Chapter 1206 The Junior Official and the Fire

“Shao Jing has a backer, and what happened to Shao Jiang happened more than a decade ago. At that time, my son was still young, and my imperial concubines were not that powerful. The only man who could do that is my younger brother, Prince Cheng. Is Shao Jing Prince Cheng’s man?” The Emperor clenched his fists slowly. “If that is the case, he deserves to die.”

“Uncle the Emperor, don’t get angry. It won’t be good for your health. When I came in just now, I saw Prime Minister Zhang and the minister of the Ministry of Justice going out. Prime Minister Zhang has always been capable, so he should be able to find out the truth soon. I’m here to report another thing today.” Chu Liuchen stood up and bowed again. Then, he took out a memorial from his wide sleeve and presented it.

“I’ve checked it out and found out these things. Please take a look.”

Derong stepped forward, took the memorial from Chu Liuchen, presented it to the Emperor, and opened it.

The Emperor read rapidly, and the more he read, the more serious his face became. After reading the memorial and recollecting it, he asked, “Do you think there is something wrong with it?”

“I think there is something wrong!” Chu Liuchen said, “Uncle, don’t you think so? So many years have passed, but we still can’t find out the truth.”

The Emperor fell silent. A lot of things had happened recently. No matter how hard he tried, he seemed to be unable to find out the truth. He couldn’t find out anything about the current incident and the maple leaf painting sent to the Empress Dowager, as well as what had happened between Chu Liuyue and Chu Liuzhou.

Since so many things had happened, something must be wrong.

“There can only be one coincidence. Since so many strange things happened, this is not a coincidence. My son may have been involved in it. What about Prince Cheng? Since Madam Jiang’s death may have something to do with Prince Cheng, what about what happened before? I’ve suspected that some things are related to the Empress. Now when I think about it, they may also be related to Prince Cheng.”

Thinking of this, he suddenly seemed to find the reason for many things that could not be explained or investigated.

“Prince Cheng is indeed suspicious!

“I found it strange back then. Why did he want to become a monk wholeheartedly? Originally, he didn’t really want to be a monk but just tried to avoid me. So that’s how he managed to prevent me from seeing what he has been doing…”

After such a serious thing happened in the Ministry of Justice, Prime Minister Zhang summoned all the people present at that time and interrogated them. All the people who had contact with Madam Jiang came over, including Wen Xichi.

Many people began to panic. Only the officials of the Ministry of Justice could really understand how terrible it was to be involved in this kind of thing.

Wen Xichi sat calmly in the middle of the crowd. When Prime Minister Zhang asked, he repeated everything without any deviation or subjective thoughts. He answered completely according to what he saw, heard, or wrote down.

Prime Minister Zhang was very satisfied. After hearing Wen Xichi’s reply, he asked him to cooperate with the investigation on the side, while the others asked more questions. It was late at night that some relevant personnel were allowed to go home.

They could finally go home, so they went back to their own places. It was late, and one of the junior officials came out with them. Then, he separated from the others, turned a few corners, and walked into a long alley. After he passed that place, he would reach his home.

The alley was very long, and it was dark in the middle of the road. As soon as the junior official came here, he suddenly felt a heavy blow on his head. His vision darkened and he immediately fainted.

A person came from the depths of the dark alley and reached out to lift the junior official. Suddenly, he was also hit on the back of his ear. His body went limp and he fainted silently at the place where the junior official had fainted before.

The junior official was taken away. The one who took him did not pass through the alley. He turned around and came to an ordinary carriage at the entrance of the alley. Then, he disappeared into the night.

Not long after, another man in black came over. When he saw the person lying unconscious on the ground, he went up and woke him up with two slaps.

The person who came later lowered his voice and asked, “Where is he?”

“He was here just now. I knocked him out.” The man who came earlier jumped up, reached out to touch the back of his head, and said angrily, “Someone took him away behind us!”

The other man shouted in a grim voice, “Chase after him!” If that junior official fell into the hands of someone with ill intentions, then it would be a great disaster. They originally intended to get rid of this official, yet never had they imagined that someone was right behind them when they carried out their mission. They had failed.

There were not only these two people but also several people around. They didn’t know what had happened in the alley, so they didn’t get skeptical. When they heard that something had happened in the alley at this time, someone immediately thought of the ordinary carriage.

They didn’t see the man who got in the carriage, but when the carriage left, someone saw it.

Prince Cheng looked at the black-clad guard in front of him coldly and asked, “They’re going to Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion?”

“Yes. I was a little late. Our men failed to see the person who was taken away. They only said that a carriage happened to pass there, stopped at the entrance of the alley, and blocked the road. Then, the carriage left. Our men paid special attention to the carriage because something happened in the alley. Later, when they inquired about it, it is said that the carriage stopped at the back gate of Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion after a few turns. The people inside entered Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion, and then the carriage was parked there.”

The black-clad guard explained in detail. It took him a long time to find many flaws along the way, and he was sure that those people were from Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion.

Prince Cheng thought for a moment and asked, “Why is the carriage of Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion parked outside the back gate? Where is the coachman?”

“Maybe they’re trying to cover up something. In this way, even if someone finds it, they won’t think that the carriage belongs to Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion. When I went over, the coachman was gone,” the black-clad guard said.

Those people didn’t directly enter Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion, and they could deceive others by pretending to pass by Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion. Only in this way could they avoid suspicion from others. It was just like Prince Cheng staying in the temple could avoid the surveillance of his brother, the Emperor.

Prince Cheng felt that it was reasonable and said with a sneer, “Chu Qing is merely a nobody. How dare he try to take this position? He doesn’t even know his place!”

The guard did not dare to answer and could only lower his head.

“Go to Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion and set a fire!” Prince Cheng said casually. He really didn’t take Chu Qing seriously, but if Chu Qing wanted to intervene, he would definitely teach him a lesson. “When it’s on fire, find this person when helping Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion put out the fire.”

This junior official was the key. Prince Cheng didn’t want Chu Qing to ruin his plan.

Right now, the most important thing was to find that junior official and silence him.

“Your Highness, won’t this make a big deal out of it?” the guard asked uneasily. It would not be appropriate to set a fire in the middle of the night while the whole capital could see it.

“It doesn’t matter. Chu Qing will be afraid only when we make a big deal out of it. No matter what his purpose is, he must want to find that person and kill him,” Prince Cheng said indifferently. Chu Qing had never been powerful enough to be his match, so he looked down on him.

“Yes, Your Highness!” The guard answered and left. Seeing that it was about time, he immediately arranged for his men to go out.

Prince Cheng didn’t wait for the result and went to sleep after washing up. It was not a big deal to deal with Chu Qing. So what if Chu Qing’s Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion was burned?

Prince Cheng thought that he had seen through Chu Qing and thought that Chu Qing was not a big deal at all, but the result shocked him.

Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion was on fire. The fire was so big that it burned for a long time. People could see very far in the night and many people were alarmed. Not only the servants of Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion but also the people around the mansion were awakened and came over to help put out the fire with water.

Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion was newly bestowed by the Emperor. It was inferior compared with other mansions, and it covered a small area. There were also some other mansions around it. This area was not quiet, and there were many people coming and going.

In fact, Chu Qing was not satisfied with this place, but since it was granted by the Emperor, he had to live there. The mansion was not his center of focus anyway, so he could only live there for the time being.

It looked inconspicuous outside the mansion, but in fact, the security measures in the mansion were very good, and there were many secret guards. Even because the place was small, it was more closely monitored.

There was a fire. Some guards went to put out the fire, and some hid in the dark to check on the neighbors who came to help.

There was nothing wrong with most of the neighbors who came over to help put out the fire sincerely. However, some of them quietly rushed into the front yard and backyard of Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion and took off their ordinary clothes. These people were all dressed in black. It was obvious that they were not guards of ordinary families.

Someone immediately reported it to Chu Qing, who was furious. He had carefully hidden his strength to make himself look inconspicuous. Now such a thing had happened. Who wanted to hurt him at the moment?

Needless to say, the fire must have been deliberately set by those people. They wanted to find something in his mansion or find someone.

There were many secrets in his mansion, and how could he let others see them? He ordered his men to kill the men in black whenever they saw one. There was no need to show mercy. They could just take those men as bandits and kill them. In the dark night, no one knew who they were.

Since Chu Qing gave this order, his guards immediately took action.

Prince Cheng’s men thought that no one would know about what they were doing, so they carefully searched for the junior official of the Ministry of Justice. Unexpectedly, they had been targeted for a long time. Many people screamed in the darkness and immediately died.

The fire was very strong, and there were many people putting out the fire. Everyone was in a hurry to put out the fire, so the screams coming from the depths of the house did not attract any attention at all.

Several guards of Prince Cheng’s Mansion died without being discovered. Later, it was the leader of the guards who reacted the fastest. When a sword stabbed him in the dark, he quickly jumped onto the roof and fought with the guards of Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion who were hiding.

Several guards jumped out of the dark and appeared in public. Many people, who were putting out the fire, saw them and screamed in fear. One wave after another came. Was someone going to take action against Commandery Prince Qing?

The scene was in chaos.

Jing Zhaoyin’s men finally showed up. A large group of soldiers rushed in. Half of them went to put out the fire, and the other half rushed into the house to arrest the guards who were in the middle of a fight. In the fire, blood splashed. There were broken arms and legs, and screams rang out. At this moment, Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion was almost like purgatory.

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