The girl heard Wei E's voice but still walked forward.
Wei E immediately became anxious: "I was walking around doing business, and happened to go to the shop of the Prince of Shunyang County. It was extremely cold in the capital that year. I planned to buy a batch of cotton cloth and cotton, and asked my men to ask around. I learned that
The store had enough goods, so I took people to the store to look at the goods.
It was a good deal, and I was ready to do this business, but I didn't expect that someone was staring at me, and the person staring at me was Mr. Qi, the second brother of Prince Shunyang."
Xu Qinghuan's footsteps finally stopped, and Qi Defang looked at Wei E, afraid of missing a word.
"Then what?" Qi Defang asked anxiously.
Wei E said: "When there was a banquet in the palace, I visited the Shunyang County Prince's family, and I also served Master Qi. Master Qi must have recognized me, so he chased after me. I didn't want to do anything when I came out."
Being discovered, and when those dignitaries see people like us, most of them have bad intentions. They either want to threaten us and ask for information, or they want us to serve them.
What's more, I pretended to be a businessman and went out to buy things with a large sum of money. It was very likely that I would be caught. I didn't want to cause too much trouble, so I left overnight, but I knew the people sent by Mr. Qi Er.
He kept staring at us, and I finally managed to get away.
After returning to the capital, I was still worried whether Mr. Qi Er would come to visit me. Later I heard that Mr. Qi Er was selling horses privately and was being investigated by the court. I was relieved because after all, Mr. Qi Er was in trouble.
You won’t hold me back.”
Hearing this, Qi Defang's face turned livid and he wished he could beat Wei E immediately.
Qi Defang said: "The shopkeeper said that you are his daughter Qiao Shu, which is obviously what you agreed in advance. Since you went to the shop to discuss business, why did you pretend to be Qiao Shu?"
Wei E was startled: "I only met him twice when discussing business. The name I used at that time was Wei E. What is Qiao Shu? I don't know."
Qi Defang looked at Xu Qinghuan: "Miss Xu, he is obviously lying. My second uncle found out that Su Wan was secretly mining iron mines, so he was instructed by Su Wan to go to the shop and conspire with shopkeeper Qiao to frame my second uncle. My second uncle
After the uncle showed up, he chased him all the way, and he tried every means to escape..."
When Qi Defang said this, he felt that he had figured out something.
"I remembered that before that, my second uncle discovered that Su Wan was secretly opening an iron mine and mobilized manpower to investigate the matter. It was inevitable that he would interrogate several store owners. Wei E appeared at that time and attracted my second uncle's attention.
My uncle personally led people to investigate all the way, so he was a little lax with Shopkeeper Qiao, so Shopkeeper Qiao had the opportunity to make false accounts and falsely accused my second uncle of selling horses in the frontier."
This is the whole story, and Qi Defang feels that he understands it very clearly.
"If I serve the eldest princess's consort," Wei E swallowed to moisten her throat, "after the consort was captured, why didn't I leave the capital and still be here?"
Qi Defang said: "Because you think no one can catch you. My second uncle, shopkeeper Qiao and Qiao Shu are all dead. No one knows about your conspiracy with the shopkeeper that day. You didn't expect to follow me and my second uncle to the shop that day."
Come on, I was in the carriage all the time, so you didn't see it."
Wei E found that she had no way to defend herself: "You say that I am related to Prince Consort Su, just find evidence. This alone cannot make people convinced.
You can also verify what I said. That year, there was a bumper cotton harvest in Shouyang, Shanxi, and the price of cotton was much lower than in the capital. Besides me, there were other merchants who went to Shouyang, Shanxi, and I did not do anything in Shanxi because of this matter.
The business was successful, so I had to turn around and go to Shandong.
Although there is cotton in Suzhou, Changzhou, and Fengyang, they belong to the Zhang family. If you want to trade there, you have to go through the Zhang family. I made this choice based on my considerations."
Wei E's words made Qi Defang unable to find any loopholes for a moment: "Then what's the explanation for the cages in your house and the pots in the yard?"
Wei E's eyes flashed with sadness, but soon turned into a look of contempt: "Your Majesty, those people did not die at my hands. Your Majesty, go to the palace to check the files, and you will know how they died."
Wei E said this and looked at Mr. Shen: "The chamberlain's father-in-law knows better than me how many people have died in the palace over the years. I just collected their bodies for them. The eunuch's death is far more bleak than you think. From the palace
After I came out, I did some business to make money, just to give them some dignity."
Xu Qinghuan nodded, as if he believed Wei E's words: "Since you just want to secretly do something for the dead palace man, why are you so concerned about Huijing's identity? It's easy to be caught if you go to the Shen family to threaten Mr. Shen like this.
The handle goes against your original intention."
Wei E couldn't answer for a while. If he made an excuse and said that he wanted to find clues to exchange for money, it would be inconsistent with what he just said. If he just wanted to do some good deeds for the dead slaves in the palace,
Why bother getting involved in court affairs again?
Master Shen looked at Wei E. He listened very carefully to what Wei E said. He lowered his eyes slightly, making it difficult to tell his emotions.
"I asked him to inquire." King Jian walked out of the main room.
Mr. Shen immediately stood up and saluted King Jian.
King Jian felt a lot more relaxed when he said these words: "I was the one who placed Wei E here. I also knew that Wei E went to Shanxi to trade cotton. I also gave Wei E the money he used to do business.
of."
Princess Jian, who was following behind, clenched the handkerchief in her hand. She really didn't know what the prince was thinking. Now that the prince admitted it himself, she felt that...it would be better for the prince to have an outside wife here. In that case,
, it can be handled much better than the current situation.
At least the prince will be fine. Although she resents him, she doesn't want him to make any mistakes.
King Jian looked at Xu Qinghuan: "Someone is coming from the Shuntian Mansion Yamen soon, let's go into the room and talk!"
…
In the huge hall, Prince Jian and Prince Shunyang sat down first.
Several people were silent for a while and didn't speak.
Qi Yingyue found that the atmosphere in the mansion was unusual, so she asked the steward and her mother chased her all the way to Zhuangzi. Although she did not know the inside story, Qi Yingyue could also feel that the matter was not trivial, and it was very likely that Prince Jian's mansion would collapse in the blink of an eye.
Her parents were talking to Prince Shunyang and Miss Xu in the main room, and she was sitting on the stone bench outside the main room.
Qi Yingyue couldn't help but flinch as gusts of cold wind hit her. She came out in such a hurry that she didn't even wear a cloak. She only felt the biting cold. She wanted to be strong, but her legs couldn't help but tremble.
Seeing this, Qi Defang poked Xu Qing'an with his finger: "Wear your cloak and go deliver it to her."
Qi Yingyue looks very pitiful, but...
"Why?" Xu Qing'an clutched the clothes on his body tightly, for fear of being snatched away. He would not do such a disadvantageous thing. He glared at Qi Defang, "Why don't you go? You are all members of the royal family...
"
Qi Yingyue seemed to hear the voices of two people talking, and she lowered her head deeply.
Finally, Qi Defang couldn't help but walked over and handed the cloak in his hand to Qi Yingyue: "Cousin, it's cold, please put it on!" Even if the instigator behind the scenes was King Jian, he had nothing to do with Qi Yingyue.
He couldn't take his anger out on this girl either.
Qi Yingyue took the cloak and couldn't help but choked up.
…
In the hall.
King Jian took a sip of tea, his eyes were slightly distracted, and they reunited after a while: "There are some things you don't know. When King An died, my father went to the palace to find Emperor Gaozong, and mentioned that there was something strange about King An's death.
, please ask Emperor Gaozong to send someone to find out. It is also because of this incident that my father fell ill.
From then on, I knew that I could only be an idle clan member in order to keep Prince Jian's palace."