CH 84

Jun Hua accompanied Wei Chongrong to read the letter, and as he looked at it, his face became weird, and he blurted out, “Brother Rong, is there some mistake? How could it be the Third Prince? How could he have this ability?”

If Wei Mao had heard Jun Hua’s words, who knows whether he would be grateful for his trust in him or resent his low opinion of him.

Wei Chongrong let out a long sigh and couldn’t help but lament, “Two birds with one stone, Wei Lan’s calculations are quite clever.”

Wei Ming only had three sons. Wei Lan had taken out his elder brother and put the blame on his younger brother; who else could take the position of the Crown Prince if not him.

Jun Hua frowned and thought for a while, then said in confusion, “Will His Majesty believe such a result of Wang Qin’s investigation?”

“Why wouldn’t he believe it?” Wei Chongrong put down the letter and tapped his fingers on the writing desk before slowly saying, “Although Uncle Emperor asked my father to be solely responsible for this matter, I believe that he most likely sent someone else to secretly pay attention to it. It is impossible for him just to take whatever my father says as the truth. Like me, the person my father most suspects is Wei Lan, and the evidence against Third Brother must have been verified repeatedly. If there was even the slightest chance, he would also find a way to help clear Third Brother’s name. But the final result is still like this, which can only mean two possibilities.” 

“Which two possibilities?” Jun Hua asked curiously, still somewhat unable to accept this fact.

Wei Chongrong said slowly and methodically, “One is that Wei Lan was too skillful and did a seamless job of framing Third Brother; the other is that Third Brother pretended to be a pig to eat a tiger(1), but unfortunately his methods weren’t neat enough and he missed the mark. That’s why my father investigated and all the traces led to him.”

Hearing Wei Chongrong’s statement, Jun Hua sighed quietly, “Fortunately, His Majesty only has three sons. If there were more, wouldn’t the situation be even more complicated? How would the Third Prince be dealt with if he was convicted of conspiring to murder the Crown Prince?”

“Conspiring to murder the Crown Prince of a country should be a capital offence in theory.” Wei Chongrong’s tone was very heavy, “Father and Ping County Wang have pleaded for mercy for Third Brother, but Uncle Emperor’s attitude is unclear. He temporarily detained Third Brother in the office of the Minister of the Imperial Clan without saying what his fate would be.”

“Both the palms and the backs of your hands are flesh(2). His Majesty must be in a difficult position.” Jun Hua couldn’t even imagine what the emperor was feeling at the moment.

Wei Chongrong frowned and said, “If Third Brother is really the murderer, His Majesty is still in a miserable situation ordering him to be put to justice to avenge Crown Prince Brother. But if he is not, killing the wrong person would be a disaster…” Even now, Wei Chongrong believed in Wei Mao.

Jun Hua pondered briefly and asked, “Brother Rong, can’t Wang Qin tell His Majesty of his suspicions about Wei Lan?”

Wei Chongrong shook his head and said solemnly, “This is something that my father cannot say. He has already found out that Third Brother was the instigator of the plot to kill the Crown Prince, and if he then suspects that Wei Lan is also involved, it will be easy for Uncle Emperor to have some bad associations.”

Jun Hua froze and realisation dawned on him. The emperor only had three sons; the eldest was already dead, if the second and youngest sons were suspected of killing their elder brother, what about the next candidate for the Crown Prince? There was no way Wei Ming would believe such a statement, unless new evidence was found.

As Jun Hua thought, Wei Ming was in a difficult position to decide what to do with Wei Mao, his most beloved youngest son, who, despite his reckless nature and occasional impulsiveness, had always been a good boy with a pure heart.

Even with a mountain of hard evidence, there was no way for Wei Ming to convince himself that his youngest son could be the murderer of his eldest son.

However, the evidence presented by Wei Zhao was such, and so was the result of the investigation he secretly sent someone to carry out.

Many people were pleading for mercy for Wei Mao, for different reasons, from those who said he was young and ignorant and was instigated by others, to those who said he wasn’t good at scheming and was framed…

The only thing was that these statements were not enough for Wei Ming to exonerate Wei Mao. He wanted to prove that his son was innocent.

Jun Feili didn’t say a word from the beginning to the end, maintaining a silent attitude. What could he say? It was his son who had died, and it was also his son who was suspected of being the culprit, so he couldn’t say anything but wait silently for Wei Ming to make a decision.

It was Wei Zhao who, after having begged Wei Ming once and failing, came back to the palace two days later.

“Ah Zhao, have you found any new evidence?” The person who testified against Wei Mao was Wei Zhao, but the person who believed in him the most was also Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao slowly shook his head and cupped his fist, “Brother Emperor, I have something to say that I can’t help saying.”

Wei Ming smiled despondently, his smile pale and tired: “Since this is the case, just say it.”

“I do not know how Brother Emperor intends to deal with Wang Xiang, but I would like to remind Brother Emperor that the facts we see now may not be the real facts. In order to avoid regrets in the future, Brother Emperor must be merciful when dealing with Wang Xiang.”

Digging three feet into the ground, he couldn’t find any evidence that could testify against Wei Lan. It wasn’t that Wei Zhao hadn’t thought that Wei Mao was the one who had done the deed. But he trusted his own judgement of people more; Wei Mao didn’t look like someone who would do or could do such a treacherous thing.

Wei Ming curbed his smile and said in a deep voice, “Ah Zhao, are you afraid that I will kill an innocent son by mistake?”

Wei Zhao was silent. Although it was unlikely that Wei Ming could be cruel to his son, some things were irreparable once they were done wrong. The national mourning was almost over, and there were already thousands of people involved in this matter, so it was impossible to keep dragging on dealing with Wei Mao.

When he saw Wei Zhao’s silence, Wei Ming’s expression became even more sorrowful. This decision was really too difficult to make.

Inside the office of the Minister of the Imperial Clan, Wei Hao followed the prison guard, descending step by step to the lowest level. As he walked, he looked around, the expression on his face hard to describe. This cell, located underneath the office of the Minister of the Imperial Clan, was specially designed to hold members of the imperial family who had committed great crimes.

After walking down all the steps, there was a long passageway with no end in sight. Wei Hao didn’t say a word and followed the prison guard forward, but in his heart he was sighing, who designed this damn place, the terrain was so complicated that you would get lost even if you managed to break out of prison.

After making several turns, Wei Hao finally heard the prison guard say, “Your Highness Wang Wu, this is the place.”

Wei Hao waved his hand, indicating the prison guard to wait here, and went alone to push open the wooden door that appeared in front of him. Entering the room, Wei Hao saw the whole wall made of iron bars, and Wei Mao was behind the iron bars, sitting in the corner; it was hard to say whether he was  awake or asleep.

Wei Hao looked up and down, left and right, and found that the place where the descendants of the heavenly family were kept was different from ordinary cells. The room was clean, without the slightest odour, and the stone bed was covered with thick straw and a quilt, so Wei Mao was probably not too cold.

He walked over to the bars and called “Little Cat” in a low voice, but no one paid any attention to him. Thinking that Wei Mao was asleep, Wei Hao suddenly raised his voice and yelled, “Little Cat, stop sleeping, the sun is shining on your ass!”

Wei Mao lazily raised his head, “Sixth Uncle, you can’t see the sun from this place.”

Seeing that he was still in a good mood and still had the heart to joke, Wei Hao waved at him, “Little Cat, come here quickly, let me see if you’re starving and lost weight?” Since Wei Mao had been imprisoned, this was the first time Wei Hao saw him, and he was naturally worried about his physical condition.

“What? If I can’t eat enough, will you catch a couple of rats for me?” Wei Mao nestled in place and refused to move, and spoke in a half-dead tone. This Sixth Imperial Uncle of his family, who had been swaggering around the palace since he was a child due to his seniority, had never once called him by his name in a serious manner.

When Wei Hao heard Wei Mao’s words, he said solemnly, “As long as you are really willing to eat, not to mention a couple, I can catch for you a couple dozen. Come on, Little Cat, don’t fool around, hurry up and come over, I can’t go back to Fourth Brother if I don’t see you clearly today.”

Hearing this, Wei Mao raised his eyebrows and slowly moved over from the corner. Wei Hao hurriedly reached through the gap in the bars, first shook Wei Mao’s arm vigorously, then touched his face, and sighed: “Really so thin, pitiful.”

Wei Mao sat down against the iron bars and asked in a low voice, “Who asked you to come and see me?”

“Of course it was Brother Emperor, and Fourth Brother.” Wei Hao said matter-of-factly, “What kind of place is this? It’s the cell of the Minister of the Imperial Clan’s office, how could I get in without Brother Emperor’s permission? Little Cat, have you turned stupid from being locked up?”

Wei Mao gave him a blank look and continued to ask, “Did Father Emperor tell you why he let you come to see me? Did Fourth Uncle find new evidence? Or has he decided that I am the one who killed Crown Prince Brother and wants to give me the last meal?”

Although Wei Mao was doing his best to hide it, his words still revealed some trepidation at the end. What he found more frightening than being falsely accused of being Wei Xuan’s murderer was Wei Ming and Jun Feili’s suspicion of him. Wouldn’t even they believe in him?

How could he possibly lay a hand on Crown Prince Brother? Ever since he was a child, Crown Prince Brother had been the one who loved him the most in the palace, and even when he got into trouble and his father and daddy wanted to punish him, Crown Prince Brother would gently plead for him. No one treated him better than Wei Xuan.

It was just that other people refused to believe him. But why didn’t his father and daddy believe him? He had never coveted the throne, and he was also very self-aware. He knew that what Wei Xuan could do was not something he could do. Being a happy and idle prince was his goal in life.

Wei Hao’s seniority was higher than Wei Mao’s, but his age was younger, and he grew up following Wei Mao since he was a child. At this time, seeing his rare sad look, he hurriedly comforted him, “Brother Emperor must believe in you, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked Fourth Brother to verify this case over and over again…”

“But Fourth Uncle didn’t find anything, did he? Everyone says I’m the one who killed Crown Prince Brother…” Even his sister’s husband, the Crown Prince of Nanyue, was a witness against him, but he had never instructed him to do the things he said.

And Ruan Shao brought the correspondence between him and the Third Princess of Nanyue. They clearly only talked about eating and drinking in the letters, where did it involve military matters? Both of them clearly didn’t understand what was going on. It was simply inexplicable.

His sister’s dowry lady was even more ridiculous. He couldn’t even recall her name, let alone collude with her family and use it as a threat to force her to kill the Crown Prince; he had no idea what the woman even looked like.