evidence he had collected and said, "I have brought Zhuang Jike and his family back to the capital. They are now detained in a separate courtyard. Your Majesty can summon them at any time."
"I am not aware of this matter." King Jin said in a deep voice.
"Your Majesty, I think whether Prince Qing's evidence is true or not remains to be discussed." Prince De stepped out and said.
"You're just trying to shirk the responsibility by saying you didn't know anything about it, Prince Jin. No need to argue any more." Prince Qing sneered, "Everyone knows that the Princess of Jin is from Hangzhou."
"My wife would never do anything against the law." Prince Jin said firmly.
He knew that Jiang Changning had the ability to do so, but based on his understanding of Jiang Changning, he knew that Jiang Changning would not do so.
"Prince Jin, I advise you not to be so absolute." Prince Yu interrupted, "Princess Jin has lived in the Zhuang family for many years and has a deep relationship with the Zhuang family."
"Your Majesty, I and my family have absolutely no involvement in this matter. I ask Your Majesty to thoroughly investigate this matter and uphold the law." Prince Jin ignored him and spoke directly to the little emperor.
The little emperor said, "This matter should indeed be thoroughly investigated. The jailers dared to accept bribes and replace the condemned prisoners. This is definitely not the first time it has happened. I'm afraid there are quite a few officials involved in this."
Prince Qing brought up the matter, and Prince Jin was involved.
For the sake of fairness and justice, neither of them can investigate the case personally.
The young emperor was quite good at the art of balancing emperors. He asked Prince Yu and Prince De to participate in it, as well as eleven officials including the Minister of Punishment, the Left and Right Vice Ministers, the Minister of the Supreme Court, and the Prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture.
Prince Jin returned home and told Jiang Changning about this.
Jiang Changning was stunned, and after a while he came to his senses, "This should be done by Madam Zhuang."
"How sure are you?"
Jiang Changning gestured, "Mrs. Zhuang has only this one son. She won't let him die."
Master Zhuang lost his two legitimate sons, but he still has a illegitimate son.
The Zhuang family has no title to inherit, and if they have a bastard, there will be no descendants.
"I'll let Helian Ming investigate her." Prince Jin asked Chang Youzhong to pass the message to Prince De secretly.
(End of this chapter)