Chapter 385 Confrontation in Court
Faced with the rumors, everyone in the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion kept silent and did not respond.

However, the rumors were rampant, and the emperor became furious when he saw the so-called ironclad evidence. The prince made a few remarks in defense of the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion in front of the emperor, but was severely reprimanded by the emperor.

Prince Yu took the opportunity to make a suggestion, hoping to find out the truth of the matter. If it was true, such a heinous act must be severely punished. If it was false, the Jing'an Marquis' Mansion must be cleared of all charges.

The prince secretly hated it. How could he verify it if the person was dead? How could he investigate? He was extremely anxious.

The emperor agreed with this deeply. After all, Marquis Jing'an was an important official in the court and had made countless contributions. He could not be wrongly accused. But if it was true, the impact would be too bad. So, after the morning court session that day, he summoned Marquis Jing'an to the imperial study and prepared to personally inquire about the matter.

Xia Zhuofeng was waiting for this opportunity, so he asked Chunli to go to Zichen Palace first and wait while Chunyu went to arrange what needed to be arranged.

In the imperial study, Crown Prince Yu, Prince Yu, and several censors from the Censorate were all present.

The emperor glared at Xia Zhuofeng gloomily and said slowly, "Sir Shen, tell the Marquis what you found out."

Lord Shen is the Censor of the Censorate. Recently, all the ministers in the Censorate have been working like crazy, working overtime and collecting evidence everywhere. They think they have ironclad evidence and are confident that they will teach Marquis Jing'an a lesson.

"I obey your command." Lord Shen bowed and his hateful eyes shot like two sharp knives at the calm and composed Marquis Jing'an.

Xia Zhuofeng cleaned his ears, straightened his back and listened attentively.

Lord Shen began to spit and enumerate the immoral crimes of the Jing'an Marquisate, his words were sharp and his momentum was overwhelming.

"My lord, the evidence is irrefutable. What else do you have to say?" Lord Shen asked hatefully.

Xia Zhuofeng cleared his throat, bowed to the emperor, and said slowly: "I am terrified that the trivial matters of this old minister's family have polluted your ears."

The opposition present were secretly delighted when they heard this, thinking: You have no choice but to admit this! In the face of powerful facts, all sophistry is powerless and useless.

The emperor was about to get angry when Xia Zhuofeng said in a sad voice, "I don't want to respond to this kind of nonsense, but the officials at the Censorate have worked so hard to collect so much so-called evidence. I have to give them an explanation."

"That's right. My son fell in love with a maid and originally wanted to make her his concubine. But my mistress didn't like this girl, and my eldest daughter-in-law was pregnant at the time, so she sent the girl out of the house. But my son really fell in love with her and couldn't bear to let her go, so he secretly placed her outside and visited her occasionally. Later, my eldest daughter-in-law found out about it and was very angry. She went to the outer house to verify it in person. There was nothing wrong with that. Even if there was a fight, it was normal." Xia Zhuofeng said calmly.

"Sir Shen, don't you have several concubines in your family? I heard that there are always quarrels at home. Last year, you fell in love with the girl in Zuihonglou, and your wife almost smashed Zuihonglou. Is this true? Am I remembering correctly?"

Lord Shen's secret was suddenly exposed and his old face turned red.

"And Lord Wei, your son, who is only seventeen years old, is said to be a frequent visitor to Wangxian Tower. He often fights with others for jealousy, right?"

"Master Gao, I also heard that you have taken a fancy to the maid in your eldest son's room and want to take her as a concubine. Your eldest son ran away from home and has not returned yet, right?"

Xia Zhuofeng looked at them one by one and exposed their secrets one by one.

The adults all blushed and their mouths twitched, but they were unable to refute.

The emperor's face was so gloomy that it seemed like water was about to drip out of it. He looked at the three censors with disdain. "You are not even upright and honest, yet you dare to speak nonsense here and criticize others? You are too shameless."

The prince held back his laughter, saying that the Marquis really knew a lot.

Prince Yu was annoyed in his heart, thinking that they were a bunch of useless trash. Before he could bring anyone down, he had already made a fool of himself.

Xia Zhuofeng chuckled, "You all are virtuous. Compared to you, my son is too pure. After all these years, he has only fallen for a maid in his own room. I will criticize him when I go back and ask him to learn from you. Why don't other people with three wives and four concubines make such a big fuss, but he just fell for a maid and even made a scene in front of His Majesty."

Lord Shen was not a pushover either, and he immediately retorted, "My Lord, please don't evade the main point. What we are talking about now is that Young Master Ling wanted to take a concubine during the period of national mourning, and the child is the best evidence."

The emperor turned his gaze to Xia Zhuofeng again.

Xia Zhuofeng said, "Calling for a concubine? My Lords, you can't take medicine carelessly, and you can't say anything careless. When did my son say he wanted to take a concubine? Although my son is useless, he still knows the most basic etiquette. Even if he had a hundred guts, he wouldn't dare to call for a concubine during the national mourning period. Is he bored or does he think his life is too long? If it were you, would you do that?"

"But this is the fact." Mr. Gao said confidently.

"Facts? The facts are just a few nonsense words said by the so-called witnesses you found at random?" Xia Zhuofeng's tone suddenly became cold and hard.

He bowed to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, since it has come to this, I really want to be serious about this. The evidence provided by the Censorate is absurd and unreliable."

Prince Yu said slowly: "Your Majesty said that the evidence of the Censorate was absurd and unreliable. Do you have any evidence to prove it?" "That's right. We in the Censorate always rely on evidence when doing things. Those witnesses are all neighbors. All their testimonies were seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears. They have no grudges against your Marquis of Jing'an Mansion. How could they have wronged you?" said Lord Wei.

"Your Majesty said that the evidence from the Censorate is not credible, so why don't you produce the evidence?" Lord Gao echoed.

Xia Zhuofeng sneered: "Of course there is evidence. My son is outside now, so why not let him explain the matter himself."

Prince Yu sneered in his heart, Cui Yan is no longer here, can you still explain this matter clearly?

Xia Chunli was called in.

Xia Chunli rarely had the opportunity to meet the emperor, and he had never been so close and in such a special audience before, so he couldn't help feeling a little nervous.

Such nervousness is seen by others as a sign of guilty conscience.

"Rebellious son, kneel down and explain the matter yourself." Xia Zhuofeng growled. He didn't dare to use his lion roar in front of the emperor.

Xia Chunli's legs went limp, and he said tremblingly, "Your Majesty, I...I am guilty."

The emperor asked impatiently, "What crime have you committed?"

The emperor looked down on the eldest son of the Marquis of Jing'an in every way and was submissive to him, unlike Chunyu and Chunfeng, who were open and aboveboard.

Xia Chunli hesitated and said, "My crime is that I caused the emperor to worry about my personal affairs. I am very frightened."

"I did like the maid Cuiyan. I wanted to wait until my wife Qiao gave birth before trying to take her in. But Qiao got the news from somewhere. Seeing how sad and angry she was, I felt regretful and thought I shouldn't have done that. Cuiyan was instigated to come to my house, which made me feel that Cuiyan was a woman who didn't know the big picture and was not worth having. So I gave her a resettlement fee and let her leave. At that time, Cuiyan said she was pregnant. I thought it was a trick and didn't take it seriously. Later I found out that she was really pregnant. Now I am very conflicted. I don't want such a woman. I should marry a virtuous wife and the same goes for concubines. I can't take any woman home. But she is pregnant with my flesh and blood, and I am in a dilemma... Your Majesty, what do you think?"

The emperor felt annoyed after listening to this and was about to drink some tea to relieve his boredom, but Xia Chunli asked such a question that made him almost spit out the tea.

Damn it, you come to ask me what to do about such a trivial matter? I am busy with all kinds of affairs, why should I care about such trivial matters as yours? But on second thought, why did I make such a big fuss to confront him face to face? Isn't that just meddling in trivial matters?
The emperor was quite depressed.

The prince asked, "Chunli, do you mean that Cuiyan was pregnant when she came to make trouble?"

Chunli nodded with a sad face: "It has been more than four months now, almost five months."

The prince breathed a sigh of relief and stopped talking.

As long as Cuiyan was not pregnant during the national mourning period, this matter was just a family affair. Which minister, which prince, had three wives and four concubines? What was the big deal? Was it worth bringing this to the emperor?
"You are talking nonsense. The doctor has certified that Cuiyan is only about three months pregnant. The diagnosis is here, and you cannot deny it." Lord Shen threatened.

Xia Chunli stared at Lord Shen in a daze: "Lord Shen, when did Cuiyan get pregnant? Do you know or do I know?"

Uh… Lord Shen was choked and said angrily: "How could the doctor's diagnosis be wrong?"

"That's not necessarily true. There are so many crappy doctors. Which doctor's skills are so bad? He can't even diagnose a pregnancy of several months. The Medical Bureau should revoke his medical license to prevent him from harming people." Chunli said angrily.

The prince glanced at Prince Yu who looked so confident and laughed in his heart, I'm afraid that Prince Yu will shoot himself in the foot this time.

Who in the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion is a good person? How could they not be prepared?

"Then please ask the doctor from the Imperial Hospital to diagnose Cuiyan? Otherwise, no one can explain it clearly." Lord Gao said.

Xia Zhuofeng pretended to be surprised: "Huh? Didn't you just say that we in Jing'an Houfu have killed people to silence them? How can we diagnose if we have killed them all?"

"If you weren't guilty, would you have killed people to silence them? Aren't you just preventing the truth from being verified in person?" Lord Shen said righteously. He finally hit their sore spot. Now let's see what you can do.

Prince Yu's eyelids were twitching, and his intuition told him that this time things were going to be bad.

Xia Chunli retorted: "Who told you that Cuiyan was killed by us? She was pregnant with my flesh and blood. Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. I'm not like you who would do anything to achieve your own interests."

"Oh, I get it. It was Liuli who said that, right? She once hid Cuiyan and asked Cuiyan to do what she wanted. Fortunately, Cuiyan was not so stupid as to be hopeless. She knew that Liuli had bad intentions, so she escaped." Xia Chunli looked at the adults with contempt.

At this point, everyone was dumbfounded. Several adults looked at Prince Yu at the same time, complaining in their hearts, Prince Yu, Prince Yu, is your information accurate? You may have killed me now.

(End of this chapter)