The Murderer
The opposition was closing their net, and she was the fish. It was just that this net was just one of their countless small nets. The opposition should not be so foolish as to believe that this one small matter would get her to stumble. And of course, she would not believe that the opposition would fully hope that this palace banquet would completely suppress her.
Feng Yu Heng rubbed her nose. Since coming to Da Shun, her feeling of existence was growing stronger and stronger! She looked toward the eighth prince and saw that he was looking in her direction with a faint smile on his face. She, however, suddenly put on a bright smile that caused the eighth prince to be stunned for a moment. He thoroughly could not understand why this girl would suddenly smile like this. Should she not be worried?
“A-Heng.” Xuan Tian Ge tugged her sleeve and quietly said: “Why do I feel that this matter will inevitably be tied to you? The grand scholar’s daughter had been arguing with you earlier. Could it be that someone…”
Just as her words reached this point, someone suddenly said: “Isn’t this the Li family’s young miss that had argued with Imperial Daughter Ji An in Fei Cui Hall?” These words had brought up the matter from Fei Cui Hall, and it also reminded everyone that the deceased had argued with Feng Yu Heng. Also, it was not a common dispute. It was to the point that even the grand scholar was chased out. It’s very clear that he would lose his position after the new year.
The people could not help but turn their attention toward Feng Yu Heng, and a group of them were puzzled and contemplative. It was clear that they had begun placing the responsibility of Li Ying’s death on Feng Yu Heng.
Xuan Tian Ge frowned and unhappily said: “What are you all looking at? So what if there had been a conflict? Normally, the young misses from your families get in quite a few conflicts with other young misses. What is it, could it be that every time a young miss meets an unfortunate end from illness, all of the times that she had been in conflict would need to be brought up? If you have this time, it would be better to look for Lord Li and ask him why he did not quickly leave the palace after being chased out of Fei Cui Hall.”
The people had no way of arguing against what Xuan Tian Ge had said. Thinking about it carefully, this was also true. Even if the dignified Imperial Daughter Ji An was unhappy with Li Ying, it would not be to the point of taking action inside the palace. It was even less to the point of committing murder. If an imperial daughter wanted to deal with someone, it was all too easy. Thus some people nodded and felt that this was unrelated to Feng Yu Heng, and they no longer worried about it.
But if things were handled so easily, there would be no purpose to the death of the two people. The ninth prince’s people naturally would not suspect Feng Yu Heng, and the people that were neutral were also able to think things through clearly; however, there were also some people that insisted on opposing her. Even when they had no reason on their side, they would need to chime in. Moreover, the corpses were placed before them. How could they possibly pass up this situation. Thus someone loudly said: “The death of these two young misses is quite strange. To say that the Ma family’s young miss died as a result of Lord Ma’s influence is reasonable. After all, the number of people offended by the Board of Punishments is quite high. But Lord Li is just a grand scholar. He did not have much of a chance to offend anyone? Why would the Li family’s young miss be laying here as a corpse?”
Another person followed up and said: “I just saw Imperial Daughter Ji An leave the theatre, and I heard a servant say that she seemed to have come toward the lake. Imperial daughter, was this the case?”
Once this was said, the imperial physicians that had been participating in the banquet also gave their verdict: “Reporting to Your Majesty, the death occurred within one hour ago.”
Both time and location were when Feng Yu Heng had left Ming Zhi Palace and had gone to the lakeside. It really was quite a coincidence. Feng Yu Heng snorted coldly to herself. The eighth prince coming back to court really made things less peaceful. He began his work on the first day of the new year. He had set his mind on making sure she could not enjoy a good year. Everyone said that the start of the year had to be auspicious. Conflict needed to be avoided, and there were quite a few taboo topics that could not be talked about. Unfortunately, this palace banquet had a bit of everything. At this point, there were even corpses for all to see. Auspiciousness be damned.
“Imperial Daughter Ji An, why do you not say anything? Are you feeling guilty?”
“That’s right! Imperial Daughter Ji An, everyone knows that you will definitely get revenge when there is enmity. Over the years, we have never seen you suffer a loss. Even His Majesty favors you when he speaks. Of course, you have indeed performed quite a few great deeds for our Da Shun, and we should indeed be thankful, but regardless of that, it should not have reached such a degree! The Li family’s young miss only opposed you verbally. Even if there was some bumping, isn’t a bit of an argument between young misses a common thing. Why are you so lacking in tolerance and insistent on pushing Young Miss Li to her death?”
“That’s right! Everyone knows that Imperial Daughter Ji An has amazing martial abilities and first-class archery skills. The two happened to have died from being struck by arrows. How should this be explained?”
All of these accusations filled the air, and Feng Yu Heng felt as if these people believed that there would be a prize if they guessed correctly. Who knew what this grand prize was worth that could cause them to be so shameless in saying such things that were contrary to their beliefs. In the Emperor’s waning years, opportunities arose each day, and they needed to fully support the prince that they had chosen. Moreover, she was clear that this was originally a trap meant for her, but she felt that killing two innocent young misses from officials’ families was a bit low level. The eighth prince would not do something like this. This could only mean one thing. Killing them was not for the sake of framing her, but after they were killed, pushing some blame on her was something that could be done at the same time. Only then was the current play performed.
Feng Yu Heng shrugged and smiled, and this smile caused those that accused her of being the culprit to become dazed and think, had this imperial daughter gone daft?
For a while, there were countless people fanning the flames while others argued with them. The lakeside was very lively. As for Feng Xiang Rong, who was standing in the middle of the crowd, she could no longer bear to watch and loudly shouted: “All of you are spouting utter nonsense! My second sister would not kill anyone. If you can’t even tell what’s true from false, what have you been doing as officials!”
The young girl had just turned 13 with the new year, and she was no longer as timid as before. Especially after receiving some tutelage from the fourth prince, she knew how to fight back against those with ill will. But that was strictly limited to putting on a brave look in a small range of situations. In a setting like a banquet, she still maintained a low profile. She basically did not have much of a feeling of existence, and she was frequently bullied. But she was able to endure anything except for people spouting utter nonsense and placing the blame for murder on Feng Yu Heng. Feng Yu Heng was her second sister, and she liked looking up to her second sister ever since she was little. In the past, because of various reasons, the two had pretended to be on bad terms. The young Xiang Rong could not even think about her second sister. Today, she had seen the three madams from the Yao family reconcile with Feng Yu Heng in Jing Ci Palace, and at this time, she could no longer endure. Regardless of protection, if this sort of method was used to protect her for her entire life, she would rather not have it. She would rather spend her days living in the shadow of a blade if she could be with her second sister.
Xiang Rong’s shout gave the fourth prince, Xuan Tian Yi, a fright; however, he did not stop her. He just followed up and said: “Right, stop spouting nonsense here!”
Feng Yu Heng facepalmed. Xiang Rong, second sister really protected you for all of these months for nothing. With the eight prince coming back to the capital, what are you chiming in at such a sensitive moment for! She thought about it internally and decided that she would find a chance to speak with the fourth prince. He would need to think of a way to protect Xiang Rong. Not a single slip up must occur. Or he could simply bring her into his palace to live. Either way, the embroidery shop could no longer be lived in. That was just waiting for trouble.
At first, Xiang Rong saying those sorts of things caused many old officials to feel dissatisfied, but the fourth prince had also chimed in. After this, the eldest prince and second prince all expressed their own dissatisfaction with this. This caused their anger to be suppressed slightly. Immediately following this, the sixth prince, Xuan Tian Feng also spoke up, directly acting as a witness for Feng Yu Heng: “This matter is definitely unrelated to Imperial Daughter Ji An. This prince can guarantee it! Because imperial daughter came out to get some air, she came out and went to the lakeside. This prince was also with her.” These words had attracted everyone’s focus on him.
The sixth prince was a scholar, and he was not part of the struggle for the throne. He was considered a neutral prince. Over the years, the officials of the court quite respected His Highness Prince Xian because of his scholarly aura and his contributions to Da Shun’s literature. However, they did not think that the sixth prince would come out at a time like this and vouch for Feng Yu Heng and even stand witness for her. What exactly was the situation here?
The people exchanged glances and did not know what to say for a while; however, there was someone that acted thoroughly ignorantly. Who cared about some sixth prince, as he went against his conscience and said: “Your Highness Prince Xian and Imperial Daughter Ji An? What were you two doing on your own in the middle of the night at the side of the lake? Imperial Daughter Ji An, are you not engaged to His Highness Prince Yu? How can you act so unrestrained?”
These people had been causing a fuss for an entire night, and Feng Yu Heng did not manage to get in a single word. She just felt as though there was a group of flies buzzing near her ear. It was really annoying.
Irritation appeared on her face while the sixth prince continued to plead her case. Xuan Tian Ming, who had also remained quiet while standing there, noticed the look of irritation on Feng Yu Heng’s face. The two had similar thoughts, and he also felt as though these people were like flies, thus he reached out and grabbed the bead necklace being worn by an official to his side and forcefully tore it from his neck. The string choked the official quite badly, but before he could let out a scream, the string of beads was sent flying from Xuan Tian Ming’s hand. In the beginning, it remained intact, but it began to fall apart somewhere along the way. The beads flew their separate ways at the people that were buzzing like flies about Feng Yu Heng and the sixth prince. Some beads numbed their targets’ tongues, some flew straight into their targets’ throats, and some just knocked out their targets’ front teeth.
Finally, the detestable sound came to an end. At this time, however, someone pointed at their throat and panted heavily while struggling to say: “Save… save me. A hidden weapon fell into my belly!”
As for the owner of the beads, he also let out a cry: “Ah! My high-grade glass beads! Cough them out! Everyone, cough them out!”