Chapter 105: The Truth Revealed (Part 2)

  Now it's the three departments' joint trial, Li Yun must have spoken out the truth in public and would definitely not be able to escape death. It is also because of this reason that the truth she spoke from her mouth is the most real and credible.

  Now Li Yun's confession has pointed all the arrows at Wang Baosheng, and in Wang Baosheng's previous confession, he also admitted that he was intentionally framing Jiang Xia, but there is a problem here.

  Wang Baosheng and Jiang Xia had no grudges in the past, nor did they have any recent conflicts. It is unlikely that he would frame Jiang Xia without reason. Therefore, the previous statement that he was instructed by a "benefactor" to frame Jiang Xia now seems credible.

  So, who is that benefactor?

  Jiang Xia looked at Li Yun and asked: "Li Yun, apart from Wang Bao Sheng, have you had any contact with anyone else?"

  Li Yun thought for a moment and nodded: "Yes, an elderly person who is a bit older."

  Jiang Xia smiled slightly and said to Li Yun, "Alright, then follow me over here. Tell me the characteristics of that person, and I'll draw his face. Once it's drawn, we'll know who the mastermind is."

  "Good." Li Yun nodded.

  Jiang Xia borrowed an ink stick from the scribe in charge of recording and sharpened it, then began to communicate with Li Yun in a low voice after trying it out on the rice paper, occasionally hooking up with the brush in his hand.

  At first, Jiang Xia discarded several sheets of paper, but slowly, as Jiang Xia drew a stroke, Li Yun nodded. Jiang Xia picked up the painting paper from the case and showed it to Li Yun.

  Li Yun nodded after a closer look, while Fu Bo felt a chill run down his spine as he saw the painting in the crowd.

  Jiang Xia used a sketching technique, so the resemblance was very high. At this moment, Jiang Xia had already drawn out Fu Bo's rough facial features, eyes, and the mole at the corner of his eye. It can be imagined that if he continued to paint like this, Fu Bo's portrait would inevitably be made public.

  A cold glint flashed in Fu Bo's eyes, and he began to secretly pull out a dagger from his sleeve. The dagger was exactly the same as the one that killed Huang Xiao Bi, because it was actually Fu Bo's special hidden weapon.

  Fu Bo was holding a dagger in his hand and was about to make a move when he suddenly saw a cold light flash towards Li Yun. Fu Bo turned his head to look, it was Xiao Wu!

  "Be careful!" Jiang Xia pushed Li Yun away with one hand, and the dagger that shot over didn't kill Li Yun, but instead stabbed into the table where Jiang Xia's portrait was placed.

  Jiang Xia turned his head and glanced over, his eyes sharp. Among the onlookers, Xiao Wu suddenly rushed out, and at the same time, Zhong Bin, Li Jueqing, and Han Muxuan also rushed out together.

  Xiao Wu rushed straight to Jiang Xia and they exchanged blows. The two quickly exchanged several moves, then Xiao Wu and Jiang Xia clashed with a single palm strike.

  This palm sent Jiang Xia retreating five steps back, but Xiao Wu didn't move an inch. He turned around and slapped a palm towards Li Yun, however at this moment the sound of air being torn apart was already whistling through the air, Zhong Bin's long sword shooting straight for Xiao Wu's right arm.

  If Xiao Wu didn't withdraw his hand and insisted on killing Li Yun, his right hand would definitely be chopped off by Zhong Bin's sword. If he withdrew his hand, then he would never have the chance to kill Li Yun again.

  "Bang!" First, Li Yun's body flew out instantly. Xiao Wu was obviously a master of the Eight Trigrams Ding, and this palm strike instantly killed Li Yun. As expected, Zhong Bin's long sword also cut off Xiao Wu's arm with one slash.

  An arm broke off and flew into the air, with fresh blood splashing out.

  "Leave him alive!" Jiang Xia shouted.

  Zhong Bin raised his leg to sweep the floor, knocking Xiao Wu to the ground. Then, with the tip of his sword pointing at Xiao Wu's throat, he said nothing. Xiao Wu looked up at Zhong Bin and let out a cold laugh. Suddenly, his eyes went blank as he said, "Master, from now on, I can no longer serve you."

  After finishing speaking, a stream of fresh blood flowed out from the corner of Xiao Wu's mouth.

  Jiang Xia crouched down to feel the pulse on Xiao Wu's neck, confirming that he was already dead. Jiang Xia shook his head and let out a soft sigh.

  To die for one's lord, such a vassal is rarely seen on the screen or TV. But in reality, as long as one is human, they have infinite attachment to their own life. To be able to die out of loyalty, such loyalty and bravery are worthy of admiration from anyone, friend or foe.

  Xiao Wu's sudden appearance and death, all the onlookers truly felt both shocked and thrilled. For ordinary civilians, their daily lives were just about struggling to make a living, but today they witnessed one plot after another, and even saw several masters fighting each other, with one of them willing to die to keep a secret.

  What's in front of us is more real and beautiful than those who sing big plays.

  Jiang Xia stood up, pulled out the dagger inserted into the wooden table and asked the Minister of Justice: "When beating someone, can you please take out the murder weapon that killed Huang Xiaobi?"

  The Minister of Justice nodded and soon a yamen runner presented the dagger. Jiang Xia took the dagger and handed it over to the Minister of Justice, saying: "Please take a look, my lord. Both daggers are exactly the same, which shows that the person who killed Huang Xiaobi is the same person. And the situation at that time was just like now, Huang Xiaobi rushed up, I pushed her away. At the moment when I pushed her away, a master shot out a hidden weapon and killed her. Tell me, who else in the world would dare to kill someone on the street like this?

  The Minister of Justice nodded slightly, and the onlookers also understood the truth of the matter. It was all just someone intentionally framing Jiang Xia, and what was the reason behind it? Maybe it was just that someone was jealous of Jiang Xia's wealth.

  Jiang Xia coughed and cleared his throat, then said, "Alright, I believe everyone now knows the truth. But please allow me to say a few more words."

  "This case was originally two clumsy frame-up cases. The only clever part is that the mastermind behind the scenes shifted everyone's attention, deliberately spreading rumors to trigger discussion and mislead everyone."

  Maybe before today, everyone was still criticizing me, and couldn't wait for heaven to strike me dead. Maybe now that everyone knows the truth, they understand that they misunderstood me, and perhaps feel a little guilty in their hearts. But I want to say, no need, what you should feel guilty about is not misunderstanding me, but misunderstanding His Majesty.

  The Ming dynasty has the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, with ears and eyes spread all over the world, and secretly investigating and hiding among the people in the markets. But think about it, from the time something happened to now, how many bad things have you said about the emperor behind his back, and has the emperor ever had anyone caught by the East Factory or the Embroidered Uniform Guard because of this?

  To wildly discuss the Son of Heaven, to deceive the ruler and commit treason - which one is not a grave crime punishable by extermination of the entire clan? Perhaps the Emperor cannot know every single person who speaks ill of him behind his back, but do you think it would be difficult to catch one or two people?

  The answer is obvious, it's simply easy. But the Emperor didn't, he didn't even kill a chicken to scare the monkeys. Why? Because the Emperor is benevolent, because the Emperor is wise. The Emperor couldn't bear to see you suffer from being deceived by scoundrels and losing your heads, such a kind ruler, yet you have repeatedly spoken words that hurt him, now thinking about it, do you feel any remorse?"

  "Mr. Jiang was right, I was deceived by the treacherous person and didn't distinguish between right and wrong, only followed the crowd. I'm ashamed, having wasted my reading of the classics. I kneel here to express my apology to Your Majesty and Mr. Jiang. May Your Majesty be wise and benevolent, long live the Emperor, ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand ten thousand years..."

  A young man dressed as a scholar fell to his knees, and the onlookers surprisingly all knelt down one after another. It makes sense when you think about it - since this whole thing started, who hasn't spoken ill of Jiang Xia? Who hasn't spoken ill of the Emperor?

  The people all shouted in unison: "Long live our wise and benevolent Emperor, may he reign for ten thousand years, ten thousand years, forever!"

  Jiang Xia looked at the scholar who was leading the others in kowtowing and thought to himself, "When I get back, I must remember to give him a raise, those lines were delivered quite well."

  That's right, the bookworm is actually just a guard in the Carefree Mountain Villa. As for what he said "wasted reading of sages' books", it's simply ridiculous, because he can't even recognize a single character.

  "The Emperor has arrived..." The people had just finished shouting "Long live" when Zhang Yong's loud voice came out. The people slightly raised their heads, not daring to look directly at the dragon's face, but seeing that bright yellow five-clawed golden dragon robe immediately lowered their heads and shouted again: "Greetings to the Emperor, our emperor long live, long live, forever and ever."

  Long live Zhu Houzhao! I've heard it many times before. But such a heartfelt, enthusiastic and grateful Long live Zhu Houzhao is truly the first time I've ever heard.

  He overheard Jiang Xia's words in the back hall, and even he himself was almost moved. Fortunately, he suddenly remembered that he had originally wanted to order the Jin Yiwei commander to capture a few people and kill them as a warning, but was stopped by Jiang Xia. Thinking of this, Zhu Houzhao's old face turned slightly red.

  However, this did not affect Zhu Houzhao's inner vanity from being extremely satisfied, especially when the common people spontaneously knelt down and cheered "Long live the Emperor".

  Zhu Houzhao swept a glance at the kneeling commoners, especially Jiang Xia who was still winking and making gestures with his right hand, drawing an obvious "money" sign, implying "how about it, I've spoken so many good words for you, don't forget to repay me properly."

  Zhu Houzhao nodded slightly at Jiang Xia, then restrained his inner excitement and said in a steady voice: "No need for courtesy, stand up."

  "Thank you, Your Majesty." Everyone in the room stood up.

  Zhu Houzhao said: "Just now Jiang Xia said it right, I... have never blamed you."

  As soon as this was said, the six cabinet ministers following Zhu Houzhao's side suddenly looked strange and sighed that the emperor's face had thickened again. Hmm? Why use the word "again"? The six cabinet ministers were puzzled in their hearts.

  "I can tolerate being misunderstood, but what pains me is that you have misunderstood Jiang Xia. Perhaps you don't know why I became friends with a commoner like him. Let me tell you, when Henan suffered a great drought and the national treasury was empty, and the Grand Secretaries were at a loss for what to do, it was Jiang Xia who led the call for wealthy merchants in the capital to donate silver to aid the disaster relief efforts."

  "Yes, I can testify that the charity gala was indeed held at Xiangyao Mountain Villa, and I donated 500 taels of silver." a man who looked like a wealthy merchant said loudly.

  Then Zhu Houzhao said: "Henan locust disaster is rampant, and the courtiers in the court cannot come up with a way to deal with the locust disaster. In the end, Jiang Xia came up with a plan, for which Li Dongyang, who was known for his loyalty and integrity, accepted Jiang Xia as his apprentice."

  Zhu Houzhao looked back and saw Li Dongyang walking out, nodding his head: "That's right, Jiang Xia is indeed my disciple."

  The common people were even more outspoken, with some saying: "If we had known earlier that Jiang Xia was a disciple of Li Taifu, who would have doubted him?" "Exactly, if we had known earlier that Jiang Xia had made such great efforts for the Henan disaster victims, how could we have doubted him?" "Yes, unexpectedly Jiang Xia did good deeds without seeking fame, and was wrongly accused by us for so long. Alas... shame on us, shame on us."

  "I appreciate the great contributions that Jiang Xia has made to the Great Ming Empire, so I took him as a confidant. However, I did not expect to be misunderstood. Is it that people's hearts have no room for kind intentions?"

  When Zhu Houzhao said this, the common people were even more ashamed and embarrassed. If there was a hole in the ground, they would probably have crawled into it.

  Jiang Xia glanced at Zhu Houzhao and thought to himself that this time, he would probably have to give the Best Actor award to his second brother, because the lines he just spoke were also a pre-arranged script between them. Including the sentence "Can't people's hearts have even a little bit of kind intention?", this was actually something Jiang Xia had said before, and Zhu Houzhao had copied it on the spot.

  Staging such a play was not just to satisfy the vanity of Zhu Houzhao or Jiang Xia, but also to win back public opinion. At the same time, Jiang Xia also wanted to take this opportunity to help Zhu Houzhao wash away his reputation for incompetence.

  The onlookers outside the Temple of Great Blessings are only a small part of the capital's population. After they leave, they may spread the word about what they saw and heard today, or maybe not. In any case, two kinds of rumors will emerge: one that slanders Jiang Xia and Zhu Houzhao, and another that clears their names. The former is clearly more interesting to hear, and there will be more people who want to listen. So if this drama hadn't happened, it's possible that in the future, some unspeakable secrets about Jiang Xia and Zhu Houzhao would have continued to circulate among the common folk.

  But now the common people have gone too far, knowing that they have been deceived and framed a good person, so after leaving the Temple of Great Rites, they will automatically and spontaneously clear Jiang Xia's name to make up for their inner shame.

  This is what Jiang Xia wants to achieve, solving this incident from the root cause.

  However, Jiang Xia and Zhu Houzhao had more than one trick up their sleeves.

  Since Jiang Xia's innocence has been proven, Zhu Houzhao also publicly declared Jiang Xia not guilty, and at the same time proved that Jiuyang Dan was not a problem.

  After leaving the Temple of Great Rites, Jiangxia and Zhu Houzhao met in the imperial study of the Leopard House.

  "It's really him."

  Jiang Xia nodded and said: "This move to lure the snake out of the cave, I'm afraid he didn't expect it either. However, unexpectedly, he was still prepared, and we didn't even manage to lure out the real mastermind."

  "Yes, he is a formidable figure." said Zhu Houzhao.

  The so-called formidable figure naturally refers to Zhu Youxian, while the one who lured the snake out of the cave was that unfinished portrait of Fu Bo.

  Actually, at that time, Li Yun simply described Fu Bo's appearance. If it wasn't for someone who had seen Fu Bo before, it would be impossible to draw a portrait of him based on Li Yun's description. Think about it, if it were possible to draw a picture through description, how could Jiang Xia have waited until he was in court to ask Li Yun to describe?

  Jiang Xia just had Zhang Yong investigate the people around Zhu Youxiao, and then took a distant glance at Fu Bo. He was exceptionally perceptive and had a good memory, which is why he could draw it out in the public hall.

  He painted halfway and deliberately raised it for Fu Bo to see, originally intending to lure out Fu Bo, but unexpectedly ended up luring out Xiao Wu instead.