The fear on Granny Pu's face was so obvious that everyone could tell something was off.
"Is your nephew among them?" asked Cang Lang.
Granny Pu, her eyes red, tremblingly pointed to one of the bodies. "Yes, he is my nephew."
Cang Lang glanced down at the bodies and then moved on to inspect the others, seemingly examining their wounds. After a moment, he stood up, wiping his hands with a handkerchief, and said:
"They were all killed with a single stroke to the neck, their bones severed. But their neck wounds are very clean, and there are no other injuries on their bodies."
"These people have calluses on their palms and fingertips, and their limbs are strong. It’s clear they've trained in martial arts. No one, even against someone stronger, could have died without resistance unless they were betrayed by someone they trusted, killed at very close range without even attempting to fight back."
Hearing this, Lady Fu spoke up: "So, you’re saying these people were likely bought off, and although they knew the County Princess wasn’t fooled, they still spread the word to mislead Princess Leyang. Afterwards, they were silenced."
"Most likely," Cang Lang responded, looking at Granny Pu.
Granny Pu’s face turned pale. "Impossible. How could he, my nephew, help outsiders harm me..."
"Even flesh and blood relatives can turn on each other, let alone just a nephew," TangNing said coldly, her words silencing the room. She then continued, "Your nephew, did he know about the incident on the night of the Qixi Festival, when my sister and I fell into the water?"
Granny Pu shivered and nodded. "Yes, he knew. He was the one who was with the young master in the water that night."
TangNing frowned. "Then how did Princess Le Yang come across Tan Yan?"
Granny Pu was stunned.
TangNing pressed, "Tan Yan is a male courtesan from Chun En Lou. Even if he had made a mistake and fled, he wouldn't have run into the market. The Princess's mansion is in an expensive area in the east of the city, and people like Tan Yan, who know the rules and how to survive, wouldn’t be foolish enough to disturb a noble like that."
"Qiu Qin just said that the Princess originally intended to find someone to ruin my reputation, but when she bumped into Tan Yan, she changed her mind. How did she bump into him?"
Granny Pu’s face turned deathly pale, her lips trembling uncontrollably.
It was Qiu Qin who spoke, trembling, "I remember that day, it was Master Pu who drove the carriage. He accidentally startled the horse, causing the Princess to get off the carriage. That was when she bumped into Tan Yan, who was being chased out of an alley..."
Everyone understood then.
Granny Pu’s nephew had long been bought off, and even the courtesan Tan Yan had been deliberately delivered into Princess Le Yang's hands. The Princess had been used as a pawn.
Granny Pu, realizing this, immediately fell to her knees before Princess Le Yang, crying, "It’s my fault, I’ve harmed you."
Princess Le Yang's face was pale as well, her voice hoarse, "Someone has plotted against me..."
"If you didn’t harbor ill intentions, no one could have plotted against you!" Rong Yue scolded.
Princess Le Yang, realizing that she couldn’t escape the disaster she had brought upon herself, suddenly seemed to lose all her arrogance. As tears fell, she cried out, "I didn’t want to harm Song Tangning at first. I just wanted Yi'er to marry her and have her come into my mansion. It was you all who kept rejecting me..."
"You have such evil thoughts because we have rejected you time and again?" Tangning asked coldly.
"I didn’t! At first, I just wanted to persuade you slowly. Later, I heard that there were too many people asking to marry her, and you were considering it, so I became desperate..."
"What are you talking about?" TangNing furrowed her brow tightly. "I didn’t know anyone was asking to marry me."
Rong Yue added from the side, "Has Princess Le Yang gone mad? The engagement between TangNing and the Lu family had just been called off not long ago. So many things happened afterward then Xiao Yan got injured, and the academy has been busy how could she possibly have looked into a marriage so soon?"
Princess Le Yang suddenly widened her eyes in disbelief. "How could this be? The Empress herself said..."
"Aunt!" the Fourth Prince shouted, his voice sharp.
But it was too late everyone had already heard Princess Le Yang’s words clearly. TangNing froze, her eyes widening. "You mean, the Empress told you I was looking at marriage?"
"County Princess..."
"I didn’t ask you, Fourth Prince!" TangNing snapped at the Fourth Prince before turning her cold gaze back to Princess Le Yang.
Princess Le Yang snapped out of her daze and, as if having a sudden epiphany, hurriedly said, "It was the Empress! It was the Empress! On the day Rong Yue held a banquet, I mentioned Yi’er marrying you. But Rong Yue rejected it immediately, and you embarrassed me in front of everyone."
"That day, the Empress sent her confidante, Jin Zhi, to your mansion with a gift. I thought that maybe she could help me arrange the marriage, but the Empress refused, telling Jin Zhi to tell me that you have the Rong Sheng Academy and are under Xiao Yan’s protection, and now there are so many people in the capital wanting to marry you."
"She said she had heard that Rong Yue was secretly looking for a match for you, and even the Empress had people asking her to arrange a marriage, hoping to gain favor with Xiao Yan and take control of the Rong Sheng Academy. Jin Zhi said you are like a hot commodity now, that even ordinary people marrying you could rise to power because of the academy."
Princess Le Yang knew she was doomed, but she still tried to justify herself, speaking quickly and urgently, "At first, I really didn’t want to harm you. Even though I was unhappy, I didn’t have such evil thoughts. It was the Empress who said these things, and that’s why I became anxious. I was afraid you would fall into someone else’s hands, so I wanted to use the incident of the fall into the water to push forward the marriage between you and Yi’er."
Everyone in the hall exchanged glances, their faces full of disbelief. The Fourth Prince, seeing the situation spiraling out of control, quickly interjected, "Princess, don’t pin this on my mother!"
He looked at TangNing, saying, "County Princess, my mother has always treated you like her own daughter. She has always been kind to you. She must have asked Jin Zhi to say these things because she thought Sun Yi wasn’t a good match for you, and she wanted to dissuade the Princess."
"My mother absolutely didn’t have any ulterior motives. It was the Princess who became greedy and evil-hearted."
Princess Le Yang, her eyes red, angrily shouted, "No! It’s really Jin Zhi, she is the one who misled me! And the Fourth Prince’s Consort! Yes, it was her too!"
Her mind was clearer than ever, eager to shift the blame onto others.
"Song TangNing, do you remember the incident on the night of the Seventh Festival when you fell into the water? It was indeed I who asked for the old Princess Lu to come. I originally just wanted her to use her strict nature to pressure you into agreeing to the marriage. But when it didn’t work, I didn’t want to do anything else."
"It was the Fourth Prince’s Consort who incited the old Princess Lu by telling her that you were disrespecting the royal family. She made the old Princess Lu think you were deliberately making things difficult for me. It was also she who, after you two left, mentioned the Mu family’s daughter, saying she had been almost forced to become a nun after spending the night outside the city."
Princess Le Yang’s eyes went wide, and she cried out hoarsely, "At that time, I was desperate! I thought if I missed this chance, I wouldn’t get another. It was the Fourth Prince’s Consort who whispered to me that if you lost your innocence, it would be worse than what happened to the Mu family’s daughter!"
"And the Lingyun Temple, it was she who told me about it! She mentioned the Festival to me! She said it!"
Everyone exchanged uncertain glances. Once could be a coincidence, but twice? Three times? Could this really be a coincidence?
The Empress's words might have been a misunderstanding, but how could the Fourth Prince’s Consort have caused such a "misunderstanding" so conveniently? And she had even been present when the County Princess fell into the water at the Qixi Festival.
Was it really a coincidence, or was it intentional?
Everyone turned their gaze to the Fourth Prince, whose eyes were filled with panic and a deep sense of unease.
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You can read ahead to chapterr 470 (100+ extra chapters) here
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