usatvline Chapter 498 Joy of Life 54
Chapter 498 Joy of Life 54
Prince Jing ignored his son, who was still wailing, and instead summoned the officials in his palace, instructing them to select several valuable gifts from the storeroom and send them to the Second Prince's residence immediately.
Upon seeing this, Li Hongcheng, enduring the pain in his leg, said defiantly, "Li Chengze broke my leg, and instead of standing up for me, Father, you even sent him gifts. Are you afraid of him?"
Upon hearing this, Prince Jing angrily raised his hand and slapped him again, shouting, "You worthless brat, what nonsense are you thinking? Do you think your father is a coward? I gave Li Chengze a gift to thank him for saving your life! Do you think you can hide what you've done from anyone?"
Prince Jing took a breath and continued:
"Now that Li Chengze has broken your leg and then had you brought back in a grand manner, he is showing the Crown Prince and other political enemies that this was entirely your own doing and that Li Chengze knew nothing about it. If the investigation continues, it will only lead to you and will not affect him at all."
In this way, the Crown Prince and others will not keep pressing you in order to implicate Li Chengze.
Next, I will personally plead your case to the Emperor and try to get a lenient sentence.
As he spoke, Prince Jing glanced at Li Hongcheng's broken leg again and sighed, "I examined your leg injury carefully. Li Chengze was quite restrained in his actions. With proper care for a few months, your leg will be just like a normal person's. You held back from him, yet he still managed to save your life today. Don't you think my Prince Jing's Mansion should thank him properly?"
Upon hearing this, Li Hongcheng's expression became complicated, and he lowered his head without saying a word.
The officials were very efficient and quickly selected several treasures from the storeroom to present to Prince Jing for inspection.
After Prince Jing nodded in satisfaction, his subordinates immediately delivered the gifts to Li Chengze's residence.
However, to everyone's surprise, Li Chengze did not accept the gifts, but returned them untouched.
This move surprised Prince Jing quite a bit. He looked at the returned gifts, a look of astonishment flashing across his face.
He immediately realized what was happening, and couldn't help but sigh, slapping his forehead: "Li Hongcheng grew up with Li Chengze since they were little, how come he didn't learn any of his intelligence?"
"Go and send a message to the Second Prince that I will personally pay him a visit tomorrow."
"Yes."
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Fan Jian and his son Fan Xian stayed up all night, discussing how to rescue Fan Sizhe.
Midway through, Fan Xian wanted to go to the Kyoto government office to see Fan Sizhe, but it was too late and he didn't get to see him.
So he went to the Censorate to find Chen Pingping to confirm who the prince behind Baoyue Tower really was.
Chen Pingping had long anticipated that Fan Xian would come looking for him, and therefore had already thoroughly investigated the cause and effect of the matter.
"The other shareholder of Baoyue Tower is not Li Chengze, but the Third Prince Li Chengping?" Fan Xian looked at Chen Pingping with some surprise, subconsciously feeling that it was impossible, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that this statement made a lot of sense.
After all, the Third Prince and Fan Sizhe are cousins, so it's normal for them to join forces in business.
However, even after acknowledging this, Fan Xian still had some doubts:
"The major shareholder of Baoyue Tower is Fan Sizhe, and the second largest shareholder is the Third Prince. This is certain. However, for Baoyue Tower to have such a big incident, there must be someone pulling the strings behind the scenes."
“That’s right,” Chen Pingping placed his hands on his knees, looked up at Fan Xian with an appreciative gaze, and maintained his usual calm and steady tone: “It was made by the Eldest Princess.”
"It's her again!"
Fan Xian was completely numb.
Since Emperor Qing bestowed a marriage upon him and Lin Wan'er, troubles have followed one after another.
Before he even reached Kyoto, Li Yunrui used people from the Fourth Bureau of the Censorate to assassinate him.
Not long after arriving in Kyoto, another assassination attempt occurred in Niulan Street.
Just two days ago, he even conspired with Zhuang Mohan of Northern Qi to falsely accuse him of plagiarizing poems, trying to ruin his reputation.
Now, Li Yunrui has gone so far as to target Fan Sizhe, orchestrating the Baoyuelou incident.
Fan Xian was very puzzled. What kind of deep-seated hatred did Li Yunrui have for him? In this vast capital city, why was he the only one being targeted as a troublemaker?
As he thought about it, a nameless rage welled up inside him.
Originally, Fan Xian had no intention of taking over the Imperial Treasury, but now Li Yunrui's actions have ignited his fighting spirit.
She tried to kill him several times, and now the whole Fan family is also affected.
This time it was Fan Sizhe, next time it might be Ruoruo, or someone else around him.
Adding to the fact that his fellow disciples had died innocently on Niulan Street, his relationship with Li Yunrui had long since reached a point of irreconcilable conflict.
As for Lin Wan'er...
Thinking of the girl with the chicken leg in his heart, Fan Xian's feelings became complicated.
It seems that the two of them are really not meant to be. Even if he is unwilling to let go, can Lin Wan'er accept the other half of her brother's killer, who may even be her mother's killer in the future?
Fan Xian was caught in a dilemma, his heart filled with conflict.
He was torn between losing Lin Wan'er and harboring hatred, but he didn't know what to do. So he put the matter aside for the time being and continued to work with Fan Jian to figure out how to save her.
Unfortunately, before they could come up with any effective countermeasures, the two were fiercely impeached by the censors of the Censorate during the morning court session the next day.
In particular, there was an imperial censor named Lai Mingcheng who was the most scathing. He impeached the two men in court for their lack of moral integrity, knowingly breaking the law, indulging their families in running brothels, forcing women to commit murder, colluding with others, concealing the truth, and their crimes being obvious. He completely humiliated the two men.
Lin Ruofu also gave the officials behind him a signal, and immediately more officials responded to the Censorate and joined the ranks of those impeaching the Fan family.
Despite Fan Xian's eloquence and constant defense of himself and Fan Jian, his explanations were quickly drowned out by the combined attacks of numerous officials in the court.
Like a pebble thrown into a surging sea, it was instantly swallowed by the waves, leaving not a ripple.
Emperor Qing sat upright in the high hall, his face calm and composed, without the slightest ripple.
With a pair of eyes quietly watching the ministers below in disarray, he felt even more confident and at ease about the "lone minister" path he had carefully planned for Fan Xian.
In the imperial court, the officials were indignant, and Emperor Qing naturally could not stand up for Fan Jian and Fan Xian and withstand the fire from the officials.
He simply ordered the Kyoto Prefectural Government, together with the Censorate and the Supervisory Council, to jointly try the case of Fan Sizhe's Baoyue Tower. Fan Jian and Fan Xian were to temporarily stay at home to reflect on their mistakes and await the results of the trial.
In fact, Emperor Qing's decision to have the Censorate intervene in the case was already a sign of favoritism towards Fan Xian.
With Chen Pingping around, Fan Xian will not be implicated regardless of the outcome of the trial of the Baoyue Tower incident.
Even if the officials were ultimately dissatisfied, Chen Pingping would serve as a shield, while Emperor Qing himself could remain perfectly hidden behind the scenes.
It must be said that a major reason why Emperor Qing was able to keep Chen Pingping and the Procuratorate alive until now is that although Chen Pingping had doubts about Ye Qingmei's death, he could only act as a loyal dog in front of Emperor Qing before he had solid evidence, calling him "master" and doing those dirty things for him.
Chen Pingping had a terrible reputation in the court, and countless officials impeached him. The fact that he was able to be registered as a citizen was largely thanks to Emperor Qing.
He clearly remembered Ye Qingmei's original intention in establishing the Procuratorate: to use this independent institution to check and balance imperial power.
However, with Ye Qingmei's death and Wu Zhu's departure from the procuratorate, the stone tablet standing in front of the gate became nothing more than a decoration.
In order to preserve the Censorate and to find out the real culprit who killed Ye Qingmei, Chen Pingping had no choice but to continue to grovel at Emperor Qing's feet, making the Censorate a notorious entity that was dependent on imperial power.
It's ironic, really.
There are many people in this world who have received kindness from Ye Qingmei, and countless people still remember her after her death.
However, no one was willing to carry on her legacy of wanting to change the world. Even Chen Pingping was only thinking about avenging Ye Qingmei and had no intention of helping Ye Qingmei continue what she had failed to do.
They cherish the memory of Ye Qingmei's beauty, yet deny her unconventional and shocking ideas.
Even Fan Xian, under Emperor Qing's scheming and the so-called "good intentions" of Fan Jian and Chen Pingping, gradually became embroiled in the abyss of power struggles in the capital.
He only remembers to wipe the dusty stone tablet at the entrance of the Control Yuan when he himself suffers injustice.
So rather than saying he understood Ye Qingmei, it's more accurate to say he was forced by circumstances.
Ye Qingmei's ideas became his guiding light, but he did not, or rather did not want to, inherit Ye Qingmei's weighty legacy.
Just like now, even though he understands that Fan Sizhe is wrong, under the influence of personal feelings and interests, he still chooses to stand on Fan Sizhe's side and try to save him.
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Li Chengqian originally planned to use Li Hongcheng to drag Li Chengze down with him, but Li Chengze's reaction was so swift that it caught him off guard.
Following the Baoyuelou incident yesterday, Li Chengze decisively broke Li Hongcheng's leg, thus clearly demonstrating his stance.
Li Chengqian had spent so much time and effort accumulating strength, but in the end he failed to cause Li Chengze any harm. This made him feel as if he had hit a ball of cotton, and he was extremely frustrated.
Faced with this situation, some subordinates suggested continuing the investigation.
After all, Li Hongcheng is considered a member of Li Chengze's camp. If the investigation is carried out thoroughly, perhaps some clues related to Li Chengze can be found.
However, Li Chengqian rejected the proposal on the spot: "His breaking of Li Hongcheng's leg yesterday was a warning to us that no matter how we investigate, the matter will only stop at Li Hongcheng and will not involve him at all. Insisting on the investigation will only make us offend Prince Jing for no reason, which is really not worth it."
If given the chance to drag Li Chengze into trouble, Li Chengqian would be willing to try, even at the risk of offending Prince Jing.
However, Li Chengze struck first, turning the tables on him.
If he continues his investigation without realizing the situation, whatever the final result, he will only needlessly offend Prince Jing.
His subordinates and retainers were also helpless. This second prince seemed to have suddenly become enlightened recently, and his actions were watertight and impeccable.
Li Chengqian waved his hand helplessly and said, "Forget it, let's figure out a way to kill Fan Xian first."
He and Li Yunrui had completely offended Fan Xian by plotting the ambush on Niulan Street.
What if Fan Xian finds out the truth and tries to assassinate him, just like Ye Qingmei did to the two princes in the street?
Therefore, to avoid future troubles, it's best to eliminate him before Fan Xian gains any real power.
Then, we'll figure out a way to deal with Li Chengze.
In fact, ever since the Empress and Li Yunrui told him about Fan Xian's background, Li Chengqian realized the threat Fan Xian posed, and even the potential to surpass Li Chengze.
Fan Xian was also a prince, and because of his mother Ye Qingmei, he naturally had a large number of loyal supporters.
Unlike him and Li Chengze!
It took countless years of painstaking effort and tireless work to finally accumulate the power we have today.
Fan Xian only needed to loudly proclaim his background, and institutions like the Imperial Treasury and the Supervisory Council would all fall into his hands.
Fortunately, Lin Gong died at Fan Xian's hands; otherwise, even Lin Ruofu, the head of all officials, would have placed his hopes and resources on Fan Xian because the Lin family had no heir.
By then, Fan Xian will have money, power, and people. What can I possibly compare to him with?
Just thinking about it makes me insanely jealous.
Li Yunrui, who shared the same idea as Li Chengqian and wanted to directly kill Fan Xian, immediately realized that Emperor Qing was protecting Fan Xian and did not want him to be implicated because of Fan Sizhe's matter when he learned that Emperor Qing had arranged for the Supervisory Council to jointly investigate the Baoyuelou case.
This discovery immediately enraged her, causing her to go mad again at Guangxin Palace.
Li Yunrui remains unmarried to this day, and has always been unable to win the heart of Emperor Qing.
In contrast, Ye Qingmei not only won Emperor Qing's heart, but also gave birth to his child.
This child also received Emperor Qing's attention and, to some extent, protection.
All of this drove Li Yunrui to the brink of madness with jealousy.
She could no longer tell whether she was jealous of Ye Qingmei for winning Emperor Qing's heart, or simply unwilling to accept losing to Ye Qingmei in this invisible competition.
Perhaps both; these complex emotions intertwined, filling her heart with unbearable pain and anger.
This made her appear hostile towards Fan Xian and everything and everyone related to him.
When Li Yunrui finally calmed down and looked at the mess in Guangxin Palace, she smoothed her slightly disheveled hair and her eyes flashed with a scarlet killing intent: "It doesn't matter. I will kill Fan Xian sooner or later. This time, I will use Fan Sizhe as an appetizer and let Fan Xian taste the pain."
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