The palace banquet continued, but no one had any appetite.
Prince Mediocre was paralyzed by snake venom, and it concerned the fight over the throne, which was closely related to all the officials present. Those who still had an appetite must not be ordinary people.
The Queen was not worried at all though. She hadn’t said a word today, eating the roasted meat that Zhou Sisi put on her plate happily.
Duke Wu and his family were calm too.
Qiao Jinniang asked Lu Chen in a low voice curiously, “Aren’t you afraid you will get caught by Prince Mediocre?”
“I’m not as stupid as him.” Lu Chen put a piece of freshly roasted venison onto Qiao Jinniang’s plate.
Qiao Jinniang also ate happily.
In less than an hour, the staff under Prince Mediocre found the little official in the paddock who released the poisonous snake.
The little official in the paddock cried out. “Your Majesty, please spare my life! His Royal Highness ordered me to release this poisonous snake. He said I just needed to release the poisonous snake, and he will have someone else put the sachet that attracted the poisonous snake on His Highness Prince Mediocre.”
The staff under Prince Mediocre added, “The sachet on His Highness Prince Mediocre was made by Consort Mediocre, Lin Qiaopan, with her own hands. Prince Mediocre cherished it very much, but he didn’t know that His Royal Highness had colluded with his wife. That sachet was used to attract snakes.
“These are the letters that Lin Qiaopan wrote to His Royal Highness. Please read, Your Majesty.”
Imperial Concubine Xian took the letters and took a look, and then said sternly, “Come, bring that b*tch Lin Qiaopan over!”
Qiao Jinniang remembered Lin Qiaopan. On her wedding day, she asked Qiao Jinniang to deliver a letter to Lu Chen, but Qiao Jinniang refused…
Did Lu Chen receive that letter and use Lin Qiaopan?
Qiao Jinniang broke free from Lu Chen’s hand.
Lu Chen held her hand back. “I’m your husband. Why can’t you trust me a bit?”
Qiao Jinniang was a little relieved. After all, Lu Chen shouldn’t be as stupid as Prince Mediocre.
When Lin Qiaopan was brought up, there were still purple marks on her neck, looking as though she had tried to hang herself. She knelt down and admitted, “The fault is all mine. I made Prince Mediocre get bitten by the poisonous snake. It has nothing to do with His Royal Highness!” Lin Mo and Prime Minister Lin both frowned, and Prime Minister Lin came out and got on his knees, admitting his mistake. “I failed to educate my niece well. Please punish me, Your Majesty!”
Imperial Concubine Xian threw a letter in front of Lin Qiaopan and scolded,
“You pair of adulterer and adulteress!
“You and the Crown Prince have been exchanging letters since the day you married my son.
“Look what was written in the first letter you wrote to him.
“I’m willing to be a sword to get rid of Prince Mediocre for you. As long as you don’t forget me in this life, I’m willing to die.’ Oh, it seems that you really love the Crown Prince!”
Imperial Concubine Xian gave the letter to Lu Chen and asked, “Crown Prince, how do you explain this letter!”
There was an uproar among the courtiers. Lin Qiaopan admitted that she had harmed Prince Mediocre because she wanted to protect the Crown Prince!
Everyone looked at Lu Chen with a strange look.
Seeing this, Qiao Jinniang said, “Is it so easy to imitate the Crown Prince’s handwriting? Your Royal Highness, can’t you change your handwriting? This is the second time someone imitated your handwriting!”
Imperial Concubine Xian said, “The Crown Prince’s handwriting is unique. Who can imitate it? Besides, if the letter is fake, why did she admit it?”
Lin Qiaopan suddenly stood up like crazy and said, “I imitated his handwriting. I hate Prince Mediocre. I don’t like him at all, but he forced me to be his consort.
“I wanted to scapegoat the Crown Prince, but I didn’t want to get the Lin family involved. It was me who planned all this. I’m willing to die!”
Having said that, Lin Qiaopan was about to hit the pillar with her head.
Imperial Concubine Xian hurriedly asked the guards to stop Lin Qiaopan. Then she knelt down in front of Emperor Huilin and cried bitterly. “Your Majesty, you have seen how desperate this b*tch is trying to protect the Crown {rince. Why don’t you give her a piece of paper and ask her to write in the Crown Prince’s handwriting? She must not be able to write it!
“Lin Qiaopan, you are very affectionate to the Crown Prince, but he is not even willing to say a word for you at this moment!” Lu Chen said coldly, “Why should I speak for a brainless, stupid and shameless woman?” Queen Zhou finally spoke, “Chen’er, a gentleman shouldn’t speak like that. Miss Lin is so in love with you. Why are you scolding her like that? As the Crown Prince of Datang, you shouldn’t be so mean to a woman.”
Lu Chen replied, “Yes, Mother.” Imperial Concubine Xian looked at Queen Zhou. “Queen, the Crown Prince wants to kill my son but what you care about is that he is mean to a woman?”
Queen Zhou smiled coldly and said, “Is there any evidence?”
Prince Mediocre said weakly, “Mother, my men have put the evidence in front of you. The Crown Prince and my consort conspired to kill me. Father, please give me justice.
“Lin Qiaopan made the sachet, and the Crown Prince ordered that official to release that poisonous snake, which is already solid evidence!”
“Father, I am also your son… Over the years, I have been longing for you to praise me. I have always wanted to get closer to you. Please deal with this matter fairly!”
Prince Mediocre’s remarks made the other princes present sigh.
But Lu Chen said, “Are you blaming Father for being partial?
“But your so-called solid evidence simply won’t stand up to scrutiny. How can Father give you justice?
“Firstly, let’s talk about this small paddock official. If I wanted him to release a poisonous snake, why should I talk to him personally and give him the poisonous snake with my own hands?
“Won’t I be afraid of being bitten by the poisonous snake?
“And since you had already had the sachet on you, why did I bother to find a small official to release the poisonous snake?”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to directly ask my guard to release the snake?
“Why should I bother to bribe a small official to do that?”
Prince Mediocre said, “Perhaps you want to use this as an excuse to refute the charges against
you?
“Besides, how can you explain the letters between you and Lin Qiaopan?! “You can’t deny these letters, can you?”
Lin Qiaopan shook her head, weeping pitifully, and said, “This matter really has nothing to do with His Royal Highness. It’s done by me alone!”
Lu Chen said coldly, “Shut up. You are being used as a knife against me but you think you sacrificed yourself for me. You only moved yourself. It’s not wrong at all to call you brainless and stupid.”
Prince Mediocre sneered and said, “Lin Qiaopan, look, this is the Crown {rince you have been trying to defend. The Crown {rince you love doesn’t want your love at all!”
Lin Qiaopan had a look of loss, and she called lovingly, “Your Royal Highness.”
When Qiao Jinniang heard this, she had already figured it out. She looked at the letter in front of her. “The ink in this letter has a faint scent of sweet-scented osmanthus. It must be sweet-scented osmanthus ink, but Lu Chen never uses flower ink.” Hearing Qiao Jinniang’s words, Prince Mediocre said to Lu Chen, “You are so lucky that women are all trying to defend you! Perhaps the Crown Prince purposely used osmanthus ink to cover it up!”
Lu Chen ordered someone to bring up a wooden box and poured out all the letters in it. “I’m not as lucky as you, Fifth Imperial Brother. In Chang’an, there are more than 20 noble girls who have privately corresponded with you.
“Can you recognize these letters? “Can you smell the fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus ink in these letters?
“In order to avoid damage to the reputation of these women, I’ve covered up the noble girls’ names. Father, Courtiers, please take a look!
“Although the handwriting can be imitated, it cannot be imitated exactly. Although you tried to imitate my handwriting, it was difficult to cover up some of your writing habits!
“The Ministry of Punishment has a calligraphy expert. We can ask him to come and identify the handwriting.”
