Children of Loulan

Chapter 297 Sitting on the sidelines

Seeing this, even the prime minister, who was always calm and composed, could not help but panic. He knelt on his knees in fear and trepidation, and bowed respectfully to the king, saying earnestly: "I, your Majesty, hereby implore you to be discerning and thoroughly investigate the truth of this matter. I hope you can clear my name and give me justice!"

The king stared at the two people in front of him with a deep and cold look, as if he could see through all the truth. He slowly said, "Well, since the two of you have different opinions on this matter, I am determined to investigate this matter thoroughly. However, Prime Minister, as a respected old minister of our dynasty, you are also an important suspect in this incident. Therefore, I have to take some necessary measures and temporarily put you under house arrest in the palace. Before the whole matter is clear and the truth is revealed, you are strictly prohibited from contacting anyone from the outside world. What do you think, Prime Minister?"

Hearing the king's words, the prime minister's heart tightened and his face turned pale. Of course, he was unwilling to be confined to the palace, because only by leaving the palace would he have the opportunity to carefully plan and arrange a series of actions so that he could destroy all evidence that might point to his crimes without anyone noticing. But now that the situation has developed to this point, he knows that any further resistance is futile and may even arouse the king's greater suspicion and dissatisfaction.

So, despite being unwilling, he still pulled himself together, gritted his teeth and replied, "I am willing!"

At this moment, the prime minister was filled with regret and self-blame. He secretly thought that if he had been able to act decisively and ruthlessly to eliminate the other relevant personnel when the Shangshu died, there would not have been so many hidden dangers, and it would not have led to such a difficult disaster today. Unfortunately, there is no regret medicine in the world. Now that things have come to this, he can only take one step at a time.

After hearing the answer the king gave her, the woman's eyes moistened slightly, and she spoke slowly with trembling lips: "Thank you, king, for your wisdom and willingness to thoroughly investigate this matter. Before the truth comes out, I am willing to go to the death row and wait for the final verdict!"

The king, who was sitting on a high seat, frowned when he heard this. He looked at the woman and said in a deep voice, "You know that you have just received thirty strokes of the cane and your injuries are quite serious. If you rashly enter a place as bad as the death row, aren't you afraid that your injuries will get worse or even that you will die?"

However, facing the king's concern and questioning, the woman's eyes became more determined. She straightened her body and answered without hesitation: "Your Majesty, if you can take this opportunity to give me justice and bring those who have done so many evil things to justice, even if it costs me my life, I will do it!"

After hearing this, the king was silent for a moment, then he turned his eyes to the prime minister and asked slowly: "Then, prime minister, what do you think of this woman's request?"

At this moment, the prime minister was extremely reluctant, but he knew that this was a test from the king. Helplessly, he had to bite the bullet and pretend to be calm and responded: "Your Majesty, since this woman is determined to go to death row, then let her do as she wishes. However, to be on the safe side, you can send imperial doctors to check on her regularly to ensure that she does not die in prison. After all, once she dies, the case will lose the plaintiff, and it will be difficult for me to clear my name by then." After saying this, the prime minister clenched his fists.

The king nodded slightly to show his approval, and said in a deep voice: "Well, since even the prime minister agrees with this, then let's do it this way. I will personally send capable people to investigate the matter thoroughly. I think it won't take long before the truth will come to light!" After that, the king swept his eyes sharply over the two people in front of him.

Then the king called Aisan and gave him an order: "Take them down, and remember to treat them well."

Aishan followed the order and soon left the hall with the two of them. Looking at their figures going farther and farther away, the king's face was solemn and gloomy, as if water could drip out of it.

He opened his lips slightly and said in a low voice to the air beside him: "You leave immediately and make sure to verify all the evidence of his crimes one by one. Don't miss any. Tomorrow morning, I want to see all the irrefutable evidence of his crimes presented to me with my own eyes!"

However, at this moment, there was no one else in the huge imperial study except the king himself. In the empty and silent room, no one responded to his words. The king just kept talking to himself, as if he was in a desolate place, lonely and desolate.

On the other hand, Aidil only went to the queen's bedroom to greet her, but did not go to visit the confined concubine. After he walked out of Kunning Palace, Acheng, who had been following him, hurried forward to report the latest situation: "Your Majesty, I just got the news that the prime minister has been ordered not to step out of the palace and is now under house arrest in the palace; and the woman who dared to come to file a complaint has already been thrown into death row. In addition, the king has personally deployed people to investigate the case." After listening to what Acheng said, Aidil nodded thoughtfully.

Aidil lowered his voice slightly and spoke softly, "Well, the situation is clear now. The Prime Minister has been confined to his house, which means that no one can stand up to help Concubine Xian solve her problems and resolve the crisis. In this case, now is the perfect opportunity for father to deal with Concubine Xian!"

Ah Cheng, who was standing nearby, heard this and a trace of doubt flashed in his eyes. He then asked, "Then, Your Majesty, do you think we should take action in secret?"

Aidier shook his head slightly and rejected Ah Cheng's proposal: "No, we just need to throw out the relevant evidence in secret. As for other matters, we don't need to intervene. You must know that after all, Concubine Xian is my nominal adoptive mother. If I personally deal with her, it will inevitably give people a reason to accuse me of being ungrateful. Therefore, we can just sit on the sidelines and wait for the situation to evolve further."

Thinking of this, Aidil couldn't help but feel relieved. Because just now in the Queen's Palace, he confirmed that Xilin and her belly were fine. Now that the biggest worry in his heart has been put down, he can spare more energy to pay close attention to the developments of the Prime Minister and the Concubine.

Before long, irrefutable evidence of Concubine Xian's murder of the heir to the throne was presented to the king like snowflakes flying all over the sky. After the king quickly glanced over the mountain of evidence, he was furious and his face turned ashen.

In fact, before this, although the king had arrested some of the servants around the virtuous concubine, he had never interrogated them. At this moment, facing the overwhelming evidence, the king issued an order without hesitation, ordering his men to immediately punish the servants around the virtuous concubine severely and to thoroughly investigate how many unforgivable and insane crimes the virtuous concubine had committed in the palace over the years!