Chapter 77: Trust, Defense?
The downside of being too capable is that even when you haven’t done something, everyone believes you could.
This morning, Rong Yin had been at the Regent Prince Mansion; he hadn’t even left yet.
Plenty of people at the Regent Prince Mansion could confirm he was there. The attending servants could state the exact time he woke up, and Qing Yu could list everything the Regent King did after rising.
But that still wasn’t enough to dispel the suspicion.
After all, they were all the Regent King’s men.
Besides, what if the Regent King had entered the palace to commit the murder *before* he supposedly woke up? He could have returned from the killing, then claimed he was just getting up. Wouldn’t that be the perfect way to evade everyone’s notice?
The Regent King: It wasn’t me.
The crowd, certain: "The Prince is so powerful, you could definitely do it."
Rong Yin: "..."
’For the first time, he felt it wasn’t so great to be so exceptionally capable. Being affirmed with such conviction by so many people brought him no comfort whatsoever.’
Luckily, no one in the palace had the guts to demand that the Emperor throw him in prison for investigation.
Now, it all depended on new evidence and the Emperor’s stance.
Rong Yin clenched his fists inside his sleeves, his mind a tangled mess. ’I didn’t kill him, but now I’m the prime suspect.’
’His Majesty despises me. If he uses this as an opportunity to throw me in prison, the outcome won’t be what I want, regardless of whether I comply or resist.’
"Hey... Mr. Xu... why are you climbing over the wall?"
Xu Xingchen was climbing the wall. His martial arts weren’t the best; he jumped up and nearly lost his balance and fell. Luckily, he stabilized himself at the critical moment and sat down securely on top of the wall.
Xu Xingchen said something to Lin Yi, who hurried over. "Your Majesty, Mr. Xu found footprints on top of the wall."
The Imperial Palace is vast and cleaned daily, but the tops of the two-meter-high walls weren’t cleaned every day—they were only washed maybe twice a year.
It had snowed last night, and a thin layer had collected on top. It wasn’t much, but it was just enough to leave footprints.
But this didn’t prove much—only that the killer had escaped that way.
Xu Xingchen followed the direction of the footprints and quickly found a second one.
Not even the most minuscule traces escaped his notice. He actually managed to follow the faint trail all the way to the rear palaces.
Until the trail went completely cold.
The Regent King had used Qing Yu’s sword that day, and Qing Yu’s sword matched the victim’s wound.
But Qing Yu’s sword was no unique, priceless blade; it wouldn’t be hard to find an identical one. Furthermore, Xu Xingchen had examined it and could confidently state that Qing Yu’s sword had not seen blood today.
The Regent King was the prime suspect, but there was no direct evidence proving he was the killer.
What they needed now was new evidence.
They could either wait for evidence to surface, or they could send the most likely suspect to the Heavenly Prison and torture him until he confessed.
The Regent King, for instance.
"Your Majesty, Jiang Shuhuai’s family is outside the palace, requesting an audience."
Xiao Yang glanced at the body. "Who notified the Jiang Family?"
"I did."
The Empress Dowager strode forward, radiating menace. A large crowd of court officials trailed behind her.
They had been summoned to the palace to discuss matters but didn’t know what it was about, and they still wore bewildered expressions.
The Empress Dowager stood before them. Her face looked haggard, but her eyes were sharp and her presence formidable. "The day before yesterday, the Regent King drew his sword on His Majesty, and now he has openly committed murder! I cannot stand by and watch. I have asked you, my lords, to come and see for yourselves how this Regent King has committed insubordination and treason!"
’She spoke with such self-righteous grandeur. It was a mystery who gave her the confidence to think she was back on top.’
Prince Jing and Xiao Lv approached Xiao Yang from the side. "Your Majesty, what’s going on?" Prince Jing asked.
Xiao Yang glanced at Rong Yin. "Either he has a death wish, or someone wants him dead."
’Who could possibly want him dead? What a mystery.’
Rong Yin felt he must be losing his mind. The Little Emperor’s tone was clearly cold and sarcastic, yet he could have sworn he heard trust in it... and was that a hint of protectiveness?
The Empress Dowager had brought with her the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Wang Li, and another Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Leng Yun. The two weren’t purely part of the Empress Dowager Faction, but they were people she could command.
At a single look from the Empress Dowager, the two men immediately took their subordinates to investigate the case.
Someone told them what Xu Xingchen had just said, but after looking everything over, their conclusion was the same as before.
They could not rule out the Regent King as a suspect, but neither could they convict him.
The Empress Dowager stared coldly at the two men, her gaze unfriendly. When she looked at the Regent King, it was as if she were looking at a vile criminal on death row.
The Jiang Family was brought in by the Empress Dowager. His parents and older brother, three people in total, saw the body laid out on the ground. They rushed over, and upon lifting the white sheet to look, they felt as if their world had come crashing down.
"My son!!"
"He was fine just the day before yesterday, how could he be gone... Ah... My boy..."
Mrs. Jiang collapsed on Jiang Shuhuai’s body, sobbing and wailing. Her heart-wrenching cries were enough to move anyone who heard them.
Jiang Shuhuai’s older brother choked back sobs as he tried to comfort his mother, afraid she would faint from crying.
Father Jiang, who looked very much like Jiang Shuhuai, was a refined and scholarly man. At this moment, however, veins bulged on his forehead and his face was flushed with blood, a mask of grief and fury. "My son provoked no one! He only entered the palace to perform for Your Majesty! How did he end up a corpse? I beg the Empress Dowager and Your Majesty... to catch the true killer and give my son justice!"
The older brother, Jiang Shuyi, glared resentfully at Rong Yin. "It was him! He’s the one who killed my brother!"
Rong Yin had wanted to kill Jiang Shuhuai. If the Emperor hadn’t stopped him, Jiang Shuhuai would have been dead the day before yesterday.
No evidence would have been needed then, as it happened in full view of everyone.
But this time, he truly hadn’t been the one to kill him. Yet now he was being framed, made the target of everyone’s condemnation.
Rong Yin didn’t explain further. He had already said what needed to be said. Now, it all depended on the Emperor’s decision.
"Emperor!" the Empress Dowager snapped. "Are you still not going to order him thrown into the Heavenly Prison? Are you going to protect this murderer?"
The Empress Dowager clearly knew there was a high chance her own order would be blocked, so now she was trying to force Xiao Yang to make a move against Rong Yin.
An innocent man was dead, the Jiang family was wailing in grief, and all the court officials were watching. As the Emperor, she had to give everyone an explanation.
And right now, the only explanation seemed to be imprisoning Rong Yin—the suspect with a clear motive—and torturing a confession out of him.
’The Empress Dowager wants to use me to deal with the Regent King.’
’If I refuse, I’ll be seen as protecting a murderer, and I’ll lose both prestige and the people’s trust.’
Xiao Yang didn’t know if this scheme was aimed at Rong Yin or at her—or if the Empress Dowager was trying to kill two birds with one stone.
’This all started because I wanted to refuse the consort selection. I just wanted to stop something like the Song Qingyi incident from ever happening again.’
’The two performers had only been in the palace for two days, and already the Regent King wanted to kill them, and the Empress Dowager wanted to kill them, too.’
’A living, breathing person... This was different from those corrupt officials. Jiang Shuhuai came from a respectable family and sold his art. He wasn’t corrupt, he hadn’t committed any crime—he was a truly innocent man. Yet he had become a pawn in a power struggle, his life snuffed out so casually.’
’And I was the one who dragged him into it.’
Seeing the cold, self-reproachful look on Xiao Yang’s face, everyone thought they knew what her decision would be.
However, when Xiao Yang finally spoke, it wasn’t what they expected to hear. She asked the young man standing in the corner, "Lord Shaoqing, how much longer?"