Chapter 121: Assassination Late At Night
Let's welcome Marienawaty who started helping with translations! It's her first chapter so please be nice :)
The Crown Prince also shook his head. In the law of this dynasty, there was never a requirement that an autopsy must be performed after death. The pretense is often to rely on preliminary visual inspection and physical witness evidence to determine the cause of death of the deceased. If the entire body is to be dissected, it is really too much to request.
He slowly said, "Anping Xianzhu, I'm afraid this will not work."
Jiang Lan also hurriedly said, "Anping Xianzhu, you just want to find a scapegoat for yourself. Why did you make such a vicious idea that my grandmother's corpse should be dissected and make her uneasy, how could you make such an excessive request!"
With a voice of opposition, Li Wei Yang and Li Min De looked at each other from the bottom of each other's eyes, and it was so. The Jiang family's response was already in their expectations.
Li Chang Le cried out loudly: "Maternal Grandmother, your death is so tragic! Those who harm you didn’t only just kill you, but also wanted to slaughter your body! Even with your spirit, you must guide us and catch the murderer.”
It can be said that Li Wei Yang was the only one who has ever touched the jujubes and she is also the only enemy of Duke’s Furen. Many officials and nobles that were present looked at the girl with horrified eyes. But she was only a fifteen years-old girl. She even poisoned and killed her maternal grandmother. Well, even if this maternal grandmother has no relations to her, she is just an old woman. It is too vicious to kill her! Only Sun Yan Jun, although pulled away by her mother, Sun Furen, still looked at Li Wei Yang with a worried and concerned look.
Li Wei Yang slowly said, "Oh? Is it me who is proposing to find the murderer for this grandmother? Is it vicious? Or are you guys who say that you respect her very much and even now that she dies, she would not know the truth? Do you not fear that your maternal grandmother in the afterlife would blame you for being numb and unkind?
Jiang Hai was furious: "Li Wei Yang, you are full of bullshit!"
Jiang Hua stopped him suddenly and said indifferently, "Anping Xianzhu, we need to discuss this matter carefully. So, after half an hour, we will give you a statement here." For the first time, Li Wei Yang took a glance at the third son of the Jiangs. His calmness and demeanor far surpassed his elder brother, and of course he surpassed the fourth son Jiang Nan. Her eyes gradually sneered: "Of course."
Jiang Hua suddenly said: "Chang Le is the grandmother's beloved granddaughter. We also want to hear her opinions on this matter. Can you let Chang Le enter the room? She has already been checked. She shouldn’t have any poison with her."
This sentence, of course, was asked for Li Wei Yang. Hearing this sentence, Li Wei Yang's eyes flashed, but she just said, "Please."
She originally thought that Li Chang Le was poisoning Duke's Furen, but if that is the case, Li Chang Le should not have had the chance to throw away the poison but why weren’t the people able to find it just now? Those Crown Princess’ Mamas are very experienced in this area. Li Wei Yang can't help doubting that since she was cleared of suspicions, it means that poison is not with her anymore. So how did she poison it? Or did Duke's Furen take the poison that would slowly occur? It wasn't the plate of jujubes that really poisoned her? The only thing Li Wei Yang was sure of was that when she thought of what Duke's Furen said when Jiang Hua was about to leave. Now that she thinks of it now, did it mean farewell?
Farewell to his beloved grandson, this only shows that the Duke's Furen knows that her life will soon end. At this point, Li Wei Yang was also very sure at first but today Duke's Furen appeared with a rosy cheek, steady tone and full of vitality. She almost thought that she was wrong. Duke's Furen must know that she was going to die soon! So, is she taking the drug herself or was Li Chang Le poisoning her? Or are they conspiring? But will Duke's Furen use such a stupid method to frame herself? Li Wei Yang lowered her eyes. She really wanted to know the answer.
After entering the room, Jiang Hua had suddenly darkened with cold light eyes. He coldly gave Li Chang Le a slap, almost distorting half of her face, and then shouted to her, "It's you who did it, right?"
Li Chang Le was startled and stunned. Then, his next question seemed to be an understatement yet it instantly broke her calm appearance, exposing her heart full of panic and fear directly to the people in the room. Her face suddenly became extremely difficult. This fear has been on her mind since the death of Duke's Furen but she has been trying to hide it. She thought that the Jiangs’ men wouldn’t find out, but she didn’t expect that Jiang Hua would immediately bring up the main subject.
At this time, Jiang Hua was no longer a smart and gentle cousin in her impression. He looked coldly at her face. In his eyes, there was no trace of affection. Li Chang Le was shocked and the other party showed in the garden pavilion that their closeness is simply an illusion. In his eyes, there was nothing! The calmness on Li Chang Le's face was gone. Instead, she was overwhelmed and her face became increasingly white: "I don't know what you're talking about!"
The light of noon passed through the lattice windows, reflecting the dust flying, the look on Jiang Hua's face became colder and even began to blur, making people dare not look at him.
Jiang Xu frowned: "Hua er, what are you talking about?"
Li Chang Le seemed to have found a savior and immediately said, "Uncle, look at what he is doing! The real killer is out there but he is busy putting blame on me!"
Jiang Hua coldly said: "Shut up!"
Li Chang Le trembled when she heard the sound, her scattered breathing became heavy and rapid and her expression became extremely frightened.
Jiang Xu and Jiang Hai looked more and more dignified, and could not help asking: "Old Three, can you find out who poisoned our grandmother?" They still don't understand what that slap represents, not because they are stupid, but because Li Chang Le is the most beloved grandchild of Duke's Furen, how could she participate in this murder? They refused to believe it.
Li Chang Le's face became increasingly frightened.
Jiang Hua let out a cold laugh, gave Li Chang Le a warning, and decided in his heart to recalculate the account, but said: "The focus is not on who did the poisoning but on whom we want to be the one behind poison."
Jiang Hai puzzled, "What do you mean?"
“Don't you understand yet?" Jiang Xu groaned. "It doesn't matter who the real poisoner is now! What matters is what we can get from this!"
Jiang Hai shook his head and whispered, "Father, do you mean that we must frame this on Li Wei Yang?!"
Jiang Xu did not speak, but Jiang Hua sneered: "More than that! Do you know what is the situation with the Jiangs today?"
Jiang Hai gave a sigh, Jiang Hua sighed slowly, and said: "It is well known that the Lis sided with the Emperor today during his ascension of the throne and contributed greatly to the Emperor’s victory. And the Jiangs had remained neutral from beginning to end." These words, like a hand, opened the past and slowly wiped out the chaos in front of him. Li Chang Le was taken aback but felt that as if something she could not understand began to surface, every texture was becoming very clear.
For so many years, the Lis has been avoiding the fight for the throne and no one dares to force them to choose a side. This is because the Emperor is protecting them. In the future, Li Xiao Ran will be left to the next generation of emperors. Although Li Xiao Ran is a person who attaches great importance to power and is afraid of death, the Jiangs all have to admit that he has an upper hand in governing the country. However, in the matter of the Emperor ascending the throne, the Jiangs did not make the same contributions as the Lis. Therefore, although the Emperor later continued to appoint his grandfather, in the hearts of His Majesty, he had long been suspicious of the Jiangs. However, after all, the Jiangs was considered a founding family. And since they did not support any prince, they were regarded as lone officials so he didn’t really treat the Jiangs badly. All these years, his grandfather has been cautious and diligent, for fear of being caught by the pigtail. But no matter how careful they were, they still left behind evidence. This time the incident of Fourth Brother has already made His Majesty very angry and his severe punishment has given us a very clear warning! He is telling us that if there is a little bit of indifference, Fourth Brother’s ending is the ending of the entire Jiang family!"
"But the Empress Dowager also deliberately asked everyone to congratulate our grandmother," Jiang Hai couldn't help but think.
Jiang Hua shook his head and said, "No! It just means that His Majesty is watching us at all times! This is not a favor but His Majesty wants us to understand what is the wrath of thunder and what is the grace of heaven."
“Moreover, with the death of grandmother, Second Uncle, Eldest Brother, Second Brother all have to return to Ding You.” Jiang Hua said with a long sigh again, "In the past six months, the conflict between the Jiangs and the Lis has become increasingly acute. On the surface, the Emperor has been protecting us every time. But in reality, who he has been protecting is actually the Lis. He lowered his voice and said, word by word: "What's more terrible is that we must not only beware of the Lis but also be careful about the people around the Emperor, including Consort Lian and Zhou Tian Shou. They are the ones who are beside him, and they are definitely not putting in any good words for us!"
Hearing Jiang Hua’s words, Jiang Hai thought of what happened at the past banquet and the performance of Consort Lian’s in Jiang Nan’s case. The more he thought about it, the more he was shocked and finally he let out a sigh.
“You do know by now, right? But those two people aren’t the most terrifying ones. The most terrifying one is Anping Xianzhu, Li Wei Yang!” Jiang Hua continued to analyze: "The death of our aunt, more or less has something to do with her; she was also the one who testified in the case of Fourth Brother, that is, she was the one who pointed her finger at the Jiangs. And, I guess, she and the two people in the palace, and maybe the Seven Prince have already formed an alliance, and their purpose is to attack and destroy the Jiangs!"
As soon as this remark came out, everyone was silent.
Others apparently did not take this step into account after hearing this, their faces changed. Jiang Xu stared at his son in amazement and was speechless.
Jiang Hua returned to the capital just two hours ago, and he has made everything clear, and even made the connection between Tuoba Yu, Li Wei Yang, Consort Lian, and Zhou Tian Shou. This shows that although he is thousands of miles away, he has been paying attention to the wind and grass here.
Li Chang Le was dumbfounded and she really didn't understand. How can a simple Li Wei Yang be so formidable!
"The real purpose of Li Wei Yang's attack on the Fourth Brother is to anger our grandmother to death and seize the military power of the Jiangs. She must still have other plans next to slowly make us alone and without alliance! No, maybe she continuously instigated His Majesty and even provoked him to kill Old Four. Not only does she want to attack us, but I vaguely feel that she wants to push the Jiangs to a dead end! "
Jiang Xu froze at once, and he almost did not believe Jiang Hua: "She? Such a little girl, how could she think of such a plan?"
Jiang Hua said: "The Emperor first killed Fourth Brother and then removed Second Uncle and our official positions. It was clear that he wanted to weaken the Jiangs’ power. Even though we can bear that, what about our armies? Will they be patient? Or, at the right time, our enemies will find someone to provoke our soldiers and stir up the flames! Although Grandfather is cautious, after all, he had many generals at hand and with provocation, it can cause a rebellion to occur. Even if we do not, she will also have a way to make others think that the Jiangs have rebelled! As long as they are against each other, the two sides will be on fire, and war will be inevitable.”
After hearing these words, Jiang Hai was frightened,"Third brother, don't scare us!"
Jiang Xu stopped talking. In his memory, his third son was just a quiet existence, no trouble, no fuss, and even as he became older, he was very silent. Jiang Hai is not as good as Jiang Yang when it comes to cultivation also he was not as good as Jiang Nan when it comes to bravery. He didn't pay much attention to his third son before but the Duke valued him the most! Now, at this point, Jiang Hua still looked calm and arrogant, and analyzed the whole thing in an indiscriminate manner, making Jiang Xu admire his father's vision. If Jiang Hua took office, he would certainly not be able to exercise such ability, he would only be buried in the tedious affairs, wasting his talent! It is precisely because the Duke took him personally and gave him careful guidance that he could train such an outstanding counselor! It was obvious that he had clearly seen through Li Wei Yang’s next move. Even more profound than she thought!
In front of Jiang Xu's eyes, not only did the appearance of Jiang Hua appear but also an image of him in the army when he planned and defeated their enemies from a thousands of miles away. He was smarter and more decisive than anyone else; he was also sharp-sighted and accurate! Right! This is his son!
Li Chang Le was taken aback. She stared blankly at everyone in the room, feeling that her mind was not enough and she didn't understand it!
Jiang Hai couldn't believe it, saying: "His Majesty won't do this, he won’t have a fall out with us and force us to rebel. And to say something disrespectful, wouldn’t this be crazy..." Looking around, he wanted to be sure that there’s no one here to eavesdrop yet he still lowered his voice. "Furthermore, if we do meet on the battlefield, who can beat us Jiangs in Da Li?"
Jiang Hua shook his head and slowly said, "Brother, you don't even know His Majesty the Emperor. Although the former Emperor had many sons and daughters, he favored Crown Prince Tong Xin only because he was clever since he was a child. He was quite insightful in state affairs. Beloved by the first emperor, after the emperor's death, Crown Prince Tong Xin immediately ascended the throne but he disappeared shortly afterwards, which caused the political turmoil in the palace and the decline of the country's national strength. He was soon replaced by this current Majesty, who temporarily replaced Prince Tong Xin for government affairs. He is not high-born and has a natural temperament so he suffered from the emperor's neglect at an early age and no one cares about him. It wasn’t until the disappearance of Crown Prince Tong Xin that he was able to become the Emperor. It is because of such unbearable encounters that his character is dull and suspicious and unpredictable by nature.” Jiang Hua took a deep breath and said leisurely, “Because of this, His Majesty’s temperament is hard to really understand and even harder to predict. His emphasis on our grandmother’s birthday is actually an indication of disaster. ”
"But no one is available for him to use,” Jiang Hai was still unconvinced and emphasized again.
"No!" Jiang Hua interrupted him. "Of course there are people available! Do you forget that there is still a commander in the North? The current Duke Luo is a relative of the Seventh Prince, and he has three brave and courageous sons around him. He also has 300,000 troops under his command! Duke Luo has always supported the Seventh Prince! Li Wei Yang will certainly take advantage of the Jiangs’ rebellion and push Duke Luo to this vital opportunity, which can give her the opportunity to completely destroy us! Additionally, Seventh Prince hasn’t established his base yet so if he uses this opportunity to grow its roots, he would be able to build his authority and seize power! With just one move, a lot has already been calculated!”
After listening to these words, Jiang Xu didn't speak for a long time and finally sighed lowly: "Unexpectedly, Li Wei Yang is actually very cunning and vicious. We see that she took one step but in fact, her next ten steps have already been planned ahead. If you didn’t remind us, we would have followed her script step by step falling into her plan."
Jiang Hai couldn't believe it: "I don't think …… Li Wei Yang is that evil! She's just a deep-thought girl."
"No, your Third Brother should by no means be underestimated." Jiang Xu shook his head: "She is no longer an ordinary deep-thought girl, don't you understand?"
Jiang Hai thought about Jiang Nan's affairs, and thought of Li Wei Yang's deep-looking eyes, his heart shuddered.
"What shall we do now?"-----------------------*****------------------------Translator: MarienawatyEditor: Erica
Next: Chapter 121 Part 2-----------------------*****------------------------