Chapter 239: Chapter 224: Su Yi’s Schemes, Golden Hall Trial
The Emperor handles the case, and all officials enter the palace.
Soon, the Jinyi Guard receives orders to apprehend the accused, Lu Yanqing.
When the residence is surrounded by the Jinyi Guard, the Eldest Princess is in the study reviewing Lu Yanqing’s recent assignments.
Lu Xingzhou pushes the door open and comes in, his face looking bleak, "Ah Yin, there’s trouble."
Upon hearing the last three words, the Eldest Princess’s brow twitches, and she raises her eyes to look at the tall man standing at the door, "Earlier the Petition Drum sounded, could it be related to our mansion?"
Lu Xingzhou slightly purses his lips, doesn’t reply, which is considered a tacit admission.
The Eldest Princess’s hand flipping through the book curls due to sudden tension, "What is it?"
It’s fine even if her own past is exposed, she doesn’t want to hear any bad news about her son at all.
"It’s Yanqing." Lu Xingzhou says, his voice hoarse, "The person who beat the Petition Drum accuses him of covertly opening a coal mine in Ningzhou four years ago, hiring over a hundred workers, which resulted in a mine collapse, leading to more than eighty miners being buried alive."
"Impossible!" The Eldest Princess vehemently denies, "Four years ago, Yanqing was only twelve years old, how could he possibly have done such a thing?"
Lu Xingzhou also thinks it’s impossible, "The Emperor wants to try the case in the Golden Hall, the Jinyi Guard has already been ordered to capture him, but Yanqing just went out not long ago, and is not at the mansion right now. Ah Yin, you stay home and wait, I’ll enter the palace to understand the situation."
Suppressing the grief in her heart, she stands up, "The Prince Consort should stay at the mansion, I shall enter the palace."
With the Eldest Princess’s status, it’s indeed more effective than him as a Prince Consort without any real power, Lu Xingzhou doesn’t stop her, but gently advises her, "Since it’s for our son, bear with it when necessary, don’t easily fall out with the Empress Dowager."
The Eldest Princess responds with a hum, casually tidying her appearance, and steps out the door.
"Ah Yin," Lu Xingzhou calls her again, as she turns around, he steps forward to hug her, his voice growing softer, "Don’t be afraid, I’ll wait for you to return home."
The Eldest Princess softly hums again, with more inexplicable emotions than the previous sound.
The steward has already instructed someone to prepare the carriage for entering the palace.
Originally, in such a situation surrounded by the Jinyi Guard, no one was allowed to leave the mansion.
However, when the Eldest Princess leaves, even the Jinyiwei Commander doesn’t dare to obstruct her.
Lu Xingzhou stands at the main gate, watching the carriage go away, and invites the Jinyiwei Commander inside for tea. Knowing the commander is a close minister to the Emperor and always businesslike, Lu Xingzhou does not mention Lu Yanqing at all, only chatting about common topics.
The Commander notices the Prince Consort is a smart man, and his attitude improves a lot compared to when he first arrived. After drinking the tea, he confides in Lu Xingzhou, "I act under orders, only responsible for bringing the accused to the Golden Hall to face trial. Without imperial orders, there will be no misuse of private punishment."
The Jinyi Guard outside has the privilege to execute first and report later, their methods are notoriously brutal.
Lu Xingzhou smiles, "Thank you, Commander."
The part surrounding the Princess Mansion is only one portion of the Jinyi Guard, another part has already gone out to search for Lu Yanqing’s whereabouts.
Lu Yanqing never understood the might of the Petition Drum and the Jinyi Guard before, today is truly a firsthand experience.
Since leaving the Hanlin Academy, he has been hiding and dodging, however no matter where he hides, he always narrowly runs into the Jinyi Guard.
Their keen sense, eyes like eagles, seem to tell him that even if he grows wings, he’ll never escape the Jinyi Guard’s inescapable net.
For sixteen years, today is the first time he clearly realizes that without his parents or grandmother, he can only be a fugitive.
Seeing the Jinyi Guard about to find him, Lu Yanqing grits his teeth and desperately runs towards the Lu Family Old Mansion.
——
Upon hearing the sound of the Petition Drum, Su Yi knows the plan can succeed. She leans against the Arhat Bed, eyes half-closed in a nap, while the maid carefully applies red nail polish on her nails.
The vivid red color is as intense as the rouge on her lips, highlighting those eyes as increasingly cold and seemingly venomous.
"Aunt, please save me!"
Suddenly a voice comes from outside. It’s Lu Yanqing who has burst in.
Su Yi gives the maid a look, signaling everyone to leave. Straightening her overcoat, she sits up and looks at the visitor with a smile, "Yanqing, why did you think of coming to your aunt’s place?"
The escape along the way makes Lu Yanqing look disheveled. He stares at the brightly dressed woman before him, his eyes reddening instantly, "Aunt said before that you would be good to me, does that still hold true?"
"Of course it does," Su Yi says with a beaming smile, "If you think back over the years, has Aunt ever said anything about you, ever been even half mean to you? Every time you were wronged over there, hasn’t Aunt comforted you in secret?"
Lu Yanqing thinks about it, and it seems to be true that aunt has always been good to him, even better than his mother. Many things his mother forbade, Aunt supported unconditionally.
There was even a period when he suspected that he was Aunt’s biological son.
Seeing him lost in thought, Su Yi asks aloud, "Did you make another mistake and get scolded today?"
Appearing completely oblivious to the sounding of the Petition Drum.
Upon hearing this, Lu Yanqing shakes his head vigorously, his eyes brightly writing fear, "No, it’s the Jinyi Guard who wants to arrest me."
"The Jinyi Guard wants to capture you?" Su Yi was shocked, "What’s going on?"
Lu Yanqing didn’t have time to explain, "Aunt, can you provide me shelter? I’ve got nowhere else to go."
Su Yi’s eyes flickered slightly, and she nodded with a smile, "Of course you can."
As she spoke, she glanced at Lu Yanqing, "You’re hungry, right? I’ll have someone prepare some food for you."
"No, I don’t want to eat." He was already overwhelmed by fear, only wanting a place to hide.
"Then I’ll arrange a room for you to sleep well. On the Jinyi Guard’s side, I will handle it for you. Once you wake up, there will be no problems at all."
Having run all the way, Lu Yanqing was indeed exhausted to the point of collapse. Hearing Su Yi say this, he felt grateful, "Thank you, Aunt."
Su Yi beckoned and summoned her dowry maid to arrange a room for the Young Marquis.
The maid quietly asked Su Yi, "Mistress, what fragrance should we use this time?"
A murderous intent flashed in Su Yi’s eyes, and the maid immediately understood, hypnotizing fragrance.
The Young Marquis occasionally visited the old mansion, meeting the elder master and mistress seldom but often seeking out the mistress. Whenever he came, she would instruct them to burn fragrance.
The Su Family had a type of incense, with a formula obtained by the Prime Minister from the hands of Western people, which carried mild hypnotic properties. But just incense wasn’t enough; it required the mistress’s method to coax the Young Marquis into sleep to achieve true hypnosis. At such times, if the mistress wanted to extract some words from him or form a subconscious thought, it was easily done.
Su Yi was able to quickly find out about Lu Yanqing privately opening a coal mine in Ningzhou by hypnotizing him and extracting information.
However, her success was based on Lu Yanqing being young and weak-willed.
Otherwise, if it were adults, this incense would just be ordinary fragrance, with no effect at all.
A few years ago, when he was reported by Song Wei for fighting at the Imperial College, Lu Yanqing had already been enlightened by the Princess Changping and behaved for a while.
Not long after, he came to the old mansion to play with his cousins, drank a few more cups during the time, and while napping here, had a nightmare and said some foolish words just when Su Yi happened to be around; she then lit the hypnotic incense and directly got him to reveal them.
Su Yi and the Empress Dowager had an unusually consistent goal in "ruining Lu Yanqing," only Su Yi’s methods were more underhanded.
Using hypnotic incense, Lu Yanqing slowly learned to hide his claws and behave properly in front of his mother, but after leaving the Princess Mansion, became more arrogant than before.
The truth about Da Huan Mountain Coal Mine, Su Yi had actually already gathered evidence, however, she felt this was far from enough to crush Zhao Xunyin completely, so she waited, for the report about Lu Yanqing’s lineage to come back.
Once confirmed that the "premature baby" Lu Yanqing was not the biological son of the Prince Consort, Zhao Xunyin would not be far from death.
However, she didn’t anticipate Zhao Xunyin would strike first against the Su Family, so she couldn’t blame Su Yi for killing Lu Yanqing first and turning the tables on them.
...
The maid who arranged the room for Lu Yanqing came back shortly, whispered, "Mistress, the person has already fainted."
Su Yi smiled with satisfaction, "Let the Jinyi Guard in!"
—
A stick of incense later, Lu Yanqing woke up in the Jinluan Palace, found himself surrounded by civil and military officials, on the dragon throne, his uncle Emperor Guangxi exuding a majestic aura, looking at him with obvious disappointment.
Even if Lu Yanqing was foolish, he realized he’d been bound and taken into the Imperial Palace while asleep. He had no time to be angry at his aunt for deceiving him and realized his hands were tied behind his back. Kneeling on the ground, he looked at Emperor Guangxi and pleaded, "Uncle... Uncle, please see clearly, Yanqing has done nothing, the coal mine has nothing to do with me."
"Young Marquis Lu, here in the Golden Hall, correct your form of address," the Imperial Chief Steward timely reminded him.
Lu Yanqing adapted quickly, "Emperor, please see clearly, Your servant, Your servant is innocent."
An official immediately sneered, "With both witness and material evidence, Young Marquis Lu, feel free to explain how you are innocent?"
Lu Yanqing glanced at the speaking official, his gaze full of hate, "Mr. Sun speaks without thinking, opens his mouth to falsely accuse others, how did he become an official of speech? Four years ago I was only twelve, how could a child possibly run to Ningzhou and open a coal mine? What witness and evidence, can’t I be falsely accused?"
"You!"
Mr. Sun stammered in anger, "This is clearly sophistry!"
Lu Yanqing glared at him, "Did you see with your own eyes that I went to Ningzhou to open the mine?"
Mr. Sun gritted his teeth, only able to shift his gaze to Emperor Guangxi, hoping the Emperor personally conducts the trial.
Emperor Guangxi dropped his eyes on this nephew, his voice deep, "I had people find out, four years ago Princess Changping left the city due to illness, for rest, accompanied by the Prince Consort, during those days you were not in the Capital, where did you go?"
Lu Yanqing answered with confidence, "Just out playing with a few friends."
"With whom?" Emperor Guangxi asked again.
Lu Yanqing directly said, "Cheng Fei from Duke An’s Mansion, Su Yaojun from the Prime Minister’s Mansion."
Emperor Guangxi gestured to the waiting Jinyiwei Commander, "Go bring those two over."