Chapter 209 What’s the crime?
Everyone: "..."
Fan Xian was even more confused. Don't hide it. Pretend no one saw it. Yes, it's totally unnecessary.
While everyone was silent, the second prince smiled and said.
"On the day when Lin Gong was murdered, I was indeed not in Kyoto. I was playing mahjong with them in Wild Flower Valley, three or four miles east of the city. Xie Bian was right beside me!"
As the Second Prince spoke, he turned his head to look at Fan Xian and his voice became slightly lower.
"I asked you two to come here to serve as witnesses!"
Upon hearing this, the prince immediately looked at Fan Xian.
"Is this possible?"
Fan Xian nodded.
"It's true!"
The prince looked at Mei Chengan unwillingly.
"Is this really true?"
Mei Chengan said frankly.
"Your Highness, the Second Prince was indeed playing mahjong with us at the time, and Xie Bian was indeed there as well."
The second prince was playing with a walnut in his hand.
"The Supervisory Council has confirmed that Lin Gong died at the hour of Si. So, Xie Bian should not have had time to rush to the place several dozen miles away to commit the crime!"
Lin Ruofu remained silent and drank his tea calmly.
The prince looked at the second prince and waved his hand.
"There is another possibility! Fan Xian cooperated with you and teamed up with Xie Bian to assassinate Lin Gong, and then you bribed and persuaded Mei Chengan. Now you are lying and distancing yourself from the matter!"
"More and more ridiculous!"
The second prince slammed the table, stood up and walked in front of the crown prince.
"Why did I kill Lin Gong? Why did Fan Xian kill Lin Gong? Mei Cheng'an, oh, it's none of your business, just eat your food."
"..."
Mei Chengan sat down again and wordlessly stuffed the orange slice into his mouth, rolling his eyes at him.
Please don't cue people randomly, especially when they are eating.
The prince had no time to pay attention to Mei Chengan's little movements, and he burst out laughing when he heard this.
"Lin Gong planned the Niulan Street case and wanted to assassinate Fan Xian. Fan Xian has a grudge against him!"
When Fan Xian heard this, he quickly fed himself peanuts.
"Hey, Your Highness, I don't know about this."
The second prince continued.
"The prince wants to convict his subjects, and you and I will bear the injustice and endure it!"
The prince was annoyed by the second brother's sarcastic tone and said angrily.
"Then tell me, if it weren't for Xie Bian's help, who could have such swordsmanship!"
The second prince was no less angry, and his voice became louder and louder.
"It shouldn't be that difficult to raise a sword expert who is unknown to the public!"
The prince glared and took a step forward.
"Who are you alluding to?"
The second prince looked at him coldly.
"It's just a matter of reason!"
It seemed that the two were about to fight if they continued arguing, when suddenly the voice of Emperor Qing was heard from the imperial study.
"Have you had enough noise?"
Upon hearing the voice, the tense atmosphere between the Crown Prince and the Second Prince disappeared instantly, and they all looked over there.
Seeing Emperor Qing stepping onto the terrace again, the Crown Prince and the Second Prince hurriedly saluted. The difference was that the Crown Prince knelt down while the Second Prince remained standing.
Fan Xian and Mei Cheng'an kept a distance from the matter as it had nothing to do with them and did nothing.
Lin Ruofu, on the other hand, was still drinking his tea leisurely, without looking around.
Emperor Qing looked coldly at the people in front of him, and when he saw that Mei Cheng'an was about to collapse, he pointed at him.
"It's so noisy over here, it must be quite comfortable for you to sit over there and eat and watch, right?"
Bad, come at me!
Mei Cheng'an quickly stood up, put the hand holding the orange peel (the last peel had just been stuffed into his mouth) back behind his back, chewed it and swallowed it at a very fast speed, then bowed and replied.
"Your Majesty, you misunderstood. Seeing the two princes quarreling, I was also very anxious, but the two princes had loud voices and spoke very fast. I, I couldn't get a word in!"
Prince: "..."
Second Prince: "..."
Fan Xian almost burst out laughing and quickly covered his mouth. After being glared at by Emperor Qing, he put his hands down, forced his expression to be serious, and lowered his head.
Emperor Qing glanced at Mei Chengan.
"Oh? So you have something to say, but you just haven't had the chance to say it."
Mei Cheng'an hesitated and nodded.
Emperor Qing said again.
"You mean, your words can calm the quarrel between the two?"
Mei Cheng calmed down for a moment and nodded again.
Emperor Qing smiled.
"Okay, now that you two have stopped arguing, I'll give you a chance to speak."
Mei Chengan thought for a while and said.
"It's like this, the quarrel between His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the Second Prince was ultimately because His Royal Highness the Crown Prince didn't trust the two of us to testify for the Second Prince.
In fact, this matter is very simple. There were not only the two of us present at the time. Princess Roujia and Princess Lin Wan'er were also slamming the table.
Not to mention there was another table next to it with dozens of people playing and watching, and they can all testify to that.”
Upon hearing this, Emperor Qing looked at the Second Prince.
"Is that right?"
The second prince's mouth twitched and he nodded.
Emperor Qing was puzzled.
"If that's the case, then why didn't you say it just now? If you had said it earlier, you could have explained everything clearly. Why would you have to yell at the top of your voice?"
The second prince thought for a moment and knelt down.
"It's really because His Royal Highness is too aggressive. I was so excited that my blood boiled and for a moment... I forgot!"
Emperor Qing glared at him.
"You can forget anything that can prove your innocence, and you can get carried away by just being provoked. I think you deserve to be wrongly accused."
The second prince lowered his head and said nothing.
The prince glanced at the second prince and said nothing.
Emperor Qing didn't let him go either.
"Look at what he's doing? Are you better than him? Without any evidence at all, he dares to accuse others at will. Are you proud of it?"
The prince lowered his head and did not dare to respond. Emperor Qing rolled his eyes at his two sons, then turned his gaze to Lin Ruofu. After thinking for a moment, he slowly walked towards him, his voice much softer.
"Minister Lin, my two sons made a fool of themselves in front of you, their victim. This is really wrong. I am sorry to have embarrassed you."
Lin Ruofu sat there calmly for a long time, and now he finally reacted.
"Your Highnesses are also concerned about the real murderer of Gong'er's death. Lin has nothing but gratitude in his heart."
Emperor Qing cursed inwardly the old fox.
"Hey, I feel really bad for making you run all this way just because of a misunderstanding. How about this, I'll have someone send a sedan chair to take you out of the palace."
As he spoke, Emperor Qing looked at Eunuch Hou and was about to give orders.
"Your Majesty, please wait a moment."
Emperor Qing curled his lips with his back to the crowd, then turned to look at Lin Ruofu.
"Prime Minister Lin, do you have anything else to say?"
Lin Ruofu said in a deep voice.
"Lin does have something to say about Gong'er's death."
"Oh?"
Emperor Qing gestured with his hand.
"Please speak, Minister Lin."
Lin Ruofu's eyes sank and he said in a deep voice.
"In Lin's opinion, the one who should be blamed is..."
As he spoke, Lin Ruofu stood up and faced Emperor Qing, his voice filled with hatred.
"It should be Chen Pingping!"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone except Emperor Qing looked at him with surprise and disbelief in their eyes. Mei Chengan was a little different, his eyes were full of amusement.
Lin Ruofu then gave the reason.
"The Supervisory Council is responsible for supervising Kyoto, but the real culprit of my son's murder has not been reported yet. This shows that Chen Pingping is not strict with his subordinates and is not doing his job well."
Emperor Qing didn't even blink when he heard this, and said lightly.
"Makes sense."
Lin Ruofu knelt down in front of Emperor Qing and bowed.
"I beg you to confront Chen Pingping! According to the law, I will punish him!"
After speaking word by word, Lin Ruofu bowed his head and refused to get up.
For a moment, the atmosphere on the entire terrace was a little weird. Everyone had their own thoughts in their eyes and kept their heads down in silence.
Even Mei Cheng'an obediently lowered his head to look at his shoes. Only Fan Xian was left, looking around as if nothing had happened.
Emperor Qing paced a few steps thoughtfully as he looked at Prime Minister Lin who was kneeling on the ground and kowtowing.
After thinking it over, he unconsciously raised his head and glanced, and immediately noticed Fan Xian, who was standing upright and conspicuous.
Emperor Qing pointed at him unhappily.
"You're standing there swaying, it feels pretty comfortable, right?"
Upon hearing this, Fan Xian looked at Emperor Qing and pointed at himself.
"Me? Your Majesty, should I kneel?"
Emperor Qing glanced at him, too lazy to pay attention to him, and leaned over to pat Lin Ruofu on the shoulder.
"Get up."
Lin Ruofu raised his head but did not stand up. He was waiting for Emperor Qing to say the next words.
Emperor Qing stood up straight and shook his sleeves.
"Send an order to summon Chen Pingping to the palace."
Eunuch Hou took the order and left. Emperor Qing stopped looking at the crowd and turned back to the imperial study.
After Emperor Qing left, Lin Ruofu, the Crown Prince and the Second Prince, who were kneeling on the ground, stood up.
Lin Ruofu sat back down, Fan Xian went to sit next to Mei Cheng'an, the Second Prince glanced at the Crown Prince, turned around and followed him, and the Crown Prince returned to his original seat and sat down.
Guardrail edge.
The second prince put his arm around Mei Cheng'an's shoulders and poked his waist with his finger.
"You know you caught me off guard."
Mei Cheng'an groaned and shrank back.
"Second Prince, please stop making trouble. Be careful not to spill the fish food."
On the other side, Fan Xian silently took the amulet from his hand, pinched some fish food and sprinkled it into the water.
"No need to worry now."
"..."
I don’t have time to deal with this scumbag Fan Xian, Mei Chengan said helplessly, spreading his hands.
"That's not what I said. I was caught by His Majesty and that's what I said. I didn't mean to embarrass you."
As he said this, Mei Cheng'an forced himself to turn around and look at the prince.
"Don't misunderstand me, Your Highness."
The prince looked at him when he heard the voice, and rolled his eyes at him unhappily after hearing what he said, not bothering to argue with him.
Anyway, he and the second brother each got scolded, so it wasn't considered a loss for either of them.
The second prince uttered a "hey" and forcibly pulled him back, then poked him again.
"You are afraid of offending him, but not me, right?"
Mei Chengan covered his waist.
"I'm afraid, I'm afraid, who said I'm not afraid? Neither of you dare to commit a crime, right? Stop it, stop it, just look at the fish!"
The second prince snorted and rolled his eyes at him, then eventually turned his gaze to the pond and began to admire the fish.
Just as several people were taking turns scattering fish food and whispering about which fish was the fattest, Eunuch Hou pushed Chen Pingping to the terrace.
Hearing the noise, Mei Cheng'an quickly reminded the two to shut up, and they turned side by side and looked towards the center of the terrace.
Just as Eunuch Hou pushed Chen Pingping to the opposite side of Lin Ruofu, Emperor Qing's voice rang out from the connection between the imperial study and the terrace.
"Chen Pingping!"
Chen Pingping turned his head to look at Emperor Qing and hurriedly bowed.
"His Majesty!"
Eunuch Hou pushed the wheelchair and turned him towards Emperor Qing.
Emperor Qing walked forward, staring at Chen Pingping and said in a deep voice.
"Do you know your guilt?"
Chen Pingping was stunned when he heard this, and looked confused.
"Minister, what crime have I committed?"
……
(End of this chapter)
