When Prince Mediocre saw the letters that Lu Chen took out, he shook his head and said, “You imitated my handwriting and wrote these letters. You are trying to frame me!”
“Fifth Brother, you’re lying.” A thin and short man came slowly and knelt down to the Emperor. “Long live my father and mother.”
The man made a solemn kneeling salute.
When Emperor Huilin saw his eldest son, he just sighed. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to plead guilty. That poisonous snake was kept beside the hot spring by me to treat diseases. I never expected that Fifth Brother would come to my place and take the poisonous snake away…”
Hearing what the Eldest Prince said, Prince Mediocre angrily said, “It was not me. It was the Crown Prince!”
The Eldest Prince said, “His Royal Highness has never come to my place. How could he have taken the snake…” Prince Mediocre froze all over. Only then did he realize that he had fallen for the trick designed by the Eldest Prince and the Crown Prince together! But how could the Eldest Prince be willing to cooperate with the Crown Prince?
Prince Mediocre said, “Do you mean I took away the poisonous snake and made myself paralyzed?!”
The Eldest Prince said, “That’s because the venom of the poisonous snake has an antidote.
“I also told you about the sachet that could lure snakes, and it was meant to let you avoid these spices. “I never thought that you would use this to frame the Crown Prince…”
“Lu Zheng! You are framing me!” Prince Mediocre glared at the eldest prince, “You helped me forge those letters! You imitated the Crown Prince’s handwriting and wrote those letters!”
“Prince Lu can testify for me!”
Since the incident with the Right Prime Minister, Prince Lu had kept a low profile and never caused any trouble. Suddenly being mentioned, he came out and said, “How could those letters be written by the eldest brother?
“I only saw that you went to the eldest brother’s place and got a poisonous snake, and judging from the writing in these letters, these letters were clearly written by you!”
Prince Mediocre realized that he was framed by the Eldest Prince, the Crown Prince and Prince Lu together. He said repeatedly, “Father, I am being framed by them.
“Prince Lu gave the letter from Consort Mediocre to me. The plot of using the poisonous snake to set up the Crown Prince was also plotted by Prince Lu and the Eldest Prince together with me.
“It turns out that the Eldest Prince and Prince Lu’s target is actually me!”
Prince Mediocre cried bitterly.
Emperor Huilin said with a headache, “I named you ‘Mediocre’ to warn you to have some self-knowledge, but you, after staying in the Northwest for so many years, still don’t stop making trouble. You blamed me for being partial, but you’re always fond of playing these stupid tricks since you were a child. I tried to educate you, but you just thought that I was being harsh to you! “You’re my son after all. For the sake of the Empress Dowager, I have forgiven you over and over again over the years, but you have been going further and further astray. This time, I can’t forgive you anymore! “Pass down my oral decree that from today onwards: Prince Mediocre shall be demoted to a commoner, and Imperial Concubine Xian shall be deprived of her title and be put into the Cold Palace!”
Prince Mediocre crawled down from the stretcher and said, “Father, I am being framed by the Eldest Prince and Prince Lu. Father… you can’t demote me into a commoner!”
Prince Lu also knelt down and said, “Father, I did encourage Prince Mediocre and even plotted with him, but this has nothing to do with the Eldest Prince!
“I did this because Prince Mediocre… killed my cousin, his concubine, Concubine Jian!”
Imperial Concubine Jian also knelt down and said, “Your Majesty, Concubine Jian was pregnant but was murdered by Prince Mediocre. He scapegoated Qiao Ruoshui and killed her cruelly outside Chang’an, claiming that she was killed by robbers. Your Majesty, please investigate this case!”
The Zheng family had already been exiled. Even if they were murdered by a prince, Emperor Huilin would not necessarily investigate their death.
Even if there was real evidence, this matter was not important, but now that it had been revealed, it had to be tended to.
“I’m willing to testify!” Disregarding Second Madam’s obstruction, Qiao Ruofeng came out and knelt down. “I had been in correspondence with Prince Mediocre for two years.
“Prince Mediocre implied that he was in love with me in his letters, and it almost led me to ruin my cousin’s reputation out of jealousy, but then he told me that he didn’t love me at all and all he wanted was just the support of Duke Anyuan. “I have always wanted to speak out about this matter, but I’m afraid that my reputation will be ruined if I speak about it, but I didn’t know until today that it was not only me, but also many other poor girls!”
“Even if I would be despised by my fiance and have my reputation ruined, I have to speak out about the evil things committed by Prince Mediocre! If what I said is false, I’ll be struck by lightning!” Qin Miaomiao took a deep breath and came out too. She got on her knees and said, “Your Majesty, in the letters that Concubine Jian took out last time, there was my name, so I was laughed at by many people. “That letter is true. I also corresponded with Prince Mediocre two years ago. “Prince Mediocre vowed to love me forever, but then I found that one of my girlfriends also received the same letter from Prince Mediocre, so I broke up with him.”
Seeing Qin Miaomiao come out, some other girls came out to testify too.
Although there weren’t as many as 20 girls to testify against Prince Mediocre, there were already eight witnesses including Imperial Concubine Jian and Qiao Ruofeng.
Emperor Huilin hadn’t been so angry for a long time. As a prince, if Prince Mediocre was just lascivious, it didn’t matter, but the women Prince Mediocre was in correspondence with were all from powerful families in Chang’an.
He was trying to form his own clique to vie for the throne!
Even when he was in the northwest, he still didn’t forget to tempt and cheat the noble girls in Chang’an. Emperor Huilin felt so ashamed. This was such a disgrace for the royal family!
“From now on, Prince Mediocre shall be demoted to a commoner and be exiled to the northwest frontier, and he can never return to Chang’an!”
Imperial Concubine Xian instantly fainted. She dreamed of being the next Empress Dowager for three years, but now her beautiful dream was shattered…
Prince Mediocre glared at Lu Chen and complained to Emperor Huilin, “Father, since you love Lu Chen so much, why did you give birth to me? I have been smarter than Lu Chen since childhood. When we were children, every time we recited the Book of Rites, he lagged behind me. I am more suitable to be the crown prince than him!
“I am the model in the mind of the literati, but what about Lu Chen? He is inferior to me in every aspect!”
“He was just lucky and was born by the Queen. If he hadn’t been born by the Queen, how could he be the crown prince?!”
The corners of Lu Chen’s lips curled slightly. “Luck always matters. Besides, I don’t think you are smarter than me.
“I lagged behind you just because I didn’t want you to be scolded by Imperial Concubine Xian if you lost to me, so I pretended not to remember it. I didn’t expect you to remember this matter for fifteen years. “Besides, you were ten years old at that time and I was only five. Even if you memorized the Book of Rites before me, so what? I can’t believe you remember this trivial matter for fifteen years.”
Qiao Jinniang believed what Lu Chen said. Lu Chen always had an excellent memory. After a single glance, he could memorize the contents of those account books and recite the details.
Therefore, when checking accounts books, Qiao Jinniang would sometimes let Lu Chen read the account books first, so she didn’t have to go through them.
When Prince Mediocre heard Lu Chen’s words, he didn’t believe it, but what’s the point of continuing to argue? Just as Lu Chen said, he was five years older…
He only knew that he was doomed!
