804 Grant a Marriage (5)
Everyone in the harem was on tenterhooks. How could the empress fall seriously ill all of a sudden? It was probably because the crown prince had fallen, and the empress no longer had anyone to rely on for the rest of her life. The empress had lost her beloved son, so she would probably hate Emperor Wen Hui. Emperor Wen Hui naturally had to be wary of her. Only they knew if the empress was recuperating and locked up because of illness.
If the empress fell, who would replace her? It seemed that Consort Xu had the highest chance of winning. Emperor Wen Hui doted on Consort Xu, and Consort Xu had two sons. Prince Zhou, Prince Jing, and Prince Li fought to the death, but after all, Prince Li did not have a mother who was doted on by the emperor.
Prince Zhou and Prince Jing could be considered to have the right time, place, and people.
Apart from the crown prince and the empress, everyone else who was involved in Huangfu Hao’s death was implicated. The one who was the most implicated was the Wang family.
That day, it was Wang Bi who suggested going to enjoy the incense and even brought his wife along. Unexpectedly, Huangfu Hao died at their gathering place. There was no way Wang Bi and Shen Dongling could get away with it.
However, they weren’t jailed on charges of murdering Huangfu Hao.
The Wang family was secretly engaged in the smuggling of illicit salt. It was a serious crime to trade illicit salt, and the entire Wang family was in trouble. Wang Bi and Shen Dongling were sentenced to beheading, and the other men of the Wang family were exiled, while the women were sent to the border as military prostitutes.
Emperor Wen Hui was quite angry this time, as if he had been provoked by something and was venting his wrath. However, the thoughts of an emperor had always been unpredictable. Although the officials were puzzled, they were only following orders.
As Shen Miao listened to Jingzhe talk about what had happened over the past few days, she drank tea. Beside her, Luo Tan kept stuffing snowflake candy into her mouth.
The snowflake candy was brought by Cong Yang. He said that It was made by a famous pastry chef in the Daliang Dynasty. In the world, only the royal family of the Daliang Dynasty could eat it. After Luo Tan ate one, she was very surprised and asked Shen Miao where she bought it. Shen Miao could only make up something to brush her off.
“Huangfu Hao’s death has really blown up.” As Luo Tan ate, she said, “He got so many people to die with him. The death of a crown prince is not even enough.” At the end of her sentence, her voice trailed off, as if she was afraid that the walls had ears.
Shen Miao smiled faintly and did not comment, but she was also shocked by Emperor Wen Hui’s decisiveness.
Like father, like son. Back then, in order to get rid of the Shen family, Fu Xiuyi did not care about the lives of Fu Ming and Wanyu at all. At that time, she couldn’t believe there was no such a heartless person in the world. Now, it seemed that Fu Xiuyi was exactly the same as Emperor Wen Hui.
In the eyes of the emperor, family, love, and friendship were not important. Only power was what he was after. In order to stabilize his position, sacrificing a son was nothing. Anyway, there would be other women who would give birth to his children.
This was probably the nature of the royal family.
Luo Tan looked at the small amount of candy on the plate and counted with her fingers. “Aunt and Uncle have tried it, and so has Cousin Qiu. Only Brother Ling hasn’t tried it. Let’s leave this for Brother Ling.” She looked at Shen Miao.
Shen Miao naturally wouldn’t mind it.
“If only you could remember where you bought this snowflake candy.” Luo Tan sighed and said regretfully, “I’ve eaten all the pastries in Spring City and almost all the pastries in the capital. This is the first time I’ve eaten such delicious snowflake candy. I plan to get someone to look for it tomorrow. I have to find this shop!”
